How to Move iTunes Library from Mac to Windows with iTunes. Step 1: Backup your iTunes library to an external hard drive or a USB at your Mac. Step 2: Click on your desktop to make certain you’re in the Finder. Step 3: From the top of the computer screen choose finder and go to preferences when you reach the window. There are a few ways to transfer your iTunes library from one computer to another. When you get a new Mac, use Setup Assistant (or Migration Assistant, if you’re switching from Windows) to move files—including your iTunes files—from your old computer to the new one.
Q: I have a new iPad 2. I have purchased music from the iTunes store and copied music from CDs that were downloaded from my home iBook. I wish to transfer them into my iTunes account on my work laptop. Can this be done without losing the music from the CDs?
– Sam
A: Yes. There are several ways that you can go about this, but the basic task is to copy the music from your home computer over to the work laptop. You can either do this directly using an external hard drive, network connection, or optical media such as recordable CDs or DVDs, or you can use the iPad 2 as an intermediate device.
It sounds like in this case you’re dealing with a Mac at home and a Windows laptop at work, which makes the process a bit tricker, but still very doable. The problem is that iTunes stores full paths to every file in your library database, and because the file systems between Mac and Windows are fundamentally different, it’s impossible for it to directly reference these files on the new computer, which may result in broken links.
The solution in this case is to use the “Consolidate Files” option, which copies everything into the “iTunes Media” folder. You can that iTunes Media folder over to the new computer preserving it’s layout. When iTunes can’t find a track in its specific location, it will fall back to looking for it in the location where it would normally place it by default. If the file is in that location, as it would be after a “Consolidate” operation, iTunes will successfully find it and update the location to reflect its new Windows-based pathname.
This is all explained in much greater detail in our tutorial on Transferring your iTunes Library.
Alternatively, if you have all of the content on your iPad 2, you can simply copy it onto the work laptop from there. Purchased content can easily be transferred using the iTunes application, but you will need to rely on third-party tools to transfer the music you have ripped from your own CDs. See Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer for more information.
After decades of digital music, it's not unlikely if you've amassed quite the collection of music on your computer's hard drive. If your iTunes library is taking up too much space, you can move it off of your local drive and onto an external hard drive without breaking your music collection.
You can also transfer your entire iTunes library from one computer to another if you are migrating to a new Mac.
Before making major changes to your computer, it's always a good idea to back up your data: The best way to back up your Mac is with a Time Machine routine in place, but you can choose an alternate backup option that's right for you.
You will, of course, need the computer your iTunes library is currently on. You will also need the following:
Over time, it's easy for your music, movies, apps, and other iTunes content to end up stored in various places throughout your computer's hard drive. To ensure that you copy everything from iTunes over to an external hard drive, you should first consolidate your library. Even if you think your library has all your information consolidated already, it can't hurt to do a manual check before moving any data.
Click File in the upper left corner of your Mac's screen.
Select Organize Library from the secondary menu.
Click OK.
This process makes a copy of all files in the iTunes media folder, and leaves the original files in their current location.
Select your Mac's hard drive.
Select iTunes and drag it to the external hard drive.
Click OK.
This process could take upwards of an hour or two, depending on how much data stored in your iTunes library.
Once you've transferred a copy of your iTunes library onto an external hard drive, you will need to set a new path for the iTunes app by redirecting it to search the external hard drive for content, rather than your local drive.
Click on Choose Library when the window appears.
Click Open.
Note: Until you delete the iTunes file on your local hard drive, you can switch which libraries iTunes uses by launching the app and holding down the Option key at the same time.
If you performed the first three steps correctly, when you open iTunes, it should look the same as it did before. You can double-check to make sure the migration worked by checking the info of any content.
Select a song, podcast, movie, app, or other content.
Click on the File tab in the info window.
Look under Location to ensure that the content is now being stored under /Volumes/external hard drive name/.. instead of Users/local hard drive name/..
Once you have transferred a copy of your iTunes library onto an external hard drive and redirected iTunes to the new location, you can delete the iTunes folder on your local hard drive, freeing up space on your Mac.
Note: If you are making a copy to transfer to a new computer, you don't need to perform step 5 unless you want to remove your iTunes library from the old computer.
Select your Mac's hard drive.
Select iTunes and drag it to the trash. Where is library in mac os windows 10.
Make sure your external hard drive is connected to your Mac when you launch iTunes from now on. Otherwise, iTunes won't be able to find the files. If that happens, quit iTunes, connect your external hard drive to your computer, and reopen iTunes.
Once you have your iTunes library on an external hard drive, you can relocate it to a new Mac.
Select your new Mac's hard drive.
Drag the iTunes folder from your external hard drive into the Music folder on your new Mac.
Select your local hard drive under Devices in the Finder sidebar.
Click Open.
Do you have any questions or issues with moving your iTunes library onto an external hard drive or onto a new Mac? Let us know in the comments and we'll help you out.
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