Copy iTunes from IMac to MacBook Pro

Question

Copy iTunes from IMac to MacBook Pro

I am sure that this has been asked many times; however, I need to copy my iTunes (complete, media, play lists, apps, etc) from my iMac to my new MacBook Pro. I copied all of the songs and movies using a USB drive, Alt started ITunes on the MacBook, created a library, and it found most of the songs and others (movies). No playlists, no apps. Can I CarbonCopy the ITunes directory (wherever that is; it does not appear to be in Macintosh HD\applicaations\itunes. It appears in users\myself\music\itunes. I hope that is the real physical location and not just a pointer. Can I Carbon Copy this itunes directory to an external drive or even the time machine and then carbon copy it to the MacBook and have itunes look and act just the same on both computers?

Bob in Portland

MacBook Pro (17-inch Late 2011), Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Feb 20, 2012 7:26 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 20, 2012 7:38 AM in response to Pisces-Aquarius

iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527

do not confuse moving your whole folder and library with moving just media files as in

iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449

Quick answer if you let iTunes manage your music: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Start iTunes with the option key held down and guide it to the new location of the library.

Note, the steps recommended above should replace the supposedly empty iTunes folder on the MBP with the one you are copying from the iMac. If you already have music on the MBP that you are not moving from the iMac, you will need to modify this procedure.

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Answer 2

Feb 20, 2012 1:03 PM in response to Pisces-Aquarius

Limnos-

I copied my entire iTunes directory on my iMac to an external hard drive (97 Gb took some time); copied the iTunes directory from the external hard drive to the iTunes directory on my MBP and only the music and movies came over. No playlists, no apps. What went wrong?

Bob in Portland

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Answer 3

Feb 20, 2012 1:17 PM in response to Pisces-Aquarius

It's kind of difficult for me to see your folder structure from here, but check these references and see how your file and directory structures compare.

What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660

More on iTunes library files and what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management

iTunes 9: Understanding iTunes Media Organization - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3847

Image of iTunes folder structure Dec. 2011 - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3547807

see also:

Image of folder structure and explanation of different iTunes versions (turingtest2 post) - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2741246?answerId=13025536022#13025536022

iTunes ties everything together through the Library.itl file, and it in turn is very sensitive to files and folders being where it expects them to be. That's why it is recommended you copy the whole iTunes folder an all its files and contents over in one go. If at any time in the past you have interfered with this expected structure such as storing items elsewhere then they obviously won't get copied across.

The playlists are part of the Library.itl file. If when you started iTunes it did not start up with the correct library file then playlists will be missing and links broken. Did you put iTunes' library and stuff in the correct folder on the second computer? If you don't put it in the right place then it won't be in the place iTunes looks by default. You can choose it specifically by holding down the option key while starting iTunes, but if it's in the default location that should not be necessary.

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Answer 4

Feb 20, 2012 3:17 PM in response to Limnos

Limnos-

I think I have it now. Before copying from the iMac to the Ext HD, I should have checked where iTunes on the IMac was getting its source media. Like a lot of people I had two versions of ITunes on the iMac, one in users\shared\iTunes (the one actually being used by the IMac ITunes, and one in \users\me\my music\iTunes (the one I mistakenly copied to the Ext HD and subsequentially to the MBP). I am now in the process of copying the actual ITunes to the Ext HD and I am fully confident that when I then copy that to the MBP, I will at long last have achieved success.

Thanks for your help.

Bob in Portland

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