Another "moved itunes music" question

Hi;
I recently moved my music from my itunes and other folders onto an external drive.
I had some stuff in the detault itunes folder and other stuff in a folder c:\itunes.
I moved everything OK (using windows explorer), and all music can be played in itunes.
However my playlists are now all messed up. I can't play any of my items in any of my playlists, it says it cannot find the track and do I want to search for it. This is rather annoying as I have 35 playlists each with probably over 300 tracks on. Surely I don't have to go in each one and individually search for each track??
Any help would be most appreicated.
Cheers
MM

Hi Polydorus;
Thanks for the reply.
I found the .xml file and have edited but to no avail. Actually it has no effect whatsoever.
I can't beleive this situation! I use Itunes because I have an iPhone which I love, I use it all the time for my music. Now, just because I moved my folder onto another drive I've lost two years worth of playlists - this is totally crazy, why does the application do this?????
I have tried each night to try and motivate myself to re-create the playlists but it is going to take me for ever.
I've even moved all the tunes back (500GB) but they still don't play from the playlist, I can play them OK from the Music library but not from my playlist - which I need for iPhone AAAarrrrrgggh!
This is about as bad as Microsoft, maybe I should just wait until MS bring out an iPhone euivalent and then use Windows Media player.
Thanks again for the help.
Ciao
MM

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Another "Moving my itunes music" question...

I too have recently purchased a new computer and have already move my itunes music folder via "target disk mode" from my G4 to my Dual Core. (Both systems operate itunes7)
I have also exported my playlist and library files from the G4 and have the music folder too.
I see a lot of confilicting information in the discussions specific to my situation. Rather than screw up my new computer, I thought I start a new post.
Where exactly to I place the music folder and the exported playlist/library files?
I know by placing the .xml files into my library folder, itunes will show my playlists, but not the music files.
I don't have any downloaded itunes songs and don't care about playcounts, etc. I just want my playlist and library to mimic my g4.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

You need to move your entire iTunes folder including the iTunes Music folder and you put these back into Username/Music/.
Copying the whole folder brings with it the iTunes Music folder and also the iTunes Library (iTunes Library.itl in Windows) database file which holds all the information about your songs (Playlists, Ratings, Play Counts, Last Played, Date Added, etc). You'll get more information including the Folder/File structure in this article: What are the iTunes library files?

Moving iTunes music after PC Upgrade

I need to upgrade my boot hard drive and want to move all of our family's iTunes libraries from the old HD to the new HD without loosing the music rights.
Do I need to deactivate the old ones for each user and then reactivate them on the new boot drive then move the music to the new drive?
Or? Thanks!

You are not very precise with your question so I will give a rather general answer.
If you want to move iTunes music to another drive like this and you want to keep all your counts and ratings, etc. You need to be sure you copy the iTunes folder containing the library databases.
You also need to ensure that all the music files are in the iTunes Music folder inside the iTunes folder. Consolidate if they are not.
You then need to save the iTunes folder on an external drive - or if you current drive is intact set it up in a drive cradle so you can access it when you get the new system drive running.
You need to deauthorise your PC before removing the old drive.
Install iTunes on the new system drive and authorise the PC. Before adding any music drag the iTunes folder out of the My Music folder to your desktop and copy your old iTunes folder into My Music replacing the one you dragged out.
If you have more than one account with separate libraries you need to repeat the dragging and copying process in each account.
For interest here is apple's article on moving music using your iPod but you probably will not want to do it this way. Nevertheless the method is similar however you choose to transfer the music.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1329?viewlocale=en_US

HELP!! Moved iTunes music to new comp, but playlists are GONE!!!

Ok, I've posted a couple times now, gotten no helpful responses as of yet, so here goes another attempt:
I just got a new computer. My iTunes music was stored on an external harddrive. I was able to get the music to show up in the iTunes library on the new computer, but
1.) All the songs are checked. I had a specific 900(or so) out of my 10,000 songs selected, for ease of syncing my 4GB iPod Nano. I don't want to have to go through every single song to uncheck the ones that were unchecked before. What can I do?
2.) I have dozens of playlists, some hundreds of songs long. Now, in the new iTunes on the new comp, the playlists are GONE. How can I restore them(other than putting them together one song at a time)?
3.) Some of the album artwork is gone. Some isn't. What gives? How can I restore the missing artwork?
4.) How can I make sure that new iTunes purchases are stored on the external harddrive, not the new comp's harddrive?
That's it for now. Someone PLEASE help, this is a major pain....

Chris CA answered most of your questions in your other posts.
You need that iTunesLibrary.itl file from your old PC.
That's the way iTunes was designed, the way it works, and if you want your play lists and checkmarks back, you need to get it back.
Here is a good article on that - scroll down to the section titled
*iTunes: The Database versus the Content*
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive
Your exHD needs to have the same drive letter as it did on your old system, too.

I moved iTunes music to my hard drive "D" and now it won't open!

My hard drive "C" was getting somewhat full, so I decided to move my iTunes music files over to my second hard drive "D" (I have a dual hard drive on my computer). When I try and open iTunes, it says, "The folder 'iTunes' cannot be found or created, and is required. The default location for this folder is inside the 'Music' folder."
I cannot open the "Music" folder, because when I do, it just opens up the same window I was already in when I tried to open it. The main reason I want to open iTunes is so I can reset my iPod because it is not working anymore. The scroll wheel, the hold button, the backlight, and it automatically sleep mode (after not touching it for a couple of minutes) is all that works. I cannot click anything.
I have moved all of my iTunes folders back over to my "C" drive, but it still won't work. I also reinstalled iTunes in the "Music" folder, and it won't work. Basically nothing has worked!

You might find this article useful, don't be put off by the title, the process is substantially similar moving to another internal drive: iLounge - Managing your iTunes Library on an External Hard Drive

Moved iTunes music folder to HDD, Now iTunes Can't Find it--Help :-)

I finally was able to get an HDD that actually mounted and now I have moved my iTunes music folder based on the instructions here: iTunes: Moving your iTunes Music folder. I printed them out and followed them step-by-step.
Before moving the folder iTunes Music from my internal HD (~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music) to the trash, I played random tracks with no problem. So I moved the folder to the trashcan, then emptied the trash as instructed. Went back to iTunes to play some music, and now all of my tracks have the dreaded exclamation point in the first column. When I click on a track to play it, I get the message "The song 'blah blah blah' could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?"
Of course, I can select 'Yes' and go through the steps and locate the files on my HDD. This, however, is not an optimal process with over 2400 songs. Does anyone know what went wrong with my relocation?
Melissa
PowerBook G4 PowerPC Mac OS X (10.4.8) iPod 30G, MyBook 250GB HDD, iTunes 7.1.1

I've used that method to transfer music from one drive to another literally dozens of times and never seen it fail in the way you experienced. I'm at a loss to explain how you could have followed the instructions, successfully transfer the music to the new drive, and yet have the iTunes database still think the music should be on the original drive.
What I can suggest are two solutions: One for it you don't care about keeping your playlists, rankings, and playcounts intact. The other for if you do care.
Fast fix but loses the meta data: Quit iTunes. Open your home directory, find the music folder and open it. Trash everything you see in your music folder and restart iTunes. All your music and playlists will be gone. Open your new drive on the desktop, find the folder with your music, and drag it into your iTunes window. Your music will be imported into a new iTunes catalog and then you can create your playlists.
Keeping the metadata: After quitting iTunes, move the music back to its original location by dragging the music folder(s). Unmount the new drive and play some music. Remember the songs you clicked on and showed iTunes how to find? Do those songs all over again and once you've verified the iTunes library now points to all the songs properly, delete the songs from the new drive and repeat the steps to move them again.

Moving ITunes Music to New Hard Drive

Hi! I would like to free up space on my internal hard drive by purchasing an external one this weekend and moving the music files to this drive. I read this article: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748 and I still have just one more question. I am not sure if others ended up having a library that looks like this, but in addition to the organized folders (by artist) in the ITunes folder, in C:\Documents and Settings\Dana Christine\My Documents\My Music there are about 100 MP3 files (not organized, just sitting there) which are a part of my library. How can I go about getting these files moved over as well? Will the process described in the link I attached take care of moving these files also? No tutorials on moving files that I have seen has covered such an issue. I really appreciate your help.

If these MP3 files are in the iTunes library (you can play them in iTunes), they will get copied when you Consolidate library.

Moving iTunes music folder from hard drive to external drive

I see a couple of topics related to iTunes folder locations and losing track of where the file are. What's the right way to migrate from having the iTunes music files on my hard drive (C:) to using an external drive...without having to re-map everything manually? I'm running out of space on the C: drive!

There's actually hundreds of those topics. It gets asked daily.
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Here is a very thorough and wordy article on it
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive

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I've got a question about moving my iTunes music library (BTW, I read this: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748).
I've got a huge library with extensively customized playlists, ratings, etc, which I cannot lose. I've outgrown my external HD where my current music library lives. I was planning on:
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2) Attaching a new disk, reformatting, naming the volume the same as the old volume.
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4) Launching iTunes
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Thanks to anyone who knows for sure and can shed some light.
Mac OS X (10.4.8)

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The important part of what you are doing is to maintain the location of the music files, and the iTunes Library Files. As long as those are good, yuo don't even need to keep the drive the same name. But, I'm like you and would prefer to leave it the same.
You don't have to use Carbon Copy Cloner, but its a pretty easy piece of software, and will make an exact duplicate of your old drive, but with the expanded space of the new one.
Carbon Copy Cloner can be gotten here: http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html

Moving iTunes Music to external hard drive

I am trying to move my iTunes music library to an external hard drive to free up space on my HD, but I'm having trouble. Tried the following, suggested by MacMuse:
iTunes Preferences -> Advanced tab; Keep Music Folder organized ... should be enabled.
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* if it finishes properly, manually delete the original files through Windows Explorer. iTunes won't Move the files, only copy them to the new location.
* If you see a file called iTunes 4 Music Library.itl1 in the old area - leave it alone. It continues to live in that location despite the change to the Library location.
1 - in version 5, this file is now known as iTunes Music Library.itl
I am having trouble in that I can't seem to find the "Consolidate library" command under advanced tab. there is a box to check to "copy files to iTunes music folder when downloading music", and I checked that box. I then hit OK, and a window popped up saying "updating iTunes Library" which took about 30-60 sec, and then it closed. When I went to the folder on the external HD where the music was supposed to be, it was empty.
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I think you mistakenly looked in the preferences for 'Consolidate Library..'.
It's in the Advanced menu in the menubar.
You will find more info in this article:
iTunes: Moving your iTunes Music folder
Hope this helps.
M
17' iMac fp 800 MHz 768 MB RAM Mac OS X (10.3.9) Several ext. HD (backup and data)

Ooops...I manually moved iTunes music folder to my new external hard drive

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Is it still possible for you to temporarily return the iTunes Music folder to its original location?
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Moved iTunes music folder to new HD and it won't play

I recently moved my iTunes music files to a larger external hard drive (for the third time) and now iTunes can't find any of the songs. It has worked in the past on 2 other HD's but not this time. I've selected the correct iTunes Music Folder location under <EDIT> <PREFERENCES> <ADVANCED>, have selected "Keep music folder organized", and have even "consolidated my music", but the files won't play. The files are in-tact; I can right-click on a song, click "get info", and manually locate the file to play it, but I don't want to do this for 70GB worth of music!!! Someone suggested dragging the music files into the iTunes library, but I have the library on my laptop and the actual music files on the external HD and I want to keep the library on my laptop so I don't think this will work for me. please help.
Message was edited by: brookap

I have a very similar problem. Hope I don't confuse people trying to help us since the solutions may be different.
I had my iTunes path directed to a 2nd internal hard drive. Everything was working fine - except I found that purchased Apps were still being downloaded to the Mobile Applications folder on my main hard drive instead of the 2nd internal drive. I decided to retry directing the iTunes path to my 2nd internal drive, hoping that might get iTunes to save my Apps there. Big Mistake. Suddenly, there were no Apps showing in my iTunes Library Apps window at all. I verified the downloaded apps are still in my main hard drive's Mobile Applications folder, but I cannot get iTunes to display them in my Apps Library window anymore.
I decided to try downloading a new app and, sure enough, iTunes once again downloaded it into the very same Mobile Applications folder on my main hard drive, where all my (now orphaned) original apps are, but the only one iTunes will only display in my Apps window is the new one. I read you can redownload purchased apps, but my apps are not missing. iTunes just won't display them in the Apps window anymore.

Problem in moving iTunes Music Folder

I feel sooo stupid! I am using the document "iTunes: Moving your iTunes Music folder." I was going along OK until I came to number 5 in the second part:
"In the Change Music Folder Location window that appears, navigate to the location where you would like your new Music folder to be created. Note: By default, your iTunes Music folder is a folder named "iTunes Music" in ~/Music/iTunes/where the tilde "~" represents your home directory.
What does it mean, "....navigate to the location where you would like your new Music folder to be created." ???
I'm trying to free up internal hard drive space by moving my iTunes Music folder to my external hard drive.
Will it also take the movies, podcasts, etc??
Thanks in advance for any help. I'm dead in the water until I get this solved.

Open iTunes and at the bottom of the main window it will tell you how large in Gigs your library is - if that is larger than the space available on your ext HD then you will need a bigger ext HD - or remove some stuff from the ext HD to make space.
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Missing files after moving itunes music folder

i moved my itunes music folder to my external hard drive using the directions posted here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748 to the letter. a lot of things transfered but now when i look in my itunes music folder and compare to my itunes library, i see that a lot of things are missing. i really don't want to have to go through every single artist folder and check every song. shouldn't consolidating my library have taken care of this?

I just had a very similar issue, I moved my iTunes library from a 120Gb Drive to a 500Gb and the library was a bit corrupted because the main drive was full b/c of an error, but that's besides the fact.
SOLUTION To missing files, that aren't really missing because they exist and were all copied no problems.
go to the iTunes folder in your Home folder, and move the iTunes Music Library.xml file to your desktop (with itunes closed of course)
Then re-open itunes and the library file that's not an xml doc, will re-search your files and all should be well.
You should be able to safely delete the xml doc now, because iTunes made a new one.
Cheers
PowerMac G4 Dual 1Gz Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Made an error moving iTunes Music and need to create a folder ...

In August when I had to re-install iTunes, motherboard melt down, I thought I'd transferred iTunes Music back to the F drive, where I keep my media library, correctly.
All downloads installed there and when I clicked Add Folder from my backup drive it installed without incident so everything was correct, or so I thought.
Today I got around to doing a backup with Synctoy and found out I was wrong.
The movies, music, etc. are all on F but they're not in a folder!
So Synctoy returns : error could not read from the source file system volume information.\access is denied.
The solution should be to create a folder on F for all the files, about 500 GB, but how do I do this and still keep the path for iTunes to follow?
Given that error the backup is not reliable even though Synctoy did, apparently, do a full back up anyway.

I tried the same thing about 6 months ago. Unfortunately, the maestros at iTunes have created an annoying feature so that the iTunes library can ONLY be sited in your "My Music" folder on your internal hard drive.
From the iTunes help menu, "The iTunes Library file is a database of the songs and videos in your library and the playlists you've created. This file is located in the iTunes folder inside your My Music folder (in your My Documents folder). Do not move this file to another location. If you delete it, iTunes will create a new, empty copy the next time you open iTunes, but any playlists, song ratings, comments, or other information you created will be lost.
What a monumental bummer!!

Another "moved itunes music" question

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