Need to format c:\*.* but keep my ITunes library

I cannot find the anser to a seemingly simple question....
Assuming I have properly saved my itunes library to an external hard drive, how do I reinstall my itunes library after reinstalling Windows?
I'd hate to start this process without reassurance that I will recover my daughters itunes libray, playlists and ratings.
Thanks in advance for any help!

Assuming you have copied the entire iTunes folder - which includes the iTunes Music , Album Artwork and Previous iTunes Libraries folders along with the iTunes Library files - from C:\Documents and Settings\ user name \My Documents\My Music to the external drive, all you will have to do is paste it into C:\Documents and Settings\ user name \My Documents\My Music on your newly formatted computer.
The entire path to the iTunes folder on the new installation must be identical to the path on the old installation, including the user name .
Have a look at this User Tip .
Post back with any further questions.

Similar Messages

  • How do we split our iCloud accounts but keep one iTunes account so we can share purchased content for our multiple iPhones and iPads?

    How do we split our iCloud accounts but keep one iTunes account so we can share purchased content for our multiple iPhones and iPads?

    You can migrate a copy of the data to a new account, then delete the other person's data from each account.  To do this, on the phone that will be changing accounts, if you have any photos in photo stream that you want to keep on the phone, save these to your camera roll by opening the photo stream album in the thumbnail view, tapping Edit, then tap all the photos you want to save, tap Share and tap Save to Camera Roll. If you have any synced notes that you want to keep on the phone, email these to yourself so you can create new notes in the new account.
    Once this is done, go to Settings>iCloud, scroll to the bottom and tap Delete Account.  (This will only delete the account from this phone, not from iCloud.  The phone that will be keeping the account will not be effected by this.)  When prompted about what to do with the iCloud data, be sure to select Keep On My iPhone.  Next, set up a new iCloud account using a different Apple ID (if you don't have one, tap Get a Free Apple ID at the bottom).  Then turn iCloud data syncing for contacts, etc. back to On, and when prompted about merging with iCloud, choose Merge.  This will upload the data to the new account.  You will create a new icloud email address with you turn Mail to On.
    Finally, to un-merge the data you will then have to go to icloud.com on your computer and sign into each iCloud account separately and manually delete the data you don't want (such as deleting your wife's data from your account, and vice versa).

  • I have just bought a macbook pro and i want to use an ext hard drive with it which i previously used on a windows computer, but when i plug it in it doesn't show up on my macbook pro, I've wiped it and just need to format it but don't know how, help

    i have just bought a macbook pro and i want to use an ext hard drive with it which i previously used on a windows computer, but when i plug it in it doesn't show up on my macbook pro, I've wiped it and just need to format it but don't know how, any help would be much appreciated

    Try the other USB port. If it still doesn't show up in Disk Utility then there may be something wrong with your Mac. Try something else in each USB port and see if it is seen. If the other thing, like a USB thumb drive, does show up in disk utiltiy then the USB ports are fine.
    Power down the system and restart with the drive connected, go to DU and see it it is seen.

  • Can I keep my iTunes library solely on an external drive?

    I have the macbook air with 128gig HD. I currently have a Windows laptop with a bigger HD housing my itunes network with all of my music and digital copies of movies. I've been using this computer as my primary laptop since I bought it (love it too much) and was considering taking the library over to this computer. Unfortunately with all the movies, it takes up a huge amount of HD space. I have a 500gig external drive. Can I have my itunes library on that, and plug it in when I want to sync or use itunes? Or does it all need to be on the actual computer's HD.
    (Fingers crossed a cloud-based storage system somewhere in NC makes this all irrelevant later this year)

    Hey
    No problem keeping your itunes library on an external drive, just follow the instructions here to move it
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364
    In future make sure your external drive is connected and detected by your computer before opening iTunes.

  • I will soon be purchasing a new PC running Windows 7. I need to know how to migrate my iTunes Library and apple devices to the PC. Is there a previously published support document on this topic? Thank You.

    I will soon be purchasing a new PC running Windows 7. I need to know how to migrate my iTunes Library and apple devices to the PC. Is there a previously published support document on this topic? Thank You.

    Connect a blank powered external drive to the PC.
    Right click on the Disk in the File manager and choose format: exFAT 
    (if it's a XP machine, first install exFAT from Microsoft and reboot)
    navigate to your user account folders on the PC and drag and drop copy (or copy and paste) to the external drive.
    (if a program has your files, then export them out first)
    Hook up the drive to the Mac, and transfer files to the desktop or to their same appropritate folders.
    Import photo's into iPhoto program, import music into iTunes etc and they will manage those files.
    You can continue to use the external exFAT drive between Mac's and PC's
    Do not format the drive NTFS or FAT, NTFS can't be written too by the Mac and FAT can't hold over 4GB sized files.
    If you format exFAT on the Mac, it likely won't work correctly on the  PC.
    "Migration" type programs are a utter waste of time and effort between PC's and Mac's for the fact that only certain files (and no programs or anything else) will work between them, also it's a hassle and takes too long. So don't even bother with it.

  • I just need to know how you get an iTunes library off the original hard drive of a mac and onto an external hard drive and still have it work normally?

    I just need to know how you get an iTunes library off the original hard drive of an imac and onto an external hard drive and still have it work as it normally would?

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449

  • Keeping my iTunes library in a Airport connect Hardrive

    I want to keep my iTunes library on a hard drive that I have connected to my Airport wireless network. When I do this in the default configuration iTunes cannot access the library until I go out to the shared drive, connect to it, and browse into it to the point where it is now mounted.
    Is there a way to have a shared drive automatically visible either through some automatic authentication or some other setup option for the hard drive. Basically, can I automatically have this drive mounted in some way.
    Thanks
    MikeK

    Hello MikeK & Scubonics,
    Hopefully I can be of some help.
    Have you put a check mark in the box for 'Remember this password in my Keychain' when asked to authenticate? Also, have you put a check mark in the box in the Airport Disk Utility for 'Automatically discover Airport Disks'?
    Mondy

  • How do you seperate backups, but keep same itunes account

    With the new icloud, I am finding that I need seperate back-ups, but want to keep same itunes account. how do I do this?

    This has nothing to do with backups. Your iCloud backups are already separate. See at Settings>iCloud>Storage and Backup>manage storage. Your iTunes backups are separated to. Open iTunes go to Preferences>Devices.
    Also you can turn off automatic download from settings>iTunes and App Stores on your device.
    I don't understand what you wanna do with photos.
    If you mean the photos that you sync with iTunes, every device can sync different things. Choose the albums or folder for each device as you like under Photos tab on iTunes sync page.

  • I need to get the music from my iTunes library to my iPhone 4, but it won't recognize my phone in iTunes...

    When I plug my iPhone 4 into my laptop, a box pops up that says "The iPhone "iPhone" cannot be used because it requires iTunes version 11.1 or later. Go to www.itunes.com to download the latest version of iTunes."
    I did so, but after downloading this software, I was told that it needed my MacBook Pro to have Version 10.6.8 or higher to run. My MacBook has Version 10.6.4, and I have no idea what updating it would require. I'd prefer to get my music from iTunes library to my phone without updating. If anyone knows how, please help.
    Otherwise, could someone please tell me how to update my MacBook, how much it would cost, etc.?

    You'll have to update your OS on your Macbook.
    Click on the black Apple logo at the top left of your Mac screen.  Then click on Software Update.
    support.apple.com/kb/ht1338

  • Itunes match - do I need to keep my Itunes Library original files?

    Can I delete my Itunes library on my hard drive if I subscribe to Itunes match? Would that be unwise?

    Welcome to Apple Support Communities
    You can delete the music from your hard drive and you will be able to access to it from your iTunes Match. In that case, you will have to be connected to Internet in order to listen to your music but you will save storage on your hard disk. iTunes Match uploads your music to your iCloud, so you will be able to listen to the songs without having them saved on your hard drive

  • I'm getting a new computer & I want to keep my iTunes library ... how?

    This weekend I will be upgrading to a new PC. With that naturally there will be fresh Windows XP to install iTunes on.
    Before reading any further please note that this is not about backing up my music - i have all my music stored on another harddrive.
    My problem is that a lot of music on my iTunes is from independent 'underground' artists that release their music in mp3 format online. That is - I spent hours and hours and hours with my iTunes manualy changing album covers, songs titles, artist names, genre descriptions etc... I like it all to be nice an neat.
    So now... what do i do to transfer my library list(album covers, songs titles, artist names, genres) to the new computer?
    I basically want to turn iTunes on the new machines and see the exact same list I see right now - and I want the new iTunes on the new PC to see where the music is on my computer (as in the D: harddrive directory, which will not change) ..just the way i see it now
    I'm really afraid I will not be able to do it - and that will mean hours upon hours of work i will have to do over X_X
    ... please help
    -[seb]-

    How to Copy and Move (Clone) your Music Files from One Computer to Another
    This is the conceptual framework with related and important links. Apply and adapt it to your specific situation and equipment resources.
    The safest, quickest, and most optimal method to move your Library to a new computer is to actually clone the entire ‘iTunes’ folder (directory) structure, rather than just copying just the song files. By copying the entire ‘iTunes’ folder and all sub-folders, you capture not only the music files, but the all-important ‘iTunes Library.itl’ database file (usually located in the ‘iTunes’ folder), which contains all the data about your songs (Playlists, Ratings, Play Counts, Last Played, Date Added, etc). See: What are the iTunes Library files?
    Install iTunes on the new computer. Then go back to your old computer and move (copy) the "iTunes" folder which usually resides inside your "…\My Documents\My Music" folder from the old computer to the exact same place (both Drive Letter and complete Path) on the new computer. When you open iTunes on the new computer it will look and behave exactly the same way it did on the old, Play Counts, Ratings, Comments and all!
    NOTE: It is usually safer moving files between computers with the same version of iTunes!!
    iTunes Files to Copy and Move to your New PC
    1) All music files in their current folder structure (usually located in and under the ‘iTunes Music’ folder)
    2) The Library database file: ‘iTunes Library.itl’ located in the ‘iTunes’ folder
    3) The Library XML file: ‘iTunes Music Library.xml’ located in the ‘iTunes’ folder
    4) Any XML playlist files you created for Playlist retention
    5) The two iTunes.pref files (optional)
    -- C:\Documents and Settings\<your username>\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\iTunes.pref
    -- C:\Documents and Settings\<your username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Apple Computer Inc\iTunes.pref
    6) The XML file of Ratings, Play Counts and Last Played attributes saved from the main Library and created by Otto’s SaveRatings script (also optional, but recommended):
    “Download this: http://ottodestruct.com/itunes/SaveRatings.zip . It's a program, just run it like any other program. Run it on the machine where you're copying the info from BEFORE you move the files to the new machine. Click the "Save Ratings" button and it'll create a ratings.xml file. Now when you move the files, move the program and this file as well. Then after you make your new iTunes library, run it again and click the "Restore Ratings" button. Voila, all your information is back in the Library. Well, most of it anyway, it's not perfect. It'll tell you what songs it couldn't figure out though, and there's usually not very many.”
    Here's a list of methods to copy and move your music files from one computer to another:
    1) Use an External Hard Drive (ExHD) to move the complete files and Folder structures from one computer to another (my preferred option). You can clone’ the entire ‘iTunes’ folder structure in one very easy step. Also great to have available for complete backups of your Library. External hard drives now run less than $100 for 200-250GBs of storage. See This Link
    2) Directly connect the two computers....
    - 2a) Connect them through a Router &/or Network
    - 2b) Directly connect using an Ethernet cable: Straight for using at least one Mac; or Crossover for PC/PC Instructions here.
    - 2c) Connect them via a USB-to-USB Network Bridge. Example here. There are various types out there (use Google).
    ....Then copy the files from one computer to the other.
    3) Use the iPod as a transfer device, as this extensive Apple link explains. It will be a bit easier if your iPod has a larger capacity than your music collection, otherwise you will need to perform multiple copy/move transfers. This well written process also works fine while using any other data transfer medium (ExHD, Flash Drive, DVD, CD, Zipp, Jazz, etc.).
    4) Burn several DVDs (at 4.7GBs each) with your music data files and folder structure, and load them onto the new computer. Re-writable DVDs are more cost effective (if your DVD drive can manage these types).
    5) Burn 6x more on CDs (at 700MB each) than in #4 above and load the files and folders on the new computer. Re-writable CDs are more cost effective (if your CD drive can manage these types).
    6) Use a larger USB Flash drive (1GB - 4GB) to move the files and folders. Best if the flash drive is larger than your Library, otherwise you will need multiple copy/move transfers.
    These are links to various additional instructions on performing the transfer (read them all, but some listed steps may not be required depending on your specific situation):
    Switch from PC to Mac Using the iPod
    hudgie: Migrating iTunes for Windows to a new PC
    How to copy music between authorized computers

  • Turning off Xmas music but keeping it in library

    Oops--I posted this question in the wrong forum, so here goes again:
    So I added some Christmas music to my iTunes library and updated my nano so that I could enjoy it in December. But now, I can't get rid of it! I've updated and synced my ipod--I can easily add new things--but no luck with the Xmas stuff. I unchecked all the boxes--because I wanted to keep it in my library--shouldn't that be reflected on my iPod? I don't want to delete all my Xmas music--am I missing something? I'm not the most with-it iPod user I guess. Thanks!
    PS on another thread it looks like I need to delete totally. Oh well.

    I unchecked all the boxes--because I wanted to keep it in my library--shouldn't that be reflected on my iPod?
    Only if you have the iPod set to "only sync checked items". With this setting selected, if you remove the check marks from any songs in iTunes, they will not be transferred to the iPod. You can restore the check mark if you want to put the songs back on the iPod at a later date.
    Or, you could put the Xmas items in a playlist in iTunes, then you could set the iPod to sync with "selected playlists".

  • Music on iPod but deleted from iTunes Library

    Hello, please help... I have accidently deleted 36GB of music from my external hard drive although currently the music is on my iPod (classic). I do have all the DVD's and CD's but do not want to download them all again. Is there anyway I can download the music that is on my iPod back to my PC or external hard drive? I am terrified of plugging my iPod back into my PC (which is showing an empty library) for fear that the music will also get deleted from my iPod.
    Also, reason this happened is that everytime I added music to external hard drive - and then "Add folder to Library" - I would end up with duplicates showing in my iTunes Library.

    *I am terrified of plugging my iPod back into my PC (which is showing an empty library) for fear that the music will also get deleted from my iPod.*
    If your iPod is set to update automatically you need to take care connecting to an empty iTunes. You can use a keyboard command to prevent your iPod auto-syncing with iTunes. While connecting the iPod to the computer on Windows hold down the Shift + Ctrl keys together. This will stop the iPod from auto-syncing with iTunes and the iPod will appear in the source list. Wait until you are sure the iPod has mounted, and that it will not auto sync and then you can let the keys go. This may take between 20 to 30 seconds depending on your computer: iTunes - Keyboard Shortcuts for Windows
    When your iPod appears in the iTunes source list change the update setting to manual, that way you can continue to use your iPod without the risk of accidentally erasing it. Also when using most of the utilities listed below your iPod needs to be enabled for disc use, changing to manual update will do this by default: Managing content manually on iPod and iPhone
    *Is there anyway I can download the music that is on my iPod back to my PC or external hard drive?*
    Once you are safely connected there are a few things you can do to restore your iTunes from the iPod. If you only want to copy your purchases to the computer that can be done using iTunes, you'll find details in this article: Copying iTunes Store purchases from your iPod or iPhone to a computer
    For everything else (including purchases) there are a number of third party utilities that you can use to retrieve the music files and playlists from your iPod. I use Senuti but have a look at the web pages and documentation for the others too. You can read reviews and comparisons of some of them here (you'll find that they have varying degrees of functionality and some will transfer movies, videos, photos and games as well):
    Wired News - Rescue Your Stranded Tunes
    Comparison of iPod managers
    A selection of iPod to iTunes utilities:
    Senuti Mac Only (iPod Touch & iPhone compatible)
    PodView Mac Only
    PodWorks Mac Only
    iPodDisk PPC Mac Only (experimental version available for Intel Macs)
    TuneAid Mac only (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
    YamiPod Mac & Windows
    iPod Music Liberator Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
    iPodRip Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
    iPod Music Liberator Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
    iGadget Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
    Floola Mac & Windows
    Music Rescue Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
    iRepo Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
    iPod Access Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
    TouchCopy Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
    There's also a manual method of copying songs from your iPod to a Mac or PC. The procedure is a bit involved and won't recover playlists but if you're interested it's available on page 2 at this link: Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer - The Definitive Guide
    Keep your iPod in manual mode until you have reloaded your iTunes and you are happy with your playlists etc then it will be safe to return it auto-sync.

  • How Can I Keep My iTunes Library Syncronized to My Laptop

    I have my music files stored on a NAS share.  On my desktop system, my iTunes library points to the NAS share.  This works pretty well.  I have a second desktop point to the same NAS share.  I recently got a laptop and want to somehow have my music available on my laptop even when offline or away from my home.  I thought about using some software to sync the music files to the laptop on some sort of schedule, but is that the best option?  Is there some other way to accomplish what I want?

    Hello MeggiePie86,
    Welcome to the Apple Support Communities. Before you go through the process of importing your music from your iPod, check to see if the music is already on your computer.  Check in the Following path C:\Users\username\My Music\iTunes\
    Where are my iTunes files located?
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1391
    If there is media there, then import that into your iTunes library.
    Adding music and other content to iTunes
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1473
    If you need to transfer your music back from your library, you can transfer purchases that have been made through iTunes.  This article will assist with that process.
    iTunes Store: Transferring purchases from your iOS device or iPod to a computer
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1848
    You can alternatively download previous purchases directly from the iTunes store.
    Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store
    http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2519
    Regards,
    -Norm G.

  • Hey everyone! i have a external hardrive i keep my itunes library of songs on and it wont sync with my ipod touch inless i copy and paste it into my ipod device when thats conected. i dont want all the songs on there only checked ones. help plz!!

    im having trouble with syncing my ipod touch with my itunes library that i keep on a external hardrive. when i plug up my external hardrive that has all my songs on it, it doesn't sync to my ipod correctly. i have to copy and paste the songs to my ipod device when its connected. i dont want all the songs on there and i want to be able to manually control whats on my ipod. and id like to take some songs off of the ipod also but i want them still in my itunes library though. i usually check the songs i want on the ipod but it isnt working that way maybe because its a external hardrive?? i never had a problem with past ipods with my library on itunes but i ran out of space on my computer and had to transfer all of the songs to my external hardrive. please someone help me!! i thought it would be simple! but it isnt the case! i plug up my hardrive then my ipod, i press sync and nothing gets transfered unless i copy and paste them to the ipod. even though it says ipod syncing in progress! this is really confusing! please help me!! sorry if this is jumbled up and confusing..

    Correct. When you update via iTunes all synced media that is not in your iTunes library will be lost.
    As IO said before:
    You can redownload most iTunes pruchases by:
    Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store
    I do not think it included audio books.

Maybe you are looking for