News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

April 10, 2008

tips

Transfer iTunes library from Windows to Mac

Posted Apr. 10, ’08, 11:53 AM PT by Dan Pourhadi
Category | Tips

iTunesPCMac.jpgWith Mac market share growing at an admirable rate, the number of new PC-to-Mac converts grows and grows. But once a PC user is Saved, he’s faced with some tough challenges, not the least of which is transferring his iTunes library — playlists and all — from his clunky beige box to his new hot hardware. And I feel it is my duty to relay the solution to this complex conundrum (too much alliteration?) for the benefit of all Mac users…nay, all of mankind.

Plus, a friend of mine wanted to know how to do it, so I figured I’d turn it into a quick buck.

There are a few ways to do it — Mac OS X Hints, for example, loosely describes one possible procedure. But the simplest, most user-friendly ‘tune-transfer method comes from Apple (ironic, considering an Apple support rep told my friend this wasn’t possible).

It uses iTunes’ backup feature and the iPod disk mode, so it requires no networking or complex tinkering. And thanks to their easy step-by-step instructions and pretty pictures, even a novice user should be able to figure it out.

There’s my service to humanity. Now where are my thank-you brownies?


4 Comments

Paul said:

I followed this when I bought my new Mac, moved 35gb from my old Windows machine with nary a hitch.

April 10, 2008 7:23 PM
Khürt Williams Author Profile Page said:

Am I missing somethings here? Why can't the user just copy the iTunes folder from the Windows to the Mac?

April 11, 2008 3:28 AM
blazo said:

Why the fuss with apple's lenghty procedure?

I simply copied all of my music files from PC (c:\music) to Mac (~/music/iTunes/iTunes Music) then edited iTunes Music Library.xml file (changing all instances of c:/music/ with /users/username/music/iTunes/iTunes%20Music/) and imported XML file (shift-cmd-O) int iTunes on my Mac.

Worked like charm!

April 11, 2008 4:25 AM
Matthew Glover Author Profile Page said:

This does seem like a pretty long way to go for just copying your data from one place to another, especially when it doesn't actually preserve any of the iTunes metadata like ratings or play counts.

April 11, 2008 6:22 AM

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