How To Transfer Itunes Library From Mac To Macbook Air
- How To Transfer Itunes Library From Mac To Mac
- How To Transfer Itunes Library From Imac To Macbook Air
By Malcolm Owen
Monday, March 05, 2018, 10:51 am PT (01:51 pm ET)
- ITunes imports most songs in a few minutes, and an entire CD in about 10 minutes. In the iTunes app on your Mac, insert an audio CD into your computer’s CD or DVD drive, or into an external drive that’s connected to your computer. If you don’t see info for the CD, click the CD button near the top left of the iTunes window. Do one of the following.
- ITunes makes it easy to organize and enjoy the music, podcasts, movies, and TV shows you have—and shop for the ones you want. ITunes includes Apple Music (which lets you listen to millions of songs on demand), Beats 1 live radio, and Connect, a fun way for fans and artists to interact.
There may come a time when your iTunes library outgrows your Mac and there's no space left - especially if you recently transferred from a desktop with a huge hard drive to a MacBook Air, say. Sep 02, 2011 The problem is that iTunes stores full paths to every file in your library database, and because the file systems between Mac and Windows are fundamentally different, it’s impossible for it to directly reference these files on the new computer, which may result in broken links. Jun 04, 2019 Move photos, files, and mail from Mac to Surface. Content provided by Microsoft. Applies to: Surface Devices Surface. When the transfer is done, select This PC from the left pane. You don’t need to copy the Photo Library folder in Pictures if you already moved your photos over. Oct 30, 2010 This video will show you how to migrate your iTunes library from a Mac to a PC. Your playlists, ratings, and play count will remain in tact. For this video I used: -A MacBook running OSX 10.6.4.
Users looking for ways to reduce the amount of things they store on their Mac usually steer clear of doing anything to iTunes and their precious music collection. Even at a time when there are many popular streaming services available to use, deleting these files is not viewed as an option, making iTunes itself an obstacle for salvaging a Mac's drive.
Moving iTunes to an external drive is one compromise, one which still keeps the music available, but off the primary storage drive completely. Though daunting to users, possibly due to the sentimentality associated with music collection, moving an iTunes Library is a relatively simple procedure that is also quite safe to perform.
Before the move
Transferring gigabytes of files between drives can take a considerable amount of time, with that length depending on a number of different variables.
First, make sure to select an external drive with a fast transfer speed, typically one that connects over USB 3.0, USB-C, or Thunderbolt. Using an older technology, such as USB 2.0, can severely prolong the amount of time it takes, purely from its slower transfer rates.
Once you have your selected drive installed, make sure it has enough storage capacity to hold your library, and for future expansion. Right click the desktop icon for the external drive and select Get Info, and make sure the Available listing has enough to cover the library's size.
The size of the iTunes library also dictates the length of the transfer, so it may be worth doing a little pruning beforehand. For example, check your podcasts to see if there are old and listened-to episodes that can be safely deleted.
If you are running iTunes 12.7 or later, there may be an archive of apps that are no longer usable within iTunes, that you may wish to remove. If you do, this AppleInsider guide will tell you how.
While it may be tempting to reuse an external drive already used for Time Machine backups, it is recommended to use a different drive completely. Backups are meant to be separately stored from the data it is duplicating, and keeping some of that data on the same drive as a backup effectively defeats the object of the exercise.
Now would also be a good time to make an up-to-date backup of your Mac before transferring any files.
Moving the library
We first need to collect together all of the content iTunes manages into one folder before making the move. Open iTunes, click File in the Menu Bar, then Library, then Organize Library.
Make sure the Consolidate Files checkbox is ticked, then select OK. Wait for iTunes to complete its consolidation before continuing.
Check the path for the folder within iTunes by going to Preferences within the iTunes Menu bar and selecting Advanced in the new window. The iTunes Media folder location section at the top details where the file collection is located.
Close iTunes, then bring up a Finder window and navigate to the iTunes folder.
If the external drive you wish to move it to is already empty, click and drag the iTunes folder from the Finder window directly onto the icon for the external drive. Alternatively, copy the iTunes folder, navigate to the place in the external drive you want to use to store iTunes in a separate Finder window, then paste.
At this point, the iTunes folder will be copied over to the external storage.
Depending on the bandwidth of the connection, the size of the iTunes folder, and if the Mac or the drive are being accessed by other tasks, this could take a long time to complete. For extremely large collections, or if the Mac needs to be used during the day, it is recommended to wait for a period of time when the Mac is left alone, as it can take multiple hours to move to its new home.
Once the transfer has completed, iTunes needs to be told where to find the files.
Hold the Option key and open iTunes. This will bring up a Choose iTunes Library window with three options. Select Choose Library on the far right.
In the next window, navigate to the external drive and enter the iTunes folder. Find and select the iTunes Library file, and click Open.
How To Transfer Itunes Library From Mac To Mac
At this point, iTunes will open up from the new location, and will be accessing files from the external storage instead of the Mac's storage. If you are unsure, you can check the path again by going to Preferences in the iTunes Menu Bar, selecting Advanced, and reading the iTunes Media folder location.
If you wish, you can close iTunes and disconnect the external drive. To reuse that iTunes library, you will need to reconnect the drive to the Mac before opening iTunes again, else it will offer a 'Library cannot be found' error.
Saving space
Once the iTunes library is confirmed to be working on the external drive, and possibly backed up too, you now have the option of deleting the initial iTunes library from the Mac to save space. Navigate to the original iTunes folder, and either drag it to the Trash or right-click the folder and select Move to Trash.
To fully reclaim the storage after this, either enter the Trash and select Empty, or right-click the Trash
How To Transfer Itunes Library From Imac To Macbook Air
and select Empty Trash
. If you have the Trash to automatically delete files after 30 days, doing this will free up the storage occupied by the iTunes folder in the Trash far earlier. Get a new Mac but don’t know how to transfer your iTunes library from the old computer to the new one? Well, this article can help you out with two simple solutions on how to transfer iTunes library to new Mac.
Q: How to transfer iTunes library to my new Macbook? I would like to move my entire iTunes Library from my Windows PC to an external hard drive and I’d like to keep it there because it won’t fit onto my new Macbook Air. I am happy to plug this in whenever I wish to use my iTunes Library.
–A User from Apple Community
With a large iTunes library, it would not be an easy case for you to transfer it to your new Mac. Transfer data between two computers can be pretty annoying. With diverse genres of content in your iTunes library, it would be nice if you can find a good tool to transfer it simply and quickly.
And to help you out, in this article, we shall render you efficient methods on how to transfer iTunes library to new Mac. Use external hard drive for itunes library mac.
How to Transfer iTunes Library to New Mac via External Hard Drive or USB Drive
Step 1. To find the location of your iTunes media folder, launch iTunes on your old computer > Then click “Edit” (PC) or “iTunes”(Mac) on the menu bar > Preferences > Advanced > Here you will see the “iTunes Media folder location” in your computer.
How to Transfer iTunes Library to New Mac via External Hard Drive or USB Drive – Step 1
Step 2. Then click File > Library > Organize Library > Check the box named as “Consolidate files” > Click OK.
How to Transfer iTunes Library to New Mac via External Hard Drive or USB Drive – Step 2
Step 3. Quit iTunes > Connect your external hard drive or USB drive to the computer > Open the iTunes media folder from the location in step 1 > Drag the folder to the external hard drive/USB drive.
Step 4. Open iTunes > Then click “Choose Library” in the pop-up window > Select the iTunes library folder in your external hard drive.
Step 5. On your new Mac, connect your external drive to Mac > Click Finder on your new Mac > Choose the Music folder > Then drag the iTunes library folder in the external drive to the music folder in new Mac.
How to Transfer iTunes Library to New Mac via External Hard Drive or USB Drive – Step 5
Step 6. Launch iTunes on your new Mac > Hold down the Option key while opening iTunes > Click “Choose Library” in the pop-up window > Select the music folder in your local hard drive > Choose the iTunes library folder > Click Open.
How to Transfer iTunes Library to New Mac via External Hard Drive or USB Drive – Step 6
If you do have iPod classic, iPod nano or iPod shuffle, you can also use it as a hard drive in iTunes on Mac. Connect the iPod to your computer > Click the device icon on your iTunes > Summary > Select “Enable disk use” > Click Apply.
How to Transfer iTunes Library to New Mac via AnyTrans for iOS
Besides manually moving your iTunes library to a new Mac, there is an easier and quicker way for you to achieve it – AnyTrans for iOS. It is a professional iOS data manager that allows you to simply transfer your iOS data from one device to another.
- Transfer media content selectively or wholly from iTunes to your hard drive or another iDevice without hassle.
- Transferring music speedily. AnyTrans for iOS supports you transfer more than 1000 songs in minutes.
- Manage and transfer almost all your iOS data like contacts, photos, ringtones, music, calendar, from one iDevice to another or from iDevice to computer and vice versa.
- No leak or loss of data. AnyTrans for iOS assures that all the data in the process of transferring would not be leaked or lost.
AnyTrans for iOS – iTunes Music Transfer
Want to transfer your iTunes library to another Mac simply and quickly? You can easily achieve it with this helper – AnyTrans for iOS. It can help you transfer your media content from iTunes to iDevice or computer without hassle.
Download AnyTrans for iOS now on your Windows PC or Mac and follow the below steps to know how to transfer iTunes library to new Mac.
Step 1. Launch AnyTrans for iOS > Connect your iDevice to the computer as an external drive > Click the button in the middle of the top bar > Choose iTunes Library in the drop-down menu.
How to Transfer iTunes Library to New Mac via AnyTrans for iOS – Step 1
Step 2. Select all the items at once or some of them > Click on Send to Device button.
How to Transfer iTunes Library to New Mac via AnyTrans for iOS – Step 2
Step 3. On your new Mac, connect your iDevice to the new Mac > Under Device Manager, go to Category Management > Choose Content to iTunes.
How to Transfer iTunes Library to New Mac via AnyTrans for iOS – Step 3
Step 4. Check the box of the data types you want to transfer > Click the arrow icon to initiate the process.
How to Transfer iTunes Library to New Mac via AnyTrans for iOS – Step 4
The Bottom Line
That’s the two methods on how to move iTunes library to new Mac. As you can see, with the help of AnyTrans for iOS, you can manage your iTunes library or iPhone data easier than ever. You can also back up your iOS app and restore them to your iDevices at any time. Download it now and enjoy your free trial!
Product-related questions? Contact Our Support Team to Get Quick Solution >