Moving I tunes contents to new mac

[Gerbilly]

I have all my I tunes content on external HD, and I direct I tunes to this to use it. My old I mac only had a 500gb HD so I used this method of storing my stuff.
I now have a new 27 inch I mac which has a 3tb fusion drive. I do have I tunes match, but I am aware I cannot get access to all my content this way.
What would you recommend to move the content to the new mac, I will also be using a 3tb and 2tb external HD's with the new computer but again I am unsure how to utilise them with this set up.

 

[Fatboy71]

I have all my I tunes content on external HD, and I direct I tunes to this to use it. My old I mac only had a 500gb HD so I used this method of storing my stuff.
I now have a new 27 inch I mac which has a 3tb fusion drive. I do have I tunes match, but I am aware I cannot get access to all my content this way.
What would you recommend to move the content to the new mac, I will also be using a 3tb and 2tb external HD's with the new computer but again I am unsure how to utilise them with this set up.

So are you wanting to put all of your iTunes content (that you currently have on your external HD) on to your iMac’s hard drive/Fusion Drive?

If you are, then just copy your iTunes folder over to the Music folder on your iMac. If you have previously loaded up iTunes, then I think this creates an iTunes folder. If you have and providing you have no content in it, then just overwrite this with the one your copying over.

Then just before you go to load iTunes, press the Option key and then from the little window that appears, click on the “CHOOSE LIBRARY” button.

Next locate your iTunes library in the Music/iTunes folder. Its usually called iTunes library and has the file extension itl.

Once you’ve found it, select it and then click on Open.

iTunes should then load up and you should be able to see all of your content etc.

 

[Gerbilly]

So are you wanting to put all of your iTunes content (that you currently have on your external HD) on to your iMac’s hard drive/Fusion Drive?

If you are, then just copy your iTunes folder over to the Music folder on your iMac. If you have previously loaded up iTunes, then I think this creates an iTunes folder. If you have and providing you have no content in it, then just overwrite this with the one your copying over.

Then just before you go to load iTunes, press the Option key and then from the little window that appears, click on the “CHOOSE LIBRARY” button.

Next locate your iTunes library in the Music/iTunes folder. Its usually called iTunes library and has the file extension itl.

Once you’ve found it, select it and then click on Open.

iTunes should then load up and you should be able to see all of your content etc.

Thanks for the reply.

I should have made it clearer all my music, movies, tv programmes , audiobooks, books (850gb) are within a folder called I Tunes Music in my external HD along with three other folders, MSYNC, Music and Playlist EPT.
So I unplug my HD and take it to my new Mac and plug it in. Should I copy all four folders and should I just copy that to the I Tunes folder within Music on the new I Mac.

One more issue I am concerned about is when i turn on I Tunes Match on the new computer will it duplicate all of my music and TV Programmes.

I use Sonos also and will obviously have to direct it to my I Tunes folder within the new iMac which hopefully will be simple enough.
I will be using the older I Mac for my son and I will let him copy over the music he wants from I Tunes match.

One more thing as I stated i have two external HD's to use with the new iMac should I use one of these to store my i tunes content or just use the fusion drive on the iMac? Unsure what would be best for my computer.

Thanks for any help provided!!

 

[Fatboy71]

All the four folders you mentioned in your last post.

Copy these to the Music/iTunes folder on your new iMac. Once they finished copying (just to be safe) disconnect your external HD.

Now press and hold the OPTION key on your keyboard and then click on the iTunes icon (which should be on your Dock).

You should then see the little window. Click on CHOOSE LIBRARY.

Next you will need to locate the iTunes library file (which should be in the iTunes folder). So navigate to the Music/iTunes folder.

You need to look for a file called iTunes library (it has the file extension itl).

Once you’ve found it, select it and then click on Open.

iTunes should now load up and from then on, knows where all your iTunes content is stored.

Anytime after this that you load iTunes, you won’t need to go through the above procedure (i.e. pressing the OPTION key to locate the iTunes library file etc).




When I moved from Windows to Mac last year. I needed to do the above (albeit from the folder on my Windows computer). I can remember the person who told me the above instructions, said that if you have not loaded iTunes up before (on your Mac), there will not be a iTunes folder present in the Music folder on your Mac. So basically I just copied the Music folder off of my Windows computer, onto an external HD, and from there, on to my iMac.

I then loaded iTunes up on my iMac and followed the above instructions about navigating/locating the iTunes library file. And everything worked flawlessly, no issues at all. I’m pretty sure too, that I had all the play counts copied over too.


Unfortunately I don’t use/have iTunes Match so I’m unable to advise you on that.


Not sure if you take backups of your system and if the external HD you use presently is large enough, but I would set one of the external HD’s aside and use it solely for taking Time Machine backups with.

And the second external HD (providing its large enough) I would use it solely with Carbon Copy Cloner (which I mention below).


Also, not sure if you use this Application, but I would invest in Carbon Copy Cloner. It isn’t free (its £27.95) but its a really good Application. And by this I mean.

For example, say some issue stops your iMac from booting up. With a Time Machine backup, restoring off of this can take a bit of time. But with Carbon Copy Cloner, it takes an exact bootable clone of your iMac’s HD or Fusion Drive in your case. Basically, if you have an issue that stops your iMac from loading, you can use the external HD (that you use for taking the clones with, with CCC) to boot off. So you basically have a working, bootable system. Then once you’ve booted off of this and are on your desktop, you can then load up CCC and choose to restore from the external HD and onto your Macintosh HD, to then have your iMac up and running again.

I can’t remember how much quicker it is than restoring from a Time Machine backup, but it is considerable quicker from what I remember.

Its wise to have at least two backups of your system too incase the worst happens.

If you backup with your two external HD’s by the above methods, then you will also be backing up your iTunes content in the process.

Time Machine is ideal if you lose a file, folder etc, or accidentally overwrite a file and would like to get the older/original version back. Its very easy to locate to what your looking for and then simply copy it over to your iMac.

Carbon Copy Cloner is ideal for when your iMac won’t boot (due to a software issue for example). You can instantly boot off of it, and have a usable, working computer again. And from there, restore your iMac from the clone, which is considerably quicker than restoring off of a Time Machine backup.


Re the Fusion Drive.

You have no control as to what goes on to this. Basically the Fusion Drive monitors your usage and puts your mostly used applications, files etc on to it. So that these can be accessed quicker. Also the Fusion Drive has a 4GB buffer for to provide faster read writes when you are copying stuff to it.

This link provides more info on how the Fusion Drive works and explains it better than I can

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/1...ining-doc-ars-tears-open-apples-fusion-drive/


Hope this info has helped you