Why didn't iTunes copy from PC to iMac work?

Yes that's what I did, I copied the iTunes folder (and everying in and under it) from the external hard drive to the Music directory on my iMac. Just to be sure, I did it all again. When I opened iTunes, no music. When I checked the iTunes Preferences, the iTunes Media Folder Location was pointing at the original content that I had dragged out to the desktop. I changed the location, but nothing. I changed it again, and again, still nothing. Finally I clicked the Scan-for-Media button on the main iTunes screen (next to the go-to-iTunes-store button). It found all my music and added it to the library, so that was good, but no playlists. Does it matter if iTunes is open or closed when copying the content into the Music folder (I had it closed).

Should I have drilled down into the external hard drive's folders and copied only the content folders and the "iTunes Music Library.xml" file to the iMac's Music directory? That's not what the directions say to do.

Just to clarify, my PC iTunes is running under Windows Vista, so the folder structure is ...iTunes/iTunes Music. That's what I copied to the external hard drive. Per the instructions, that's what I copied (iTunes, etc) from the external hard drive to the Music directory in my iMac. I then opened iTunes on the iMac and repointed the media location to the above mentioned iTunes Music folder, which does contain folders for all my artists, and their music. Nothing showed up in iTunes. Sure, I can go ahead and have it scan for media again, and it will probably find the music and add it again to the library, but I still won't get the play lists, which is supposedly the advantage of jumping through all these hoops. The instructions indicate that once copied as described above, music and playlists should be there when you open iTunes. What am I missing? All suggestions appreciated.

I agree with your response completely. I've gone back and reviewed everything and the only thing I can see that might be a problem is that the version of iTunes on my PC was 11.0.3.42 and the iMac's version is 11.0.4 (4). Could that slight difference be the problem. I wouldn't think the media files themselves would be different, but that's the only possibility I can see. If you think that's relevant, I'll go back and re-extract from my PC (now has the same version as the iMac) and try it all again.

I copied the ENTIRE iTunes folder and all its contents and sub folders.

The thing that still mystifies me is that early in the process when I dragged the iMac's iTunes folder out to the desktop, even though iTunes was closed the media location path was updated to point to its new location. Even when I subsequently moved the folder to Trash, the path was updated again to point there. Later, in my last attempt, after copying the folder to the iMac, I opened iTunes, but no music - the media folder spointed to desktopfolder. But, even when I changed it to point to the correct location, no change - nothing happened - no music or play lists. The instructions made no mention of the media location path, so I'm wondering if that is some new wrinkle introduced with a more recent version of iTunes.

What do I do now? Has it been verified in the last year or so that the procedure actually works with recent versions of iTunes? I just talked to my son, who told me he tried this a couple of years ago and had the same problem. He eventually got his music into iTunes by having it "Scan for Media", but his ratings were gone and he had to recreate all his playlists manually.

I followed your instructions, but no luck.

When I launched iTunes, nothing, no music, no playlists. I closed it.

Holding the Command key, I tried to launch iTunes again. It just brought up the Applications window, so still holding down the Command key, I double clicked on iTunes in the list and it did launch, but again there was no music or playlists, and no prompt to choose or create a new library. I continued holding down the Command key for about 20 seconds, but still no prompt. How long do I have to hold the Command key down before getting a prompt?

Yes, when the Command key didn't work, I tried the Option key, and then the Control key. Should have mentioned it earlier. None worked - no prompt.

SUCCESS!! I went back and did it all again, this time I used the Option key first (instead of doing it after trying the Command key) and it launched iTunes and gave me the promtp. I chose the library as instructed and it worked. I have all my music and all my playlists.

THANK YOU !!!!!