switching iTunes from windows to mac

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I currently have all my music files stored on an external hard drive and want to be able to manage them on my new macbook air. Up to now I have been plugging the hd into my pc.
If I plug it into the macbook and log in to iTunes will it do everything itself etc or is there a risk it will attempt to reformat the drive. I can't risk this as I don't have a lot of the hard copies anymore, hence the potentially silly question.
Sorry if this has been covered elsewhere already.
 

chscag

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2017 27" iMac, 10.5" iPad Pro, iPhone 8, iPhone 11, iPhone 12 Mini, Numerous iPods, Monterey
First of all, if the external drive is formatted to NTFS, the MBA will be able to read from it but not write to it. However, if the drive is formatted to FAT-32, the MBA will be able to read and write from it. In either case, nothing will happen to the drive or your files unless you tell the MBA otherwise.

As far as iTunes on the MBA is concerned, there is no music library unless you tell it where the library is located. You can of course move all the music to the MBA (not a good idea because of limited space) or just keep it on the external.

Why don't you tell us what format the external is using and we can go from there.

And Welcome to the Mac Forums.
 
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Thanks a lot for your reply.

The HDD is in Fat32 so using your advice I put my concerns aside and plugged in. I now have full access to my library using the Macbook which is great.

Now I need to plug the iPod in. Will it work alright straight off or do I need to do anything special?

Thanks again.
 

chscag

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If your iPod was previously attached to your old PC, it will be setup and formatted for Windows. By attaching it to your new Mac, you'll get a message about setting it up and formatting it for the Mac. Here is where you need to be careful because it will wipe everything from the iPod. So make sure you backup everything on your iPod first.
 

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