How to move an iTunes library

I'm retiring and moving everything from my iMac to a MacBook Pro. Is there specific procedure anywhere for moving my iTunes library (lots of purchased movies and music plus my own stuff) from the iMac to the MBP? Thanks.
LarryMcJ

Assuming you use the iTunes default settings where iTunes copied added items to your iTunes folder and organizes your library (meaning - everything is all self contained in the iTunes folder), then all you have to do is drag & drop your iTunes folder (not just the iTunes Music folder you find inside the iTunes folder) to the external drive and copy the entire thing. And by external drive, this could also be your other computer hooked up via a Firewire cable and booted into Target mode (or hooked up across a network together).
If you want to test that it worked or would like to actually start using it from that location instead, use these instructions when you start iTunes to point it to the new location...
How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304447
If you are just testing, then close iTunes after you verify it works, and restart iTunes again with the same instructions and point it back to your internal drive (original) location.
Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307074
Patrick

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How to move my iTunes library to another laptop?

How to move my iTunes library to another laptop?
I used an external drive for my library so far and I just want to use this drive to organize my iTunes library on my Laptop.

See this migrate iTunes library post.
tt2

How to move my itunes library from my PC to my iMac

Hi, I need to move my iTunes library off an old Windows laptop and on to my new iMac. The library is approx 100Gb in size. I searched and searched and can't believe Apple don't have an app for this. I found a third party app called CopyTrans TuneSwift which i read rave reviews about so paid my $15 USD for it and gave it a go. The backup worked well. Then came the part of downloading the Mac restore file. Once I tried to run this on the iMac, I recieved an error saying that the developer is not registered with Apple and could be a dangerous file.
I paid $4000 US for this iMac and yes I don't want to screw up the op system on day one. I can hold down the Control key and clicking to run the CopyTrans App to bypass the Apple security but I never want to do things like this... I want to keep the iMac clean and stable.
What to do now.
How can I move the iTunes library safely from my Windows laptop to my iMac.
Can anyone help.
Kind Regards

There's a failry discriptive guide on how to use TuneSwift to transfer iTnes from PC to Mac here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbl8PDuMJJ8

HOW TO MOVE YOUR ITUNES LIBRARY TO AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE

Read these directions before actually doing anything, just so you can do this right. I've messed things up before, it can get ugly...
That being said, here's what you've gotta do if you're running on a Mac:
Have all your music on the external hard drive. It should be organized in folders the way iTunes set it up
The folders should be organized something like this:iTunes Media (Top folder, everything is inside of this folder)
Audiobooks
Automatically Add To iTunes
Books
Downloads
iPod Games
iTunes U
Mobile Applications
Music
Podcasts
Ringtones
TV Shows
Voice Memos
Those folders are what I have in my 'iTunes Media' folder on my external hard drive. You don't necessarily need to have all of these folders. (I happen to just have a lot of things in my iTunes.)
Finding your iTunes Library Files
The way iTunes works is there are two parts to make what you see in iTunes work right. There's your media (songs, video, iPod games and Apps, etc) and there are your library files. They tell iTunes what your playlists are, where your 'iTunes Media' folder is located, and a lot of other important things. Here is how to find the iTunes Library files (there will probably be more than one!)
Look in (yourusername)/Music/iTunes
There will be a few things in here:
Album Artwork (It's a folder)
iTunes Library Extras.itdb
iTunes Library Genius.itdb
Itunes Library.itl
iTunes Media (a folder)
iTunes Music Library Backup.xml (this file might or might not be here. If there is no file with this name, it's okay.)
iTunes Music Library.xml
Some "temp" files (maybe, maybe not -- they are not important for this)
Anything in the list that is BOLDED needs to be placed in (yourusername)/Music/iTunesIf you copied these files to your external hard drive, you will need to copy them back onto your internal hard drive. These library files do not need to be in the same place as your iTunes Media folder.
Telling iTunes Where Your Music Is
Now that your iTunes Media folder is on your external drive, and your Library Files are in place in "(yourusername)/Music/iTunes", we need to open iTunes.
On the top bar of the screen, go to iTunes>Preferences.
In preferences, go to the farthest right tab, titled "Advanced" with a picture of a gear.
The top section says "iTunes Media Folder location" and underneath that you see a filepath ending in the 'iTunes Media" folder.
This path is probably wrong, not leading you through the external hard drive.
If it is incorrect:
Click "change" on the right and then locate the folder in the prompt that shows up. Once the "iTunes Media" folder on your external hard drive is highlighted blue, click "Open" in the bottom right corner of the window.
Give iTunes a moment or two (depending on the size of your library) to re-locate all of your songs. Voila!
If it is correct:Do nothing!
While you're in the advanced section, let's check to make sure you have a few important 'housekeeping' things checked off:
"Keep iTunes Media folder organized" (CHECK THIS BOX!)
"Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library" (CHECK THIS BOX!)
At this point, iTunes should be all ready to go. Before I get into any troubleshooting, note a few things:
If you ever unplug/disconnect the external hard drive from the computer, you must first make sure that iTunes is NOT running.
Also, if the hard drive is unplugged and you open up iTunes, all of your songs will have little symbols next to them. Until you plug/reconnect the hard drive, the songs will stay like this and will be missing.
TROUBLESHOOTING:
Not having permission to access the external hard drive:
In Finder (or on your desktop), right-click the external hard drive (if you don't have right-click, control-click will also work).
Click on "Get Info"
A thin, tall window will appear on the screen.
Part One:In the "General" section, make sure that "Locked" is unchecked. If it IS checked, uncheck it.
Part Two:
We are now focusing on the very bottom of the window, where it says "Sharing & Permissions"/
In the bottom right corner of the window there is a small padlock icon. Click it. When asked for an administrator password, type it in, and click "Ok".
You will now notice that the bottom section of the 'get info' window is not greyed out anymore. Make sure your user name (it says in parentheses "(Me)" so there is no going wrong here) has "Read & Write" privileges.If not, click on whichever privilege you currently have, and a drop-down menu will appear. Click on "Read & Write".
If you have any other issues, I will add them to the troubleshooting list to help you out. Hope this was helpful!

My iTunes library is set up the way I said in the top post and works totally fine.
Yes, and that is the default structure to which I was referring. iTunes will organize it that way automatically unless people do start changing settings (in which case they should know what they are doing and how iTunes works with library files and media structure.)
Both ways work, the advantages of mine would be that should iTunes try looking fo a library, it will always be in the default location.
It makes people think they have to change media location in preferences. They do not unless they want to relocate media only and leave other things on their internal drive (in which case there is no point in copying library files to the external, and you certainly wouldn't want to then delete them from your internal).
Downside is that then should someone move their iTunes library to anther computer they need to remember to get those library files on the external hard drive.
Just copy the whole iTunes folder and it will get the library files to the other drive in one step, along with all the other files.
Your post has good stuff but it makes a move appear intimidating and look like people have to do a lot of organizing to move the collection. It also throws in extra steps (namely altering preference settings) that could cause confusion or even make a mess of things. If people leave iTunes to default preference settings (which most people do) the move summarizes into a short line: Copy a folder and hold an extra button the next time you start iTunes.
Note that the instructions in the link I provided earlier do also include many steps, but those are to ensure that everybody does have it all organized correctly before simply copying the iTunes folder. In the end it is just a simple action.

How to move the iTunes library to a Windows 7 network location?

I use Windows 7 and iTunes 11.1.11.
I use a hard disk over my home network that is currently mounted on Windows via ftp using the default "Add a network location" option in Windows Explorer, so the content of the drive is listed as a folder under "Network location". File access / creation / deletion works just fine with other programs.
However, when I try to move my iTunes library to the network folder (Edit --> Preferences --> Advanced), I get an error saying "The folder name is not valid".
I don't care much if I have to mount the NAS differently on Windows or if I have to recreate my iTunes library, but it would be nice to finally manage my Music on the network drive.
Thanks to anyone who knows what I'm doing wrong!

If you hold down the option key when starting iTunes, it will allow you to select a library or create a new one.
You can create a new one, and then add all of your iTunes music back in by simply dragging the old iTunes music file onto iTunes.
There are more detailed instructions at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451#
It will show you how to re-build your iTunes database file.

How to move my iTunes library from Windows PC to new Mac

I have been using a PC running Microsoft Windows 7 64 bit for the last 12 months or so. I have now purchased a Mac. I want to move my iTunes library from the PC to the Mac.
The PC setup is running the latest version of iTunes for Windows, however, the music etc. is not stored in the default location, instead it is stored on an external HDD (it's approximately 700GB, so too large to have on the internal HDD).
Anyone know the best/easiest way to make the switch and in doing so maintain all my playlists etc.?

So, what I have done so far to try to achieve this is:
I have my Windows PC with it's NTFS formatted external HDD containing the music etc.
I have my Mac with a new external HDD formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
On the Windows PC:
* I opened up iTunes.
* Went into Preferences, and then under the Advanced tab I checked both 'Keep iTunes Media Folder Organised' and 'Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library', so that all the files would be in the main iTunes Media folder when I copy it over.
* Then File, Library, Organise Library and ticked the 'Consolidate Files' so that it moves any files that aren't in the right folder.
Next I copied the files over. So I copied the updated media folder from the NTFS (Windows) external HDD onto the Mac external HDD.
And I copied the files from in My Documents/Music/iTunes on the Windows PC to User/Music on the Mac.
But this doesn't seem to have done it.

How to move mt itunes library from one external hard drive to another

I would like to move my itun4es library from my external hard drive H to external hard drive M; how do I go about this? without losing items

Short version: use the itunes consolidate command
Long version: read this
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive/

How to move an iTunes library from the internal hard drive to another bootable disk.

         I got two Mac OS X installations on my i Mac system. One on the internal hard drive (320 Gb), that has been there since the iMac was bought 3 years ago, upgraded to Lion on 2 August. (call that INT) . I have a USB external drive, and recently bought a firewire Lacie external drive (2Tb), so to boot from there when I can, with hard drive space getting tight this year. I successfully installed another copy of Lion on LACIE.
         Then I went to work to transfer my iTunes library, which the media files were optioned to store on the USB drive. Intending to transfer both the music and video files, and the megadata ( playlists, ratings, playcounts ) I found the media files and the iTunes library file and the .xml document in my iTunes folder from INT. I made a new folder in the USB drive, and copied the contents from the old iTunes folder to that new folder. I re-started in LACIE, and found my empty iTunes folder. I copied over to the new iTunes folder, then opened iTunes. My eyes saw the music library to the same number of items, with the playlists etc showing.
        However, I tried to sync an iPod Nano, and a window came up saying 100 songs could not be copied to the iPod because they could not be found. After ejecting the iPod I tried to play a song from iTunes, and the screen filled with exclamation points. A small window came up, asking for a password to open "sparsebundle" and my name. I entered my password for the administrator's log-in and it said try again with the password. Without knowing what password to put in, I clicked Cancel, and got another small window asking to locate the file. Then clicked Cancel again, not knowing where to search. All the media folders were showing after quitting iTunes and opening Finder .
      I re-booted into INT, and opened iTunes. The library was still there. I synced my iPod again, ejected it, played 3 songs on the iPod, synced again, ejected it again, and opened the playlist "Recently Played". It showed up okay with no problems. So my iTunes library in INT is alright.
      Has anyone got any idea how to make the transfer into LACIE and get it running alright, or what went wrong with what I did ?
      In the meantime I will empty my LACIE iTunes library folder's contents to the trash, and securily empty the trash .

Solved the issue without using the trash . I tried to consolidate the library in LACIE, then clicked on any exclamation-mark song and tried to locate the file. Repeating those steps 3 or 4 times cleared it up. That was confirmed when I synced the entire library on a iPod Classic, and showed up no problems after syncing the Nano.
     What went wrong was perhaps to fail to consolidate the library at first .

How to move an itunes library to new HDD...

Hello,
My Windows 7 pc HDD crashed and I had to replace it with a new SSD. I can access the old HDD via an external drive bay to get files off it and what not, it just won't run windows as it has become corrupted. So, I was wondering if it was possible for me to copy my iTunes library from the old HDD to the new SSD drive? I have a lot of songs in there that I no longer have the CD's for and I don't want to have to spend HOURS trying to import all the others I still do have.
OR, it possible to move the songs on my iphone to the new SSD directly? The only option its giving me now is to "erase and sync" the iphone to the new iTunes installation...but if I do that it will erase ALL my current songs I have on the iphone and replace it with NOTHING, as that's all I have in my new iTunes install.
PLEASE HELP...thanks!
Brian

On Windows 7, it’ll be in \Users\username\My Music\iTunes\ of the internal drive by default. If you can't find it there, search the computer for items with an itl or itdb extension.
(111760)

HT1364 How to move my itunes library from old PC to new PC

I switched PCs, the iTunes files are on a seperate external drive. How to get all back on New PC.

SachinMohan wrote:
... the iTunes files are on a seperate external drive. ..
did you follow ALL the steps as shown here...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751
Also... Have a look at these 2 Videos...
http://macmost.com/moving-your-itunes-library.html
http://macmost.com/moving-your-itunes-media-to-an-external-drive.html

How to move/copy iTunes library/folder to a NAS for streaming

I have an iMAC with the latest iTunes. All my my iTunes music are in the iMAC. I just bought a Seagate NAS 110. I can see in that iTUNES can see the NAS drive and when I clicked on it, it opened another window.
1)How do I setup streaming so that it will stream from my NAS instead?
2)How do I transfer/copy all my iTUNES music to the NAS ?
3)Do I need to create a specific folder in NAS to copy the iTUNES music?
Thanks so much!

See this migrate iTunes library post.
tt2

How to move my itunes library to my other hard drive?

Urgently need to move my music in my itunes library to my other hard drive to free up space. Trouble is I can't seem to do this. Can anyone help?

Please see this:
http://discussions.apple.com/click.jspa?searchID=147798&messageID=607487

HT4527 how to move my itunes library from my Ipod to a NEW PC

My Laptop had to be reformatted and as a result I lost access to Itunes. I was not able to save any of my backups nor my iTunes library.
I am trying to sync my iPod and iPhone to my NEWLY formatted hard drive and iTunes wants to WIPE my devices.
Is there a way to "PUSH" the iTunes library from my iPod To my laptop?
Thanks,
Willie J. Sanders, Jr.

I thought I just explained this.
The sync is one way - computer to ipod. The exception is itunes purchases: File>Transfer Purchases
You can transfer itunes purchases form your ipod to your computer: Open itunes, connect ipod, click File Transfer Purchases
Did you fail to maintain a backup copy of your computer?
You may be able to purchase a program to get the other music

How to move my iTunes library from an external FAT32 drive

My music library is located on a FAT32 external drive that was created with a PC. It works just fine when I access the drive using iTunes on my Mac.
Now, however, I would like to permanently move my library to a different external drive, which has been formatted for Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
How should I do that? Is it as simple as dragging my music folder to the new drive? Will iTunes be able to see the metadata, etc.?
I have SuperDuper, but it won't work from a FAT32 drive. Anyone have any suggestions? Naturally, I'm paranoid about losing my music.. but I'm also paranoid about losing the data.
Thanks!

If it's the same as with a PC, the procedure would be to:
(a) Plug in the new external drive,
(b) Set your iTunes preferences such that the iTunes Music Folder is on the new drive,
(c) Use the iTunes "Consolidate Library" utility to copy your library to the new location.
(d) When the transfer is complete, check "Get Info" on some songs to verify their location.
The original files will remain on the old drive, so you'll have a way to recover should there be a problem. You may need to manually copy any iPhone/Touch Apps to the new drive since I'm not sure those are transferred with the Consolidate utility.

How do I move my itunes library from my hard drive to an external hardrive?

I am trying to free up storage space on my imac hard drive. I have one external hard drive with 500 GB storga and then another 2 TB external hard drive that I am using as my time machine back up of everything. I moved my itunes library (approx. 70GB) over to the 500 GB hard drive, but I think it is still somewhere on the imac HD. I am looking for simple directions on how to move my itunes library and/or iphoto library and deleting the oriiginal version on my HD so that I have adequate room on my startup disk. Thoughts?

Here you go:
Move iTunes:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449
iPhoto:
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2506

How to move an iTunes library

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