How do i restory my entire itunes library from the hard drive of a new laptop to itunes?

I recently got a new laptop and would like to transfer my itunes from the old to the new. I backed up the itunes library to an external hard drive, and have transferred it to the hard drive of the new laptop (I haven't deleted the library from the old laptop). I am operating on windows. I am now stuck and can't seem to restore my entire itunes library to itunes. The items purchased from the itunes store are in the library on the new laptop, but the rest of my music is not. How do I restore it to my itunes library? I have tried opening itunes while holding down shift and selecting "choose library" option, but when I select the itunes folder, it doesn't appear in the library.
help?!

Hello ggjsa,
Congratulations on your new laptop! I understand that you have copied your old iTunes Library to your new computer, but you are still not seeing the music. I recommend reviewing Part 5 in the section titled "External drive" in the following article:
iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4527
If you are still having trouble transferring the library using this method, you may want to try using the Home Sharing method in the article.
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Sheila M.

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Hi FWFFP,
Welcome to the Support Communities!
The article below will explain how to get music onto your new computer. I'd personally recommend the option of copying the iTunes library from your current computer to an external drive, because it creates a backup for you as well:
iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4527
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http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364

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Eels290776 wrote:
if my external hard drive is not connected to either of my machines, and I download something onto my iMac and then something different onto my Macbook, where are my machines going to be storing the new downloaded media
when the drive is not connected, +iTunes media folder location+ will default back to <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music/iTunes/iTunes music (or media)
and when I next connect the external hard drive how will I easily get the newly downloaded media onto the external HD
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and essentially, to have it easily readable on both machines?
in that case it might be best to copy the entire iTunes folder to the external. then, on each machine, launch iTunes while pressing option on your keyboard. when prompted, click on +choose library+ and navigate to the iTunes folder on the external.
note only one iTunes can access the iTunes library @ a time !
also, make sure the external is mounted on either machine before launching iTunes.
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Hello kskip,
Thank you for providing so much information about what is going on. It sounds like you have setup iTunes to save new content to your new external hard drive in iTunes>Preferences, but it sounds like iTunes is not opening iTunes Library.itl file on the new external drive. You have one last step to take to have iTunes point to your new external hard drive rather than your old one:
Steps to create or choose a different iTunes Library file
If iTunes is running, quit iTunes.
If you are using Windows, hold down the Shift key and from the Start menu and choose All Programs > iTunes > iTunes.
You should see the following screen:
Additional information
If you do not see the screen above, then you did not hold the correct key at the correct time. You may want to try again. Note that if you pinned iTunes to the Start menu programs, and open it that way, it may not work.
Once you select "Choose Library," you will need to navigate to the iTunes Library.itl file on your new external drive.
You can find the full article here:
iTunes: How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1589
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Sheila M.

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tonybassplayer wrote:
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*Fast backup for iTunes library (Windows Only)*
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I just posted this to another topic, but it applies here as well. Hopefully there's no prohibition on cross-posting on this board, my apologies to all if there is:
"I haven't read the whole thread, so someone could have already mentioned this, but I did the same thing, move my music library to an external drive. The Help articles are helpful, but only up to a point. When that didn't work, I called up AppleCare support up, and they took me through all the standard steps, and got stumped at the same point I did. Finally she suggested trying something, and that ended up doing the trick. So here in brief is what you do:
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3) In iTunes, go to the Library window (which is probably blank), then in a Finder window, find the icon for the "iTunes Music" folder in the new location. Drag that icon onto the Library window.
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20" Intel iMac 14" iBook G4, 233 MHz Beige G3 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

How do i restory my entire itunes library from the hard drive of a new laptop to itunes?

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