How do I transfer itunes library from one hard drive to another.

I want to transfer all my itunes music from one external hard drive to another. How can I do this without disrupting itunes. Thanks.

How would I transfer iTunes from one external hard drive to another external hard drive with iTunes 8 since I do not see the consolidate option? During previous attempts with version 7 I received the following error: The song __ could not be used because the original file could not be found.

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  • How do I transfer iTunes Library from external hard drive to another drive?

    I have filled by 160GB drive with my iTunes music library so I am purchasing a 400GB external drive. I want to transfer the entire library to the bigger drive. Can I simply drag via fire wire then entire libarary to the new drive and then "tell" by iTunes Mac where it is? Any step by step would be appreciated.
    Thank you.

    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:
    1) Copy over your "iTunes Music" folder to the external hard drive
    2) Go into Advanced preferences to have iTunes look for the "iTunes Music" folder in the new location. If you're like me, your music won't appear in the Library.
    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.
    You should now see a progress window pop up showing all the songs that it's populating the Library window with."
    20" Intel iMac 14" iBook G4, 233 MHz Beige G3   Mac OS X (10.4.5)  

  • How do I transfer itunes library from one apple id to another?

    My husband and I used to share an Apple id, under which I uploaded music from my old CDs and we also both purchased music in itunes.  But I have since established my own Apple ID in an attempt to organize my music and downloaded a few things there.  Since puchasing a new apple desktop and having our files transferred, I would really like to "copy" or "share", not sure what the right term would be, all of the music under the original id to my own and keep things separate from here on out.  But how do I get, or bring up, all the old music in my new(er) apple id?

    Music from your cds in not "under" and Apple id at all.
    Put all of the music in your itunes library.  that simple.
    Music is not in an id.  it is on a computer.  Put it wherever you like.

  • How do I transfer ITunes library from old hard drive to new hard drive

    I got a new computer and trying to transfer my ITunes library ( Apps, Music, video's). How do I go about this. I copied the library to my backup drive. I can't transfer the files. What am I missing ?

    This is the method I would normally recommend:
    Backup with this User Tip, restore the library to the new computer using the same tool, keep the backup up-to-date in future. Deauthorize the old computer if you no longer need to access protected content on it.
    You can use your iPod classic to move your library to a new computer but if you don't already have a backup copy of the library (and your other important data) now is the time to think about it.
    tt2

  • How do I move an iTunes library from one external drive to another?

    I need to move my iTunes library from one external disk to another, because the original disk is about to fail. So, I went into iTunes Perferences --> Advanced, and set the library to a new, empty folder on the new drive.
    Nothing changed. I expected all my music to vanish from iTunes, so that I would have to re-import it. However, all the music remained, still on the old disk. At this point, if I were to recreate the library on the new disk, I would have all of my music twice.
    Is it possible to move an iTunes library from one external drive to another, or am I stuck with my original choice until I buy a new machine? If I can move it, can one of you clever folks explain how it could be done?

    Paul Seymour1 wrote:
    However, those are all dealing with old versions of iTunes that still contained the Advanced --> Consolidate Library command which is no longer part of the app. (I'm on iTunes 10.6.1.)
    Consolidate is still part of iTunes.
    It is in iTunes menu File > Library > Manage library > Consolidate.
    The article you linked to is old and it is (and was) a hacky way of doing it.
    Just copy the entire /Music/iTunes/ folder to new location, hold Option (Mac) or Shift (Windows) when launching iTunes.

  • In Final Cut Pro I was trying to move an Event Library from one hard drive to another as explained in the Help section.  After doing so, I received a message that my event is already open with the same identifier as the new one I just creat

    In Final Cut Pro I was trying to move an Event Library from one hard drive to another as explained in the Help section.  After doing so, I received a message that my event is already open with the same identifier as the new one I just created on the new disk.  It says the second document cannot be opened and to move one of these documents out of your Final Cut Events folder.  It also says to avoid this problem, copy events from within Final Cut Pro, but that is what I did in the first place.  What should I do to avoid the double opening conflict?

    What exactly are you doing and what version are you using with OS X 10.8?

  • How do I transfer itunes library to new hard drive running lion os

    I have a Mac Pro with 2 hard drives in it.
    Hard drive #1 has Leopard OS and my iTunes library on it
    Hard drive #2 has Lion 10.7.4 OS and this is where I want to move my iTunes library to from hard drive #1.
    How can I due this insuring that all playlists, etc. transfer seamlessly.  I will then only be using the new Lion OS
    to run iTunes (and this will also communicate with Apple TV, etc.)
    Thanks!

    Copy the entire /Music/iTunes/ folder from old hard drive to /Music/ on new hard drive.
    Start iTunes.
    That is all.
    You can also leave it where it it, hold Option, launch iTunes.
    Slect Choose library... and select the iTunes folder on the Leopard drive.
    This will be your iTunes for both OS, whichever you boot into.

  • How do I move iTunes library from one user account to another?

    I bought apps for a (now obsolete) Apple ID, however, I then created a new Apple ID, which I now use.  How do I delete the old Apple ID and is it possible to move my iTunes library and other files and folders from my current user account to a newly created user account?  Will this allow me to use only the new Apple ID instead of having to sign in/out bewteen 2 IDs which is frustrating.

    How would I transfer iTunes from one external hard drive to another external hard drive with iTunes 8 since I do not see the consolidate option? During previous attempts with version 7 I received the following error: The song __ could not be used because the original file could not be found.

  • Moving iTunes library from one internal drive to another

    tl;dr somewhat - cloned iTunes folder from one non-boot internal to another; changed Media Folder Location in Preferences, both boxes below checked; iTunes still plays music off old location.  Help!
    First off, I have a Mac Pro in which I have a 1TB drive separate from the boot drive simply to house my iTunes media folder.  I have been running out of space on the drive, so I purchased a 2TB drive to move my iTunes media folder to.  I had been allowing my iTunes Library files to stay on my boot drive in their default location, but after reading more about how the library files + media folder work, I decided to copy all of the library files to the 1TB drive iTunes folder, to mirror the boot drive's.  I used Option + open iTunes and selected the copied library file and everything worked perfectly - I mention this in case this has created the problem I'm now having.
    I used the Apple endorsed method of having iTunes do the copying/consolidating of files to the new location on the 2TB drive but it failed - and I know I followed the directions perfectly, I even tried it twice.  It copied over ~100k of my 134k songs, and the missing songs weren't just albums that had strange symbols (which I've had issue with before) - it would simply not copy some artists; or copy six of an artist's seven albums.  This was not going to be an option for me in terms of how to move my media.
    I had wanted from the beginning to use Carbon Copy Cloner (which I use every day and trust) to simply clone the 1TB to the 2TB drive and then change the location in the iTunes preferences.  I unchecked 'Keep iTunes Media Folder Organized' and 'Copy files...', then changed the location and clicked OK.  I then went back in, checked those two boxes and iTunes started into "Updating iTunes Library", which lasted a few minutes.  However, even though the new location is set to the 2TB drive, when I play a song (to make sure it works) and then click to see info, it's still reading it off the 1TB drive.
    So I remembered the whole Option + open iTunes thing, did that and selected the iTunes Library.itl file on the 2TB drive - nothing changed.  I read some more on various forums about it and thought that maybe I should Option + open iTunes and then select the iTunes folder itself - nothing changed.
    So I'm stuck with the media in the right place on the 2TB drive but iTunes still trying to read it off the 1TB, even though the location in Preferences has been set to the 2TB.  I feel like I'm just missing something simple here. WHAT DO I DO?! I'm guessing it's not as simple as removing the 1TB, renaming the 2TB and letting iTunes look where the 1TB used to be.

    Thank you so much for replying!  I'm not sure I quite understand, though.  The media folder is in (2TB) /iTunes/iTunes Music/Music currently, cloned from (1TB) /iTunes/iTunes Music/Music.  If I copied the /iTunes/ folder from 1TB to the 2TB, I'd be doing the exact same thing as when I cloned it, which I'm willing to do if I'm understanding you correctly.
    Or are you asking me to copy all of the files (minus the /iTunes Music/ folder) in the (1TB) /iTunes/ folder and replace all of those files in the (2TB) /iTunes/ folder?

  • How do you switch your library from one internal drive to another?

    I have a computer with two 500GB internal drives. My C: drive is becoming very full with my programs and iTunes library. However, the E: drive is essentially empty. How can I transfer my whole iTunes library to the E: drive and still have iTunes know where to look for it when I open the program?
    Any help would be appreciated.
    Custom PC 4GB RAM/Dual Core 6400/Nvidia 7950GTX Graphics   Windows XP   Apple TV, 4GB Nano, 80GB Ipod Video, 30GB Ipod Video

    If you have iTunes 7, then you can just drag the entire iTunes folder to your desired location (and I mean the entire iTunes folder, not just the iTunes Music folder). Then hold down the Shift key while launching iTunes. You'll be given a dialog box where you can select the iTunes library you want to use. Navigate to and select the iTunes folder in it's new location. Everything should then work just as it did before the move. Make sure you confirm this, though, before you delete the tracks from your first drive.

  • Cannot transfer iTunes library from old hard drive. Pls help.

    My old laptop is broken, so I purchased a "rocketfish" housing so I can extract the info from the hard drive through USB.
    The problem is I cannot figure out how to merge my library from the old laptop hard drive to the one on my PC. The iTunes file is there, and I've tried to drag and drop it into the file on my "C" drive, but it still dosen't show up in iTunes.
    Please help if you can.

    OK what you can do is use the File -> Add to library... command and then point to the music folder on the rocketfish drive (or you can just drag and drop the folders from the external onto your iTunes library window). This will add them, but not playcounts, playlists, ratings, etc. They will come in as new.
    The other thing is, if your iTunes preferences are set to copy added files to the iTunes folder, then when you add them, they will be copied from the external to your internal drive. So you need enough room to hold all the files. Alternatively, you can uncheck that option and have them added to the library but they will remain on the external drive. But to play the files you need to have the drive connected and powered up.
    Patrick

  • Moving library from one hard drive to another in same PC

    Just to let you all know right from the top that I've been trying to work with Apple's own info on this before coming here, this is the page I've been consulting:
    support.apple.com/kb/HT1364
    Okay, so here's the background: I just bought a new tower computer and I made sure that there was an empty bay available for a 2nd hard drive.  What I wanted to do was move the hard drive from my old computer into this second bay and have it availble (in the near term, before I reformat it) to move data in the new computer from the old drive to the new one.
    The second drive was installed, I can read from it and write to it, so there's no problem with that install..it's done and it works. 
    But I have not been able to find online exactly how to move as much of my previous data (music files, playlists, artwork) as possible from the old drive to the new drive (where I have a fresh install of the newest i-Tunes).  On the page referenced above, everything "tracks" right down through Step 8.  But at Step 9...I don't see any of that,  When I open File > Library I don't see either Organize Library or Consolidate Library.  In fact, the only two choices I see after File > Library are Tune On Home Sharing and Get Album Artwork. 
    So I'm stuck right there. What should I do next to move this info to the new hard drive *and* to a place where iTunes wants to find it?  I should be clear here that I do not simply want to *point* iTunes to the old drive and current location of the library, since the goal is to ultimately get everything from that drive that I need and then reformat it. 
    Any suggestions?
    P.S. BTW, the new computer is running Windows 7.  My profile shows XP because that was the OS on the old computer.

    Thanks so much for the information! I have started following your steps...but might be momentarily hung on one thing:
    As I mentioned, I had already done a fresh install of iTunes on the new hard drive.  As a result, under Users > Dave > My Music there was already a folder called "iTunes" there.  And the folder on my old hard drive that you wanted me to copy -- the one that contained everything (music, artwork, games, etc) -- is also called "iTunes".  So I realized I might get an error message with that, about how there's already a folder in that directory with that name, etc..
    Since I had only installed the new copy of iTunes and hadn't downloaded anything new or done anything with it, I figured I should probably just uninstall it.  Then, after doing that, I copied over all those files and folders...and those copies now reside on the new hard drive.  Problem is, I now don't have an app to run.
    So...should I have left the new install in place and just put the old "iTunes" folder (and contents) at, say, another level?  Or...since I've now copied all those files into the place where I thought iTunes would expect to find them, what would happen if I installed iTunes all over again?  Will it know what to do with the iTunes folder now already there?
    Dave

  • How do I move my files from one Hard Drive to another?

    I have all of my music and podcast files on one hard drive (my external hard drive).  My "Library" files are on my internal hard drive.
    How can I move my external hard drive files to my internal hard drive files without having to manually find all of them? I have some 12,000 songs, and so dont' want to do it manually.
    Please advise -
    Thank you!
    chris

    First off, are your song files in .WAV format?  If they are not, then these directions should work.
    Secondly, it assumes you are OK with the iTunes Way of organizing files. Which means artist folders with album sub-folders.
    If you have some other special setup in the way you organize your folders that I don't know about, now would be the  time to mention it ; )
    Basically, you use a special itunes "consolidate library" command to move everything over, as explained in this article:
    http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1364
    Post back if you have any questions!

  • How do I recover Itunes library from old hard drive

    My desktop died so we pulled out the hard drive which is now attached to a "docking station" and i have been able to retrieve documents and photos no problem. I have a bunch of books on tape loaded onto Itunes. How do I move the library over to my new machine so that I can access the data?

    Thank you SO SO much. That link helped me to find the true location of the data on my old hard drive - I had been looking in the wrong place. As soon as I found my data I was actually able to copy it to a folder on the new hard drive and then Add a Folder to the Library in the new itunes and it worked.

  • Question regarding the itunes library files when moving itunes library from 1 hard drive to another.

    My itunes library had out grown my 2TB drive (I'm a bit of a podcast addict) so I got a 4TB drive to replace it but for some reason my Mac Pro started to act up and eventually apps became crippled to where they would not open.
    So I had no choice but to go back to my 2TB drive for my boot drive for now but my itunes library is now slightly larger than the 2TB drive and won't fit so with my previous 4TB drive connected via a hard drive dock I followed the instructions to move my itunes library to a secondary 4TB drive in my mac pro and that went fine the one thing I noticed is in the article it says not to move the 2 library files but now my itunes media is on a internal drive and the 2 library files are on the hard drive connected to my mac pro via the dock so if I was to remove the drive from the dock the 2 library files would no longer be accessable and my itunes library would not be able to be found even though the media in on one of my internal drives.
    Anyone know how I can rectify this issue?

    Does this article help: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305451 ?

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