Eyeball_34 wrote:
Hello,
Very new on here and really looking for some expert advice as to how to solve my concerns.
My old pc is looking like its going to give up very soon and im looking at getting a new one .
All the information ive read online about transferring your iTunes to a new computer is seeming very complicated.
From what ive learnt so far I need to first and foremost download the latest version of iTunes onto my new device whether it be another pc or mac and then go to the old machine and copy my iTunes folder to an external hardrive.
I must then go to the new computer and copy this file into my desired location, preferably in the music folder
In practice it may be easier to restore the iTunes folder from backup into the new computer before installing iTunes, particularly if you keep the library in the default location of <User's Music>\iTunes. That way you don't have to worry about overwriting the empty library that iTunes might create if it is run after it is installed. You can choose to put the restored library in User's Music, but if you have a modern system with a small fast SSD for the system and a larger HDD for data you may wish to place the library there and use the shift-start-iTunes method to connect to it.
.... and then open iTunes and connect my ipad.
What happens then? does the ipad simply sync and everything is as it was on my old machine for example with all my apps and photos and videos etc all present, or am I missing something completely?
Your devices should sync with the restored library as if almost nothing had changed. As mentioned earlier, photos synced to a device are not part of the library and will be stored where you choose. You will likely want to copy over your photos and other data in a similar way that you copy the library, restore it into the appropriate locations, and set up the photo sync options in the same way that you did originally.
The way I am reading it, it sound as if the iTunes library backup merely contains the music that a person may have on their device and carry's that over. I don't use it for music at all, only for apps which I have loads, photos which im really worried of loosing and books.
On my current machine I make backups to the computer weekly, What does the iTunes folder actualy contain? Does it hold all my pictures, videos, books, apps.
Pictures, no. Videos and books, usually, but potentially you could have content downloaded from sources other than iTunes and added to your library in a way which doesn't copy it into the iTunes Media folder. Content downloaded from the iTunes store should be in the correct location. Enable the menu bar if hidden with Ctrl+B if needed and use File > Library > Organize Library > Consolidate Files to copy in any stragglers if you're not sure. Your library's media folder will normally be the iTunes Media folder inside the iTunes folder mentioned earlier. If at some point you've moved the media folder elsewhere because of memory pressure then see Make a split library portable, otherwise the iTunes folder that you copy across has everything apart from the pictures. Personally I moved my folder of images that I want on my device into <Media Folder>\Photos so it is automatically included in my iTunes backup.
If it doesn't contain all the vital information to carry everything over to the new device when I get it, how do I then sync to the new machine without loosing any of my stuff?
If someone could provide me with a step by step instruction as to how to get my old iTunes to my new computer without loosing a single app, photo, video or book and make it as stress free as possible so that it will connect to the new computer as if there has been no change, I would be very gratefull.
Thankyou.
You haven't mentioned these items but I include them in case they help you or someone else. I don't sync calendar and contact information using iTunes (I have an Exchange account through work) but my understanding is that if you do you should either migrate that data and then replace the content on your device, or create a single dummy entry of each type and then merge the data from the device. If you don't do this iTunes is likely to sync the empty databases to the device without prompting.
I would also reiterate the earlier comment that images taken on an iOS device are not automatically copied into your computer. They are included in device backups but it pays to manually copy off any images or videos taken on the device from time to time.
If your device is in a healthy state then after migration and syncing your new computer will have a backup for it. There isn't generally any need to copy over the old device backups, but it could be done if you were concerned. The data is normally stored in C:\Users\<Users>\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\.
I recommend the method I outline in Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy for backing up and restoring both iTunes and other data. I particularly like the ability to review what will be updated in a backup set each time it is run. Automatic backups are fine unless you discover too late that an automatic system has replicated some damage that you now want to recover from.
Long story short, copy over both the iTunes folder and your photos to your new computer. Check the sync options on the device's Photos tab. You should find options on other tabs are unchanged. Sync with the new computer. When you're happy deauthorize the old one.
tt2
