Has Apple created a barrier to me ever switching?? My Windows iTunes song ratings!

[supercaliber]

So I think i am ready to switch to OSX as I have a solution to every business problem i normally deal with. But here I am about to make the jump and the biggest and final obstacle before me appears to be one of Apple's own making!

I can't figure out how to transfer my music from Windows to Apple and preserve my three years of song ratings, play counts, and genre classifications on my 12 gigabyte song collection. Sorry but if I can't figure this one out, I am doomed to be a Windows user forever. I pray there is an easy way to do this, if not, come on Apple, what are you thinking!!!!!

Any help appreciated! thanks.

 

[bentley]

That's stored in the iTunes library file, can you not transfer that file over?

 

[NotFound]

If that is what is holding you back then we are all better off with you on that side.

 

[SteveG4Cube]

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20070126183436602

"The iTunes Library is cross-compatible. I've done it both ways.

First off, on the Windows side, make sure that the iTunes Library is Consolidated. You can find it under the Advanced menu in iTunes. This makes sure everything is in your "iTunes/iTunes Music Library" folder. Now run iTunes on the Mac (assuming you haven't before) and answer the first-run questions. This generates some initial files that we're about to overwrite but more importantly creates a preference file that makes iTunes start right up next time. Quit iTunes. Now copy the iTunes folder from Windows over the stuff on the Mac. For every file you copy, you should see a file that you are replacing. (Pretty much the entire iTunes folder, which is a directory in the Music folder on the Mac or in Windows My Music). Now open iTunes again. It may show an "Upgrading Library" dialog, but after that, everything is copied over-- play counts, ratings, lyrics, anything."

 

[supercaliber]

Will give it a try...

Thanks for the link, i will try it out.

As for the person slamming me.. how can the value of your own personal song ratings and play counts be lost to a Mac fan? Surely you have exposed yourself as a clown and a troll. Is it too late for you to remove your post, does Macrumors even allow such a thing? Since your reputation is lost, maybe you can just start over with a new user ID, you won't have to suffer through being a noob for very long.

I also found this link, a more complicated solution, but might be helpful to some.

http://guides.macrumors.com/Copying_Music_from_your_old_PC_to_new_Mac

 

[mkrishnan]

Surely you have exposed yourself as a clown and a troll. Is it too late for you to remove your post, does Macrumors even allow such a thing? Since your reputation is lost, maybe you can just start over with a new user ID, you won't have to suffer through being a noob for very long.

Get melodramatic much?

Anyways, it's definitely possible, one way or another... don't let that count you out just yet. Is there anything else that concerns you about trying out OS X?

 

[Eidorian]

I just drag the entire iTunes Folder over and I keep all my settings.

 

[supercaliber]

Wow, everything seems great now, but a lingering mystery ....

Well, I have an interesting setup I guess. Here is my laptop:

Macbook Pro, core duo, with three partitions, one boots to OSX, one to Windows, and I have a third Fat32 partition for my music.

When running OSX i see my Music partition as a drive in the finder. When running Windows my Music partition is Drive D:, my iTunes music folder is d:\music. Both in Windows and OSX this drive is set to be my iTunes music folder. So my initial thought after reading the post was, hey I shouldn't have to do anything. So then why wasn't OSX picking up my song info?

I first noticed that in Windows the itunes music library.xml was not in my d:\music folder (my iTunes music folder). I don't know why.. nevertheless, i searched around and found it in a My Music sub folder.

I then went to OSX where the iTunes music folder was also set to my Music drive. I had to search around for the file again, but spotlight made that super fast, thanks apple. I copied my windows xml file and another .itl file i found in Windows for good measure and started iTunes in OSX, and voila! my entire library with song ratings showed up in itunes. iTunes "updated my library" ? who knows what it was doing, took five minutes, now EVERY song plays without having to search or copy the song! and i have all my ratings and play counts.

If anyone knows why my itunes music library.xml file isn't in my itunes music folder i would appreciate knowing, thanks for the help all! Windows can now die a slow death on my laptop, may I never have to boot directly to Windows again!

 

[netnothing]

If anyone knows why my itunes music library.xml file isn't in my itunes music folder i would appreciate knowing, thanks for the help all! Windows can now die a slow death on my laptop, may I never have to boot directly to Windows again!

I think that's standard for iTunes on Windows. A default iTunes install puts your library and all config files in My Music under Docs and Settings for your user. You can then of course, tell it that you want the library to be somewhere else. But as far as I know, that only is where your music files are located. All pref files for iTunes will always remain in the My Music folder.

-Kevin