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Move Apple music library on Mac to iTunes library on iTunes

I want to move my iTunes (now apple music) library from Mac to PC, but PC version of iTunes doesn't support the new .musiclibrary files. It needs an .itl file.

Posted on Aug 26, 2021 7:29 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 27, 2021 3:54 AM

You can simply copy the media from one computer to the other, then import into a new library, but that would lose ratings, play counts, playlist membership, etc. You could try exporting the Music library to an XML file (File > Library > Export Library...) then once everything is copied over to Windows edit the XML in something like NotePad++ to correct the location properties for each track before import. See Make a split library portable - Apple Community for general background on the layout of the iTunes library. I would recommend using the standard ..\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music\... nesting of folders. When searching and replacing within the XML use %20 instead of spaces and forward slashes rather than backslashes. In the XML for iTunes for Windows the location property should also begin file://localhost/.


For example I might have a location value like this in Catalina, and I've moved the music to D:\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music in Windows:


<key>Location</key><string>file:///Users/steve/Music/Music/Media.localized/a-ha/Take%20On%20Me/01%20Take%20On%20Me.m4a</string>


In which case I'd search for /Users/steve/Music/Music/Media.localized/ and replace with localhost/D:/iTunes/iTunes%20Media/Music/.


tt2

1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 27, 2021 3:54 AM in response to roddiemac

You can simply copy the media from one computer to the other, then import into a new library, but that would lose ratings, play counts, playlist membership, etc. You could try exporting the Music library to an XML file (File > Library > Export Library...) then once everything is copied over to Windows edit the XML in something like NotePad++ to correct the location properties for each track before import. See Make a split library portable - Apple Community for general background on the layout of the iTunes library. I would recommend using the standard ..\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music\... nesting of folders. When searching and replacing within the XML use %20 instead of spaces and forward slashes rather than backslashes. In the XML for iTunes for Windows the location property should also begin file://localhost/.


For example I might have a location value like this in Catalina, and I've moved the music to D:\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music in Windows:


<key>Location</key><string>file:///Users/steve/Music/Music/Media.localized/a-ha/Take%20On%20Me/01%20Take%20On%20Me.m4a</string>


In which case I'd search for /Users/steve/Music/Music/Media.localized/ and replace with localhost/D:/iTunes/iTunes%20Media/Music/.


tt2

Move Apple music library on Mac to iTunes library on iTunes

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