Moving iTunes from external hard drive to new iMac

I will be receiving a new iMac soon. Currently my iTunes is on an external hard drive.
What are the steps I take to move the iTunes from my external hard drive to my new iMac's hard drive?

The PC to MAC move complicates a few things, but this article seems to solve them.

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How to get batch recognition of (!) on some tracks after moving library from external hard drive to new iMac (with terabyte hard drive)?

I'm using Lion 10.7.2 and iTunes 10.5.2
I have moved my iTunes music from an external hard drive onto my new iMac (with a terabyte hard drive) with music folder organized - when I try to play some tracks I get the iTunes can't locate warning and so I follow through and show iTunes the track - they are all in the music folder on my iMac hard drive - they all copied over and they all appear in the iTunes library list - so far as I can tell out of a 500 gigabyte music collection - but there are so many giving me the error - many other tracks function as they should too, some work others don't - So I'm looking for a way to get all the error tracks fixed in a batch correction way. Doing this individually with each track just isn't realistic.
Can anyone suggest how I might fix this issue?
Also, after I show iTunes the song location and it plays, I get a find files prompt that looks like it wants to find other files, but that just causes the process to jam and I have to force quit iTunes and then it doesn't remember what I last showed it next time I open iTunes.
Also I'm trying to avoid the use of the consolidate function because that would copy a whole other set of music - not in iTunes - that is in the process of being edited (audio hijack pro and fission tools being used to put vinyl and tapes to mp3) But all that other music just means the consolodate function across my whole computer would be too much.

Some details seem to be coming into focus - I have started scrolling through the main library list A to Z repairing tracks individually (there are thousands, but it's what works so far) - as I work through, it appears the problem occurred on tracks where album artist metadata was different than song artist metadata, predominantly. I'm not sure that is 100% the case in every instance, but that is what it's looking like. I don't why that happened, must be some technical glich I guess.
Also, I tried running Doug's Scripts - the one titled, iTunes Track CPR v1.3 - it is supposed to fix exactly the kind of issue I'm having - I bet it would work for some people with a similar issue - but for my case it only identifies the 'de-linked' tracks and doesn't repair them - that is at least helpful as I scroll though to fix them - I can see exactly which tracks have the issue quickly after running that script - but iTunes doesn't remember that warning symbol after a log-out, so it's only worth running the script on a set of tracks I intend to review and fix in any given session at a time.
If you are interested, Doug's free scripts can be found at
http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=itunestrackcpr
there are other interesting and useful iTunes scripts there too...
also, unrelated to the issue I'm having, I found a lot of really useful and time saving metadata fixing free scripts at - hubi's iTunes scripts - the page isn't English, but the script download is easy to find -
hubi's scripts work for batch selections of tracks - so if you import an album and find the metadata screwed up somehow, you can select the whole set of screwed up tags at once (even across a series of albums), run the easy to use script, and watch it all be fixed automatically while you sit back and relax...
http://hubionmac.com/wordpress/category/softwareschmiede/applescripting/itunes/
just for reference, here is a sampling of what hubi's scripts can do...
there are other useful scripts out there - the tough part can be finding the one that helps you...
01-(un)capitalizes
01-(un)capitalizes
This script changes.... THIS TEXT into This Text... or this text
01-Delete spaces
Sometimes invisible blanks are behind an artist name or album name...this script deletes these blanks behind or infront of the strings
01-Delete x first-last chars. of Title
A Name like "01--Ray Of Light" will be changed to "Ray Of Light" and the01 will be entered in the tracks tracknumber id3 field =)
01-fix combined Artist-Title
Sometimes Tracknames look like:
"Madonna---Ray of Light" and in the artist field you see something like"Ripped by Me"... this script puts Madonna back to the right field... all youhave to do is to enter the right delimiter ("---" in this case)
01-switch Artist<->Title...
Switch ID3 field a with ID3 field b (not only Artist with Title any more =)!
01-z_filename ->Title
Sets the ID3 field Title to the track's filename)
01-z_trackNr-Filename->ID3
When a track's filename look like "01-Madonna-Ray of Light.mp3" andyou don't have the track's tracknumber stored in the ID3 Tag... this Scriptcan do this for your =)

Moving itunes from external hard-drive to another and using another comput

Hi,
This has probably been posted before but i couldn't find it.
My itunes works on another computer, with the library (Edit->Preferences->Itunes location as g:\itunes), this includes the xml files for the library.
I've now got a new laptop and external hard-drive and want to move the library onto the new hard-drive and use it on the new laptop.
I think i can copy the itunes folder from old hard-drive onto new one, then point the itunes install on the new laptop to the new harddrive and it should pick it up?
Any ideas?
Matt

Welcome to AD!
+this includes the xml files for the library.+
Does this also include the important itunes database file, the one with the ITL file extension?
If so, your idea should work. Use Windows Explorer to copy the ITL & music files/folders over to the new exHD.
Connect the new exHD to your laptop and make sure Windows sees it as drive G:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307844
That is a very important step. Otherwise, iTunes will lose all the paths to the music.
Now start itunes on the laptop by pressing *and holding* the shift key. Tell it to use the ITL file on the G: drive. Then set your iTunes preoferences to have any future additions go to the G: drive music folder.

How do I get my itunes from external hard drive onto new laptop?, how do I get my itunes from external hard drive onto new laptop?

A few years ago I was running out of room on my Windows laptop so I followed instructions on how to move all of the music to an external hard drive and then had all music added to the always connected external hard drive instead of the laptop. That old laptop has now died and I have a new one and need to get the music added to the new one. Is it as simple as just plugging the external hard drive into the new computer and importing or is there more I need to do? I'm just really not sure what to do and nervous about doing the wrong thing. The old computer was running Windows XP and the new one has Windows 8. I have downloaded iTunes to the new laptop. Please note that I am not super savvy so if anyone could provide easy to follow steps that would be great. Thank you!! Please let me know if you need more information. Thanks again!

See Here > Restoring your iTunes Library backup
From here > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751

Moving music from external hard drive to new computer

I lost my iTunes library, but still has my music file on an external hard drive.How do I get my music onto the new computer + Itunes from the external hard drive?

On new year's eve some POS shot a .40 cal bullet through my living room window and hit my 20" 2.4 GHz iMac on the edge of the screen. -- Let me just pause to say that we're lucky we were out at a party. -- Anyway, this iMac was the hub for our media. We used it to sync/control content on our ATV, of which we had about 200 GB of music, TV, & movies (mostly purchased via iTunes). I had a Lacie hard drive connected to the iMac for storage of the iTunes Music folder (I was running 10.5...it wasn't upgraded to OS 10.6). Anyway, I didn't have the media backed-up (not using time machine), but the external hard drive wasn't damaged by the bullet. I now have the 21.5" 3.06 Ghz iMac with OS 10.6. Is there a way to get the new computer to use the content on the Lacie hard drive?

How do I import data from external hard drive onto new iMac?

How do I import data from an external hard drive onto my new iMac?

If you think about it logically if you want to move something from one place to another well do just exactly that
Drag & Drop its as simple as that click on the file/folder keep it pressed down & move the file/folder to where you want it on your Mac
If its photo's drag them onto the iPhoto icon on the dock if its music drag it onto the iTunes icon documents into guess what documents
Hope this helps

Moving music from external hard drive to new cpu

My hard drive failed, so I got a new one, backing up all iTunes music to an external drive. I got a new hard drive and had to reinstall iTunes. The reinstalled version does not recognize my iPod nor does it show my music collection, which I dragged from the external drive into the iTunes music folder. How can I get iTunes to show my music and playlists? iTunes asks to sync with the iPod, which would erase all music on the iPod.
Also, I did not enable disc use on the iPod.
Thanks.

To make this happen (which i recently did the same type of thing) you need to open up iTunes and while youre waiting hold in the shift key. iTunes will ask you to locate your library which is basically the file which tells is where youre music is and will reload the music and playlists, etc.
The only catch is that hopefull when you copied all your music to the Eternal HD you copied the iTunes music folder usually stored on the C: drive of any computer to the HDD as well. This .lib file which should be found in the my iTunes folder is what should laod all the music back on there for you. Everytime you close iTunes it updates this folder automatically.
Hope this helps!

Moving info from backup hard drive to new iMac

The hard drive on my 3 year old ibook broke recently and no longer works. I have a back up external HD which backed up everything under my name 'timbarton'. I have now bought a new mac, but can't work out how to migrate things across to the imac from the external HD. Things like calenders, address book, email, itunes, photos (I have tried this manually but the photos loose their key words, albums, ratings etc). Any ideas? I also have an ipod nano which has all my songs, calender, address book on so I thought I could use that. When I plug it in though and it loads up itunes it says the computer isn't authorised and do I want to wipe the ipod clean - no! I should point out I'm not connected to the internet yet (I only bought the iMac 2 days ago) as my broadband supplier has to send a new Leopard friendly modem. Any thoughts or suggestions would be most welcome.

Folders You Can Move to Your new Mac
From the Home folder copy the contents of Documents, Movies, Music, Pictures, and Sites.
In your /Home/Library/ folder:
/Home/Library/Application Support/AddressBook (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Application Support/iCal (copy the whole folder)
Also in /Home/Library/Application Support (copy whatever else you need including folders for any third-party applications)
/Home/Library/Keychains (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Mail (copy the whole folder)
/Home/Library/Preferences/com.apple.mail.plist (* This is a very important file which contains all email account settings and general mail preferences.)
/Home/Library/Preferences/ copy any preferences needed for third-party applications
/Home /Library/iTunes (copy the whole folder)
/Home /Library/Safari (copy the whole folder)
If you want cookies:
/Home/Library/Cookies/Cookies.plist
/Home/Library/Application Support/WebFoundation/HTTPCookies.plist
For Entourage users:
Entourage is in /Home/Documents/Microsoft User Data
Also in /Home/Library/Preferences/Microsoft
For FireFox:
/Home/Library/Applications Support/FireFox
/Home/Library/Preferences/org.mozilla.firefox.plist
Credit goes to another forum user for this information.
In order to retain purchased tunes you must first de-authorize the old computer. After moving the iTunes library and can re-authorize the new computer. See: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93014

Moving iTunes from bad hard drive to new computer

I messed up my XP computer so it won't boot. I have the HD data though, therefore my iTunes library (somewhere, right) and my songs.
I have a new Windows 7 computer and just synced my iPod touch hoping that everything moved right to iTunes like it did before. Not so.
I'd like to do 2 things.
1) Get my apps (a bunch) and songs (only 35) on the iPod to sync to iTunes.
2) Get my library info from my old computer over to the new one.
Thanks for any help you can give.
Scot

This got my apps and purchased songs onto the computer.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2200462
I don't really need the libarary as much, but if someone knows how to move it from an external HD, that would be great.

HT1660 How do I run itunes from external Hard drive?

How do I run itunes from external hard drive. I only have ssd on PC and media is too large to fit

You do not.
iTunes, like all programs is installed on the C drive.
You can store the media on another drive.
Assuming you are moving an existing library from another computer:
Move or Copy the ENTIRE iTunes folder from the old computer to the new computer and put it where you want it.
Install iTunes using the default options.
Hold <SHIFT> while launching iTunes. It will prompt to create a new library or locate an existing library.
Select the option to locate an existing library.
Point iTunes to the iTunesLibrary.itl file in the iTunes folder that was moved from the old computer.

Restoring itunes from external hard drive

-I used WD backup program to store itunes on external hard drive
-hard drive on mac pro crashed, replaced hard drive
-trying to restore itunes songsa from external drive and when I copied songs from external hard drive to new internal hard drive which has itunes program, only song titles appear and track number for songs I ripped from CDs. All info is present for songs I purchased from itunes (why is there a difference in the way these two are restored???)
-Can I restore itunes from external drive so that artist and album are associated with each song title I ripped from CDs?
Much appreciate all assistance. Thanks.

I know MP3 and AAC save tag data, and I believe AIFF does as well (if you want to keep them in full-quality but space-greedy format). I don't think WAV supports tagging which is why they were lost. Read:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9558241&#9558241
This time make sure you have a complete backup of your itunes folder (which, in fact you may still have). That way you can recover your complete library and everything intact (as long as you keep your backups up to date).
Here is a related topic
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9267109&#9267109

How do I copy iTunes from external hard drive to iMac?

How do I copy iTunes from external
Hard drive to iMac?

if your main library is on your external, then when not connected, you wont have access to it.
so first decide, where do you want to keep the files.
E.g. In my case, I keep my files on "C:\iTunes Music".
I have a backup on external "Z:\iTunes Backup". If I format my laptop, this is how I restore everything.
Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced.
The iTunes music folder in selects as "C:\iTunes Music"
I have checked Keep iTunes Music Folder Organized, and also Copy Files to iTunes Music folder when adding to ibrary". Click OK to save and close preferences.
My iTunes list is now empty. I go to file, and select "Add Folder to Library". From that window, I select "Z:\iTunes Backup". iTunes then copies everything from the backup to "C:\iTunes Music". For me, backup is backup, I dont need it to play music.
Now decide this. If you do not want to keep music on C:, but want to only connect the external to update music on your ipod, do this:
In preferences, set iTunes Music folder as "Z:\iTunes Backup", and uncheck Copy files to iTunes Music folder, since they are already there. Then in files, select Add folder to library again to build and update the list.

Importing a contact folder from external hard drive onto new iphone

It is kind of a long story...my mom was updating iphone on computer when computer crashed. iphone crashed. had friend move all info from crashed computer onto external hard drive. got new iphone.
so, she no longer has a computer and we have to share mine. she has her own itunes on an external drive and i have my own itunes on another hard drive. i got almost everything except the contacts moved back on her phone. i see the folder and contacts in a 'contact' folder on the external hard drive, but how do I move that to the new iphone without it being in outlook/google/yahoo. i tried 'adding folder' to the library containing the contacts, but that didn't work.
any suggestions? thanks!!!

thanks for the advise about the two users. so, i did that. but, now cannot seem to import the contact folder into the Address Book. the files in the 'contact'-hard drive are called CONTACT files (.contact). i don't know what that means. can i open those in the address book?

Migrating iTunes library from external hard drive to new laptop

Hi there, I am wondering if anyone can help me please? I am a complete newbie to this forum thing, I am just getting into this cosmic sharing world but find myself utterly frustrated with iTunes and my new laptop - with little help on the Support pages, so i am venturing into the unkown and seeking help from anyone out there.........slightly scary for me, this really is my first post on a forum - so be gentle with me :0)
On my old steam driven laptop I had to move my iTunes library to an external hard drive, my 250MB hard drive just wasn't enough (I know pathetic wasn't it). All ok there and I have been using it no problem. I have now upgraded (finally!!) to a new wonderful laptop (with webcam and all sorts!)but I am at the end of my tether trying to get my iTunes library from my external hard drive to appear in the Library on the laptop. boo hoo.
I have tried changing the file location in the Advance section of preferences, i have tried choosing the library after holding down the shift key on start up (you see not a complete numpty). They all appear to work as i don't get any error messages, but the songs just don't appear in the library. Am i being a complete numb nuts here? what am i missing?
If anyone can help i would be really grateful as this is spoiling the euphoric feeling i have of my lovely new laptop!
cheers Latte

tonybassplayer wrote:
Thank Chris I have just done that. How do I now get them in to Itunes ?
If you simply copy the iTUnes folder to /Music/ and launch iTUnes, everythign will be there. No need to import anything.
This will work the same with iPhoto.
Simply copy the Photo library to /Pictures/ folder and launch iPhoto.

How can I transfer Itunes from external hard drive to a new computer?

Hello,
I had a Dell laptop with Windows XP on it recently crash, but I have everything saved to a Seamagine external 1 terabyte hard drive. I have about 250 gigabytes of media on it, mostly CD's and audiobooks. The setup I had on the XP computer was my Itunes folder saved on the C drive, but I kept all the actual music and audiobooks on the external hard drive, which was labeled the F drive.
After the crash, a relative sold me their three year old Compaq laptop, with Windows 7 instead of XP as the OS. My relative already had Itunes downloaded on it, but when I opened the Itunes on the new (new to me) laptop, Itunes only recognized their (my relative's) account. So, I uninstalled their Itunes and then I re-downloaded Itunes for 64-bit Windows 7. I then opened the Windows Explorer folder so to drag and drop my backed up Itunes folder and library information from the old C drive to the new Itunes folder in the new C drive. But, it wouldn't do anything. It still wanted the password info from my relative's account. It wouldn't recognize my account, even though I had uninstalled and then reinstalled a newer version of Itunes. Dragging and dropping my backed-up Itunes folder from my external hard drive to the new C drive didn't work because it said it didn't have certain permissions or something like that. I think I might have downloaded a newer version of Itunes, different from what I had saved a couple of days ago, which might be one of the problems here, not to mention that I switched OS's from XP to Windows 7.
When I plugged the external hard drive USB into the new laptop no Seamagine manager came up for user-friendly accessibility. I didn't know what to do, so I installed Seagate Dashboard onto the new computer. It didn't do anything for me either. No problem, I thought, I'll just use Windows Explorer to move the Itunes library, and then once I transfer (i.e., drag and drop) the old Itunes folder to the one, all will be as it was. I could then direct my Itunes account to use my external hard drive as the media source folder. I was wrong. It won't let me do that either. It says I don't have permission to do it.
How c an I get my old Itunes library info onto the C drive of this new computer, but keep the 250GB of media files on the external hard drive, just like the setup I had on the old laptop before it crashed? If you can help me, then you will be my hero. I'm scared to death that I've lost my library info and afraid to mess with it too much more for fear of erasing it or, worse, losing the 250 GB of media that is on the external hard drive, which has taken me a tremendous amount of time and money to compile. It is, in effect, irreplaceable. I'm very worried and frustrated. I've been working on this for days, to no avail. You're my last hope. Thank you.

Hmm, I think we should start over...
Here are the typical layouts for the iTunes folders:
In the image above the red outline denotes the "media folder", that is the folder listed under Edit > Preferences > Advanced. In the standard layout where the "media folder" is inside the "library folder" the iTunes library has the advantage of being self-contained and portable. Since you've lost the "library folder" from your old computer you're going to have to start over so you might as well get organized properly.
If the folder curently holding your media files is called G:\iTunes then rename it as G:\Media.
The support doc How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one explains how to create a new iTunes library where you want it. In short click the icon to start iTunes and immediately press and hold down the shift key. Keep holding until asked to choose or create a library, click Create and browse to G:\, make sure the folder is going to be called iTunes and click save.
Move the folder that actually holds the media inside the folder G:\iTunes\iTunes Media. We're going to let iTunes reorganize everything (unless you have a collection of .wav files in which case stop and tell me because they require a different approach).
Use File > Add folder to library and select the folder G:\iTunes\iTunes Media. iTunes will search through the whole series of subfolders adding all media files into the library and reorganizing them into the correct artist & album folders.
Again, for data security, you really ought to obtain a second external drive at some point and backup your library to it. Only having one copy, as you have found, leaves you vulnerable to failure. External drives are no less prone to it.
A) Windows uses \ as a folder separator in path descriptions, Mac uses /.
B) Do you have a backup of the iTunes folder that was on drive C:\ or are you simply referring to the location of your media as a "backup" when it really the only copy? If you have a backup copy of your "original" iTunes library you could move/copy that to G:\iTunes shift-start-iTunes to open it, and then I can offer tools or techniques for fixing the links that will be broken becuase the drive letter has changed.
C) Use Store > Sign out and then Store > Sign in to sign into your iTunes account. You will also need to use Store > Authorize the computer to allow playback and transfer of any protected content. If your new library contains protected content from any other accounts then you will have to authorize the computer for those too.
tt2

Moving iTunes from external hard drive to new iMac

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