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How to transfer your iTunes library & playlists to a new computer

If you use an iPod, iTouch, or iPhone and plan on getting a new computer, you will want to read this article! OR, if you use any of these devices and want to make sure your library stays safe, you will want to read this article!

Yesterday, I helped a customer setup a new Windows 7 computer and transfer email, favorites, and other data from his old Windows XP computer. Turns out that he also needed to move his iTunes library of more than 8,000 songs and almost 150 playlists!

There isn’t too much I panic about when I arrive at a customer’s home or office, but moving large, customized iTunes libraries is something that does get me a little nervous. In the past, I have had to open an iTunes XML file in a word processor and then use find and replace to enter the path to the storage location on the new computer. It was extremely difficult and tedious.

I am happy to report that I successfully transferred the entire 36 gigabyte library and playlists using the following technique:

  1. On the old computer, open iTunes
  2. Click Edit –> Preferences from the menus
  3. Click the Advanced tab
  4. Click the check box next to Keep iTunes Media folder organized (if it isn’t already)
  5. Click OK
  6. Click File –> Library –> Organize Library (if the box wasn’t checked, be prepared to wait for a few a minutes as iTunes organizes your library).
  7. Now close iTunes and copy your entire My Music folder to an external hard drive, or you can do as I did and pull the hard drive from the old computer and use an USB hard drive adaptor to connect it to the new computer.
  8. DON’T COPY THE MUSIC TO THE NEW COMPUTER YET.
  9. Instead, download and install iTunes on the new computer
  10. Start iTunes and repeat steps 2-5 (above)
  11. Close iTunes
  12. Open the Music folder on the new computer
  13. You should see an iTunes folder, double-click it
  14. Now you will see either an iTunes Music or iTunes Media folder (doesn’t matter what name it has)
  15. Click one time on the folder and delete it
  16. Connect your backup hard drive to the new computer and navigate to the My Music folder and open it
  17. Push Ctrl+A on your keyboard to select all contents in the My Music folder
  18. Drag the files to the Music folder on the new computer
  19. Click yes when asked if you want to overwrite any existing files with the same name
  20. Close open Windows
  21. Start iTunes and your libary, including playlists, should be there.

Good luck!

For those of you with a DVD burner on your system (most systems built after 2006 include a DVD burner), you can backup your iTunes library and info via DVD using these steps:

  1. Make sure you have 5-20 blank DVDs (DVD-R or DVD+R) on hand for the backup
  2. Start iTunes
  3. Click File –> Library –> Backup to Disk from menus
  4. Click Back Up button
  5. Follow on-screen instructions.

To restore the backup:

  1. Start iTunes
  2. Insert the first DVD in the backup set
  3. Follow on-screen instructions
Links to Apple’s official instructions on this process:
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126 thoughts on “How to transfer your iTunes library & playlists to a new computer”

  1. Mk.

    I followed the steps to the letter and my playlist and my music show up, BUT BUT BUT they all have that inactive/non-locatable file icon next to them.

    i would have to go in and locate each file individually… id this a normal fixable mishapp

  3. PJ

    You’re brilliant! Thank you for the help that I just couldn’t get elsewhere. Whew! I thought I had lost all those playlists.

  5. Sylvia

    We just got a new computer but technician already downloaded all music from external drive. Just found your site and I just want to know what folders do I delete? Do I delete all subfolders in “My Music” folder then download Itunes from website, then transfer my music from external drive? Thank you so much!!

  6. Carl

    Doers the process above bring over the checked synch selections. I have 50000 songs and have had to manually check 20000 t osynch with my ipod. I’m hoping to be able to carrry over these specific selections when moving everything to a new computer. thnak you.

  7. Dr.Dan

    Thank you! I moved an iTunes library once before using the edit XML method, which was a huge pain, but this time the library is four times larger, so I was really dreading it. I’ve donated a shot for gratitude.

  8. John S

    How do I get the files from a Mac to transfer. The Mac has a fried power supply, and is too old to fix, but I pulled the hard drive and got a friend to copy everything to a portable drive. I copied all the songs to my PC (Windows 7) but none of the playlists, ratings or play counts transferred. I have some files on my comp. iTunes Library, iTunes Library Extras, and iTunes Library Genius. I try to drag and drop but nothing happens. Please help.

    P.S. I did get the artwork to transfer by dragging the file into iTunes.

    1. Rick

      Be happy with getting the music…unfortunately, all the other parts of iTunes only transfer if you get a chance to perform all the other setup steps. Thanks for leaving your comment!

  10. Carloz

    Hi

    Basically my problem is all my music is stored already on a external hard drive and that is my default location for my iTunes library. I would greatly appreciate help on the easiest way to transfer my library and all playlists on to a new laptop. All the forums i read relate to libraries store on the internal hdd. This may be a silly problem with a simple solution but my head has been pickled with it and iam scared of losing all my data.

    Thanks for your time any solution will be greatly appreciated.

    Regards
    Carloz

      1. Carloz

        Hi Rick

        Thanks for your reply. By doing this would the iTunes on the nw laptop automatically recognise my playlists that where featured on my old laptops iTunes. Apologies if these are silly questions and can be very simply resolved. Iam probably complicating things for myself thinking about it too much.

        Greatly appreciate your help on the matter

        Regards
        Carloz

        1. Rick

          You are quite welcome! Playlists are a funny thing when transferring…it really depends on whether you kept the other version updated and let iTunes keep your library organized.

  12. Carloz

    Thanks again Rick, i seemed to have successfully transferred all songs over to the new lsaptop. It was actually a very simple process than i was making it out to be.

    Greatly appreciate your time.

    Thanks Rick

  13. mauikars

    Hey Rick-
    thanks for the great and detailed tip!..unfortunately, I’m having problems. I’ve got v10.5.3.3 loaded on both old and new computer. For step 6, when I select “organize” I then get another window with 2 options, neither of which seemed appropriate. So, I essentially skipped the step. After, my playlists are all visible on the new computer but all the songs on the external HDD are not being found. I’ve used the “locate” feature which will then find a song but this would be extremely tedious for each song. I have music both locally on the computer as well as on the external HDD. Any help welcomed!
    Thanks Rick in advance.

  14. Tyler

    At step 6, you don’t list which box to check. You have two options: Consolidate Files or Reorganize files in the folder “iTunes music”. Which box do I want to check?

    2. Larry

      Hi, Tyler,

      I just did this, and appear to have guessed right. You want to check the “Reorganize files” box, not the “Consolidate Files”. Seemed to work fine, everything transferred with no issues (not yet, anyway).

      Larry

  16. Grinchy

    Hi Rick, I just followed the steps you list on transfering itunes library from PC to PC. Everything works splendidly Except, none of my Playlists show up. What am I doing wrong? The only way I seem to find to transfer the play lists is one at a time through import, export? I have many playlists so this method is tedious. What am I missing?

    Thanks for your help!

  17. Larry

    Many thanks, Rick – yours was the only step-by-step procedure I was able to find, and it worked like a charm. Look for a 5-shot Americano headed your way! Thanks again,

    Larry

  18. Jeff

    OMG you are a lifesaver. This worked between two Macs (if your itunes is registered on both, even purchased music carries over on playlists).

  19. Katya

    Hi, read various questions & answers already posted and I think get what to do however, like many others various nervous about losing playlists! So I currently have all my music on external hard drive as old computer is too small, now I want to put all music on new computers’s hard drive but keep the external drive as my back up. By following this process will that still be possible? Also, one step missing about regorganising files or consolidating? Not sure which box to check there? Would appreciate your wisdom & experience on this please? Much gratitude!

  20. Kevin

    I had the “copy files to itunes media folder when adding to library” box unchecked on my old computer, will this still work? or do I need to do something else before I copy the itunes music folder, I looked in there and there is definitely alot missing.

  21. Keade

    Thank you!! Worked perfectly! This helped me out a bunch, transfering my iTunes library from my old XP PC to the new Windows 7 machine. You da man!

  22. Pingback: Weekly Tech Links: January 17, 2010

  24. Jennifer

    I found your great website AFTER I already had added iTunes. I got rid of all the programs in a specific order but I think there were some things I just didn’t find. I downloaded a program called Regcure to clear it out. I am hoping it worked. I will follow your instructions again to see if it works. I think you are great and gave very specific instructions I just found you too late 🙁

  25. Frederick

    thanks for this. it worked perfectly. I actually had attempted the transfer manually by moving files but I was missing a few audio tracks, some apps, and all my playlists. I then found your posting and followed the instructions exactly (first unistalled my failed attempt and deleted iTunes folder). It is now a carbon copy of my old iTunes library. I can finally power off my old PC and move on. Thanks much

  26. Nancy

    Thanks Rick! When I followed your instructions exactly as you wrote them, the transfer was complete including playlists and ratings. Now I’m going to try to sync my old Nano 6th generation with my new computer. Anything I should watch out for? Thanks very much.

  27. Hannah

    I’m going to try this when my MacBook Pro arrives… right now I’m running on Windows 7. My itunes is mostly downloaded music (I’m a rebel, I know) and I’m just wondering if this will work? I’m going to transfer all the mp3 files over to the new computer, but I want to keep all my playlists on my new itunes.

  28. Ian

    Ok, I’m in a pickle. I bought a hard-drive and copied every single iTunes file I could find to the hard-drive (I used the profits of my sold computer to fund my new computer, so going back and forth now between the two isn’t an option).

    I downloaded iTunes (most recent version) and copied all the files from my hard-drive to to my Music folder. Everything was on iTunes now, my playlists, ratings, play count – except it had the “cannot locate” message. So after not finding a way to “locate”, I started over and deleted everything including iTunes because I thought I did something wrong (everything is still on the hard-drive).

    I re-downloaded iTunes and this time was a bit more surgical. I copied the single iTunes folder from my HD to my Music library in it’s own folder (as opposed to just throwing everything in the library). This time everything plays, but no playlists, no ratings, no play count.

    How do I get my playlists, ratings and play count again?

    1. Rick

      Unfortunately, the only sure fire way to get playlists, ratings, and play count is to follow the steps I outline in the article. The two biggest keys are letting iTunes do the organization for you on both machines (especially the old one) and having the latest iTunes version…again on the old one.

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