I have transferred my itunes library to an external drive. I then attached the external disk to a new computer. I can now access all songs from the new computer. But I can't access playlists. I can still access all songs and playlists on the old computer

If you right mouse and select Get info it will show you the Apple ID used to purchase these songs.
Usually the name of an apple id is based on the email. So knowing that you may have forgotten the Apple ID password.
You can request a new password here http://www.apple.com/support/appleid/

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I recently transferred my ITunes library to an external hard drive. I made sure to copy all the data from the saved location. After the transfer I noticed that a lot of albums are missing the first song and some recently purchased albums are missing.

I recently transferred my ITunes library to an external hard drive. I made sure to copy all the data from the saved location. After the transfer I noticed that a lot of albums are missing the first song and some recently purchased albums are missing. Is there any way to recover the data? Thanks for any help.

I may have found an answer here:
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive
They only thing I can assume is that my external hard drive was slow to start and iTunes defaulted to its old directory (see the last paragraph at the link above). However, once my external was recognized shouldn't everything have fixed itself?
Message was edited by: williamson42
Message was edited by: williamson42

Issue re transfering my iTunes library to an external hard disc.

I have moved my iTunes library to an external hard drive to save space on the iMac's own disc, using the instructions from the Apple support site - that is, I went to Preferences - Advanced - Change location and then consolidated my music.
I haven't yet deleted the music from the iMac hard drive.
If I launch iTunes without switching on the external drive, iTunes will locate the library on the internal drive, but if I power up the external drive first, it uses the library on that.
Is this normal? I just want to check before deleting many hundreds of albums from my Mac!

Thanks so much for your tip!! I did that, but it says there's no files in the library.
Originaly in Itunes > preferences>advanced>under folder location I put in new path pointing to the Ex HD. made a new folder for my son's library "Nick's Itunes Library". (Keep itunes media folder organized is checked).
Clicked on change.
Then i was prompted ot move the exisiting files over which I did. Went to File>Library>Organize Library>consolidate files>OK
I did all that. I closed itunes, went to the external HD to verify all the files were there. They were. Went back into itunes on the mac mini HD and deleted the files one at a time. I realize that this whole thing is not a deal breaker as it is all in iCloud. And can be downloaded again if necessary. But I want to know how to do this manually.
I just checked the external HD again. The files are there, Itunes isn't recognizing them is my guess.

Am trying to transfer iTunes library to an external disk for back-up purposes. have followed normal protocol i.e. locating iTunes file in Music folder and dragging across to external disk icon. However, nothing seems to happen. Any advice please?

Am trying to transfer an iTunes library to an external disk for back up. Have followed normal instructions by locating iTunes folder in Music file and dragging across the iTunes folder to the external disk icon. Nothing happens. No notifications. Just a very pregnant pause. Any advice gratefully appreciated.
Michael L J

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
The external drive must be formatted in "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)", exFAT or FAT32, because OS X can't write in NTFS partitions by default.
As you just want the library on the external drive to make a backup of your library, you can format it in "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" by using Disk Utility > http://pondini.org/OSX/DU1.html (Note that you won't be able to use the external drive with PCs unless you install a special application in them).
Finally, drag your iTunes folder to your external drive

Is it possible to keep iTunes Library on an external disk ?

Is it possible to keep iTunes Library on an external disk ?

Moving a library: Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its sub-folders and files) intact to the other drive. Hold down the option (alt) key (shift on Windows) and open iTunes. At the prompt to create or choose a library choose the copied iTunes folder.

I have transferred my iTunes library from windows 7 pc to new windows 8 pc. Music was in alphabetical order by surname but new pc has some by surname some by first name and some not in alphabetical order. How can I get sorted?

Question Hi - I've transferred my iTunes library from windows 7 pc to one with windows 8. My library was in alphabetical order by surname but after transfer is now some by surname, some by first name, and some not in alphabetical order. How do I sort this out and also make sure that new downloads list by surname alphabetically?

Sorting in iTunes is often controlled by selecting different column headings. The sort order for any given column may be further modified by a sort value, e.g. Sort Artist affects the sort order of Artist. If you transferred the library properly all of the metadata should have remained intract and you simply need to select the a column that sorts as you want. If you had to import the library then there is the potential for tagging effects that could mean metadata entered previously didn't import with the media. Note that iTunes has no mechanism for automatically deciding which values are in <Forename> <Surname> order and could therefore be sorted as <Surname> <Forename>. The only automatic process drops leading articles (a/an/the) so that "The Doors" sort under D as "Doors".
See also Grouping tracks into albums.
tt2

I have transferred my iTunes library from a PC to a Mac. Many of the albums will not run (not authorized) The system asks for old email account and passwords I used years ago. I have no idea what they are. How do I get around this?

Having transferred my iTunes library from my old PC to my new Mac. Many of the albums will not play because they are not authorized. Authorization lists very old email addresses of which I do not have the passwords or, in fact, access to the email websites. Can anyone whelp me with a way to get around this?

Yes, I believe I did with no success playing some of my "old albums." The remaing albums worked just fine.
I think I found a workaround by signing in to the old website using "forgot" password and changed it to a new one. Then I signed in using my Apple ID and Passwird. This seems to have worked.

HT1751 Hello, can you help? I have backed up iTune library to an external hard drive, but want to set up periodic back ups every month. Do I have to follow the "Consolidate file" procedure every time I back up, and does my original back become over writte

Hello can anyone help? I have sucessfully backed up my iTuines library to an external hard drive, but when backing up in the furture (Monthly) do I have to follow the same procedure again, and will this place an additonal copy of my iTunes library on my hard drive, so duplicating the back up and so rapidly fill my hard drive.
Ideally what I would like, is for the lateset back up to over write the original so saving space on my external hard drive. Many thanks ......Steve

The "consolidate" command has nothing to do with making backups. You use that command when you have had content in multiple places and you wish to have it now all in a single iTunes folder. If all of your content is already in the iTunes folder, then the "consolidate" command will be of no use to you. You will make further backups using whatever method you normally would use to make backups of your data in Windows.
Regards.

I recently transferred my itunes library to an external hard drive. Now I get the error message 'the original file could not be found. Could you like to locate it' when i try to open songs. My iPod syncs ok.

I recently tranferred my iTunes library to an external hard drive. Now I cannot open songs and get the error message ' The song "***" could not not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it'. This applies to all 9742 songs!!. My iPod still syncs ok, but I can't play songs on the PC. Can anyone please help.

It would help to have more background about your iTunes collection such as if you keep it on an external drive, or if you have moved or renamed anything recently. iTunes is very sensitive to you renaming or moving files or folders involved with your media. iTunes only keeps a reference to where a media file is located and then goes to look for it when you try to play it. If you have changed things since it was added to itunes then it's like me sending you to look for a friend in my addressbook but that friend has moved.
The other possibility is your computer is starting to lose files. Again, the computer uses a reference database to tell it where on the drive to look for a file. If that database gets corrupt then it starts losing files. Use Dsk Utility's first aid to verify your hard drive.

If I put the contents of my iTunes library on an external HD to free up space, how do I stop losing it from my iPad the next time it syncs?

if i were to transfer the contents of my itunes library to an external hard drive how do I not lose it from my i pad the next time it syncs ?

as long as you change iTunes preferences to point the new location, you'll be fine.

Can I have a common itunes library on a shared drive?

All of my music library is stored on my Power PC G5 iMac. Itunes no longer supports PowerPC iMacs and so I can no longer sync my iPhone to my PC. Since I cannot upgrade iTunes I can't use features such as Home Sharing or iTunes match. Whjat I want to do is to move my music library to an external hard drive and then connect to that iTunes library from my macbook and other computers. All I want to do is store my music on a network drive and have iTunes access the common library across multiple computers. Is that possible? Can I store my music in a central place and have iTunes map to it?

A correction:
Itunes no longer supports PowerPC iMacs and so I can no longer sync my iPhone to my PC.
Your iPhone4 can still sync with iTunes 10.6.3 which will run on your PPC.
You may need to take a crash course on how iTunes works before you embark on this. For example, an iTunes library created by a newer version of iTunes cannot be read by an older version. What you will essentially need to do is set up two independent libraries, one on each computer, but sharing the same media. You will have to ensure your actions with one won't conflict with the other. iTunes normally doesn't look at the files until you actually need to use them, so updating track information on a file with one won't automatically appear on the other until you try playing the file. You will have to stay on top of keeping playlists up to date on both if that's your desire.

I transfered my itunes library to an external hard drive, and its accessible, but I can't burn a cd now. I need help!

I transfered all my music to an external hard drive, and changed the location in the preferences options in itunes. I can add music to the library, i can play music and make play lists, but I cannot burn a cd. What's happening, and what can i do to fix, or get around this problem?

Ok. progress...
So is your media folder called iTunes Music or iTunes Media? And does it have a folder called Music inside it?
Before going any further you should first attempt to use File > Library > Organize Library > Rearrange files in the folder "<Media Folder>" (ignore if grayed out). This will make sure that any iPod Games or Mobile Applications get placed inside the iTunes Media folder which is needed for portability.
If your iTunes Media folder is called iTunes Music, close iTunes, rename the folder as iTunes Media and start iTunes again. iTunes will automatically adjust. Close iTunes again.
On your external drive rearrange the folders that you have already copied there so that they match the layout in your active library. You should end up with a folder called X:\iTunes where X: is the external drive letter, and the media folder is X:\iTunes\iTunes Media. If the library layout was upgraded then you will need to create a Music folder inside this and move all the artist folders and Compilations into Music. You will also need to copy iPod Games and Mobile Applications from your internal drive into the new media folder. Next copy the files iTunes Library.itl, iTunes Library Extras.itdb, iTunes Library Genius.itdb, sentinel and the folder Album Artwork from the internal drive into X:\iTunes. The preceding manipulations should make the internal and external copies of your library match without you having to copy all of the media over again.
Now hold shift as you start iTunes. Click choose, browse to and open X:\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl.
Finally use File > Library > Organize Library > Consolidate files. This will ensure that any stray files that might have been added from outside your original media folder will be copied into the new one.
You can now reclaim the space used by your library on the internal drive, however before you do so I would advise you to obtain another external drive and make use of this backup tip.
tt2

Transferring my iTunes library to a NAS drive

Hello All,
I currently have my iTunes media files on an attached USB hard drive off the back of my Mac but would like to move it to a NAS off my Airport Extreme so a second Mac and the upcoming iTV can all access the media.
Can I simply copy the files to the NAS and make a copy of the /User/username/Music/iTunes/iTunes Library file, reboot and point Itunes to the new location then overwrite the new iTunes Library file with my older, copied version?
Is this the correct procedure? My thanks in advance for your help.
Warren

I have my iTunes library running on an external hard drive attached to my airport extreme via USB. You should be able to just plug the drive in, go into iTunes prefs, and go to the advanced tab. Point iTunes to the new location of your library, and let it consolidate. It doesn't really copy anything, so it moves very quick.
This worked for me. Just be careful that you remain connected to the drive before you start iTunes. Otherwise iTunes has this TERRIBLE habit of reverting the iTunes library location to the default home folder location. Its easy enough to change back, but it is a pain.

What are the pitfalls of transferring my iTunes library to an external hard drive

I have acquired more music on an external hard drive than will fit on my computer or my iPod. I am looking to transfer my iTunes library to the external drive. Will I be able to add purchases or rip more cds to the hard drive without incident? Does anyone have any ideas of how or if I will be able to connect my external drive to my sound dock and have it play through the aux. mode? Thank you.

Using the external should not present problems, but some specifics lie in details of your external drive. The main thing will be the external will need to always be on when you use iTunes (if it isn't already).
I know zero about your sound dock so I have no idea what it is capable of. Can it play files on, say, a flash drive? If so it may be able to use an external drive but likely it will need to be a non-Mac format. you can consider that for your drive but it may present problems in the details as I indicated above. I won't go into it until I know more about your setup.

Can i put my itunes library on an external disk?

hi,
i want to store my itunes library on and external disk but want it to work just like it does on the internal hdd. is that possible?
i tried to store it on a home server. and while i could play the contents of the library. the art-work and so-forth did not appear in the itune client.
please advise.

Yes, it's most certainly possible. The easiest way is to just drag the entire iTunes folder (the entire folder, not just the iTunes Music folder) to your desired location. Then hold down the Shift key while launching iTunes. You'll be given a dialog box where you can select the iTunes library you want to use. Navigate to and select the iTunes folder in it's new location. Note that this procedure assumes that all of your content is contained in the iTunes Media/Music folder. If things are scattered around your drive, moving them becomes much more complex.
Once you get things moved successfully, be sure not to launch iTunes with the external drive not mounted or iTunes will default back to the internal drive. If it does, though, just mount the external drive and launch iTunes with the Shift key again.
Regards.

I have transferred my itunes library to an external drive. I then attached the external disk to a new computer. I can now access all songs from the new computer. But I can't access playlists. I can still access all songs and playlists on the old computer

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