How to transfer itunes library to external drive and keep playlists and ratings

I don't have much space on my laptop. I have attached an external drive. I want to access my Itunes library from
the external drive. All attempts to move the library now result in me losing my "playlists" and even more importantly
my ratings and genre information.
How can I move the library with all my associated data intact such as the playlists, ratings, genres?
I want this external drive to be the main location where I access my Itunes library.
Once that is done I will work on backing it up, as that will be the only place that the data exists.
Also, will my Apple TV be also be able to access my Itunes library with playlists. thus far I have not been able to do this.

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

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How to get itunes library from external drive to new computer

i recently purchased a new computer w/the windows vista platform. there were posts regarding how to transfer the library w/playlists on this board, which i followed to the point of hitting shift while opening itunes, and choosing a library. however, when selecting such from my external drive, which has the itl and xml on it as well as the itunes music folder, it gives me an error noting it is locked or that i dont have write permission to use it. my external drive on my old computer was the G drive, now it is the F drive on new one. can anyone please advise what to do other than copy all music over and have to completely recreate all playlists?

polydorus, this was the response/post that i found and it was posted by sweepea on 9/4/2007. and all my music is now from the external drive to the itunes music folder on my laptop and it let me keep all my playlists. thank you again for your help!
I had that problem too. I tried to remove iTunes from my computer and then download it again, but that did not make any difference. Then I tried polydorus' answer ("starting iTunes with the shift key held down, when asked to choose a library, navigate to your iTunes folder and choose iTunes Library.itl"), but that did not work either and that same message about the library being locked appeared again.
Then I had a brainwave. I deleted that iTunes library.itl file. (To find it, go to My documents, then My Music, then iTunes, and there is the itunes library file). I now tried to open iTunes by clicking on the iTunes icon on my desktop, nothing happened, as if I had not clicked on it at all. I restored the file from the recycling bin to where it was before. But that also returned me to where I had been before, i.e. I got that locked-library message again. So I deleted that file again. Then I tried right-clicking on the iTunes icon. On the little menu that appeared, I clicked 'Open' and hey presto, suddenly the iTunes set-up assistant appeared and everything went smooth from then on. When I checked, there was a file called iTunes library.itl again and this one worked OK.
By the way, I did not lose any of my music downloads or podcasts when I deleted that file, so it's definitely worth a try.
custom built Windows 2000

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 transfer iTunes library from external to internal drive?

Awhile back, I'd run out of space on my internal HD and transferred all of my content to a larger external HD. I don't remember "repointing" my iTunes Library (as you can do in iPhoto) but somehow, iTunes recognized this and has since been backing up and restoring my iPhone to/from it.
This however, has created quite a few problems (too numerous to mention) and so, having recently installed a larger HD in my internal, I now want to re-point iTunes back to it.
How is this achieved?

Unless you have disabled iTunes organizing media and copying to media folder in your iTunes preferences settings all your media should be going to wherever you have designated as your media location. You can use the organize feature in that preference grouping to ensure all media entered in the iTunes library is actually copied to that designated location.
iTunes 11 for Mac: Change where your iTunes files are stored - http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12165 - Unfortunately this is misnamed. It should say "Change where your media files but not where your library files are stored" - more information at: https://discussions.apple.com/message/22026652 - and steps 5-8 in https://discussions.apple.com/message/24491967
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449

Transfer itune library to external drive then back to PC

In preparation for the re-install of Windows on my machine I would like to save my itune library on an external drive then to reimport it. I have more music than my current iPod can store so can't use it for the transfer and my Pc can only burn CDs the external drive option looks the best...if only I'd know how to!

Be careful you don't make the mistake I did, if your operating system is changing (e.g. XP to Vista) this will only partially work as the paths will be different, you will end up losing your playlists at the very least.
I don't really know any way around this, a couple of people did give me some tips in a previous post that I wrote but Apple deleted it because it was critical, so they are now lost too.

How to import ITunes library from external drive

Using Mac, Leopard, Time Machine, my hard drive crashed Had a recent backup on Time Machine. New computer doesn't recognize last backup of TM on external hard drive, but I can find my ITunes Library there, with thousands of songs.
when I go in ITunes to Import Library and navigate to the old ITunes Library, it won't let me import the whole thing, only lets me import one song at a time, which would take eons.
Any suggestions on how to do it in one fell swoop?

I'm sure that solution would work, but I guess something else I did is messing things up.
the first tip I got was to Consolidate Library. It forced me to consolidate on another partition of my external hard drive. Now that I tried Add Library, it's putting all the music on that external location, which filled up fast and can't take anymore.
Any thought on how to get my full library back on my internal drive?

How to relocate itunes library to external drive

Hi Folks,
In another forum on the above topic I found an answer that consisted as a TWENTY-FOUR-PAGES-long forum discussion. I hope that there is someone who can nutshell 24 pages for this newbie
I have an external SimpleTech hard drive, Windows Xp, Compaq, laptop. I don't want to lose my itunes library, if my computer crashes. And, I don't want to eat up all my computer memory with music and podcast/vodcast files.
1) Is there a simple, step-by-step operation to relocate my itunes library to my external drive? I hope one of you are willing to take the time to help me out.
2) In addition to HOW to do it, what does it mean, practically? I mean itunes remains on my computer, right? And, it just goes back and forth to the external drive for my music files, right?
3) Can I put my album artwork on the external, as well?
Thank you
Randy

Is there a simple, step-by-step operation to relocate my itunes library to my external drive?
Yes:
- Launch iTunes, click Edit > Preferences > Advanced tab > General tab
- Click the 'change' button to redirect your iTunes Music Folder to your external hard drive. It's sometimes helpful if you open that hard drive through Windows Explorer first, and create a folder on it called 'iTunes' or something similar.
- Select both options to "Keep iTunes music folder organized" and "copy files to iTunes music folder when adding to library" and then click OK
- Click your Advanced menu and choose Consolidate Library
This copies your library files onto the hard drive and ensures that iTunes looks there for the files. Once this is completed, and you've verified iTunes is reading the files from the external drive (you can right click on the file and click Get Info, then click the Summary tab, and at the bottom it'll say "Where" and show you where your file is stored) you can go into your My Music folder on the computer and delete the iTunes files.
The iTunes program files will still be stored on your C: drive, to make Windows happy, and it just refers to your external hard drive to find the files so it can play them and sync them to your iPod.
When you follow the above steps, your Album Artwork should copy to the external drive as well.
Apple has this support document on the issue:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751
Hope this is helpful
CG

How to transfer iTunes library to an external drive (thats easy!) but keeping the playlists musics on the computer?

How to transfer iTunes library to an external drive (thats easy!) but keeping the playlists musics on the computer?
Many thanks!

Select a single song with a broken link, press CTRL+I to Get Info, cancel when asked to locate the track and take a look at the Summary tab. Post back where iTunes is looking for the file. It begins file://localhost
Where is it really?
Please post back both paths so that I can make suggestions. Full paths please, exact spellings, you can replace your user name with <User> if needed.
tt2

I tried to transfer itunes onto an external drive, now have serious probs.

I tried to transfer itunes onto an external drive, then i deleted the itunes folder from the computer. This completely emptied itunes......oops... then i put back the music saved on the drive back onto itunes, but its only put on a small amount, all of my playlists are gone and most of the album artwork....aaaahhhh..... I havent synced my ipod yet, is there any way of replacing all of the lost data transferring it back onto itunes from the ipod itself?

Copying from iPod to Computer threads...
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1300144
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=797432&#797432
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=809624&tstart=0
Also these somewhat dated but still useful internet articles...
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/copying-music-from-ipod-to-co mputer/
http://www.engadget.com/2004/11/02/how-to-get-music-off-your-ipod/
http://playlistmag.com/help/2005/01/2waystreet/
Good luck!
Patrick

How to transfer iTunes files to external hard disc

how to transfer iTunes files to external hard disc

A forum search would indicate the question has been answered in previous posts such as:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/21054789#21054789
https://discussions.apple.com/message/8667031#8667031

How to transfer itunes library music from a macbook to other macbook

how to transfer itunes library music from macbook pro to and other macbook pro with the internet cable .

Move it to the /Users/Shared/ folder.
(58475)

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

Reinstall of OS: iTunes Library on external drive not recognized

I've always had my iTunes library on my external drive. Now that I reinstalled my OS iTunes will not open the library. I've navigated to the correct library using the advanced preferences but that's not doing it. I've tried discarding the existing library in the music folder. Can't seem to find the answer.
Thanks

JS,
I had some trouble following macmenno's instructions, but have had almost complete success. If you DO have your original itunes library file, this should work for you too.
Background, my situation:
My harddisk was failing but warned me, so i copied the ENTIRE itunes folder to an external drive. The iTunes folder includes the "itunes library" file, the music folder, and the xml file. This was suggested in a book i have on iLife as the best way to backup itunes to an external HD to preserve playlists, et al. But the book failed to say how to copy the folder back if needed.
So the first time i naively just copied the entire folder back to the imac (new HD) but itunes failed to "find" it, even though it was exactly where i had deleted the equivalent default (empty) files/folder. Playing around i managed to get itunes to find the music but not the playlists and ratings...i.e., it was not finding the library file.
Macmenno's instructions:
I started all over: With Itunes closed, I deleted all three items from the itunes folder: the library file, music folder, xml file. to be safe, i also emptied the trash since itunes seemed to be following the files. But i left the itunes folder in place, albiet empty. Per macmenno's instructions, i then copied ONLY the itunes library file and the xml file from my external HD to the imac itunes folder. I then opened itunes, checked the preferences to be sure it was pointing in the right direction. I then dragged the Music Folder from the ext-HD and dropped it on the library icon in the itunes program window.
That worked. i have my playlists, ratings, comments, et all.
Only problem is i now have duplicate listings of all music songs -- one with an exclamation point that doesn't play (apparently came from my itunes library file before i dropped in the songs), one that does play.
So macmenna, if you are still with us, how can i delete the 3,000 song titles with exclamation points? I tried to click on the column head to sort them all together, then block-mark and delete... but apparently we can not sort on that column head.
Or did i miss something in your instructions?
Thanks. and good luck to you JS.
SB
imac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.7) itunes 6.0.5

Importing iTunes library from external drive

Cannot play iTunes after importing library from PC into Mac.

Simply highlight and delete
But doing so it will also trash all playlists, data added, ratings, etc. Something the OP said about having to rename lots of files during a previous library rebuild suggests to me they may even be stored in WAV format. If the OP deletes them from the library all the labels will be lost, they will get added back with only file names as track information and they will have to be renamed again.
This will delete not only the reference to the file, but the library.itl file that Limnos refers to.
I don't think so. The file will still be there, it will just be stripped of any entries.
Now you should have an empty iTunes.
Now go to where the files are on your external drive. Two options. Choose the one you prefer:
In iTunes, go to >> Preferences >> Advanced -- Select the location of your files on the external drive. Tick OK and iTunes should re-add all the files. Depending on how many, it may take some time as it organises everything. But your files will remain on the ext drive. Any new songs you get will get added to your external drive by default now.
Changing this preference setting will not get iTunes to inventory the files in the media folder, nor add them. It simply tells iTunes to put any new media added in the location selected.
Or, select the files on your ext drive, hold down OPTION and drag the files into iTunes. It will add them to your library, but leave the files on your external drive. Note that any new files you add directly to iTunes (like from the store) will be added to your default iTunes folder, not the external drive.
Well, yes, it will do it, essentially creating a brand new library that the OP will have to organize again vs. using the existing organization. My reservations about the need to rebuild the library from scratch still exist.
If the OP desires to keep storing media on the external drive in the long run it is best simply changing the preferece to use the external drive for media storage.

Help understanding shared iTunes library on external drive

Here is what I tried to accomplish:
merge two iTunes libraries (currently on two MacBooks) and store all music files on external drive, but keep each MacBook's custom playlists intact - the idea is to make space on each laptop.
I started comparing libraries on each laptop with the external iTunes library and copied missing media files/folders over to the external drive.
Question: is it save now to delete media folders from each laptop and just keep the library files in each laptops Music > iTunes folder?
Question 2: which folder do I select when changing to new iTunes Media folder in Preferences?
There is no iTunes Media folder on the external drive.
The folders Music, Movies, Podcast etc just reside in a folder called iTunes (which also holds some library files)

Launch iTunes with the Shift key held down, click on Choose Library, and navigate to that instance of the library.
(86658)

How to transfer itunes library to external drive and keep playlists and ratings

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