How to Move Your iTunes Library to a New Computer

by Thomas Houston on November 3, 2010 at 06:00 PM

Here at Switched, we've been through countless hard drives over the years. That trusty ol' 400-gigabyte drive is going to fail sooner or later, swallowing your precious, carefully crafted music library as it goes -- unless you've prepared yourself. Fortunately, transferring your fully intact iTunes library to a new drive or computer is a cinch. You can, of course, grab the music files themselves and throw them on your new computer, but you'll probably lose all of your metadata like playlists, playcounts and ratings. Instead, the following technique will preserve all of your hard work, and save you the effort of manually rebuilding your library. (Who does anything manually anymore, anyway?)

Setup

Before starting, make sure that you've been diligently backing up your files and that you've set iTunes to automatically organize your media. (Read through our guide if you haven't yet,) We can't stress this enough: all of your media must be organized in a single folder for this to work. It's possible to pull it off without a consolidated iTunes library, but it's an extremely involved process. It's far easier to move thousands of files when they're contained in a single place to begin with. Also, if you happen to have an additional external drive, we recommend backing up all of your media a second time. The following process is straightforward, but you never know when a drive will fail, and it's always good to have a backup of the backup.

You can use iTunes' built-in Backup to Disc option, but that will probably take far too many CDs or DVDs. We recommend the external drive approach; storage is cheap these days. Plus, if you're moving your library to an internal drive, you'll be able to use the extra external for dedicated backup. Windows users, navigate within the file system to the iTunes folder (Your account\music), and copy the entire iTunes folder over to the new drive. Mac users, you'll want to go to your User Folder/Music/iTunes. Depending on your drive speed and library size, this could take a while.

Once backup is complete, disconnect the drive and plug it into your new computer. Now, you've got two options. First, you can keep your library on an external drive. Some externals take a moment to spin up, which can cause a lag while playing tracks in iTunes -- and, of course, you'll have to lug the drive with you if you want mobile access to your tunes. Second, you can import all your music onto your new computer's internal drive. This may not be the best use of space if you've got a giant media library, but, fortunately, most new computers come with hundreds of gigabytes of storage.

External

If you opt for the external drive, quit iTunes and hook the drive up to your new computer. Mac users should hold down the 'option' key and click on iTunes, forcing the app to prompt you about your library location. Windows users, hold down the 'shift' key during iTunes startup. Click Choose Library, navigate to the iTunes Music Library folder on your new drive, select, and wait. After a few moments, iTunes should load with your library intact, complete with ratings, metadata, artwork and play counts.

Internal

The internal drive process is similar. Make sure iTunes isn't running, and hook up your backup drive to your new computer. Make sure the iTunes folder that currently exists on your internal drive is empty of any music or video files you need, because you'll be writing over it. Drag the iTunes folder on your backup drive into your Music folder (under users), and wait for it to copy. Now, open iTunes according to the directions above and repeat. You'll want to navigate to the iTunes folder that now cozily resides on your computer's internal hard drive. While you are at it, take this time to prune and streamline your tunes. Smash Mouth? No one wants to listen to that. Trust us.

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Comments

DOLPHINLOVER9235Nov 8th 2010 7:29AM

Neutral

I am just wondering if this will work on a computer that is almost 11 years old, I believe the hard drive is not a gigabyte but megabytes. Yes I would like to move my iTunes to a new computer so I tried to copy to a data disk, my computer is so old it doesn't even do a data disk!!!!! So is it worth me even trying to do this?? I just have a little over 200 songs on my iTunes, but would prefer not having to go thru what I've gone thru to get the music to begin with. Any and all suggestions are welcome !!!! Thank you !

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SydNov 13th 2010 1:12AM

Neutral

Argh!! I did this and it worked great...with one exception. Every time I try to play a song that I moved over, I get a message that says "this computer is not authorized to play this song". If this happens for all 4957 songs, I'm going to be unhappy. The computer is authorized and when I enter my username/password, it tells me so. It won't ever play the song though!

One other question. How does iTunes handle one computer with multiple logons? I'd prefer to keep the entire library on the admin logon and have each other user be able to access it. Doesn't seem to work this way though. Any suggestions? This is a mac, btw.

Thanks!

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Thomas HoustonNov 13th 2010 1:43AM

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@Syd try going to the store file menu and select 'authorize computer.' enter your iTunes username/password, and this should make those songs playable.

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gregoryfotoplNov 18th 2010 4:31PM

Neutral

I STILL DON'T UNDERSTAND
how to save or change storage of i-tune to a hard drive

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JenntwalkerNov 23rd 2010 5:55AM

Neutral

I am traveling Europe right now. Only brought iPod touch with me because old laptop was dying. Ended up buying one in London, but now all I want to do is transfer my music to the laptop so I can delete, make playlists etc... Is there any possible way to do this? I've authorized the computer. And I just purchased new music through iTunes on the laptop but cantget it over to my iPod. I tried to "re" purchase via the iTunes app, but got error message that I already purchased! Getting frustrated. Is there ANY way to fix this???

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LeanneDec 27th 2010 8:51PM

Neutral

The easiest way for me to do this was to save my files to a flash drive and then move them and upload them into a new library onto my computer. With a rather large flash drive, this could easily take just a few minutes.

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jeffDec 28th 2010 11:33AM

Neutral

silly question, but why not just skip I-tunes and search the drive for *.mp3 via command line/explorer then copy the relevant subdir(s) to where ever you want them??

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