Moving library from external to internal hard disk

When I started working with Lightroom, I put my library on an external 500GB Lacie hard drive to conserve space on my computer's hard disk.
I now have a new system:
Mac Pro
OS X 10.5.3
10GB of RAM
video card: ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT
with a nominal 500GB disk that I have partitioned into 250GB (available space 232.69GB)for my Lightroom library which currently occupies just under 39GB on the external hard drive, and a 250GB Photoshop scratch disk.
How can I move the library from the external hard drive to the new internal drive?
I am working with Lightroom 1.3 and would prefer to move the whole library rather than kludge it by importing catalog by catalog.
Thanks
Helena

What I'd do is make a parent folder on the external for all of your images inside of LR. Then copy all the images, including the parent to the new location. Copy the catalog to its new location too. Then open the copied catalog, at which time all your folders will be red. Then locate just the parent folder within LR and all the rest will be found. Then delete the parent and promote the rest.

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Moving a folder from external to internal hard disk

I want to move a music folder on my external hard drive to the internal one. I had previously disabled the option of copying files to iTunes library so this folder is not a part of iTunes Music folder Music/iTunes/iTunes Music but is is added to the library. If this would have been a folder on internal one then seems like itunes synchronizes it if I move the folder at some other location but here in this case if I move the files then there is no synchronization and itunes asks me to locate it. I don't seem to find any solution online. Please help

What I'd do is make a parent folder on the external for all of your images inside of LR. Then copy all the images, including the parent to the new location. Copy the catalog to its new location too. Then open the copied catalog, at which time all your folders will be red. Then locate just the parent folder within LR and all the rest will be found. Then delete the parent and promote the rest.

Moved Library from external HDD to MyBook NAS...

Hello forum - I am both perplexed and frustrated. I have moved my entire itunes library from one external drive to another network drive. I re-pointed iTunes to it's appropriate library.itl file. All music, movies, audiobook, etc. seem to appear. Two things do not appear:
1. The bulk of my artwork. 99% of my library has artwork which I manually embedded which is what I find strange as it seems that often that is the suggested fix when it is missing. Any thoughts? Is there a way to have itunes re-scan a folder and re-populate?
2. The "Shared Library" icon on the left hand side is also vanished. It does appear that home Sharing is on - but no icon.
I'm using the latest version of itunes, OSX Mountain lion 10.8.2 on 15" MBPr 2.3GHz.
FWIW - originally library was on a WD MyBook external drive. I transferred it to a WD MyBook Live Duo drive which is plugged into my airport extreme (latest model).
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Steve

Ok - I may have resolved this (let you know in about 2 days...). New question;
I did a library re-organization with iTunes. The heirarchy of folders seems weird - is this normal or "ok"?
On external drive:
There is content located in Music, Movies, etc. but there is alos content including Music, Movies, etc in the "iTunes Media Folder" - is that the way it i ssupposed to be? Seems like all music should be in one place - yes/no?
Thanks - Steve

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 =)

Can't copy Iphoto library from external drive to hard drive

I have a 210 gig iphoto library that I am trying to copy from an external hard drive with 440 gig of avaliable space. I am getting a message say it can't copy because there is not enough space. The math doesn't add up

Try the following:
1 - run Disk Utility and repair disk permissions.
2 - launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.
3 - Run Option #4, Rebuild Database, followed by Option #1.
4 - try dragging the library to your internal drive again.
OT

Moving music from external to internal - what do I need to do?

Most of the discussions here regarding moving music seem to be from moving to an internal device to external. I have the opposite situation coming up and need some help.
I'm getting a new MacBook Pro (late 2011) next week with a 500 Gb internal HD. I have a 6-year-old "first generation" MBP that came with a 100 Gb drive and had no room for my 162 Gb iTunes library. Now that I have the space, I want to copy all my music from the external to the internal, and although I know that I should copy my "iTunes" folder on the external to the "Music" folder on the new computer, I'm unsure whether or not iTunes will "fix" the paths on it's own, or whether I'll have to drag all 2,000+ folders to the iTunes app to have it recognize the path changes.
Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance...

Hello Clinton,
Did you solve it! I have the same problem as I want to store my "central" library for all other macs in my family to use when they want to use Itunes, makes sense frome a storage efficiency to me. I stopped by at the mac store in Stockholm and they said it was only to move the music folder, and go in and change under settings and advanced in Itunes to redirect it to the external hard drive and the new music folder.... but no, doesnt work.
Thanks for any help!
Mikael

How to transfer iTunes library from external to internal drive?

Awhile back, I'd run out of space on my internal HD and transferred all of my content to a larger external HD. I don't remember "repointing" my iTunes Library (as you can do in iPhoto) but somehow, iTunes recognized this and has since been backing up and restoring my iPhone to/from it.
This however, has created quite a few problems (too numerous to mention) and so, having recently installed a larger HD in my internal, I now want to re-point iTunes back to it.
How is this achieved?

Unless you have disabled iTunes organizing media and copying to media folder in your iTunes preferences settings all your media should be going to wherever you have designated as your media location. You can use the organize feature in that preference grouping to ensure all media entered in the iTunes library is actually copied to that designated location.
iTunes 11 for Mac: Change where your iTunes files are stored - http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12165 - Unfortunately this is misnamed. It should say "Change where your media files but not where your library files are stored" - more information at: https://discussions.apple.com/message/22026652 - and steps 5-8 in https://discussions.apple.com/message/24491967
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449

Moving library from external HD to new computer

I currently use iPhoto 5.0.4 on my iBook. The entire library has been backed up onto an external hard drive. I intend to get a new computer (probably an iMac) soon, and I will want to move the entire library onto the new computer, either from the external HD or the iBook itself.
Since the new computer's library will be empty, is it possible to just copy the existing "iPhoto Library" folder onto the new computer in the Pictures folder? (I'm assuming there's a Pictures folder.) Will iPhoto '09 handle/convert it as necessary or will there be a follow-up step? Do I also need to copy the com.apple.iphoto.plist file?
If the answer to the first question is no, what do I need to do to maintain the integrity of the library as it's set up? I am aware film rolls will be converted to Events, but don't know if the film rolls will stay in place if I simply use an import command to bring in the entire library.

Since the new computer's library will be empty, is it possible to just copy the existing "iPhoto Library" folder onto the new computer in the Pictures folder?
Yes. That's the recommended method. When iPhoto is launched it will look in the Pictures folder, open and convert the library to the new format. Just be sure to have a backup copy of the older library version just in case.
If you have any film rolls that are identified by Roll #xx they will be converted to an event with the illuminating titled of "untitled event". So if you get the chance, rename those rolls to a description that will describe the contents so the new events will have the same name.

HT204318 moving library from external drive to new computer

I have an HP laptop, running Windows 8- I have loaded all of my music into the "automatically add to itunes" folder, and by everything I have read, it should evaluate and load automatically, but it isnt doing it. How do I get it to load the music into iTunes?

If everything on the external drive is in WMA format then that method would work, otherwise you are likely to get duplicates, which is why I suggested you work with the Not Added folder.
Different audio formats have different ways of compressing and storing the information from the original source. Most software and hardware will only work with a limited range of formats. iTunes cannot play WMA directly, but can convert it to one of the formats it will play. Given this is a clean install of iTunes that format is likely to be AAC if you haven't changed it. MP3 may be a better choice if you might want to put the media on some non-Apple device in future, otherwise ACC is supposedly slight more efficient, i.e. a smaller file for the same quality.
The main factor affecting file size is bit rate. The more original data that is kept, the larger the file and the more closely the reproduced music will match the original source. WMA is a lossy format typical bit rates are 128kbs and 256kbs. Conveting a 128kbs file to, for example, a 256k AAC file results in a file larger than the original, but no better quality.
If you put Windows Explorer in details view you should be able to enable a bitrate column and scan through to see what the current values are. You can adjust your import settings as given. You may want to import in more than one batch if there is a mix of bitrates.
tt2

Moved library to external HD, iTunes still uses old iTunes Library.itl file

Howdy-
I'm running Windows 7 & iTunes XXX
I moved my library from my laptop internal hard drive (C:\Users\jasonbar\Music\iTunes) to my external hard drive (G:\iTunes).
I followed the recommended procedure:
1 - Edit/Preferences: check "Keep iTunes Media Folder Organized"
2 - Edit/Prefrences: click "Change" & input "G:\iTunes" into box to denote new library location
3 - File/Library/Organize Library & check "Consolidate Files"
Now, I've found that iTunes still uses the old "iTunes Library.itl" file in the old location (C:\Users\jasonbar\Music\iTunes). For the sake of convenience (and to make the library entirely self-contained on the external HD & to protect it from possible laptop loss/failure), it would be swell if I could migrate that file over to my external hard drive also. But, if I remove the "iTunes Library.itl" file from the old location & copy it to the new iTunes directory, iTunes just doesn't seem to be able to figure out that there's a nice "iTunes Library.itl" file on my external hard drive that it can use.
Is there any way to achieve what I want?
Thank you,
-Jason

I assume you have your iTunes folder located on your other drive (no Music folder enclosing it.) On your startup volume you have a /Home/Music/ folder but the iTunes folder has been removed. OK, so far?
Go to where the real iTunes folder is located. Select the folder then CTRL or RIGHT-click and select Make alias from the contextual menu. You should see a new icon appear named "iTunes alias" with a little curly arrow in the lower left corner of the icon. Now, copy the alias file to the /Home/Library/Music/ folder on your startup volume. Rename it to just "iTunes" (no quotes.) Delete the alias you created on the other drive.
Now when you double-click on the iTunes alias in your /Home/Music/ folder your real iTunes folder should open up. Now if you open iTunes application it should re-discover the iTunes folder.
Or you can do what the other posted suggested. Simply point iTunes to the new location of your iTunes folder. Open iTunes Preferences, click on the Advanced icon in the toolbar. Click on the Change button, locate the new library location, click on OK button of the Open dialog.

I have just upgraded my laptop from vista to windows 7, I have all my music on an external as the library is to large for hard disk. I have downloaded Itunes 11 but cannot fathom a way of getting my new itunes to connect with my external library.

Question: I have upgraded my windows vista to windows 7, I have all of my itunes music stored onto an external due to the size of content, so in vista all of my music in itunes had a path to F (external library). But now I have upgrade to windows 7, I cannot get itunes to recognise my library from my external. I have tried to connect external and open itunes with shift key down with both suggestions but to no avail. please help, all I want is to keep my library on external not on hard drive. I have also gone to preferences/advanced and made sure the external drive is chosen. This seems so complicated and I thought it would have been easy...

At a guess you followed the process in HT1364 - iTunes for Windows: Moving your iTunes Media folder which would have moved the media folder to a new path of your choice. This process leaves the library database files back in the original location of <User's Music>\iTunes. Often people assume that all they need is now on the external drive and wipe the internal drive, or discard their old computer, before backing up the all important iTunes folder. If you have a backup of your user's profile folder from before the upgrade the iTunes library folder should be in there somewhere. Restore it to <User's Music> and your original library should pop back into existence. The external drive would need to have the same drive letter that it had previously.
A more effective way to relocate the library is to move the entire iTunes folder to the external drive, then hold down shift when starting iTunes and keep holding until asked to choose or create a library. You would then choose the file iTunes Library.itl in the iTunes folder on the external drive. If this is the way you moved the library before then that is how you should now reconnect to it. Changing the media folder in preferences doesn't change which .itl database file is opened, nor does double-clicking on an .itl file directly.
If you no longer have the original .itl file then you will have to build a new library and import the media to it. If you need to do this I would recommend you create a new library at F:\iTunes, then move your existing media folders inside F:\iTunes\iTunes Media before importing. This will avoid the creation of duplicates and make sure the library is in the correct shape going forwards.
If you have an iPod or iOS device my scripts ImportDevicePlaylists and SyncStats may well let you recover ratings, play counts & playlists from the device.
When you've fixed up your libray you should consider getting a second external drive to backup to.
tt2

To Upgrade or Not To Upgrade (From External Hard disk to Internal Hard Disk

Hi, need some advise here.
Currently I have a External Hard Disk (320GB) connect with my IMac with Internal Hard Disk of standard 80GB.It is ok just that have to power on/off the External Hard Disk. It is very common that I forgot to power on the External Hard Disk and my iTune library goes to other location in the Internal Hard Disk instead of follow my setting in my External Hard Disk.
So I am considering remove the standard 80GB in my IMac and change with the 320GB.Read some instruction/procedure on this to me look complicated with the thermal pad thing so now hesitating worth the risk to swap the hard dsik or just leave it as it is.
Leave it as it is or change it?
Any advice ?

Here's a link to a take-apart guide I used a few times to replace & upgrade drives & memory in my old G4.
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/systems/iMacg4/imacg4takeapart.html
No it's not as easy as opening up a pc, but the key word is patience. The key thing to remember is to make sure you get some heatsink paste from your local computer store, and apply it to the areas that need it before buttoning everything back up.
It'll only take you a few hours if you work carefully. While you have it open I highly suggest upgrading your upper memory stick, as well as upgrading your superdrive. I get all my stuff here, they haven't steered me wrong yet:
http://eshop.macsales.com/static_pages/index.cfm
Sean
San Diego

ITunes showing Album Covers of external hard disk i/o internal hard disk

Greetings from Malaysia again. Searched through the Discussion Group, but couldn't find anything there. Thus, hope to get your assistance on this matter.
I have some music stored in the internal hard disk of my G4 iBook. However, recently I decided to have all my music stored in an EXTERNAL hard disk, ie in addition to what's in the iBook, to sync with my iPod. Both have the artwork or album covers. The issue is when I boot up ONLY the iBook, even without the external hard disk on, iTunes (Version 8.1) is showing the Artwork/Album Covers (and list of music) of the EXTERNAL hard disk instead of what's in the iBook. I've even tried the "Option key/Choose Library", but to no avail. I've even tried changing the location, after starting up iTunes in the Preference settings, but still the same story.
Is there any way to have iTunes reflect the correct Artwork/Album Covers (and list of music) when I have the external hard disk connected, as well as otherwise?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Regards.

Moved the existing library. Created a new one, and moved all the songs to the new library. Subsequently, when using the "Option" key to select the library, it ended up as what I wanted, ie iTunes showing the album covers for the songs/album in the respective library - ie external hard disk, and internal in the notebook.

HT1660 move iTunes library from external drive to internal drive

I had to move my iTunes library from my internal hard disk to an external one so that they could replace the recalled hard drive on my iMac. Is moving the library back to the internal drive as easy as dragging it into the Music/iTunes folder?

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.
Quick answer 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), then guide it to the new location of the library.itl file in the moved iTunes folder.

How do I move music files from the startup disc to iTunes in the other internal hard disk os 10.5.8?

How do I move music files from the startup disc to iTunes in the other internal hard disk os 10.5.8?
The music I want to move was in iTunes but is now just files. I had to reinstall a new iTunes and lost all my old music.
Thank you!

That article is about using your iPod as an external hard drive, to move files from one computer to another computer. It is not related to your question.
You can't use iTunes to move song files from iPod to computer, except for songs you purchased from the iTunes Store (and you can also re-download purchases). However, there are third-party methods and utilities that can move song files from iPod to computer. If you do a Google search on something like "ipod transfer," you should get some links.
Once the song files are on your current computer, add them to that computer's iTunes library by dragging the files (or folder containing the files) to the iTunes window. After confirming everything is there (and fixing the data issue you mentioned) you can sync the iPod. You may want to do a Restore on the iPod, if it might have a data corruption issue, which will erase the iPod's hard drive, re-install the latest software, and set it to defautl settings.

Moving library from external to internal hard disk

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