iTunes sync question - identity crisis!

Hey all!

I'm in a bit of a pickle and was wondering if anyone has a simple solution.

At the moment I have 2 laptops: 2009 15" MBP and 2011 13" MBA. All my personal stuff (photos, music, films, etc...) is on my MBP. My iPhone and iPad also sync with the MBP. My MBA only has my work stuff, as its hard drive is relatively small (250 GB).

Now my objective is to try and sell my MBP but before I do this, I need to figure out how to "move" everything over to my MBA. On my MBA my iTunes is bare...I mean completely untouched. I heard there was a way to import music and films without actually copying them onto the MBA hard drive (using an external)...how do yo do this? Also, how do I get all my iPhone and iPad info onto the MBA iTunes? I don't want to sync them and then lose all the information...

Any help?

Here's one description for how to move things to an external drive. The Easiest Way To Move Your iTunes Library To An External Drive It's not too difficult to do though I suggest reading the entire article before you start.

One thing I've noticed about using external drives is that in order for iTunes to behave properly you must make sure that the external drive with your media files is mounted when iTunes launches. If you don't do that iTunes will complain at you when it tries to find a song and can't. The simplest fix if this happens is to quit iTunes and re-launch once the drive is mounted. I had an Automator workflow for while that mounted my network drive while launching iTunes. Perhaps it could be adapted to mounting an external drive.

Thanks Slydude.

I think I got the iPhoto and iTunes figured out.

But how about all my apps that I have purchased (from my iPhone and from the MBP)? How do I get them all transferred to the iTunes on the MBA?

I mean, I log in with the same Apple ID on my iTunes on my MBA as on my MBP but the app tab is empty...?

I always thought apps purchased or downloaded on an AppleID could be accessed from any device as long as you log in with the same AppleID. Are you sure this is not the case?

The Rabbit

Janrabbit said:

I always thought apps purchased or downloaded on an AppleID could be accessed from any device as long as you log in with the same AppleID. Are you sure this is not the case?

The Rabbit

Click to expand...

I think that's as long as you're syncing all your devices to the same iTunes on the same laptop. I'm thinking of switching laptops and don't want to lose all the apps that I've bought...

Hasn't anyone ever encountered problems when switching laptops but keeping the same device?