New PC-do I need to transfer Itunes library files (itl and xml files?)

Hi gang,
I followed the Itunes tutorial for Windows and moved my Itunes music library to a EHD as it was filling up my laptop. I left the itl and xml library files on the laptop hard drive as instructed.
However, this laptop is a work PC and if I change jobs I will need to download a new version of Itunes to the new PC. I know how to import the files from the EHD but my question is the following:
1. Do I need to back up the itl and xml library files to the EHD before I give back the work PC? It seems likely since they contain info about the playlists.
2. Once I download Itunes on the new PC would I just copy the library files onto the hard drive or can they remain on the EHD?
It sounds like (from reading some info from Chris CA) that I need to make a copy of the Itunes folder (which includes the itl and xml files) from the laptop hard drive and put it on the EHD inside the EHD Itunes folder. Then with the new PC load a new version of Itunes and hold the shift key when launching. Then I would select the library from the EHD.
Is that correct?
Thanks!
Any help would be appreciated as I cannot find anything on this in Itunes help or the forum.

Assuming you start with a standard configuration which is:
The iTunes folder in My music on your c: drive and all your music in the iTunes Music folder in the iTunes folder on the c: drive.
Starting from there, with iTunes closed, you copy the iTunes folder to an external drive, this also copies the music in the iTunes Muisc folder.
To move to a new PC, you install iTunes, then you drag your new iTunes folder to the desktop, then you replace it by copying the iTunes folder from the external drive.
With this set up you can also run entirely on the EHD if you want to. Just start iTunes with the shift key held down, navigate to the iTunes folder on the external drive an choose iTunes Library.itl. This could be useful if you want to dake the EHD to work.
If you are not starting from the default position I described, some adjustments would have to be made, but it would need an exact descripition of how your folders are set up at the moment.

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Have itl and xml files on external hd am running home premium. can no longer access files, am told this is because they were created with a newer version of itunes. also when i try to download 10.3 it wont, just says invalid drive j and for me to try aga

i am running vista home premium on desktop and vista basic on laptop. have placed my itunes music with .itl and .xml files onto external drive connected to another desktop running vista and can no longer access music on first two mentioned comps only on the one connected to external drive. always am told that the library cant be read because it was created using a newer version of itunes. have tried to download 10.3 but it always tells me that i have and invalid hard drive j and to try again. any ideas?

Older versions of iTunes cannot read libraries created with newer versions of iTunes. You need to have the same version of iTunes on all your PCs. Is that the case?
As far as the problem installing iTunes goes, see this article from b noir on dealing with the problem:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2450004
If you get to the point where you need the Microsoft Installer cleanup utility, you will need more help as it has been withdrawn by Microsoft. but I am hoping the virtual drive trick will work,

I fouled up; erased library .itl and .xml files; need a little help

I think I see what I did wrong (my issue relates to this reply post I submitted earlier today >> https://discussions.apple.com/message/16254985#16254985 but I don't think there's any need to go back and read that post to get the gist of my problem).
So, after knocking around and reading a whole bunch of forum posts and Apple support pubs, I now know I did something dumb.
Simply put, last night, in the course of attempting to delete from my MacBook Pro the iTunes library file residing there (the one designed to contain actual media files, i.e., music, books, podcasts, etc.), I also deleted the iTunes Library.itl and iTunes Library.xml files. Yes, doh! is right.
[BTW, the idea behind deleting the media library on the MBP was because my media files are -- and have been for some time -- located on an external hard drive. So the good news is I still have all my media. Of course, the bad news is I lost all playlists and a host of song-specific information and I'm sure a bunch of other stuff that is organized on the iTunes Library.itl file. (Apple's helpful info sheet on the .itl and .xml files at >> http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660)]
So I opened up iTunes today and there is nothing there, i.e., looks like just opened for the first time ever. I now know that in the absence of the .itl and .xml files (which I trashed yesterday), iTunes went ahead and created new, empty versions of these files.
HERE'S THE QUESTION: what should or can i do now to rebuild my library? My media files still reside on my external HD and there they must stay because there isn't remotely enough room on the MBP hard drive itself.
I'm just sort of stumped. And skittish. I don't want to make another dumb mistake that will make things even worse. Any ideas?

Hey, sorry to hear that, but good to know that you have all your "stuff" and its just a matter of getting it all back together in the right place. So, I have some ideas why it happened to me and maybe why this happened to you, which may be relevant later, but first I'll first explain how I got out of this jam.
After much investigating, I finally did a search for .itl files and ended up "finding" one in the Media folder itself, specifically in the Music folder (yeah, should have done this much earlier). Looking around, I also found the other files and folders that are supposed to be at same directory level as "iTunes Media."
At this point, I just moved them back to where they were supposed to be and opened iTunes and, voila, there was my stuff (albeit not quite all of it or exactly as it should be). Then, after making sure my Media folder was properly identified in Advanced Preferences, I checked the boxes under File -> Library -> Organize Library and iTunes started doing some activity that seemed like it was reorganizing or rechecking the organization (you can see I am no expert here).
So like I indicated, it wasn't exactly the way it was when I last used iTunes before I had the problems (e.g., various podcasts, books, etc. werent there -- so i just added them into the Library manually, i.e., File -> Add To Library, etc.).
Anyway, I hope this helps if you haven't already fixed your problem. If not, I might have some other ideas I came across while still searching for solution to my problem. Best of luck.

Forgot to backup itunes library.itl and xml files

I backup pretty much everything. Unfortunately I forgot about the itunes library datase files, the itubes library.itl and xml files. The hard drive has been repartioned and formated, so it's gone. I do have all the music in the exact same directory structure though. Both versions are Windows 7 x64. I aslo have my iPOD.
What I want to figure out how to do is import the database into a new install of itunes. So the music and stuff doesn't matter. It's all there in the same set of folders, with the exact same path as before. Is there any way to create the itl and xml files containing the metadata from the iPOD?
I wouldn't even be all that bummed if I had to let my music import from the hard drive again. I just really really want to import my playlists. That would really suck if I had to type them all in manually from the iPOD. If anyone could point me int he right direction, I would really appreciate it.

Ok googlers from the future, here is the sultion I used.
This solution puts everything back to normal with minimal work, but it costs you however much disk space is on your ipod. I downloaded the copytrans suite off the piratebay. Then I used the ipod copy to back up my ipod. This will copy things to folders based on tags. So you have to have a second copy of your music. Once it is backed up remote the itunes library files from the top folder of the itunes library. Start itunes, and then go to import playlist. Then you select the xml file from your ipod backup. This will import the entire library into itunes. When you sync your ipod it will say iit is going to delete everything and reload it, but it doesn't. If there was stuff that was no in the library it would delete it, but there won't be because the library came from your ipod to being with. So it just copies anything to it that wasn't there, if there is anything.
From that point, when you want to add stuff to your library/ipod, you have to put a copy of the music in the library you made. So all the music you want on your computer and your ipod will take up double space on your hard drive because you have to put a copy in the library folder. Once it is there, you just go to add folder and select your library folder. THis will make it rescan and put the new songs in the database.
The good part of this is you don't have to do selective ipod loading. You make the selection when you copy to the library folder. So at that point you just sync your ipod making an exact copy.
That was the best solution for me anyway, with a big library and lots of playlists. I also never use itunes. The sole purpose of having itunes is to load my ipod. My ipod I use daily though. I don't drive anywhere without it connected to my stereo. Being able to select anything in a massive music library from my head unit while driving around is seriously awesome.

New ipod touch gen. 4 .. need to transfer itune library to new computer using external hard drive. help

New ipod gen.4... itunes on old computer with windows xp... comp. wont recognize ipod touch... when plugged into usb port... put music on external hard drive ..... now must transfer to laptop...with windows vista home premium... help

Type "move itunes library" into the Google search bar.
Type "ipod touch not recognized by itunes" into the search bar at the top of this page by "Support"

I need to transfer up to 200 pages and keynote files from my macbook to my PC. Is there any way I can convert all of the files to word-friendly documents as a batch change or will I have to open each individual file and re-save it as word-friendly?

I need to transfer up to two hundred Pages and Keynote files from my macbook running on Mac OS X 10.6.8 to my PC running windows. Is there any way I can convert all of the files to word-friendly documents as a batch change or will I have to open each individual file and re-save it as a word-friendly file?

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Corrupt iTunes Library file (.itl AND .xml)

I just got a new mac and decided not to put my music on it. Instead I kept my entire itunes library on an external hard drive. At some point, my hard drive must have disconnected while using iTunes and the library files became corrupt. When I see the files (in finder) on my mac, their size = Zero KB and their "kind of" = Alias. When I check out those same files on my windows computer, it says their actual numerical size (probably before they became corrupt). I've read that you can restore playlists with the .xml file but that is also corrupt.
Is there any way at all to repair/recover this library? PLEASE HELP I've worked very hard on creating this library.

I had this problem repeatedly and found that it seems to happen when you exit or restart Windows while iTunes is running. Note that when you close the iTunes window the program actually continues to run for a significant amount of time after its window disappears and even after the "saving iTunes library" message disappears. Basically iTunes starts writing out its library and then gets interrupted during the shutdown, causing the corruption.
I have solved the problem with the very pathetic solution of bringing up Task Manager, switching to the Processes tab, and waiting until the iTunes.exe process is gone from the list. Then I know it is done writing and it's safe to exit or restart Windows. I have never had corruption when I have done this.
(This isn't completely consistent with the posts above since one claimed that they restored a known good library after reboot and still had the problem. Perhaps that is something else, or perhaps the known good library had actually been corrupted before it was saved.)
Note that when the *.itl file is corrupted this way, it is pretty much always the case the the *.xml file is also corrupted. Since the XML file is text, iTunes is able to read what there is of it to rebuild the *.itl, but since the *.xml file is truncated, a lot of songs will be missing. It's a bit puzzling that Apple chose a library format that redundantly writes to two separate files but they write them out simultaneously so if one gets corrupted the other one almost always is corrupted as well.
The good news is that this problem is beyond simple to solve for Apple. The bad news is that for some inexplicable reason they keep releasing version after version with this same serious bug.

Got new Mac! Easiest way to transfer iTunes Library via iPod?

I just got myself a brand spankin' new MacBook Pro. It's been great. I thought to myself, well, I could just keep my music on my main Mac and use iTunes' sharing feature. But, it is VERY unreliable, my MBP only detects it, like, 30% of the time.
So, long story short, I want a library of about 1700 items (about 1600 songs, 100 others) on my MBP. I've already authorized and I have an 80GB 5th Gen iPod.
(I don't care about transferring games or photos. But I do want my videos.)
What is the best program. I want it to transfer rating and cover art. I would STRONGLY prefer it it could also transfer or arrange my playlists. Please recommend software that works! I've had terrible experiences with iPod rippers.
So, the checklist is:
Free
Transfers playlists
Transfers cover art and rating
Easy-to-use
Transfers videos
WORKS
Thank you for helping!

Hello,
The best way to make a transfert to one mac to another is to start the one you want to tranfert from in Target mode (meaning it will be considered by the other mac as an external HD).
To do so : restart your mac holding the T key pressed, you'll see a nice Firewire sign instead of the usual Apple sign. Then hook your mac using a firewire cable to the one you want to tranfert file to. It will mount as a normal HD.
Sorry if i am not very clear but english is not my first language and it's pretty late here. If you need more detailed informations, let me know.
Also, note that you can create a network between two Macs using a firewire cable (faster than ethernet !)
Franck

HT1296 so itunes deleted all my music from itunes, I still have all the original files however I unwittingly added new music after this happened which wipes the itl and xml files. I have my playlists on my iphone. how do I get itunes back to its original

If this cant be resolved I think apple and I shall be parting ways its been a long time in the coming

Also, what causes this, so I can avoid it in the future?

HT1451 did anyone else find that an .itl or .xml file had to be present in order to open/ find the itunes library

this is the correction to the article. REPLACE .itl and .xml files . itunes will not open without them. .itl especially
long story of broken Macbook Pros. new one and the external drive had the only copy of iTunes. i had music on various drives so i started a new itunes library and imported all the music i could find, including from the 'only copy'. problem: a hundred playlists in painstaking order not there.
followed the instructions from this article. except. when itunes opens, it has to have the .itl and .xml file present.
i still had a spare copy of "only copy" so i replaced the NEW iTunes composite library's .itl and .xml files with the ones from 'only copy'. opened it up and there were all my playlists. now i may have to re-import music from various and tweak the playlists. but i don't have to RE-DO THEM.

CB many thanks!
woke up today with the exact same problem... iMac locked up while playing a video podcast off my NAS
(it was happily playing the audio even though the mouse was frozen)
couldnt get permission control of my Library.itl so found your post,
turned off the iTunes Server in my Synology (dont use it like that anyway) and rebooted the NAS.
iTunes immediatley launched WITHOUT the lock, performed its repair check and up it came!
THANK-YOU
...oddly I notice that I dont have permissions to ANY of my directorys/files,
guess 'cause they are set in the Synology Shared Folder permissions?
All are listed in the finder as:
(unknown) R&W
everyone NO ACCESS
cockbongo wrote:
I had exactly the same problem, but appear to have solved it
Not sure what make/model NAS you have, but if it has an iTunes Server type service on it, turn it off. This won't delete your music folder, don't worry, but it will stop your NAS thinking it deserves exclusive access to the library files. Then reboot your NAS and voila, you can do what you like with the files.
You can turn the iTunes service back on whenever you've finished doing what you need to do.
Hope that helps.

Need to restore iTunes library locally stored

I do not maintain my ITunes library in the cloud. All is kept..to the extent that I can .. locally. Don't know exactly when this happened, perhaps during the last iTunes update, but today when I was doing an iOS update to my iPodTouch5G noticed that iTunes was no longer connected to the iTunes libary that I maintain on my D not my C drive. My D drive is a terabyte HD; the C drive is a 256GB SSD. I tried to simply tell iTunes to point itself back to the D (D:/MyMusic/Itunes) hoping that it would simply redirect itself there and pick up the libary of music, videos, books, etc I have stored there. But no joy at all. I refuse to believe that I need to rebuild my library given all the palylists etc I' ve established. What is the easy way to rebuild my library? Until this is fixed, everything I have on my IpodTouch is not being backed up (even tho it says it is.when I sync it). Everythign on my iPodTouch is still there. I just want my local libary in iTunes restored.
Note that the folder containing my iTunes libary is intact.. all the data is there..but somehow I have seem to have lost the index that knows its there along with all my settings.

Sounds like you might need to make a split library portable but first you'll need to fix it...
Empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash
Hopefully it's not been too long since you last upgraded iTunes, in fact if you get an empty/incomplete library immediately after upgrading then with the following steps you shouldn't lose a thing or need to do any further housekeeping. Note that in iTunes 11 an "empty" library may show your past purchases with links to stream or download them.
In the Previous iTunes Libraries folder should be a number of dated iTunes Library files. Take the most recent of these and copy it into the iTunes folder. Rename iTunes Library.itl as iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl and then rename the restored file as iTunes Library.itl. Start iTunes. Should all be good, bar any recent additions to or deletions from your library.
Alternatively, depending on exactly when and why the library went missing, there may be a more recent .tmp file in the main iTunes folder that can be renamed as iTunes Library.itl to restore the library to a recent state.
See iTunes Folder Watch for a tool to catch up with any changes since the backup file was created.
When you get it all working make a backup!
Should you be in the unfortunate position where you are no longer able to access your original library, or a backup of it, then see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
I've noticed more of these missing library posts of late and a common factor to most since I started asking is AVG Anti-Virus. It seems in some cases it might be at least part of the reason why the library file disappears. Try excluding the iTunes folder from any AV scanning process.
tt2

HT1660 My "itunes library" folder is empty. My libray music (prior to upgrading itunes) is now in an .xml file in my itunes location under my music. How do I extract/convert this .xml file to a Itunes database and restore my Itunes music library??? Than

My "itunes library" folder is empty. My libray music (prior to upgrading itunes) is now in an .xml file in my itunes location under my music. How do I extract/convert this .xml file to a Itunes database and restore my Itunes music library??? Thanks, Tom

Empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash
Hopefully it's not been too long since you last upgraded iTunes, in fact if you get an empty/incomplete library immediately after upgrading then with the following steps you shouldn't lose a thing or need to do any further housekeeping. In the Previous iTunes Libraries folder should be a number of dated iTunes Library files. Take the most recent of these and copy it into the iTunes folder. Rename iTunes Library.itl as iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl and then rename the restored file as iTunes Library.itl. Start iTunes. Should all be good, bar any recent additions to or deletions from your library.
See iTunes Folder Watch for a tool to catch up with any changes since the backup file was created.
When you get it all working make a backup!
tt2

Tried to use home sharing to transfer itunes library from old pc to new -- however it only brings over the music, did not bring audiobooks- My question is do I need to delete itunes from my new pc when I redo using external hard drive

Trying to transfer iTunes library from old windows 7 pc to new windows 8.1. Used home sharing, but not what I wanted, I want everything on the new so I can discard the old pc - so now all I have is my music library on new pc thru the cloud none of my Audible audiobooks came over - My question is do I need to delete iTunes off my new pc before I load it in from a external hard drive?

You might need to make sure neither is going to sleep (System Prefs > Energy Saver)
Also check your settings under System Prefs > Security. My sisters new laptop kept logging off due to some setting there.
HTH

I have itunes folder on Sony Vaio that has died. It has home sharing enabled.I need to transfer the library onto this new computer.I have i cloud but want the muin folder transferred to this computer. I have part of my i tunes folder on 2 back up drives.

I have itunes folder on Sony Vaio that is seriously unwell. I can start up in safe mode but that's all. It has home sharing enabled.I need to transfer the library onto this new computer before it completely gives up the ghost.I have i cloud but want the main folder transferred to this computer. I have part of my i tunes folder on 2 back up drives.
Can anyone help please

If the computer only starts in safte mode, it is highly unlikely that network functionality works.
Copy or move the ENTIRE iTunes folder (and any other personal data you want) to an external drive.

How can I transfer iTunes library to a new Apple ID?

I have a substantial quantity of music in iTunes on a old lap top. All the music has been put on to my iPod. None of it was purchased from iTunes but was uploaded from CD's. I have since moved from the UK to France with a new lap top and now have a new e-mail address. The old email address which is now defunct, was assigned to the iTunes account on the old laptop. I downloaded iTunes on to my new laptop and assigned a Frecnh email to it. I want to get rid of the old lap top, but need to transfer the library to the new Apple ID. I have tried to change my Apple ID on the old laptop to match the one I am currently using but do not appear to be able to do so as Apple will not permit me to used the email address assigned to the new account. Is there any way to transfer the library over?

Hi MarseillanCyclist!
Here is an article that can show you how to move your library from one computer to another:
iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4527
Thanks for using the Apple Support Communities!
Cheers,
Braden

New PC-do I need to transfer Itunes library files (itl and xml files?)

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