Mostly this is a question about playlists. I’m trying to get my iTunes playlists from my old computer to my new laptop, both of which are authorized by iTunes. I’ve copied all my songs onto the new laptop.
I’m following these instructions from Apple to the letter. The specific ones for Windows 7, which is on the laptop. I bring the playlist folder in via external drive, make the file name change, and open iTunes on the new laptop – no playlists.
So I figure that I don’t need to move the specific playlist file when all the lists are already on the phone, right? I’ll just sync the phone to the laptop and transfer them that way.
But when I try that, iTunes wants to sync playlists (and all music info) in the other direction. I get a warning: “Music synced to this phone from other libraries [that would be my old desktop] will be removed and items will be synced from this iTunes library [the one that doesn’t have any playlists].”
I don’t understand why this is so hard or what I’m doing wrong, especially following Apple’s exact instructions.
I’m running iOS 8.3 on the phone. The old computer has Windows XP, if that matters, but everything works fine over there. The new laptop is Windows 7.
Any thoughts?
Wow – 90 views but not one answer.
I’m open to anything at this point. I must get rid of the old computer and don’t want to have to rebuild 50 playlists on my new laptop.
Any ideas?
Most important thing is to move your music and your playlist files to the new computer. That is how you will get your playlists, and not from your iPhone (as you saw).
First off…is your music in iTunes when you open it? But not the playlist files? Or is nothing in iTunes, not even music?
Music is there. All of it. The new iTunes folder is gigantic.
No ratings and no playlists.
I took the iTunes Library.itl file from the old desktop and replaced the one on the new laptop with it. I checked iTunes’ settings to make sure it’s pointing to the right folder, and it is – but it has to be, since it finds the music. Still, no playlists.
I’ve gone over it again and again. I don’t know why it’s not finding the file that it says it’s finding.
C:\Users[yourUserName]\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music Library.xml should be the file with your playlists in it, not the .itl file.
Do you have that file on Windows XP?
Yes, the file is there. I’ve got an iTunes Library.itl and iTunes Music Library.xml right next to each other.
Did you open the XML file and read it? Is there anything in there? Can you search the file for the name of a playlist?
Did you try rebooting your computer?
This is the fourth day of the process, so the computer has been turned off and on many times.
I opened the XML file and found all the songs but none of the playlists. That’s interesting. Should I try the transfer of the new file yet again? Can’t see what would be different this time, but I’m open.
Yeah perhaps your music got moved but not the xml. You started iTunes, the xml was created from the physical music files.
See if you can copy just the XML from the old box to the new box, with iTunes closed.
I discovered the solution!
I actually had two iTunes folders, each with their own .itl and .xml files. One was in my desktop’s D drive, which I dedicated to iTunes because it was so big. I figured the files in D:\ were the right ones.
It turns out everything was being saved and updated to the My Music folder in my C drive. I moved that into iTunes on the laptop and everything is now fine.
Thanks for your help.