I just got a new Mac powerbook 15 inch G4. And i used to have a windows (dell) desktop with all of my itunes songs on it (about 300, I bought most of them on itunes). And I dont want to have to buy all of them again. Please let me know if there is an easy way to move the songs over.
moving itnues songs form a Windows desktop to a Mac laptop
- Thread starter wsj323
- Start date
ElDiabloConCaca
U.S.D.A. Prime
Are your computers networked? If so, simply enable Windows Sharing in the System Preferences on your Mac, then connect to it with your Windows machine (smb://IP-address-of-Mac in the "Connect To Server" option in the Finder) and copy the iTunes folder to your Mac.
Add the songs to your iTunes on the Mac, and then make sure you're connected to the internet and play a purchased song. You will be asked to "authorize" your Mac to play the music; do so and it should start playing.
If you don't want to play the music on your Windows computer anymore after this, open iTunes on the Windows computer and select "Deauthorize Computer" from the "Advanced" menu.
Add the songs to your iTunes on the Mac, and then make sure you're connected to the internet and play a purchased song. You will be asked to "authorize" your Mac to play the music; do so and it should start playing.
If you don't want to play the music on your Windows computer anymore after this, open iTunes on the Windows computer and select "Deauthorize Computer" from the "Advanced" menu.
ElDiabloConCaca
U.S.D.A. Prime
Got any kind of external disk -- USB or FireWire?
You're going to need some sort of physical medium to move the files from the Windows computer to the Mac -- a network, an external disk that you can move between the computers, an iPod, etc. Do you have any of these?
A simple network can be made by simply connecting an ethernet cable between the two computers. The Mac will auto-sense the cable (whether it's a normal ethernet cable, or a "crossover" cable) and adjust it so that the two computers can be networked in this setup.
Otherwise, you'll need some external disk drive or some other physical medium in which to transfer the files.
Another possibility would be to use some web space or email or something -- a Gmail account, a .mac account, some online storage account, etc. It would be as slow as your internet connection though, so while not the fastest method, it's one sure-fire way to get it done.
You're going to need some sort of physical medium to move the files from the Windows computer to the Mac -- a network, an external disk that you can move between the computers, an iPod, etc. Do you have any of these?
A simple network can be made by simply connecting an ethernet cable between the two computers. The Mac will auto-sense the cable (whether it's a normal ethernet cable, or a "crossover" cable) and adjust it so that the two computers can be networked in this setup.
Otherwise, you'll need some external disk drive or some other physical medium in which to transfer the files.
Another possibility would be to use some web space or email or something -- a Gmail account, a .mac account, some online storage account, etc. It would be as slow as your internet connection though, so while not the fastest method, it's one sure-fire way to get it done.
ElDiabloConCaca
U.S.D.A. Prime
Yep, just copy the files from your Windows PC onto the iPod -- you'll need to do this in "disk mode", though, as it's not the same as sync'ing your iPod with iTunes on Windows. You should be able to mount the iPod as a disk on your Windows computer, then copy the songs to the root directory of the iPod. Then, connect the iPod to the Mac, and if the Mac asks you to authorize the iPod or remove the songs or anything like that, say "No" or "Cancel." The iPod should mount as a disk on your Macintosh (if it doesn't, you may need to adjust the iPod preferences in iTunes to not automatically launch iTunes whenever an iPod is connected) and then copy the songs off of it onto the Mac.