Importing iTunes Library from an external harddrive

Recently, I had to delete the operating system on my computer because I accidentally deleted a software application that could not be reinstalled individually. So before I reinstalled my operating system, I had to backup all the data on my computer. In particular, I put my whole iTunes Library on an external hard drive and I imported the folder into my Applications file. I have not figured out how to import the folder to my new iTunes library. When I want to listen to a song, I usually just go to the folder and click on the song and then it plays in my iTunes. Since I have like 1500 songs, I do not have the time to click on each song to import it into my library. How do I import the whole music folder into my iTunes library?

Hey mate,
Try this:
Close iTunes, then copy your backup iTunes Music folder to ~/Music, where '~' represents your home folder. Open the iTunes Library file within that folder, that should reopen iTunes, and your library should appear.
Hope this helps!
Brendan

Similar Messages

Migrating my Itunes Library from An External Harddrive to a NAS

I have a 20" IMAC and currently store my 350 GB Itunes library with roughly 6400 tracks on a 1 TB external Harddrive. I just purchased a 5 TB Network Attached Server that is attached to my wireless network. What is the best and fastest way to migrate my Itunes library from my external harddrive to my NAS? I am concerned that if I do it over my wireless connection it will take forever. I am also concerned that Itunes will get confused in trying to locate the files on the NAS. I have successfully used the consolidate library function in the past but am worried that it will not work with a NAS over a wireless connection. Should I try using a direct ethernet connection with the NAS hooked directly into my IMAC and then re-connect the NAS to my router? I would appreciate any advice. Thanks.

Please don't repost the same thread
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=7786712#7786712

Import iTunes library from an external HD to a new Mac

I just got a new macbook and am trying to import my itunes library from my external hard drive. I tried to just select my library on the external HD in the advanced tab, but my list of songs and ratings is not being imported into the software. I selected my xml file and my playlists showed up but not songs
How do I accomplish this?
Thanks,
Jason

I just ran into this, too, when my Mac Mini died. I assume you're taking the data (songs) off of your old hard drive? Maybe with an external enclosure wrapped around it? Here's what I did:
1. Open your Mac's main hard disc, where your iTunes resides. (By "open" I mean "double click on.") 2. Open "Users". 3. Open your user name, whatever you sign into the computer with (if you don't know, it's NOT "Shared"). 4. Open the "Music" folder. 5. Open the "iTunes" folder. 6. Scoot this window off to one side of your screen, and go to your old hard disc, where your music is, and repeat steps 1 through 5. 7. Now drag all of the folders you see on your old hard disc's same window over to your new hard disc's open window. They should be: a folder labeled Album Artwork, iTunes Library, another folder labeled iTunes music (that's where your music is!), and iTunes Library.xml. You might also have additional things like "iTunes Music Library (2)" and a folder labeled Previous iTunes Libraries. Drag them over too! IMPORTANT: you'll get a message saying "This folder already contains a newer version..." etc. "...do you want to replace?" Of course you do! - you're filling up a newly formatted disc, right? Say "yes" each time. You'll know you got it right because it'll take a long time for the iTunes Music folder to copy over, since that's where all the data is. When you start up iTunes afterwards, all your settings should be exactly like they were before! Enjoy!
PowerMac G5 1.6 Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Importing iTunes library from an external hard drive backup

Hi,
I would like to know how I can import my iTunes library from a backup on a external hard drive?
If that's possible, I would like to keep organisation of files, playlists, iphone settings...
I had a crash with my previous computer and I would like to keep all iTunes settings as before.
There might be already a subject about this but I did not found it.
Thank you for your help,
Simon

In Preferences/Advanced/General point iTunes to the folder on your external hard drive.
Check Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library. This will put all new additions on your external hard drive.
Now click File/Add to Library and point to the folder on the external hard drive. With 200 GB's of music you will think iTunes has frozen,. It hasn't. It will take several minutes to process everything.
Tracy

How move my itunes library from old external harddrive to a new bigger external harddrive

i have my itunes library on an external hard drive but now i want to move the itunes library over to a new bigger external hard drive . i just got a new imac and I want to keep my music and movies content on off my imac. I finally just got my imac itunes to recognize the old external hard drive but now I want to move to the new 2tb harddrive. Any help would be appreciated

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Import iTunes Library from External Drive to New Computer with Vista

I can't seem to "import" my entire iTunes library from my external hard drive to my new computer. However, I can import songs one-by-one. There must be a way to transfer the whole file at once but it is beyond me. Anyone have a solution?

Hi I am new and have found a way to import Files & Folders over my home network and or other drives.
Start in File, click "Add File to Library", or "Add Folder to Library". In the “look in” dropdown window, locate the File or folder and double click on it. It should begin to transfer. I have never transferred an enter library though.
On a personal note,
I have come to realize that I can only transfer iTunes music. I can not transfer or even find the music that I have installed from a CD into my iTunes library. iTunes dose recognize even the folder that such music is in. If any of you have an answer to this problem let me know.
Thanks

HT1751 Hi, I tried to restore my itunes library from an external drive and did everything that's written here step by step.when I chose the itunes library to import itunes just said that its accessing the itunes store but nothung happened. I'm working on

Hi, I tried to restore my itunes library from an external drive and did everything that's written here step by step. when I chose the itunes library to import itunes just said that its accessing the itunes store but nothing happened. Does anyone know how to do this so that all my playlists are also imported and not just the music itself?

When I have done this, all I did was network the two machines and copy the contents of the iTunes folder to the other machine, and that's it.
My understanding (which may not be 100% correct) is that the one file that is absolutely necessary is iTunes Library, and that the XML file is actually a copy auto-generated from the iTunes Library, appearing in a different format only for non-iTunes apps that take advantage of the iTunes Library data.
As far as I know, if you simply have the Library (database) file and all your original music files, iTunes on that computer should operate as it did on your old computer. I believe that the Album Artwork, Genius Data, and XML files can be regenerated from the Library file. Not sure about the Extras file.

HT1473 How do I import my library from an external drive to Itunes quickly

How do I import my library from an external drive to my Itunes on my computer quickly? When I pull up ITunes, I only show Add File to Library and so I would have to manually add each file one by one, isn't there a faster way? In the old Itunes there used to be Import Library?

Press ALT or CTRL+B to display the menu bar. This gives access to File > Add Folder to Library.
If the external drive contains a complete self-contained iTunes library that you want to open, press and hold down shift as you launch iTunes and keep holding until prompted to choose or create a library. Click choose and browse to the iTunes Library.itl file on the external drive.
If you have devices that sync with your previous iTunes library either open the copy on the external as above, or copy the entire iTunes folder into your internal drive and keep the external as a backup.
tt2

How do I move an iTunes library from one external drive to another?

I need to move my iTunes library from one external disk to another, because the original disk is about to fail. So, I went into iTunes Perferences --> Advanced, and set the library to a new, empty folder on the new drive.
Nothing changed. I expected all my music to vanish from iTunes, so that I would have to re-import it. However, all the music remained, still on the old disk. At this point, if I were to recreate the library on the new disk, I would have all of my music twice.
Is it possible to move an iTunes library from one external drive to another, or am I stuck with my original choice until I buy a new machine? If I can move it, can one of you clever folks explain how it could be done?

Paul Seymour1 wrote:
However, those are all dealing with old versions of iTunes that still contained the Advanced --> Consolidate Library command which is no longer part of the app. (I'm on iTunes 10.6.1.)
Consolidate is still part of iTunes.
It is in iTunes menu File > Library > Manage library > Consolidate.
The article you linked to is old and it is (and was) a hacky way of doing it.
Just copy the entire /Music/iTunes/ folder to new location, hold Option (Mac) or Shift (Windows) when launching iTunes.

How do i import my library from an external hard drive. Exported it as had to wipe pc and reinstal windows but when i try to import nothing happens

How do i import my library from an external hard drive. Had to export it as had to reinstal windows due to a conflict between windows and i-tunes. Wen i try to import nothing happens despite selecting the file. Can you import from an i-phone to i-tunes?

What do you mean bye exported the library?
There is nothing to export or import.
The correct process to backup the iTunes library would be to copy the ENTIRE iTunes folder from the computer to the external drive.

I transferred my iTunes library from one external hard drive to another and added more music on the same day. How do I get rid of my duplicate files without going through them one by one which would take forever?

Please help. I have transferred my iTunes library from one external hard drive to another plus added additional music now I have duplicates of the same music in many albums. How do I delete the duplicates without going through them one by one which would take forever? I understand how to get the "show exact duplicate" feature up on iTunes but, because they were added to the library on the exact day I can't seperate them I'm that manner. So each duplicate is right next to eachother in the exact duplicate screen.

My DeDuper script is designed to help clean up. See this thread for background.
tt2

How do I move my iTunes library from my external hard drive back to my computer?

Just wondering how do I move my entire iTunes library from my external hard drive back to my computer? It was moved to an external hard drive a few years ago, and now I'm wondering how to move it back to my iMac to increase performance.
Where does it belong in the computer?
Any suggestions?

The library itself is the /Home/Music/iTunes/ folder in its entirety. Did you also change where preference files were stored? Normally, they would be in the /Home/Library/Preferences/ folder.

How do I transfer/copy my itunes library from 1 external hard drive to another one?

How can i transfer/copy my itunes library from 1 external hard drive to another one?

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449

Using my iTunes library from an external hard drive to a brand new Macbook.

This seems to be such a simple thing to be able to do but I'm fearing it's not. Basically I've had an iMac for 3 years and during that time have built up around 165gb in my iTunes folder. So I learnt off the net how to move my library onto an external hard drive so that I can free up the space on my iMac and play my iTunes library from the external drive. So far so good. My iPhone 4 is obviously connected to my iMac and thats how I get my media on and off the phone. Here's where my problems begin.
I've just bought a Macbook Pro. Its obviously empty and has no media on it. I have paired my iPhone 4 with the new Macbook but obviously the iTunes library on my new Macbook is empty. I downloaded a couple of podcasts onto my new machine and tried to put them onto my phone but got a message saying that the podcasts I currently have on my phone (that are on there from my iMac iTunes library) were going to be deleted and the new ones would be put on. Still with me? So, if I could get my original 165gb library thats now on my external hard drive to be seen on my new Macbook that would possibly solve my problems. But I cant see a simple way of doing this. I've pointed the iTunes Media Location folder in the preferences on my new Macbook to the same folder on my external hard drive as is on my iMac but iTunes on my Macbook is not showing up my library. Do I really have to open every album into iTunes on my Macbook seperately? It seems such a stupid, laborious way of doing it. As if you cant have two Apple computers and run one iTunes library off an external hard drive so that its the same on both machines.
Help!
Message was edited by: Eels290776

Eels290776 wrote:
if my external hard drive is not connected to either of my machines, and I download something onto my iMac and then something different onto my Macbook, where are my machines going to be storing the new downloaded media
when the drive is not connected, +iTunes media folder location+ will default back to <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music/iTunes/iTunes music (or media)
and when I next connect the external hard drive how will I easily get the newly downloaded media onto the external HD
you'd have to point +iTunes media folder location+ back to the external via preferences > advanced > iTunes media folder location, then file > library, organize library > consolidate files
and essentially, to have it easily readable on both machines?
in that case it might be best to copy the entire iTunes folder to the external. then, on each machine, launch iTunes while pressing option on your keyboard. when prompted, click on +choose library+ and navigate to the iTunes folder on the external.
note only one iTunes can access the iTunes library @ a time !
also, make sure the external is mounted on either machine before launching iTunes.
JGG

HT1386 I have a new computer. I have copied Itunes library from an external hard drive. Itunes now tells me I cannot sync with my Ipod as it thinks the 20gb on the computer are different to the 20gb on my Ipod touch! What have I done wrong? How can I fix

I have a new computer. I have copied Itunes library from an external hard drive. Itunes now tells me I cannot sync with my Ipod as it thinks the 20gb on the computer are different to the 20gb on my Ipod touch! What have I done wrong? How can I fix it? Alan

See:
Syncing to a "New" Computer or replacing a "crashed" Hard Drive: Apple Support Communities
Sync Your iOS Device with a New Computer Without Losing Data - How-To Geek

Importing iTunes Library from an external harddrive

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for