Moving music from external hard drive to new cpu

My hard drive failed, so I got a new one, backing up all iTunes music to an external drive. I got a new hard drive and had to reinstall iTunes. The reinstalled version does not recognize my iPod nor does it show my music collection, which I dragged from the external drive into the iTunes music folder. How can I get iTunes to show my music and playlists? iTunes asks to sync with the iPod, which would erase all music on the iPod.
Also, I did not enable disc use on the iPod.
Thanks.

To make this happen (which i recently did the same type of thing) you need to open up iTunes and while youre waiting hold in the shift key. iTunes will ask you to locate your library which is basically the file which tells is where youre music is and will reload the music and playlists, etc.
The only catch is that hopefull when you copied all your music to the Eternal HD you copied the iTunes music folder usually stored on the C: drive of any computer to the HDD as well. This .lib file which should be found in the my iTunes folder is what should laod all the music back on there for you. Everytime you close iTunes it updates this folder automatically.
Hope this helps!

Similar Messages

Moving music from external hard drive to new computer

I lost my iTunes library, but still has my music file on an external hard drive.How do I get my music onto the new computer + Itunes from the external hard drive?

On new year's eve some POS shot a .40 cal bullet through my living room window and hit my 20" 2.4 GHz iMac on the edge of the screen. -- Let me just pause to say that we're lucky we were out at a party. -- Anyway, this iMac was the hub for our media. We used it to sync/control content on our ATV, of which we had about 200 GB of music, TV, & movies (mostly purchased via iTunes). I had a Lacie hard drive connected to the iMac for storage of the iTunes Music folder (I was running 10.5...it wasn't upgraded to OS 10.6). Anyway, I didn't have the media backed-up (not using time machine), but the external hard drive wasn't damaged by the bullet. I now have the 21.5" 3.06 Ghz iMac with OS 10.6. Is there a way to get the new computer to use the content on the Lacie hard drive?

Moving Music from External Hard Drive

I just rebooted my pc and I am trying to put my iTunes music from my hard drive back on the computer. How do I do this? Do I just drop and drag directly from the hard drive to the itunes folder in explore or do I have to bring both folders out to the desktop. Thank you!!

Do I just drop and drag directly from the hard drive to the itunes folder in explore or do I have to bring both folders out to the desktop.
Neither. You need to use the Import function inside iTunes, or drag the folder to the library in the open iTunes application window.
(47964)

How to get batch recognition of (!) on some tracks after moving library from external hard drive to new iMac (with terabyte hard drive)?

I'm using Lion 10.7.2 and iTunes 10.5.2
I have moved my iTunes music from an external hard drive onto my new iMac (with a terabyte hard drive) with music folder organized - when I try to play some tracks I get the iTunes can't locate warning and so I follow through and show iTunes the track - they are all in the music folder on my iMac hard drive - they all copied over and they all appear in the iTunes library list - so far as I can tell out of a 500 gigabyte music collection - but there are so many giving me the error - many other tracks function as they should too, some work others don't - So I'm looking for a way to get all the error tracks fixed in a batch correction way. Doing this individually with each track just isn't realistic.
Can anyone suggest how I might fix this issue?
Also, after I show iTunes the song location and it plays, I get a find files prompt that looks like it wants to find other files, but that just causes the process to jam and I have to force quit iTunes and then it doesn't remember what I last showed it next time I open iTunes.
Also I'm trying to avoid the use of the consolidate function because that would copy a whole other set of music - not in iTunes - that is in the process of being edited (audio hijack pro and fission tools being used to put vinyl and tapes to mp3) But all that other music just means the consolodate function across my whole computer would be too much.

Some details seem to be coming into focus - I have started scrolling through the main library list A to Z repairing tracks individually (there are thousands, but it's what works so far) - as I work through, it appears the problem occurred on tracks where album artist metadata was different than song artist metadata, predominantly. I'm not sure that is 100% the case in every instance, but that is what it's looking like. I don't why that happened, must be some technical glich I guess.
Also, I tried running Doug's Scripts - the one titled, iTunes Track CPR v1.3 - it is supposed to fix exactly the kind of issue I'm having - I bet it would work for some people with a similar issue - but for my case it only identifies the 'de-linked' tracks and doesn't repair them - that is at least helpful as I scroll though to fix them - I can see exactly which tracks have the issue quickly after running that script - but iTunes doesn't remember that warning symbol after a log-out, so it's only worth running the script on a set of tracks I intend to review and fix in any given session at a time.
If you are interested, Doug's free scripts can be found at
http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=itunestrackcpr
there are other interesting and useful iTunes scripts there too...
also, unrelated to the issue I'm having, I found a lot of really useful and time saving metadata fixing free scripts at - hubi's iTunes scripts - the page isn't English, but the script download is easy to find -
hubi's scripts work for batch selections of tracks - so if you import an album and find the metadata screwed up somehow, you can select the whole set of screwed up tags at once (even across a series of albums), run the easy to use script, and watch it all be fixed automatically while you sit back and relax...
http://hubionmac.com/wordpress/category/softwareschmiede/applescripting/itunes/
just for reference, here is a sampling of what hubi's scripts can do...
there are other useful scripts out there - the tough part can be finding the one that helps you...
01-(un)capitalizes
01-(un)capitalizes
This script changes.... THIS TEXT into This Text... or this text
01-Delete spaces
Sometimes invisible blanks are behind an artist name or album name...this script deletes these blanks behind or infront of the strings
01-Delete x first-last chars. of Title
A Name like "01--Ray Of Light" will be changed to "Ray Of Light" and the01 will be entered in the tracks tracknumber id3 field =)
01-fix combined Artist-Title
Sometimes Tracknames look like:
"Madonna---Ray of Light" and in the artist field you see something like"Ripped by Me"... this script puts Madonna back to the right field... all youhave to do is to enter the right delimiter ("---" in this case)
01-switch Artist<->Title...
Switch ID3 field a with ID3 field b (not only Artist with Title any more =)!
01-z_filename ->Title
Sets the ID3 field Title to the track's filename)
01-z_trackNr-Filename->ID3
When a track's filename look like "01-Madonna-Ray of Light.mp3" andyou don't have the track's tracknumber stored in the ID3 Tag... this Scriptcan do this for your =)

Moving music from external hard drive to i-tunes

Please I need some help with moving music on an external hard drive to my i-tunes library. I think that I have cut and pasted it to i-tunes from this hard drive but once the hard drive is disconnected...i-tunes can not find it. I would appreciate a step by step run down on how I might do this

Rosanne Maitland wrote:
Please I need some help with moving music on an external hard drive to my i-tunes library. I think that I have cut and pasted it to i-tunes from this hard drive but once the hard drive is disconnected...i-tunes can not find it. I would appreciate a step by step run down on how I might do this
I am having the same problem, only with music I import into iTunes from a CD. The tracks will import, and will synch to my Ipod, but will not play in iTunes unless the original, source CD is in the computer. It seems to me that once iTunes "accepts" imported tracks, it should play them, whether the source CD is present or not.
I suspect that iTunes will be able to "find" all of your songs, and play them, provided the original source (hard drive) is hooked back up to your computer.
But you shouldn't have to do that. iTunes will play most imported tracks without requiring the source to be present. Puzzling.

HELP: Trying to get my music from external hard drive onto *new* computer

HELP US! Our motherboard died last month, BUT we had everything on an external hard drive (YEAH!) so we've been able to download iTunes on our new laptop, but now are having trouble getting all of my music from my iTunes library into my iPod Nano. Specifically, it will not let me put any of the music I previously purchased--other songs I got from CD's came over find. I can see ALL of my music in my iTunes account, but it won't let me sync them onto my device.
Any suggestions?

Choose Authorize Computer from the Store menu in iTunes, or play a purchased song on your computer.
(32358)

Moving iTunes from external hard drive to new iMac

I will be receiving a new iMac soon. Currently my iTunes is on an external hard drive.
What are the steps I take to move the iTunes from my external hard drive to my new iMac's hard drive?

The PC to MAC move complicates a few things, but this article seems to solve them.

Can't copy my music from external hard drive to new MacBook Pro hard drive. "This operation can't be completed because you don't have permission to access some of the items."

I already tried going to "Get info" and "apply to enclosed items" but that doesn't work. I can copy over about 2gbs of music into my iTunes library but after that, it stops and I get the error. Please help. Any information that would lead to a solution would be great. Thanks!

Hi..
Best to post your topic in the iTunes for Mac community here.

Old laptop died, got latest itunes on new laptop and recovered all music from external hard drive but ipad not recognised as device when plugged in? Do i reset my ipad2!!!

Old laptop died, got latest itunes on new laptop and recovered all music from external hard drive but ipad2 not being recognised as a device when plugged in so can't sync? Do i reset my ipad2?!!!! Its only taken 7 months to get to this point.
My ipad is set to sync via wifi but it is still trying to look for my old laptop which has been trashed..but i have deauthorised it and removed it from my account and still not recognised.
Please help (an extreme novice to Apple products)

Sync Your iOS Device with a New Computer Without Losing Data
http://www.howtogeek.com/104298/sync-your-ios-device-with-a-new-computer-without -losing-data/
iPad not appearing in iTunes
http://www.apple.com/support/ipad/assistant/itunes/
iOS: Device not recognized in iTunes for Mac OS X
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1591
iOS: Device not recognized in iTunes for Windows
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1538
IOS: Syncing with iTunes
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1386
Apple - Support - iPad - Syncing
http://www.apple.com/support/ipad/syncing/
 Cheers, Tom

Transfering Music from external hard drive

Thought I copied music files from external hard drive to new computer sucessfully, but when I try to play music on computer I get an error message telling me that the original file can't be found and do I want to locate it. Looks like everything is there, artwork, playlists, but can't play. Help. Thanks!!!

Hi,
These Links may be just what you are Looking for...
iTunes on External Drive
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751
Moving your iTunes Media Folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364
Cheers,

Importing a contact folder from external hard drive onto new iphone

It is kind of a long story...my mom was updating iphone on computer when computer crashed. iphone crashed. had friend move all info from crashed computer onto external hard drive. got new iphone.
so, she no longer has a computer and we have to share mine. she has her own itunes on an external drive and i have my own itunes on another hard drive. i got almost everything except the contacts moved back on her phone. i see the folder and contacts in a 'contact' folder on the external hard drive, but how do I move that to the new iphone without it being in outlook/google/yahoo. i tried 'adding folder' to the library containing the contacts, but that didn't work.
any suggestions? thanks!!!

thanks for the advise about the two users. so, i did that. but, now cannot seem to import the contact folder into the Address Book. the files in the 'contact'-hard drive are called CONTACT files (.contact). i don't know what that means. can i open those in the address book?

Moving itunes from external hard-drive to another and using another comput

Hi,
This has probably been posted before but i couldn't find it.
My itunes works on another computer, with the library (Edit->Preferences->Itunes location as g:\itunes), this includes the xml files for the library.
I've now got a new laptop and external hard-drive and want to move the library onto the new hard-drive and use it on the new laptop.
I think i can copy the itunes folder from old hard-drive onto new one, then point the itunes install on the new laptop to the new harddrive and it should pick it up?
Any ideas?
Matt

Welcome to AD!
+this includes the xml files for the library.+
Does this also include the important itunes database file, the one with the ITL file extension?
If so, your idea should work. Use Windows Explorer to copy the ITL & music files/folders over to the new exHD.
Connect the new exHD to your laptop and make sure Windows sees it as drive G:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307844
That is a very important step. Otherwise, iTunes will lose all the paths to the music.
Now start itunes on the laptop by pressing *and holding* the shift key. Tell it to use the ITL file on the G: drive. Then set your iTunes preoferences to have any future additions go to the G: drive music folder.

New mac user, need help transferring music from external hard drive

I am new to using a mac. I have had an iphone for almost a year so I am catching on quickly to my macbook but this problem has stumped me and all my mac using friends.
I have a 500gb seagate external hard drive aswell as a new 500gb seagate internal.
I transferred all my music from an old ipod onto the external hard drive. There is about 50gb of music.
When I plug my external into my pc desktop I can see the music folder organized into subfolders with files inside that are encoded unless they are opened in itunes. My pc doesn't have enough internal memory to open and store my music library so I have just left it on the hard drive. When I plug the hard drive into my macbook it will show the music folder as having 50gb but when the folder is opened, none of the subfolders or files are visable.
I went ahead and dragged the folder from my harddrive onto my desktop. It took about an hour to transfer all the files but now the folder is sitting on my desktop and when I open it, it is empty. If i look in the folders info, it says it has the 50gb. If i try to drag and drop it into itunes nothing happens. If I drag and drop it into the itunes music folder, it will go there but will not show up on itunes.
I'm stumped and no longer eligable for apples telephone support as I bought this macbook from a friend. Any help would be greatly appreciated

I have a couple of theories, but I'm not an iTunes expert. These people are, though:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=782
Try posting your question there. Good luck!

Playing music from external hard drive, iTunes

Hello all,
After years of wanting to own a MacBook Pro, I finally have one. This is the first Mac computer that I have owned so I am still new to everything. One issue that I am having is an issue that I have had over the years on Windows, that always took me hours to get straight. I am going to explain how my iTunes has been setup on all of my previous computers so that hopefully you guys can make sense of what I am trying to accomplish as I could not find a solution on here.
The way iTunes is set up on my Windows PC's was that all of my music was on my external hard drive. Whenever I would want to use my music through iTunes, I would have to plug in my external hard drive and once it boots I can now play music. Without the hard drive plugged in I can only see all the information about my music on iTunes but I cannot play it since the hard drive is disconnected. I am trying to do this same setup with my macbook but I am having difficulty accomplishing that. I honestly do not remember how I did it on my Windows PC other than it took forever. I kept getting duplicates but after trying multiple times, I got it to where there were no duplicates and everything was fine.
What steps do I go about in order to be able to see all my music information on iTunes but having the actual music file on my external? I like it this way as it saves my internal hard drive storage and I don't mind having to plug in my external when needed. I have only attempted once so far to do this procedure on my new MacBook, I failed. It transferred all of the music and worked just how I wanted it to work. However, it created a duplicate of every song, which there is thousands of, so I deleted everything and now iTunes doesn't have anything. Any help is appreciated, sorry for the long post.

So after messing around for awhile I finally figured it out and got everything working how I want it and had it on my Windows machine. It took me forever to find the iTunes library file as it was not in its default location on my Windows machine. I finally figured out what needs to be done and it is really easy like you explained. I discovered that my issue is: 1. The default location of these common iTunes files is not in its default location likely due to me moving it the last time I did this from my prior Windows machine and 2. My external hard drive needs to be cleaned up, at least my music section.
What I am going to do in the future is purchase a new external hard drive specifically for my Mac backups and music. I will have to take a day and transfer my huge library to the new drive so that I ensure everything is organized and kept clean and not make this process more difficult than it should in the future. I am however missing some of my tracks (noted with the !) I do believe that this is due to me accidentally changing the file paths on my external at some point in the past and left certain files on my Windows internal drive. This issue is solved though, hopefully. I appreciate your help.
BTW: I am loving my 15" rMBP, I wish the price didn't hold me back as long as it did.

Transferring my music from external hard drive into i-tunes

Help!
I'm sorry if this has been asked before, but I've browsed through a lot of the posts and have not been successful.
I am new to using iPods and iTunes, as I've always had a zune. I have about 80gb of my music backed up on my external hard drive. I am trying to transfer my music files to my itunes and sync to my ipod, and am running into all sorts of problems. Some of my music transferred, the rest didn't. So far, I have only been able to transfer about 21 gb of music from the external into iTunes. I have tried to add folder to library, add file to library, and add playlist to library. In all three, it will not let me select the entire external hard drive, or select more than one individual song that is on my external to transfer. When I tried to transfer my music files individually, I can't find them in my iTunes library. What am I doing wrong?
Bottom line is, how do I get the music off my external hard drive and onto my iPod? It won't all fit on my computer, which is one reason it's backed up externally.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. I am getting so frustrated I could cry. Thanks.

Rosanne Maitland wrote:
Please I need some help with moving music on an external hard drive to my i-tunes library. I think that I have cut and pasted it to i-tunes from this hard drive but once the hard drive is disconnected...i-tunes can not find it. I would appreciate a step by step run down on how I might do this
I am having the same problem, only with music I import into iTunes from a CD. The tracks will import, and will synch to my Ipod, but will not play in iTunes unless the original, source CD is in the computer. It seems to me that once iTunes "accepts" imported tracks, it should play them, whether the source CD is present or not.
I suspect that iTunes will be able to "find" all of your songs, and play them, provided the original source (hard drive) is hooked back up to your computer.
But you shouldn't have to do that. iTunes will play most imported tracks without requiring the source to be present. Puzzling.

Moving music from external hard drive to new cpu

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