How I moved my iTunes library from PC to Mac

Hi,

I have been looking in this forum exact instructions on how to move my iTunes library from my PC to my new Mac. However, I was not able to find what I considered complete instructions because they always left some detail behind.

Now since I was able to finally do it with no problems I decide to post how I did it:

Setup:
Latest iTunes Software and iPod update
My iTunes music was on a removable USB 250GB drive

Steps:
1. Copied iTunes Library.itl, iTunes Music Library.xml and iPod Games Library from MyDocuments\My Music\iTunes to username\Music\iTunes on my Mac
2. Removed the .itl extension from the iTunes Library file
3. At this point you have two options (either leave the music on the removable drive or move it to a folder in the new Mac) I decided to move it to a folder on my new iMac
4. Open iTunes
5. iTunes should open and you should be seeing your library, but with all the songs with the ! sign next to them. This means that iTunes cannot find those songs in the folder they are supposed to be (your PC's path were they were before you moved them). So you need to go to iPod Preferences and under the Advance tab modified the Library location so that it points to the folder where you placed the files on your Mac
6. iTunes will now show a "Updating Library" message while it looks for and finds all your music in it's new folder

At this point I was wondering how should I move my games or if the where already moved along with my music. I looked for answers but found none, so I went ahead and plugged my iPod to my Mac

To my surprise, iTunes gave me a message indicating that there were purchased songs on my iPod that were not on my Library and asked me if I wanted to copy them to my iMac. I replied Yes and everything worked OK: music and games.

I hope this helps anybody looking for the same answers I did.

LA

I think this will be useful for many new switchers.

I wish I'd read that a couple of weeks ago.....

It works, I just deleted my iTunes library file on my Mac, just to test this out. Great job, rep added!

Important thing when you have purchased songs: iTunes has no problem doing this, because it can authorize a song for 5 computers. Be sure to de-authorize your previous computer if you don't intend to use it anymore.

great tips,, rep added

Also tried it myself, going from my Windows PC to my G4 Sawtooth.. Great post, rep added!

Flawless!!!

I followed these instructions to move my itunes music files from my PC to my MacBookPro, and it worked perfectly!

I placed the itunes music folder in its proper location under the iTunes directory of my home folder, and didn't even have to tell iTunes where to find the files. It started up and went right into "updating library" without me having to tell it to.

My library, playlists, history, podcasts, etc. are all in place. I sync'd the iPod and it updated the one new podcast that had been downloaded to the PC before the copy.

SWEEEET!!

Thanks a bunch for posting this here. These instructions should be a sticky here in iPod stuff and in "switchers" so all us converts can get our iTunes going ASAP after getting our new Macs.

-renegade

The steps you posted are for transfering over the itunes playlists and such right? Am I correct in assuming the music file needs to be on the mac first then I follow the steps in your post?

I think step 3 just answered my question.

Should I use this or senuti. This sounds quicker.

kilo15,

I have not used Senuti, so I could not compare. In my case there were some songs in my library that were not in my iPod so the only way to transfer my whole collection was doing what I did.

llarrea said:

kilo15,

I have not used Senuti, so I could not compare. In my case there were some songs in my library that were not in my iPod so the only way to transfer my whole collection was doing what I did.

Click to expand...

Gracias compadre

I don't know what happened, but it failed.

I did everything u said, but still i end up with aaall these exclamation marks. I know the files are in the right folder, but iTunes simply can't find them. Does this have something to do with the xml file.
I opened it in a text editor and i saw the usual windows paths. Not the mac folder.. Can someone help me with this?