Laptop keeps losing entire itunes library

please help...moved entire library from xp desktop to an external hard drive, downloaded latest version of itunes from apple then copied library on to new vista laptop. all loads okay, ipod syncs okish but after syncing it then loses all my music,playlists etc... what have i done wrong? please reply in non techo speak as you can gather im not clued up with computers!!! allo advice welcome!!!

I use Windows XP, which is a little different to your Vista, but on your computer, if you look in *My Computer* you should see the "local disk: (C:)", and some other Disks, maybe D and E. When the iPod is plugged in, even if iTunes is handling it, it should appear as another "device with removable storage". It was that letter I meant. However...
I've just re-read your first post and I think I may have misunderstood you, so let's start again. In that post, you say
all loads okay, ipod syncs okish but after syncing it then loses all my music,playlists etc...
If it lost all the music after syncing, I would not call that an okay load or even an okayish sync.
Connect the iPod to your computer; let iTunes see it and perform a Sync. Do not disconnect it.
At the top of the iTunes Window, in the pale coloured box it should say *iPod sync is complete - OK to disconnect.* Don't! On the left hand side of your iTunes, click on the "iPod name" under Devices. Do you see the Summary screen? At the bottom of the Summary screen is the Capacity bar. How much audio is listed in GB and how much Other is listed?
Also, look in the iTunes Library, under Music. Do any (or all) of the songs have an exclamation mark to the left of the title?
So, Heathrow eh? Are you doing a Tom Hanks, living in the airport? I hope not, for your sake.

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Apple TV keeps losing my Itunes library

I go to watch Apple TV and it says there is no library available when I try to access it. The only solution is to unplug the Apple TV. After that, works fine, but this keeps happending. Clearly there's no network issue as I don't need to do anything to do with my router or my Imac. I have the Apple TV hooked up by ethernet cable as well. Any idea what's going on?

I have the exact same problem.
Can't figure out why, it will work fine with all other functions... but when I go to my library it says there is not one available.
Need help here too.
MV

My laptop is about to die. Can I store store my entire itunes library in icloud, then access it when I get a new computer?

My laptop is about to die. Can I store my entire itunes library in icloud, then access it when I get a new computer?

That will take ages, buy an external drive (or a large enough flash drive) and copy it there, do it soon.

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.

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!

How do i email or upload my entire itunes library so i can put it on a diff

how do i email or upload my entire itunes library so i can put it on my laptop!
im getin ready 4 a party and realised i need music to be moved on2 my laptop!!
iv tries to email it but file attatching only allows one song a time and id b years doin dat!
any ideas! asap
thanx holly

Holly:
I'm assuming that you have your iTunes library on a desktop machine and want to move your songs to your laptop. You have a couple of choices. If your library is small, you can create a backup copy onto a Data CD then copy the CD's contents onto your laptop.
1) Go to Preferences, select the Burning tab, click on the Data CD option.
2) Create a new playlist and copy the contents of the library to this new playlist.
3) Right-click on the new playlist and select Burn Playlist to disc
4) Launch iTunes on your laptop
4) Once the CDs are burned on your desktop, take them over to the laptop and copy them into your iTunes Music folder on the laptop
5). Launch iTunes on your laptop and drag the tracks from the iTunes Music folder onto iTunes.
If your library is not so small (ie, it won't fit on just a couple of data CDs)
If your ipod is less than half full, you can use it to quickly transfer the songs:
On your desktop:
1) Launch iTunes and go to Edit ... Preferences. Leave the window open
2) Plug in your iPod to the desktop machine
3) Once its active on your desktop, open My Computer and you will see your iPod mounted as a "Removable Disk". Open this icon up and you will see several folders such as "Calendars", "Contacts", etc. Right-click within this window and select New ... folder to create a new folder on your iPod
4) Open that new folder up
5) Go to your iTunes Music folder and copy its contents into the new folder you created above.
6) Once completed, go to iTunes and cancel out of the Preferences window. Your iPod will update and then will dismount. (If you've changed your setting to keep the iPod mounted at all times, then you will need to right-click on your iPod entry to eject it.)
Go over to your laptop and do the following:
1) Launch iTunes and go to Edit ... Preferences. Leave the window open
2) Plug in your iPod to the laptop
3) Once its active on your desktop, open My Computer and you will see your iPod mounted as a "Removable Disk". Open this icon up and you will see the new folder you just created above
4) Open that new folder up and copy all your tracks to the iTunes Music folder on your laptop
5) Cancel out of the preferences window. Your iPod should unmount.
6) With iTunes open on your laptop, click on Library.
7) Go to the folder on your laptop that contains all your songs, select all your tracks and drag them into iTunes.

Somehow my entire itunes library got deleted ... I have the old ipod nano, which does not connect with iCloud so it has all been saved there, BUT .. I cannot load all my music that I put on and I no longer have the cd's PLEASE HELP!!!!

PLEASE HELP!!! Somehow my entire iTunes library got deleted, and I cannot sync all my music that I put on from cd's (which I no longer have). All the purchased music has been synced, but nothing else! All my other devices are synced with iCloud and lost the material as well ... I am so frustrated, because the nano has not been working properly, and I am afraid of losing it forever, and of course the cd's I backed everything with are MIA!!!! GRRR! Please HELP!!!
Thank you so much!

I can't tell from your post what you have and what you don't have. Are you saying the files are no longer on your computer, no longer on your iPod, or both?

New MacBook pro how do I add external hard drive which has my entire iTunes library on it. Do I just drag external drive icon into iTunes preference box that shows where new itunes library is now located ie. On the MacBook pro.

how do I add external hard drive which contains my entire iTunes library to new MacBook Pro. i want to keep iTunes library on external hard drive. But I want all my iTunes information: artist, songs, albums, playlists on my new MacBook Pro. I know about going to iTunes preferences- advanced-itunes media folder location. At this point I don't know what to do Do I drag external icon into iTunes media folder location box. I want to keep music files on external hard drive. I don't want to use macbook pro memory for my very large music files.

I will request that your query be relocated to the iPhoto forum where knowledgeable iPhoto users will be able to assist you.
Ciao.

I keep losing entire events in iPhoto on my iMac. Where an event was, there is a light gray event box displaying a dark gray palm tree and when I hover my cursor over the box, it shows 0 photos are there, where there were once photos.

I keep losing entire events in iPhoto on my iMac. Where an event was, there is a light gray event box displaying a dark gray palm tree and when I hover my cursor over the box, it shows 0 photos are there, where there were once photos. I am operating a 27 inch iMac running OS X 10.9.4. It has a 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5 processor, and its memory is 4GB 1333 MHz DDR3. Is there any way to retrieve the lost photos?

WHat version if iPhoto? Where is your iPhoto library located?
TRy
BAckup your iPhoto library, depress and hold the option and command keys while launching iPhoto until the first aid window comes up and repair permissions and if necessary rebuild your database
LN
Edit

Is this legal? (Copying Entire iTunes Library)

Hi
I know how to do it, but want to know if this is legal. I'm going on a long haul flight next week and want to copy my entire itunes library to my Macbook Pro then delete all the music and just keep the TV Shows and Movies for watching on route, is this legal?
Thanks

Hello there,
So you are talking about just moving your library over to a new computer? If so, then yes, it is legal. Nothing wrong with that. People do it all the time.
As long as you aren't copying it to somebody else's computer for them to have or keep.
B-rock

Can't sync entire iTunes library to AppleTV

I have a first-generation Apple TV, and I've been using it mostly as a music server-- I keep all of the music in my iTunes library (about 40GB worth) on the Apple TV, and when I want to listen to music, I can just use the Remote application on my iPad to pick the music I want to listen to.
Recently I discovered that all of my songs weren't actually on the Apple TV anymore-- it appears that only the ones I have checked in iTunes are on the AppleTV. I have manual sync turned on in iTunes, and I have the sync settings for music set to "entire library." There isn't a setting in iTunes that says whether to sync everything or just the checked items. Is there a way to get it to sync my entire iTunes library to the Apple TV? Is this something that changed in some recent version of iTunes?
I know I can stream songs from my Mac to the Apple TV, but I don't have my Mac powered up all the time, and I don't really want to start doing this, especially since there's ample hard disk space on the Apple TV to store everything.
Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks a lot...
--Rich

Welcome to the Apple Community.
There isn't a setting in iTunes that says whether to sync everything or just the checked items. Is there a way to get it to sync my entire iTunes library to the Apple TV? Is this something that changed in some recent version of iTunes?
That's what the checkboxes are for, they need to be checked before the Apple TV will either sync or stream that particular content. It's always been that way

How do I back up the songs from my entire itunes library (plus extra)?

I want to update my iTunes from iTunes 7 to iTunes 8. And I want to back up my entire iTunes library first (just in case some crap goes down, lol), but I don't want to just back up the songs without all the information that comes along with it (Date Added, Rating, etc.). Is there a way I could do that? Thanks in advance.

Consolidating pulls in copies of any files that are outside the iTunes Music folder. It's up to you where you store your music but if it's outside the iTunes Music folder then this approach may cause problems. If you want to back up your library then backup everything. There are two approaches - one is to copy everything exactly as it's laid out now to a new location from where you could pick & choose what to copy back in the event of a disaster. The other is to use iTunes built-in backup program, or that of a 3rd party, to backup to DVD or files in some proprietry format and hope you can restore them when the time comes.
I use SyncToy 2.0, a free tool from MS. Copy your entire iTunes folder & any other media folders onto another hard drive or network share. After making your initial backup copy use SyncToy to periodically synchronise or echo your library to the backup. A preview will show which files need to be updated giving you a chance to spot unexpected changes and during the run only the changed files will be copied saving lots of time.
If you do keep all your Music inside the *iTunes\iTunes Music* folder then, as a bonus, a library backed up in this fashion can also be opened and tested using the "Hold down SHIFT while launching iTunes" feature which lets you choose a new library.
If you are only interested in backing up the organisational part of the library, so you could roll back after upgrading for example, copy all of the main iTunes folder and it's subfolders, except for *iTunes Music*, to your backup location.
tt2

HT4972 I am unsure of this update. Do you recommend putting my entire itunes library onto a separate hard drive while i do the latest update? I was told everything in my itunes library as well as my ipod touch would be lost if i do the latest update. Plea

Im unsure of this update. Do you recommend putting my entire itunes library on a separate hard drive while i do this update? I was told everthing in my itunes library as well as my ipod touch would be lost if i update it. Please help.

Who told you that?
I would stop listen to him if he is providing that kind of advice.
Allan

My iTunes won't open! It keeps saying 'The iTunes Library.itl is locked on a locked disk or you not have write permission for this file.' Please Help!

My iTunes won't open! It keeps saying 'The iTunes Library.itl is locked on a locked disk or you not have write permission for this file.' Please Help!

this may happen on external drives if:
The external drive was hotpluged (removed) without going the correct "eject" way
The iTunes library (database) got corrupted
First Aid for external drive
Close iTunes
Unmount (eject) external drive the right way.
Mount drive again
Go to Workplace -> right click external drive -> choose "clean up" This will force the filesystem to rescan the file structure of the drive and rebuilding the file system table and journaling file.
After the tool shows "done" (could last some time depending on size of drive) restart iTunes
If your iTunes library is on your internal drive, this may happen
The system was not shoot down correct, e.g. "pulled the plug"
The iTunes library (database) got corrupted
First Aid for internal hard drive
Close iTunes
Reboot system
Go to Workplace -> right click external drive -> choose "clean up"
After the tool shows "done" (could last some time depending on size of drive)
Reboot system, restart iTunes
If none of the above fixes your problem, post here.
Lupunus

How do I remove entire iTunes library that has duplicated itself in each individual playlist???

Hi,
Further to my previous posting yesterday I have somehow miraculously managed to find and restore my playlist folders (although some of my playlists that I created are missing tracks for some reason - any suggestions???).
However, as happy as I am, when I click on the folder heading for each playlist eg. ADELE it drops down the playlist I have for each albumie. 19, 21 but the folder itself shows my entire iTunes library. Bizarre! Any suggestion as to how I remove the library from each individual folder?
I have added a new folder and re-named > dragged playlists into it and then deleted the old one with the entire library in, but taking into account I have a huge iTunes library it will take me hours to do this for all of my folders.
Help much appreciated! ;-))

And do I take it that the actually playlist, e.g. THE E.N.D. only shows the tracks of that album? Anyway, something has gone horribly wrong.
The easiest way to resolve this might be to go back to an earlier build of your iTunes library and then bring it up to date with any recently added content, like this:
Empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash
Hopefully it's not been too long since you last upgraded iTunes, in fact if you get an empty/incomplete library immediately after upgrading then with the following steps you shouldn't lose a thing or need to do any further housekeeping. In the Previous iTunes Libraries folder should be a number of dated iTunes Library files. Take the most recent of these and copy it into the iTunes folder. Rename iTunes Library.itl as iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl and then rename the restored file as iTunes Library.itl. Start iTunes. Should all be good, bar any recent additions to or deletions from your library.
See iTunes Folder Watch for a tool to catch up with any changes since the backup file was created.
When you get it all working make a backup!
I would add that you probably have too many playlists. The column browser provides a way to quickly locate, for example, all tracks by an artist, in a certain genre, or specific albums. Creating multiple playlist folders for artists, with playlists for their albums, is overkill. Playlists are best used to create lists or selections that can't be pulled out easily from the Column Browser.
tt2

Laptop keeps losing entire itunes library

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