Difficulty moving iTunes from PC to Mac !

DodgeTheViper

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I've recently got a MacBook Pro and will be getting rid of my windows PC, so I need to move iTunes over.

My iTunes Media folder is on an external HD. I've consolidated, organised, copied, moved and done everything that I can see, but I can't get the music etc into the library on my Mac. There is obviously something that I am missing here, but I can't figure out what. When I connect the HD to my Mac, I can see the media folder and all is contents perfectly, it just won't transfer.

Is there a check box somewhere that I've missed out maybe ?

Cheers
 
Is iTunes looking at the external HDD for the media? All I did when transferring my content was to copy/paste the contents of the old Media folder to the one on the MacBook Pro.

Just found this.... http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527 Might be of help.
 
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I assume you wish to leave your media on the external HD, if so you don't need to move the files.

Locate the iTunes media folder with the Mac Finder utility. Right click on it and select <Get Info>. Note the path name under the <WHERE:> parameter. It should be something like:- /Volumes/xxxx/yyyyy.

In iTunes select:< iTune><Preferences><Advanced> and set the iTunes Media folder location to:-

/Volumes/xxxx/yyyy/zzzz where zzzz is your media folder.

Ensure: "Copy files to iTune Media folder when adding to library" is not selected.

Select option: <File><Add to Library> and point it to your iTunes Media Folder on the external HD.

This will create your iTunes libraries .itl and .xml within your Music folder on your internal HD and leave your iTunes media on your external drive.

You may have .xml, .itl library files and a Media folder already on your internal drive from the failures previously. You need to remove these before you start. (copy the .itl and .xml files to a temp folder incase you need them later).

Note: You need to ensure that the external HD is mounted/picked-up by OSX before each time you load iTunes or it will create a new Media Folder in the default Music folder on your internal disc. You can use an alias in your Media Folder path name (search forum for details) or use the Drive Mounter free app, as I do.

When you have everything setup ok you need to ensure both "Copy files to iTune Media folder when adding to library" and "Keep iTunes Media Folder Organised" are both always selected.
 
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Assuming the iTunes media-and-all files are compatible, the simply press-n-hold the ALT/OPT key and click on iTunes (on the Dock), click ChooseLibrary and navigate/select the relocated iTunes folder.
 
Just about to try this again and i've noticed that the .itl & .xml files are greyed out.
 
I assume you wish to leave your media on the external HD, if so you don't need to move the files.

Locate the iTunes media folder with the Mac Finder utility. Right click on it and select <Get Info>. Note the path name under the <WHERE:> parameter. It should be something like:- /Volumes/xxxx/yyyyy.

In iTunes select:< iTune><Preferences><Advanced> and set the iTunes Media folder location to:-

/Volumes/xxxx/yyyy/zzzz where zzzz is your media folder.

Ensure: "Copy files to iTune Media folder when adding to library" is not selected.

Select option: <File><Add to Library> and point it to your iTunes Media Folder on the external HD.

This will create your iTunes libraries .itl and .xml within your Music folder on your internal HD and leave your iTunes media on your external drive.

You may have .xml, .itl library files and a Media folder already on your internal drive from the failures previously. You need to remove these before you start. (copy the .itl and .xml files to a temp folder incase you need them later).

Note: You need to ensure that the external HD is mounted/picked-up by OSX before each time you load iTunes or it will create a new Media Folder in the default Music folder on your internal disc. You can use an alias in your Media Folder path name (search forum for details) or use the Drive Mounter free app, as I do.

When you have everything setup ok you need to ensure both "Copy files to iTune Media folder when adding to library" and "Keep iTunes Media Folder Organised" are both always selected.

Excellent :smashin:

I forgot the 'Add To Library' bit :facepalm:

All transferred over now. If i tick the box to 'Keep iTunes Media folder organised' does this affect all the tagging and renaming that i've already done ?
I usually have this box unticked.

Cheers
 
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Excellent :smashin:

I forgot the 'Add To Library' bit :facepalm:

All transferred over now. If i tick the box to 'Keep iTunes Media folder organised' does this affect all the tagging and renaming that i've already done ?
I usually have this box unticked.

Cheers

No, 'Keep iTunes Media folder organised' creates the folder structure /Artist/Album/Song.
 
OK, my library is there and looks ok.
I've just ticked the 'keep organised' box and it looks like it's sorting every single track, it'll take a very long time me thinks.
 
Another query :D

Some tracks are greyed out when i click 'Get Info'

I opened those tracks in Finder and found out i can only read them. How can i change this so that i can edit the info in those tracks ?

Cheers
 
For a company that goes around blowing their trumpet about how easy their products are to use, moving your iTunes from one machine to another is stupidly complicated
 
It's not actually. There was literally one step of the process that I had forgotten to do.

The Mac is great, so much so that it makes my windows machine look like a thing of the dark ages.
 
I'm afraid you probably need to re-do the transferring, beginning from the windows machine. The external HDD is read-only by MacOS, explaining some if not all of your woes. Try exFAT from the Mac side and re-transfer your iTunes media. Then, more likely than not, just pressing-n-holding the ALT/OPT key with iTunes launched will help.
 
I've only found one odd track at the moment that's read only, bu I may reformat yes.
 
So whatever I do/use, I'll have to move the media folder off the external HD, either onto the windows internal HD or the Mac internal HD. Reformatt the external HD or use appropriate software, then put the media folder back on and add to the library again ?
 
Whether you will need to reformat your external HD will depend on its format when used on windows. I had my iTunes Media Folder on a WD MyBook Live under Windows Vista. When I moved to a MBPR under OSX I didn't have to move the media files or reformat. The WD drive was capable of being shared by both Operating systems.

If you have got just a few greyed out files it may be that the index library files are pointing to a different location for those songs. Under iTunes select the song and right click and choose <Show in Finder> option. If it is not pointing to the correct location select <iTunes><File><Add to Library> and select the song file. This will ensure that the index is recreated and move the file to the correct location if it is not already so.

It is very important that OSX sees your external HD before loading iTunes otherwise a new Media folder will be created in the default Music folder. Check that you have no iTune song within the the default Music folder. Also use <iTunes><Preferences><Advanced> to check your Media Folder path, as it has to be changed back manually, just loading the external HD will not restore the path name.
 
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I actually do have a WD My Book Live 2Tb.

I'll try that tomorrow :smashin:
 
If I am correct, your intention is for the external HDD to continue being used as the iTunes library, so make sure it is write-able, either explicitly using ex/FAT or with Paragon NTFS as suggested. I am with the former solution as this will allow the external HDD to move on (again!) without forcing the other Mac('s) to install Paragon.
 
I do want to use the external HDD to hold iTunes Media yes. So would I dump everything off it onto the windows internal HDD, reformatt, then put everything back on, then add to the iTunes library again ?
 
Remote support is not easy, is it? We're potentially drip-fed bits of information which can result in re-doing stuff all over due to some fundamental assumptions...

AFAICT, you want to COPY all media files onto the external HDD and MAINTAIN all the iTunes meta-data on the external HDD as well. THis means default iTunes settings for all relevant options EXCEPT for the location of the iTunes media folder - which is accessed as I had mentioned.

Kapeesh?

EDIT: so, the ex/FAT format (or Paragon NTFS) approach is going to be required for your Mac to continue writing to the external HDD.
 
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Think I've got somewhere with this now, and there was actually more than a few tracks that I couldn't edit.

I dumped the contents of the external drive to the internal drives of my windows machine and mac (space issue)
Then reformatted the external drive to exFat, put everything back on again and presto, all good :D

Thanks all for the help :thumbsup:
 
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