iTunes Backup

H

Harvey

Registered
Hello everyone, I'm about to replace my iBook with a new Powerbook. How can I move iTunes and all my music over to the new machine without having to recreate my playlists and whatnot? I have a very large external firewire disk that I can move data to if necessary.
Any tips appreciated!
 
i've done this a few times. i've learned not to get too attachted to any playlists... i lose them every six months or so usually. it doesn't seem to be an exact science, but my suggestion would be find the com.apple.itunes.plist (or similar, look in the library in either the system or your user folder, and navigate through until you find the right file. it's confusing, but quite intuitive if you think about it) and transfer that to your new 'book. that would be all the settings (playlists included)

another option (i've never done this, so can't vouch) would be the old-to-new apple firewire connection transfer facility. it should tranfer EVERYTHING across, so you can sit back and enjoy the speed increase without the hassel of set-up
 
THanks,

I won't have the luxury of having both the machines at the same time, so I'll have to try your plist dig trick, thanks!

How about transfering the actual music? Is there anyway to do that?

If I just transfer the mp3's, I'll have to reimport them to my music library again after I move the files to the new Mac right? Would like to avoid that if possible. I know it's not too tough, but looking for any shortcuts possible!
 
Thanks!

I won't have access to both machines at the same time though~ Selling an old one to get a new one. An in-store Japanese swap!
 
you could ask, if it's an apple store, if they would let you transfer your music and all your files across using migration assitant, if the units are going to change hands on the same day. it would seem helpful and only polite to let you sit there with afirewire cable. it would suit the apple store's image, i would think.
 
You should look into an external backup? Good just in case something ever happens with your regular drive.
 
The easiest way i've found to backup my music, and you keep all of your files and playlists - is simply to copy the 3 items located in your home directory Music>iTunes and there should be 3 files (a folder, iTunes data file and an xml file). As Randman said the best option is probly to get an external drive, as it is i need to get one and it will come in handy for you. So just copy those three files over to an backup drive of some sort then when you get your powerbook copy it back over to the same place and replace those 3 default files.
 
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