My 7-year old iMac has had the job of being iTunes-serving computer to provide movies and music to the rest of the house, including two Apple TVs on my home network. All this media is stored not on the iMac's boot drive, but externally, on a large-capacity external drive. (and the contents of this drive are backed up on another large capacity external HD. And the iMac's boot drive is backed up, though it's not been updated in several months.

The iMac got assigned this job as it got older, the video card is failing (not worth cost to replace) but it still worked okay enough to play this undemanding role. Last couple years it's gone into decline. (needs more frequent intervention, a kick and a prayer to keep it working, it occasionally freezes, won't boot, or stay on) Today, it finally got bad enough, I need to move the library stored on this external drive to a another Mac.

Unfortunately, as of today, the iMac won't boot. It's finally failed to the point where I'm done trying to keep it going. So, I've enlisted a different Mac on my network. I plugged this external HD into this other Mac. And I'm now trying to set it up as the home's primary media serving computer, establish this as the new location.

Can someone remind me the best way to do this? How to get iTunes on this other Mac to recognize the media contents on this external HD, and launch it, in iTunes, with its original customization and metadata, fully intact?

The searches I've done don't seem to address this specific action. Most I've seen have instructions for how to copy a library from one machine to another. I don't need to copy it. I just want to physically move the external HD containing this large library from one mac to another.

Ideally, I could just transfer this external HD into this newer Mac, plug it in, go to iTunes preferences, and point to the new location, and all that stored media would show up automatically in iTunes. But I hit a barrier.

I think I need access to the iTunes folder on the iMac's boot drive. An .xml file, or something. If I recall correctly, while the external drive contains the media files, the movies and music, it doesn't contain the directory information needed for it to display in iTunes, with all the metadata, and customized organization. Which I believe is located in the iTunes folder on the (non-functioning) iMac's boot drive.

Is this true?

If it is, I'll work on trying to get into the dead/dying Mac's boot drive, and access the iTunes folder. If that fails, I'll access the backup of the iMac's boot drive. Even though it's not as up-to-date as I'd like. One way or another, get access to that iTunes folder.

Anything I'm missing?

Is there another way to do this that I'm not remembering? A way to have the media contents of a external HD's iTunes library, from one computer, display on a different computer, within the iTunes application, fully intact?

1. Launch iTunes while holding down the Option Key -
2. It will ask - create a NEW Library or CHOOSE a Library
3. Navigate to the External and choose iTunes Folder

Somebody else has to chime in about configuring Apple TV and Media server - not on that level yet

: (



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/08/2012 02:32PM by ArtP.

I keep this link saved in a special folder in my email so I can refer to it whenever I have to switch Macs and go through what you're going through right now.

It may or may not be helpful to your situation, but it's at least worth a look:

[www.ilounge.com]

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Good reference!

That's the shortcut I'm looking for. You're my hero.

When I did this, I saw we're on the right track. It failed, but in the right way. It complained that it couldn't find an "iTunes Library File". Which confirms my concern. That it needs that directory file.

So I managed to get inside the iTunes folder on the crippled iMac's boot drive, transferred the contents to a thumb drive, and transferred that data to the appropriate location within the iTunes folder on the newer mac, so it can be found.

Then tried again.

It worked.

Remind me to send you a case of Champagne.

Just in time, too. That iMac is extremely messed up. It took a dozen boots to get it to stay on, and the screen's scrambled, distorted display is about as bad as I've seen it. About 85% of what was displayed was visual noise, I could barely figure out how to navigate to the locations needed, it was a combination of blind stabs to get the data onto that thumb drive.

I'll turn it off and leave it off overnight, and maybe the video card (overheating with normal use) will have settled down enough to do one last emergency backup, before putting it out of its misery.

I'm old enough to remember when the Mac just worked. Now it often just irks.

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Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where the weather is wonderful even when it isn't.

I've owned maybe a dozen macs in the last 15-20 years. At least half--maybe more--had a hardware issue, or multiple hardware issues, or failures. Some I got fixed under warranty, some that didn't show up until the third or fourth year.

Is that common? Or am I just unlucky?

This 2006 iMac is a classic example. Some batches of graphics cards in this model had overheating issues. And the plastic iMacs didn't manage heat as well as the aluminum models, that came out right after. If this display/graphics issue showed up sooner, while in warranty (and while that card was available, not rare or out of stock)I could have gotten it easily replaced (it's the kind of white iMac that had replaceable graphics cards)

On the other hand, I make macs work long past their natural expiration date, retiring any mac hardware reluctantly. And have 3-4 macs in use at any given time.

Remember that you can try to start up the iMac in Target Disk Mode and it will appear on your other monitor as a hard drive. With a FW cable between the two Macs. This might be easier than fighting your display on the iMac.

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Bill
Flagler Beach, FL 32136

Carpe Vino!

Fermentation may have been a greater discovery than fire.
— David Rains Wallace