Argelius
Level 2 (205 points)
iPhone

Q: After transferring library to new Mac, all songs duplicated

I got a new iMac and launched iTunes and signed into my Apple account, where all my music showed up as available in iCloud.


I then transferred the iTunes library to the iMac from my old Mac notebook.  Now every song is showing up twice, once with the cloud, indicating it's not on my computer but in the cloud and the dashed-outline cloud, indicating the track on my computer is waiting transfer to the cloud.

 

I don't know if this is just another iTunes/iCloud bug, or if I screwed up the transfer.

 

Any suggestions?  Thanks!Screen Shot 2016-02-04 at 2.45.47 PM.png

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)

Posted on Feb 4, 2016 2:53 PM

by Kenichi Watanabe,Solvedanswer
Kenichi Watanabe Kenichi Watanabe
Level 8 (38,823 points)
Mac OS X
A:

I think you may have "transferred" your iTunes library to the new Mac by adding just the songs from the old Mac to the new Mac's NEW iTunes library.  If you did this, what you should do instead is to transfer the complete iTunes folder (including the iTunes library database) from the old Mac to the new Mac.  That way, it's the same iTunes library, not a new iTunes library with your old songs.

 

You can use this procedure to "back up" your iTunes folder to an external drive

 

Back up your iTunes library by copying it to an external drive - Apple Support

 

To summarize, the first step is to "consolidate" all of your iTunes media files so that they are in the iTunes Media folder in the iTunes folder.  (If you use the default settings, all of your iTunes media files should already be there.) The second step is to copy that iTunes folder to an external drive.  The third step (with iTunes not running) is to "restore" that backed up iTunes folder onto your new Mac, to replace its existing iTunes folder.  When you run iTunes, it uses that iTunes folder from old Mac.  Everything looks the same, and its relationship to your iCloud Music Library is the same.

 

NOTE:  If you know how to set up file sharing between the two Macs, you can transfer the iTunes folder directly, instead of using an external drive.  Depending on network speed (and size of your iTunes folder), using an external drive may be faster.

Posted on Feb 4, 2016 5:20 PM

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Argelius

Q: After transferring library to new Mac, all songs duplicated

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Chris CA,

    Chris CA Chris CA Feb 4, 2016 3:23 PM in response to Argelius
    Level 9 (79,538 points)
    iPhone
    Feb 4, 2016 3:23 PM in response to Argelius

    Argelius wrote:

    I then transferred the iTunes library to the iMac from my old Mac notebook.

    How and what exactly did you transfer from old to new computer?

  • by Kenichi Watanabe,Solvedanswer

    Kenichi Watanabe Kenichi Watanabe Feb 4, 2016 5:20 PM in response to Argelius
    Level 8 (38,823 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 4, 2016 5:20 PM in response to Argelius

    I think you may have "transferred" your iTunes library to the new Mac by adding just the songs from the old Mac to the new Mac's NEW iTunes library.  If you did this, what you should do instead is to transfer the complete iTunes folder (including the iTunes library database) from the old Mac to the new Mac.  That way, it's the same iTunes library, not a new iTunes library with your old songs.

     

    You can use this procedure to "back up" your iTunes folder to an external drive

     

    Back up your iTunes library by copying it to an external drive - Apple Support

     

    To summarize, the first step is to "consolidate" all of your iTunes media files so that they are in the iTunes Media folder in the iTunes folder.  (If you use the default settings, all of your iTunes media files should already be there.) The second step is to copy that iTunes folder to an external drive.  The third step (with iTunes not running) is to "restore" that backed up iTunes folder onto your new Mac, to replace its existing iTunes folder.  When you run iTunes, it uses that iTunes folder from old Mac.  Everything looks the same, and its relationship to your iCloud Music Library is the same.

     

    NOTE:  If you know how to set up file sharing between the two Macs, you can transfer the iTunes folder directly, instead of using an external drive.  Depending on network speed (and size of your iTunes folder), using an external drive may be faster.

  • by Argelius,

    Argelius Argelius Feb 5, 2016 10:39 AM in response to Kenichi Watanabe
    Level 2 (205 points)
    iPhone
    Feb 5, 2016 10:39 AM in response to Kenichi Watanabe

    Thank you for that excellent response. You are correct -- I transferred all the music (from within the Music Folder) into the iTunes folder on the new mac.

     

    I followed the "consolidate" process in the iTunes app.  However, when I go to User>Music, there is no iTunes folder -- only a myriad of folders representing all the artists in my library.  (And I did confirm within iTunes preferences that User>Music is the location of my library).  (There are also various .plist and the .xml file here).

     

    Any ideas? Would turning off iTunes Match and/or Apple Music on the new computer before I transferred the music have made a difference?

  • by turingtest2,Helpful

    turingtest2 turingtest2 Feb 5, 2016 10:56 AM in response to Argelius
    Level 10 (85,885 points)
    iTunes
    Feb 5, 2016 10:56 AM in response to Argelius

    You should have copied over the entire iTunes folder complete with the library file that holds ratings, play counts, playlists, etc. Then it would have been as if nothing had changed, with no need to add any media to the library since it was already listed. You may be able to cut a corner and copy over the items in the iTunes folder that you left behind originally, i.e. the iTunes library files and the Album Artwork folder. See Make a split library portable for more details.

     

    tt2

  • by Argelius,

    Argelius Argelius Feb 5, 2016 10:57 AM in response to turingtest2
    Level 2 (205 points)
    iPhone
    Feb 5, 2016 10:57 AM in response to turingtest2

    Thanks! (And as I responded earlier, I copied everything from the Username>Music folder, which did not have a subfolder called "iTunes" but was itself filled with the Artist folders...)