Transferring Music from Mac iTunes to Win iTunes

Mr Jones

Mr Jones

Mr Jones

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Guys... it's a sad day for me as I'm bowing out of the Mac-World and back into Windows (but probably more on Linux, Ubuntu, as I've taken a new liking for it)

Basically I'm making backups on all that I've got from my MacBook and I've got 30GB worth of music + 5GB worth of podcasts e.t.c. I'm just wondering, is it possible to just easily transfer all these musics and settings from OS X iTunes to Windows iTunes or have I got to laboriously copy the bits I want from the music folder and into the new Windows system?

Thanks :)
 
Just copy the entire "iTunes Music" folder if you want all your music.

If you go up to the iTunes directory then it's possible to grab the library file (which will preserve the ratings, play count etc) :)

Not sure about the settings, but you could try copying the whole "iTunes" folder and try it.
 
Noooo! Come back to Mac.

Just copy across the 'iTunes Music' folder and 'library' file to your PC replacing what was there originally.

Found this, I guess it depends on how big your iPod and library is. HERE.
 
Beaten like a red-headed stepchild iSam :p

Why are you leaving Dr. Jones, not getting on with OS X or did you just fancy Linux?
 
Thanks for the info guys, will come in handy :)

I do love OS X and would love to keep it if I can get it running on my coming Samsung Laptop (hopefully), but right now, I need to sell the MacBook and use the cash for air tickets - help fund my mum to visit my ill-ing grandma :/
 
EVH said:
Beaten like a red-headed stepchild iSam :p
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1-0. :p

Dr Jones said:
Thanks for the info guys, will come in handy :)

I do love OS X and would love to keep it if I can get it running on my coming Samsung Laptop (hopefully), but right now, I need to sell the MacBook and use the cash for air tickets - help fund my mum to visit my ill-ing grandma :/
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Sounds like a very gentlemanly thing to do. I hope everything is ok. :)
 
Massive kudos for the sacrifice Dr. J

Hope everything turns out alright for you :)
 
Blackout said:
Nice one DrJ! Now that is a good reason to sell your gear if ever there was one.

Now....if only I could buy that macbook off ya!
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Sorry, sold and awaiting collection...
My plan backfired, I was refused finance with a urchase with OcUK :( Was planning to get that Samsung R700 and pay back £200 a month and sorted before the summer comes, but nooo... apparently I'm not good enough.

Argh.
I've got my MacBook till Saturday morning:(

I've backed up my music and pictures, just the source; shall have to restart all my play counts e.t.c. unless Windows can read Mac's iTunes data file?
 
I believe that both the windows and mac version of itunes store their library in xml format, so they should be interchangeable.

Found this, going from Windows to Mac, but process should be similar in reverse:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20070126183436602
some random forum said:
*** Transfer iTunes' song ratings from Windows to Mac via XML editing ***

I read this post and i decided to share my solution, that is simplest and fastest, but it needs a bit of XML editing.

iTunes libraries are just .XML files: you can open them with a plain text editor (like Textedit on Mac or Wordpad/Notepad on Windows) and edit them as you like. The only difference between an iTunes library for Windows and an iTunes library for Mac is the path of the audio/video file.

So open your "iTunes Library.xml" with the text editor of your choice (I use Textedit) and look at the content.
Every audio/video file in your library for Mac owns a file path that looks like the following:

<key>Location</key><string>file://localhost/Users/eldino/Music/mp3dvd_51/aerotone.net/AER005/01%20Winterpark%20-%20Nunns%20rd..mp3</string>

If you have all the mp3s in the same folder (in my case: "mp3dvd_51"), you have just to search for "file://localhost/Users/eldino/Music/mp3dvd_51/" and replace it with a more Windows-friendly file path, something like:

"file://localhost/E:/Music/mp3dvd_51/".

Then save the new .XML as "iTunes Library (Windows).xml" or whatever else and import it in your iTunes for Windows: you will magically get back all your ratings :-)
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