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.

Similar Messages

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.

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 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 purchases to another hard drive

how do I transfer itunes purchases to another hard drive

Drag them or the entire iTunes library there. If you want the active iTunes library to be there, once done, launch iTunes with the Shift key held down and choose it.
(94379)

How do I transfer iphoto library to external hard drive keeping events intact?

Had a one to one session but forgot how to do this. I would like to transfer my iphoto library to an external hard drive keeping the folders and events intact. I figured out how to send all my photos to the hard drive but they all transfer in single images, if that makes sense, and then i have to go thru all of the 15,000 images by hand and sort them into folders. Ahhhhhhh!
When they showed me how to do this at apple I am able to open my external hard drive and see a folder labled 'iphotolibrary" and I am able to click it open and then all my events show up just like in iphoto library.
Also does your iphoto library "Trash" take up space on your HD? Forgve me if thats a dumb question but I am kind of a computer "dummy".
thanks so much. My hard drive has VERY little space left on it so I need to transfer ASAP.

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)

Move itunes library to new hard drive

ok i recently got a new harddrive because i ran out of space on my old one. i have started everything over fresh and i want to take EVERYTHING from my old iTunes and put it on my new harddrive. One thing i have tried is taking the itunes>music folder and copied onto my ipod (enable disk use) and then put it on my new hard drive. well my problem is that i dont have the same number of items and its missing all of the ratings and play counts and any of the small details like "skip during shuffle". another problem is that all of my videos are under the movie category, which will take me forever to organize. please help me because i really do not want to organize my whole library again

Then you want to clone your original HD to the new HD. See below - same concept as moving between two computers, you just do it between two HDs on the same PC..
How to Copy and Move your Music Files from One Computer to Another
This is the conceptual framework with related and important links. Apply and adapt it to your specific situation and equipment resources.
The safest, quickest, and most optimal method to move your Library to a new computer is to actually clone the entire ‘iTunes’ folder (directory) structure, rather than just copying just the song files. By copying the entire ‘iTunes’ folder and all sub-folders, you capture not only the music files, but the all-important ‘iTunes Library.itl’ database file (usually located in the ‘iTunes’ folder), which contains all the data about your songs (Playlists, Ratings, Play Counts, Last Played, Date Added, etc). See: What are the iTunes Library files?
Install iTunes on the new computer. Then go back to your old computer and move (copy) the "iTunes" folder which usually resides inside your "…\My Documents\My Music" folder from the old computer to the exact same place (both Drive Letter and complete Path) on the new computer. When you open iTunes on the new computer it will look and behave exactly the same way it did on the old, Play Counts, Ratings, Comments and all!
NOTE: It is usually safer moving files between computers with the same version of iTunes!!
iTunes Files to Copy and Move to your New PC
1) All music files in their current folder structure (usually located in and under the ‘iTunes Music’ folder)
2) The Library database file: ‘iTunes Library.itl’ located in the ‘iTunes’ folder
3) The Library XML file: ‘iTunes Music Library.xml’ located in the ‘iTunes’ folder
4) Any XML playlist files you created for Playlist retention
5) The two iTunes.pref files (optional)
-- C:\Documents and Settings\<your username>\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\iTunes.pref
-- C:\Documents and Settings\<your username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Apple Computer Inc\iTunes.pref
6) The XML file of Ratings, Play Counts and Last Played attributes saved from the main Library and created by Otto’s SaveRatings script (also optional, but recommended):
“Download this: http://ottodestruct.com/itunes/SaveRatings.zip . It's a program, just run it like any other program. Run it on the machine where you're copying the info from BEFORE you move the files to the new machine. Click the "Save Ratings" button and it'll create a ratings.xml file. Now when you move the files, move the program and this file as well. Then after you make your new iTunes library, run it again and click the "Restore Ratings" button. Voila, all your information is back in the Library. Well, most of it anyway, it's not perfect. It'll tell you what songs it couldn't figure out though, and there's usually not very many.”
Here's a list of methods to copy and move your music files from one computer to another:
1) Use an External Hard Drive (ExHD) to move the complete files and Folder structures from one computer to another (my preferred option). You can clone’ the entire ‘iTunes’ folder structure in one very easy step. Also great to have available for complete backups of your Library. External hard drives now run less than $100 for 200-250GBs of storage. See This Link
2) Directly connect the two computers....
- 2a) Connect them through a Router &/or Network
- 2b) Directly connect using an Ethernet cable: Straight for using at least one Mac; or Crossover for PC/PC Instructions here.
- 2c) Connect them via a USB-to-USB Network Bridge. Example here. There are various types out there (use Google).
....Then copy the files from one computer to the other.
3) Use the iPod as a transfer device, as this extensive Apple link explains. It will be a bit easier if your iPod has a larger capacity than your music collection, otherwise you will need to perform multiple copy/move transfers. This well written process also works fine while using any other data transfer medium (ExHD, Flash Drive, DVD, CD, Zipp, Jazz, etc.).
4) Burn several DVDs (at 4.7GBs each) with your music data files and folder structure, and load them onto the new computer. Re-writable DVDs are more cost effective (if your DVD drive can manage these types).
5) Burn 6x more on CDs (at 700MB each) than in #4 above and load the files and folders on the new computer. Re-writable CDs are more cost effective (if your CD drive can manage these types).
6) Use a larger USB Flash drive (1GB - 4GB) to move the files and folders. Best if the flash drive is larger than your Library, otherwise you will need multiple copy/move transfers.
These are links to various additional instructions on performing the transfer (read them all, but some listed steps may not be required depending on your specific situation):
Switch from PC to Mac Using the iPod
hudgie: Migrating iTunes for Windows to a new PC
How to copy music between authorized computers

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.

How to transfer itunes library via external hard drive?

How do I transfer my entire itunes library to a new pc via an external hard drive? I want to also keep the library on my old pc. Because my library is about 30gb I thought that getting an external hard drive would be the easiest way to do this. Are there any other options?

Start by consolidating your library. When you consolidate, any songs in the iTunes Library that are not in the iTunes Music Folder are copied to the Music Folder and the Library is updated to point to those new files. Files already in the iTunes Music Folder have no changes made to them: Consolidating your library - Windows
Then copy the iTunes Folder to your external drive. Copying the whole folder brings with it the iTunes Music folder and also the iTunes Library (iTunes Library.itl in Windows) database file which holds all the information about your songs (Playlists, Ratings, Play Counts, Last Played, Date Added, etc). You'll get more information including the Folder/File structure in this article: What are the iTunes library files?
Disconnect your external drive and connect it to your new computer, copy the iTunes folder to the new pc. When you copy the iTunes folder make sure you put it into the default location on the new computer. On a PC this is \Documents and Settings\Username\My Documents\My Music\ (or C:\Username\Music\ in Vista). You should also use the same version of iTunes on both computers.
Once you have copied everything over hold down the Shift key in Windows when opening iTunes. In the resulting dialogue you will get the option to create a new library or navigate to an existing one. Navigate to where you placed the copy of the library file and open it up: How to open an alternate iTunes Library file
If you have any iTunes purchases in your library don't forget that you'll need to authorise your new computer to play them. Also if you are disposing of the old one remember to deauthorise it so you don't use up one of your allowances: About iTunes Music Store Authorisation and Deauthorisation

How to back up iTunes Library on external hard drive & computer, after purchasing new music?

I keep my iTunes library on my computer's hard drive and also backed up on an external hard drive. I have added more music to my library since my previous back up, and I want to back up the new music to my external drive.
What's the best way to do this?

The first time I backed up my iTunes on an external drive, it took a 1 hour +. Do I basically need to start over on my external hard drive? Or is there an easier/faster way?
Yes there is a faster way.
Check this out -> Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy
Don't change the library location or hold Option to update the backup on the external.

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

Transfer itunes library to exernal hard drive for backup

I have an aging pwerbook, still fine at the moment, but want to back up my new WDdrive.
I'm running the lastest iTunes, but it doesn't give an option to backup to anything other than DVD.
Looking at the Music folder in Finder - it hasn't got all the tracks in my Library.
So, how do I tranfer?
Thanks

in iTunes, go preferences > advanced and point iTunes to the external HD. make sure +keep iTunes media folder organized+ and +copy to iTunes media folder+ ... are checked.
then, file > library > organize library, check +consolidate files+ and hit ok.
that should copy all media file iTunes knows of to the external.
also, check these reads:
How to back up your media in iTunes
Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive

How do i get itunes back after new hard drive installed?

I have had a hard drive fail and a new one has been installed. Not I cannot open itunes. I get a message saying " itunes cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of itunes"???
Anyone know how to fix?

Did you reinstalled iTunes ? It looks like you had a newer version of iTunes with the corresponding database, and now your iTunes seem to be an older version. If you are a little patient, you might easily fix this with iTunes 10.5 which should come out very very soon since iOS 5 has been annonced for tomorrow.

Transfer itunes library to external hard drive?

I've just loaded about 1000 CDs into itunes, to the point where my hard drive is pretty full. Can I just drag those files to a new external drive to clear some space on my regular drive, or do I take a chance of losing everything?
After all that work, I'd be pretty ticked if all of a sudden, everything disappeared.
thanks in advance
Steve

If you're using iTunes 7, you can copy the entire iTunes folder (at /Users/Username/Music) to the external drive and then delete it from the internal drive.
Then launch iTunes while holding the Option-key down, until a window pops up which lets you choose the library.
Navigate to the iTunes folder on the external drive and click 'Choose'.
If you're using iPhoto and/or iMovie, I don't recommend this method.
iPhoto and iMovie are looking at a specific location (as described in What are the iTunes library files?) to get music files and won't list songs with the above used method.
Instead, use the instructions in iTunes: Moving your iTunes Music folder to move your music to the external.
Hope this helps.
M
17' iMac 800 MHz, 768 MB RAM, 200 GB HD, DL burner Mac OS X (10.4.8) iTunes 7.0.2

HT1473 I recently had to replace my hard drive and lost my iTunes library. Now I cannot transfer the library from my iPod to iTunes on the new hard drive (same computer). How can I complete the transfer?

I recently had to replace my hard drive and lost my iTunes library. When I try to transfer the content from my iPod to iTunes on the new hard drive (same computer), it would only let me transfer iTunes store purchases. How can I complete the transfer of all the content on the iPod back onto the computer?

Recover media from iPod
See this post for options on moving your iPod data back to your computer.
tt2

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

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for