iTunes - Windows to Mac

[WalCan]

Hi all,
I’m a long time, experienced Windows user, and have been considering making the jump to a Mac for a while now. I’ve been doing a lot of reading here for the past month or so and have picked up lots of useful and interesting information about Macs in general, and the new Macbook Pros. I’m ready to make the leap and plan to order a 17 inch with a 500GB HDD and an antiglare screen later this week.

All this has been leading up to an iTunes question! I currently have iTunes installed on my Windows 7 laptop with all the music stored on a share on my NAS. iTunes is used to manage a couple of iPhones, an iPad and an iPod, and has been giving me a few problems in recent months. When I get my new Mac, rather than migrating my current iTunes setup to it I would like to setup a new iTunes library for a couple of reasons; 1. I think it would be a good opportunity for a cleanup. 2. I want to remove any possibility of transferring the previously mentioned problems over from my current iTunes setup. I’m not concerned about playlists as I know these can be exported from the old library and I’m not too bothered about the other stats that are recorded, such as play counts etc. I do have some concerns over the implications this has for the iPhones, iPad and downloaded Apps.

First up, the Apps. If I understand correctly, when I login to my iTunes account on my new Mac, I should be able to re-download all of my previously downloaded Apps for no additional charge. Is this correct?

Regarding the iPad, and especially the iPhones. When these are connected to the Mac for the first time and synced in iTunes will it wipe the current data from them as they are synced with iTunes on a different computer? If so, is there a way around this? Would doing a sync and backup on my current Windows iTunes setup and then transferring the backup file to the Mac and performing a restore back to the iPhones be a solution? I would be really interested to hear all your input.

Apologies for the length of this post for what I’m sure are some very simple questions.

 

[Goldfinger]

What kind of problems are you talking about ? iTunes library issues ?
Just connect your mac to your NAS, throw all the music files on the NAS into iTunes and iTunes will then generate a new fresh library file.

For iTMS music just deauthorize your PC and authorize your new Mac. Why download everything again if you already have all the files?

 

[HBOC]

For the Apps on iTunes, I would de-authorize your old PC computer as you can only have 1 computer be authorized to a single device. For example, you cannot have the same iPhone get apps from several different computers due to DRM protection. You CAN have one computer be authorized for up to 5 different iDevices. You can download the same apps you already have once you de-authorize your old PC and log into you iTunes account on your Mac.

As for iTunes music, why not just get into the iTunes music folder and then drag the music into the new iTunes on the Mac. Only problem you may run into is the meta data or whatnot may be messed up (ie; blank fields, no art work, etc). I ripped like 600 cds to my iTunes library in 320KBS and have it backed up to an external.

 

[WalCan]

Thank you both for your replays.

All of my music files are stored on my NAS, so yes I will just point iTunes on the Mac to the appropriate folder and allow it to create a new library from it, (and lose my current meta data). The library database files and downloaded apps are stored in the default location in the user profile on the Windows PC.

If I understand what you have both said correctly I just need to deauthorize the Windows machine and then authorize the Mac and then I should be able to sync my iPhone without it complaining about being associated with another computer. Is this correct? I thought that it would wipe out the current data on the iPhone and then resync the data from iTunes on the Mac? Apples way of stopping you use you iPhone, (or other apple device), to transfer copyrighted material to other computers. Maybe I have my wires a bit crossed though!

 

[HBOC]

Thank you both for your replays.

All of my music files are stored on my NAS, so yes I will just point iTunes on the Mac to the appropriate folder and allow it to create a new library from it, (and lose my current meta data). The library database files and downloaded apps are stored in the default location in the user profile on the Windows PC.

If I understand what you have both said correctly I just need to deauthorize the Windows machine and then authorize the Mac and then I should be able to sync my iPhone without it complaining about being associated with another computer. Is this correct? I thought that it would wipe out the current data on the iPhone and then resync the data from iTunes on the Mac? Apples way of stopping you use you iPhone, (or other apple device), to transfer copyrighted material to other computers. Maybe I have my wires a bit crossed though!

Yes, unfortunately it will clear your iPhone when it syncs with the new computer. It is for the DRM i am assuming.