I have recently switched from a PC to a Mac. As I had spend plenty of time labelling the music, adding ratings and creating playlists that synchronise with my differente ipods, I wanted to migrate my music library preserving everything.
After searching the web for a long time I didn't find any method that migrated everything.
After much trail and error I have found a method that preserves everything including album art, subscribed podcasts, purchased music and audiobooks, play count, ratings, lists, etc.
This method also applies when moving an itunes library from PC to PC or Mac to Mac.
1. First you need to consolidate your PC library, this is done in Itunes going to Advanced/Consolidate library.
2. Locate the Itunes folder on you PC. The path of this folder can be found in the Itunes application. Go to Edit/Preferences and there click on the tab Advanced.
Make sure that the Itunes folder contains the folders "Album Artwork", "Itunes music" and the file "iTtunes Music Library.xml"
3. Go to your Mac and locate the itunes folder using the same procedure described in 2 (note preferences is located under Itunes menu). Delete it.
4. Move the Itunes folder from a PC to the Mac folder found in the previous point. Copy the "iTunes Library.xml" somewhere else in your Mac (for example to the desktop)
Prepare a tea (or two if you have a big library)
5. Once copied, go to the Mac Itunes folder and delete the "iTunes Library.itl"; do not delete "iTunes Library.xml"
6. Open iTunes Library.xml that you have copied to your desktop with a text editor and replace the old path to you music library with the new one.
For instance the iTunes Library.xml of my PC has the following in the path to a song:
Locationfile://localhost/M:/iTunes/Zucchero/hit%20estate%202001/01%20Baila%20Morena.mp3
-because my Itunes folder is on my M: drive-
On your iTunes Library.xml of your Mac you need to replace all the "M:" with the Itunes folder locations in your Mac, that will usually be "Users/TekFreak". Where TekFreak is your username. In case of doubt right click on the folder to obtain the path.
7. Open Itunes, choose File/Import. Import the iTunes Library.xml you have just modified. In the process it might ask you to enter your account name and password for your purchased music. Do it.
Update: it seems that in iTunes 8 File/Import options does no longer exist. Some users have reported that now it is done using File /Library/Import Playlist.Please provide your feedback on this in the comments.
Update 27 april 2009: A anonymous user informs us that using File/Library/Import Playlist on the modified XML works. He notes that he got duplicates "standard" playlists, e.g. "Recently Added", etc. but these were can be easily cleaned up by deleting duplicate playlists.
Update 10 September 2010: Tested on iTunes 10
8. Log in to your Itunes account.
9. The cover art that you have manually updated in your old library is found in the Album Artwork folder. However the cover art that was automatically downloaded from itunes it has to be downloaded again. Hence select all the music of your library and right click to obtain cover art. Don't worry the manually updated cover art will be preserved.
Enjoy!!
If you enjoyed this post drop a line in the comments
In order to help other users please drop a line in the comments if it worked for you and in what version of iTunes you tested it.
After searching the web for a long time I didn't find any method that migrated everything.
After much trail and error I have found a method that preserves everything including album art, subscribed podcasts, purchased music and audiobooks, play count, ratings, lists, etc.
This method also applies when moving an itunes library from PC to PC or Mac to Mac.
1. First you need to consolidate your PC library, this is done in Itunes going to Advanced/Consolidate library.
2. Locate the Itunes folder on you PC. The path of this folder can be found in the Itunes application. Go to Edit/Preferences and there click on the tab Advanced.
Make sure that the Itunes folder contains the folders "Album Artwork", "Itunes music" and the file "iTtunes Music Library.xml"
3. Go to your Mac and locate the itunes folder using the same procedure described in 2 (note preferences is located under Itunes menu). Delete it.
4. Move the Itunes folder from a PC to the Mac folder found in the previous point. Copy the "iTunes Library.xml" somewhere else in your Mac (for example to the desktop)
Prepare a tea (or two if you have a big library)
5. Once copied, go to the Mac Itunes folder and delete the "iTunes Library.itl"; do not delete "iTunes Library.xml"
6. Open iTunes Library.xml that you have copied to your desktop with a text editor and replace the old path to you music library with the new one.
For instance the iTunes Library.xml of my PC has the following in the path to a song:
Location
-because my Itunes folder is on my M: drive-
On your iTunes Library.xml of your Mac you need to replace all the "M:" with the Itunes folder locations in your Mac, that will usually be "Users/TekFreak". Where TekFreak is your username. In case of doubt right click on the folder to obtain the path.
7. Open Itunes, choose File/Import. Import the iTunes Library.xml you have just modified. In the process it might ask you to enter your account name and password for your purchased music. Do it.
Update: it seems that in iTunes 8 File/Import options does no longer exist. Some users have reported that now it is done using File /Library/Import Playlist.
Update 27 april 2009: A anonymous user informs us that using File/Library/Import Playlist on the modified XML works. He notes that he got duplicates "standard" playlists, e.g. "Recently Added", etc. but these were can be easily cleaned up by deleting duplicate playlists.
Update 10 September 2010: Tested on iTunes 10
8. Log in to your Itunes account.
9. The cover art that you have manually updated in your old library is found in the Album Artwork folder. However the cover art that was automatically downloaded from itunes it has to be downloaded again. Hence select all the music of your library and right click to obtain cover art. Don't worry the manually updated cover art will be preserved.
Enjoy!!
If you enjoyed this post drop a line in the comments
In order to help other users please drop a line in the comments if it worked for you and in what version of iTunes you tested it.
