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Resolved Question

iTunes Library to New Computer Question

Jul 28, 2011 9:31PM PDT

Bought my first Mac this week. Macbook Air with Lion. I launched iTunes and did an update.

My iTunes library is already on an external HDD that I used on my Windows PC. After plugging my external HDD directly into my MBAir, I pointed my MBAir's iTunes to my library on my HDD using the Preferences > Advanced > Change process. When my Music didn't show up after a reboot, I called Tech Support and they had me do the Library > Add to Library and hours later when that finished and because I had Copy Files to location checked, I ended up with a complete set of duplicates. At least I think that's why I got the duplicates. I've cleaned that up using some thrid party software but the problem I still have is that none of my playlists are showing up in iTunes.

I'm preparing to do my first sync to the MBAir with my iPhone and don't want to lose my playists which are still on my phone.

So here's the question. How do I get iTunes to see my playlists either in my library or from my iPhone when I sync? I know I need to check Transfer Purchases when I do the sync but I can't determine if that will transfer everything (playlists, ringtones, audiobooks, etc) off my iPhone or just purchased music.

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LowellSpecht has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer

Best Answer

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I would like to say that there is an App for that, but,
Jul 28, 2011 11:30PM PDT

this is a case of the missing data.

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Success! Finally.
Aug 3, 2011 11:49PM PDT

Thanks for your response. I read the article at the link you provided and the second to last paragraph was exactly what I did the first time and it did not work.

Excerpt from the article:
"Launch iTunes on your Mac, open its preferences (Edit ->
Preferences), then click the Advanced tab. Click the Change button next
to iTunes Media Folder Location, navigate to the iTunes Media folder on
your external hard drive, and click OK. iTunes will now look to that
drive for you content, and everything should be working correctly. If
not, choose File -> Library -> Organize Library, and consolidate
the library, as above to fix any problems."

When I selected Consolidate Library, nothing happened and none of my music was appearing in my iTunes Library. That's when I called Apple Tech Support and they suggested I do the Library > Add to Library. This did add the music but none of the playlists, rankings, etc.

My theory on why changing the path and consolidating might not have worked was I am not using the default file locations for iTunes and my library is in the older iTunes Music folder instead of the iTunes Media folder. But I really don't know for sure why it didn't work since that's what Preferences > Advanced > Change is supposed to be for.

Fortunately, as you alluded, I had a backup of my original library on the Windows machine so I started over. I copied my iTunes folder from my custom location on my external HDD to the default iTunes folder on the Mac. Since my content was in the iTunes Music folder, I deleted the iTunes Media Folder. I then manually edited the .xml file and globally replaced the old path to my content with the new path, saved and closed. When I launched iTunes, My library of content was there including playlists, rankings, etc. With this working, and feeling lucky, I then moved the library back to the external HDD. This time, I did not manually edit the .xml file and just launched iTunes, changed the library location using Preferences > Advanced > Change and iTunes immediately began rebuilding the file locations. When it was done, I restarted iTunes and my library was still there and I could even play a few songs. Syncing with my iPhone and iPad went smoothly and no content was lost. Not sure how many of these steps were necessary but I'm not going to try and figure that out.

Thanks for your help.

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(NT) You're welcome, we like success stories
Aug 4, 2011 2:13AM PDT