This post is specifically for my new friend Melanie, who asked while we were in Chicago how she can transfer all the music she has on her computer to her laptop (all music she has within iTunes). So Melanie, here we go!
First locate the music – Most likely the music in iTunes will be in your My Music section of your Documents folder. If you have Vista or Windows 7 it will be right within your user folder under My Music. Then there should be an iTunes folder. If you can’t find it, go into iTunes and right click on any song in your library. Select “Get Info” and then at the bottom of the pop up window will be “Where” and it will tell you the path to find the iTunes folder. Once you know the location, browse to it by opening up My Computer and following the path. (If you have been following me and my blog for a little while you know I’m SO a PC, and therefore this tutorial is for Windows Operating Systems.
Copy Music – Now that you have found the location of your iTunes folder you can right click and copy the entire iTunes folder. Now that it’s copied you need to have a way to transfer it to the next computer. I recommend an external hard drive. Plug the external hard drive in and paste the iTunes folder to the hard drive by opening it from “My Computer”. The hard drive will come in handy when you do backups anyway, so it would be good to have on hand.
Install Itunes – On the new computer install iTunes. Just download it from the Apple Website. Once it’s completely installed plug the external hard drive into the new computer.
Paste your music – Copy the “iTunes” folder from the external hard drive and paste it in the same folder where the iTunes folder is located on the new computer. It will be located in a similar location as on the old computer… typically C:/Users/YOUR USERNAME (if you are on vista or Windows 7) C:/Documents and Settings/YOUR USERNAME (if you are on XP) then My Music or My Documents and then My Music. When you paste it, it will ask you if you want to overwrite the current folder, and yes you do.
Authorize Your Music – Some of the songs you purchase from iTunes will need to be authorized on the new computer. Within iTunes go to the “Store” menu at the top of the screen and select “Authorize Computer”. You will have to enter your apple id and password, and you are only able to authorize 5 computers to play your songs, so don’t get crazy with the transferring music to new locations.
That should do it! Tomorrow I will discuss transferring all of your files and settings when getting a new computer!
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You’re so sweet! Thank you. I was going to use a flash drive to transfer everything. I need one that is large enough to hold the entire folder, correct? I can’t transfer the files little by little? Will this work going from PC to Mac?
.-= Melanie @ Mel, A Dramatic Mommy´s last blog ..I Hope She Can Take A Joke =-.