How to transfer music from one itunes account to another on the same computer

Maintaining more than one iTunes account can be a useful method for tracking business-related app and music purchases versus ones for your personal use. By creating two libraries, downloads are stored in two separate spaces within your hard drive, and you can create more than one iTunes account. The process involves creating an additional user in your operating system. With two separate users, you can grant additional privileges to restrict or allow access to websites or applications. Once your accounts are set up, you can seamlessly share music across user accounts so that everyone remains connected.

1. Create a new user account on your device. For Mac users, choose “System Preferences” from the Apple Menu and navigate to the “View” menu. Click on “Accounts” and select the “+” button to add a new user account to your machine. Edit the user information and grant any relevant privileges by following the on-screen prompts.

   For Windows users, click on the Windows "Start" button, select “Control Panel” and choose “Add or Remove User Accounts.” A new window will open. Click “Create a New Account.” Name the account and set any relevant privileges by following the on-screen prompts.

2. Sign in to the new user account you created.

3. Open iTunes and click “Sign in.” Enter your Apple ID and password and log in.

4. Download purchases through the iTunes store. All files related to these purchases are stored under the separate user account, thus separating both iTunes accounts and their libraries on the same computer.

5. You can share music from both libraries by dragging your music library to a publicly accessible location on your computer. Click “Preferences” from the iTunes menu and deselect “Copy files to iTunes Media Library when adding to library file.” Add the shared folder to your library from the “File” menu.

Question:

Question: Can I transfer music from my iTunes account to my dad’s new iPod Touch?

Please someone give me a straight answer, I find all this very confusing.

My dad had an iPod Nano for years. He has no AppleID account of his own. I would purchase the music he wanted on MY iTunes account on my home computer, plug HIS iPod Nano into my computer, and then manually drag & transfer those purchases to his iPod Nano so he could listen. Everyone was happy.

But now his Nano has died and Apple has frustratingly discontinued all iPods except the new iPod Touch! Now everything is more complicated. So, my questions:

1) If I buy him an iPod Touch and I DON’T set up a new AppleID for him when I set it up, can he use the new ipod Touch just like his old Nano, where I can just plug it into my computer and then manually drag and drop all the music he wants (from my iTunes account) TO that new iPod Touch ?

2) What if during set-up I DO create him an AppleID? If that iPod Touch is now associated with a newly created AppleID, would iTunes then prevent me from allowing me to manually drag and drop all the songs from MY iTunes account to his new iPod ??

Please advise in a clear manner, as I am not techy and am very confused. Thanks

Posted on Feb 2, 2021 7:14 AM

Answer:

Answer:

Hello Starfish_1995,

It sounds like you are interested in getting a new iPod touch but you are curious how you can get the music from your computer on it and if it would transfer just like your iPod nano.

Here are three different ways that can help with some resources:

1. As someone else is using the device, it is usually recommended to use different Apple ID's so personal information such as messages, phone calls and photos don't sync. To prevent this but still share your iTunes purchases, you can set up Family Sharing. Check out the information about this below:

• Overall information about What is Family Sharing?, and the YouTube video from Apple Support about it How Family Sharing works. Also see:
  • Set up Family Sharing
  • Share App Store, iTunes Store, and Apple Books purchases with Family Sharing
  • Note: in doing this, you do not need to sync the device to a computer.

2.If you choose to use the same Apple ID, you can redownload the music directly from the device, Redownload music.

3. You can also continue to sync the music from your computer to the iPod touch. See: Sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod using your computer and the YouTube video from Apple Support How to sync music from your Mac to your iPhone or iPad in macOS Catalina.

Hope this information helps.

Have a good day.

Posted on Feb 4, 2021 9:11 AM

In most cases you simply need to copy the entire iTunes folder from your old computer into the user's music folder of the new computer, then deauthorize the old computer if you no longer wish to access protected iTunes content on it.

This approach works well as long as your library is in the usual layout where all of the media connected to the iTunes library is inside the iTunes Media folder, which in turn is inside the iTunes folder holding the library database file. If your library is not in this standard shape, perhaps because you've placed the media folder on a different drive, or have added media from various different locations without making copies in the media folder, then you either need to copy each of the components of the library to matching paths on the new computer or see Make a split library portable for advice on manipulating the library into a portable layout that can be copied to a new location without breaking the links to the media.

You can copy your library over a network share, or copy it to an external drive, move the drive between computers, then copy it into the new computer. However a better approach is to maintain a regular backup of the iTunes library, update the backup when you want to switch computers, restore the library to the new machine, then regularly maintain the backup going forward. See Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy for a suggested backup strategy. Backing up the library in this fashion ensures you have a working clone of the library on an external drive that you can connect to at any time if needed.

A portable library can be copied or restored to a location other than the standard user's music folder, which is probably the best approach if your computer has a small SSD system drive. If you want to place your library on a different path, typically the root of a drive, then press and hold down shift (Win) or option (Mac) as you start iTunes to get the option to create or choose a new library, select choose, then browse to the folder that contains your library and select the iTunes Library.itl file inside. See Open a different iTunes Library file or create a new one - Apple Support for details.

If you think that you've moved your library correctly but cannot see your expected content when you open the library, or you see cloud links to items which should be stored locally, then see Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash. If you have difficulty updating content see Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows or Repair security permissions for iTunes for Mac as appropriate.

As long as you move the library properly any devices that you have will sync with it as if nothing has changed. Note however that if you have iOS devices and haven't moved your contacts and calendar items across to your new computer then you should create one dummy entry of each in your new profile and iTunes should merge the existing data from the device. Otherwise the data on your device may be replaced with the empty lists from the computer.

You don't generally need to copy over your iOS device backups if your devices are working normally as fresh backups will be made during the first sync on the new computer. If you still wish to keep your old backup sets for any reason, e.g. moving backup data from a Vista or XP system to restore to an iOS 10 or later device in a newer version of iTunes, then see Locate backups of your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support for information on the folder you need to copy across. See Relocate iOS device backups if you want to move the backup data from the system drive for reasons of space.

Should you be in the unfortunate position where you have replaced your computer and are no longer able to access your original library or a backup of it then then see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device for advice on how to set up your devices with a new library with the maximum preservation of data.

See also How to move your iTunes library to a new computer - Apple Support for Apple's approach to this topic.

macOS 10.15 Catalina and later

The same basic approach as above will work for moving a library from one Catalina/Big Sur system to another. If moving an iTunes library from an older version of OS X/macOS to Catalina or Big Sur then it will be best to start with the library in the portable shape. You can then option-start-Music to access the iTunes Library.itl file and migrate it into Music. You can repeat with TV. If you've done this already, but Music says that original files cannot be found either revisit the migration or try FixLinks - an AppleScript to repair broken links in Music - Apple Community.

The default location for a Music library in Catalina and later is ~/Music/Music with the media files consolidated into ~/Music/Music/Media. After importing your iTunes library you may want to copy your active Music Library.musiclibrary file into ~/Music/Music replacing any older copy there, then use Music > Preferences > Files to reset the media folder path, and File > Library > Organize Library > Consolidate Files to bring all the music into media folder. You can then remove the originals from the old iTunes Media folder. Repeat with TV as appropriate. Alternatively you could create the nested layout of library folder and media folder on an external drive.

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