Changing libraries on iTunes

I have an external hard drive where I store all my music files and I use this interchangeably between my work and home computer with home being where I synch my iPod. Well, the other day, I was on my work computer with the external drive plugged in and, when I opened iTunes, it prompted me to locate the library. By accident, I linked it to the library for my home computer on the external drive rather than the library on the local drive on my work computer. Now I don't know how to change it back and I fear I may have screwed things up when I got to synch my iPod to my home computer. Help!

Now I don't know how to change it back
Same way you always do. Hold Shift and launch iTunes then select *Choose library*.
I was on my work computer with the external drive plugged in and, when I opened iTunes, it prompted me to locate the library. By accident, I linked it to the library for my home computer on the external drive rather than the library on the local drive on my work computer
So you use an external drive that you link to while at work and home but also have a library on the internal at work?
If you use the same library on the external for home and work, everything will be thesame (because it is a single library) and you can sync your iPod at home or at work and it will be the same.

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How do i change libraries in itunes (latest version) in windows 8.1

How do I change libraries when signing into iTunes(latest version) on Windows 8.1
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Same as always. Press and hold down shift as you launch iTunes.
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Multiple Libraries in iTunes 7 (Windows)

Another whinge about iTunes 7!
The multiple libraries feature in the Windows version (I don't know about the Mac version) is very poorly implemented and, quite frankly, useless.
When changing libraries in iTunes 7, the preferences for the new library are not copied across; in effect, iTunes 7 retains the preferences for the previous library. This becomes very annoying if the user has libraries with different preference settings, as I do. I have two libraries, one of which is located on the hard drive of my PC and the other on a network drive. The two libraries have different preferences, ie music location and the encoder used when importing files (one lossless and the other AAC).
Whenever I switch libraries in iTunes 7, the preferences for the previous library are retained. Consequently, when I select a new library I have to change the preferences to match those required for that library. Otherwise, iTunes 7 updates the new library according to the preferences for the old library. Very frustrating, I can tell you!
I have now removed iTunes 7 and restored iTunes 6, along with a third party library manager until such time as Apple comes up with a decent way of managing multiple libraries.
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No, it's the same Windows XP user account, but I have two separate music libraries - the music files in library are in a lossless format, while those in the other are in AAC. For convenience, I wish to keep the two libraries separate.
In iTunes 7 it is possible to have separate libraries - start iTunes and hold down the SHIFT key (Windows) while the program starts. A dialogue box then appears where the required library can be selected. However, as far as I can tell, it's not possible to have a different set of preferences for each library.
Say the preferences are set up for my lossless library, which is located on a separate network drive. If I then make the AAC library active and open iTunes, iTunes reindexes the library according to the settings for the lossless library and I end up with the AAC library full of lossless files. I've tried unchecking various things in the preferences box, but I've had no luck fixing the problem. Thanks for your suggestion - I have already reported the problem.
The whole thing is a rather inelegant way of managing multiple libraries in iTunes. Surely the Apple developers can come up with a way of doing it from within iTunes??

How do I delete files on my iPod second gen? This is a NEW problem I have only had with the latest version of iTunes. I have not changed libraries.

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I loaded iTunes on a new laptop. I copied and pasted my albums to a 4G stick and down loaded them to the new laptop. Placing them in, Libraries – Music – iTunes and than in Itunes used File – add file to library. So far so good. For what ever reason one o

I loaded iTunes on a new laptop. I copied and pasted my albums to a 4G stick and down loaded them to the new laptop. Placing them in, Libraries – Music – iTunes and than in Itunes used File – add file to library. So far so good. For what ever reason one of the CDs would not load onto the stick. I got the orginal CD and loaded directly to Itunes. Now when I look in Libraries – Music – iTunes it’s not there but it is in and plays in iTunes. What should I have done or should I be doing? Thanks.

It's not a unique situation - happens all the time, smaller hard drives getting filled up.
It's also easy to fix. I just moved my itunes content to a bigger hard drive.
First I made a backup of the itunes database file - iTunes Library.itl. Just in case anything went wrong.
Nothing did go wrong, but I'd have it in case anything DID go wrong. That file holds ratings, playcounts, Date Added, and other metadata.
Second, in itunes change the preferences > advanced tab to tell itunes to put everything on G:
Set the itunes folder location to something like G:Media or G:iTunes
This will affect all FUTURE additions to itunes and not do anything to the existing locations.
Make sure the checkbox for "Keep itunes organized" is NOT checked. I also left the "Copy files when adding" unchecked.
Third, to move all the files to G: without itunes losing the paths, run the File > Library > Organize > Consolidate command. This will need to run a while, so be patient as it copies all the files to the new G: location. This does NOT delete the originals. You will have to do that.
Fourth, make sure everything in itunes is OK and you can play stuff in your library. If you're really cautious you can run a script to check for missing/dead tracks.

Supposed support for Multiple Libraries in iTunes 7

Come on Apple, your website says iTunes 7 supports multiple libraries in multiple locations, yet there is no way to enable a second library or create additional libraries through iTunes. Is this just hype about the tedious manual workaround of not having iTunes copy everything to one location? When will we get true multiple libraries? This is sorely missing functionality for anyone with a harddrive smaller than 250GB.
Quoted from http://www.apple.com/itunes/overview/
"Multiple Libraries
Build your collection over multiple libraries, and keep them on different hard drives to save space."

I think there are a large number of us who are in the "for some reason" category: we want to have our libraries split across multiple HD's.
Here's my exact scenario:
I have a small portion of my library stored locally on my PowerBook for when I am on the road (~30GB). I have the bulk of my music collection stored on an external drive at home (~160GB). I have another set of tracks that are works in progress that my band is in the process of writing/recording, stored on a 2nd external drive at our studio (~10GB). I want to be able to plug in any of the external drives, and have access to that content whenever I am at home or at the studio, without having to change the local library stored on my PowerBook.
Consolidating the library does not help at all in this scenario - not only does the complete library not fit on my PB's hard drive, but I also don't want the reverse, which is to consolidate to one external drive which I'd then have to carry around everywhere. iTunes should be smart enough to recognize different library files concurrently, and store the import/organize settings per library. I guess that's too much to ask...

Creating 2 libraries on Itunes

Hi,
I would like to know if it is possibile to create 2 Libraries on iTunes so I can use 2 ipods but with different music.
Cheers

To create or access a second library, hold down the option key when launching iTunes 7. In the dialogue box that appears you will get the option to create or navigate to the another Library. An alternative to this is use a single library and choose the update option "automatically update selected playlists only" (called Sync Music - Selected playlists in iTunes 7) for your iPods. This would allow you to create a playlist specifically for each one and drag the tracks you want into it. If you tire of the list and want to change it, you just add or remove the songs you don't want. The ones you take out out remain in the library to be used by the other iPod. Make your playlist a Smart playlist and limit the size to just below the advertised capacity of your iPod Mini or Nano (around 3700MB for a 4GB or 1800MB for a 2GB). You can read more about playlists at these links:
iTunes: Creating playlists of your favorite songs
How to create a Smart Playlist with iTunes
How To Use Multiple iPods with One Computer

Want to change my main Itunes

I searched quite a few different topics and couldn't find anything to answer my particular questions, so sorry if they have been answered.
I have the video ipod, when i very first installed my itunes, i mistakenly put it on an XP account that has had problems with viruses and doesn't work very well. So in additon to the itunes on that account, I have also added songs to my ipod from several other itunes on different computers. I want to change it so that my main itunes (the one where i can make playlists) is on a different account of my computer. I tried moving all of my songs to a shared folder but I couldn't get everything to work out...
So basically, I want to change my main itunes to a different account, and be able to have all of the songs from my ipod on that Itunes library. If I can figure out how to change my main itunes, and copy all my songs from my ipod onto the itunes playlist, that would be perfect.
Also...I keep my ipod in my car 90% of the time and play it through my stereo with a plug-in. Since it is constantly recharging in my car, I usually just leave it on...could that potentially be bad for it?
Any responses will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Hi
There are possibly simpler ways to do what you want, but one thing I can suggest (in case no one else offers any tips) is to download one of the many freeware applications that have been created to allow you to transfer songs from your iPod to your computer. You could then simply install iTunes on the computer/account you want to use, hook up the iPod, run the app. and then transfer all the songs from your iPod to your new iTunes library.
If there are some songs on the various accounts that aren't on your iPod, then set the iPod to disk mode and use it as an external hard drive to copy those extra songs and carry them to the computer/account you have now set your main library on.
After that, just delete all the other iTunes libraries (on different comps/accounts) that you don't want.
See the first few results from this google search to find the relevant application:
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http://support.apple.com/kb/ht5654
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http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1766
iCloud
iCloud automatically backs up the most important data on your device using iOS 5 or later. After you have enabled Backup on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch inSettings > iCloud > Backup & Storage,
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http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12511
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http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1535
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On any page in the iTunes Store, click the flag icon at the lower right. This brings up a page saying "Choose your country or region." Click Canada.
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Multiple Libraries in iTunes.

Can someone explain me how to create multiple libraries in iTunes.
I've a huge load of 5000 songs of which 2000 is what I hear often.
I don't have album art on the other 3000 songs and don't want to clutter it with my main library.
Moreover, these 2000 songs are automatically synced with my iPhone. However, I sometimes need to move a couple of songs from the main list which I find it too tedious without a library.
Can someone teach me how to create a second library in iTunes without affecting my main library and switch seamlessly (and copy files) between the two?
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One more thing, if you want a more efficient way to switch iTunes libraries without having to keep restarting iTunes, considering downloading free software http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/ipoditunes/multitunesdavidcaldwell.html

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Steve:
I must echo Matthew's recommendation of iTunes Library Manager. I am currently in the process of reencoding all of my CDs. I had ripped a substantial portion of them when iTunes first came out, and I did so without knowing what I was doing - some are ripped in low bitrate MP3, others were transcoded from AAC to MP3 and vice-versa. In some cases, there were problems with the rip and songs were truncated. I decided that rather than try to weed out the bad tracks, I'd just re-rip the entire physical library as Apple Lossless.
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It's not entirely impossible actually as someone has pointed out to me that I can turn on Call Forwarding and that stops any incoming calls. I've just forwarded it to my google voice number and then turned on "do not disturb" in google voice and whenever I get a call it goes straight to my google voice voicemail and my phone does nothing. The only thing now is I still get text messages but I think the phone calls bugged me more because they would make my music turn off for much longer.
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Changing libraries on iTunes

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