iTunes 12: Unable to transfer music between computers

demichae, that's a good one. No, I have no suggestions. There seems no way to copy music between shared libraries anymore. I'll file feedback to Apple! I advice you to do the same.

This feature is called 'Home sharing' IIRC.

This page suggests iTunes 12 supports it…

Learn more about Home Sharing

Are you sure the Mac is still connected to the Home sharing Apple ID?

Looks like the documentation is wrong…

Do you have the 'house' icon at the top left? Shared libraries appear under there for me on iTunes 12.1.0.26 on Mavericks.

If you cannot see any items under that popup reboot the devices on your network (this relies on zeroconfig a.k.a. Bonjour, so reboot the router too if possible).

UPDATE…

As for moving the items you simply drag the files & then a sidebar slides in showing the local Library & playlists. You can drag & drop the files to move them to the Mac.

Drew Reece wrote:

As for moving the items you simply drag the files & then a sidebar slides in showing the local Library & playlists. You can drag & drop the files to move them to the Mac.

That's how it's supposed to work, but it doesn't work that way on my iMac. I can open a shared library, but I can do nothing with the songs except play them. But I can't drag and drop them in the local library.

As I start to drag in the list view the sidebar comes in for dropping into a playlist or the Macs library.

If that isn't happening I'd check that both machines are allowed to use the same home sharing ID (in the file menu the active account is listed).

At this point I suspect you have tried this. It would be simplest to export into a folder on one Mac & then import via the 'automatically add to iTunes folder' in the library.

I have noticed the same problem. I spent an hour on it before I realized that it is not me.

I finally worked this out. You need to use just one login for each computer.

go to file, home sharing and turn off on all the computers you want to share and have the ability to drag and drop.

Then go back into file, home sharing and use one itunes login then go to the next computer and use the same itunes login - this authorises the 2nd computer to access and drag and drop from the 1st etc.

Thanks Danieljgrimes!

Finally, someone sorted this!

I just figured this out.

From your current iTunes, look for the house icon in the upper lefthand corner. Use the toggle arrows to switch to your "remote" iTunes instance. Find the items you wish to copy to the current machine's iTunes. Drag the item (say, an album) over to the top of the source list, where the library would normally be. As you drag, all the sudden, the library and source list of the current iTunes flies in from the left side, and you will be able to drop the item into the library.

Way to go Apple! Keep on hiding the long term features of your core software, so that no existing users can figure it out. Microsoft is proving it's a great strategy with Windows 8!

I am extremely disappointed in the changes to iTunes 12. I have tweaked and tweaked it, trying in vain to get it to behave like previous versions of iTunes. In its current incarnation, I think it ONLY works for dilettante users who have bought fewer than 50 albums or several handfuls of individual songs directly from the iTunes store. Personally, I have over 180GB of music, almost 31,000 songs, most of which are imported directly from CD. I've been using iTunes since SoundJam - BEFORE Apple bought it to create iTunes. They are not moving iTunes forward, nor are they making it easier to use. There have been no usability changes to address the cluttered and cobbled together strategy of the Mac as "digital hub," until these changes, and these changes have made it MORE difficult to see and manage the content in the library. Utterly disgusting. It's bad enough that iOS is completely lacking the power to fully manage a media library, now Apple is stripping that same power out of iTunes.

I have had no problem transferring songs from one computer to another between iTunes 12.0 and 10.6 (which I prefer!).

1. You have to have Home Sharing turned on on both machines.

2. On the 12.0 machine on the home sharing icon select the other machine you want to transfer music (or other media).

3. This will bring up a complete list, then select “items not in my library” in the bottom bar.

4. Select the songs you want to move and hit import, and wait.

An addition to my last post:

I found that I can do this because I keep all of my music on my computer and don't give up control to someone else in a warehouse somewhere (iCloud?).

So turn off iCloud and you will have no problems.

Mine still isn't working. I can now get the fly-out Playlists on the other iTunes lib (by both signing in with the same Apple ID). But... when I drag my playlist from my PC to the left, her playlists fly out and I can drop my play list there - right? It doesn't allow me to insert a new playlist because it either highlights an existing playlist (thereby copying my playlist inside of her existing one or highlights the Library selections. I tried to drop them there anyway. No dice. Auauggghhh. Banging head against the wall.

Really Apple? Really?

If I'm understanding correctly, you are dragging remote playlists to your iTunes library.

I'd suggest you select all the tracks in the remote playlist & try adding them to your library & then create the playlist after they import.

I don't have iTunes 12 in front of me, so maybe I am misunderstanding. Also you have never been able to create playlists on remote libraries, so be sure that you are working in your own library.