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how I got my groove back
Sep. 13th, 2012 12:51 pmhomg my playlists are back!
Okay! I shall tell y'all what I did to get all my music from Computer A (old computer) to Computer B (new computer, a.k.a. Aquila).
iTunes has a guide here with a bunch of different ways to transfer music from one machine to another. Originally I started with Home Sharing, which is actually a pretty neat trick...if you have a faster Internet collection and less music than I do. I have about 6000 songs, plus podcasts and audiobooks and a few movies and TV episodes. I actually have about half that, because for one reason or another (I think mostly having to do with the messy way I transferred my music from my old old computer to my old computer four years ago), most of my music is doubled or tripled. Ugh. (If there is a fast way to get rid of duplicates, lemme know.) Anyway, Home Sharing is a neat trick, and does work, but wasn't really working for me.
Next I broke open my brand new 1TB external hard drive (and by "broke open" I mean the stupid amount of packaging), connected it to my old computer, and did exactly as iTunes says in their tutorial (linked above). It took two or three hours to copy all my music, then another two hours or so to copy it to my new computer. THEN DISASTER STRUCK. What iTunes tells you to do, on the new computer, is to drag the iTunes folder out of "My Music" (on Windows 7) and onto the desktop, then drag the iTunes folder from the external hard drive to "My Music", then open iTunes. Only thing is, iTunes wouldn't open -- it kept claiming that it couldn't read the .itl file because it was from a newer version of iTunes. (For reasons that don't need to be got into, I had to reinstall iTunes on the old computer. I don't even, the computer gods hate me.) I uninstalled and reinstalled iTunes on the new computer. No dice.
Eventually, I gave up on doing what the nice iTunes website was telling me to do, dragged the old computer iTunes folder out of My Music (I have no idea where I stuck it. Pictures? Documents?), dragged the new computer iTunes folder back in, then told iTunes to import the "iTunes Music" folder from the old iTunes folder. Which worked! It took a while, but it got all my music. But! I still did not have my playlists.
When I'd been trying to use Home Sharing to get my music, I did what I was told and create a .xml file (Files > Library > Export Library) on my old computer, then e-mailed it to myself. At least one tutorial out there tells you to do some complicated find-and-replace business with the .xml file, but the iTunes website tells you to open iTunes, then File > Library > Import Playlist. MAGIC. Playlists! I could have manually rebuilt them, but I'm glad not to have had to.)
So that is what I did. Worst case scenario, I was prepared to do what I had done four years ago: a PC treats an iPod as an external hard drive, so you can actually rip all your music from the iPod to the computer. It is messy as all hell. Presumably there are cleaner and easier ways to do it now, but I knew how to do it. Glad I didn't have to, though.
Okay! I shall tell y'all what I did to get all my music from Computer A (old computer) to Computer B (new computer, a.k.a. Aquila).
iTunes has a guide here with a bunch of different ways to transfer music from one machine to another. Originally I started with Home Sharing, which is actually a pretty neat trick...if you have a faster Internet collection and less music than I do. I have about 6000 songs, plus podcasts and audiobooks and a few movies and TV episodes. I actually have about half that, because for one reason or another (I think mostly having to do with the messy way I transferred my music from my old old computer to my old computer four years ago), most of my music is doubled or tripled. Ugh. (If there is a fast way to get rid of duplicates, lemme know.) Anyway, Home Sharing is a neat trick, and does work, but wasn't really working for me.
Next I broke open my brand new 1TB external hard drive (and by "broke open" I mean the stupid amount of packaging), connected it to my old computer, and did exactly as iTunes says in their tutorial (linked above). It took two or three hours to copy all my music, then another two hours or so to copy it to my new computer. THEN DISASTER STRUCK. What iTunes tells you to do, on the new computer, is to drag the iTunes folder out of "My Music" (on Windows 7) and onto the desktop, then drag the iTunes folder from the external hard drive to "My Music", then open iTunes. Only thing is, iTunes wouldn't open -- it kept claiming that it couldn't read the .itl file because it was from a newer version of iTunes. (For reasons that don't need to be got into, I had to reinstall iTunes on the old computer. I don't even, the computer gods hate me.) I uninstalled and reinstalled iTunes on the new computer. No dice.
Eventually, I gave up on doing what the nice iTunes website was telling me to do, dragged the old computer iTunes folder out of My Music (I have no idea where I stuck it. Pictures? Documents?), dragged the new computer iTunes folder back in, then told iTunes to import the "iTunes Music" folder from the old iTunes folder. Which worked! It took a while, but it got all my music. But! I still did not have my playlists.
When I'd been trying to use Home Sharing to get my music, I did what I was told and create a .xml file (Files > Library > Export Library) on my old computer, then e-mailed it to myself. At least one tutorial out there tells you to do some complicated find-and-replace business with the .xml file, but the iTunes website tells you to open iTunes, then File > Library > Import Playlist. MAGIC. Playlists! I could have manually rebuilt them, but I'm glad not to have had to.)
So that is what I did. Worst case scenario, I was prepared to do what I had done four years ago: a PC treats an iPod as an external hard drive, so you can actually rip all your music from the iPod to the computer. It is messy as all hell. Presumably there are cleaner and easier ways to do it now, but I knew how to do it. Glad I didn't have to, though.