How To Backup and Transfer iTunes Library From One Computer to Another

I show you how to move your entire iTunes Library (yes ratings & listen counts included) from one computer to another!

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what's up guys john here and today i'm
going to be showing you how you can
transfer your entire itunes library from
one pc or mac to another pc or mac so
the first step you need to do is you
need to go to your iTunes preferences
and then go over to the Advanced tab and
there's two things that we're going to
look at here
the first being that you need to find
out the location of your itunes and
media folder because that's actually
what we're going to be copying to add
the new mac or pc
they were gonna be transferring this
itunes library - we're going to be
copying the media folder so you'll know
where it is on your computer obviously
now the second thing that we're going to
look at is this option down here that
says copy files to itunes media folder
when adding to library
so this will ensure that any files you
add to the library from here on out so
if you download them from the internet
and in your downloads folder
you added to library i'll be copied to
the media folder because otherwise
itunes would just be accessing it
through the downloads the Downloads
folder and when you copy the itunes
media folder thing you're copying
everything in itunes to your new
computer
it actually won't be copied so you want
to make sure that you check this so from
here on out any songs that you add to
itunes will always be added to the
itunes media for but then you just click
ok once you've check that off and then
go up to file library and then organized
library and now we're going to finish
consolidating the itunes library
Chuck consolidate files and this will
put copies of all the media files used
by itunes in the itunes music folder and
it also leaves the original files in
their current location so if you
downloaded a bunch of songs from the
internet and they're in the downloads
folder those songs will still be in the
downloads folder but they'll also now be
in the itunes music folder and you also
want to reorganize the files in the
folder itunes music check that off
because itunes used to put movies TV
shows podcasts audiobooks ringtones and
so on so forth
all under music which made it a little
confusing because you had like TV shows
right next to
some artists with a team name so it yep
definitely check reorganize files
it just makes it a little bit simpler
when you're working with the itunes
media for and then you just go ahead and
click ok so now what your consolidation
and reorganization of your iTunes
libraries all completed the next thing
you need to do is open up your external
hard drive that you're going to be using
to back up your iTunes library go to
wherever you're going to be backing it
up
create a new file entitled itunes then
open up a new Finder window go to music
and then itunes and if you're on a PC
just remember that location that we saw
in preferences that's where you're going
to be going right now to find your
itunes and media and here is our itunes
library you'll see some things you
recognize like a genius
albemarle itunes music which is actually
no itunes media and we'll get to that in
just a second
you see previous iTunes libraries in
this file right here actually hold on
the play count and information about all
the different songs anyways let's peek
into itunes music is actually itunes me
it might be called that on your computer
and it is now all organized it used to
be that it was all music all the
different artists names would be in here
along with folders for your podcast
ringtones TV shows but now they put
everything that refers to music in the
music folder and they reorganized its so
now you may have a couple reorganization
things that you can do manually
I had a few artists that i deleted from
the itunes player but I hadn't deleted
from the itunes media folder so they
were still in here and they weren't
organized into a music so you may have
to do a couple little manual tweaks
either delete them or add them into
music manually but besides that I itunes
is a great job automatically organizing
them
so anyways what we're going to be doing
is we're going to copy these four items
to the iTunes folder on our external
hard drive and then these last year when
i'm not going to eat up back up or
transfer previous iTunes libraries
because I just really don't need them
there's a couple in here from 2000 that
you can if you want to but personally
I'm not going to so highlight these and
drag them on over here into itunes and
depending on how large your library is
it could take from just a few minutes up
two hours and hours
mine will probably take about an hour
yeah 52 minutes so i'll come back in
about an hour on my imac know where
we'll transfer in this content to my
imac or restored from the back up
ok so here we are on my imac and we're
now all ready to transfer / your store
from the backup of the itunes library
now the first thing you need to do is
make sure that itunes is closed so if it
isn't already go ahead and quit itunes
and then open up a new Finder window and
go to wear your itunes folder is located
on the current computer that you're on
then open up your external hard drive or
whatever you used to a backup your
iTunes library and open up the itunes
backup on the external drive
now drag over these first three items
and then hit apply all and replace then
select these bottom two items and drag
them over by all replace now the next
thing you need to do is open up your
itunes media folder on the current
computer that you're on and then open up
itunes music or itunes media in the back
up itunes library then select all the
media files and drag them on over into
itunes media on the computer and then
select replace and then it will copy
over all of your itunes media files and
transfer them completely over to the new
computer and once this is complete you
have completely transferred your iTunes
library
so here we are in itunes and the first
thing i want to point out is all your
metadata is right here all your ratings
play counts last time you played it
everything's right here all your music
movies TV shows apps everything in the
library right here
also all your genius mixes genius
playlists and your regular playlist are
all right here
everything in the library is exactly how
it was in your previous iTunes library
before you backed it up
yeah
yeah