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!

Similar Messages

New mac user needs help transfering files from Dell...

I have a Dell running Windows XP and need help transfering the files from the dell to the mac.
Also I have no idea what OP system I have, how do you tell which one you have???

Go to the blue Apple menu and scroll down to "About this Mac"
In the summary window that opens you will find the following information:
Mac OS X version (assuming you are running OS X)
Processor speed.
Memory
Startup disk
The More Info button will take you to an in-depth overview of hardware, network set-up and installed software.
As far as transference is concerned, you can either transfer files via CD, DVD, external hard drive... or by networking the two computers.
Here's a link for an overview concerning Mac to PC connectivity:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=19652
I hope the above helps.
Reagrds
Tony
G5 iMac, G4PB, iMac DVD 450Mhz Mac OS X (10.4.2)

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,

Problems transfering music from external hard drive to ipod.

When I plug both ipod and external hard driver (WD 1600B014) into my Gateway laptop, only 1 device will work at a time with the other saying "usb device not recognised". This means I am unable to copy selected itunes songs onto my ipod.
This is driving me insane as I have 60gb of music on my hard drive which I want to chop and change frequently.
I have tried all manner of solutions including buying a powered usb hub (belkin) and starting a clean sheet with my laptop, installing all manner of new drivers for the usb ports.
I have the same problem with my 5G ipod 40gb.
I have tried the same problem on my dads desktop computer and the same problem arrises.
Does anyone have any answers as this has been driving me mad for ages and ages.
Is this a common thing or is it a problem with Western digital hard drives (although i thought they were a pretty big brand).
Any help would really be appreciated.

if I want to copy all those song files onto my iPod, they have to be copied into itunes first, and there's not nearly enough space on my desktop for that.
No, you don't have to copy the tracks to your internal hard drive. Just turn off the "copy music to iTunes Music Folder when adding" option in the iTunes Advanced preferences. Then use the "Add To Library" menu command and select the appropriate folder(s) on your external drive. iTunes will add the tracks to the Library but not move them to the internal drive.
Once that's done, use iTunes to transfer the music to the iPod. You can then, if iTunes is set for manual synchronization, remove the tracks from the Library if you want to remove the reference to the external drive.

Help, need help booting XP from external hard drive

Hi all, i can't seem to get XP to boot from my external hard drive.
OK, heres the story. i have an imac. i use bootcamp to run OSX and XP. things are good. but i run out of space, so i buy myself a 2tb bare drive and swap it out. so i put the original internal with OSX and XP into an external firewire/usb enclosure. I install refit. I hold option on startup and it shows that i have a windows and a mac OS i can boot from the External firewire disk. looks great, but when i choose the windows from the Ext disk, it doesn't boot, instead it loads windows7 on my new 2tb internal disk.
i hear its hard to boot windows XP from an external disk. my professor told me it has something to do with the boot.ini file on the XP disk... something about changing the value of the "rdisk" to 1, which i have done.
i am not trying to reinstall xp, rather just boot from it because i have so many applications/plugins that i do not wish to reinstall.
Does anyone know if this is possible?>> Logon to windows7, and create a system image/backup of the system FROM the XP external disk? and then reinstall XP on that disk, then restore back onto itself? that way i won't have to reinstall.
anyone have any ideas?

Hi boi,
you can't start ANY windows OS from external HD...

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

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)

NEW MAC USER NEED HELP PLEASE!!!

Hi All I am a new mac user I am a PC lover, but just recently purchased a mac notebook I have the 13inch notebook, and I am completely lost....do these thinsg come with anti virus on or do i have to install...if I do where can I find it as far as where it is and where I can check it Im use to my computer icon again any advice is welcome THANKS

Hi - and congrats
From this point on don't even think about security/virus software ...it's just not needed.
Here's a link to help you get started with your Macbook...
http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/
Have fun!

New mac user needs help with default display

hi, i am a new mac user and i accidentally changed the default display. I want to change it back to the default display but it doesnt seem like any of the options in "system preferences" - "display" change it back to the default out of the box display. please point me in the right direction. thank you!

im talking about the screen resolution. I went under "system preferences" then clicked on "display" and somehow the mouse clicked on another resolution which stretched everything out. so I went threw all of the difference resolutions and nothing seems to be like the default one. am i missing something? thanks

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)

Transferring data from external hard drive to new replacement Macbook Pro...

Hello,
Apple have arranged to give me a replacement Macbook Pro due to faults with hardware on the one I am currently using. I will be going to pick up the replacement Macbook Pro tomorrow morning.
As a complete novice I just wanted to check that I have backed up the data from my current laptop onto my Iomega external hard drive properly, as I am slightly nervous about losing all my work and not being able to transfer all my files onto my new Macbook Pro tomorrow.
I did a back up using time machine earlier today which took quite a long time and seemed to go successfully. Is this the right thing to have done to save all data from my current laptop onto the external hard drive?
Will transferring data from the external hard drive onto my new Macbook Pro be a simple task?
Will I have to reinstall all my software such as Logic and Pro Tools? Also will my preferences and settings for music software be changed?
I'd greatly appreciate any advice.
Thanks,
Deena

Well it's like this.
If your problem on the Mac didn't affect the software or the TimeMachine backup, then restoring from that using SetupAssistant (when you first set up a new Mac it will ask you to restore) should go fine.
HOWEVER, if there are software issues on the Mac that also transferred to the TimeMachine drive, that will only transfer them back onto your new computer.
You can't very easily just pick out the things you want to restore from TimeMachine with, it doesn't give that fine detail of control, and if it's really messed up, it might not restore anything at all.
The golden rule of backups is to maintain two separate and easily accessible hardware copies of your data off the machine at all times.
Since you don't know for sure if the TimeMachine restore is going to work as intended, and your only other source is going to disappear, I'd advise a additional backup of your Music, Documents, Pictures and Movie folders etc., to another regular external drive via regular drag and drop copy methods.
The operating system and programs can all be reinstalled from fresh sources on the new machine, provided you have the AppleID and password, license codes for your programs, email passwords and any other necessary information to re-establish the license on the new machine.
(In some cases licensed software HAS NOT transferred to a new machine with a TimeMachine restore and had to be reinstalled)
Some times you have to contact the developer or "uninstall" the licensed program so it sends a signal to their servers that the program has been removed, else your license code may not work on the new machine.
You might decide the new machine would be better off with a fresh install of your programs that you know are 100% compatible with Lion etc., leaving a lot of older stuff you installed over the years off the new machine, if you restore from TimeMachine, you don't have this option. You pretty much get all the crap along for the ride,
If your new machine gets all crapped up, then restoring Lion is going to going to be a tough challenge, as you need a strong reliable Internet connection to download a fresh copy of Lion from Apple servers (no more disks). Once you do that, then somehow you have to use third party software ($$) to cherry pick your files out of TimeMachines trap. More headaches than you anticpated, and likely a charge by a specialist.
So I'd advise another hard drive with a copy of just your files, just in case a crap-up occurs
You can restore Lion yourself if it craps up, install programs from fresh sources as you know how to do, use the old license codes and then return your files manually exactly back into their same Music, Pictures, Documents, and Movies (etc, not Library) folders as before.
The key to this manual method is to make sure to use the same user name as before, so all your file location data pathnames retained by program files like iTunes to where the songs are located on the drive, are matched. Once you open these programs and restablish the links in OS X, then you can move them around.
Some tricks, if you use iPhoto, you can right click "show package contents" and inside is a folder with your Originals, copy that out and you can reimport your pictures into the new iPhoto Library on the new machine.
So use TM if you dare, but prepared to do things manually is my opinion.
TM restores have not been all that reliable or dependable, the more messed up your machine is, the worst the restore seems to be.
Good Luck

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.

Transferring music from peripheral hard drives

I just go a new mac mini(old one died with my itunes libraries) and I have music stored on several peripheral hard drives what is the best way to get it into the new computer that as yet has no music in it. I want to store the music and library on one of the peripheral drives and play from that.

I have a similar problem... my external hard drive, PC formated, is one that can be connected and media viewed through your TV. I want to keep all my "pc" files on the hard drive and add MAC (.avi, .mp3, .mp4, etc.) files to the hard drive to free up space on my laptop.
As you said, I can read/copy files from the hard drive to my MAC but cannot copy from my MAC to the hard drive. Will the software you speak of allow me to copy those files? If not, must I burn all from my files to a disc, reformat the hard drive, and then copy back?

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?

HELP! updating music from external hard drive

I recently had my computer wiped, but backed up all my music on my hard drive. Now I don't know how to get it back into itunes without going into each artist folder and adding each song. This is not only time consuming, but I would loose all of my playlists. I had previously linked my itunes to this external drive so I know it can read the music there. Any ideas on how to get it into my itunes? Thank you!

Did you b/u and save the 2 files - iTunes Library and iTunes Music Library.xml. These files are located by default in HD>User>Music>iTunes. If those 2 files are not in that location then iTunes will create new ones. These 2 files are how iTunes and other apps keep track of the tunes, location etc. If you didn't keep those 2 files then you will be at square one and have to start over by "adding" the tunes back. If you do have those 2 files then put them into the correct location - with iTunes closed - make sure you have directed iTunes to your ext HD - then open iTunes see if iTunes can "see" the tunes and PL etc.
MJ

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

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for