Move Your Music to Another Computer

If your computers are connected to your home network, you can use music sharing to listen to music on another computer. But if you want to copy your music to your laptop, for example, and your computers aren’t connected to your home network, you can use your iPod or a removable hard disk to quickly copy your songs from one computer to another.

Tips

Authorizing iTunes Music Store purchases on a new computer

When you move music to another computer, you’ll need to authorize it to play iTunes Music Store purchases. Just enter your Apple ID and password when prompted. Check out our topic on Authorizing and Deauthorizing Your Computers, for more information.

Enable disk use on your iPod

If you have space available, and you want to use your iPod as a removable hard disk to move music and videos to a new computer, start by connecting your iPod to your computer. Select your iPod from the iTunes Source list, and then click the iPod Options button. Click the "Enable disk use" checkbox, and then click OK. On a Windows computer, find your iPod listed as a drive under "My Computer." On a Mac, find your iPod in the sidebar of a Finder window.

Remove songs from your iPod

When you’re using your iPod as a removable hard disk, and you need to make room so that you can move more songs and videos, you’ll need to set your iPod to manually manage songs and playlists. With your iPod selected in your iTunes Source list, click the iPod Options button. Make sure "Manually manage songs and playlists" is selected, and then click OK. Now you can remove the songs you want, in order to make space. When you’re done moving songs and videos, you might want to go back to iPod Options, and set it back to "Automatically update all songs and playlists."

Move your playlists

If you want to copy your playlists to another computer, along with your music, just go to the File menu and select Export Library. Type a name for your exported library, save it to your removable hard disk, and then click Save. Now connect your removable hard disk to your new computer and open iTunes. From the File menu, select Import. On a Windows computer, select "XML files" from the Files of type menu, and then locate the exported library file on your removable hard disk. Click Open, and all the playlists on your old computer will be copied over. If some playlists were duplicated, just select the duplicates, go to the Edit menu, and select Clear.

Steps

Set your iPod to be a removable hard disk and copy your music to another computer

Connect your iPod to your computer and open iTunes.
Select iPod in the iTunes Source list.
Click the iPod Options button in the lower-right corner of the iTunes window.
Click the "Enable disk use" checkbox, and then click OK.
On a Windows computer, find your iPod listed as a drive in "My Computer." On a Mac, find your iPod in a Finder window.
You might want to create a folder named "Music" on your iPod to make it easier to find your files later.
Drag songs from your iTunes Library to the "Music" folder you just created.
When you’re done copying songs, eject the iPod, and then connect it to the new computer.
Now find your iPod listed as a drive in "My Computer" (on a Mac, find your iPod from a Finder window), and drag the "Music" folder to your iTunes Library.

Use data CDs or DVDs to move your music to another computer

Open iTunes Preferences. Click the Advanced button at the top of the window and then click Burning.
Choose Data CD as the Disc Format, then click OK.
Create a new playlist, give it a name, and add the songs you want to move.
Click the Burn Disc button.
Insert additional CDs or DVDs as necessary.
Go to your new computer and insert the data CD or DVD you just created.
Drag songs from the data CD or DVD to your iTunes Source list.