How much of iTunes will Migration Assistant bring over?

Hi. I just got a Mac Mini and I'm trying to migrate over from my work laptop. Unfortunately, MA seems to only look at the administrator profile, not the one I log in with so, nothing is getting transferred. I have all my music saved to an external drive and can just copy stuff but I don't want to have to go through recreating ring tones and things like that. So, is there something I'm not doing right in Migration Assistant? Even if I do everything right will iTunes come over as I have it set up now or will it just bring my music files over? TIA!

Posted on Aug 10, 2014 7:13 AM

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9 replies

Aug 10, 2014 8:54 AM in response to glorth2

I have never used Migration Assistant.


Depending upon what exactly you have on the external drive (a complete iTunes library/folder versus only the media files) some or all of the collection may be on the external and you just need to set up iTunes on the new computer to use the things on the external. Tell us what exactly you have on the external in terms of iTunes things.

Aug 10, 2014 9:05 AM in response to Limnos

Thanks Limnos. Right now I just have the media on there. I tried it again being logged into the Administrator profile on the laptop that MA wants to look at and it basically just wants to pull from the Windows "My Music" folder and then docs and stuff that I don't care about. As such, it seems that I'll have set everything up new. It would be no big deal to copy my whole iTunes folder into my external. Just not sure if that does the trick.

Aug 10, 2014 9:44 AM in response to glorth2

Your library is not ideally portable (see links below). Your media files are just songs/movies. Everything else in the iTunes folder is what gives it the structure you see when you start up iTunes. Copy the entire iTunes folder on the PC to the Mac. If you put it in the default location of Macintosh HD > Users > *User Name* > Music then iTunes will automatically look for it there. (Make sure there isn't anything already in the iTunes folder there that you want to keep since you will be replacing it with the one you are moving.) If you want to put it elsewhere, start iTunes on the Mac with the option/alt key held down and select the iTunes Library.itl file in the moved folder.


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


What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html


Where are my iTunes files located? - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391


iTunes 9 [and later]: Understanding iTunes Media Organization - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3847 - plus supplemental information about organizing to new structure https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6477809?answerId=26404702022#26404702022


Image of folder structure and explanation of different iTunes versions (turingtest2 post) - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-7392 - and making an iTunes library portable.

Aug 10, 2014 1:50 PM in response to Limnos

Limnos, I have my media backed up on the external. I am running iTunes from the Windows 7 laptop right now but can easily copy that whole folder onto the external and then over to the Mac, unless it just won't work. I just want to be able to move the iTunes over and maybe some photos but that should be easy to import to iPhoto from an external, nothing else. Thanks again!

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How much of iTunes will Migration Assistant bring over?

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