Here’s the deal: I just got a new laptop, yay for me. I also got a 250GB portable hard drive.
I have iTunes, filled with both songs purchased from iTunes and ripped from my CD collection. I’d like to get that over to the new machine from my old one. Can I just drop the iTunes folder under ‘My Music’ to the portable and then copy it back to the new machine? If so, what happens to the songs I purchased? Do I have to relicense them or what?
Any help is sorely appreciated.
Go into iTunes Help and search for new computer. Among the topics listed you will find “Moving Your iTunes Library to Another Computer”. There are several options, including a portable drive, or using the iPod itself.
You didn’t mention what operating system(s) you’re using. I have moved my library from computer to computer on Macs with nary a problem. I moved my wife’s library from Mac to Windows (about a year ago) and it lost a pile of information, including all of the ratings.
Also - if you’re getting rid of the old computer, you should log into your iTunes account on that computer to deactivate it (means you won’t be able to play itunes purchases there any more). Music purchased at the 99 cents rate can only be played on a max of 5 different computers and your old one would count among the 5.
If you’re keeping the old computer and plan to still use it to listen to music, you don’t need to do this of course.
This thread might help. I used the information on the two links it references to move my iTunes library to an external drive when the library got too big. The same process should apply to moving to a different computer altogether.
I’ve done it by moving the library. You have to register the new machine so you can play some of the downloaded content, though.
Once you’ve moved and registerd the machine, there is a “search for music” option that will find all your music.
Or, you can copy your library file. On a XP machine, it’s usually under “My Documents” and “My music.” I would guess Vista leaves out the “my.”