iTunes data from Mac to PC

csonni

Is one able to copy over the iTunes data from a Mac to PC to retain all the album, genre, artist, etc. allocated to each song? If so, what is the process?

Chealion

csonni - The basic data on the songs (artist, title, album, album artwork, genre, etc.) is all stored in the ID3 tags of the song, so you can copy it wherever you'd like and the information stays the same. What won't copy is iTunes metadata like the play count, when it was last played, etc.

__________________
Chealion the one, the only, and pleased to be at your service. =)
Forum Rules | Classifieds Rules
I still remember Macnutt.

csonni

So I guess what I need to know now is what do I need to copy over? I keep my iTune files (songs) in a separate folder. Do I copy over anything in the iTunes folder in the My Music folder, even though my actual music isn't in there? And then, where in Windows do I place the copy?

Macified

Are the two computers networked together? If you can access the mac from the pc, you could simply add the songs you want to the PC library and they will be copied over to the appropriate location.

If you are not connected, burn a data CD on the Mac and put it in the PC. Again, use the Add to menu item and add the music from the CD. It will be copied appropriately.

Good luck.

__________________
“Maybe some day somebody will call me "Sir" without adding "You're making a scene"!!”
-Homer Simpson

csonni

For some reason I thought there are other files I need to copy over to retain the data. When adding songs on the Mac, I had to do a lot of work changing info on artist, genre, album, etc. That's why I am askign if the data will be retained just by adding the songs, or is there a database the includes that info?

Chealion

csonni - The song data is supposed to be attached to the file itself, however you can always copy over the file called "iTunes Music Library.xml" which is the database for iTunes. By copying this file essentially you're copying the settings for iTunes as to what it thinks it's supposed to be seeing. (Preferences are different and can't be copied between the two OSes).

If you copy that over all the song information including the iTunes metadata will be copied over also. However this will overwrite what you currently have so if you have two different lists I don't know of anyway to get them to merge together.

__________________
Chealion the one, the only, and pleased to be at your service. =)
Forum Rules | Classifieds Rules
I still remember Macnutt.

Macified

The basic song information is included (name, time, genre, lyrics, artwork, etc. it's all in there). If you had to fiddle with it in the past it's because the data was missing or was not in line with what you wanted. You don't always get the right info when you rip a CD and CDDB provides the track info. Once you have it fixed, it stays that way. Just resterday I needed to move a very specialized playlist to another computer. I burned a data CD, put it in the new system, selected add to library and picked the tracks from the CD. It was all intact. Mind you, that was Mac to Mac but it won't matter going to a PC. As long as you burn a data CD, all the details will be included. Just don't burn an audio CD since that format doesn't support any track information at all.

Good luck.

__________________
“Maybe some day somebody will call me "Sir" without adding "You're making a scene"!!”
-Homer Simpson