Mac Switcher? Expedite the Process

Most of you know by now I was really excited to make the switch from PC to Mac, but transferring data is still a pain in the derrière, any way you spin it. In going through the process over the past few days, I’ve compiled a list of tips for moving those crucial files and/or preferred settings for a few everyday apps we know and love.

Some were gleaned from various resources that were much more complicated than they needed to be, and some I discovered quite by accident. :) All stand to save you days or weeks of work recreating precious add-ons and profile settings. For these short tutorials I recommend either a jump drive, networked machines, or a direct Ethernet connection (particularly for moving music).

Moving your iTunes Library

If you’re a music fanatic like me, you’ve no doubt spent countless hours perfecting iTunes as your digital jukebox, complete with ratings, album covers, genre labels, etc. And what about those Smart Playlists you’ve been able to create thanks to things like Play Count? Those cannot be recreated (without a lot more time invested) unless you transfer your entire Library. Here’s an easy way to do it:

• Copy just the music files on your PC and drop them in to User > Music > iTunes > iTunes Music on your Mac.
• On your PC, copy the .itl file residing in the iTunes folder (one step up from where your music lives).
• Back on your Mac, delete the existing .itl file and drop the new one in to the corresponding location (User > Music > iTunes).

Open up iTunes and your entire library should now be there, just as you left it, complete with ratings and play counts/lists and the works. Rock on.

Sidenote: For me, there was one small caveat. About 45-50 songs (out of nearly 1400) showed up with an exclamation point next to it, indicating the file could not be found. The songs were in fact there, but the path got lost somehow. When you double click to play you’ll be prompted to find the song, and once you do that all will be right with your music world again. :) No sweat compared to re-rating everything eh?

Migrating your tricked out Firefox profile

Safari is nice and all but Firefox is exceptional. To my mind there’s no equivalent, especially if you’re a designer or developer. (I would’ve been hard pressed to switch to a Mac in the first place if FF wasn’t available, because there are just some add-ons I wouldn’t want to do without.) The key to get up and running quickly on your new machine with this browser-based workhorse is in the profile folder, hidden by default in Windows.

It can be found here: C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Firefox\Profiles\. If you’re looking for this by drill-down and don’t see the Application Data folder, you’ll have to make it visible by going to Tools > Folder Options > View, and selecting “show hidden files”.

On your Mac, copy the entire folder to this location: ~Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles. You should already have a default profile created, so you may want to create a new profile to assign to the folder you just migrated. (Then if something goes wrong you can revert to your default.) Open Terminal, and type in the following: /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox -ProfileManager. This launches Firefox’s Profile Manager. Give your new profile a name, browse to the correct folder and you’re done.

Sidenote: If you’re not concerned with importing add-ons or password and just want your bookmarks imported, I recommend Foxmarks. You won’t have to mess with profile settings, and it’ll sync up all your bookmarks on any machines you’re running it on. Importing them is just a matter of pulling them down from Foxmark’s servers!

Going from Thunderbird to Mail

I totally dig Thunderbird, but in the spirit of switching platforms, I decided to give Mail a chance. Already I’m impressed with its junk filtering. Thunderbird was letting a lot more spam through than it should’ve been, but with Mail I’ve only seen a handful of messages slip by. Anyway I digress.

Again you’ll need to find your profile on Windows. The path is similar to that of Firefox’s: C:\Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\. Copy your profile to your jump drive or your Mac’s desktop.

• In Mail, go to File > Import > Mailboxes.
• Select mbox files (on Leopard) or Other (on Tiger), and browse to the source where you copied your profile folder.
• Drill down to Profile Name > Mail > Account Name.
• Select the folder(s) you want and click continue.

You should now see a new folder titled Import, with whatever file structure you had intact! Simply drag/drop the folders out of Import to suit your needs, or leave them there as an archive. Either way you’re all set.

Sidenote: I imported some of my email before upgrading to Leopard, and some after. For some reason the file structure was not maintained with the second import. Also note this tutorial is aimed at moving your email from another machine. Selecting the Thunderbird option only works if you’ve already been using Thunderbird on your Mac.

That about covers it! Switchers, enjoy. :)

Tags: firefox | itunes | mac | thunderbird