Move Itunes media from external drive

Itunes media file located on failing external drive. Need to move time machine backup copy (on a different external drive) back to mac hd. Advice on this procedure please

Open Time Machine, find the iTunes folder you want to restore, select it, right click and select Restore to... and select /Music/ on the internal drive.

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How to move itunes media to external drive

I'm running iTunes for Windows 10.6.3.25 and have 3000+ songs in the library. I'd like to move the music files to an external hard drive, without losing the dates added, plays, genres or the directory structure. I've already made a copy of all the folders and music files to my external drive (I've called it M: for Music), but now I need to tell iTunes to look there for the music and not at my laptop's D-drive. Changing the iTunes media folder in the Edit-Preferences-Advanced tab doesn't seem to have any effect on the existing songs.
Anyone out there with tips or advice?
Thanks
H-tac

Type "move itunes library" into the search bar at the top of this page or your favorite search engine and follow the instructions.

HT1660 move iTunes library from external drive to internal drive

I had to move my iTunes library from my internal hard disk to an external one so that they could replace the recalled hard drive on my iMac. Is moving the library back to the internal drive as easy as dragging it into the Music/iTunes folder?

iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music [library] to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527 - a somewhat bewildering and not always easily understandable set of options.
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.itl file in the moved iTunes folder.

How do I move itunes to an external drive and use from there

Mid July 2010 Mini running 10.9.4, 320 gig HD, about 95 gigs left on drive and I need to add bootcamp/windows7 which will need about 90 gigs, maybe a little less for what I need to do with win7. Next problem will be figuring out how to make bootcamp work. Like how do I make a ISO out of a dmg? That's for another post. Excuse me.
What do I move to an external drive? The media folder? Do I move iTunes? Seems to me iTunes needs to be on the MacHD and it pulls media from the drive to be rendered or played. Do I drag and drop? From where? Why doesn't Apple have simple easy to understand certified answers to issues ordinary people have? Something about once "it" is moved, do you restart and then I think hold control down while starting iTunes? What about iTunes Match? Should that be off? If it is off during the change over and then after restating Match will it matter that now the media is all in a different location? Absolutely at a loss.
Can someone please shed light on this?
thanks,
tom

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) so you get a prompt to select a library, then guide it to the 'iTunes Library.itl' file in the moved iTunes folder.
If this is to a new computer and you put the copied iTunes folder in the default location of Macintosh HD > Users > *User Name* > Music then you don't even need to start with the option key held down, iTunes will automatically look for it there. (Make sure there isn't anything already in the iTunes folder there that you want to keep since you will be replacing it with the one you are moving.)
iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music [library] to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527 - a somewhat bewildering and not always easily understandable set of options.

How to move iTunes library from C-drive to D-drive

I'm a Mac guy, but my wife has a PC running XP Home & iTunes 7.1.1.5. At this point, everything works fine. I thought I'd better ask this question BEFORE I did something stupid.
I've noticed that the C-drive has most (not all) of the apps on it and is only partitioned to give 14GB, whereas the D-drive has ten times that much. The system shows me that most of the C-drive space is used (only 15% free space remaining), so I thought it'd be a good idea to move iTunes to the D-drive before she goes crazy ripping her whole CD collection. Seems silly to not use the space!
I've seen enough horror stories about people's mishaps with their iTunes Library to not take this idea lightly.
How do I keep everything on the same computer, but move the app & the Lbrary to the D-drive?? BTW, I have not yet used the "Consolidate Library" feature... is that good or bad?
Thanks in advance!
Windows XP

First of all I still don't know how to post a question. There is nothing in here that asks me to do so. Therefore I can only reply to one already asked. My problem is that I followed the instructions in iTunes which tell me how to move the files from the C Drive to another location (which happens to be my D Drive). After doing that it then tells me to drag the old files into the recycle bin, however, it won't comply and tells me that the procedure can't be performed because of copywrite protections. Where do I go from here? Or at the very least, how do I post a question in this forum the normal way?

Want to Move iTunes library to external drive & access from home & work

I want to move my Windows iTunes library to my new external drive and be able to access my music library from my work computer and my home computer. I have read some discussions here about move libraries and I have some concerns:
1. What is the best solution to the problems people reported about iTunes Helper changing the drive letter back to C: if they booted the computer without the external drive connected?
2. Can I buy music and make playlists from both computers and not run into problems?
3. Any other advice to avoid gotchas?
Thanks,
Mark

If the drive is formatted NTFS, the Mc will not write to it. You need a driver installed to write to NTFS.
Or refomrat the drive to FAT32/MSDOS and it'll work fine.
If you have the entire iTunes folder on the external, connect it to your Mac, hold Option, launch iTunes and select Choose library... and select the iTunes folder on the external.
Note that the iTunes versions need to be the same between computers.

Need to move iTunes library from external hard drive to Mac desktop.

I moved my iTunes library from my Mac desktop to an external hard drive. I needed to do this so the Apple Store could do maintenance work on my computer and I didn't want to lose my files. How do I move the iTunes library back to my Mac desktop?

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) so you get a prompt to select a library, then guide it to the 'iTunes Library.itl' file in the moved iTunes folder.
If you put the copied iTunes folder in the default location of Macintosh HD > Users > *User Name* > Music then you don't even need to start with the option key held down, iTunes will automatically look for it there. (Make sure there isn't anything already in the iTunes folder there that you want to keep since you will be replacing it with the one you are moving.)

Error when trying to move iTunes Media to external hard drive

I want to free up space on my laptop so I read this support file:
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449
I am following the directions for "Moving your iTunes Media folder" set-by-step. When I get to the step "choose Library and then Organize Library" I get an error that there is not enough room on the hard drive to copy the media files. I purchased a new Iomega eGo 250 GB for this. (My media files are only 20 GB and I only have 100 GB hard drive.) I also tried my Time Machine 500 GB drive with 300 GB free on it and got the same error. (I can copy the iTunes folders over to both drives manually but then iTunes does not see the files.)
Any thoughts? Thanks!

I can copy the iTunes folders over to both drives manually but then iTunes does not see the files.) Hold Option, launch iTunes, select *Choose library* then select the iTunes library folder you coped to the external.

ITunes Media on External drive locked, internal - okay

First I am running OSX 10.8.3 & iTunes 11.02. I have split my iTunes library being that I have ripped a significant amount of my DVD & BluRay collection. I keep the Movie & TV media on a 6TB external drive while the music on the internal 1TB drive. Recently I haven't been able to fill in any of the meta data in the 'get info' of the movie & TV files. They are greyed out. The music files on the other hand are fine and I can edit them to my hearts content. Here's a screen shot of my movies Info folder:
This is basically the same permissions as the rest of the system, internal start up drive as well. Except for my home folder and everything included (e.g. Music, Pictures, etc.) which is as follows:
It leads me to believe this as more of a permissions issue rather than an iTunes issue. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
(This permissions thing is a real downer)

Copy the iTunes Library.itl file from the old computer. iTunes can handle a change in drive letters as long as the relative paths from the database to the media is the same - typically where you have an iTunes folder (preferably in the root of the external drive) that contains both the iTunes Library.itl file and the iTunes Media folder, as follows:
See turingtest2's user tip on Make a split library portable for steps that may be necessary to bring your library into this layout.
Then, hold down SHIFT as you start iTunes, and when you see this prompt:
click on Choose Library..., navigate to the iTunes folder on your external drive, and select the iTunes Library.itl file.
Note also that the iTunes Media folder location setting in Edit > Preferences > Advanced does not provide iTunes information about the location of your library (that info is all within the database file). This setting is used, in conjunction with the Keep iTunes Media folder organized setting, to determine where iTunes stores new media when you add it to your library.
Once everything's sorted out, use a second external drive to create and maintain a backup of your library.

Moved iTunes media to external drive but...

Hello all,
I followed the instructions for moving my iTunes media folder to an external drive (it had taken up most of my mac book's memory) and at first I was able to access the DVDs and CDs I had ripped but no longer. I can go into the external drive and they are still in their respective folders but only the music and movies I have purchased from the iTunes store show up in my library. Does anyone know how to get my iTunes to accept these into my library without re-importing the into my hardrive?
Thanks much,
Nick

Which instructions? There's lots out there and some are flat wrong.
Close down iTunes. Turn on the external drive and start iTunes again. Does it work? If not try to play a track. When it asks you to find the file it should play, find that file on the external drive. It should ask if you want it to find the rest.
I suspect you have omitted details in describing the situation. Normally iTunes does not lose links to external files unless the drive is not on when iTunes is started. Even then trying to play a file will get it to do a second check and find the drive is really there. You probably have to do something such as renaming the drive, or have a completely corrupt library in order for it to lose track of the media.
Unless you have to keep only media on the external drive it is much better to keep the whole library together. Make a split library portable

Move iTunes library from external disk to internal disk

Hello,
I am currently using a Mac Mini with an external disk to store my iTunes library as well as all the media files, apps, etc. The library is managed (consolidated) by iTunes and is also organized by iTunes.
I am about to buy the new Macbook Pro and with a 1 TB drive, I wanted to move the iTunes stuff (library, media, playlists, play counts, ratings, everything) to the internal drive of the new MBP.
My questions are:
Can I do this migration (from external disk to internal disk of new Mac) as part of the Migration Assistant?
In case I can't do the above, what is the best way to do this after the new Mac has been set up?
How do I ensure that play counts, playlists, ratings, album art are preserved as I have spent considerable time setting those up?
I have 3-4 IOS devices syncing to this library. How do I ensure that when I sync them to the new computer/library, they will continue to work?
Thanks in advance.

Hi,
1. See if this support answers your query http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4889 and http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
3. Make sure complete intune folder is copied over. The Itunes Library.itl file contains all meta data.
4. Maybe someone else can make a definitive comment on this. I used migration assistant and was able to sync my ipad and ipod classic without doing anything special. I presume that it worked because both were syncing to the same library albeit on a different computer.
Jim

Access iTunes library from External drive after OS upgrade

Because of its size I have recently kept my iTunes library in the 'Media Library' on an external hard drive and accessed content from there without any problem. After upgrading to OS 10 Lion, iTunes has created a new library on my internal hard drive. Now I'm trying to re-access the old library on my external hard drive.
I have tried two things so far:
- Gone into the iTunes Advanced Preferences and changed the Media folder location to my external hard drive location. That didn't work.
- When I open iTunes holding the option key (as was suggested here) I am given the option of choosing a different library. But when I click on the iTunes folder in MediaLibrary I get the following message:
An iTunes library file could not be found in the folder "iTunes". Please choose a different folder.
All the content is there on the external drive but I'm assuming there are some .itl or /xml files missing. (I can see those as part of the new iTunes folder on the internal drive.) I have a floder named Previous iTunes Libraries on the external drive which contains some files with dates in them, two of which have the extension: .itl
Should I perhaps move those files somewhere...?
Any help is appreciated!!!
Hans

Hello there FunkyMuzak,
iTunes can be set to use the library on the external drive, and save new content.
To have iTunes open the alternate library on the drive use this option:
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.
If you are using the Mac, open iTunes and immediately hold down the Option key.
You should see one of the following screens:
From: iTunes: How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1589
And to tell iTunes to save your new media when you buy songs or movies, etc., use this part of our article named Where are my iTunes files located? found here http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
Discovering and changing the iTunes Media folder location
Note: You would usually only change the iTunes Media folder location to share music between accounts on the same computer. See this article for specific steps on how to accomplish this. Also, see this article if you want to know how to move your music to a new computer.
Mac OS X: Click the iTunes menu and choose Preferences.
Windows: Click the Edit menu and choose Preferences.
Click the Advanced pane. iTunes displays the location of your iTunes Media folder.
You can then:
Note where your media folder is, such as for backing up your media.
Use the Reset button to reset it's location to the default (which is the iTunes folder).
Click the Change button to select a folder for a new location. Once you change this location:
If you make a new or alternate iTunes library, the new location will be used by that library.
Existing files will not be moved unless you choose File > Library > Organize library and choose the option to "Consolidate files."
Cheers,
Sterling

Transfer iTunes files from external drive onto new iMac

I had all of my iTunes files on an external hard drive with an old eMac. I want to transfer the files to my brand-new iMac.
It's easy to copy the iTunes Library folder from the external drive onto the iMac hard drive, and change the preferences so that new songs are stored onto the iMac, but it doesn't change the settings for iTunes. Then, if I "Add to Library" I get two copies of everything: the file that's on the external drive PLUS the file that's on the new iMac. If I delete all of the "old" duplicates, it will mess up my playlists.
Isn't there an easy way to point iTunes to the new Library on the iMac and have it change the location setting for all of the songs?

okay, let me rephrase my question:
when you moved your files from the old Mac to the external, did you
(a) drag the entire iTunes folder from <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music to the external
or
(b) use the +consolidate files+ command to move the files to the external
if (a), connect the external to the new Mac and launch iTunes while pressing option on your keyboard. when prompted, click on +choose library+ and select the iTunes folder on the external.
if (b), copy the iTunes folder from <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music on the old Mac to <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music on the new one, overwriting the iTunes folder in place there. connect the external to your new Mac and fire up iTunes normally.
if you want to move the media files from the external to the internal disk of your new Mac, go iTunes > preferences > advanced and point +iTunes media folder location+ to the iTunes folder in <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music. also on the advanced tab, make sure there is a tick in the boxes next to +keep iTunes media folder organized+ and +copy files to ... when adding to library+.
then file > library > organize library > consolidate files. this will copy all your media files to the location you specified earlier in the advanced tab. when done, you can (if you want) erase the external and use it for other purposes. or keep the files there and use the external as your backup.
JGG

ITunes Media on external drive and moved to new PC laptop

Environment: Dell PC laptop, Window 7 32-bit, iTunes 12.1.1.4
I have all of my iTunes Media on an external hard-disk drive. I want to keep it on that drive. I have a new laptop and have connected the external drive to it. I have installed iTunes on the new laptop and in Advanced Preferences I have changed the iTunes Media folder location to E:\iTunes and I have checked the box "Keep iTunes Media Folder Organized." I have also checked the box "Copy files to iTunes media folder when adding to library."
When I open iTunes, the software does not seem to recognize the content in E:\iTunes. It does not recognize that I have already downloaded most of my purchased content (everything previously downloaded still has the little cloud icon in the bottom right corner) and it won't play anything I've already downloaded. Also, music that I have previously imported from CD's is not accessible.
I have read through some of the other support discussions and have seen situations similar to mine, but not exactly like mine. I would copy the file "iTunes Library.itl" from the old computer, but I have one concern: on the old laptop the external drive was Drive G: and on the new laptop it is Drive E:
I tried File --> Library --> Consolidate Files, but nothing happened.
I'm not sure what to do. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
Brandon

Copy the iTunes Library.itl file from the old computer. iTunes can handle a change in drive letters as long as the relative paths from the database to the media is the same - typically where you have an iTunes folder (preferably in the root of the external drive) that contains both the iTunes Library.itl file and the iTunes Media folder, as follows:
See turingtest2's user tip on Make a split library portable for steps that may be necessary to bring your library into this layout.
Then, hold down SHIFT as you start iTunes, and when you see this prompt:
click on Choose Library..., navigate to the iTunes folder on your external drive, and select the iTunes Library.itl file.
Note also that the iTunes Media folder location setting in Edit > Preferences > Advanced does not provide iTunes information about the location of your library (that info is all within the database file). This setting is used, in conjunction with the Keep iTunes Media folder organized setting, to determine where iTunes stores new media when you add it to your library.
Once everything's sorted out, use a second external drive to create and maintain a backup of your library.

Migrating iTunes, iPhoto from external drives to new iMac

We've finally decided to upgrade from our trusty Power Mac G4 tower (10.4.11) we've had since 2002 to a new 21.5-inch iMac. It arrives tomorrow.
I'm already anticipating problems migrating to the new system, tho'. The 20Gb startup disk seemed science-fiction large in 2002, but obviously we quickly ran out of space. Currently, our iPhoto library lives on a second internal SATA HD, and iTunes on an external FireWire drive.
What's going to be the best way to migrate all that stuff to the new iMac's 2Tb (science fiction numbers, again!) drive? Will the migration assistant find the iPhoto and iTunes files on those other disks?

den.thed wrote:
Open iTunes on your new iMac and go to File > Add to Library then navigate to the iTunes library on the External HD and hit the Choose button.
Do the same for iPhoto File > Add to Library while your connected to the G4.
Just for clarity's sake, you're talking about selecting the iTunes/iPhoto media folders, right? Not selecting each file individually, I hope.
And from what you're saying, it doesn't sound like Migration Assistant is going to pull anything over from my old iTunes or iPhoto settings, much less media stored on external/expansion drives, is that correct? I'll have to drag those files over via Ethernet, I imagine.

Move Itunes media from external drive

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