[Mallrat]

I just bought a new 20GB iPod for my girlfriend. She currently has an older 10GB iPod that I also bought her 2 years ago. Go me!

Anyway, is there an easy way to transfer all the contest of the older 10GB iPod to the new one?

I assume there is an easy way, but I don't know how off the top of my head. Maybe some freeware will do the trick?

Thanks.

[Krusty]

Well, if you still have the music files on your computer then its as simple as plugging in the new iPod and sync-ing your library down to it (just like you'd do with any new iPod). iTunes does not have to be mated to a single iPod -- it can simultaneously support multiple iPods.

If your saying that you want to upload files FROM the old iPod to your computer (because they don't exist on the your computer anymore), then there is a plethora iPod exporting freeware at versiontracker. Just search on "iPod" and you'll have more choices than you can shake a stick at.

[Mallrat]

Originally posted by Krusty:
Well, if you still have the music files on your computer then its as simple as plugging in the new iPod and sync-ing your library down to it (just like you'd do with any new iPod). iTunes does not have to be mated to a single iPod -- it can simultaneously support multiple iPods.

If your saying that you want to upload files FROM the old iPod to your computer (because they don't exist on the your computer anymore), then there is a plethora iPod exporting freeware at versiontracker. Just search on "iPod" and you'll have more choices than you can shake a stick at.

NO don't have all the music on my computer's harddrive as my HD is only 10GB and the iPod is 15GB.

I do have an external harddrive though. I guess I can take the orignal iPod's music, transfer it to the external harddrive, then move that onto my new Ipod.

But does that work, without messing anything up?

I didn't know if there was some cool way to hook up the Ipod's directly and then transfer them. Like make one iPod a firewire disk that the other can read.

[icruise]

I read about a program that was made especially for this purpose, but it seems to have disappeared. iPod2iTunes (http://www.crispsofties.com/i.i/index.html) will apparently let you do this, albeit in a roundabout manner. The details are in their readme file (copied below for your convenience). You'd need to use the external hard disk in any case.

How to clone an iPod

If you have a new iPod, you probably want to transfer the music and playlists from the old one to the new one. To make an 1:1 clone from one iPod to another:


Using iTunes 3.x or 4.x:
- Quit iTunes.
- Move the folder "iTunes" located at /Users/YourName/Music/ to the desktop.
- Start iTunes (everything is empty now).
- Quit iTunes (this forces the creation of the library file on disk).
- Create a folder "iTunes Music" in /Users/YourName/Music/iTunes/.
- Use iPod.iTunes to transfer all tracks and playlists to iTunes (your disk must have enough free space to hold the entire music of the iPod!).
- Disconnect the iPod and attach the second iPod.
- Let iTunes synchronize to the second iPod.
- Quit iTunes.
- Move the iTunes folder located at /Users/YourName/Music/ to trash.
- Move the iTunes folder on the desktop back to /Users/YourName/Music/.


Please note: If you have any data other than the music on your old iPod you must copy this data via the Finder to the new iPod.

[Mallrat]

Originally posted by Icruise:
I read about a program that was made especially for this purpose, but it seems to have disappeared. iPod2iTunes (http://www.crispsofties.com/i.i/index.html) will apparently let you do this, albeit in a roundabout manner. The details are in their readme file (copied below for your convenience). You'd need to use the external hard disk in any case.

I went to versiontracker.com and downloaded a program called IPodViewer.

Easily got the songs from my 10GB ipod to my external 120 Firewire drive.

Now I'm trying to move those songs to the 20GB new iPod, but I'm having trouble.

I moved my current ITunes Music Folder to my desktop so when I open iTunes, now there is nothing in the library.

Then I went to advanced and set up my music library to connect to my external harddrive. But that didn't seem to do anything. I quit iTunes to try and get all the songs to show up in the library, but that didn't work.

My ibook HD is only 10Gb, so it can't fit all the songs.

For those of you who use an external harddrive to store their music, how do I get it to show up in the iTunes library and sync up my new iPod?

It seems that what I'm doing should work. What am I missing?

Thank you.

[X-Ray]

You could use the iPod Action Pack. Here:http://www.ifthensoft.com/index2.html

[Krusty]

Originally posted by Mallrat:


Then I went to advanced and set up my music library to connect to my external harddrive. But that didn't seem to do anything. I quit iTunes to try and get all the songs to show up in the library, but that didn't work.

Simply setting the new folder doesn't automatically add them to your iTunes library. You must set the iTunes music library location ... THEN ... go into iTunes-->File-->Add to Library and browse out to the physical location of the folder.

It is done this way for a number of reasons. For example, if you set your library to your Music folder, you can still add other songs from a shared location or other places on your drive. More simply, setting your library location defines where FUTURE additions to iTunes will be added .. it doesn't automatically add music that already exists (well ... it does the very first time you fire up iTunes and it asks you if you "want iTunes to find music on your drive" -- otherwise you have to manually re-add the songs by using "Add to Library")

[Mallrat]

Originally posted by Krusty:
Simply setting the new folder doesn't automatically add them to your iTunes library. You must set the iTunes music library location ... THEN ... go into iTunes-->File-->Add to Library and browse out to the physical location of the folder.

It is done this way for a number of reasons. For example, if you set your library to your Music folder, you can still add other songs from a shared location or other places on your drive. More simply, setting your library location defines where FUTURE additions to iTunes will be added .. it doesn't automatically add music that already exists (well ... it does the very first time you fire up iTunes and it asks you if you "want iTunes to find music on your drive" -- otherwise you have to manually re-add the songs by using "Add to Library")

Thanks Krusty. That helped a lot. It worked.

Only thing I couldn't get was the playlists. Do you have to redo them or is there a way to get them to transfer over?

It's not that hard to make new playlists, but my girlfriend had like 100's of them and it would be easier just to somehow copy them over.

Thanks for all the help. If you have any more, please share. But you already made my day (or night).

-matt

[Krusty]

Yes, you can not only transfer the playlists but ALL information (play counts, ratings etc). If you understand finding and replacing data in text files, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, understand what you are trying to achieve, its not that hard.

All this information is stored in iTunes Music Library.xml (which usually resides in /~YourUserName/Music/iTunes/). You can copy this file from your old machine to your new machine and then find/replace some key bits of information with the information in the iTunes Music Library.xml that lives on your new machine.

Here are the basic steps:
Copy your old iTunes Music Library.xml from your old machine to the desktop of your new machine.
Quit iTunes (as in fully quit, not just with the window closed)
Open the copy of iTunes Music Library.xml on your desktop with Text Edit
Open the iTunes Music Library.xml from the /~Username/Music/iTunes folder on your new machine with Text Edit.
If you look in the first few lines you will see two lines that look like this:

Code:
<key>Music Folder</key><string>file://localhost/Volumes/Media/iTunes%20Music/</string>
	<key>Library Persistent ID</key><string>604251887E3A374D</string>

You'll notice that the "Music Folder" key points to the path where you set your music library. Go into the OLD iTunes Music Library.xml (on your desktop) and select the location string (the part between <string> and </string> and copy. Go into the Edit menu of Text Edit and choose "Find". This will bring up a dialog. Paste the location string into the "Find" window. Now, go into the NEW copy of iTunes Music Libary.xml and copy the location from it. Go back to the OLD iTunes Music Library and paste this new locaion in the "Replace With" window and click the "Replace All" button. This will take several seconds as it replaces the pathway not only to your library location, but to the individual file locations of every single song in the old library (that are futher down in the xml file).

Do the same thing with the "Persistent ID" string ... replacing all the old values with new ones (won't take as long since this info is only in a few locations). Save the iTunes Music Library.xml that you just modified. Make a backup of the iTunes Music Library.xml that lives in /~UserName/Music/iTunes (or just rename it .. whatever).

Next, copy the desktop copy of "iTunes Music Library.xml" to /~UserName/Music/iTunes.

Fire up iTunes ... everything should be ported exactly as it was on your old machine.

Its really not that hard .. all the complexity in what I described above is in the Find/Replace procedure and keeping your files straight. If you already understand how to do stuff like that, then the concept is actually quite easy -- you're really just updating your old music library with the new location and persistent ID info that is appropriate to your new machine.

If I knew for a fact that you already understood the Find/Replace and file stuff, I could've just as easily described this process in a single sentence: "Copy your old iTunes Music Libray.xml to your new machine and update your localized strings".