Moving iTunes to a New Computer

     - Friday, May 29, 2009

Another iTunes post, this time on how to move iTunes to another computer.

  • Backup the iTunes Library Database: Usually found in the My Music folder in your My Documents folder
  • Check the options to keep your music folder organized, and to copy music to your music folder when adding music
  • Set your external drive to use the same drive letter on both machines
  • Create an "iTunes" folder on your external drive, with subfolders "iTunesMusicFolder" and "iTunesLibraryDatabase"
  • In iTunes change your default music folder to the "iTunesMusicFolder" on the external drive
  • Use the Consolidate option in iTunes
  • Close iTunes
  • Copy your iTunes Library Database (everything in your itunes folder from your My Music folder) to the "iTunesLibraryDatabase" on your external drive
  • Disconnect the external drive, and connect it to the other machine (using same drive letter)
  • Hold the shift key when starting iTunes, and select location of the "iTunes Library.itl" file in your "iTunesLibraryDatabase" folder on the external drive
iTunes will now run normally on the new computer when the drive is connected. If you want to copy everything onto the new computer, just change your default music folder in iTunes, and consolodate the library, and with iTunes closed, copy the Library Database to your new computer too. Then use the same trick of holding down the shift key to get iTunes to let you select the new location for the library.

posted by Kevin Watts |  Permalink | 

1 Comments:

At 6:38 PM, Blogger Lauren said...

I used to have all my music on a family computer, but I have purchased a new laptop. The music files still need to be accessed from the old computer, as there are other's in my household who sync their ipods to it. However, I want to create my own library on my new computer, and want to add the songs from the old computer. I purchased all of these songs and I want to be able to access them: upload them to my ipod from my new computer.
Can I do this using your steps?

 

Post a Comment

<< Home