Moving iTunes music and playlists to and External Drive

Hi
I was running out of space on my PC, so I coppied all the music the .itl and .xml files onto an external hard drive (E:\). I then deleted the same files from the iTunes folder. I then went into iTunes under the Preferances / advanced tab and changed the directory location to point to my new E:\ drive but when I restarted iTunes nothing appears in the library or no play lists appears. Obviously I have done something wrong - what it the correct process to recover all the music and play lists that are now on the external E:\drive ?

I tried the same thing about 6 months ago. Unfortunately, the maestros at iTunes have created an annoying feature so that the iTunes library can ONLY be sited in your "My Music" folder on your internal hard drive.
From the iTunes help menu, "The iTunes Library file is a database of the songs and videos in your library and the playlists you've created. This file is located in the iTunes folder inside your My Music folder (in your My Documents folder). Do not move this file to another location. If you delete it, iTunes will create a new, empty copy the next time you open iTunes, but any playlists, song ratings, comments, or other information you created will be lost.
What a monumental bummer!!

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How do I back up my iTunes and playlists to an external drive?

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thanks

See Make a split library portable for advice on getting your library into the correct shape for storing on an external drive.
See Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device for advice on retrieving any useful information from your devices.
See Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy as suggested by hhgttg27 for backup advice. If you are going to run your library from an external drive connected to your laptop then you need a second external drive to act as backup to the first. Hard drives can fail at any time without warning.
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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?
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Re. moving iTunes 11 library with Match to external drive

Hi
Firstly:
iMac 27" 3.06 GHz with 12GB RAM OSX10.8.2 and iTunes 11.01 (12)
I've read many of the threads regarding moving the iTunes library to an external drive. I want to do this as I have only got a 1TB drive in my iMac and therefore want to free-up some space on the internal drive.
I have iTunes Match enabled too which happily works between my other Apple products. So - at the moment, everything's working fine and I'm terrified of breaking anything!:))
Anyway - if someone could please help me with a step-by-step guide to moving my library so that iTunes (the program) would reside on my iMac, but the music/movies/books/apps etc live on the external drive which will then still work with Match, I would be so grateful........
Lastly, would there be any issues with doing this - ie would there be any indexing/searching issues or any other things I should be aware of that would stop me doing this?
I look forward to hearing from anyone who may be able to help.
Thanks and Kind Regards
Andy

Thanks very much Michael
This article showed me how to back-up my library to an external drive, but there was a link from there that I would not have found on my own to exactly do what I needed.
Thanks again
Andy

Moving Itunes library back to desktop from external drive-problems

I had moved my itunes library to an external HD becuase I did not have enough space on my desktop. I recently upgraded my desktop and tried moving my itunes library back. I did not go too well. After several tries I set itunes to keep the library on the external drive since I did not delete it. Now when I open itunes it can't find the location for 90% of my music. I hope the application did not delete the library on the external drive. I don't think it did since the file size has not changed. How can I set this up so my songs are on my desktop and can be accessed by itunes? Any help would be appreciated.

I had used that article and followed it exactly but I am still having problems. I moved my library back to the external drive, all of my songs are there but itunes has to be directed to the songs to find them.

Moving iTunes from PC to MAC with external drive

Need some help moving my iTunes library from my Windows PC to my new MAC. The library is on my external USB drive. I did the consolidate option on my PC first and moved the USB drive to my MAC and changed prefs to point to my USB drive on my MAC. The library doesn't show up on my MAC? The library is 180GB.
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This page may be of some help: How to move an iTunes library from a PC to Mac (and back)

How do I get my songs and playlists from an external hard drive into iTunes?

I have got all of my songs and playlists on an external drive from my PC. I just bought a mac and can't understand the directions to get my songs and playlists up and running in iTunes...Can anyone help?

If you backed the library up by drag-copying it, drag-copy it to the same location on the new computer. If you backed up an entire iTunes library, you can also drag it to any location, launch iTunes with the Shift key held down, and specify it.
If you used a backup product, check that product’s documentation.
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(109075)

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.

HELP!! Moved iTunes music to new comp, but playlists are GONE!!!

Ok, I've posted a couple times now, gotten no helpful responses as of yet, so here goes another attempt:
I just got a new computer. My iTunes music was stored on an external harddrive. I was able to get the music to show up in the iTunes library on the new computer, but
1.) All the songs are checked. I had a specific 900(or so) out of my 10,000 songs selected, for ease of syncing my 4GB iPod Nano. I don't want to have to go through every single song to uncheck the ones that were unchecked before. What can I do?
2.) I have dozens of playlists, some hundreds of songs long. Now, in the new iTunes on the new comp, the playlists are GONE. How can I restore them(other than putting them together one song at a time)?
3.) Some of the album artwork is gone. Some isn't. What gives? How can I restore the missing artwork?
4.) How can I make sure that new iTunes purchases are stored on the external harddrive, not the new comp's harddrive?
That's it for now. Someone PLEASE help, this is a major pain....

Chris CA answered most of your questions in your other posts.
You need that iTunesLibrary.itl file from your old PC.
That's the way iTunes was designed, the way it works, and if you want your play lists and checkmarks back, you need to get it back.
Here is a good article on that - scroll down to the section titled
*iTunes: The Database versus the Content*
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive
Your exHD needs to have the same drive letter as it did on your old system, too.

I have my iTunes music folder stored on an external hard drive. I recently purchased a new Mac. After attaching the external hard drive, all the songs imported without any problem except my Playlists. Any clue about where they are or how to revive them

I have my iTunes music folder stored on an external hard drive. I recently purchases a new Mac. After attaching the external hard drive, all songs imported without a problem except my playlists. Any clue about where they are or how to revive them for use on my new Mac?
Thanks!

Rysz wrote:
To retain your playlists, artwork, play counts, etc, you need to move the entire iTunes folder, not just the music files..
Correct.
After that just select the new folder location in iTunes> Advanced settings.
Incorrect.
Hold Option and launch iTunes.
Select Choose library and select the iTunes folder.
This will read the iTunes library.itl file in this folder and the library as it was previously will be opened.

HT1369 Ipod touch not being recognized by itunes (but is registering as an external drive by the computer itself) have updated and reinstalled itunes, stopped/started apple mobile device and removed and mobile programs associated with my non apple cellpho

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I had this problem too and my roommate solved it!
Go to 'Settings'
'Music'
Scroll to the bottom and enter your password to log onto your home sharing
Then connect to iTunes and sync!

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HT1848 Forgive such a basic question, it's easier than looking it up. I have my iTunes music on macbook pro and have only synced it to one iPod. I want to buy a new iPod and want to know will I be able to sync my music from computer to new iPod at no ch

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will I be able to sync my music from computer to new iPod at no charge?
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The pc that I used to download CD music to into my itunes library was stolen and I had no backup. I have all my itunes music on my iphone and ipod. can i have music from music from my iphone or ipod transferred to my mac computer through itunes?

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I have been storing my music and photos in an external drive how to I transfer them to Time Capsule now that I acquired one?

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Moving iTunes music and playlists to and External Drive

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