How to Copy an iTunes Library to a New Computer

Steps

1. Find the folder in your old computer called iTunes. Probably it will be in a folder called My Music. What you need to transfer is all of the contents of the folder iTunes.
2. Let's look first at how you could copy this folder to something else which you will later connect to your new computer.
3. The easiest gadget to use is a USB memory stick. Buy or borrow one, plug it in to your old machine. It will look like a new drive (G: or J: or whatever). Copy your folder over to it. If your library is too big to fit on the stick, you will either have to get a bigger stick, or transfer just a part of the folder and go back for the rest bit by bit.
4. You can do the same thing with an external hard disk, if you have or can borrow one - this will hold far more data than a stick. Alternatively you could burn a CDROM.
5. Plug the USB stick, hard disk, or CD ROM into your new machine, where it will again look like a new drive. Copy the contents to a place similar to where it was on the old machine. Make new folders if necessary.
6. If you can connect your old computer to a network, you will be able to see other machines on the network. You may be able to copy your files on to another machine, then connect your new computer to the same network and download the files into it. Maybe you can connect both old and new machines to the same network, e.g. a router. This is the easiest way of all.

Tips

• Don't be tempted to upload your files onto a website. This would work OK, except that internet upload speeds are usually far slower than downloads, and will take a very long time if your library is of any decent size.
• If you're using a mac the library is most likely stored in /Users/*Your Short Name*/Music/iTunes/

Warnings

• Don't throw away your old machine before you have got your library up and running on the new one. If you have to throw the old one away, take it apart and just keep the hard disk from inside it.

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Copy an iTunes Library to a New Computer. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.