[Closed] Transfering files between computers - PC to Mac

[url= http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1408?viewlocale=en_US ]apple support[/url]

have a look and see if any options apply. You can't officially transfer the music with the iPad to do with rights management and record industry appeasement.

You're best best is to buy a copy of iPod.iTunes from Crisp Softies or an equivalent programme (there may be free versions that other people can recommend).

This will allow you to sync your iPod to your Mac and transfer all the media contained on it to the Mac.

Are you trying to move your music from your PC to your Mac via your iPad? If so, I'm not sure if this is possible. What you can do is copy your files from you PC onto an external drive then copy them onto your Mac. You'll have to do this using Windows Explorer (PC) and Finder (Mac), not iTunes. Once there you can import all your files into iTunes on the Mac. Alternatively if you have a network cable you should be able to copy stuff directly from your PC to Mac if you enable sharing properly. Neither of these methods will copy your library so playlists and other metadata will be lost.

Google results for "itunes library transfer from pc to mac" will throw up other ways that will allow you to keep the library intact.

I've found an ethernet cable so the PC and mac are connected but I'm a bit lost to be honest. If I go buy an external hard-disk I guess I can use that as a backup for all my data? One of things I always swore I would do but never have. Recommend me one?

Migration assistant in Utilities - does that have an option for transferring from PCs?

how much data is it?

if you get a dropbox account you can use that to sync data between the two machines but it does all have to go to the internet and back.

You should be able to share a folder on the PC and then connect to it from the mac over your wireless network and copy it all across, thats what I do. Took some figuring out but worth it as I still use both and copy mp3s and jpgs across regularly

Go for the shared folder approach. Should be easy with the Mac (Isn't everything?) to then slurp all the data into the right place for it all to work.

Oh yes... Buy a backup hard disk and do the Time Machine thing. It's worth it.

Go for the shared folder approach. Should be easy with the Mac (Isn't everything?) to then slurp all the data into the right place for it all to work.

Agreed, get an ethernet crossover cable between the two or connect them both to the same network, connect to the mac using the IP address, and drag and drop the iTunes folder across.

I've found an ethernet cable so the PC and mac are connected

You're not trying to connect two network cards together like this, are you?

To be honest, the easiest way would be to connect both PC and Mac to your Internet router and use that to network 'em. Create a Samba / SMB share on the Mac (not sure if that's correct terminology in Mac parlance - I'm not a Mac expert - but it'l be something similar).

You can guess I'm not all that technical.

So, we've got a ethernet cable to connect them and a wireless router in the house. Apple help says do this

"Direct connect
To move files by connecting your Mac directly to your PC:

Connect your Mac to your PC using a standard Ethernet cable.
Make sure that both computers are turned on.
In the Finder on your Mac, choose Connect to Server from the Go menu to open the window.
Type your PC's network address in the Server Address text box using one of these formats:
smb://DNSname/ShareName
smb://IPaddress/ShareName"

1. I cant find the Go menu in Finder
2. How do I find out my PC IP address?

when you open finder (and focus/click on the finder window) the Go menu is in the menu bar at the top, fifth along

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Right there. You want the Connect to Server option as you say. Can't tell you off the top of my head where your PC will tell you the IP addres, but if you dig around in the network stuff on the PC, that should tell you somewhere.

PC ipaddress;

from 'start menu' run>cmd>ipconfig

this will tell you the current iup of the pc - if it's assigned by your router it may change if your restart the pc, though. you're looking for the [i]IPv4 Address[/i].

re: direct connect of Ethernet cards I thought you coudln;t do that with a standard cable you needed a couple of pins crossed?

far better to go through the router (either wirelessly or wired).

Connect your Mac to your PC using a standard Ethernet cable.

That'll only work if both ends are Gigabit Ethernet, you'll need a crossover cable otherwise.

How do I find out my PC IP address?

Unless the MAC is acting as a DHCP server, it won't have one.

Seriously, you're making this difficult. Connect the PC to the router (either wired or wirelessly - wired ideally, it will be faster for file transfers). Similarly, connect the Mac to the router. Create a SMB share on the Mac. On the PC, browse to the Mac (Start / Run and type the Mac's IP address preceeded by two backslashes, eg \\192.168.0.4 or whatever). That should open an Explorer window with the SMB share visible. Copy to that folder.

Folk worrying that a direct connection between mac and pc without a crossover cable is an issue, it's not. Macs have auto detected the cable type and dealt with it for 7 years at least...

direct connect of Ethernet cards I thought you coudln;t do that with a standard cable you needed a couple of pins crossed?

Auto-MDIX is normal for 1000BASE-T (gigabit ethernet) connections. On older 10/100 cards you'd typically need a crossover.

Macs have auto detected the cable type and dealt with it for 7 years at least...

Macs aren't special here, PCs are the same - it's down to the speed of the network port, not the architecture of the computer.

Well, I'm telling you, on both 10 and 100 mbit connections you've not needed a x-over cable with a mac for at least 7 years. I say 7, as that's as far back as my personal experience goes.

I first did it on a my G4 ibook, it had a 10/100 port, no gigabit.

You can guess I'm not all that technical

Whilst it's not that difficult to get the computers to talk to each other I wouldn't worry too much about it. Buy and external hard drive and do it that way. As you said, you've been meaning to this so it seems like you could kill two birds with one stone. Get one that is about twice the size of your Mac's hard drive and use Time Machine, it's built in to the Mac OS, to do all your backups.

Well, I'm telling you, on both 10 and 100 mbit connections you've not needed a x-over cable with a mac for at least 7 years. I say 7, as that's as far back as my personal experience goes.

I first did it on a my G4 ibook, it had a 10/100 port, no gigabit.

I might've worded that badly. I said 10/100 would "typically" need a crossover.

The bottom line is, for it to work on a straight-through cable at least one of the two NICs has to have Auto-MDIX support. This is part of the spec for gigabit connections, it's much less common for 10/100 cards but (as you say) it does exist.

According to Apple's tech specs, the iBook has Auto-MDIX on models with a dual USB port, which would seem to be consistent with your experience. As I've said previously, I'm no Mac expert. In the PC world, gigabit Ethernet has been commonplace on desktop machines for a good few years now too.

But anyway, that's by the by. It's still more of a pain to set up than going via a switch / router, because you'll need to set up TCP/IP manually. (Not that I've ever seen it work successfully, but do Macs support APIPA?)