HT201272 Transferring from a hard drive to itunes

I have a hard drive with lots of music and video's stored, how can I transfer all of the data to my itunes on my Macbook Pro so that I do not have to keep connecting my hard drive everytime I want to add something to another device?

Music is not downloaded from a hard drive, it is downloaded to a hard drive.
iTunes is not a format, it is a media management application. As such, music cannot be converted to iTunes.
So now to the problem, what happens when you try to play these songs?

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Importing music files from ext. hard drive to itunes

If I import all my music files (years of collections, unorganized about 90 Ggs some duplication) from ext. hard drive to itunes will itunes organize my music collection and be accessible?
what is the simplest way to transfer these files from ext. hard drive to itunes
Thanks

If I import all my music files (years of collections, unorganized about 90 Ggs some duplication) from ext. hard drive to itunes will itunes organize my music collection and be accessible?
Do you want it to do this?
You can leave it on the external and play it from iTunes. Nothing will be moved or organized. Everything will stay as it is.
Or you can leave it on the external and have iTunes organize it.
Or you can add it to iTunes and copy it to the internal and organize it.
what is the simplest way to transfer these files from ext. hard drive to itunes
This is two differnt things.
You can have these songs in iTunes and leave them on the external.

Can't play music from external hard drive through iTunes on Windows 8?

I recenty bought a new laptop running Windows 8 with a small internal hard drive, so I don't want to store all my music on it. I backed up my iTunes library onto an external hard drive, but when I plug this into my new laptop I can't play my music no matter what I do.
I have tried:
- selecting the newly created iTunes library by pressing Shift when opening iTunes and playing a song directly through the iTunes player. It selects the song, comes up with the speaker icon next to it to indicate it is playing, but the time doesn't count down and no music plays
- I have gone into Advanced Preferences and specified the iTunes media folder location, still no songs play
- coped a single song onto my new laptop desktop and tried to play this through iTunes, Media Player and the Music app. Media player says "Windows Media Player encountered a problem while playing the file". The Music app says it can't find any music on the computer, so when I select the music folder from my hard drive, it says "Can't Play. Make sure your computer's sound and video cards are working and have the latest drivers, then try again".
I know my laptop can play sound and video as I can watch YouTube videos with no problems. I went to Windows Update, and there are no available updates, I already have every available update.
I have also plugged in a different external hard drive, with different music files on it, and have encountered the exact same problems. It seems I can't play any music at all on this laptop. I know the files are not corrupted, as I can plug both hard drives into a different laptop that runs on Windows 7 and play the music on them with no troubles. Could it be a problem with the files compatibility with Windows 8?
I can also access my iPhone backup through this iTunes library on the new computer, so I know there is no problem with my backup.

I am experiencing a similar problem in Windows 7 64bit. Since my laptop has a 128gb SSD, I have loaded my iTunes library on to an external drive. I can sync my iPhones and iPads from this library, and the songs play fine from those devices. However, when I select a song from my library, and click the play button, nothing happens. iTunes does nothing. I have also tried right-clicking mp3s in my library and selecting "Play", with no results. I do not receive an error message of any kind.
I have also noticed that some of my mp3's within iTunes denote the Time as 00:00. The same mp3's will play and register properly using other mp3 players on my computer, and they also play normally on my iPhones and iPads.
I am running Windows 7 x64 on a Lenovo T530, in iTunes 11.1.3. Everything else in iTunes appears to function normally. I can listen to internet radio stations without an issue, through iTunes, and they play as they should. I have tried three different external drives, with different drive formats, and they all have the same issue. If I copy my iTunes library back to my internal drive, iTunes will play my mp3s.
I did not have this issue with iTunes 10, so I am assuming it is something that has occured within the last few updates.
Has anyone found a fix for this? Unfortunately, I am forced to use iTunes 11 because of my iOS devices, otherwise I would revert to iTunes 10.

Copying Large Blocks of MP3 files from External Hard Drive to iTunes

I'm trying to copy large numbers of MP3 files from my external
hard drive to iTunes. I tried putting them in the iTunes music folder but this did not work. Then I tried selecting blocks of the songs and dragging and dropping them in iTunes. This also did not work because when I select a large block of files and then click on them (holding down the mouse button) to drag them, then they become "unselected." So, I guess my question is 2 fold: Why can I not copy and paste these files to some folder on the Macintosh Hard drive where they will be recognized by iTunes (show up in iTunes) and what is wrong with my clicking and dragging technique? Am I losing it?

If you are trying to add tunes to your library then do the work from within iTunes not via the Finder. Droping the tunes into the iTunes folder will not create a reference for iTunes to find the tunes. You should be able to drag-drop the tunes/folders into the main iTunes window.
It is usually easier to use the 'keep' and 'copy' features selected. This way iTunes will keep your tunes organized and all in one place. If you work from in the iTunes interface then you will likely not go wrong.
From the iTunes File menu select 'add to library' (+O) and navigate to your ext HD and iTunes should bring those tunes into your library.
MJ

How to delete a file from my hard drive through iTunes?

I want to delete a file through my iTunes. Whenever I do, it just gives me a dialog window telling me that it will delete the file from the library and my iPod. It does NOT delete it from my hard drive. I do NOT want to let iTunes manage my music.
How can I delete files? It seems crazy that I wouldn't be able to.

hmm. for some strange reason after doing that it just simply warns me that in deleting the song(s) it will ruin my playlists/mess up songs currently on my ipod.
im just trying to delete all the songs that are under a minute from various albums because they take a lot of room, yet are pretty useless. but they are strung out over multiple files and i simply would love to be able to delete them all from the library where they are arranged. do you know of any other techniques to fix it?

Importing music from the Hard drive to Itunes

I am pretty new to both IPOD and ITUNES, and am beginning to think I am a bit slow as well. Anyway, I had quite a number of cuts on my hard drive, but have lately copied new files/songs into sub-folder of My Music, and I am not seeing them move into the music list when I start up Itunes. And of course they are not finding their way into the IPOD either. So, I guess my question is do I have to delete everything from the Itunes library (being careful that I don't also delete them from my hard drive as well. If I do this I believe they deleted music will be deleted from my ipod. The question then is how do I move all the music from My Music and it's sub folder back into the Itunes library. I realize that I may not be using the correct terminology, but I am hoping that someone will understand what I want and can tell me how to do it. Thanks in advance.
Bob H.

Drag the music into the open iTunes application window instead of the My Music folder; iTunes keeps a database of what's in the library instead of just checking the My Music folder contents, and music just dragged there will be ignored.
(50548)

Can I play my music from external hard drive through itunes?

If this is possible How would a (NEW TO iMac) user do this? Otherwise if that is not possible, how do you export music files from a seagate external hard drive to itunes.

Expanding Niel's answer a bit...
in iTunes, go to iTunes->Preferences->Advanced and insure that "Copy files..." is NOT checked. Then you can add all your music to your iTunes library by dragging the parent folder into the "library" window at the upper left (if you're using iTunes 11, do View->Show sidebar first). You can also do "File->Add to library...".

Moving songs from external hard drive to Itunes library

I have a bunch of songs on an external hard drive, but my itunes library is on my pc.....I tried to add some of these songs to my library (i played the songs and they were automatically added to the library)....but when i inplugged the external hard drive from my pc and tried to play the songs from the library, it would not let me play them.....an error message came up that stated that the library could not find the device from which the songs came from....why is this?....is there another way to add these songs from the hard drive????

why is this?
The Windows version of iTunes doesn't copy content to the iTunes Music folder when importing from another hard disk by default. Connect the drive and choose Consolidate Library from th Library section of the File menu.
(36713)

Transfering from external hard drive to mac?

I have an external hard drive that has all my music, photos, videos, word docs, etc from my PC computer (I used the external hard drive as a back up).
I was wanting to buy a mac & wanted to know how easy it would be to transfer the files from the hard drive to the new mac- is it easy to do?

You will be able to copy from that drive to your Mac, you will not be able to write to the drive until reformatted for the Mac so copy everything off, reformat the drive for use with your Mac and then you can use it normally

Transfering files from a hard drive into Itunes

I downloaded audio files from a CD to an external hard drive. Now I would like to put those files in Itunes. I tried click and drag and cut and paste, no luck.
Please help
Thank you in advance
Faust575

I downloaded audio files from a CD to an external
hard drive. Now I would like to put those files in
Itunes. I tried click and drag and cut and paste, no
luck.
What EXACTLY do you mean by you "downloaded" the files?
Did you transcode them into a form iTunes knows about? (e.g., MP3)
If you ripped them to MP3 or other compatible file format you should hust be able to drag and drop them onto the Music portion of your iTunes display. I do this hundreds of times a day - it's the logical equivalent of Add File or Add Folder to Library.

Transferring album folders from external hard drive to itunes

I have just purchased a 30G ipod. All my music is an an external hard drive. I do not own the CD'd thanks to a divorce! How do I move/copy my CD albums from their folders on to itunes?

iTunes menu File -> Add to Library... and pick the folder from the external drive. Or simply drag and drop the folder onto the iTunes library.
Keep in mind that the default setting in iTunes is to copy added songs to the iTunes folder (on our internal drive). Be sure to uncheck that if you DON'T want everything from the external drive copied to the internal.
Patrick

My entire iTunes library keeps disappearing from my brand new iMac. All info transferred from external hard drive. Anybody have a clue? Thanks.

My wife copied our entire iTunes library from the old imac to the new using an external hard drive. Now, every so often, the whole library, music, apps and all, just keep disappearing from the new computer. When I turn on home sharing it all shows up, because we still have the old imac working. Really weird. Can anyone give me some insight? Much appreciated.

Through home sharing I have now copied the entire library to the new iMac. My problem now is with the individual music tracks doubling themselves. I delete them all and then a few days later all the doubles are back. Random tracks at random times, but they all come back!

Audio problems after transferring from external hard drive.

I've transferred an unfinished movie from an external hard drive back onto my mac but now when I play it the audio jolts and is crackly for lack of a better word. How can I fix this?
It's a birthday present for someone that I need to give today so help would be much appreciated!

Is your external drive formatted for Mac? Should be Mac OS extended or Mac OS extended (journaled). If it's not, you will need to reformat using the Utilities/Disk Utility app on your Mac -- but reformatting will erase all data on the drive.
The bad playback may just be an iMovie playback display problem that might not appear on your final project. Quickly share your project to iDVD and play it there to see if the sound acts up. If it doesn't, then it's just a playback display issue in iMovie. That can be caused by overlapping sound tracks or too many audio clips or effects, although you didn't mention whether you were talking about audio embedded in your video clips or separate audio clips in your audio track.
The most favored audio format is .aiff, so if you have separate audio clips check your format to see what you have got, and if not .aiff try converting it to .aiff. You can do that in iTunes or by exporting it under Expert Settings as an aiff file to your desktop and then dragging it back in to your movie.
You could try the old standby of closing iMovie and trashing the file com.apple.iMovie.plist found in User (your name)/Library/Preferences. Then do a permissions repair using the Utilities/Disk Utility app on your Mac. Make sure you have at least 15GB of free space for iMovie to work efficiently.
If you are using iTunes music, you might try first burning the music to a music CD, and then importing it from there into your iMovie project.
Hope this helps. Perhaps others will have more suggestions.

How do i get itunes 11 to stop adding music played from external hard drive to itunes library

I use itunes 11 to play music from my external hard drive and when i am finished using the hard drive and disconnect it the artist and songs appear in the itunes libary and when i click on it to play them it cannot locate the file and i assume this is becuse under the advanced prefrences tab i unchecked the auomaticly add played music to itunes library. I do not want my external hard drive music to be added to itunes library which at this point it does not but it is still showing the music in the library even though it cannot be played this is very fustrating please help. how do i get the artist and songs played from the external hardrive from appering in the itunes library.

Do you have a working copy of the library anywhere? The key file is called iTunes Library.itl and normally exists inside <User's Music>\iTunes. This is the file that knows what is in your library and each of the playlists, and holds ratings, play counts etc. Changing the media folder path in preferences tells iTunes where you'd like it to store media in future. It doesn't magically connect iTunes to any media that might already be there, or fix links to media that has been moved, or make it pick up a non-existent library file. If the worst comes to it you will need to import the media into the new empty library.
See Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device if you have any of these to recover ratings, play stats and playlists, and to associate your device with the new library.
tt2

Need help & advice RE transferring from a hard drive to a new imac.

Hello, firstly I apologize if I am setting up this question in the incorrect location, I am technology illiterate even as far as forums. Recently my 2007 Imac stopped working, repair people removed the hard drive (I believe) from it for me as it was too expensive to fix the machine. My big worry now is hopefully files from my old computer can be transferred to a new Imac? Also if so, is it something I can be walked through, as there aren't really a lot of reliable tech repair businesses in my local area? Is there also anything I should be mindful of when purchasing a new computer? My old system was 20"Mac, 2.0GHz, 1GB, 250GB capacity, I am assuming as long as my new system has better specs a transfer would work, but I really have no clue? Is there any special equipment I would have to buy, should I be aiming to get a new computer with certain specs? (get a system with 320 GB capacity, as opposed to 250GB for example) Sorry for all the questions, more so if they should be obvious, any help much appreciated!

Hello and thank you kindly for taking the time to offer assistence. I believe its intel based, it is this model as linked to here.
http://everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/specs/imac-core-2-duo-2.0-20-inch-aluminu m-specs.html
Please bare with me so I can see if I have this right. Migration Assistent is an application or feature on the Imac I will be getting (will be a newer model than the one I posted above) - my newer computer would be considered the host and my older computer the target? Here is a bit I get a bit unsure. When the last repairmen gave me back my computer, they gave it back with the hard drive seperated - is that a factor or something worth mentioning? I am assuming that I need a wire of some sort or can a transfer be done wirelessly? I have tried figuring all this out and seen firewire cables mentioned a bit, but err I can't even find any sockets on the hard drive given to me by the repairmen whick makes me wonder if I am even looking for the right kind of info. Oh and I ~ to be continued ~

HT201272 Transferring from a hard drive to itunes

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