Moving iTunes Library to new iMac (NOT the music files itself but the library & iPhon

[italipina]

Hello everyone.

My whole entire music collection is stored on an external hard-drive which is always connected to my computer via firewire. My iTunes library plays and paths the music from there. The actual iTunes-library file sits in the internal music folder of my powerbook.

I have just ordered a new iMac (Black Friday Deal woohoo)... how and what will I need to do to be able to transfer my library information to the new computer without lousing any playlists/soung counts/iPhone information.
I will continue to house all my music external as I have over 10,000 songs.

Is it a matter of simply copying the iTunes Library file itself over to the new computer?

What will happen with my iPhone apps?

Thank you

 

[Sky Blue]

Copy to iTunes folder over to the new computer.

 

[mkrishnan]

Copying the library over should be fine, since the external drive should have exactly the same (absolute) path on the new Mac as it did on the old one, right?

As for the iPhone apps, I recently reported on what happened when I transferred my library from one computer to another (see). For some reason, the iPhone apps appeared in the new library but they didn't work, and they got overwritten by the ones from the phone. I lost all the ones I didn't still have on the phone (although no paid ones). I'm really not sure why. It's the only thing really that didn't work. In my case, it may have been a Mac/Win thing, although the odd thing was that they registered in iTunes, but just didn't work.

So I'm not 100% sure about that part. When I did this a couple of weeks ago, I didn't find any guides that specifically addressed how iPhone related aspects of the transfer would work. And the iPhone did behave differently than the other devices.

One thing you could do for safety, if you have the space for it on your iPhone, is at least temporarily, make sure all your apps are loaded on your iPhone at the time of the transfer. The songs, ringtones, etc, of the iPhone will definitely all transfer over fine. The only question mark I have is the apps. If you put them all on the iPhone temporarily, at worst case they will all be copied from the iPhone to the new iTunes library, and then you can change the settings back to delete them off your iPhone again.

 

[italipina]

Thanks for the quick response... Although i have been a mac user for many years i have only signed up to this forum today and compared to the apple forum you guys are way more active at answering questions...

ANYWAY.....

If i simply copy the library folder (not my iTunes music) to my new computer will it see it when iTunes start up or will i need to 'add to library' .... or even press the 'alt' key when iTunes is opening up... (as i have read somewhere)

With the iPhone Apps....... what if i simply copy the App folder (located in the iTunes folder) and then try to import them in the library? Will that work?

If not... is it true that if i lose my apps that i can just re'download them - the paid ones should see that i have already paid for it and will let me re'download it?

Many thanks once again

 

[bobdard]

If you copy the iTunes folder, your apps will be copied as well; and your iPhone will not tell you to reformat the iPod because it will think its the same computer.

And yes, if you delete your apps, you can redownload them, since iTunes knows. Note that this doesn't apply to music or videos; once you delete them, they're gone. for apps, you can redownload without paying. you will get a message saying that you've already downloaded the music, so we won't charge you....


And regarding your music, although you CAN simply copy the iTunes folder, and leave your external the way it is, I would recommend you consolidate your library (brings all music files into iTunes folder) and use TimeMachine to backup your computer. That way, if your hard drive (iMac or external) gets corrupted, you have a copy....many say its not going to happen, but trust me losing thousands of songs is horrible.

 

[italipina]

Many thanks once again for the response.

with 'consolidate library' - as i understand it makes a copy of all music in the library into the iTunes folder? But what happens to the original files on the external hard drive? Will the library still path to the files in the external drive? or re-paths to the new copy?

also one more quick one:

When i copy over the library files to the new computer... how will iTunes see it? would it just load it or will need to be imported?

Thanks again - you all are stars

 

[mkrishnan]

When i copy over the library files to the new computer... how will iTunes see it? would it just load it or will need to be imported?

What you can do is basically just drop it in the location where the iTunes library belongs (if you're unsure or this doesn't seem to work, just start iTunes without a library, let it create one, quit iTunes, go find the library, and overwrite it with your copy).

On the next loading of iTunes, it should essentially just show up as the library in iTunes without any need for any kind of re-importing or moving files around. It may end up wanting to rebuild one of its databases (sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't), which will just take a few minutes, but otherwise it should be ready to go.