iTunes (+iPhone) migration from PC to MAC

[SMabille]

Hi,

I'm getting my iMac soon. I want to move my iTunes from Windows to OS X.
What's the best solution, as I have an iPhone and would like to:
- Keep my applications (if I do a transfer item bought on iPhone on the Mac that should be ok)
- Keep my data (can I do backup/restore on the Mac even if the phone is not synchronised with it yet)?

So my plan was:
- Synch on PC
- Backup on PC (just in case).
- Backup on Mac.
- Copy/move music from PC to Mac.
- Transfer bought items from iPhone to Mac
- Synch with Mac
- Restore from Mac (to get my data)

After the restore will my iPhone still be sync with the Mac or will I be back to synch on PC???

Thanks.
Stephane

 

[balamw]

I'm getting my iMac soon. I want to move my iTunes from Windows to OS X.

It's a whole lot easier than that!

1. Backup/Sync on Mac
2. Consolidate library on PC
3. Copy ENTIRE PC iTunes folder to a shared drive (All apps, purchased items, etc... will be transferred).
4. Open PC library on Mac (will ask you to authorize protected content).
5. Consolidate library on Mac
6. Deauthorize PC library.

iLounge has a great article on the subject http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to-a-new-hard-drive/ and what kind of shared drive you use depends on the size of your library. A flash drive/SD card would work if it is small enough. A HDD or network would be better if it is a larger library.

Your iPhone sync is tied to a unique identifier in the library it if you move the library this way, the iPhone will sync to your Mac. At this point you should retire the PC library since it will also want to sync with that.

B

 

[SMabille]

Perfect! Thanks for that

 

[Maxi86]

I recently transfered my whole library from my PC to Mac... I managed to get all my playlist... but the big letdown is you lose information like ratings and play count...
To me, these two are essential... especially if you're used to using smart playlists...
Strangely, it did work when I moved from my old PC to my laptop... so I was hoping the move to Mac would be as succesfull...

Is there a possibility to get it via another route?
Will it work if you use your iPhone (synced with your old library) and transfer it to the new Mac?

 

[Maxi86]

I tried out Senuti... and it actually works!
the bummer is it only works for songs I dont have in my library...

If I add a song which is new to my library, I get information like rating and play count... but if I delete an existing song and re-add it with Senuti from my iPhone... it doesn't work. I get the information back from the deleted one...

So probably it will work if delete iTunes and reinstall it... and adding my whole library from my iPhone from the start... but I kinda wished there was an easier and quicker way...

 

[balamw]

If you followed the iLounge method you should have kept all playlists etc... I've done it many times and not lost play counts, ratings, etc...

Unless of course something has changed with iTunes 10...

B

 

[Maxi86]

following that method got me nowhere...I didn't even get my playlists... must have screwed up somewhere...

but in your case... did it also work when transferring from windows to mac? perhaps that might be the cause of it...

 

[Maxi86]

what is the best way to delete all files related to iTunes on a Mac?
should I use an app like AppDelete? or will just dragging the app to the trash be enough?

 

[balamw]

did it also work when transferring from windows to mac?

Yes, I migrated my iTunes library from my Dell running Vista over to my MB when I retired the PC and also did it once before when creating the initial library on my iMac. I then moved my library from the MB to the MBP. All without losing play counts and smart playlists.

The iTunes library is self-contained in ~/Music/iTunes Just drag that whole folder to the Trash.

B

 

[Maxi86]

I read that article on iLounge once more, this time very thorough. And I realized what I did wrong...

I was just wondering, where are the iPhone/iPad backups exactly stored?
I got everything transferred, except for those.

and one more thing, my damn iTunes Media folder is already more than 100GB! so I want to move it my Media partition... can I do so, and then change the directory in iTunes?
or wait... do I have to change directory first and then consolidate my library again on the new partition and remove the old one?

 

[balamw]

I was just wondering, where are the iPhone/iPad backups exactly stored?
I got everything transferred, except for those.

I think those are stored somewhere in c:\users\username\appdata.

and one more thing, my damn iTunes Media folder is already more than 100GB! so I want to move it my Media partition... can I do so, and then change the directory in iTunes?

You should just be able to go straight to your Media partition.

And next I wanna move my whole iTunes folder to the Media partition and afterwards install iTunes in Windows too. I'm curious whether it's possible to let Windows run the same database.

Not quite. You can use a symbolic link between the two libraries, but it ends up translating/rebuilding the library when you switch OS.

Probably impractical for a large library like yours.

B

 

[Maxi86]

I think those are stored somewhere in c:\users\username\appdata

how are you supposed to transfer them over? the most important thing is my address book with all my contacts.... I would like to add them to my iMac...

You should just be able to go straight to your Media partition.

huh? you mean drag the iTunes Media folder to a different partition.... could it really work that easily? btw remember the partition is exFAT

 

[balamw]

how are you supposed to transfer them over? the most important thing is my address book with all my contacts.... I would like to add them to my iMac...

Not a clue. My iPhones are all post migration to OS X. Don't they sync with Windows Address Book by default on Windows? In which case you could just import from that. Or back them up to the cloud via MobileMe or Gmail.

huh? you mean drag the iTunes Media folder to a different partition.... could it really work that easily? btw remember the partition is exFAT

Yeah, there's nothing fancy going on in the iTunes folder. It's all about the *.itl database. I had mine on a FAT32 disc during one migration.

B

 

[Maxi86]

I found this very clear tutorial on how to import iPhone contacts into Mac Address Book :
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1472736

and I transferred my iTunes Media folder to the other partition via iTunes consolidation... instead of 100GB it's now around 60... so that's a welcome surprise. It did take a whole longer though... I suppose every advantage has its disadvantage.

 

[Maxi86]

I think those are stored somewhere in c:\users\username\appdata
B

It's a hidden folder...
after that I got to \AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup
inside this folder are a bunch of folders with long weird names like 'eb88df8f7c534d4e3866c8c8b19038573217bec3'
Could these folders be the backups? But what about the iPad? Is it also here?

 

[Maxi86]

Where/what is the counter part of the folder AppData on the Mac?

EDIT: I found it... it's in /Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup
now let's see whether it works if I just copy the folders from Windows to Mac...

 

[Maxi86]

Yeeeeej!!! It works... Just simply copy the files from the appropriate Windows folder to the Mac one... It got all my backups... also for multiple iPhones and iPads...!