Saving my iTunes library

I had to replace my hard drive on my laptop (it's a PC) and now my iTunes library has been wiped clean. I still have all of my songs on my iPhone. How can I put all my music back onto my computer? I can't seem to find a "Music" section in iCloud. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

See this User Tip by turingtest2:
Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device

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I have two apple id's one from my old laptop and one from my iPhone. I saved my iTunes library to my external hard drive and then tried to transfer it to my iMac. My music skips like a scratched cd now and I can't add any to my iPhone. Help please!

I have two apple id's one from my old laptop and one from my iPhone. I saved my iTunes library to my external hard drive right before my old mac laptop died and then tried to transfer it to my new iMac. Now when I try to play my old music it skips like a scratched cd. Also, now I can't add any music to my iPhone unless it was purchased recently through itunes and downloaded through icloud. I tried to "Organize" my library in hopes of correcting the problem but my iMac just ejects my external harddrive part way through. Please help!

Ejects the harddrive?
Of what did your old Mac die?
It sounds to me like you have some file corruption somewhere. Either in the transfer of your library to the external or the external itself is flaky if it keeps ejecting.

I saved My itunes library to an ehd and now my playlists are gone. When I tried option hold and selected it from ehd and added it to my library it copies it but as soon as I eject the hard drive it says choose or create new library when I launch iTunes

I saved my itunes library to an external hard drive and my playlists disappeared. I tried holding down the option button and selecting choose library and selecting the library from the hard drive. When I do this it opens up and everything comes back. When I add the library to my itunes I can see it copying the music but as sson as I unplug the hard drive I have no itunes at all. It says the folder containing the itunes library cannot be found and is required.
Please Help!

You need to make sure it is connected and mounted before launching iTunes.

I need help,,upgraded to ipad2, laptop had to be restored b4 I backed up iPad or saved iTunes library. How do I back up and sync my ipad2 without losing content on my iPad.

I need help,,upgraded to ipad2, my HP laptop had major issues and had to be restored b4 I could back up and save any content on the hard disc. So i havent backed up my iPad2 or saved my iTunes library.
How do I back up and sync my ipad2 without losing content on my iPad.???
I need really simple instructions as I've had a bad run with my laptop the last month.
I have re-installed iTunes,it currently has no content in it
all my music, photos etc had been saved to a an external Hardrive (phew)so I'm not concerned about losing them during a sync, but how do I sync my Ipad without losing the applications... The last back up saved was in June when I still had an ipad1
I tried to back it up last night but kept getting the prompts something to the effect of "iPad can only be synced to 1 iTunes library, syncing will erase all content and replace with content on this iTunes library".
Help please,, I've already lost endless hours fixing my PC issues,so I'm not game to attempt this issue without guarantee I won't lose everything,need a simple solution that anyone can follow as my brain has information overload!!! Lol
Thanks

This should help you out. I copied this from another discussion a while back. Here is the original discussion link.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/11527071#11527071
This is what is in the discussion. It really doesn't get any easier than this.
1) Without connecting your iPad to your laptop, start iTunes. Click on Edit. Click on Preferences. Click on Devices. Check the box next to "Prevent your iPod etc. from automatically syncing." Click OK.
2) Now connect your iPad to your laptop and start iTunes.
3) When iTunes starts, right click on your iPad under Devices in the left column. Select Transfer purchases etc.
4) After it finishes transferring all your apps to your new laptop, right click on your iPad and select Backup your iPad.
5) After it finishes backing up your iPad, right click on your iPad and select Restore etc.
6) After it finishes restoring, left click on your iPad , then click on the Apps tab on top, and check the box next to Sync Apps, then click on Apply below.
If everything on your iPad looks good after the sync, go back and click on Edit / Preferences / Devices and UN-check the box next to Prevent your iPod etc. The only other thing you may want to check is if your contacts, bookmarks, etc. are syncing correctly now. If not, go to the Info tab after connecting and make sure you indicate which features you want to sync with what sources.

HT1339 i saved my itunes from my old laptop to an external hard drive but i cant figure out how to put the library on my new laptop so it can bew added to my new library

i saved my itunes library from my old lap top to an external hard drive but i cannot figure out how to import it onto my new laptop

i have an itunes folder on the external hard drive and there is a folder with the name of every artist. i copied the itunes folder and pasted it in my current folder

How do I back up my Itunes Library with a external hard drive

and if i do periodical backups of the whole system am i saving the itunes library?

That is a great question. I am wondering the same thing

How do I restore my itunes library? My computer was restored to factory settings and I couldn't find a restore date that allowed my to get access to all of my files. Now my itunes library is empty minus the songs we've recently purchsed!

MY computer was restored to factory settings. Is there a way to get my previous itunes library back? I don't have an Ipod or other device that I saved my itunes library to.

Restore the media from the backup of the computer.
If it was simply restored via the Windows restore point, no data on the computer should have been affected.
If the computer was formated and Windows re-installed, no data remained on the computer and will have to be added back by the user.

How do I restore my itunes library on a new PC?

I recently had my PC windows XP reinstalled as I had a virus. I think I saved my iTunes library however as my external hard drive shows that I have an ITunes folder and in it is an iTunes library. In the iTunes folder is a sub folder called iTunes music. Is this data what I use to restore my ITunes library on my new PC?
All my songs have been moved out of their original location on the C:/ drive however. Do I have to move the music etc. back to the PC as they are on my External HD now.
I'm clued out as what to do. I got an old IPod Nano with probably 80 percent of my songs from the original PC location and iTunes library.
I am guessing I have to move all my music back from the External HD to my PC's HD and name it exactly the same folder name. Then I use iTunes to re-sync my iPod. Is this the right procedure?
Sorry if this is a redundant question as I don't know where to search for this answer.

I couldn't edit my original post so I replied to myself.
I think I solved my problem! I moved my itunes folder to destop and then moved my backed up one to the same folder/ I made a wrong assumption that I had to also move back my source music files (I bought nothing from itunes store they are just CD rips etc.) .

HT1351 I upgraded from Vista to Windows 7. I saved my iTunes on external hard drive and reinstalled them. My iTunes no longer recognizes my device - a 5th gen. iPod. I can's synch

I upgraded my Dell computer from Vista to Windows 7. I saved my iTunes library on an external hard drive. I somehow managed to erase them from my iPod. Now my songs won't play on the Dell and my iPod is not "recognized" as a device by my computer. I have "reset" the iPod by toggling the lock and holding down the menu and center button at once, but still no luck. How can I get my songs from my Dell back to my iPod?

At a guess you followed the process in HT1364 - iTunes for Windows: Moving your iTunes Media folder which would have moved the media folder to a new path of your choice. This process leaves the library database files back in the original location of <User's Music>\iTunes. Often people assume that all they need is now on the external drive and wipe the internal drive, or discard their old computer, before backing up the all important iTunes folder. If you have a backup of your user's profile folder from before the upgrade the iTunes library folder should be in there somewhere. Restore it to <User's Music> and your original library should pop back into existence. The external drive would need to have the same drive letter that it had previously.
A more effective way to relocate the library is to move the entire iTunes folder to the external drive, then hold down shift when starting iTunes and keep holding until asked to choose or create a library. You would then choose the file iTunes Library.itl in the iTunes folder on the external drive. If this is the way you moved the library before then that is how you should now reconnect to it. Changing the media folder in preferences doesn't change which .itl database file is opened, nor does double-clicking on an .itl file directly.
If you no longer have the original .itl file then you will have to build a new library and import the media to it. If you need to do this I would recommend you create a new library at F:\iTunes, then move your existing media folders inside F:\iTunes\iTunes Media before importing. This will avoid the creation of duplicates and make sure the library is in the correct shape going forwards.
If you have an iPod or iOS device my scripts ImportDevicePlaylists and SyncStats may well let you recover ratings, play counts & playlists from the device.
When you've fixed up your libray you should consider getting a second external drive to backup to.
tt2

Lost my iTunes library... can I get it back?

My old computer was a Dell Inspiron 1520. I had my iPod Touch G2 (purchased new, in December 08) synched with my iTunes library on that computer (which consisted of something like 2000 songs).
In April of this year, my Inspiron crashed... I saved all of my files on to an external hard drive. I reinstalled the operating system (Windows Vista) and all the programs on to the Inspiron, so it was like I was starting from new. I plugged the external hard drive into the Inspiron. I had no problem finding all my text and picture files, however, my iTunes library seemed to be... gone.
I recently got a Dell Latitude E6500 (I'm using it for the first time today). I still have all 2000 or so songs on my iPod, but I'd like to listen to my music on my computer, too (I have some of it backed up on CDs, but not all of it!). Is there any way to get my iTunes library back? I'm worried that if I just plug my iPod in to my computer, I'll lose all the songs on my iPod (since won't the iPod sync with the iTunes library on my computer?- which is, as of now, empty). What will happen if I plug my iPod into my Latitude? Will I lose all of my songs?
If there is a way to get my iTunes library back (as in, get it from my iPod to my Latitude) I would GREATLY appreciate it if someone could tell me what to do! The songs that are on CDs, I could easily rip on to the computer... but is there a way to get those songs that were purchased on iTunes (and never burned to a CD) on to my computer (the Dell Latitude)? Please help!

You can move all your purchased iTunes tracks to a new computer easily. Here is the extract from iTunes Help.
*Moving your iTunes Store purchases to another computer*
+If you have an iPod or iPhone with iTunes Store purchases on it, you can use it to move your purchases to other authorized computers. You might want to do this if you regularly use more than one computer (at home and at work or school, for example) to buy items from the iTunes Store, and you want all your purchases in both iTunes libraries.+
+To move store purchases from your iPod or iPhone:+
+Make sure the iPod or iPhone has the purchased items you want to transfer.+
+Make sure the destination computer (the one you want to transfer items to) is authorized to play iTunes Store purchases (choose Store > Authorize Computer and then click Authorize).+
+Do one of the following:+
+If the iPod or iPhone is synced with another computer, or is an iPod shuffle: Click Transfer Purchases in the dialog that appears.+
+If the iPod or iPhone is set up to manually manage items: Wait for the device to appear in the iTunes window (below Devices), and then choose File > Transfer Purchases From iPod (or iPhone).+
+Unless the song is an iTunes Plus version, you can play an iTunes Store purchase on up to five authorized computers.+
Good luck. That should at least get your purchased tracks onto your new computer. I think unless you have saved your iTunes library on disc then you will have lost all your playlists and non iTunes tracks. (But I'm no expert and stand to be corrected )

Help with saving my itunes attributes

Ok. i resecntly got a fifth gen ipod, and i love it. The itunes is great. User friendly and i can customize everything. i love it. but i do have 1 concern that needs an answer.
i'm running a computer that was pretty much a mailorder pc taht started out on WIn 98 se, fat32 system. i upgraded to xp about 2 years ago. anyway, SO i have my library on an external hardrive, so losing my info isnt really my worry. BUT i do have all the songs just a certain way (compilations, shufle/no shuffle, gapless play, so on) and tehre are some mp3s on my hardrive that i dotn want in teh library... but i still want on teh hardrive (my ipod right now is sitting at about 50 gigs).
anyway, about 2 or 3 weeks ago i got hit with akiller virus with spam popups from ****. so i just re-formatted it and started over, well, i saved teh itunes library as a xml file AND as the itunes library file. well, when i loaded it on the new computer, it showed all the attributes, it shoed all teh mp3s.... it just had no idea of where they were. lol. so i wouldve had to have gone thorugh and refind each and every one of my 14000 mp3s. (now theres a slight, slight chance that my external hardrive might have been turned off when i tred this, but i doubt it).
now, this crap is back again, but i have pinpiointed the source of it. so i wil no longer be doing hose online activities, but i'd like to format it one more tiem to have a fresh start. NOW is there anyway that i can save all teh attributes and the file paths and everything so i can just load in the xml file and just have my library be exactly as it was? or will i have to start all over from scrath, drag and drop my mp3 folder with my personal defined prefences not yet set???
ALSO, with teh files i bought off itunes, i had to have those files re-authorized, and now i'm down to 3 more authorizations... they are on teh external hardrive, same hardrive, same computer. is there anyway to have it not do that next time?
and one more thing... I bought mine on valentines day, 2007, with a serial 8l7022g9v9r... do i have a fifth gen? or a 5.5 gen?
thanks!
-keith
homemade Windows XP Pro usb external 80 gb hardrive

This may answer your question.
Buegie's complete back up strategy.
It shows how to back up the files that contain playcounts/ratings etc.
"i had to have those files re-authorized, and now i'm down to 3 more authorizations... they are on teh external hardrive, same hardrive, same computer. is there anyway to have it not do that next time?"
Before you make any major changes to your computer, de-authorize it.
See: About Authorization and Deauthorization.

I have saved my itunes on an hard while i was having a macbook i bought a new macbook but i cannot open it under the new mac please help

i had a mac book and had saved my itunes library on a hard drive
i now have bought mac book pro and i am try to open it and when i click on the library a have a an equation editor program that open
but i cannot open my library and access my music \
can one help
thnaks
N

old mac is Mac OS X 10.6.8
new mac is Mac Pro OS X 10.9.1
external hard drive WD passport

Moving Backed Up iTunes Library Back To Newly Formatted Laptop Question.

I've saved all iTunes library files plus music to ext hdd. How do I move everything back so it will be like it was before I moved it? Links to help docs will help.
Thanks
G
Message was edited by: GARTH

I have the same problem. Seems like APPLE needs to address this issue on its next update, if that's possible.
I got a new, bigger HD and transferred all itunes music files to the new HD. I did a copy paste of all the folders that represented individual CDs. For some reason, I was unable to transfer the entire "iTunes Music folder" that contained all of these "individual CD" folders.
Itunes cannot locate the files on its own. I've already made sure the letter drive is the same. I can locate the files but Itunes cannot.
BUT, Itunes CAN locate files that are MPEG-1 Layer 3 Audio! Itunes cannot locate MPEG-4 Audio Files, many of which are bought CDs that I imported into itunes.
A solution would be super!
Thanks

My iTunes library has disappeared after updating, how do I get it back?

Upon opening iTunes it pops up with "The file 'iTunes Library.itl' does not appear to be a valid iTunes library file..."
I've saved my iTunes library on an external hard drive and have been accessing it fine until recently. Now when I open it it pops up with that and when I open itunes all my music is gone.
How do i fix this?

User turingtest2 help document: Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-6561
iTunes: How to re-create your iTunes library and playlists - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1451

Need to format c:\*.* but keep my ITunes library

I cannot find the anser to a seemingly simple question....
Assuming I have properly saved my itunes library to an external hard drive, how do I reinstall my itunes library after reinstalling Windows?
I'd hate to start this process without reassurance that I will recover my daughters itunes libray, playlists and ratings.
Thanks in advance for any help!

Assuming you have copied the entire iTunes folder - which includes the iTunes Music , Album Artwork and Previous iTunes Libraries folders along with the iTunes Library files - from C:\Documents and Settings\ user name \My Documents\My Music to the external drive, all you will have to do is paste it into C:\Documents and Settings\ user name \My Documents\My Music on your newly formatted computer.
The entire path to the iTunes folder on the new installation must be identical to the path on the old installation, including the user name .
Have a look at this User Tip .
Post back with any further questions.

Saving my iTunes library

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