How to recover iTunes files and playlists

I recently had to reinstall the operating system on my computer. That means I had to reinstall iTunes from scratch. Fortunately, I kept a back-up of all the iTunes files on an external hard drive, so I should be able to recover everything.
However, I want to be able to recover how everything was organized previously including playlists.
Is it possible to use my backup files to recover the playlists? If yes, how? Thanks.

It depends exactly on what it was you backed up. If you made a back up of your entire iTunes folder that will have included 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). If that's what you did then copy the folder back to My Music and open iTunes while holding down the Shift key. You will get a box opening giving you the option to create a new library or navigate to an existing one. Navigate to where you copied the iTunes folder and choose the library file that's there: How to open an alternate iTunes Library file

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