How to transfer my itunes library from windows to mac?

Big-Mac-Please · 25 Sep 2006 at 21:47

Hello

I ordered a MacBook tonight so I will be selling my sony vaio laptop and this will mean I need to transfer my itunes library to the mac when I get it and not loose any of my playlists and played songs information.

How would I go about this??

I would rather not have to re do all my playlists and so on so anyhelp is welcome!!!

Thanx
BigMac

punky_munky · 25 Sep 2006 at 22:08

You can import and export xml library files in iTunes. No idea if it'll do what you want though.

Caged · 25 Sep 2006 at 23:10

I'll be doing the same tomorrow with any luck, would I be correct in assuming that iTunes uses the same XML library format across platforms? I was going to just dump my entire iTunes folder onto the Mac over the network and hope it works.

Hamish · 26 Sep 2006 at 11:06

I would also like to know this, does it work? There is also the small problem of all the files being in a different location.

Big-Mac-Please · 26 Sep 2006 at 15:32

Hamish said:
I would also like to know this, does it work? There is also the small problem of all the files being in a different location.

Thats why I thought it wouldn't work.

Meatball · 26 Sep 2006 at 20:02

Cant you just transfer the 'iTunes music' folder from 'My Music' in XP to where ever on the MAC and make iTunes import the songs from that folder? :confused:

Hamish · 26 Sep 2006 at 20:40

Meatball said:
Cant you just transfer the 'iTunes music' folder from 'My Music' in XP to where ever on the MAC and make iTunes import the songs from that folder?

Yes but if the mac iTunes cant read the Windows iTunes music library then you will lose all you playlists and playcounts

Big-Mac-Please · 26 Sep 2006 at 22:16

So do we know what the answer is then?

Doug · 26 Sep 2006 at 23:59

The library files can be read just fine. You need to rename "iTunes Library" to "iTunes Library.itl" but the .xml file is fine.

[edit] That was for moving from OS X to my Vista box. The converse should work fine, too.

Caged · 27 Sep 2006 at 12:37

I copied the "iTunes Music" folder to /Users/jonny/Music/iTunes/ on my Mac, then copied the XML library file from my Windows box to my Mac. Did a find and replace in TextEdit to get the paths working, then iTunes > Import on the Mac.

Brocon · 27 Sep 2006 at 15:56

I found a handy guide on this when I was moving my sister itunes lib for her.

http://playlistmag.com/features/2005/08/shiftitunes/index.php