Can I backup my iTune music library to an external drive and install on a new computer?

Can I backup my iTune library to an external drive and reinstall on a new computer? To use disks I need 29 to do this.

Hi Niel. Can you be move specific for those of us not tech savy? 1 - Can you provide steps to back up the library? 2 - How do you organize the library? 3 - When you move the entire iTunes folder, does it include iTunes paid for music along with downloaded music from CDs? Thanks

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How can I move my local iTunes music library on an external drive ?

I have imported some of my personnal music CD's on the local drive of my Macbook. But now, how can I move those on an external drive ?

Just those few things or your whole library? Very different processes depening upon details you have not yet provided.

Saved iTunes 4 library to an external drive and original library is missing

Can you help me to get it back?

Lara-Mom wrote:
I have a MacBook that I maintain my Itunes library on but had run out of memory so I attempted to move my library to a Lacie external drive.
How & what exactly did you movie?
It appeared to work following steps in a discussion thread
Which discussion thread?

HT1751 Why can't iTunes handle a music library on an external drive?

I put all my music files on an external drive and imported them into iTunes. So far so good. The first time you run iTunes while the drive is disconnected - all your songs suddenly have that dreaded exclamation point next to them. Yes, while the drive is connected, I can still go to any song and double-click it to play; but the vast majority of songs stays "exclamated" and greyed-out. Shuffle ignores them. Even if I use some method to re-recognize all my songs, next time I open iTunes without first attaching the drive, it'll all go down the drain again.
Apple - this MacBook air is great but it only comes with 256 GB of built-in storage. I HAVE to use an external drive in order to have my music library. Why can't the MacBook recognize the drive, remember it, and know when it's connected and when it isn't?

If you mistakenly open iTunes with the drive disconnected, close iTunes, connect the drive, open iTunes, then visit iTunes > Preferences > Advanced and reset the media folder to the external drive.
Better yet is to move the iTunes library folder into the root of the external drive as <Device>/iTunes, then connect to it by holding down option as you start iTunes. Once iTunes "knows" your library is on the external drive it will complain of a missing library when you try to start with the drive disconnected. Cancel the warning, connect the drive, start iTunes.
For maximum portability you should set the media folder to <Device>/iTunes/iTunes Media and consolidate the media to that folder. You should then backup the drive to another for security.
tt2

I recently changed my PC and I transferred my iTunes music library to an external disc. Now, when I open iTunes I can only see the music I've downloaded, but not the rest of my music. Whatdo I need to do?

I recently changed my PC and I transferred my iTunes music library to an external disc. Now, when I open iTunes I can only see the music I've downloaded, but not the rest of my music. What do I need to do?

PDMex wrote:
I recently changed my PC and I transferred my iTunes music library to an external disc.
Did you transfer the entire /Music/iTunes/ folder?
Or did you only transfer /Muisic/iTunes/iTunes media? folder?

I can't get my iTunes music library to transfer to my new iPod nano

I can't get my iTunes music library to transfer to my new iPad nano......

Hi chanmac,
Thanks for visiting Apple Support Communities.
You may find the troubleshooting steps in our iPod nano assistant helpful with troubleshooting:
http://www.apple.com/support/ipodnano/assistant/itunes/
Best Regards,
Jeremy

How can I download my iMac iTunes library to an external drive and reload the library to iTunes on a PC?

How can I download my iMac iTunes library to an external drive and reload the library to iTunes on a PC?

Hi Niel. Can you be move specific for those of us not tech savy? 1 - Can you provide steps to back up the library? 2 - How do you organize the library? 3 - When you move the entire iTunes folder, does it include iTunes paid for music along with downloaded music from CDs? Thanks

How to move iTunes Music Library from an external HD to another?

Yesterday I tried to move all my music from an external HD to a new bigger one.
Well, I encountered various problems, the most important one is that the “iTunes Music Library” file messed up.
I transferred all files and both “iTunes Music Library.xml” and the “iTunes Library” file in the new HD. I have to say that I didn't know so much about those two files and I thought that it was enough to move them in the new location; I discovered that those files included the information about where the music is located (among other infos), so it still redirects to the older HD.
However, now I’m trying to recreate the previous situation on the older HD, and I’m trying to “rebuild” the iTunes Library (I have a back-up of the xml file, even if it is not the running one).
This operation is very important for me because about two years ago I used (for a long time )an earlier version of iTunes that had a bug: even if wrote all the tag infos on an a mp3, the “artist name” and “album name” tags didn’t remained. But I still can see all the informations through the iTunes browser (thanks to the iTunes Music Library DB). So, I cannot recreate it from zero. I absolutely need to export the existing “iTunes Music Library” to the new HD, or at least to use the existing “iTunes Music Library”, leaving it where it already is and moving only the “iTunes Music folder” (even if I don’t want to use two external HDs, the older one holding the existing “iTunes Music Library” e “iTunes Library” files and the newer one holding the “itunes Music” folder I moved!).
As far as you know how can I move safely “iTunes Music Library” e “iTunes Library” files on the new HD applying them to the new “iTunes Music” folder??
I really need your help!
This article http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307074 didn’t help.
Stefano

Sorry, I wasn't responding to you, just the original poster. I didn't look at the date on that posting and didn't realize that you'd added a post that wasn't quite the same problem. In future, you'll find you get better answers if you start your own thread. You're issue really is a bit more complicated.
If iTunes currently recognizes all the music on both internal and the external drives, it should work. You have to make sure that both drives (old and new) are mounted. Make sure you have both "Keep iTunes music organized" (you probably already do) and "Copy files to iTunes..." (you probably don't) checked.
If not all of the music is currently in your iTunes library, perform the procedure with the music that is a part of the library and add the other stuff afterwards.
Best of luck.

I have just over 100gig of music in my iTunes library plus what ever else I add in the future. Because of the amount I had to save my music library on an external drive as my laptop did not have the memory to hold it all. I want to back up my iTunes libra

I have just over 100gig of music in my iTunes library plus what ever else I add in the future. Because of the amount I had to save my music library on an external drive as my laptop did not have the memory to hold it all. I want to back up my iTunes library and save it on a different external drive, one I store all my back ups on. Is this possible? If so how can I do it?

To import music into your iTunes library on the computer go to iTunes>Help>iTunes Help>Add items to iTunes and follow the instructions
Delete the "songs" that do not play in your iTunes library and reimport them.

Get new pc and iTunes to populate music library from an external drive

Hey! any help on this would be appreciated. My PC died. Luckily my music was on an external drive. I got a new PC. I downloaded the latest iTunes. I can't get iTunes to populate all the music from my hard disc.
I can get as far as preferences > advanced > change location. But when I point it to the music folder on the external drive it does nothing - instead of magically populating all my music into iTunes.

jimmyfox wrote:
I've tried pointing it to a couple of different folders in preferences > change location.
That only tells iTunes where to put new items in the future.
Turingtest2 who posts in these forums, has written a few scripts for Windows.
Check out FindTracks scripts here
-> http://samsoft.org.uk/iTunes/scripts.asp
FindTracks
A script that attempts to locate missing tracks that have been misplaced within your library, either as a result of a third party program reorganising the media or as a result of attempting to move the library/media to a new location. Enter the location of the media folder the files should be in and the script will try to systematically fix every broken link.

HT1478 How do I download my iTunes music library onto an external USB drive for back up purposes?

I have an external USB drive plugge into my computer. I want to download my iTunes music library onto the USB drive for back up purposes.
Can't find a method on the iTunes menu. Help.

See here: iTunes: Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive
B-rock

I had my itunes library on an external drive, I now have a new Windows 7 computer. How can I access my library?

I had my itunes library on an external drive, I now have a new Windows 7 computer. How can I access my library?

Hello, robertfromboulder city.
Thank you for the question. You can direct iTunes to read your media off your external drive. To do this, follow the instructions below. See the section in the first article labeled Discovering and changing the iTunes Media folder location.
Where are my iTunes files located?
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
iTunes: Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1751
Cheers,
Jason H.

How do I transfer my iTunes music library to a flash drive

How do I transfer my iTunes music library to a flash drive

Drag and Drop the iTunes Folder to the Flash drive.
Locate and organize your iTunes files - Apple Support
Since this really has nothing to do with Appleworks (a long dead Officie suite of Apps), I'll request it be moved to the iTunes forum.

Error Code -36 When Copying iTunes Music folder to an External Drive

_*"The finder cannot complete the operation because some data in "NAME.mp3" could not be read or written. (Error code -36)_"*
This is the error message I get when trying to copy my iTunes music folder to an external drive. I am following Apple's knowledge base article, so yes, I have consolidated my library, have closed iTunes and there is plenty of room on the external drive. For what it's worth, I am also getting this error when trying to do the same thing with my iPhoto library.
Would be grateful for some insight,
With oodles of appreciation in advance,
Joe

I was getting the same "-36" error while trying to backup to a Lacie firewire external drive.
I had a lot of people telling me to re-format, erase, reinstall, run utility programs ... yada, yada, yada.
First off, test to see if it is the connection type (firewire). I reconnected the offending external drive via USB, restarted the drive and ... BINGO! ... all transfers went perfectly.
Once i knew it was the firewire connection and not the drive itself i simply unplugged my iSight camera (the only other firewire device connected to my machine), reconnected my external drive via firewire and the problem is now corrected.
Firewire buses seem to be very finicky things ... i would suggest eliminating all firewire devices from the machine (except, of course, the external drive you're trying to transfer to) and see if the problem goes away.
Like i said, i simply unplugged my iSight camera and the transfer to my external drive went perfect and my transfer rates went from an average of 4MB/sec to over 19MB/sec.
P.S. BTW - prior to the error and after i corrected the error by unplugging the iSight camera, my internal and external drives all checked out 100% on Disk Utility, Disk Warrior and TechTool Pro.

HT1751 Hi, I tried to restore my itunes library from an external drive and did everything that's written here step by step.when I chose the itunes library to import itunes just said that its accessing the itunes store but nothung happened. I'm working on

Hi, I tried to restore my itunes library from an external drive and did everything that's written here step by step. when I chose the itunes library to import itunes just said that its accessing the itunes store but nothing happened. Does anyone know how to do this so that all my playlists are also imported and not just the music itself?

When I have done this, all I did was network the two machines and copy the contents of the iTunes folder to the other machine, and that's it.
My understanding (which may not be 100% correct) is that the one file that is absolutely necessary is iTunes Library, and that the XML file is actually a copy auto-generated from the iTunes Library, appearing in a different format only for non-iTunes apps that take advantage of the iTunes Library data.
As far as I know, if you simply have the Library (database) file and all your original music files, iTunes on that computer should operate as it did on your old computer. I believe that the Album Artwork, Genius Data, and XML files can be regenerated from the Library file. Not sure about the Extras file.

Can I backup my iTune music library to an external drive and install on a new computer?

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