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- Transferring Files from a Powerbook G4 to a Macbook Pro and Fixing iTunes
- Home
- Computers and Internet Life
- Home and Work Productivity
- Transferring Files from a Powerbook G4 to a Macbook Pro and Fixing iTunes
Transferring Files from a Powerbook G4 to a Macbook Pro and Fixing iTunes
- By Eddie Phanichkul
- Published 01/18/2010
- Music & Audio Equipment , Music , Software , Home and Work Productivity
- Unrated
Preface: This fix was aimed at fixing
permissions in my iTunes Media folder. After looking around the
internet, there are many people with similar problems whom have copied
files from one computer to another through a network, or networking.
The problem and solution can be extended to Word and PDF files, and I'm
sure other file types and scenarios if your root problem is a
permissions issue.
I made the switch. Not from a PC to a Mac, but from a G4 Mac to a brand new Intel Mac. This thing is so fast that light is jealous. The switch wasn’t 100% easy to do, or intuitive however and that was a big disappointment. Fear not! I’ve got some tips if you’re attempting to do it too!
The biggest problem I came across was how to transfer the files from one Mac to the other without an intermediary drive—which would have taken forever. The solution was to use a FireWire cable, IEEE 1394. It was a 6-Pin to 9-Pin cable, which is used on the newer Intel Macs.
Plug your computers together with the source computer powered off. While holding the “T” key, you can push the power button and keep the “T” key down until the screen shows a FireWire logo. The computers will now be connected and your old hard disk drive will show up as a removable drive on your new Intel Mac.
There are some issues however that Migration Assistant didn’t help with—one was permissions.
My biggest problem was that my iTunes 9 on my Intel Mac with Snow Leopard, OS X 10.6.2 would not read MP3 files. iTunes actually skipped all of my MP3 files for some reason.
To fix that, I removed the iTunes Library file from my iTunes folder, then replaced it with a Previous iTunes Library file from the date I last updated my iTunes, copying from the iTunes Library folder to the iTunes folder. It’s a little confusing, I know, so read over it a few times to make sure you’ve got it.
Voila! All of my files now show up when I relaunched iTunes 9.
I press play, but now the files won’t play. Great. My first round of research prompted me to try and validate my older MP3s, but that didn’t work because the program told me I had no permissions. I finally went to a file inside my iTunes Media folder and found that there were no permissions. In fact, permissions for everyone = no access. Also, there was an “_unknown” user with no access too. I was puzzled.
This fix might not work for everyone, but I decided that changing the permissions would fix it.
I went to Applications\Utilities\Disk Utility to repair permissions. That didn’t work.
For the iTunes Media folder, I navigated to the actual folder in Finder, and pulled up a Terminal window.
In Terminal, I typed in:
chmod –R 777
…with a space after the last 7, then dragged the iTunes Media folder into the Terminal window. It should automatically insert the path, which is nice ;) the –R means it’s recursive to each folder and file within the iTunes Media folder.
chmod: unable to change file mode on * : Operation not permitted.
OH NOES! So because of the fact that I had no access, and even when I “Get Info” or CMD + I on an MP3 file inside the folder, it stated that I have no access, everyone has no access, and that _unknown had no access, I was really bummed because no one had access!
Time for SUDO! The sudo command in terminal lets you change files in superuser or admin mode. It’s moderately dangerous though if you don’t know what you’re doing and you can accidentally remove files or damage stuff, so you should use it with caution.
Using sudo, I changed the permissions for all the files to 777, which is everyone has access to read & write. They’re just mp3 files so, I don’t care too much about the security of those files.
Typing:
sudo chmod –R 777
…then dragging in the iTunes Media folder and pressing enter, it asks for a password. Type the password in. You won’t see what you’re typing, and that’s normal. Hit enter and the files will be changed just like that.
The files are now playing in iTunes and life is good again, except for the fact that the permissions are ugly looking. It now says everyone = read & write, and _unknown has read & write. Who the hell is _unknown? I decided to fix that too.
Back in terminal, I just went to good ol’ sudo again:
sudo chown -R `id -un`:`id -gn`
… then dragging that same iTunes Media folder to the terminal window and pressing enter will prompt for a password again. Enter your password, hit return, then you’re done. Going to a file within my iTunes media folder now says that I can read and write, and the permissions match files on the rest of my computer.
That was a pretty quick fix for a problem I suspect many people have.
Hope this works for all of you!
I made the switch. Not from a PC to a Mac, but from a G4 Mac to a brand new Intel Mac. This thing is so fast that light is jealous. The switch wasn’t 100% easy to do, or intuitive however and that was a big disappointment. Fear not! I’ve got some tips if you’re attempting to do it too!
The biggest problem I came across was how to transfer the files from one Mac to the other without an intermediary drive—which would have taken forever. The solution was to use a FireWire cable, IEEE 1394. It was a 6-Pin to 9-Pin cable, which is used on the newer Intel Macs.
Plug your computers together with the source computer powered off. While holding the “T” key, you can push the power button and keep the “T” key down until the screen shows a FireWire logo. The computers will now be connected and your old hard disk drive will show up as a removable drive on your new Intel Mac.
There are some issues however that Migration Assistant didn’t help with—one was permissions.
My biggest problem was that my iTunes 9 on my Intel Mac with Snow Leopard, OS X 10.6.2 would not read MP3 files. iTunes actually skipped all of my MP3 files for some reason.
To fix that, I removed the iTunes Library file from my iTunes folder, then replaced it with a Previous iTunes Library file from the date I last updated my iTunes, copying from the iTunes Library folder to the iTunes folder. It’s a little confusing, I know, so read over it a few times to make sure you’ve got it.
Voila! All of my files now show up when I relaunched iTunes 9.
I press play, but now the files won’t play. Great. My first round of research prompted me to try and validate my older MP3s, but that didn’t work because the program told me I had no permissions. I finally went to a file inside my iTunes Media folder and found that there were no permissions. In fact, permissions for everyone = no access. Also, there was an “_unknown” user with no access too. I was puzzled.
This fix might not work for everyone, but I decided that changing the permissions would fix it.
I went to Applications\Utilities\Disk Utility to repair permissions. That didn’t work.
For the iTunes Media folder, I navigated to the actual folder in Finder, and pulled up a Terminal window.
In Terminal, I typed in:
chmod –R 777
…with a space after the last 7, then dragged the iTunes Media folder into the Terminal window. It should automatically insert the path, which is nice ;) the –R means it’s recursive to each folder and file within the iTunes Media folder.
chmod: unable to change file mode on * : Operation not permitted.
OH NOES! So because of the fact that I had no access, and even when I “Get Info” or CMD + I on an MP3 file inside the folder, it stated that I have no access, everyone has no access, and that _unknown had no access, I was really bummed because no one had access!
Time for SUDO! The sudo command in terminal lets you change files in superuser or admin mode. It’s moderately dangerous though if you don’t know what you’re doing and you can accidentally remove files or damage stuff, so you should use it with caution.
Using sudo, I changed the permissions for all the files to 777, which is everyone has access to read & write. They’re just mp3 files so, I don’t care too much about the security of those files.
Typing:
sudo chmod –R 777
…then dragging in the iTunes Media folder and pressing enter, it asks for a password. Type the password in. You won’t see what you’re typing, and that’s normal. Hit enter and the files will be changed just like that.
The files are now playing in iTunes and life is good again, except for the fact that the permissions are ugly looking. It now says everyone = read & write, and _unknown has read & write. Who the hell is _unknown? I decided to fix that too.
Back in terminal, I just went to good ol’ sudo again:
sudo chown -R `id -un`:`id -gn`
… then dragging that same iTunes Media folder to the terminal window and pressing enter will prompt for a password again. Enter your password, hit return, then you’re done. Going to a file within my iTunes media folder now says that I can read and write, and the permissions match files on the rest of my computer.
That was a pretty quick fix for a problem I suspect many people have.
Hope this works for all of you!
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