Moved ITunes folder to external drive now can't get Ipod to sync

I have moved my ITunes folder from laptop to external drive. Had to move each album folder individually to ITunes and when I went to Sync my Ipod, says its in Restore mode and can't get out of it as it stays in Restore mode over and over and over.

As a best practice, you should move your content to an external drive and import references to into iTunes rather than moving the whole database and app files. In iTunes > Preferences > Advanced, uncheck "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library". This will keep all your music and movies on the external drive, but iTunes and all references to the content on your desktop.
I know that's not what you wanted to hear as a fix, but this is how I have my MacBook Air setup and it works fine with the iPad. My son tried to move the whole app and database to a hard drive and we had endless problems with it.

Similar Messages

Moved iTunes Library to external drive- now can't move iPad purchase to Mac

I moved my iTunes Library to an external drive because I didn't have enough internal HD space to move a movie purchased on the iPad to my Mac. Now iTunes won't sync my iPad - and wants to reformat it - because it says it was formatted on another Mac.
I've tried Aiseesoft iPad Manager but the movie - a iTunes+ movie, so I assume it is a package of some sort - doesn't show up in the movie pane.
This is a really crappy position to be put into. If I could re-download the movie I'd just reformat my iPad and be down with it. Unfortunately, this is not an option.
Help!

As a best practice, you should move your content to an external drive and import references to into iTunes rather than moving the whole database and app files. In iTunes > Preferences > Advanced, uncheck "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library". This will keep all your music and movies on the external drive, but iTunes and all references to the content on your desktop.
I know that's not what you wanted to hear as a fix, but this is how I have my MacBook Air setup and it works fine with the iPad. My son tried to move the whole app and database to a hard drive and we had endless problems with it.

Moved itunes folder to external drive and now lost playlists

To free space on my hard drive, I moved the folder to my external drive. Now, I successfully can access my music library, but my playlists aren't listed and I can't figure out how to get them/point to them. Any ideas?
Thanks!
Compaq Windows XP

polydorus, you are my hero. I launched itunes with the shift key down and was able to select the library on the external drive. I would not have thought of that. Thanks so much.
shockme, I found changed the folder name under the advanced tab wasn't enough. I used File>Import and imported the music from the external drive no problem.
mlevin, I was really scared deleted the original file too. I checked several times that the exact number of bytes were moved in case I wanted to go back. Change the music location, do the import, fix the playlists and get all going and then I assume you can delete the contents in the music folder like I did. Then I did a defrag to clean things up. Good luck!
Compaq Windows XP

Moved my itunes folder to new drive, now can't see my music in itune

I transferred my itunes over to an external drive per the step-by-step instructions on the Apple site, which assures that all playlists will be maintained. iTunes Properties shows the correct location of the new folder, which, judging by its size, does in fact contain everthing I transferred over to it.
Now when I open itunes, it is blank - no music, movies or playlists. How do I get itunes to pull up everything propoerly from the new folder location?

*Well this worked, thank you. However, my playlists arent there. Did yours go back in?*
I never moved my library file just the music folder but I'm surprised the playlists aren't there if you are picking up the original library.
*I believe I can now synch the ipods to get those playlists, but there were others..*
If you sync the iPod to a library without playlists the lists on the iPod will be erased. There are a number of third party utilities that you can use to retrieve music files and clone playlists from your iPod. I believe these three will recover playlist data, they'll give you somewhere to begin your research:
iRepo Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iPod Access Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
TouchCopy Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
You can find others to look at here: Comparison of iPod managers

Moved music folder to external drive, how do I get Match/ITunes to recognise it?

Hi guys,
I've been rather stupid in restoring my computer. I moved all the music to an external harddrive before I restored my PC but forgot to bring the Itunes library file with it. I've got ITunes Match so I can stream all my songs, but is there anyway to get it to recognise the songs on my external drive? I've tried re-importing them into ITunes but it adds each song as a duplicate, so I have the Match version and then my harddrive version, I really don't want duplicates of all 7000 odd songs! Likewise I'd like to try to avoid having to download everything from Match as this will take ages and be a bit of a pain! The only reason I care is so I can use my Sonos system with my laptop, otherwise I'd just leave them all on Match. Any ideas?
Thanks, Luke

You will need the iTunes Library.itl file which generally lives in ~/Music/iTunes/. You can recover this from the backups you were making before the HDD died. Otherwise, you cannot recreate the library.

Have moved Itunes library to external HD, now can't burn cd's to anywhere?

I have recently moved the music folder to: F:\Backed Up music, and now when i burn cd's they don't seem to go anywhere. i check the backed up music folder and they don;t show up there, and i search the computer for the files, and they don't show up anywhere on the computer. have I made a mistake somewhere?
i have also checked the: keep itunes organized, and Copy music to itunes music folder when adding to library.
thank you very much,
e

ok when i go to prefs----Advanced--General-- it states the location for import is F:/Backed up Music [which is a folder on the external HD that has the rest of my music on it]
For some reason the folder[or itunes] on the HD is not creating new folders for artists and albums imported.
does this help anyone troubleshoot the issue?

Recently moved iTunes library to external and now can't access files

I recently moved my entire library of songs (15.3G) from internal HD on eMac to external Seagate HD. Problem is that I can see all the songs listed in iTunes, but the column next to song name has an ! against every song.
If I go back to the external and follow the path, I'm able to select a song and it will play in iTunes, but none of the songs are accessible. The error message is "'Song Name' could not be used because the original file could not be found".
I'm hoping someone can help me.
Incidentally, I did the same with my iPhoto collection and have had no probs accessing.
Thanks!

And you changed the directory of the songs to the external as well?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748
If so, you may need to rebuild your library:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93313

Moved itunes library from external drive, now i have two of everything

Moved all my music from an old computer to an external HD and onto a new computer. I was able to make the move, but now all the songs have double. How do I correct this?
I am on a PC w Vista, crappy I know.

Thanks!

Had to reinstall itunes onto my pc, but now can't get onto itunes store any tips

had to reinstall itunes onto my pc. but now can't get onto itunes store any tips

(1) Download the Windows Installer CleanUp utility installer file (msicuu2.exe) from the following Major Geeks page (use one of the links under the "DOWNLOAD LOCATIONS" thingy on the Major Geeks page). Here's a screenshot showing the particular links on the page that you should be clicking:
After clicking one of the circled links, you should be taken to another page, and after a few seconds you should see a download dialog appear for the msicuu2.exe file. Here's a screenshot of what it looks like for me in Firefox:
Choose to Save the file. If the dialog box does not appear for you, click the link on the page that says "CLICK HERE IF IT DOES NOT". Here's a screenshot of the page with the relevant link circled:
When the dialog appears, choose to save the file.
(2) Go to the Downloads area for your Web browser. Doubleclick the msicuu2.exe file and follow the prompts to install the Windows Installer CleanUp utility. (If you're on a Windows Vista or Windows 7 system and you get a Code 800A0046 error message when doubleclicking the msicuu2.exe file, try instead right-clicking on the msicuu2.exe file and selecting "Run as administrator".)
(3) In your Start menu click All Programs and then click Windows Install Clean Up. The Windows Installer CleanUp utility window appears, listing software that is currently installed on your computer.
(4) In the list of programs that appears in CleanUp, select any iTunes entries and click "Remove", as per the following screenshot:
(5) Quit out of CleanUp, restart the PC and try another iTunes install. Does it go through properly this time?

Moved iTunes to an external drive, library files can't be located - help?!?

So ok, I knew it couldn't be that easy...
I copied my iTunes to an external drive to free up space on my laptop - followed the instructions for moving files on a PC - and got to the part about moving the old iTunes folder to the recycle bin. Well, the recycle bin wasn't large enough for the folder, so it deleted everything straight out of MyComputer. Apparently the "library files" went with it.
Now I can see all my songs/movies/videos in folders on the external, but can't get my iTunes to associate with it when I open it.
Is there any way to fix this? I'm tearing my hair out, here. I have a full backup on DVDs - will that help?
Thanks!

got to the part about moving the old iTunes folder to the recycle bin.
There is no part about moving the _iTunes folder_ to the recycle bin.
There is a part about moving th _iTunes music folder_ to the recycle bin.
Did you move them to the external by using iTunes menu File -> Library -> Consolidate?
Or did you move them to the external yourself?
Which folders exactly did you move?

Moved Itunes to an external drive. When prompted to update versions, the download would not install, now I get an error message indicating file msvcr80.dll is missing.

I moved my ITunes to an external drive. Whe I was prompted to run the update for a new version of Itunes, It downloaded but would not install. now when opening Itunes I get an error message indicating the file msvcr80.dll is missing. How can I restore this, and e

Try the following user tip:
Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates

Question about moving itunes to wd external drive?

i found the page where it says u can move itunes music to external drive but will that include my tv shows also and if so can i delete it from my laptop after i move it to other drive?

\Music\iTunes\ folder is the main iTunes library location. It contains the library files, music files and everything else.
I have all of my music files already stored on an external HD. But for some reason when i moved it all
What exactly does "moved it all" mean? What did you move?
in other words in the old drive I still have the following files:
itunes library genius
-itunes library extras
-itunes library
These three are all the same type of files. I don't know what type of files they are
The iTunes library.itl file is the iTunes database file. Without that, iTunes is empty.
Since i already have all of my music files on my ext. HD can I delete these files without messing anything up?
Only if you want iTunes to be completely empty and you want to start from scratch.
Moving the music file syourself is not the correct way to do it. iTunes will lose everything.
If you want to move everything, copy the entire \Music\iTunes\ folder to a new location.
Hold Shift and launch iTunes.
Select *Choose library* and select the iTunes library.itl file in the iTunes folder you moved.

I tried to transfer itunes onto an external drive, now have serious probs.

I tried to transfer itunes onto an external drive, then i deleted the itunes folder from the computer. This completely emptied itunes......oops... then i put back the music saved on the drive back onto itunes, but its only put on a small amount, all of my playlists are gone and most of the album artwork....aaaahhhh..... I havent synced my ipod yet, is there any way of replacing all of the lost data transferring it back onto itunes from the ipod itself?

Copying from iPod to Computer threads...
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1300144
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=797432&#797432
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=809624&tstart=0
Also these somewhat dated but still useful internet articles...
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/copying-music-from-ipod-to-co mputer/
http://www.engadget.com/2004/11/02/how-to-get-music-off-your-ipod/
http://playlistmag.com/help/2005/01/2waystreet/
Good luck!
Patrick

New iTunes folder on external drive...move xml file there?

About a year ago, I created a new folder on an external hard drive and I thought that I followed the apple designated steps to move my itunes music to that folder. I then selected the advanced tab in preferences in iTunes and selected the new folder on my external drive as my "iTunes" folder. iTunes seems to have worked OK for this past year using the folder on the external drive. After updating to the latest version of iTunes (11.1.1), I tried to sync some apps to my iPhone 4, and I got the message that the external drive folder I am using as my "iTunes" folder on the external drive is not the one associated with my iPhone. iTunes asks if I want to erase my iPhone and use the contents of my external drive folder on my phone. This is the first time I have seen this message, even though it has been a year, and I have connected my phone to iTunes during that time.
In investigating this, I see that the .xml and .its files are not in the folder on the external hard drive. In fact, there is no folder at all called "iTunes" on my external drive. They are still in the "iTunes" folder in my music folder on my internal hard drive. This is what is still in the music folder in my home folder on my internal drive:
Should I manually move the .xml, the .ita and the other files into the folder on the external drive?
Thanks

In my message above, I tried to include a .png file of what my internal hard drive has in the music folder, but that did not work, so I am trying to paste it in here. I am wondering if I should manually copy these files to the music folder on my external hard drive. There is no folder on my external drive names "iTunes".

I have not used my ipod touch for quite some time and now can't get it to sync. I am getting a message that my computer doesn't recognize my device

I have not used my ipod touch for quite some time and can't get it to sync. message is that my computer does not recognize my device

Try this article and the related articles on the left hand side of the the article:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1567

Moved ITunes folder to external drive now can't get Ipod to sync

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for