Moving iTunes music after PC Upgrade

I need to upgrade my boot hard drive and want to move all of our family's iTunes libraries from the old HD to the new HD without loosing the music rights.
Do I need to deactivate the old ones for each user and then reactivate them on the new boot drive then move the music to the new drive?
Or? Thanks!

You are not very precise with your question so I will give a rather general answer.
If you want to move iTunes music to another drive like this and you want to keep all your counts and ratings, etc. You need to be sure you copy the iTunes folder containing the library databases.
You also need to ensure that all the music files are in the iTunes Music folder inside the iTunes folder. Consolidate if they are not.
You then need to save the iTunes folder on an external drive - or if you current drive is intact set it up in a drive cradle so you can access it when you get the new system drive running.
You need to deauthorise your PC before removing the old drive.
Install iTunes on the new system drive and authorise the PC. Before adding any music drag the iTunes folder out of the My Music folder to your desktop and copy your old iTunes folder into My Music replacing the one you dragged out.
If you have more than one account with separate libraries you need to repeat the dragging and copying process in each account.
For interest here is apple's article on moving music using your iPod but you probably will not want to do it this way. Nevertheless the method is similar however you choose to transfer the music.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1329?viewlocale=en_US

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Missing files after moving itunes music folder

i moved my itunes music folder to my external hard drive using the directions posted here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748 to the letter. a lot of things transfered but now when i look in my itunes music folder and compare to my itunes library, i see that a lot of things are missing. i really don't want to have to go through every single artist folder and check every song. shouldn't consolidating my library have taken care of this?

I just had a very similar issue, I moved my iTunes library from a 120Gb Drive to a 500Gb and the library was a bit corrupted because the main drive was full b/c of an error, but that's besides the fact.
SOLUTION To missing files, that aren't really missing because they exist and were all copied no problems.
go to the iTunes folder in your Home folder, and move the iTunes Music Library.xml file to your desktop (with itunes closed of course)
Then re-open itunes and the library file that's not an xml doc, will re-search your files and all should be well.
You should be able to safely delete the xml doc now, because iTunes made a new one.
Cheers
PowerMac G4 Dual 1Gz Mac OS X (10.4.9)

I moved iTunes music to my hard drive "D" and now it won't open!

My hard drive "C" was getting somewhat full, so I decided to move my iTunes music files over to my second hard drive "D" (I have a dual hard drive on my computer). When I try and open iTunes, it says, "The folder 'iTunes' cannot be found or created, and is required. The default location for this folder is inside the 'Music' folder."
I cannot open the "Music" folder, because when I do, it just opens up the same window I was already in when I tried to open it. The main reason I want to open iTunes is so I can reset my iPod because it is not working anymore. The scroll wheel, the hold button, the backlight, and it automatically sleep mode (after not touching it for a couple of minutes) is all that works. I cannot click anything.
I have moved all of my iTunes folders back over to my "C" drive, but it still won't work. I also reinstalled iTunes in the "Music" folder, and it won't work. Basically nothing has worked!

You might find this article useful, don't be put off by the title, the process is substantially similar moving to another internal drive: iLounge - Managing your iTunes Library on an External Hard Drive

Moved iTunes music folder to HDD, Now iTunes Can't Find it--Help :-)

I finally was able to get an HDD that actually mounted and now I have moved my iTunes music folder based on the instructions here: iTunes: Moving your iTunes Music folder. I printed them out and followed them step-by-step.
Before moving the folder iTunes Music from my internal HD (~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music) to the trash, I played random tracks with no problem. So I moved the folder to the trashcan, then emptied the trash as instructed. Went back to iTunes to play some music, and now all of my tracks have the dreaded exclamation point in the first column. When I click on a track to play it, I get the message "The song 'blah blah blah' could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?"
Of course, I can select 'Yes' and go through the steps and locate the files on my HDD. This, however, is not an optimal process with over 2400 songs. Does anyone know what went wrong with my relocation?
Melissa
PowerBook G4 PowerPC Mac OS X (10.4.8) iPod 30G, MyBook 250GB HDD, iTunes 7.1.1

I've used that method to transfer music from one drive to another literally dozens of times and never seen it fail in the way you experienced. I'm at a loss to explain how you could have followed the instructions, successfully transfer the music to the new drive, and yet have the iTunes database still think the music should be on the original drive.
What I can suggest are two solutions: One for it you don't care about keeping your playlists, rankings, and playcounts intact. The other for if you do care.
Fast fix but loses the meta data: Quit iTunes. Open your home directory, find the music folder and open it. Trash everything you see in your music folder and restart iTunes. All your music and playlists will be gone. Open your new drive on the desktop, find the folder with your music, and drag it into your iTunes window. Your music will be imported into a new iTunes catalog and then you can create your playlists.
Keeping the metadata: After quitting iTunes, move the music back to its original location by dragging the music folder(s). Unmount the new drive and play some music. Remember the songs you clicked on and showed iTunes how to find? Do those songs all over again and once you've verified the iTunes library now points to all the songs properly, delete the songs from the new drive and repeat the steps to move them again.

Moving iTunes music folder from hard drive to external drive

I see a couple of topics related to iTunes folder locations and losing track of where the file are. What's the right way to migrate from having the iTunes music files on my hard drive (C:) to using an external drive...without having to re-map everything manually? I'm running out of space on the C: drive!

There's actually hundreds of those topics. It gets asked daily.
Did you still have a specific question after reading several of them?
Here is a very thorough and wordy article on it
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive

How do I redeem a gift card in iTunes music store, without upgrading iTunes

I am trying to use a gift card in the iTunes music store, and am given prompts to upgrade to the newest version of iTunes. I do not want to upgrade, and have found no option to use gift card without the upgrade. Suggestions?

Sell the gift card to someone who IS willing to upgrade?

Moving ITunes Music to New Hard Drive

Hi! I would like to free up space on my internal hard drive by purchasing an external one this weekend and moving the music files to this drive. I read this article: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748 and I still have just one more question. I am not sure if others ended up having a library that looks like this, but in addition to the organized folders (by artist) in the ITunes folder, in C:\Documents and Settings\Dana Christine\My Documents\My Music there are about 100 MP3 files (not organized, just sitting there) which are a part of my library. How can I go about getting these files moved over as well? Will the process described in the link I attached take care of moving these files also? No tutorials on moving files that I have seen has covered such an issue. I really appreciate your help.

If these MP3 files are in the iTunes library (you can play them in iTunes), they will get copied when you Consolidate library.

Moving iTunes Music to external hard drive

I am trying to move my iTunes music library to an external hard drive to free up space on my HD, but I'm having trouble. Tried the following, suggested by MacMuse:
iTunes Preferences -> Advanced tab; Keep Music Folder organized ... should be enabled.
* iTunes Preferences -> Advanced tab, set the library location to some folder on the new drive; preferably a new empty folder
* iTunes Advanced menu -> Consolidate Library... This step copies all the files in iTunes' library to the new location. It also maintains your ratings and playlists.
* if it finishes properly, manually delete the original files through Windows Explorer. iTunes won't Move the files, only copy them to the new location.
* If you see a file called iTunes 4 Music Library.itl1 in the old area - leave it alone. It continues to live in that location despite the change to the Library location.
1 - in version 5, this file is now known as iTunes Music Library.itl
I am having trouble in that I can't seem to find the "Consolidate library" command under advanced tab. there is a box to check to "copy files to iTunes music folder when downloading music", and I checked that box. I then hit OK, and a window popped up saying "updating iTunes Library" which took about 30-60 sec, and then it closed. When I went to the folder on the external HD where the music was supposed to be, it was empty.
Do you all have any suggestions? Thanks!
Russ

I think you mistakenly looked in the preferences for 'Consolidate Library..'.
It's in the Advanced menu in the menubar.
You will find more info in this article:
iTunes: Moving your iTunes Music folder
Hope this helps.
M
17' iMac fp 800 MHz 768 MB RAM Mac OS X (10.3.9) Several ext. HD (backup and data)

Ooops...I manually moved iTunes music folder to my new external hard drive

So I thought I was smart and manually moved my iTunes music folder to my new external hard drive. I've changed the location in Preferences but can't locate my music through iTunes. What do I do now? My library is on my external hard drive, but I read I should have done this through iTunes. Any advice?

Is it still possible for you to temporarily return the iTunes Music folder to its original location?
If so you should be able to see your music in iTunes again and then follow the instructions in this article in the Apple Knowledge Base.

Can I get back to iTunes Music after failed external hard drive transfer?

I am in the middle of moving a bunch of files to an external hard drive. I followed instructions posted and mentioned on this forum to move iTunes Music; changed iTunes Music folder location to go to the EHD, then consolidated library there. I never deleted the iTunes Music folder that was in My Docs. I noticed a problem with the EHD file and had to delete the iTunes Music folder that I had just set up with a plan to just redo it. I did this thinking that once I reset iTunes to look for the Music folder back in My Docs I would be fine....but, iTunes can not find the original file for any songs. I can manually point iTunes to the song in My Docs, but there must be a better way. I have already changed the Music location in iTunes back to My Docs. Is there something I am missing?
Thanks
Dell Windows XP Pro

cgb33,
You can use the Add Folder to Library option as explained in this article in the Apple Knowledge Base.
Note that while this will add the songs themselves to iTunes, playlist and related information will not be included.

Why can NOT my apple TV connect to itune store after I upgraded it to ios 5.1(5201)?

I am in Singapore, and own this apple tv for a few days and everything were alway ok.
Today, I upgraded the ios to version 5.1(5201). After the upgrade process was done, the apple tv can not login to itune store.
I am a software engineer. I confirm that the network setting are fine and the username and password are correct, so I doubt it is server's problem.
Even when I "reset all setting", I can not activate my Apple TV.
Even more, I try to click "update software", and it said "it is unsuccessful ...". I remembered that it should inform me "the version is newest" before I "reset all setting".
So, I doubt it is because before the server serving Singapore has some problem now.
However, now I can not choose location to US or others, because after I upgraded, the location selection box is empty.
So, I have no idea.........

I check the internet connection status of my Apple TV, and got the result as
192.168.2.101     118.214.190.18     TCP     www     Accepted
192.168.2.101   118.214.190.17     TCP     www     Accepted
192.168.2.101   17.154.66.38         TCP     www     Accepted
192.168.2.101   118.214.190.18     TCP     www     Accepted
192.168.2.101   118.214.190.17     TCP     www     Accepted
192.168.2.101   118.214.190.18     TCP     www     Accepted
192.168.2.101   118.214.190.17     TCP     www     Accepted
192.168.2.101   17.154.66.38             TCP     www     Accepted
192.168.2.101   118.214.190.18     TCP     www     Accepted
192.168.2.101   118.214.190.17     TCP     www     Accepted
192.168.2.101   118.214.191.77     TCP     www     Accepted
192.168.2.101   118.214.191.54     TCP     www     Accepted
, where 192.168.2.101 is my Apple TV's ip.
And I also set up a DNS server and check which domains Apple TV queries, and found that
    ax.init.itunes.apple.com(118.214.190.17 118.214.190.18 118.214.191.54 118.214.191.77 all in Singapore)
    iphonesubmissions.apple.com(17.171.60.16)
    phobos.apple.com(17.154.66.38)
    mesu.apple.com(118.214.190.152)
And ip of ax.init.itunes.apple.com are all in Singapore.
I am doubt the iOS 6.0 (TV software 5.1(5201) ) has not been deploy to Singapore. Last time, I select location as US, so it informed me to update to iOS 6.0.

Moved iTunes music folder to new HD and it won't play

I recently moved my iTunes music files to a larger external hard drive (for the third time) and now iTunes can't find any of the songs. It has worked in the past on 2 other HD's but not this time. I've selected the correct iTunes Music Folder location under <EDIT> <PREFERENCES> <ADVANCED>, have selected "Keep music folder organized", and have even "consolidated my music", but the files won't play. The files are in-tact; I can right-click on a song, click "get info", and manually locate the file to play it, but I don't want to do this for 70GB worth of music!!! Someone suggested dragging the music files into the iTunes library, but I have the library on my laptop and the actual music files on the external HD and I want to keep the library on my laptop so I don't think this will work for me. please help.
Message was edited by: brookap

I have a very similar problem. Hope I don't confuse people trying to help us since the solutions may be different.
I had my iTunes path directed to a 2nd internal hard drive. Everything was working fine - except I found that purchased Apps were still being downloaded to the Mobile Applications folder on my main hard drive instead of the 2nd internal drive. I decided to retry directing the iTunes path to my 2nd internal drive, hoping that might get iTunes to save my Apps there. Big Mistake. Suddenly, there were no Apps showing in my iTunes Library Apps window at all. I verified the downloaded apps are still in my main hard drive's Mobile Applications folder, but I cannot get iTunes to display them in my Apps Library window anymore.
I decided to try downloading a new app and, sure enough, iTunes once again downloaded it into the very same Mobile Applications folder on my main hard drive, where all my (now orphaned) original apps are, but the only one iTunes will only display in my Apps window is the new one. I read you can redownload purchased apps, but my apps are not missing. iTunes just won't display them in the Apps window anymore.

Problem in moving iTunes Music Folder

I feel sooo stupid! I am using the document "iTunes: Moving your iTunes Music folder." I was going along OK until I came to number 5 in the second part:
"In the Change Music Folder Location window that appears, navigate to the location where you would like your new Music folder to be created. Note: By default, your iTunes Music folder is a folder named "iTunes Music" in ~/Music/iTunes/where the tilde "~" represents your home directory.
What does it mean, "....navigate to the location where you would like your new Music folder to be created." ???
I'm trying to free up internal hard drive space by moving my iTunes Music folder to my external hard drive.
Will it also take the movies, podcasts, etc??
Thanks in advance for any help. I'm dead in the water until I get this solved.

Open iTunes and at the bottom of the main window it will tell you how large in Gigs your library is - if that is larger than the space available on your ext HD then you will need a bigger ext HD - or remove some stuff from the ext HD to make space.
MJ

Importing iTunes Music After Carbonite Restore

Trying to free up some space, I did a clean install a few weeks ago after backing up almost my entire HD, including the 41,000+ songs I had in iTunes. Today, after two solid weeks of running my MacBook 24/7, I finished restoring all of my music, which is when I finally realized I hadn't bothered to read Carbonite's instructions as thoroughly as I probably should have.
Basically, I went ahead and re-installed iTunes BEFORE I finished the restore, so that when I open it up, only my cloud music is visible in my library, which is where the fun begins...
My music is indeed on my laptop, living comfortably in it's original iTunes>Music folder, under User Eric, on The Spicy Meatball (the name I gave my HD because I once thought it was "cute" or something). When I open up iTunes from the Meatball (or from the more recently installed iTunes), same thing...no music except for the cloud stuff. Confusingly, while my MacBook SAYS my music is in my iTunes library, iTunes says it isn't whenever I open the app.
I initially just shrugged my shoulders and began importing all 41,000+ songs into my library, but when I got to around 3,700 or so, I noticed I was really only duplicating everything, and would run out of disk space long before it finished importing. In essence, I may have just screwed myself by either not seeing their directions, or buying their product in the first place, and have wasted $70.
I'm not even sure what I'm asking, aside from whether or not there's a work-around here I'm not seeing that would allow me to get my iTunes library back to it's pristine, OCD-level state.
Thanks. :-)

BUMMER!
The info displayed by iTunes comes from the ID3 tag which is part of the file sitself. If the ID3 tags are intact then you should see the artist/song/ etc when you add the song fille back to iTunes. Do a drop n drag of a couple of files to the iTunes window and see what happens. Once the tune is back in iTunes then go look for a script from Doug Adams site and that will rename the song files based on ID3 information. No sense doing individyually as there is script that will do it for you. As for the files that play for 20 seconds ..... well they might be scrambled beyond repair. I always do B/U of my tunes as I have a huge amount of *** time invested in managing them.
Hope this helps a little.
MJ

Lost iTunes Authorizations after Yosemite Upgrade

I was running the latest version of iTunes on Mavericks and it was authorized. I had used all 5 authorizations before starting the upgrade. After upgrading to Yosemite (I did not do an erase and install. I did the standard upgrade) I opened iTunes and noticed it was no longer authorized. I tried to authorize it and saw that all 5 of them were in use. I didn't know what else to do so I logged into my iTunes store account and did the once a year reset. I went back to iTunes and authorized. I have restarted the machine a few times and think it has used up more authorization slots. I went and added my second computer the other day and now it says I have used 4 total. I have done many upgrades over the years (since puma) and have never had this issue before and It all started with the Yosemite upgrade.
Does anyone know what might be causing this or a suggestion for a fix?
Thanks

See Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash.
tt2

Moving iTunes music after PC Upgrade

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