<p>So all our soon-to-be college freshman are getting shiny new computers!</p>
<p>I respect the computer “experts” here on CC - how does one go about transferring Itunes accounts/Ipod contents to a new computer - i.e., the shiny new laptop?</p>
<p>Any SIMPLE instructions/guidance appreciated!</p>
<p>Wise of you to ask. Last year instead of packing, Son’s last days at home were spent trying to recover his entire iTunes account, which totally disappeared when he attempted the transfer. He was able to get it all back, but it was time-consuming and he was depressed during the time he thought it was all lost!</p>
<p>Well, S was just telling me that he was “cleaning out” his Itunes library and that prompted me to think - hey you need to put that all on YOUR laptop now! The “to do” list of stuff before he leaves is growing so I told him I would start to investigate the process now!</p>
<p>My son used a USB memory stick. He saved the music on the the stick and installed it onto his new laptop.</p>
<p>But how will Itunes recognize the new computer? I thought there would be problems if you plug the Ipod into a new computer…because you are only allowed access through one computer ???</p>
<p>I wish the boys were here so I could ask them exactly how they did this (they’re both working). I do know that it was simple for them and they did use the memory stick to transfer the music onto the new laptop. They won’t be home until this evening so I can’t ask them the specifics of the procedure right now.</p>
<p>You can access up to 5 computers with same account.</p>
<p>[About</a> iTunes Store authorization and deauthorization](<a href=“http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1420]About”>Authorize or deauthorize your computer for iTunes Store purchases - Apple Support)</p>
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<p>You can also find videos on how to do this on You Tube. Go to You Tube and search–“transferring your itunes library to a new computer”. I think there is a good one on You Tube from circuitcitydotcom</p>
<p>I can’t include the link because CC doesn’t allow You Tube links.</p>
<p>There are several programs (Copytrans, iPod Copy, iGadget) in which you download that program to your new computer, sync your iPod/iPhone with that program, and that program will sync all the music to your new iTunes.</p>
<p>Is there one of these people have tried??? I’ve very untrusting of programs like that…</p>
<p>What you should really do is make sure that you have your music on some kind of ‘backup’; this could be a harddrive, an iPod, a memory stick, whatever. Then just take that, connect it to your new laptop, and you should be given some options as to how to get that music into your shiny new music library. I.e. not much legwork on your part and no program.</p>
<p>If you’re untrusting of the suggested programs just do a google search on them and see if any tech forums come up; read the reviews about them on there. Otherwise, if the site looks legitimate (plus a person is recommending them) then they’re probably not going to do any damage.</p>
<p>If you need help figuring out how to recover music off of an iPod there’s a method for that.</p>
<p>I know for a fact that my kids did not use a separate program to do this.</p>
<p>My advice is let your teenage son figure it out. Apple software is written by 14 year olds, so your kid has a better chance of pulling off an iTunes transfer than you do.</p>
<p>Seriously, though. The issue is getting the actual music files transfered to the new computer, which can be done over a network, with memory sticks, or with an external hard drive. Once you have done that, you can always get iTunes to simply rebuild the library (unless you’ve used iTunes features like song ratings, then rebuilding the library will lose all of that… like I say, written by 14 year olds)</p>
<p>The authorization of a new computer and/or deauthorization of the old computer is pretty trivial. You can do it from within iTunes.</p>
<p>Actually my S who needs to do this is oh so smart, but oh so not “practical figuring out thinks” smart! And I’d like to see him do it right the first time without too much stress. We have enough of that right now!!!</p>
<p>So sounds like…
<p>Is that correct?</p>
<p>What will his Itunes on the new computer do when he plugs his Ipod in it - will it recognize it and say that this now uses up another one of his 5 allowed computers???</p>
<p>my son did this for me recently.
I downloaded the itunes program onto my computer.
Then he moved my music from the old computer to toa flash drive
And then opened the Itunes on my new computer and “dragged” it in from the flash drive.
Worked well for the most part.<br>
But I lost my playlists!! I recreated them…took me about an hour. Maybe there’s a better way.</p>
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<p>He’s perfect for “becoming one” with iTunes, then. Software written by 14 year olds doesn’t lend itself to figuring it out.</p>
<p>If you want to dive into this:</p>
<p>iTunes needs the actual song files on your computer. If you are smart, you let iTunes organize the song files in separate folders by artist, by album, stored in your iTunes library folder. If you are really smart, you figure out how to only have one copy of each song, instead of two on your hard drive.</p>
<p>iTunes than maintains at least two separate database files (the actual itunes library files) that must properly link to the song files. Some data is stored in the song files. Some data is stored in these two library files. When all else fails, you can delete the libarary files and tell iTunes to build new ones, looking in the folder that contains all of your music. If you son has NOT used the special features (like ratings and so fortth), then moving the music and having iTunes rebuild the library would probably be a smart way to do. That’s how my daughter did it when she moved her library to an external harddrive. I can’t do that, because I have every song rated (4 stars, 5 stars, etc.) and that is stored in library files, so if I delete the library files, I’m screwed. When my iTunes crashes, I have to manually relink the library entries to the song files, which is a major pain in the butt (I’m not 14, iTunes doesn’t think I’m hip enough…).</p>
<p>There are whole websites devoted to these issues. If you wanna get involved or if you want to send you son, I suggest starting with a Google. </p>
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<p>If you are lucky, iTunes will recognize an iPod, but it will not be authorized and will not synch to the iPod until you authorize the computer. That will require knowing the iTunes store login and password and so forth.</p>
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My kid did it this way yesterday. Lost her playlists but she said that was no biggie. She also loaded my iphone and her mom’s itouch but straight from her old laptop. Weird.</p>
<p>The playlists are part of the “extra features” that are stored in the iTunes libary. If you want to preserve all of those, you would have to move them with your iTunes song files. Under certain phases of the moon and with the proper mixture of St. Johns Wort and shaved leg hair from Steve Jobs, this can be accomplished (by anyone under the age of 20) by simply copying the entire iTunes folder to the exact same location on the new computer (assuming the same operating system and iTunes version.</p>
<p>Start reading here:</p>
<p>[Transferring</a> your iTunes Library | iLounge Article](<a href=“http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to-a-new-hard-drive/]Transferring”>Transferring your iTunes Library | iLounge)</p>
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<p>The absolute simplest way is to buy an Apple computer at the apple store and have the apple genius transfer the account. Because of his extensive iTunes library, they needed to keep both computers overnight. The most time-consuming was what I had attempted earlier when we tried to move everything from his windows computer to a hard drive. I copied 20 songs at a time. When you have several thousand songs, it took FOREVER. It was definitely worth it to us to pay the $100 for the OnetoOne membership which gives him free data transfer and the opportunity to schedule free tech tutoring for one year.</p>