Combine the iTunes content of 2 laptops into one ?

[Parangles]

Greetings to all - I have not been here in ages.

I have about 4Gb of music on iTunes on two different laptops with WinXP/Win2k. Each one has about 80% of the tracks on the other one, but each laptop has about 100 tracks that are not on the other one. How can I combine the two files into one folder without any of the tracks missing, and no duplicates ?

Thanks lots

[Nuclear Krusader]

Do you keep all your music in the Documents and Settings\%user%\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\Library folder, or do you have some tracks in other folders?

[Parangles]

Dank ! Yes they are in their original folders. Different name in the Win2K one I think because its an older version of iTunes and I think it had a different name- but, I can find them , yes. Version 10 on the newer one.
No there is nothing in any other folders - maybe windows sample sound files.

[Nuclear Krusader]

Easiest way is probably to just manually copy files from one computer to the other one (Windows Explorer will notify you of duplicates and let you skip them) and then reindex the library.

You could also copy files over from within iTunes itself, just move them from the Shared library to the main music library (on the local machine); if you've checked the option 'Copy files to iTunes media folder when adding to library' under Advanced preferences, the files should transfer over without a problem. Note that this will create duplicates, however, in case some of the copied files were already present in the local machine.

[David M]

Combine the music you have into one folder. Name it Master Library. Eliminate the duplicates in your Master Library by holding down the shift arrow, highlighting one of the two duplicates, right click on any of the songs you have highlighted and then click on Delete. This will eliminate all your duplicates at once, which is much easier than deleting them individually.

Then make a backup of your Master Library on a separate hard drive. Then load iTunes on a drive separate from your C: drive and then direct iTunes to your Master Library folder (under Edit/Preferences/Advanced) and then tell iTunes to update your Master Library every time you make a change to iTunes.

This way you never have to reload iTunes and go through this hassle again. You also get a backup on a separate drive of your Master Library. All you then have to do is periodically update your backup.

[Parangles]

Well - I have been doing it manually. Big job. Put the two laptops side by side and 'page down' each one and compare. Barbaric and tedious but its working. New version of iTunes has a folder 'Automatically add to iTunes' so I've been chucking stuff in there.
This needs some software. There's some good Mac apps that address this but I couldn't find anything for Windows anywhere. Major cause of the mess also is that people come here and stick in a thumb drive and say Listen to this ! Problem is that the files dont transfer but I'm left with all their track titles that wont play-'files cant be located' .
I'm a tidy person - my kid has about 150 Gb of music with 300 of the titles as 'track 1'. Ah well . Appreciate your help !!

[David M]

I had to manually sort through 50,000 songs because they were a huge mess. It took me a total of a few days. Never again. I learned to be meticulous about my music library....or suffer the consequences again.

Unfortunately, there is no magic bullet for fixing a disorganized music library.

[Parangles]

Didn't see your first post David. I have pasted and saved for next time. Thanks !