Transferring iTunes tracks between Macs

[Mustafa]

My wife and I have successfully shared our music between our accounts on my PB. Now she has her own iBook and would like to transfer 'her' tracks to iTunes on it.

I tried transferring the files by connecting the two Macs with a FW cable. However, this brought over the track titles but not the supporting music files.

Is there a surefire (and simple) way of doing this as we don't want to rip all those CDs again?

I have a separate hard-drive (LaCie d2 320MB -- which I haven't set up for use yet) and we share an Airport Extreme connection.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

My wife and I have successfully shared our music between our accounts on my PB. Now she has her own iBook and would like to transfer 'her' tracks to iTunes on it.

I tried transferring the files by connecting the two Macs with a FW cable. However, this brought over the track titles but not the supporting music files.

Is there a surefire (and simple) way of doing this as we don't want to rip all those CDs again?

I have a separate hard-drive (LaCie d2 320MB -- which I haven't set up for use yet) and we share an Airport Extreme connection.

The easiest way I can think of to do this is to put the songs you want transferred into a playlist, then select all of the songs, press option+delete to remove them from the library, and choose to send them to the Trash. Get the songs out of the Trash, send the music files over to the other Mac in whatever way you see fit, then either re-import the tracks you deleted by dragging them to the iTunes icon or delete them if you don't want to keep them. Doing this will preserve tags, but not playcounts or other statistics that aren't stored in the song file itself.

 

[jeremy.king]

The easiest way I can think of to do this is to put the songs you want transferred into a playlist, then select all of the songs, press option+delete to remove them from the library, and choose to send them to the Trash. Get the songs out of the Trash, send the music files over to the other Mac in whatever way you see fit, then either re-import the tracks you deleted by dragging them to the iTunes icon or delete them if you don't want to keep them. Doing this will preserve tags, but not playcounts or other statistics that aren't stored in the song file itself.

Wow.

Instead, copy the entire itunes music folder (assuming your library is consolidated) from your machine to hers - outside of iTunes - then let her delete the songs she doesn't want.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Wow.

Instead, copy the entire itunes music folder (assuming your library is consolidated) from your machine to hers - outside of iTunes - then let her delete the songs she doesn't want.

I was going to suggest that, but I decided against it because I didn't know if she already had an iTunes library.

 

[Mustafa]

Wow.

Instead, copy the entire itunes music folder (assuming your library is consolidated) from your machine to hers - outside of iTunes - then let her delete the songs she doesn't want.

This what I tried to do, but only got the track listings, with no music!

What folders exactly should I copy? The 'Music Library' folder? What about the xml file? What is that? And what is the 'Music' folder? It seems to be empty.

 

[jeremy.king]

This what I tried to do, but only got the track listings, with no music!

What folders exactly should I copy? The 'Library' folder? What about the xml file? What is that? And what is the 'Music' folder?

Sounds like your music might not be consolidated. You should try a Consolidate Library command from the Advanced Menu first, then copy the whole Music folder (~/Music) or just the iTunes folder (~/Music/iTunes) from your home directory to the home directory of your wife's new computer. The xml file is needed, thats how iTunes knows whats in your library (and playlists, play counts, ratings...)

Basically you are doing this without the iPod. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300173

 

[Mustafa]

Sounds like your music might not be consolidated. You should try a Consolidate Library command from the Advanced Menu first, then copy the whole Music folder (~/Music) or just the iTunes folder (~/Music/iTunes) from your home directory to the home directory of your wife's new computer. The xml file is needed, thats how iTunes knows whats in your library (and playlists, play counts, ratings...)

Basically you are doing this without the iPod. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300173

Our music is consolidated.

In my iTunes folder (within my Music folder) there are three items:

1. A file called iTunes 4 Music Library
2. A folder called iTunes Music (empty)
3. A file called iTunes Music Library.xml

I think this is normal.

My questions are:

a. Which of these should I copy to my wife's iBook?
b. Where precisely on her machine should I put them, and how do we consolidate them with some now irreplaceable tracks in her new iTunes which we don't want to lose.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Our music is consolidated.

In my iTunes folder (within my Music folder) there are three items:

1. A file called iTunes 4 Music Library
2. A folder called iTunes Music (empty)
3. A file called iTunes Music Library.xml

I think this is normal.

My questions are:

a. Which of these should I copy to my wife's iBook?
b. Where precisely on her machine should I put them, and how do we consolidate them with some now irreplaceable tracks in her new iTunes which we don't want to lose.

No, it isn't. A consolidated iTunes library has ALL of the music files located in the iTunes Music folder you mentioned earlier. Consolidating your library using the command on the Advanced menu moves everything there. Do you have your iTunes Music folder set to something other than the default? To check this, go into iTunes Preferences and click Advanced. Look at the music folder location. Does it say something like this (/Users/(user name)/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music)? If it doesn't, go to the folder that it's set to, and you'll probably find your music files in there.

 

[Mustafa]

No, it isn't. A consolidated iTunes library has ALL of the music files located in the iTunes Music folder you mentioned earlier. Consolidating your library using the command on the Advanced menu moves everything there. Do you have your iTunes Music folder set to something other than the default? To check this, go into iTunes Preferences and click Advanced. Look at the music folder location. Does it say something like this (/Users/(user name)/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music)? If it doesn't, go to the folder that it's set to, and you'll probably find your music files in there.

My iTunes Prefs says that the Music folder is in my Shared location, and yet there is less than a MB of files there, but nearly 3 MB in the folder in my User folder. Now I really am confused!

 

[Mustafa]

OK, I finally cracked it....

.....thanks to all who made contributions.

Basically, I consolidated the music on my PB, then copied the iTunes folder in the Shared location to my LaCie hard drive -- a bit nervously, as it was the first time I'd used it.

I needn't have had any fears -- it was very simple and worked beautifully. That drive is going to be such a godsend.

Then I copied from the drive to my wife's iBook -- again, her Shared location. Then I made the Shared location her default iTunes location, and consolidated (she already had some new spoken word tracks on her machine).

Her machine validated the purchased tracks that I was transferring (very clever) against the Music Store, and after an iPod sync she was ready to go.

I'm happy for now, although my next project is to make the LaCie the home for all my iTunes music -- any tips, anyone?

 

[wrldwzrd89]

.....thanks to all who made contributions.

Basically, I consolidated the music on my PB, then copied the iTunes folder in the Shared location to my LaCie hard drive -- a bit nervously, as it was the first time I'd used it.

I needn't have had any fears -- it was very simple and worked beautifully. That drive is going to be such a godsend.

Then I copied from the drive to my wife's iBook -- again, her Shared location. Then I made the Shared location her default iTunes location, and consolidated (she already had some new spoken word tracks on her machine).

Her machine validated the purchased tracks that I was transferring (very clever) against the Music Store, and after an iPod sync she was ready to go.

I'm happy for now, although my next project is to make the LaCie the home for all my iTunes music -- any tips, anyone?

I've done this already - there's two ways to do this. One very simple indeed, and the other a little harder.

Here's the simple way:

While iTunes is closed, copy the iTunes Music folder to the external HD, and tell iTunes to look there for music in Preferences under Advanced. Your music library data will remain on your local hard drive.

Here's the not-so-simple way:

While iTunes is closed, copy the iTunes folder (including the iTunes Music folder inside it) to the external HD. Delete everything inside the original iTunes folder, but leave the original iTunes folder around for the time being. Open the Terminal, and type "ln -s " (without the "quotes", and make sure that space at the end is there - it's important). Drag the new iTunes folder to the Terminal window (you should see its path appear). Now drag the old iTunes folder to the Terminal window (its path will also appear). Trash the old iTunes folder (you don't have to empty the Trash now), then press Return to execute that command. Close the Terminal now, since you're done with it. Now, both your music library and music are located on the external HD.