Preserving my iPod playlists on changing my laptop

by thunderhead1 Aug 6, 2007 8:31PM PDT

Hi everyone,
I have been an iPod user for about a couple of years now. I started out with a 4 GB black Nano, and then upgraded to a 30 GB Video a few months back.

I have been using my iPod with the iTunes software package on my laptop. I am now going to change my laptop. The issue that I am faced with is that if I don't do something about it, I will lose the playlists that I have set up on the iPod using my existing notebook.

I have backed up my music and will be listening to all of it even on the new laptop. I will even be storing all my music in the exact same location (i.e. the My Music folder) as I have on my existing notebook, and using the same operating system, if that counts for anything here.

Now, being a plain jane user of the iPod, I don't know exactly how the device will behave when I connect it to the new laptop which has all my music stored in the same location as I do on my existing notebook.

However, I am particularly interested in preserving my playlists because I have meticulously and painfully edited all the tags, arranged them according to their track numbers on their respective albums and added album art, all using the options on the iTunes software (I added most of the album art in manually by dragging and dropping the pictures from the artist's and album's folders...). I'm talking some 15 gigs of music here, so I really don't want to lose this intricately setup arrangement.

Is it possible at all to preserve my iPod playlists and related modifications to the song details while changing my laptop?

Thanks a ton to anyone who can suggest a solution to this one.

Discussion is locked

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Copy the iTunes Folder

by mrmacfixit Forum moderator Aug 7, 2007 9:59PM PDT

which contains the iTunes database, from your old machine to the new one.

Put it in the same location on the new one as it was on the old one. Make sure that any tracks that you have outside of the database, are also moved.

It is a good idea to Consolidate your library before such a move. Check under the menus, I cannot remember off hand exactly where it is. Try Preferences or Options first.

P

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Thanks, but...

by thunderhead1 Aug 7, 2007 11:57PM PDT

I don't have iTunes managing my music (I do it manually). Only tracks which have been converted to MP3 from other formats are in the iTunes folder.

The rest of the music which has been uploaded to my iPod are in the My Music folder under My Documents.

Any other good options? I will try the consolidation option too...

Also, is it enough if I locate the iTunes folder and all my music in the same location on the new computer? Will all my stuff be preserved then?

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iTunes

by mrmacfixit Forum moderator Aug 8, 2007 9:50PM PDT

How do you get your tracks onto the iPod?

If you are not using iTunes to "manage" your music and you are using an iPod, how is your music organized on the iPod?

It would seem like you are reinventing the wheel here unless, even though a lot of your music is in your My Music folder, it also appears in iTunes. Tracks do not have to be inside the iTunes folder for them to be in the iTunes library.
That is why, when you want to move from one machine to another, you have to make sure that the stuff listed in the iTunes library also makes the journey to the new machine, regardless of where it is stored on the old one.

Moving the old iTunes folder to the same place on the new machine, and ditto with all the tracks, might work.
Consolidate will move a copy of every track in the library, into the iTunes folder and make the move a whole lot easier.

P

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What I meant to say was...

by thunderhead1 Aug 9, 2007 12:17AM PDT

that I don't have the option of having iTunes manage my music and playlists (there is such an option in the software).

Initially, when I got the iPod and installed iTunes, it scouted for music and added all the tracks to its library (as I mentioned earlier, a majority of my music, and all the music that is on my iPod currently, is in the My Music folder).

Subsequently, whenever I created a playlist, I simply used to drag and drop selected album folders from the My Music folder onto the playlist area. Then I used to edit song information like the title, artist and track number...I even added album art manually (every album's artwork is stored in its respective folder).

I do hope moving my music to the same location, plus making a copy of the iTunes folder (which includes the library information, I presume) and depositing it on the new machine before ever connecting my iPod to it does the trick.

What are your thoughts on this? Thanks for the insights.

Preserving my iPod playlists on changing my laptop

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