Transferring iTunes library from Windows PC to Music on Mac

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Level 1

4 points

Transferring iTunes library from Windows PC to Music on Mac

I'm trying to move my iTunes library from an old Windows PC to a MacBook with Music. I've spent ages trawling the forums for tips but nothing seems to work.

Having consolidated the library and then copied everything in the PC's iTunes folder across to the Music folder and then tried to launch Music (holding the option key) and selecting the iTunes Library.itl file, I get the error message: "iTunes Library.itl" does not appear to be a valid library. Please choose a different library.

PC is running Windows 10 with latest update of iTunes 12.13.2.3

MacBook Pro is running BigSur with Music 1.1.6.37

I've kept the folder structure of the iTunes folder (includes Album Artwork folder, iTunes Media folder, Previous libraries folder, iTunes Library.itl, iTunes Library.xml and a few temp files) exactly as it was on the PC and copied the folder and all of its contents to Users/User/Music/Music.

The PC is still running fine and original files are all there in case I need to start over or try something different.

MacBook Pro 15″

Posted on Jun 27, 2024 6:57 PM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

274,576 points

Jun 28, 2024 4:16 AM in response to andyorandrew

See Move your iTunes library to a new computer - Apple Community for general advice. Older versions of iTunes for Windows libraries were capable of being read by iTunes for Mac when both were running similar build numbers, but that is no longer the case. What you will likely need to do is make sure that you have an up to date XML file (in case that stopped being regenerated automatically at some point), modify that with a search & replace operation in a text editor to reflect the new paths in the macOS system, and then import your updated XML file. This will however give everything new date added values as those aren't preserved during import. Alternatively you could temporarily subscribe to Apple Music, match/upload your library from Windows, then download and backup everything on the Mac and turn Apple Music off again before your terminate your subscription. This should preserve date added for you, though it isn't something I've tested personally.

tt2

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Answer 2

andyorandrew Author

Level 1

4 points

Jun 28, 2024 2:45 PM in response to turingtest2

Hi tt2, thanks for getting back to me. I've seen a lot of your advice across the forums and it's been really helpful for getting to this stage and doing some initial troubleshooting.

I've got another older Mac laptop still running iTunes, so if it has enough storage I'll copy everything over there and see if that iTunes will read the Windows iTunes-generated .itl file. And then hopefully the old Mac will generate a new .itl file that the newer Mac's Music can read.

If that doesn't work, Plan B will be to try with the XML file. I'm not so concerned if I lose 'date added' or number of plays. What about other song metadata like year of release? Because iTunes and other sources often have the date of reissue and not original release date, I like to manually change the dates, including individual tracks on compilations that tend to all have the compilation date not the song's release date.

Doing a match/upload is a last resort. I've heard too many stories about mismatches when you have alternative versions of songs or albums and it gives you the wrong one. Unless it's a lot better these days, it can really mess up a big library. I'll keep it up my sleeve as Plan C.

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Answer 3

andyorandrew Author

Level 1

4 points

Jun 29, 2024 3:27 PM in response to andyorandrew

Progress update:

It turns out the older Mac laptop had already upgraded from iTunes to Music too. And there wasn't enough near enough memory for my library. So I tried linking to an external drive but it still wouldn't recognise the .itl file. It seems that Windows>Mac iTunes/Music compatibility isn't great!

Plan C. I imported the XML file. It took a bit of googling to confirm I had the PC/Mac file paths formatted correctly before doing a find-and-replace but that went okay. An error message indicated that "some" songs couldn't be found but not how many and there's nothing obvious missing so I guess it's possibly a legacy glitch already in the XML or I'll find out one day what's not there when I want to listen to it. All playlists and number of plays came across fine - somehow I ended up with duplicates of all the playlists, some which were empty, so it just took a few minutes to delete the duplicates or duds. The only major concern is that not all album artwork has come across. Probably about 50%. At first the only artwork was from iTunes store purchases but more appeared in time, it must have taken a while to load. But it seems to have stopped now.

Thanks for your help!

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