Bill has been an information systems professional for more than 20 years. He enjoys writing about cooking, local history, and technology. I bought a new laptop that had Windows 10 installed and spent a day and a half transferring programs, photos, etc. The last task was to transfer my iTunes music, something I expected to be rather straight forward, This turned out to be a daunting task, not because the process is difficult, but because most of the online how-to articles grossly over-complicate the issue. This method will preserve all of your play counts, ratings, and playlists. An external storage device is the easiest and fastest way to transfer the files between two PC's. It made transferring many gigabytes of photos from the old PC to the new one really easy, plus it serves as a back-up for all of my media files photos, music, movies, etc.

Use an External Storage Device
Part 2: Transfer iTunes Library to a New PC with Home Sharing
This article was co-authored by our trained team of editors and researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness. This article has been viewed 1,, times. Learn more This wikiHow teaches you how to move your iTunes music library from one computer to a new computer. You'll need to use a USB drive or an external hard drive to do this. Eject the hard drive, then plug it into your new computer. To learn some keyboard shortcuts you can use to make transferring your library easier, keep reading!
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When you get a new computer or hard drive, you can move your iTunes library, enabling you to run iTunes on a new machine, and keep the links to these music files active. Make a new backup of your iTunes library, or update your existing backup before you move it. Even if you already have a backup of your iTunes library, this step makes sure you capture any changes and makes the process easier. This will keep anything you added to your new computer separate from your old library. Before you begin, de-select the option to keep your iTunes media folder organised:. NOTE: If you move your media to an external hard drive, you must connect that drive to your computer to access your files. Remember to back up the media you have in iTunes. Next, move your iTunes folder, and any associated media to a new drive location. To copy all of your media files, including the library file that holds all your playlists and other settings, to your new computer:. You've now moved all of your music, playlists, and other information—including play counts and ratings—from your old computer to your new one.
Before you transfer or restore your iTunes media library on your PC, consolidate it and create a back up. And when you back up your Mac , your media library is automatically included in that backup. Consolidate your iTunes library Open iTunes. Select Consolidate files. Click OK. To save space on your hard drive, you might want to delete the original files after you make sure that the copies are in your iTunes Media Folder. After you consolidate your media files, you can back up your library and media files to an external drive. If you're restoring an iTunes Library from a different computer, make sure that your new computer has the latest version of iTunes. Information about products not manufactured by Apple, or independent websites not controlled or tested by Apple, is provided without recommendation or endorsement.