{ 87 comments… read them below or add one }

bman April 8, 2009 at 6:05 am

How do you do this in reverse? A Mac to a PC. I tried this method and it didn't work going from a Mac to PC. Only a portion of the playlists and a small percentage of the songs came over. Any suggestions?

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Jake Bouma April 14, 2009 at 12:17 am

I'm not sure how you'd do this in reverse. If you find something helpful, feel free to post the link back here.

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will April 27, 2009 at 8:52 am

Thank you so much for this. I tried other methods on my new macbook pro and nothing would maintain my playcounts. This worked perfectly first attempt.

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Jake Bouma April 27, 2009 at 5:54 pm

Glad it worked, Will!

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MattSilver May 25, 2009 at 1:04 am

Jake – Any comment on if this will work from XP to Vista? I have transferred the songs and playlists, but can't find a way to get the ratings over. Thanks. Matt

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Jake Bouma June 1, 2009 at 7:51 pm

Matt, I'm not sure if it will work when switching between Windows operating systems… If you try it out, let me know how it works (I would assume you do much the same thing as explained above).

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mandie June 6, 2009 at 5:19 am

i just got a new imac and have been trying to transfer my itunes from my pc with xp for hours. every time i start from scratch and import my whole library, all of the metadata is gone, which is to be expected, since it's creating a new itl file. i can't get my xp itunes to export an itl file, just xml, so i followed the steps on here a few times, and every time i get it to show my playlists and play counts, 90% of my library disappears from itunes (it shows 3 gb instead of 30).
all of the files are still in the music folder and everything, but they are disappearing from itunes. also, the xml file reduces itself down to ~1mb instead of the 10 mb file i just moved into the itunes folder.
if i then proceed to add the rest of the music back into itunes, it's not helpful, because the metadata for those just-added files isn't there. the playlists each only have a few songs, and the play counts are only there for the original 3gb that showed up.
i am at my wit's end. please, PLEASE email and help me if you can.

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JoeyL June 11, 2009 at 9:38 pm

I can't get this to work for me. I have Vista on my pc, not XP and I have the brand new MacBook Pro. Is this why it's not working?

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Jake Bouma June 11, 2009 at 10:59 pm

It may be Vista that is the problem. It doesn't matter how new your Mac is, unless you're not running Leopard (but I assume you are, since it's new).

What do you mean when you say it's not working? Which part of the process gives you problems?

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Jake Bouma June 11, 2009 at 11:01 pm

Mandie, I'm not sure what the problem is. Have you had any luck since posting your comment?

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TracyP July 6, 2009 at 12:12 am

I just tried this method, and even though I managed to get the library with all my songs and playlists transferred to my macbook ok, it is not listing all the songs under the main music category…..How do I get the songs listed there? Anyone have any ideas please?
Thanks!

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Lilly July 15, 2009 at 11:49 pm

I tried this yesterday with my new macbook. All of the playlist titles were transferred, but no songs? Anyone know what went wrong?

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Jasmine Crenshaw July 25, 2009 at 4:23 am

i just tried it…and for some reason it didnt work.

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jasmine Crenshaw July 25, 2009 at 4:27 am

do you think it's because i had already transferred my songs to my mac?

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Mark Feldman November 9, 2009 at 4:50 am

This was very helpful, and it seems like it ought to work, but for some reason on step 8 nothing happened. When I opened itunes it didn't automatically start building a library based on my new xml file. Do you have any idea what could be wrong? Thanks.

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Macslow December 1, 2009 at 9:19 pm

same happened to me. any ideas? maybe because I'm using the very latest version of itunes?

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Macslow December 1, 2009 at 9:19 pm

same happened to me. any ideas? maybe because I'm using the very latest version of itunes?

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kenny January 9, 2010 at 11:36 pm

dude, this saved my head from exploding. i found similar explanations on how to do this, but i felt confident about yours and it really helped that it was explained so clearly. my 20,000 song library transferred without any loss of meta data, etc. YOU ROCK!

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Jake Bouma January 10, 2010 at 2:31 am

Glad that it helped… and believe me, I know the feeling of euphoria when everything is there!

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Joyce January 28, 2010 at 1:15 pm

Thank you SO MUCH. the move was seamless, fuss-free and basically worked like magic. I've bookmarked this page just in case. You are awesome in every sense of the word.

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Joyce January 28, 2010 at 1:15 pm

Thank you SO MUCH. the move was seamless, fuss-free and basically worked like magic. I've bookmarked this page just in case. You are awesome in every sense of the word.

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tom August 23, 2010 at 9:50 pm

im having the exact same problem.. only 10gb of my 25gb library is being copied

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Eric October 7, 2010 at 9:41 pm

One of the easiest ways to transfer iTunes library is by use software to copy the library contents off your iPod to another computer. I recommend Mac iPod to iPod/Computer/iTunes Transfer.It helps me to copy songs/videos/photos/playlists etc from ipod to Mac directly and safely.

Free download it at: http://www.ipodtocomputercopy.com/macconverter/ma…

Also you can backup your itunes to CDs or DVDs.All you need are blank discs and some time.
Hope it helps.

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katie m December 27, 2010 at 3:25 pm

ummmmm this isent working for meeee

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Drew December 27, 2010 at 6:05 pm

…thanks!…editing the xml file got me rolling again but was not able to get the artwork…not sure why yet…cheers…Drew

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Charles A. January 13, 2011 at 3:15 am

dude you saved me from throwing this mac out the window, i had issues at first because i had previously opened iTunes the very first time i got the laptop, causing it to auto-create several sub folders and files inside the iTunes folder. what I then did was to go into the iTunes folder after i totally shut down iTunes and delete everything in it except for the edited XML file and the now empty iTunes Library File. worked like a charm after that. Thank You So Much!!

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ajay July 23, 2011 at 8:57 am

it didn't work for me…

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ajay July 23, 2011 at 8:57 am

it didn't work for me…

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ajay July 23, 2011 at 8:57 am

it didn't work for me…

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ajay July 23, 2011 at 8:57 am

it didn't work for me…

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ajay July 23, 2011 at 8:57 am

it didn't work for me…

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ajay July 23, 2011 at 8:57 am

it didn't work for me…

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