Moving iTunes from PC to Mac

[davidra]

As best I can tell from other sources, I have to consolidate the music on my PC (file---library-----organize library) before I can copy it to the new iMac, which will automatically create duplicates of every song on my PC??? And those have to be manually removed? You must be kidding. Can I not just copy the iTunes folder from one to another, since all my songs are in the iTunes folder? And I just noticed the new iMac has not been updated to the dreaded 11.1. Do the iTunes versions have to be same when you're transferring from one to another? I'd love to leave the old version on the iMac after unfortunately updating my PC version.

[Weaselboy]

Just follow this guide to move the library over. Consolidating does not make dups of all the music files.

As far as versions, you are going from an older version library to a newer, so you will be fine. Once you move the library over and start the newer version of iTunes on the Mac, you will see message that it is converting the library for the new version.

[davidra]

It was those instructions that made me think they were duplicated:

" Consolidating will cause iTunes to copy all of your music files that appear in iTunes to one central location on your computer (the iTunes Media folder). The original files will now be duplicates which you will need to manually remove from their various locations if you don't want them to take up additional drive space. If your computer does not have enough hard-drive space, this process will not work correctly. Please contact your computer manufacturer or Microsoft for more information on how to obtain more space to perform this action. "
Also I have 11.6 on the PC and 10.7 on the new iMac so I suppose I had better upgrade the iTunes version on the iMac if I'm transferring, because it would be going from a newer version to an older???

[Weaselboy]

Originally Posted by davidra

It was those instructions that made me think they were duplicated:

" Consolidating will cause iTunes to copy all of your music files that appear in iTunes to one central location on your computer (the iTunes Media folder). The original files will now be duplicates which you will need to manually remove from their various locations if you don't want them to take up additional drive space. If your computer does not have enough hard-drive space, this process will not work correctly. Please contact your computer manufacturer or Microsoft for more information on how to obtain more space to perform this action. "
Also I have 11.6 on the PC and 10.7 on the new iMac so I suppose I had better upgrade the iTunes version on the iMac if I'm transferring, because it would be going from a newer version to an older???

What they are talking about there is if you have unchecked the option in iTunes prefs/advanced to move music files into the library when imported. If you have that unchecked, then yes... consolidate will move them in so you will have two copies on the drive. Once in the original location, and one in the iTunes library.

But from the way it sounded in your first post, you have this checked and the music is already in the library. If that is the case, you will not have dups.

Yes, I would update the Mac iTunes app before you do this.

[Apple fanboy]

I recently made the switch from PC to a new iMac, and just used migration assistant. That went without a hitch. Why not use that? You can uncheck what you don't need transferred.

[davidra]

Just wanted a fresh start. There is way too much junk on my PC....however, I did the transfer as suggested but got no playlists. Everything else seemed to transfer. What did I forget?