I have transfered all my library on an external hard disk and lost the itunes library files.

I transfered all my library on an external hard disk and lost the itunes library files. Itunes created new ones but I lost all the playlists.
How can I copy the playlists presents on the Iphone directly on Itunes ?
If I want to syncronise now, I lost all playlists datas.

Hi,
I did the same XP to Windows 7 upgrade about 18 months ago. I decided to keep iTunes permanently on the external drive than the c drive to save c: drive space.
ITunes database has pointers to MP3 files located in Artist's directories. If you want to use a different location than the default C:\ drive for iTunes, then you need to recreate the Itunes database by deleting all songs in iTunes, then change the default location for iTunes files to your external drive. Then import the MP3 files from the external drive into the empty iTunes database through the iTunes import facility.
If you screw up the timing of the import and find you have multiple iTunes directories (instead of just the default location), then iTunes has a new feature to consolidate all iTunes MP3 files back into the central default location. In iTunes, FILE, LIBRARY, ORGANIZE LIBRARY, then CONSOLIDATE FILES.
To change the default directory for MP3 files, in Tunes go to EDIT, PREFERENCES, ADVANCED and then CHANGE the location to where you want the Itunes MP3 files to be located (including the iTunes subdirectory under which all the artist directories are held. Mine are on the F: drive or whatever your computer states is your drive assignment for the external drive.
Note iTunes 10.5 has many problems that Apple hopefully are working on....we seem to have gone backwards on working components in this iCloud based release. So maybe keep on using old computer until 10.6 is released.
Enjoy
Steve Mc (Sydney AUSTRALIA)

Similar Messages

Can I create a "new" iTunes library on an external hard drive and transfer my iTune library to save space on my laptop

Can I create a "new" iTunes library on an external hard drive and transfer my iTune library to save space on my laptop hard drive

Yes. Just copy all your music to a folder on your external. Then delete the music on your computers hard drive.
It is not quite that simple. If you do that you will end up with many broken links and will have to re-create your library from scratch . iTunes does not like it when you move or rename files or folders and doing so between drives is guaranteed to result in exclamation marks indicating you have broken the links to all your media files.
If you are content with moving the whole library to an external drive (usually the best thing for most people), try:
iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Open iTunes and immediately hold down the Option (alt) key (shift on Windows), then guide it to the new location of the library.

HT1364 I have moved my library to an external hard drive and changed the location of the iTunes media folder in Preferences, but every time I close and re-open iTunes, I have to do it all over again. How can I make the iTunes media folder change permanen

I have moved my library to an external hard drive and changed the location of the iTunes media folder in Preferences, but every time I close and re-open iTunes, I have to do it all over again. How can I make the iTunes media folder change permanent? I have an older machine with Windows XP.

I don't believe mounting the hard drive should be necessary, unless you have several external drives and want your computer to recognise them as folders, rather than drives. I've never had to mount a hard drive, ever. If you don't know how to do it, then it shouldn't be necessary now.
Try this:
Prepare iTunes so that it can see the external drive.
Make a note of which drive-letter the external drive has been allocated. (Look in Windows Exploer)
Look at the file location for a song. Make sure it plays (and therefore that iTunes has found it). Highlight it and select File/Get Info/Summary>Where: and make a note of the drive letter for that song.
Close and shut down the computer.
The next time you turn the computer on again, connect the external drive
Before you start iTunes - check the external drive in Windows Explorer. Is it ready, does it have the same drive-letter that it had last time? Can you go into the drive and see the files on it?
Once you can, start iTunes. (If the drive lettter has changed, you need to work out why before going any further.)
If iTunes fails to find your external drive, you need to check where iTunes is looking for your Library.
Select the same song you checked before (presumably iTunes can no longer find it). Follow the procedure for locating it. You should be able to see where iTunes thinks the file is. It's the drive that counts. Which drive letter is iTunes looking at? Is it the same one that it was previously (which should also be the same one that the drive has now).
What happens, which step do you have problems with?
Message was edited by: the fiend

HT1473 I recently had to replace my hard drive and lost my iTunes library. Now I cannot transfer the library from my iPod to iTunes on the new hard drive (same computer). How can I complete the transfer?

I recently had to replace my hard drive and lost my iTunes library. When I try to transfer the content from my iPod to iTunes on the new hard drive (same computer), it would only let me transfer iTunes store purchases. How can I complete the transfer of all the content on the iPod back onto the computer?

Recover media from iPod
See this post for options on moving your iPod data back to your computer.
tt2

I have transfered all my music onto an external hard drive from my old computer and itunes wont recognize the songs in my library...help!!

**** YOU ITUNNES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi,
I did the same XP to Windows 7 upgrade about 18 months ago. I decided to keep iTunes permanently on the external drive than the c drive to save c: drive space.
ITunes database has pointers to MP3 files located in Artist's directories. If you want to use a different location than the default C:\ drive for iTunes, then you need to recreate the Itunes database by deleting all songs in iTunes, then change the default location for iTunes files to your external drive. Then import the MP3 files from the external drive into the empty iTunes database through the iTunes import facility.
If you screw up the timing of the import and find you have multiple iTunes directories (instead of just the default location), then iTunes has a new feature to consolidate all iTunes MP3 files back into the central default location. In iTunes, FILE, LIBRARY, ORGANIZE LIBRARY, then CONSOLIDATE FILES.
To change the default directory for MP3 files, in Tunes go to EDIT, PREFERENCES, ADVANCED and then CHANGE the location to where you want the Itunes MP3 files to be located (including the iTunes subdirectory under which all the artist directories are held. Mine are on the F: drive or whatever your computer states is your drive assignment for the external drive.
Note iTunes 10.5 has many problems that Apple hopefully are working on....we seem to have gone backwards on working components in this iCloud based release. So maybe keep on using old computer until 10.6 is released.
Enjoy
Steve Mc (Sydney AUSTRALIA)

How do I combine an iTunes library on an external hard drive (laptop) with an iTunes library on an external hard drive on my PC?

How can I combine the iTunes library on an external hard drive (hooked to laptop) with the iTunes library on an external hard drive (hooked to PC) so that both external HD's and both laptop and PC have all the music on each one?

no need to create a secondary library - too troublesome, IMHO. you can spread your library over as many drives you can connect to your Mac (wired or wirelessly):
iTunes > preferences > advanced.
point iTunes media folder location to the external
on the same tab, ensure the copy files ... when adding option is checkmarked
okay out of preferences
highlight the content to be moved in iTunes and right-click
select consolidate files from the pop-up menu
wait for the process to finish
when done, you may delete the original files from your boot drive.
alternatively, you could move the whole shabang to the external HD:
copy the entire iTunes folder (not just the iTunes music or media folder) from <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music to the external, launch iTunes while holding the option(⌥) key, click on choose library when prompted, and select the iTunes folder you copied to the external.
when done, be sure to point iTunes media folder location to the external so that new additions to your library will be put there. also, you need to make sure the external is mounted on your desktop before you fire up iTunes.

Moving library to external hard drive and get the error "Copying files failed. The disk could not be read from or written to"

Hello,
I'm moving my library to an external hard drive.
I've made sure to use the 'Keep iTunes Media Folder Organized' option when pointing to the new library location.
I select 'File'->'Library'->'Organize Library', I select to 'Consolidate Files', click 'OK' and get ther error message "Copying files failed. The disk could not be read from or written to".
I've read elsewhere that there may be a corrupted file that I need to sequester somehow and perhaps add it back however I'm not certain how I can locate that file because the status window doesn't indicate which file it's attempting to transfer when the error appears.
Any tips?
Thank you,
Greg H
iTunes 10.6.3

OK I figured it out!
It was a dodgy file....I sorted the file folders by date, and as it turned out within the "compilations" folder there was a CD where only about half the tracks seemed to have been copied over. Could not have identified this simply from the time indicated on the finder folder sort, because there were several CDs copied over in the that same minute.
I went back to the original itunes folder, deleted all the files from that CD in itunes, then also deleted all those files from the original disk and the target disk.
Tried the "consolidate library" again, and it completed nicely. 200megs of music and videos.
Very happy to solve this problem after 3 weeks.

IPhoto Library moved to External Hard Drive and need help moving library

Hi - Recently I had my hard drive replaced. I purchased Disk Warrior and moved all files to my external hard drive. Now that my hard drive has been replaced, I'm having trouble moving all my photos back to iPhoto. Nearly all of my 8K+ photos are blurry after I import and enlarge. The ones that are fine have dimensions of or more than 1K x 1K. The digital photos that I moved and are blurry when enlarged are 340x360 (hundreds range). How can I correct?
Thanks so much in advance.
Audra

I think I might need to back up ---- So I had a failing hard drive, went to Apple and purchased Disk Warrior. Installed Disk Warrior and tried to recover everything from my hard drive. Then all that was recovered was supposedly moved to my external hard drive. I have now received my computer back with the new hard drive. I plug in my external hard drive and have been trying to move all my images from the external hard drive to iphoto. In both places (external HD and when the photos are imported), the image is at the lower dimensions.
Thanks for your time.

I transfered my itunes library to an external hard drive, and its accessible, but I can't burn a cd now. I need help!

I transfered all my music to an external hard drive, and changed the location in the preferences options in itunes. I can add music to the library, i can play music and make play lists, but I cannot burn a cd. What's happening, and what can i do to fix, or get around this problem?

Ok. progress...
So is your media folder called iTunes Music or iTunes Media? And does it have a folder called Music inside it?
Before going any further you should first attempt to use File > Library > Organize Library > Rearrange files in the folder "<Media Folder>" (ignore if grayed out). This will make sure that any iPod Games or Mobile Applications get placed inside the iTunes Media folder which is needed for portability.
If your iTunes Media folder is called iTunes Music, close iTunes, rename the folder as iTunes Media and start iTunes again. iTunes will automatically adjust. Close iTunes again.
On your external drive rearrange the folders that you have already copied there so that they match the layout in your active library. You should end up with a folder called X:\iTunes where X: is the external drive letter, and the media folder is X:\iTunes\iTunes Media. If the library layout was upgraded then you will need to create a Music folder inside this and move all the artist folders and Compilations into Music. You will also need to copy iPod Games and Mobile Applications from your internal drive into the new media folder. Next copy the files iTunes Library.itl, iTunes Library Extras.itdb, iTunes Library Genius.itdb, sentinel and the folder Album Artwork from the internal drive into X:\iTunes. The preceding manipulations should make the internal and external copies of your library match without you having to copy all of the media over again.
Now hold shift as you start iTunes. Click choose, browse to and open X:\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl.
Finally use File > Library > Organize Library > Consolidate files. This will ensure that any stray files that might have been added from outside your original media folder will be copied into the new one.
You can now reclaim the space used by your library on the internal drive, however before you do so I would advise you to obtain another external drive and make use of this backup tip.
tt2

Library on an external hard disk

I have my itunes music on an external hard disk and I want to install itunes on a new laptop and view the existing itunes library that is on the external hard disk.
I have installed itunes on the new laptop and changed the default location of the itunes library to the path of the external hard disk and clicked on consolidate library but it will not show the music on the external hard disk.
Is there something else I need to do to view the library?

When using ext HD's for my iTunes I find it easier to keep the iTunes Library File and .xml on the external drive.
I also re-name the library file - ie: iTunes Master Library. So I would have a path of HD>iTunes>Master Library> Then the library files, art work etc>iTunes Music which is where the music folders reside. I use the 'keep' and 'copy' features enabled in iTunes prefs.
I rename the library file to differentiate each library from another.
MJ

Hi, just updated hubby's iPhone 4 and all of his music has disappeared from the iPhone and from the iTunes library! He does have music still stored on his iPod, but can't get it from the library on his iPod back to phone or itunes. technophobe help pls!

and all of his music has disappeared from the iPhone and from the iTunes library! Luckily he does have music still stored on his iPod, but I can't get it from the library on his iPod back to the phone or to itunes.Please help, but technophobe so put it in simple english please!

Sounds like the music you had on your phone was not the same music on his computer. The iPhone/iPod touch is not designed to be a storage device. When you sync with a computer that doesn't have your music, it deletes your music from your phone.
Was this music you purchased from iTunes? if so, and you are in the US, tap on itunes app, tap updates, tap purchased and tap on the cloud icon to get each song back. If you're not int he us, get iOS5 update later this week and do the same.
But you need to move your itunes library to his computer. Create a user account on his macbook pro for you. From your external drive backup, load your itunes library on it. Then sync as usual! (Don't tell me you don't have a backup for your computer!)

How can I get my music in my itunes library on my ipad? If I sync the itunes library will I lose all my apps on my ipad?

how can I get my music in my itunes library on my ipad? If I sync the itunes library will I lose all my apps on my ipad?

Media was moved via external hard disk, and I think I moved the iTunes Media folder after consolidating it.

HT1151 I have my iTunes library on an external hard drive that was connected to a PC, now I want to connect to my new iMac and load the iTunes library onto that computer, can I do that?

I have my iTunes library on an external hard drive that was connected to a PC, now I would like to connect that hard drive my new iMac and load the iTunes library onto that computer, can I do that? Looking for a solution that keeps me from re-ripping my CD collection.

Here are the official Apple Support instructions:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
Ciao.

I have backed up all my music on an external hard drive and i was wondering is there a quick way to put it all back on itunes.

i have backed up all my music on an external hard drive and i was wondering is there a quick way to put it all back on itunes.

Hello, Gazzlaa84.
You can import your media a couple different ways. If you plan on keeping the media on the external drive, I would just direct iTunes to read the media folder on the external. Here are the steps on how to make that change.
iTunes for Windows: Moving your iTunes Media folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449
Also, here is another great resource for moving your iTunes media.
iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
Cheers,
Jason H.

I have just purchased my 1st mac and want to start my iTunes fresh. I have all my music on an external hard drive and want iTunes stored on it. How do i do this

I have just purchased my 1st Mac Mini,
I haven't imported any music yet except from purchased music.
I have 100gb of music on an external hard drive (already formatted to Mac OS Journaled.
I want my iTunes to be store on the External Hard drive, and to update my External Hard drive with new music I add to iTunes.
I also want to know the best way of adding my music on the Ext Hard drive e.g.: "add folder to library" or "import"
I plan on buying a Macbook Pro soon, and want to be able to use the same iTunes library.

Launch iTunes with the Option key held down, click on Choose Library, and specify it. If the external drive doesn't contain the iTunes database files, create a new library there and import that music.
If the library contains any rented movies, they won't play on a different computer.
(109334)

I have transfered all my library on an external hard disk and lost the itunes library files.

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for