Moving iTunes library to another hard drive

I followed the directions on the Apple website
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748
to move my iTunes library to another hard drive. the instructions say to delete the original iTunes folder ...
now the library has been moved (the files are in the folder on the new hard drive) but iTunes has completely lost its catalog of my music (the screen is empty when I select library in iTunes) - what happened and how can I get the catalog back without importing everything?

You missed 'Point 14':
After the folder has been copied, locate your original iTunes Music folder, and drag it to the Trash or Recycle Bin. Note: Don't remove the iTunes 4 Music Library files that may be in the same location as the iTunes Music folder.
If you deleted the 'iTunes Library.itl' file from that folder, then you deleted the iTunes database file that keeps track of all your song references, Playlists and some attributes. See:What are the iTunes Library files?
Can you recover this file from the ExHD? Or maybe the Recycle Bin? Place it back into the 'iTunes' folder under the 'My Music' folder.
If not, you'll have to 'Rebuild' your Library from the ExHD's music files. It's a simple 'File=>Add Folder' from within iTunes, but you will lose your Playlists, Ratings, Play Counts and Last Played attributes.

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I am having trouble moving itunes library to external hard drive

It is a WD My book essential external hard drive (1 tb) that I just bought. I already have a ton of files I put on from my PC and I want to get my itunes library from my mac. When I try and drag the itunes folder into the hard drive folder it says somthing like "Can not move 'itunes' because 'music' can not be modified'" help please. Not sure about the oporating system I added below.

i'm guessing but could the WD be NTFS formatted ?
if so, your Mac can only read from, but not write to it. you may have to install the NTFS 3G driver for it to work.
to install the driver, you need to be on OS X 10.4.11 !

Question regarding the itunes library files when moving itunes library from 1 hard drive to another.

My itunes library had out grown my 2TB drive (I'm a bit of a podcast addict) so I got a 4TB drive to replace it but for some reason my Mac Pro started to act up and eventually apps became crippled to where they would not open.
So I had no choice but to go back to my 2TB drive for my boot drive for now but my itunes library is now slightly larger than the 2TB drive and won't fit so with my previous 4TB drive connected via a hard drive dock I followed the instructions to move my itunes library to a secondary 4TB drive in my mac pro and that went fine the one thing I noticed is in the article it says not to move the 2 library files but now my itunes media is on a internal drive and the 2 library files are on the hard drive connected to my mac pro via the dock so if I was to remove the drive from the dock the 2 library files would no longer be accessable and my itunes library would not be able to be found even though the media in on one of my internal drives.
Anyone know how I can rectify this issue?

Does this article help: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305451 ?

Moved iTunes Library to External Hard Drive - having trouble - HELP!

I have had quite the ordeal...upgraded my Mac iBook G4 from os 9 to os x 10 Tiger.
Bought an external hard drive to back up my 30 GB of music
Now...my computer won't function because it's out of hard disk space.
I moved my iTunes library to the external hard drive. Everything seems to be jim dandy...except that when I go to play a music file...the computer does not recognize the file.
I have to locate, and re-direct the path for each song to the new file location. SONG BY SONG!
Is there any way to do this globally for the entire library???
What else should I do to ensure I free up hard drive space, without jeopordizing my precious music files?
Thank you!!!

With iTunes 7.x you can transfer iTS purchases from the ipod back into iTunes.
To prevent your iPod from syncing - hold down the 'option' and  keys at the same time when plugging in your iPod. Keep the keys held down until the iPod show up in iTunes.
MJ

No success moving iTunes library to external hard drive

I'm trying to move my iTunes library to an external hard drive to free up some space on my laptop. I'm working on a Macbook running OSX 10.8.2 and trying to transfer the library to a WD My Passport for Mac (which is optimized for Mac OS Extended). I followed all of the steps in this article from apple: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449. When I reopen iTunes, as instructed in step 15, I get the message that "The folder containing "iTunes Library" cannot be found, and is required. Please choose or create a new iTunes library." In the article, it just says that if you get that message, then take your old library back out of the trash. It offers no real solution! I don't want to keep my iTunes library on my Macbook! I've tried holding down the option key when opening iTunes and choosing the folder on the external drive. When I do that I get this message: "An iTunes library file could not be found in the folder "iTunes 1" (which is what I called it). Please choose a different folder." What am I doing wrong? This should be a simple process!

I just want to clarify: Your library had been moved to an external, but your database files are still where they ought to be, right? In the home / music / iTunes folder?
If not, try putting these files back in the Music / iTunes folder in your user folder.
/Users/username/Music/iTunes/iTunes Library.itl
/Users/username/Music/iTunes/iTunes Library.xml
Keep the media on the external drive. If you get a message about missing content, go to preferences and make sure that the library location points to your external drive's itunes folder.

Moving itunes library from old hard drive to new laptop

I need to move my itunes library from my old hard drive from my now defunct laptop to my new one
Can someone please advise how to go about this so I avoid making mistakes that I have with iphoto etc when doing the same
Many thanks
tony

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.

Moving iTunes library to external hard drive

I would like to free up some space on my internal hard drive and move my iTunes music, movies and videos to an external hard drive. Can this be done and iTunes still access the files to play or sync them to my iPad when needed?
If so, what do I need to do?

1. Yes.
2. Drag the entire library there, launch iTunes with the Option key held down, and choose that library. Keep a copy of it on a second external drive in case the first fails.
(120468)

Moving iTunes Library to external hard drive when iTunes can't consolidate.

Hi guys, hope you can help.
I want to move my whole iTunes library to an external hard drive and then delete it all from my laptop, and from reading around I realise I have to consolidate the library into the iTunes music folder. However, as my internal hard drive on my laptop is completely full, iTunes won't let me do this, saying I don't have enough space. Is getting the libary into the iTunes music folder the only way of getting it onto the external hard drive?
I can't really free up much space on the laptop as most of it (45 out of 60Gb) is the music I want to transfer!
Thanks very much!

Over half of my stuff isn't there.
Isn't where? In iTunes or not in the iTunes folder?\>Is it possible to copy the iTunes music folder from my laptop to the external, and consolidate from iTunes directly onto there?
Why not do as I posted above? Point iTunes prefs Advanced to the external then consolidate. Everything will be consolidated to the external.
You can then delete \Music\iTunes\Media\ folder and hunt around the internal and delete all the other songs that were not in the iTunes folder.

Moving Itunes library using external Hard Drive

I am just about to acquire a new PC with Vista and am wondering how best to transfer my iTunes music library from my lap top (xp) using an external hard drive rather than CD's?
Can anyone kindy provide a step by step 'idiots' guide to enable me to do this!?
Many thanks,

EDIT: If you want the tracks to remain on the external drive (you may not; I may have misread), you can just drag the entire iTunes folder (the entire folder, not just the iTunes Music folder) to your desired location. Then hold down the Shift key while launching iTunes. You'll be given a dialog box where you can select the iTunes library you want to use. Navigate to and select the iTunes folder in it's new location.
Don't delete the tracks from the old location until you've confirmed that they're working correctly from the external drive.
Otherwise, follow Chris' steps.
Message was edited by: Dave Sawyer

IPod won't sync since I moved iTunes library to external hard drive

Hi,
To clear room on the hard drive of my Mac I followed forum instructions on how to export my iTunes library to an external hard drive. Worked a treat!
Except now my iPod Nano won't seem to sync with the latest podcasts I have downloaded.
Not even sure where to start troubleshooting this - any tips?
Many thanks
Scott
Message was edited by: Scott Douglas

Problem resolved itself - delays must simply have been something to do with mapping to new drive.

Moved iTunes library to external hard drive, but getting (!) by all files

i followed the steps to move library and advanced window. checked "keep iTunes Music folder organized", consolidated library, and the new file path is correct, but my library is all !'s.
when i click on a track, i get a message saying " The song __ could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate the file?"
i can do this, but it would take hours to do this for every file.
any tips?

With iTunes 7.x you can transfer iTS purchases from the ipod back into iTunes.
To prevent your iPod from syncing - hold down the 'option' and  keys at the same time when plugging in your iPod. Keep the keys held down until the iPod show up in iTunes.
MJ

HT1449 Moving iTunes Library to External Hard Drive & Finding iTunes Media Location with iTunes 11.1.1

I tried this out till step 10,however i cannot manage to find organize Library or Consolidate Library when i choose Library in iTunes 11.1.1.
Any help would be much Appreciated.

I tried this out till step 10,however i cannot manage to find organize Library or Consolidate Library when i choose Library in iTunes 11.1.1.
Any help would be much Appreciated.

I moved itunes file to external hard drive and want to move the file on my pc to recycle bin. When I move i get an error message that it cannot delete ituneshelper.dll access is denied. Can I move that file to the recycle bin?

I am trying to free up space on my pc and moving itunes files to external hard drive. I have followed instructions and believe I have file copied to new drive, but I am having trouble moving file to recycle bin as the instructions say. I am getting the following error message: cannot delete ituneshelper.dll:access denied, make sure disk is not full or write protected and file not in use. I know the file is not in use when trying to move. Any help would be most appreciated. I am on Windows XP.

Yes. And you should not have moved that folder. Put it back. To move your iTunes library move the folder from User's Music.
tt2

I have a new Windows tablet computer with limited hard drive space, and cannot transfer my itunes library to the hard drive. Can I run t media from an external hard drive? If so, how do I transfer my files?

I have a new Windows tablet computer with limited hard drive space (32 GB), and cannot transfer my itunes library to the hard drive. Can I run itunes from an external hard drive? I have tried to follow some of the directions on this site, but am having no success. Thanks.

iTunes will run fine with the media on an external drive.
However, I suggest that a tablet computer with a tiny hard drive is not ideal as the primary computer for managing an iTunes library, even a small one. If you have another machine, perhaps a big, boxy, inexpensive old desktop with a decent amount of storage, that might be a better choice.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364

I have a macbook air. I was unable to fit all my music onto it so i moved iTunes onto an external hard drive. How do I transfer my music (80GB) onto my iPod classic?

I recently bought a Macbook air. I had 80gb so I moved iTunes onto an external hard drive. How do i move that music onto my iPod classic?

You can only sysc with one iTunes library. The new computer is a new library. You have to restore your iPod on the new conputer and then sync.

Moving iTunes library to another hard drive

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