department of help -- SOLVED

[rm]

So I bought a mac.
I've authorized my ipod on it, and the things I've purchased from the iTunes store that are currently on it have downloaded to the new Mac. But I have more purchases than things on the iPod. Waaaaaaay more. How do I get those things to download from the iTunes store onto the Mac without repurchase?

Comments

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

Whenever I've bought from the iTunes store, I get pestered to backup my purchase. After having had to appeal to Apple to redownload a couple of items, I now do such backups on a regular basis.

If you are missing some items, get in touch with iTunes tech support and they'll walk you through the process. Be prepared to identify specifically the tracks you're missing, along with the associated iTunes receipt numbers (which can be obtained by reviewing your account).

Good luck.

Cheers...

[soundingsea.livejournal.com]

Any DRM-encumbered music files from your old computer should be able to play on your new computer's iTunes, assuming you've "authorized" that iTunes with your Apple store password. IIRC you can't re-download them from iTunes without talking to them about it (it's possible, in cases of "omg old computer died") but you can use a USB drive or something to just copy the files over and then import them into iTunes on the mac.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Oh man, the list is ENDLESS. Like all of seasons 1 and 2 of Torchwood, half of Children of Earth and a Doctor Who episode. Actually, it seems the problem is all TV that's not actively on the ipod right now.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Ah, okay. that will be slow and sucky, but less sucky than dealing with people, which is one of those things I hate. And it can wait til I get home from ATL. Groovy.

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

If you still have access to your other computer, then soundingsea's suggestion of transferring the files and then importing them is the way to go, hands down.

Cheers...

[soundingsea.livejournal.com]

I said music files, but it will work for video files too.

Don't forget to "de-authorize" your old computer before you get rid of it. Apple gives you 5 authorization tokens, and at least at one point it was a pain to revoke one if you weren't in the iTunes of the deauthorizing computer.

[kit-kallisti.livejournal.com]

There are a few ways to do it but they all involve copying your iTunes directory from the old computer to the new one. You can do this either over a network connection or by hooking up an external USB drive to the old computer, copy the directory to it, then plug it into your mac and import the files into iTunes.

To do it over a network connection is much the same as doing through a USB drive but you have to turn on file sharing on your old computer then logging in to it with your mac.

The USB drive is the easiest option but if you don't have an external USB drive already, you'll have to purchase or borrow one that's big enough to hold all of your iTunes files.

[ckd]

This. I think Apple will let you de-authorize everything, once, if you reach a point where you have run out of your 5 and can't deauthorize machines because they were wiped/died/whatever...but it's better not to get into that situation in the first place.

[resonance-and-d.livejournal.com]

Actually, you can de-authorize everything once every 12 months. (I just checked their website to be sure). If it was just once ever, I would be in serious trouble. :)

[ophymirage.livejournal.com]

^ This. Also, you may want to consider spending a little extra (around $150 or so) for an external hard drive for storage, that can just be plugged in to the laptop directly, that has all your files (music, fic, tv and otherwise) stored indefinitely. Makes the sync process much easier. :D

the other thing that's a pain in the ass, that I haven't figured out yet, is that no playlists (if you have them) seem to be able to be moved, so my playlists have to be rebuilt entirely. :(

[jimmynebraska.livejournal.com]

If you don't want to bother with the whole transfer-from-computer-to-computer thing, you can do something else, but it involves a lie ...

E-mail Apple and tell them you hard drive crashed, and you lost your iTunes purchases. They'll let you redownload anything still available on the iTunes store.

[thorn]

If you end up picking up (or already have) a USB drive or any other form of external storage, after doing the transfer, I strongly suggest using it in conjunction with Time Machine to do *automated* and transparent backups. I've found that if I have to think about backups, they don't happen as frequently as they should. (I am actually not using a USB drive but Apple's Time Capsule router/storage device because we have multiple Macs, but the concept is the same.) (And if that external drive has FireWire (and your new Mac does), it can be substantially faster, due to how FW works.)

[fleur.livejournal.com]

Also, since you have Time Machine, get the external drive even just for backups!

[therealycats.livejournal.com]

Hopefully someone's already given you a satisfactory answer, but every time I buy a new computer, I just take the old one in and have them copy over the files from the old computer to the new one on a network cable. They've never charged me any extra for it. Should be able to do it yourself (I've had to take it in to do it because my last computer had a recall issue and when it crashed the last time I couldn't do anything with it, so had to take it to them) if you don't want to go back to the store.