How To Copy Your Itunes Library From Pc To Mac

09.04.2020
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Though we store more and more of our music online these days, a hard-copy backup is still the gold standard for keeping your data safe. And if you use Apple Music or iCloud Music Library, the best way to do that is still iTunes.

Jan 04, 2020  How to Move Your iTunes Library You can move your iTunes library to a different folder, computer, or drive. Here's how to do it, even in macOS Catalina, which ditches iTunes for the Music app. Mar 02, 2017  Thanks for responding so quickly, I apologize for my lateness (I had an unusually long day at work). Yes, my user on my PC has a password. When you say 'share the Music folder of your profile (normally c:usersusernamemusic) with your user', does that mean share the music folder on my Mac with my user on my PC? Jan 04, 2020  How to Move Your iTunes Library. You can move your iTunes library to a different folder, computer, or drive. Here's how to do it, even in macOS Catalina, which ditches iTunes for the Music app. There are a few ways to transfer your iTunes library from one computer to another. When you get a new Mac, use Setup Assistant (or Migration Assistant, if you’re switching from Windows) to move files—including your iTunes files—from your old computer to the new one. Feb 28, 2011  In this video i will show you how to Transfer / Backup / Restore iTunes Library To a New Computer or another computer pc to pc, mac to mac, pc to mac or mac to pc using copytrans tuneswift.

There are a few ways to back up your iTunes library; it's important to choose one and regularly back up so that you won't have to worry about your local copy getting lost or damaged. My music — at least for me — is one of those must-backup items; I don't want to have to manually re-build or re-buy thousands of tracks.

Now, let's start the guide about transfer iTunes library from PC to Mac (Mac to PC is the same) Step1.On the source machine. To ensure that both machines keep the same folder structure, on the source library, in iTunes' Preferences pane, the Advanced tab, make sure that 'Keep iTunes folder organized' and 'Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library' are both checked. Tap this and your entire iTunes library will start to download. As with the Mac variant above be sure that you don't need your device for a while as the downloads could take quite a long time if.

First: Make sure your entire library has been locally downloaded

If you use iCloud Music Library or the iTunes Store, you may have some or all of your music stored in the cloud. But to truly make sure your purchased and owned content is backed up, you'll want to download a local copy to your Mac. Here's the best way to do so:

To download specific items in your iCloud Music Library right now to your Mac's drive, do the following:

  1. Launch Music (or iTunes on Mojave and earlier) on your Mac.

    Source: iMore

  2. Find the Artist, Albums, or Songs that you want to download.

  3. Click the .. button to bring up a pop-up menu.

    Source: iMore

  4. Click Download to initiate the download of these items.

    Source: iMore

And if you want to start automatically downloading everything that you add to your Apple Music library from this point forward, then it's easy peasy! Here's how:

  1. Launch Music (or iTunes on macOS Mojave and earlier) on your Mac.

    Source: iMore

  2. Click Music in the menu bar.

  3. Click Preferences (or press ⌘, on the keyboard).

    Source: iMore

  4. Make sure you're in the General tab.

    Source: iMore

  5. Click the box for Automatic Downloads to turn it on.

    Source: iMore

Once that is turned on, any music you add to your Apple Music library will be downloaded automatically to your Mac's hard drive.

How to back up iTunes via Time Machine or another backup service

If you have Apple's Time Machine backup system enabled — or any other cloud — or system-based backup — your iTunes library should automatically be covered. This way, if you ever need to restore, you can just pop back in Time Machine's History (or a past backup from CrashPlan or Carbon Copy Cloner, for example) to retrieve it.

How to manually back up your iTunes library

If you're not employing a Mac-wide backup service (really, you should get on that), or if you just want to manually back up your iTunes library separately, here's how to go about that.

Consolidate your library

To ensure that all of your iTunes files are in the same place when you make a manual backup, you should first consolidate your iTunes library.

How to download itunes library to computer
  1. Make sure you've downloaded a local copy of your music to your Mac.

  2. Launch Music (or iTunes in macOS Mojave or earlier) on your Mac.

    Source: iMore

  3. Click File in the upper left corner of your Mac's screen.

  4. Hover your cursor over Library in the drop down menu.

    Source: iMore

  5. Select Organize Library from the secondary menu.

    Source: iMore

  6. How to find my old mac photos library. Tick the box for Consolidate Files when the Organize Library window appears.

    External hard drive ebay. Nov 09, 2018  If you have already transferred your Photos library onto the external storage device, now you need to follow these steps. Open Photos on your Mac. Click Photos then click on Preferences. Click on the iCloud tab. Choose Download originals to this Mac. Copy the Photos Library to the external drive. You can drag and drop. Wait while it copies over - this may take a while depending on the size of your library and the speed of the connection to the drive. Once the library has copied over, hold down the Option/Alt key and launch Photos. Dec 11, 2018  Moving Your Photos Library. To understand how this works, it’s important to know how the Photos app catalogs files. It’s actually simple; there’s a single file that contains your entire library. If you want to back this up, you plug in your external hard drive and drag the whole file over to that hard drive in the sidebar of Finder. Mar 18, 2020  In another Finder window, find your library. The default location is Users username Pictures, and it's named Photos Library. Drag your library to its new location on the external drive. If you see an error, select your external drive's icon in the Finder, then choose File Get Info.

    Source: iMore

  7. Click OK.

    Source: iMore

This will make a copy of all files in the iTunes media folder, leaving the originals in their current location.

Transfering Itunes Library To Windows 10

Copy your iTunes library to a backup source

  1. If you are using an external hard drive, connect it to your Mac using a USB cable.
  2. Click on Finder to open a Finder window.

  3. Select your Mac's Hard drive.

    Source: iMore

  4. Click on Music in the sidebar.

    Source: iMore

  5. Select the Music folder (or iTunes on macOS Mojave and earlier) and drag that folder to the external hard drive icon on your desktop or copy it to your online backup service.

    Source: iMore

  6. Click Authenticate, if prompted, to give permission to make a copy of the iTunes folder.
  7. Enter your administrator password.

  8. Click OK.

    Source: iMore

The copy process will begin. This could take a very long time, depending on how big your Music/iTunes library is. So, sit back, relax, watch a movie, or whatever you do to pass the time.

How to copy your itunes library from pc to mac free

Desperate times call for desperate measures

If you are about to do something wild with your Music or iTunes library and don't have a way to back it up on an external drive or online backup service, you can make a temporary backup that you store right on your Mac. This is, by no means, a solid backup plan, but can be useful in a pinch.

Note: After making a copy, it is a good idea to move the copied folder to an easy-to-find location that is separate from any folder you plan to make changes to (like the Music folder). This copied folder should be deleted immediately after it is no longer needed because it takes up extra space on your computer's hard drive unnecessarily and could cause confusion with your most current Music or iTunes folder.

Itunes To Pc Transfer

  1. Click on Finder to open a Finder window.

  2. Select your Mac's Hard drive.

    Source: iMore

  3. Click on Music in the sidebar.

    Source: iMore

  4. Right-click or control-click on the Music folder (or iTunes folder if you're still on macOS Mojave or earlier).

    Source: iMore

  5. Select Duplicate from the drop down menu.

    • The copy process will begin. This could take a very long time.

      Source: iMore

  6. Move the copied iTunes or Music folder to a new, easy-to-find location.

  7. Delete the copied iTunes or Music folder once you no longer need the temporary backup.

Any questions?

Running into issues making an iTunes backup? Pop them in the comments below.

How To Download Itunes Library To Computer

March 2020: These are still the current steps for how to back up your music.

Serenity Caldwell contributed to an earlier version of this guide.

Backing up: The ultimate guide

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