Once upon a time I was a PC user but back in 2005 I became a full fledged Mac owner. I’m a stats geek and couldn’t bear to lose my ratings and play counts when I moved my iTunes library over to my new computer. I searched the internet high and low and it took me over a month to get this figured out so hopefully this procedure will be much quicker and easier for you.
Instructions for how to move your iTunes library from one computer to another (including between PC and Mac) so that it preserves your ratings, playcounts, etc:
- On your old computer: in iTunes’ Preferences select the Advanced tab. Check “Keep iTunes folder organizers” and “Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library”.
- From the Advanced menu choose “Consolidate Library”. This may take awhile.
- On your new computer: create a new iTunes library. This will happen automatically if you haven’t yet used iTunes on this computer. Otherwise hold down Option if you’re on a Mac or Shift if you’re on a PC while starting up iTunes.
- Repeat Step 1 on the new computer.
- Quit iTunes
- Copy your “iTunes” directory/folder from your old computer to your new computer – make sure it goes to the same relative location – if you never changed where it’s stored it should be using the defaults
On a PC this should be located in the My Music folder by default
On a Mac this should be located in the Music folder by default - If you’re going PC to Mac, locate the iTunesLibrary.itl file and remove the .itl extension. If you’re going Mac to PC, locate the iTunesLibrary file and add the .itl extension. If you’re going Mac to Mac or PC to PC don’t change anything
- Next time you launch iTunes on your new computer it should match what you were seeing on your old computer. If any of your songs were purchased from iTunes (and are not iTunes Plus files) you will need to put your iTunes user name and password into the new computer before you can play them.
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