How to transfer my ITunes library from External Hard Drive to Mac Book Pro

I recently had an issue with my Mac Book(OS X Yosemite) Had to take it to the store and they fixed it (replaced graphics mother board or something like that) Before that I backed up the whole laptop on an external hard drive. When I connect the external hard drive I can open all my files, not sure how to transfer it, I see the External hard drive and can drag it but where do i drag it because on my Mac Book I can't find Music. Should I drag it to the desktop and then drag it to the music when I disconnect the external ? Thanks

Choose Home from the Finder's Go menu, double-click the Music item, and drag it there.
(123001)

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Need to move iTunes library from external hard drive to Mac desktop.

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Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Open iTunes and immediately hold down the option (alt) key (shift on Windows) so you get a prompt to select a library, then guide it to the 'iTunes Library.itl' file in the moved iTunes folder.
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Try this...
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Thank you.

I just posted this to another topic, but it applies here as well. Hopefully there's no prohibition on cross-posting on this board, my apologies to all if there is:
"I haven't read the whole thread, so someone could have already mentioned this, but I did the same thing, move my music library to an external drive. The Help articles are helpful, but only up to a point. When that didn't work, I called up AppleCare support up, and they took me through all the standard steps, and got stumped at the same point I did. Finally she suggested trying something, and that ended up doing the trick. So here in brief is what you do:
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How to transfer my iTunes library from a hard disc to new computer?

Could anybody help me with this issue? I've tried everything I could without any succes...
My computer where I had my iTunes library (complete with many info and ratings) crashed and I lost all my archives. Luckly I had a copy of everything in an external hard disc. My iPod works fine with all the songs from that library. I bought a new computer, but now I cannot transfer the data of the library from the hard disc to the new computer.
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Great! Very simple actually (once you know). The library is now corrected listed on iTunes, with my original playlists and the ratings.
But now how do I bring the music files? I've tried to import them from the hard disk, but iTunes didn't synchronize with the ones listed on the library, so there are duplicates of all songs and the ones I can play are not the ones on my playlists and with the ratings.
Do you have another brilliant solution?
Thanks in advance

How to get ITunes library from external hard drive to new PC

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Now need to know exactly what to do to get all that lovely music from the external hard drive onto the new Windows7 PC. The ITunes folder has the following inside it:
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Drag and drop the whole folder into the iTunes application.
The iTunes application meaning your library once iTunes is open

Migrating iTunes library from external hard drive to new laptop

Hi there, I am wondering if anyone can help me please? I am a complete newbie to this forum thing, I am just getting into this cosmic sharing world but find myself utterly frustrated with iTunes and my new laptop - with little help on the Support pages, so i am venturing into the unkown and seeking help from anyone out there.........slightly scary for me, this really is my first post on a forum - so be gentle with me :0)
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I have tried changing the file location in the Advance section of preferences, i have tried choosing the library after holding down the shift key on start up (you see not a complete numpty). They all appear to work as i don't get any error messages, but the songs just don't appear in the library. Am i being a complete numb nuts here? what am i missing?
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cheers Latte

tonybassplayer wrote:
Thank Chris I have just done that. How do I now get them in to Itunes ?
If you simply copy the iTUnes folder to /Music/ and launch iTUnes, everythign will be there. No need to import anything.
This will work the same with iPhoto.
Simply copy the Photo library to /Pictures/ folder and launch iPhoto.

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Prior to my hard drive crashing, I dragged my entire itunes folder (with all sub folders) to a firelite external hard drive. I replaced the power book HD, and I want to put my backed up library on the new HD. I dragged the folder from the firelite to the music folder (in place of the itunes folder that was already there). Unfortunately, the itunes library is still empty. Am I missing something?

Yes, the relative location is the same, the user account has the same short and long lame as before.
I did try to use the preferences to point to the backed up itunes folder. Once when it was on the eHD and once when I put it in the music folder. Unfortunatley no luck.
I will try your idea about using "Consolidate Library"
One other interesting thing I tried a few days ago was to follow the procedure outlined in the apple support section about restoring the library. It has you move the libray xml file to the desk top, trashing one of the other files (I forgot which) and then choosing the xml file placed on the desk top upon starting itunes. I thought it was kind of odd to select the very xml file I was having trouble with so I chose the backed up xml file. It put all of the playlist folders back in duplicate, but the library was still empty (probably becuase the xml file is just a reference file and I hadn't loaded any actual music files) If the consolidate doesn't work, mabye I'll try that again, but also put the folder with the actual files on the computer as well
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HT1451 No longer able to add itunes library from external hard drive.

Its been about a year since I used itunes because my old pc burned out. I was using an external hard drive to store my itunes libraryand my preferences were set to advanced preferences / itunes media folder location / F:\itunes data, and was working fine when I needed to reinstall itunes before now. Now when I choose it, nothing comes up, no saved apps, books or music not in the cloud. In fact, I don't even see apps anymore.
Anyone know why this no longer works, and how do I get it back, get it all back?

Hello there, bpbiv.
The following Knowledge Base article should provide some assistance in redirecting iTunes:
iTunes for Windows: Moving your iTunes Media folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1364
Since you already have the folder located on the external drive just point it to that location, you wont need to perform the portion of creating a new folder.
If the issue persists and reinstalling iTunes is necessary, refer to this Knowledge Base article as the uninstall/reinstall steps do need to be performed in a very particular order:
Removing and Reinstalling iTunes, QuickTime, and other software components for Windows XP
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1925
Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Pedro D.

How to back up iTunes Library on external hard drive & computer, after purchasing new music?

I keep my iTunes library on my computer's hard drive and also backed up on an external hard drive. I have added more music to my library since my previous back up, and I want to back up the new music to my external drive.
What's the best way to do this?

The first time I backed up my iTunes on an external drive, it took a 1 hour +. Do I basically need to start over on my external hard drive? Or is there an easier/faster way?
Yes there is a faster way.
Check this out -> Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy
Don't change the library location or hold Option to update the backup on the external.

Copying saved iphoto library from external hard drive back to Macbook Pro

Please help, I have accidentally managed to permanently delete my iphoto library and by this I mean that I somehow dragged my library into trash and then emptied it. I don't know how this happend but I quite quickly found out I had done it and shut my computer down. I have since done a recovery with disk drill and have hopefully recovered most of my photos though I havent had time to look through all the 1000's of photos yet. I do have a copied version of my library on an external hard drive that I did in 2012 and I have tried to copy this library back to my pictures folder so i at least have my photos up to 2012 back but it is not working. I have read through some of the threads on here regarding iphoto library back ups and I think the issue might be that the external hard drive is formatted Fat32 and not os extended.
I am hoping someone can help me get this working. Here are the facts.
1. I am running iphoto 11, version 9.2.3 on a macbook pro running os x 10.6.8
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4. If I try to open the library through iphoto by holidng down the option key, iphoto tells me that the library has to be upgraded but i am reluctant to upgrade the original copy of the library. I would prefer to copy it first in case anything goes wrong but then i have the problem above that the copy doesn't work
Thank you in advance for any help.

The copied iphoto library is on an external hard drive that is fat32 formatted.
Therein lies the problem. iPhoto libraries need to be stored, placed on a disk formatted OS X Extended (journaled). The FAT format doesn't support the complexity of an iPhoto library and can, and more often than not, corrupt a library.
Try the following:
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
1 - download the free version of iPhoto Library Manager and launch.>Click on the Add Library button,
2 - select the library you want to add from those in the selection window.
3 - make sure that in the rebuild window the checkbox "Scavange orphaned photos" is checked.
4 - now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the Library ➙ Rebuild Library menu option
5 - in the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed, i.e. in the Pictures folder of your MBP. Click on the Create button.
Note 1: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments. However, books, calendars, cards and slideshows will be lost.
Note 2: Your current library will be left untouched for further attempts at a fix if so desired.
OT

How to transfer my ITunes library from External Hard Drive to Mac Book Pro

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