Moving itunes
hello,
i am having major problems with my itunes.
I am trying to move it to an external hard drive as i am running out of space on my imac. i am following the instrcutions from apple but each time all of my songs disappear from the itunes screen - each one accompanied by ! next to the song /film /tv prog name.
what am i doing wrong- i dont think it should be this difficult.
thanks
Copy the (user)/Music/iTunes folder (not the iTunes application) to your external hard disk.
Hold the option (alt) key while opening iTunes and at the prompt specify your new location for the library.
Similar Messages
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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 -
Moving iTunes from PC to Mac - problem...
When moving my iTunes folder from PC to Mac (via hard drive), the following error message appears: The operation can’t be completed because you don’t have permission to access some of the items". Anyone come across this before?
My feeling is there isn't much you can do about it since standard things such as changing file permissions won't work if you can't write to the drive. You could try formatting the drive to FAT so both the PC and Mac can use it (as long as you don't have any huge files). Alternatively, if you have a smaller flash drive formatted FAT you can move the library in groups of folders as long as you make sure it all goes back together properly again.
Here's my standard post on moving libraries:
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.)
Longer answers if for any reason you do not think all library files are inside your iTunes folder (changed preferences settings at some point):
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.
For the record there's this reference for iTunes 11 but it really doesn't strike me as having the specifics you need. iTunes 11 for Mac: Move your library to another computer - http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12168
2011 ilounge article: Transferring your iTunes library - http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive/ - An article with good background information (similar to the links above), particularly if you are not sure your media files are all grouped for quick answer above. Unfortunately under the single term "transferring library" it describes two very different moves; relocating just your media (not really transferring your library and not recommended unless you really need this configuration), and relocating media+database (really your whole "library"). Make sure you understand the difference before electing to move only media.
Windows users see tip at: https://discussions.apple.com/message/18879381 -
Moved iTunes library to an ext hard drive to make space on my int drive... Followed steps from apple. Now I cannot access my music... It says: "File could not be used because the original file cannot be found. Would you like to locate it?"
I moved my iTunes library to my external hard drive some time ago and I followed the directions listed here on the apple support page. It did copy my library and now is on my hard drive... I can open iTunes and use it to sync all of my devices but I would like to play my music... I can see all of my music files but can not play them if I click on an album or song it says the following: "(file name) could not be used because the original file cannot be found. Would you like to locate it?" I click locate but do not know where to go from there? I need a way to access all files and not to hunt down one at a time on my hard drive... I am pretty sure I deleted the original library to make space on my internal drive which was the reason for moving it. I have tried and tried to fix it and do not have a lot of time to do so with a one and two year old at my house who do not like it whenI sit down at my computer. What to do??? Any help is much appreciated!!!See Make a split library portable. Move all of the bits of the library together in the the correct shape and it should work. Or undo exactly what you did and then start over.
If you're a former Windows user don't try merging two folders together that have the same name by dropping one into the same folders as the other, as that goes badly on a Mac.
tt2 -
I have followed the Apple Support Section Article HT 4527 and have moved itunes media onto an external Hard Drive. The complete file is 103GB in size.
I have downloaded the latest itunes onto my new PC.
When I follow the article and try moving the itunes file onto the new PC, I am informed that there is insufficient space on my new PC.
In any case, like my old system, I want to leave my music on the external HDD and just have the music library displayed in itunes when I click on the "Music" folder.
How can I get itunes on the new computer to interogate my external HDD to just list the library and leave the music on the external HDD?you can do this by keeping the external hard drive connected and doing the following
-hold shift key down on computer while opening iTunes and a prompt will appear to choose a library
-select choose library, iTunes should bring up your explorer windows where you can search for the external HD
-after you find the external HD find the iTunes folder you just copied to it
-after opening the iTunes folder look for the file that says iTunes library.itl or if you can't see that extenstion just look for a document looking thing in the iTunes folder that shows up as a database file
-double click the database file and boom iTunes should load your library without having to copy it to the computer
PS: do make sure that if you are going to do it this way, make sure that the external HD is connected at all times, because if you don't then you will get exclamation marks next to your iTunes songs
double PS: if you are unsure how to find out if the iTunes library file is a database file just right click it and choose properties and under the type it should say database file
hope this helps:) -
I moved iTunes folder location, now all my personal song ratings and playlists are gone. How can I get them back? All the iTunes files are intact, just in a new location. Running iTunes 11.1.5.5 on Windows 7
Put everything back the way it was.
Them move the folder correctly.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1364 -
Moved iTunes library from old computer (PC Windows 7) to new (PC Window 8) using external hard drive. Library listing shows all music but can only play a fraction of it. On the ones it cannot play it asks to locate, then refers to an archived version (an .itl file), and still cannot play them. Do I just need to copy the archived .itl over, or is that not where the actual media are (do the actual media files even exist on the new computer?)? Any advice or information on this would be helpful.
*Also...is there any way I can filter out all the tracks with the ! so I can delete the unplaying copies as they're taking up room in my iTunes? I know how to find duplicates, but then I have to go and delete each one individually...*
*Thank you!* -
Moving Itunes library to an external drive...how to?
I'd like to make room on my hard drive -- it's only 15GB. My Itunes and iphoto take up about 5gb by themselves. I'd like to move them to an external drive. I ain't the smartest cookie....is this easy to do?....moving the libraries that is?
I moved iTunes to an external hard drive a while ago. The move (using the above links) worked fine but the need to ensure the external drive was available whenever iTunes was launched was a major nuisance. I ended up keeping iTunes on the main hard drive and moving less critical stuff to the external drive. The same goes for iPhoto.
BTW, I recently upgraded my internal hard drive from 80Gb to 120Gb. Apple's Migration Assistant was brillant for doing this. I temporarily put the old hard disk in my external drive case and Tiger found the system and migrated apps and data with very few problems. I would recommend looking at this option for coping with ever-increasing iTunes storage demands rather than going to an external hard drive. -
Since I moved ITunes media folder to an external bkp unit, Apple Tv uploads my shared videos very slowly. Is there anything I can do?
USB 3 should be more than enough for what you want.
I don't know anything about Pinnacle but iMovie (assuming you are going default) does produce movies with a datarate of around 10 Mbps, which is quite high in comparison to iTunes movies from the iTunes Store. I don't know if you might want to try custom exports.
Although saying that I have plenty of movies at around 10 Mbps on my eSATA external which doesn't have any problems. -
Dear Itunes Community~
This is my first time using glad you are here, but all the passwords!!
Question/Quandry:
If I already moved Itunes media folder to my external drive and now my music is not matching up in iTunes, what should I do? I have tried my solution !?, and now I have 17,000 songs, instead of 9,000!
Should I just uninstall Itunes, and then reinstall Itunes, and let it do it's thing, and then figure out how to move to the external hard drive later?
Help, I screwed it up all on my own!
Any/all help and Itunes educated suggestions appreciated!
Thank you very much,
Doris =:o
PS ~~ Is there anyway to easily delete duplicates?? Seems not?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. -
Moved itunes to external hard drive - Keep getting ipod recovery/ restore
I moved itunes to an external hard drive and have had problems ever since. My itunes application seems to be fine but it keeps telling me that I cannot use itunes until I restore the ipod. I've followed the instructions to both restore AND change drive but nothing is working. Any suggestions anyone? Thx!
Thanks so much for taking the time to help me. I followed the instructions in the post, and was able to recover a substantial part of my library in iTunes. But now I'm worried that when I synch my iPod to iTunes, it will reduce the content on the iPod to match iTunes. I searched more in the discussions, and see that I might be able to use 3rd party software to copy from iPod to iTunes. any advice if I go that route? Thanks again!
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Moved Itunes to external hard drive & now Ipod not showing up in itunes?
I recently installed an external hard drive and moved Itunes and all my music to it. Now when I plug in my Ipod, Itunes doesn't recognize it. And it doesn't show up in my computer, but the pod says its "connected". It does show up in the USB devices and so does the hard drive, but they are listed seperately. But both devices are plugged into the same USB spliter.
what is happening?
help!!!Hi, BreezerSB2.
It sounds like you may not have followed the instructions described in this article in the Apple Knowledge Base.
If that's not possible - or you don't want to do so - and the music files are in fact on your external drive, you can add them to your iTunes Library by referring to this article 's Add to Library section. -
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.
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Moving Itunes From one computer to another
HI,
Can anyone offer advice for moving Itunes from one laptop to another? The original laptop that has my itunes on it, has broke, it froze and will not operate. Rather that lose all my purchased music and playlists i would like to swap it to another laptop. Can anyone advise if this will be possible and how to do it? Both laptops have windows XP installed
thanks
ArleneHi
I am having a similar problem- when I record from Itunes to a cd it only works in "Data cd" format in the advanced tab. That's okay, but when I re-insert the cd and try to import it, it doesn't show anything- it plays in Itunes okay. There aren't any little boxes to check for selecting any songs and if I try to use the import function, it shows as blank.(file type shows as .txt) I am using Itunes 6- would Itunes 7 help this?
thanks- I have a lot of music to transfer and this is a problem.
Max -
Moved itunes now i have lost all sound with my media
I moved itunes and the library....now i have no sound for any of my music on my computer or through my videos...even putting in a cd there is no more sound...it just doesnt play. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
If for some reason you have failed to backup your computer ( not good) then you can redownload itunes purchases in some countries:
Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store -
Moving iTunes library to External HD
I needed to move my library to an ext HD. However, in my haste I've managed to make a mess of it. First off, I do not have a backup. Don't ask, it's a long story.
So far:
1 changed folder location to L:\
2 did not check Keep files organized box (stupidly)
3 moved iTunes folder from C:\ to L:\
4 opened iTunes and library didn't appear, so
5 added a folder to the library on L:\ (poss stupid)
6 can't find original library or playlists or purchased tunes in iTunes
7 did find original itl file in C:\ and opened it; all info seems to be there but all links are broken; I noted that itl file in L:\ contains only folder I added earlier. Not clear why that is.
My questions:
1 Since I neglected to Keep files organized when I moved, should I attempt a File>Library>Organize files to get original itl links back?
2 If above works, how do I move my original library to L:\
3 I did find many previous itl files by date on L:\, can I load these?
4 Do I win the Idiot of 2010 award for this maneuver?
I do have a pic of current status of iTunes folder(s) if that would help.
Thanks for any assistance, consolations, etc.
Message was edited by: Jamowa GA+1 Since I neglected to Keep files organized when I moved, should I attempt a File>Library>Organize files to get original itl links back?+
No. Since itunes already can't find any files, it won't be able to organize anything.
Can you move everything back to C: like it was to begin with? That's your best bet.
+4 Do I win the Idiot of 2010 award for this maneuver?+
No, you've just made the most common mistake folks make when going to a new drive. You have PLENTY of company.
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