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Copying itunes data to new Mac - please help

S

speed999

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Hi Guys

I have searched for answers on this, but i can't find anyone with the same configuration as i have, so I'm hoping someone here can help me out.

I have a rather large itunes library stored on an external drive. Originally when i loaded all the songs on to the drive into itunes it took about 30 hours for itunes to ingest them.

I have just bought a new Mac and connected that external drive to it. I'm wondering if there is a quick way to tell my new mac what the playlist is without having to go thorough the "add folder to library" 36 hour marathon?

Thanks in advance.

Ross
 
I'm not sure why yours is taking that long. I have a 146GB music library and mind loads just fine. Perhaps you have "find album art" turned on. Perhaps you have it searching through tracks to determine gapless playback as well. Perhaps you have the "copy to iTunes" folder checked as well.

Anyways. Load up iTunes while pressing the Option key. Select choose Library and point to your iTunes library on your external drive.
 
google:
transfer itunes library from mac to mac
there might be easier way, but I do it manually.

---------
my way:

go to new mac, connect your harddrive, open itunes
open preferences / advanced

Uncheck
"Copy files to itunes music library"
"keep itunes folder organized"

click ok. Open preferences
Select your music library location, click ok, quit iTunes.

Go into your user folder / Music
and copy the iTunes folder to new mac, overriding the files and folders in your new mac.

Open iTunes, you should have all your play lists and songs should play. If not, you didn't select the right music library location.

If everything works, you can open itunes preferences and change the things that were unchecked.
 
Hey guys,

Thanks for taking the time to reply - and thanks for the advice. I'm not sure what i did wrong with the importing to itunes. I have been loading my rather large CD library into itunes at work for the past year - it ended up being over 900 gig at 320kbps. I copied it all on to an external drive, put it in an itunes folder - then said i wanted to keep the files organized to that folder and added tracks...it took forever.

Anyway it looks like i don;t have to go through that again.

I appreciate your help.
 
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