How do I transfer external iTunes on PC to iMac?

[dandgage]

Hello all,

I'm making the leap from PC to Mac within the next coming weeks and wanted to know the best way to accomplish this. I have a huge iTunes library (TV shows and Movies) that I keep downloaded for Home Sharing on AppleTV. It's currently on an external drive and I want to be able to move it to my Mac when it arrives and keep it on my external. Is there an idiot proof way to do this? Thanks in advance.

 

[priitv8]

Its very easy if your iTunes library and media folders are organised by iTunes. Then you just copy the Music/iTunes folder to new computer and direct iTunes app to use that library in new location.
If media is left at their original locations, just let iTunes organise it before you move.
https://support.apple.com/guide/itunes/move-your-itunes-library-to-another-computer-itns3230/mac

 

[dandgage]

Its very easy if your iTunes library and media folders are organised by iTunes. Then you just copy the Music/iTunes folder to new computer and direct iTunes app to use that library in new location.
If media is left at their original locations, just let iTunes organise it before you move.
https://support.apple.com/guide/itunes/move-your-itunes-library-to-another-computer-itns3230/mac

Thank you for the response, my question was specifically with using an external hard drive. I already changed the location to external on my PC, but are there any library files I need to copy/override in C:/Documents/Music/iTunes for example? Or if I already set it up to keep all iTunes files on my external should everything I need already be on there? I want to also keep iTunes on my external on the incoming iMac, my library is about 4-5 TB.

 

[SecuritySteve]

Thank you for the response, my question was specifically with using an external hard drive. I already changed the location to external on my PC, but are there any library files I need to copy/override in C:/Documents/Music/iTunes for example? Or if I already set it up to keep all iTunes files on my external should everything I need already be on there? I want to also keep iTunes on my external on the incoming iMac, my library is about 4-5 TB.

Assuming the external drive is formatted so that a Mac can read it, then you should have no problem just plugging in your external drive and using it just like you did on Windows.

 

[dandgage]

Assuming the external drive is formatted so that a Mac can read it, then you should have no problem just plugging in your external drive and using it just like you did on Windows.

OOOhhhh man, there's a special format for Mac? Do you mind sharing what that is? Hopefully I won't have to reformat, I don't have enough space elsewhere to even move it, and I hope I don't have to re-download it all again.

 

[SecuritySteve]

OOOhhhh man, there's a special format for Mac? Do you mind sharing what that is? Hopefully I won't have to reformat, I don't have enough space elsewhere to even move it, and I hope I don't have to re-download it all again.

ExFAT should work. The only thing you have to worry about is if it is formatted as NTFS.

 

[ApplesandOranges]

You can direct iTunes on your new Mac to the library on your external drive, and as long as the external drive is on an connected it should work fine. If you fire up iTunes on your new Mac and the external drive is not connected, iTunes will default to the library on your Mac’s internal drive.
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ExFAT should work. The only thing you have to worry about is if it is formatted as NTFS.

I thought macs could read just about any FAT volume? Besides if his Appletv can read the library shouldn’t the Mac be able to as well?

 

[SecuritySteve]

You can direct iTunes on your new Mac to the library on your external drive, and as long as the external drive is on an connected it should work fine. If you fire up iTunes on your new Mac and the external drive is not connected, iTunes will default to the library on your Mac’s internal drive.
[doublepost=1564609062][/doublepost]

I thought macs could read just about any FAT volume?

Yup they can. NTFS has issues though. There are tools like ParagonNTFS that can read them, but I doubt iTunes will be able to.

 

[dandgage]

I just looked and of course it's NTFS

 

[SecuritySteve]

https://www.paragon-software.com/us/home/ntfs-mac/ You might be interested in using this then. I'm not sure if iTunes will work with it - but before you do anything you could at least do a free trial or something to ascertain if it does for sure.

 

[priitv8]

iTunes can handle library and media folders separately.

For future portability, it is good idea to keep the media folder organised by iTunes.
See "Find the iTunes Media folder" in https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201625

I keep my library (database file - iTunes Library.itl) on the user storage on mac (ie Home > Music > iTunes), and media folder on external drive (ie moved the Home > Music > iTunes > iTunes Media folder out from default location, to external drive).
This way my iTunes library database is also being automatically backed up by Time Machine.

 

[dandgage]

iTunes can handle library and media folders separately.

For future portability, it is good idea to keep the media folder organised by iTunes.
See "Find the iTunes Media folder" in https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201625

I keep my library (database file - iTunes Library.itl) on the user storage on mac (ie Home > Music > iTunes), and media folder on external drive (ie moved the Home > Music > iTunes > iTunes Media folder out from default location, to external drive).
This way my iTunes library database is also being automatically backed up by Time Machine.

Thank you for the response, so as long as I keep the Library file on my internal, my media folder could remain on an external, even if it's NTFS iTunes could read it?

 

[priitv8]

Thank you for the response, so as long as I keep the Library file on my internal, my media folder could remain on an external, even if it's NTFS iTunes could read it?

It really does not matter where you keep your iTunes library and media folder. You just need to point it to correct places for both (lib - by launching iTunes and holding the Alt key, media - by setting correct path in advanced preferences).
iTunes needs to have write access to the media location though, so if you want to keep it on an NTFS drive, you need to install Paragon drivers to help macOS write to NTFS volume.
Alternatively, you can share your NTFS external drive over network via SMB, then you just need to grant your user write access to that network share.

 

[dandgage]

It really does not matter where you keep your iTunes library and media folder. You just need to point it to correct places for both (lib - by launching iTunes and holding the Alt key, media - by setting correct path in advanced preferences).
iTunes needs to have write access to the media location though, so if you want to keep it on an NTFS drive, you need to install Paragon drivers to help macOS write to NTFS volume.
Alternatively, you can share your NTFS external drive over network via SMB, then you just need to grant your user write access to that network share.

Thank you everyone for your help. I bit the bullet and bought another drive, formatted it to exFat (the only non-NTFS option I had), transferred to the new, formatted the old, transferred back, then erased the new (which I regret now but I wanted to save additional stuff from my computer. My iMac arrived, which I love so far, when I plug in the new HDD it recognizes with no problems, but the larger HDD with all the iTunes library on it now won't mount. Under Disk Utility I can see it, but it won't mount. Is there any fix? I've check connections, different ports, etc. I would really like to avoid re-transferring on the old PC again then formatting on the Mac, but I don't know what else I could do. The un-mountable drive is named in lower case letters when everything else is all CAPs, would that have anything to do with it? Sorry for the wordy post but this is a little frustrating.