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iTunes has got to be simplified

Vegastouch

Vegastouch

macrumors 603
Original poster
Jul 12, 2008
6,215
1,004
Las Vegas, NV
Just got an iBook and like it but iTunes just really sucks. My Daughter wanted to sync her iPod to it since i have an Android and dont use iTunes. What a friggin pain in the keester that was trying to get her stuff from one computer to another...and it didnt even load everything even after copying it to a external hard disk.

Took hours and it still isnt complete like it was before the transfer. Just reminded me why i dont like using iTunes at all. Theres got to be a way they can make this easier. Why cant they just let ya put your stuff from your iPod in iTunes instead of making you go thru all this BS?
 
It was a pain. What if i didnt have an external drive? It wouldnt work between laptops because the iBook never found any of our other computers on the network which was odd. So i did have an exteranl drive and copied everything but it didnt load 100+ of her songs for whatever reason.
 
Then you did it wrong. Are you actually using an iBook? They haven't been made in 6 years.
 
I used to only use an external drive for portability but now I'm older and lazier. You can copy the iTunes Library folder structure (external drive or not) and then open iTunes on the new computer and tell it to use that library. It sounds like your daughter may have not set iTunes to copy to the iTunes library when adding music to it? That setting will keep everything in the iTunes folder structure. If not, the iTunes library simply points to the song location no matter where it is. I haven't done this, but if you're on a PC and maintain the same drive / folder hierchy then there "shouldn't" be any issues. But if her songs were on a different drive than the library and that other drive doesn't exist on the new computer then you will have to copy them over and find them in iTunes. It asks you to do this automatically if you try to play or get info on a song that isn't in the location iTunes expects.
 
PNutts said:
I used to only use an external drive for portability but now I'm older and lazier. You can copy the iTunes Library folder structure (external drive or not) and then open iTunes on the new computer and tell it to use that library. It sounds like your daughter may have not set iTunes to copy to the iTunes library when adding music to it? That setting will keep everything in the iTunes folder structure. If not, the iTunes library simply points to the song location no matter where it is. I haven't done this, but if you're on a PC and maintain the same drive / folder hierchy then there "shouldn't" be any issues. But if her songs were on a different drive than the library and that other drive doesn't exist on the new computer then you will have to copy them over and find them in iTunes. It asks you to do this automatically if you try to play or get info on a song that isn't in the location iTunes expects.
Click to expand...

I dont know what she had i set to. All i know is when she plugged in her iPod, it said it was not associated ( not sure the correct word it used) with that computer and asked if she wanted to sync it with that one which would erase and sync it with the new MacBook and transfer her paid content. So i had to figure a way to get her stuff in that iTunes.

All the things i read was use a external drive or transfer between computers which the MacBook didnt read any others on the network...which also bothered me since they were right next to each other.
 
Vegastouch said:
1,200+, WiFi was what i wanted to do.
Click to expand...

1,200+ what (apps, music, movies)?

I was asking more about Gigabytes (5GB, 10GB, 50GB). Also, if your going to transfer your media over WiFi, then their are other factors that will make this process take a long time and not recommended.

You will have much better luck with an Ethernet to Ethernet transfer or first transferring your media over to an external drive, then from that external drive to your new MacBook.
 
There's a much easier way to transfer things between computers. Consolidate your library into an iTunes folder, copy that across, drag it into iTunes on the new computer.

For playlists: Right click>export>copy file across>import to iTunes.

Also ethernet would be way faster than wifi
 
saving107 said:
1,200+ what (apps, music, movies)?

I was asking more about Gigabytes (5GB, 10GB, 50GB). Also, if your going to transfer your media over WiFi, then their are other factors that will make this process take a long time and not recommended.

You will have much better luck with an Ethernet to Ethernet transfer or first transferring your media over to an external drive, then from that external drive to your new MacBook.
Click to expand...

OK, when i copied things to an external harddrive, it said there were over 4,700 files. 1,200+ plus songs and album art , dont know how many Apps but it isnt like 200, and a few TV shows but it only transfered 1,020 songs for whatever reason. It is done and it was a pain but if there is an easier way, i would like to know.

Tell me how the ethernet to ethernet works? A ethernet cable(which i didnt have) between them and it should read each other?
 
Last edited:
Vegastouch said:
Tell me how the ethernet to ethernet works? A Cat 5 between them and it should read each other?
Click to expand...

I'm not entirely sure how it works on a mac, I've only done it running Windows, but I assume OSX should automatically detect the connection and and let you browse/copy the other computers files.
 
Option 1:
iTunes Store: Transferring purchases from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod to a computer
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1848


Option 2: Since you don't have Ethernet cables, then I recommend doing this with an external drive. Copy this "iTunes Media" folder to the external drive, then from your external drive copy it to your new MacBook.

screenshot20110807at929.png
 
is there a good number of songs on the old computer that were purchased on iTunes (as in, bought from iTunes for 99 cents) several years ago (before they removed the DRM)?

If so, they may not transfer until you authorize the new computer with the account you bought the songs with
 
Ok, oyu don't have an ethernet cable, external hard drive, DVD burner (I can only assume), you just expected all her info and media to be on a new computer without any kind of transfer and it's iTunes' fault that you're having problems? Ok then....Anyway, it's super easy, just use any of the suggested transfer methods, move over the iTunes library, and you're set. Anything authorized on the other computer will need to be re-authorized on the destination one, and as far as number of files, are you sure everything is actually located in iTunes? If not, you likely have media spread all over the HD and that's why it's not picking everything up.
 
dccorona said:
is there a good number of songs on the old computer that were purchased on iTunes (as in, bought from iTunes for 99 cents) several years ago (before they removed the DRM)?

If so, they may not transfer until you authorize the new computer with the account you bought the songs with
Click to expand...

You can still transfer them (DRM doesn't lock a file to a specific HD); you'll just need to re-authorize everything when you get it in there.
 
Interstella5555 said:
You can still transfer them (DRM doesn't lock a file to a specific HD); you'll just need to re-authorize everything when you get it in there.
Click to expand...

When you back up your songs to a cd or DVD the DRM is gone anyways.
When I got my new macpro I just burned all of my itunes songs to DVDS then imported them to the new computer, it was simple.
 
What probably happened was that on her old computer iTunes wasn't set up to copy the files over into it's own folder(s), but instead was reading it from whatever the location the songs were located into were.


It should be easy enough to consolidate (I think it's in the options somewhere?), and then after that copy the whole iTunes folder onto the new computer (Wifi, external hard drive, ethernet, etc), and then tell iTunes to use that folder instead.
 
fireshot91 said:
What probably happened was that on her old computer iTunes wasn't set up to copy the files over into it's own folder(s), but instead was reading it from whatever the location the songs were located into were.


It should be easy enough to consolidate (I think it's in the options somewhere?), and then after that copy the whole iTunes folder onto the new computer (Wifi, external hard drive, ethernet, etc), and then tell iTunes to use that folder instead.
Click to expand...

Yep, Consolidate is an option under "organize."

My iTunes library isn't tiny (about 230g), but it certainly wasn't hard to move it. Moved it from my old MBP to my new one via Firewire. Then moved it again to an external HD when I decided it was getting too big to keep on my main HD.
 
This is exactly why I uses iTunes for music only and point it to c:\ripped where I put everything.
 
Since I own an iPad and iPhone, iTunes has been the best app I've ever used with managing all my media.

Sorry it isn't working out for you.
 
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