Anyone know how to Restore iTunes Library from External HD

My PC won't even turn on anymore. But luckily, I have most of the iTunes Library backed up in an External HD.
Now, I've searched and can't find instructions from Apple on how to Restore the Library while keeping all the Playlists, Ratings, and all that other good stuff. Anyone know to do that, or at least WHERE that info is?
Thanks.
Message was edited by: MasterSpade

I have most of the iTunes Library backed up in an External HD
What exactly do you have backed up on the external?

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Hello,
I just bought a new macbook pro 15inch. I have a time machine backup but I wanted to start fresh so I didn't use the migration assistant to transfer my info. The only thing I want is my iTunes library with the playlists, ratings, artwork etc. But here's the problem... The computer knows that my external hard drive (it's a 1 TB toshiba) has a time machine back up, but it won't access it the usual way. I choose "browse other time machine disks", enter the time machine, then choose the external drive from there, and then I access my stuff. I copied the whole iTunes folder, changed the iTunes media folder location in preferences. Now all my playlists are gone, 400 songs are missing artist info and the library duplicated itself so now I have 12000 songs.
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bilunpe wrote:
I copied the whole iTunes folder, changed the iTunes media folder location in preferences.
All you need to do is copy the entire iTunes folder to /Music/.
Then open iTunes.
This is all you need to do. Don't change any iTunes prefs.

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Try this...
*Fast backup for iTunes library (Windows Only)*
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tt2

How to restore ITunes Library from Backup hard drive?

My computer crashed. I restored it -- but ITunes was wiped clean. I have all my music files and ITunes Library backed up on an external hard drive. How do I get the library from the external drive back to the computer with playlists, artwork and all intact? I guess it is more complex than just dragging the file labled library into ITunes becuase the computer won't let me do that. When I go to the original songs they are all individually in folders accorging to the artist and album -- that will take days to copy each album 1 by 1 -- I have 3,700 songs.

What you first need to do is Place the music it the Location they was in before you restored. If you had songs on the C drive in My Music folder, place them there. If iTunes was reading the music from the external, not much you have to do sincve there already there.
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I was not able to solve this problem, hence I decided to open this discussion.
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2. I have my time machine backup on my eternal hard drive and would like to restore only specific things - such as iTunes library.
3. I did not manually copy iTunes library to my drive, I did the TM backup only, but I also do have all the files in my own "music" folder I manually backed-up.
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I am confused as to what you had or have where and when. The bottom line is, your library (for the standard user) is everything in the iTunes folder. As far as iTunes' organization and display is concerned, your library is a file called "iTunes Library.itl" which points to all the other host of files and folders normally in the iTunes folder which all work together.
What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
More on iTunes library files and what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management
What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html
Where are my iTunes files located? - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
iTunes 9 [and later]: Understanding iTunes Media Organization - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3847 - plus supplemental information about organizing to new structure https://discussions.apple.com/message/26404702#26404702
Image of folder structure and explanation of different iTunes versions (turingtest2 post) - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-7392 and making an iTunes library portable.
If you kept everything together in one place then you need to put the whole iTunes folder on the drive where you want it, start iTunes while holding down the option key and guide it to that .itl file. If things were split up and you had media on the external and the rest of the library on the internal you need to get them back to exactly where they were before. If you can't find that iTunes folder holding the critical .itl file anywhere then you have a bunch of media tracks and no organization and will need to rebuild the organization from ground level.

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You can restore from the backup of the old one.
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One partition 2.5TB will be my new Time Machine Backups and the other 2.5TB for iTunes Library so I never have to worry about this again.
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from a YouTube video
Uh-oh, those unspecific and sometimes incorrect YouTube videos. I dislike those things. I watched one once and some kid droned on in a barely audible monotone for about 5 minutes to show how to do something to which I could have typed instructions in two sentences.
Downloading (using iOS or computer) past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2519

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See if any of these articles help:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302392
(see restoring from backup disk section)
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93313

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polydorus, this was the response/post that i found and it was posted by sweepea on 9/4/2007. and all my music is now from the external drive to the itunes music folder on my laptop and it let me keep all my playlists. thank you again for your help!
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custom built Windows 2000

Can't restore itunes library from external hard drive

Prior to my hard drive crashing, I dragged my entire itunes folder (with all sub folders) to a firelite external hard drive. I replaced the power book HD, and I want to put my backed up library on the new HD. I dragged the folder from the firelite to the music folder (in place of the itunes folder that was already there). Unfortunately, the itunes library is still empty. Am I missing something?

Yes, the relative location is the same, the user account has the same short and long lame as before.
I did try to use the preferences to point to the backed up itunes folder. Once when it was on the eHD and once when I put it in the music folder. Unfortunatley no luck.
I will try your idea about using "Consolidate Library"
One other interesting thing I tried a few days ago was to follow the procedure outlined in the apple support section about restoring the library. It has you move the libray xml file to the desk top, trashing one of the other files (I forgot which) and then choosing the xml file placed on the desk top upon starting itunes. I thought it was kind of odd to select the very xml file I was having trouble with so I chose the backed up xml file. It put all of the playlist folders back in duplicate, but the library was still empty (probably becuase the xml file is just a reference file and I hadn't loaded any actual music files) If the consolidate doesn't work, mabye I'll try that again, but also put the folder with the actual files on the computer as well
I'll let you know how "Consolidate" works, thanks for your suggestions!

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ITunesMusic folder in it, which looks like all the music is in there.
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Drag and drop the whole folder into the iTunes application.
The iTunes application meaning your library once iTunes is open

Anyone know how to Restore iTunes Library from External HD

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