iTunes from one PC to another

[wordlessjam]

Hey,

How can I move my iTunes library from one PC to another without losing me playlists etc? It is quite a large library around 160GB. I need to fingure out how to do this as I will have to to it tomorrow as my PC is getting a new hard drive. I think I read soehwere that it is something to do with the library file? Also will all my apps still be there when I change it all over? Same with my movies, movies I have bought and music videos?

Any help would be great.

Thanks.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

This is a lot easier to do than it sounds, if you have your iTunes library on the PC consolidated. I believe there's an option in iTunes called Consolidate Library, which will perform this job for you, if need be. Once it's consolidated, all that needs to be done is to copy the entire iTunes folder (inside My Music on Windows XP, or Music on Vista/Mac OS X) to an external drive. This'll copy over not only all your music files, but also all the metadata - ratings and play counts included, as well as your mobile applications, movies, podcasts, and other content you had in iTunes.

 

[wordlessjam]

This is a lot easier to do than it sounds, if you have your iTunes library on the PC consolidated. I believe there's an option in iTunes called Consolidate Library, which will perform this job for you, if need be. Once it's consolidated, all that needs to be done is to copy the entire iTunes folder (inside My Music on Windows XP, or Music on Vista/Mac OS X) to an external drive. This'll copy over not only all your music files, but also all the metadata - ratings and play counts included, as well as your mobile applications, movies, podcasts, and other content you had in iTunes.

Yeah I have it consolidated. When I did that before thought I lost all my metadata and had to start it all from scratch. Do you have to replace the old library file with the new one?

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Yeah I have it consolidated. When I did that before thought I lost all my metadata and had to start it all from scratch. Do you have to replace the old library file with the new one?

Yes you do replace it. In fact, there's an even simpler way, that'll guarantee that everything gets preserved.

1. Quit iTunes, if it's running.
2. On the destination computer, move the old iTunes folder elsewhere.
3. Copy the new iTunes folder to where the old iTunes folder was.
4. Launch iTunes, and verify that your metadata is intact, after iTunes finishes updating its library.
5. Delete the old iTunes folder you moved earlier.