Move music library files between Windows and MAC

[Texas]

Hi,
I have a MAC laptop. I want to connect the laptop to the media center pc. Now the media center runs on Windows Vista. I want to know is there are way by which I can share music between Windows Media player and iTunes in Mac pc. Both runs on different operating system, so I guess that it might now work. I do not want to go for conversion process. It there is any software and please provide the download link of the same. Thanks in advance.

[Devasis]

Here is a simple way by which you can transfer music from Windows Media player to iTunes. In this way if you have a large collection of songs then it is really hard to convert or move. So just by a automated service available in the application you can transfer the songs between both. First you will have to download a converter which can convert a Windows Media Player format to iTunes. By default Windows Media player stores all the music files in My Music folder. It is located in C:\Documents & Settings\Shared Folders. From this you can simply copy paste the entire files to your MAC pc. Then on iTunes click on File > Import. Give the location for the folder and next.

[Solomon]

If you want to move the library from iTunes to Windows Media player then here is a simple solution for your. First you need a common music file format. The most common is mp3. First download and install MusicBridge to your MAC pc. Now open iTunes and click on Edit > Preference > Advance > Importing. Form the drop down list select mp3 encoder. Then in the library select all the files and then right click on them. Select Convert Selection to MP3. After the conversion exit iTunes. Here Music bridge does not copy paste the songs to media player but syncs the media player library with it. Now open Windows Media player. Go to library and add library. Navigate to iTunes folder in MAC by connecting both the systems with each other. Media player will scan the pc and add the songs.

[MrChris-]

Simply launch iTunes and click on File. Then select add folder to the library. now copy paste the My Music folder from your Windows pc to MAC. Select the folder. I tunes will prompt you for a conversion. Mainly iTunes and Windows Media player both are compatible with each other. So just give ok. iTune will sync the music files on your MAC pc. Once the conversion process finishes then all the music files will be added to the iTunes.

[kris1212]

I have tried to import my WMP library to iTunes on a new iMac 2 different ways as described in different web forums. 1) I copied my My Music folder onto a flash drive, attached the drive to the iMac, opened iTunes, clicked File, Add to Library, then navigated to the flash drive, opened it, and selected the music folder. Then what happens is the folder opens, all the songs and associated artwork show up as individual files. I select one or more songs. The only button option shown is Open. There is no conversion option, there is no "copy" function. When I click Open, the dialog box closes and nothing happens. The song does not appear in the iTunes library. 2) I have also tried moving songs onto the iMac desktop by dragging them there when the Add to Library window is open. When I do this, the song shows up in the Places menu, but I can't locate it on the desktop. When I bought the iMac, the Apple sales rep said that WMP and iTunes are pretty much interchangeable. I know there are some differences in formatting, but he made it sound like all I had to do was drag & drop, and iTunes would do the necessary conversion. What am I missing?

[Champak]

I want to note 2 points here:
1) Make sure you are running the same version of iTunes on both the PC and the Mac and
2) If you’ve solely used iTunes as your music repository on the PC, there’s no need to consolidate your library.

[kris1212]

Thanks for your input. Unfortunately, neither of your points applies to my situation. I never anticipated moving to a Mac; therefore I never used iTunes on my PC. All my music is in my WMP library. Some of it was ripped off CD's and some of it was purchased from sites like Rhapsody. (No illegal downloads.) Does that mean I'm stuck? I'd hate to have to repurchase all those songs from iTunes! Re-ripping CD's is a pain, but at least it doesn't cost anything!

[Nigel_123]

I used Windows media player by putting cd's in, and copying them to windows media player. Did you let Windows Media Player copy-protect them? If you did, they will not be importable by iTunes.

[JonathanD]

Don't worry about that. There are two ways by which you can keep a backup of your all songs. The first is burning the songs to a CD and the second one is using a External USB, hard drive to copy the songs. The songs are located in C:\Documents and Settings\your user account\My Documents\My Music. You can simply copy paste the songs from there. Second thing open Windows Media Player and click on Sync. Connect a external driver or iPod and add up your songs. You can also click on Burn to get the music library on a CD or DVD.

[Raine]

Don't worry about that. There are two ways by which you can keep a backup of your all songs. The first is burning the songs to a CD and the second one is using a External USB, hard drive to copy the songs. The songs are located in C:\Documents and Settings\your user account\My Documents\My Music. You can simply copy paste the songs from there. Second thing open Windows Media Player and click on Sync. Connect a external driver or iPod and add up your songs. You can also click on Burn to get the music library on a CD or DVD. Then insert the same disc in a different computer and open Windows Media player. Go to Tools > Options > Search for Media files. Windows Media Player will automatically add the songs to that PC.

[kris1212]

To Nigel: I don't know if WMP copy-protected the songs I ripped. I never saw any kind of option button to turn on or off. Where would that be? Since I never chose an option NOT to copy-protect them, I would guess that WMP did protect them, so I may have to re-rip my CD's to iTunes.

To Jonathan D and Raine: Thanks to you guys for your input, but my question relates to transferring the songs from a PC-based WMP library to iTunes on an iMac. I did try copying my WMP library to a flash drive and importing it from there to the iMac, but it doesn't work...or at least I haven't figured out how to make it work. See my original post 1 day ago for details.

Thanks again to you all for your tips!

[kris1212]

Well, I finally got it! All I had to do was burn everything onto a DVD. When I loaded the disc into the iMac, it automatically converted all the files and imported them, no questions asked. I guess burning them to a disc erases the protection? It must be something like that, because it didn't work when I tried to import the same songs digitally, from my flash drive.