How to transfer music library onto new desktop hard drive?

I just recently bought a new FreeAgent desktop 250 G hard drive because I was almost out of free space on my computer. Now I want to transfer all of my songs on iTunes onto that drive. How do I do that?

ok i clicked to "select all" on my iTunes and then dragged all the songs to the desktop hard drive. It says it is copying the songs. After it is done, I'll still be able to access all of the songs and sync them normally right? The only difference will be that instead of them being on my Local Drive they'll be on the desktop hard drive.
Is that right?

Similar Messages

How to transfer Itunes Library (PC) to external hard drive for backup purposes?

I need to save my Itunes library from my current PC to an external hard drive just in case my computer were to crash/die. Two questions:
Question #1: How do I do this?
Question #2: Should my computer crash and I need to get a new PC, how would I transfer my Itunes library from the external hard drive to the new PC?

iTunes- Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive

Upgraded hardware, and went from XP to Win7 - how do I transfer/install CS5 onto new SSD hard drive?

I recently upgraded all my computer internals; new mobo, Samsung SSD (solid state drive), CPU and ram. Also went from XP Pro to Win 7 Pro, with Win 7 Pro now residing on the new solid state drive. I still have the old 1TB Serial ATA hard drive connected as a storage device, and this is where CS5 resides. But of course, my CS5 applications are now unusable.
Can someone please give me some guidance as to how to transfer the CS5 installation from the old HD (XP Pro) to the new SSD (Win 7 Pro)? I started doing some research, and read about first "deactivating" CS5, but I cannot open any of my CS5 applications to "deactivate". So I am stumped. I am reticent to attempt a new install from my CS5 disks until I learn the proper process..........
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Dave F. in Rhode Island

don't transfer, reinstall.
if you need to reset your activation count, contact adobe support - http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/service1.html
Downloads available:
Suites and Programs: CC 2014 | CC | CS6 | CS5.5 | CS5 | CS4 | CS3
Acrobat: XI, X | 9,8 | 9 standard
Premiere Elements: 12 | 11, 10 | 9, 8, 7
Photoshop Elements: 12 | 11, 10 | 9,8,7
Lightroom: 5.5 (win), 5.5 (mac) | 5.4 (win), 5.4 (mac) | 5 | 4 | 3
Captivate: 8 | 7 | 6 | 5
Contribute: CS5 | CS4, CS3
Download and installation help for Adobe links
Download and installation help for Prodesigntools links are listed on most linked pages. They are critical; especially steps 1, 2 and 3. If you click a link that does not have those steps listed, open a second window using the Lightroom 3 link to see those 'Important Instructions'.

How to transfer iTunes library & folder to another Hard Drive

My iTunes library and all data (music, video, apps, podcasts) are stored on an external 250 GB hard disk that is now getting almost full.
I wish to transfer everything on a 500 GB external HD and be able to launch my library from this new HD without losing anything or getting all my files with the dreaded "!".
Can someone advise me where to look for instructions on how to proceed?
Many thanks.
Frederic

If your library files are on the current external drive, with the media folder inside the main library folder, then simply copy this folder to the new drive and use the hold option/shift when starting iTunes method to open the library in its new location.
If your media folder is on the external but the library files are on the internal drive then start by copying the contents of your iTunes folder, *iTunes Library, iTunes Library Extras.itdb, iTunes Library Genius.itdb, sentinel, Album Artwork* folder etc. to the parent folder of the media folder on the external. (You can leave the .xml file behind, it will have a slightly different name in the new location and will be recreated automatically.) Use the option-launch-iTunes method above to open the library on the external drive. Make sure it all works properly then close it and proceed as outlined in the first paragraph.
iTunes uses the folder name for the folder holding the *iTunes Library* file as the window title, so you may get odd results if your library files are now in the root of the drive. As long as the media folder is stored as a sub- folder of the library folder you can move everything to a new folder or path and use the option-launch-iTunes method. E.g. if your media was at *\iTunes Media* then move the libray files to the root folder \ - open, test and close iTunes - create a folder called iTunes - move the libray files, Album Artwork and iTunes Media folder into the new iTunes folder then open the library in the new location.
tt2

How to transfer ITunes library to an External Hard Drive?

I would like to transfer my ITunes library to an EHD.
Could some one tell me how to do this?
Does evrything else in ITunes transfers too? like videos,movies,rentals, etc
Thanks

What Niel said is pretty much the easiest and quickest way. It will copy it there so after following Niel's suggestion, make sure everything looks ok before discarding the original iTunes folder. It may take some time to do depending upon the size of the library.
I recently did the same with my library of nearly 200GB. Glad I did it then ( even though perhaps too late ) as it's now nearly 350GB. Movies do take up quite a bit of room but now everything is on a 2TB drive with a back up copy on another 2TB drive and freed up all the space on my 500GB iMac.
Everything works as normal inc. Apple TV streaming so you should be good to go.
Check in Preferences in iTunes where iTunes is looking for the library so next time you don't need the option key.

How can I consolidate my music library with an external hard drive?

I have moved my entire music library onto an external hard drive. However, when I want to copy a new CD at work, I often copy the music onto my laptop then have to manually transfer it to the external hard drive at home.
I thought that "consolidate" library would do this automatically for me. The problem is when I disconnect the external, the next time I open iTunes it tells me "The folder containing the iTunes Library cannot be found and is required. Please choose or create a new iTunes Library." So I choose the iTunes library that resides on my laptop in the Music folder. When I go back to using my external music folder and try to consolidate my library nothing happens. I would like to use the "consolidate library" command to copy the music from my laptop to my external hard drive. Please help!

Drag it to the internal drive.
If it contains the iTunes database files, launch iTunes with the Shift key held down, click on Choose Library, and navigate to it.
If it doesn't, drag it from there into the open iTunes application window.
(108123)

How do I export itunes library onto an external hard drive so i can put the music on my new mac book?

How do I export itunes library onto an external hard drive so i can put the music on my new mac book?

iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
do not confuse moving your whole folder and library with moving just media files as in
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449
Quick answer if you let iTunes manage your music: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Start iTunes with the option key held down and guide it to the new location of the library.

How do I transfer music from iPhone to external hard drive

Got new macbook por with retina display. Only has 256 GB of space. My itunes library is close to 1 TB. I have it on a hard drive but it wont work as an external device when I try to set it up under advanced preferences. I also have a copy of my songs on an ipod - can I transfer this music to a new external hard drive to use as my itunes library source. How do I do this?

I just solved the same problem, there were just too many songs in my iPhone, so i need to get them to my computer, and it's not a such easy thing! I've used several methods, but none of them worked! But finally i used a tool named iPubsoft iPad iPhone iPod to Mac Transfer which my friend suggested me use, it did me a big favor on helping me copy iPhone songs to PC! You can also sync your songs to iTunes if you want!
And what problem are you having doing that? What error is displayed? How are you trying to do it? I used iPubsoft iPad/iPhone/iPod to mac transfer app, it works really great!

How to use one music library from one external hard drive on two different computers

I have 57 gigs of music in my itunes library on my laptop (Windows Vista). I backed up the library onto an external hard drive. I would like to play the music on a second computer (Windows XP) without putting the music on the second computer, just keeping it on the external hard drive.
I have the latest version of iTunes and Quicktime installed. In iTunes on both computers, under Advanced Preferences I changed the iTunes media folder location to the folder on the external hard drive and checked the boxes for "Keep iTunes media folder organized" and "copy files to iTunes media folder when adding to library". Also under the File tab, "Organize Library", I clicked on "Consolidate Files" and "Reorganize Files in the folder itunes music".
On the second computer I tried holding SHIFT while launching iTunes until the prompt appears asking to create a new library or point to an existing library. While attempting to point to the new location, I am only able to open the music folder, not set it as the location. In advanced preferences when I click "change" for the itunes media folder location, I can locate the folder but the only button I can click on is "open" or "cancel". "Open" will open the folder showing all my music. I tried typing in the location. It shows the correct location.
I was able to see the songs in the library in itunes on the second computer but it won't play the music. There are no exclamation points next to the songs. I am also able to see the playlists but there aren't any songs in the playlists.
There are no problems with itunes on the first computer. Everything works as it should.
Ideally I would like to use the same folder on the external hard drive for both computers if possible. But for now I want to at least get the music playing with the playlists on the second computer from the external hard drive.
Please help.

See this post on making a split library portable.
tt2

How can i back up my itunes library onto an external hard drive?

I can seem to figure out how to back up my Itunes library onto my external hard drive. Any advise?

A quick search provides the answer, see the following:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1751 for backing up to an external drive.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1382 for backing up to optical media.

How to make iTunes recognize the music library in my external hard drive after instaIling Yosemite?

How to make iTunes recognize the music library in my external hard drive after instaIling Yosemite? I tried re-setting the media folder location, but it didn't work. What else should I do?

The issue is not related to the external drive. iTunes Match has difficulties matching tracks ripped fom CDs because they may differ slightly from the versions on sale in iTunes. You can try the match again. Otherwise do a search of this forum. There are already many discussions on this subject here that may help you.

I upgraded MacbookPro 2009 from 10.6.8 to Yosemite. Beforehand I made a backup copy of my Iphoto library onto an external hard drive. Lets call it BU. I also deleted half of my photos from the default library on my laptop, lets call it DE. I then in

I upgraded MacbookPro 2009 from 10.6.8 to Yosemite 2 weeks ago. My iphoto is now a nightmare. i went to our local apple retailer but they could not help either. Perhaps someone can help. Beforehand the OS upgrade I made a backup copy of my Iphoto library onto an external hard drive. Lets call it BU with 50GB. I also deleted half of my photos from the default library on my laptop, lets call it DE, now with about 20GB, to gain space. I then upgraded to Yosemite.
I have also installed since a long time Iphoto Library Manager 3.8.6. (this may be the cause of the problem as it was not upgraded and perhaps thus not compatible with iphoto 9.6 which I have now after the upgrade to Yosemite) It all worked fine before the upgrade, switching in iphoto between the two libraries DE and BU.
It also worked fine after the upgrade for a few days. At one stage Iphoto asked me to upgrade the iphoto version as it otherwise could not read the photos when I tried to load the BU library into iphoto. I did click yes to upgrade iphoto. As a result I became a brand new but totally empty library, no photos.
BU was still on the external disc, however the "Master" file was empty. We fortunately discovered all photos were in another file called Old Master, also under BU. We made another copy of the Old Master file onto the external disc. Lucky we did, because shortly afterwards we could not open anymore the BU file thus had no access to anything in there. Now I have 17000 photos in a file called Old Master on my external disc and another smaller library DE on my laptop. When I tried to import the photos from Old Master into a new iphoto library it was very messy. All events dates were mixed up, many photos were imported twice. I have no idea whether all my 17000 photos have been imported.
Can anyone suggest what is the most time efficient way? How do I best import my 17000 into a new library ensuring I don't loose any in the process. I do not wish sorting through 17000 photos for a week or so. Shall i also get a new iphoto library version now? Thank you for anything that may work.

Yes, the Old Master file has a folder for each year where I find all photos from that specific year. I am attaching a screen shot of the file.
In the meantime i have managed to download all photos (it did not download any video files though in mpg, avi, 3gp, m4v,mp4 and mov format) to a new iphoto library. Unfortunately the photos are quite mixed and often doubled up. I ma considering to purchase iphoto library which checks all duplicates in iphoto. this will save me a lot of time. What do you think?

Back up just SOME of the music library to an external hard drive

I want to move just some of my music from my iTunes library onto an external hard drive (reason? the music cannot be got again, but right now I am not sure if I need it all or not).
So I want to move, say, 50 albums from the main iTunes libraray to an external drive and then be able to move some or all of them back again at later date.
Do I have to copy the whole library over to the external drive and then delete the albums there that I did not want to copy over? Or is there a better way?
And how will I copy back just some of the back-up albums at a later date - is it the normal "Add folder/file to [main] library command from the File menu?

OK, I don't think I have been making it very clear what I am trying to achieve - let me try putting it differently!!
I have one iTunes folder and, at the moment, that is all backed-up via SyncToy. I only have music in iTunes.
Think of that music as being of 2 types - part A that I want for definite, and all that music is also on my iPod (I have my iPod set to Sync manually with iTunes) - this is probably well over 100 albums; and Part B music, that is on iTunes, not on the Ipod, and that I am not sure yet if I want to have in iTunes and on the iPod or not (this was a load of music copied over from another iPod several months ago) - this might be a further 50 albums.
So - part A, I want to keep and want to be fully backed-up. OK, SyncToy does that currently by backing up 100% of iTunes.
But part B - I want to copy the part B music to a different copy location, and then just keep there the part B stuff which, album by album, I will either delete completely (if I don't want it) OR want to copy back to iTunes. Once this second copy is set up, I would delete from this copy all the Part A stuff, and also delete from iTunes all the part B stuff.
I would then have:
- part A stuff on iTunes, iPod and back-up location 1;
- part B stuff on back-up location 2.
So the main question is - from what level in the iTunes folder do I need to copy over to the part B back-up so as to ensure that, when I subsequently try to copy albums back from the part B back-up to iTunes, I get all the information, artwork etc that already exists for the albums? Do I copy the music file; the media file, or the whole iTunes folder?
This may sound all terribly longwinded but, for various reasons, I am not in a position to be able to decide all at once which of the part B albums I need to keep.
Is that any clearer?
Cheers!

HT1751 I am trying to backup my iTunes library onto an external hard drive but it won't complete due to 'insufficient privileges for some of the items'. Am I doing something wrong and is there a solution to this problem?

Hi All,
I am currently trying to backup my iTunes library onto an external hard drive so that I can copy it onto my new Macbook Pro. I have been following the steps posted on the Apple website however each time I get a dialogue box stating:
'The operation cannot be completed because you do not have sufficient privileges for some of the items'.
Is this because I have items that were bought under another persons iTunes account? If so, is there a solution to this problem? Or am I doing something completely wrong?
Thanks in advance,
Sbrooks19

Go through the below forum with similar issue and follow the process mentioned by "Macjack" in the beginning.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4499820

How to transfer music library onto new desktop hard drive?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for