Moving iTunes to new computer?

Am moving a copy of iTunes from my old Macbook pro to a gdrive for use on my Mac air. All using 10.8.2. I go Finder -Music-iTunes. (if I open iTunes it shows several folders etc. Shound I just drag the whole iTunes into the ancillary drive or just portions ?


Many Thanks

Bob J

When you say transfer - what do you mean?

Also - what is happening to the old comptuer? Are you going to keep the itunes library running on that machine as well?

Also - did iTunes manage your media? iTunes -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Keep iTunes media organized and Copy files to iTunes Media when adding to library should be checked if you are having iTunes manage your Media. Otherwise the files could be all over the place.

Anyway - if those two options are checked - then the easiest way to move the data over - is to use home sharing. Turn on home sharing on both computers. On your new one - go back to iTunes -> Preferences -> Advanced and set the path to your gdrive as your location (For example mine is in /Volumes/gdrive/iTunes/iTunes Media )
Then you can click on the shared library - and drag everything over to your new library. You'll have to authorize the new computer with your Apple login if you bought anything off of iTunes and want to play it on the new computer.

Playlists was a little more tricky to get over and took some regular expression search and replace but you just have to change paths in the xml file to get it to work (As long as keep library organized was checked)

I do want to keep my music on both computers. Correct boxes in adv iTunes pref are checked. The folks at the Apple store said I could plug in the drive into my old computer, Finder-Music-iTunes then iTunes media? I have no iTunes media so I thought just drag the iTunes over to the drive. Unpluging the drive and plug into new air. Again go into iTunes pref-adv- and change to the drive and play away. I just do not want to screw this up as it took a long time to get the 122gigs of music onto it in the first place but I do not want it on the HD of the air.

Bob J

You should be able to drag the iTunes folder itself over to the gdrive with those two options checked - if it was an older library it would be ~/Music/iTunes/Music - which would have all of the media. (It is a misnomer now that they do more than music)

Then go to iTunes -> Advanced -> and point to the gdrive as I said which is probably in Volumes. The only thing that won't be the same is the playlists. You would have to edit the xml file inside the itunes library to match the new path on the gdrive. I think it is generally called "iTunes Music Library.xml"

The home sharing way will also work. I would still recommend going that route - because as you buy things - when you use home sharing - it will try to sync those items automatically.

As always THANK YOU IVAN. Just a world of information and I personally thank you. The forum is lucky to have folks like you. Will be doing it sometime this weekend and will report back. The big plan is to put my home cd collection on iTunes Match when I am set up with a faster form of internet action. Also am going with Spotify to supplement my collection and will see how that works for the short term. Many Thanks as always.

Bob J

Got my download completed but having problems with directions on my air. Get into pref-advanced and then lost ????

Bob J

Update
Itunes-pref-adv
Change media folder location-change
Window opens and folder that says Automatically add to iTunes-highlight and open
Itunes media folder location has added as a choice the -auto add to iTunes localized
now what .....select OK ???

What version of iTunes are you using? 11 just came out.

Add -Auto should work - click OK. There is no real danger if you mess up - because it is already copied in and organized from before - iTunes will keep it that way. Make sure those two are still checked on the Air.

It should just populate and fill in your library. As I said the XML file will have the wrong paths so you would have to edit that by hand to get your playlists back.

BINGO !!!!!

Again much thanks

Bob J

Spoke to soon. I can play one song at a time by clicking my gdrive icon-music and so on. If I pull up my iTunes there is nothing. Maybe work the home sharing ? I am so frustrated.

Bob J

With a little help from Apple a confirmed success. Many Thanks for all the help.

Bob J

So what did Apple say to do? Last time I did it I thought I just pointed to the library and iTunes populated - but maybe I missed a step?

Ivan...all of your directions were right on. Somehow the importing of iTunes got messed up. Apple could not figure it out until a senior specialist took over / deleted and or changed files/ and got me up and running as well as fixed the playlists as before. Interestingly now that I upgraded to iTunes 11 I seem to have lost most of my album artwork. I might understand all of the artwork but every 20 or so albums have it ? Have tried to go to edit/library/get artwork and it tells me to go to the store and sign in. I go to the store but cannot see where to sign in? At least all the music is there and exploring the new version is fun. May post if I cannot figure it out.


Bob J