Is it possible to rebuild an iTunes library from the devices?

I recently got a serious virus on my computer and had to remove everything and practically rebuild the system. I forgot however (or didn't quite realise) to back up my iTunes library. I know I can reload the music I have on CDs but I am worried about all the music that I'd bought. Is there any way to retro build the library using my iPod devices (iPhone, iPod, iPod nano), i.e. transfer what is on the devices into a new iTunes library.
Many thanks for any help.

You should find this Zevoneer post useful:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=9990366#9990366

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Long story short....I restored my computer to an earlier point using time machine and now all of the previous back-ups are gone. My question has to do with itunes...is it possible to restore my itunes library to the most recent backup because the restore

Long story short....I restored my computer to an earlier point using time machine and now all of the previous back-ups are gone. My question has to do with itunes...is it possible to restore my itunes library to the most recent backup because the restore that I did was in march and the latest backup was in may....the reason being is that there were app that i had downloaded that are in my most recent back-up, that were not in the backup I restored to. Is it possible to just restore one application ie)itunes?

See this post.
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Everything is updated!! iPhone, iPad, iTunes and MacBook Pro... All I am trying to do is drag content from my iTunes Library to the devices. iTunes gets stuck EVERY single time! What usually triggers the Non-Sense is when I am adding a 2nd file!

Everything is updated!! iPhone, iPad, iTunes and MacBook Pro... All I am trying to do is drag content from my iTunes Library to the devices. iTunes gets stuck EVERY single time! What usually triggers the Non-Sense is when I am adding a 2nd file!
Why does iTunes SUCK??
1) Many items greyed out in the menu bar, for well over 2 years, maybe more!
2) I Can't drag more than one piece of content from your iTunes library to any device (iPhone, iPad)
If you do it gets stuck for HOURS and HOURS in "Preparing To Update" and the little activity circle never completes, ever!!
I used to be able to drag over 1000 tunes, movies, etc. go have breakfast come back and it would all be on my device!!
Can't do it anymore, one song at a time, maybe an album at a time, or one movie, and that is it!!
If you do a 2nd item the other items stop loading and never continue!!
This is so BAD, I don't understand how they don't have this fixed yet!!
Please tell me I am not the only one!!
...and If I am tell me how to fix it!
Very appreciated,
Joe

Everything is updated!! iPhone, iPad, iTunes and MacBook Pro... All I am trying to do is drag content from my iTunes Library to the devices. iTunes gets stuck EVERY single time! What usually triggers the Non-Sense is when I am adding a 2nd file!
Why does iTunes SUCK??
1) Many items greyed out in the menu bar, for well over 2 years, maybe more!
2) I Can't drag more than one piece of content from your iTunes library to any device (iPhone, iPad)
If you do it gets stuck for HOURS and HOURS in "Preparing To Update" and the little activity circle never completes, ever!!
I used to be able to drag over 1000 tunes, movies, etc. go have breakfast come back and it would all be on my device!!
Can't do it anymore, one song at a time, maybe an album at a time, or one movie, and that is it!!
If you do a 2nd item the other items stop loading and never continue!!
This is so BAD, I don't understand how they don't have this fixed yet!!
Please tell me I am not the only one!!
...and If I am tell me how to fix it!
Very appreciated,
Joe

HT1751 i bought a new, larger external hard drive. copied my itunes library from the old drive to the new one, changed the libarary location in Edit/Preferences/Advanced to the new drive. iTunes will not start or run unless old hard drive plugged in.??

I bought a new, larger external hard drive. I have my iTunes library on the external drive instead of C: drive, Using Windows 7.
I copied my itunes library from the old drive to the new one, changed the libarary location in Edit/Preferences/Advanced to the new drive.
iTunes will not start or run unless the old hard drive is plugged in.
If I disconnect the old drive iTunes shuts down.
Any ideas. ??

Hello kskip,
Thank you for providing so much information about what is going on. It sounds like you have setup iTunes to save new content to your new external hard drive in iTunes>Preferences, but it sounds like iTunes is not opening iTunes Library.itl file on the new external drive. You have one last step to take to have iTunes point to your new external hard drive rather than your old one:
Steps to create or choose a different iTunes Library file
If iTunes is running, quit iTunes.
If you are using Windows, hold down the Shift key and from the Start menu and choose All Programs > iTunes > iTunes.
You should see the following screen:
Additional information
If you do not see the screen above, then you did not hold the correct key at the correct time. You may want to try again. Note that if you pinned iTunes to the Start menu programs, and open it that way, it may not work.
Once you select "Choose Library," you will need to navigate to the iTunes Library.itl file on your new external drive.
You can find the full article here:
iTunes: How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1589
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Sheila M.

I'm moving to an imac from a PC. I want to move my itunes library from the PC to my new imac. What is the best method and where can I find instructions?

I'm moving to an imac from a PC. I want to move my itunes library from the PC to my new imac. What is the best method and where can I find instructions?

Move iTunes from PC to MAC, http://www.macworld.com/article/146958/2010/03/move_itunes_windows_mac.html

How do you access your itunes library from the icloud on your ipad

How do you access your itunes library from the icloud on your ipad?

You have asked two different questions?
Your account is just a user name and password. You can access that to buy content from any computer with itunes, just sign it.
Your library wil only be where your put it. Yo can copy it from one computer to another, or from your backup copy of your computer ot another computer. In some countries you can download some past itunes purchases.
Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store

How to move an iTunes library from the internal hard drive to another bootable disk.

         I got two Mac OS X installations on my i Mac system. One on the internal hard drive (320 Gb), that has been there since the iMac was bought 3 years ago, upgraded to Lion on 2 August. (call that INT) . I have a USB external drive, and recently bought a firewire Lacie external drive (2Tb), so to boot from there when I can, with hard drive space getting tight this year. I successfully installed another copy of Lion on LACIE.
         Then I went to work to transfer my iTunes library, which the media files were optioned to store on the USB drive. Intending to transfer both the music and video files, and the megadata ( playlists, ratings, playcounts ) I found the media files and the iTunes library file and the .xml document in my iTunes folder from INT. I made a new folder in the USB drive, and copied the contents from the old iTunes folder to that new folder. I re-started in LACIE, and found my empty iTunes folder. I copied over to the new iTunes folder, then opened iTunes. My eyes saw the music library to the same number of items, with the playlists etc showing.
        However, I tried to sync an iPod Nano, and a window came up saying 100 songs could not be copied to the iPod because they could not be found. After ejecting the iPod I tried to play a song from iTunes, and the screen filled with exclamation points. A small window came up, asking for a password to open "sparsebundle" and my name. I entered my password for the administrator's log-in and it said try again with the password. Without knowing what password to put in, I clicked Cancel, and got another small window asking to locate the file. Then clicked Cancel again, not knowing where to search. All the media folders were showing after quitting iTunes and opening Finder .
      I re-booted into INT, and opened iTunes. The library was still there. I synced my iPod again, ejected it, played 3 songs on the iPod, synced again, ejected it again, and opened the playlist "Recently Played". It showed up okay with no problems. So my iTunes library in INT is alright.
      Has anyone got any idea how to make the transfer into LACIE and get it running alright, or what went wrong with what I did ?
      In the meantime I will empty my LACIE iTunes library folder's contents to the trash, and securily empty the trash .

Solved the issue without using the trash . I tried to consolidate the library in LACIE, then clicked on any exclamation-mark song and tried to locate the file. Repeating those steps 3 or 4 times cleared it up. That was confirmed when I synced the entire library on a iPod Classic, and showed up no problems after syncing the Nano.
     What went wrong was perhaps to fail to consolidate the library at first .

I am a first-time mac user. I recently purchased the MacBook Air. My previous computer was an HP laptop, but I would like to move my iTunes library from the hp to the MacBook Air. How do I do this?

I don't know how to transfer my itunes library from one computer to another. Please help!

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 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 (shift on Windows) key held down and guide it to the new location of the library.

How can i transfer my iTunes library from the iPod Touch to my new Windows 7 computer?

My old computer died and I need to move the iTunes library from my iPod Touch to the new Windows 7 computer - how can I do that?

Try this post.
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How do i restory my entire itunes library from the hard drive of a new laptop to itunes?

I recently got a new laptop and would like to transfer my itunes from the old to the new. I backed up the itunes library to an external hard drive, and have transferred it to the hard drive of the new laptop (I haven't deleted the library from the old laptop). I am operating on windows. I am now stuck and can't seem to restore my entire itunes library to itunes. The items purchased from the itunes store are in the library on the new laptop, but the rest of my music is not. How do I restore it to my itunes library? I have tried opening itunes while holding down shift and selecting "choose library" option, but when I select the itunes folder, it doesn't appear in the library.
help?!

Hello ggjsa,
Congratulations on your new laptop! I understand that you have copied your old iTunes Library to your new computer, but you are still not seeing the music. I recommend reviewing Part 5 in the section titled "External drive" in the following article:
iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4527
If you are still having trouble transferring the library using this method, you may want to try using the Home Sharing method in the article.
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Sheila M.

HT2291 I installed Itunes on mu laptop.I down;oaded some music. The hard drive on that computer crashed. How do i get my Itunes library from the other computer to put on my new computer?

How do i get my Itunes library from my crashed hard drive to put on my new computer? The old computer had Windows Vista and the new computer has Windows 8.

It will only be where you put it.
It has always been very basic to always maintain a backup copy of your computer for just such an occasion. Use your backup copy to put everything back.
If for some reason you have failed to backup ( not good), then you can transfer itunes purchases from an ipod. File>Transfer Purchases.

How, if it's possible, to move an itunes library from a pc to a mac using an ipad, How, if it's possible, to move an itunes library from a pc to a mac using an ipad

I just bought a macbook pro, and im running a pc with the latest version of itunes and im needing to know if its possible to tranfser music libraries using an ipad or ipod touch.

So, what I have done so far to try to achieve this is:
I have my Windows PC with it's NTFS formatted external HDD containing the music etc.
I have my Mac with a new external HDD formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
On the Windows PC:
* I opened up iTunes.
* Went into Preferences, and then under the Advanced tab I checked both 'Keep iTunes Media Folder Organised' and 'Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library', so that all the files would be in the main iTunes Media folder when I copy it over.
* Then File, Library, Organise Library and ticked the 'Consolidate Files' so that it moves any files that aren't in the right folder.
Next I copied the files over. So I copied the updated media folder from the NTFS (Windows) external HDD onto the Mac external HDD.
And I copied the files from in My Documents/Music/iTunes on the Windows PC to User/Music on the Mac.
But this doesn't seem to have done it.

Is it possible to run my iTunes library from an external hard drive?

As of right now my iTunes library is rapidly out growing my mac's capacity i have 120GB hard drive and am now down to about 20GB of storage due to my ever so growing iTunes library. Is it possible to transfer my entire library and run it off an external hard drive so i can free up space on my mac?

Hi Tnarduzzi,
I just bought a new imac (after having my old G4 Mirror door finally give out), and I am looking to access my music folder from an external HD to this new computer.
I have already set my preferences in the iTunes advanced tab to select the external drive and folder as my "itunes library" but nothing in my music folder appeared when I did that.
I've done as you listed below (to choose library) but when I chose the library, it said "An itunes library file could not be found in folder..."
The folder I am trying to access is an iTunes Library I once had on my internal hd, but moved to an external drive.
What seems to work is going to Edit and then clicking "add to library." Is this another correct way to access my music from the external drive, while keeping all changes (ie addition and changes to library) off the internal drive?
Are updates, addition, etc really going to the external, or am I working with two different libraries (external and internal) but I don't know it?
Looking forward to hearing from you or anyone who can shed light for me.
Thanks!

Possible to access your iTunes library from iPod with Homesharing ?

I have many movies in the library. Is it possible to access them from my iPod ( on the same network at home ) just using home sharing ?

Yes, although it depends a bit on how your library is organised. If everything is in the iTunes standard folders, libraries are in ...My Documents\My Music\iTunes and all the media in ...My Documents\My Music\iTunes Music then you can share the main iTunes folder over your network. Install iTunes on the laptop, then hold shift immediately after clicking on the iTunes shortcut to get the option to choose or create a new library. Navigate to your network share and open the iTunes Library.itl file. Don't try to access the library from two machines at the same time.
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HT1349 Is there anyway possible to retrieve your Itunes Library from crashed computer

We had a computer that crashed around Christmas time. We had put SO much in our Itunes library and now we have to start all over again. Is there a way to retrieve that Itunes library and successfully import it to our new computer?

Yes, although it depends a bit on how your library is organised. If everything is in the iTunes standard folders, libraries are in ...My Documents\My Music\iTunes and all the media in ...My Documents\My Music\iTunes Music then you can share the main iTunes folder over your network. Install iTunes on the laptop, then hold shift immediately after clicking on the iTunes shortcut to get the option to choose or create a new library. Navigate to your network share and open the iTunes Library.itl file. Don't try to access the library from two machines at the same time.
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Is it possible to rebuild an iTunes library from the devices?

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