New PC, iTunes library in external disk, ruined after first run

Hello,
I built a new PC with Windows 7 64-bit and previously I had my iTunes library directory pointing to an external HDD while in the old system Windows XP 32-bit. I now tried to point the new iTunes installation to my old iTunes library in the external HDD and iTunes would not "see" the library meaning the play lists and music would not appear in the new iTunes installation.
So I was looking around for options in iTunes and found the main option "Import library from My Music" and this messed up my old library completely and didnt include the old Play lists in the iTunes ready for synchronizing with my iPhone. It messed up the old folder entirely overwriting everything ... how dumb iTunes can be?
At this point I had to delete the whole iTunes library and the master copy of my old library is only in my iPhone which I don't want to synchronize with the new computer and iTunes library because I would lose everything. How can I bring back my library to the new PC and iTunes installation from the iPhone? seems not possible? another jail from Apple?
Seriously, I have many products from Apple and have always been happy except for the iTunes which I think is their "Black Sheep" so to speak, I would buy and use it more if it wasn't such a jailing and pain in the arse.
TIA,
Best regards,
Giovanni

It would seem your original problem was caused by having only the media folder on the external drive rather than a complete working iTunes library. It is unfortunate that you have deleted the media that was on the drive as you have created more work than would otherwise be the case. If it is not to late to undelete the media folder you should do that as it would cut down the work you have to do. If you have access to a backup copy of your user's documents folder from your old computer that would also prove useful. Either way this user tip should provide all the information needed to recover your library.
Recovering your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
tt2

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Move iTunes library from external disk to internal disk

Hello,
I am currently using a Mac Mini with an external disk to store my iTunes library as well as all the media files, apps, etc. The library is managed (consolidated) by iTunes and is also organized by iTunes.
I am about to buy the new Macbook Pro and with a 1 TB drive, I wanted to move the iTunes stuff (library, media, playlists, play counts, ratings, everything) to the internal drive of the new MBP.
My questions are:
Can I do this migration (from external disk to internal disk of new Mac) as part of the Migration Assistant?
In case I can't do the above, what is the best way to do this after the new Mac has been set up?
How do I ensure that play counts, playlists, ratings, album art are preserved as I have spent considerable time setting those up?
I have 3-4 IOS devices syncing to this library. How do I ensure that when I sync them to the new computer/library, they will continue to work?
Thanks in advance.

Hi,
1. See if this support answers your query http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4889 and http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
3. Make sure complete intune folder is copied over. The Itunes Library.itl file contains all meta data.
4. Maybe someone else can make a definitive comment on this. I used migration assistant and was able to sync my ipad and ipod classic without doing anything special. I presume that it worked because both were syncing to the same library albeit on a different computer.
Jim

ITunes library on external drive erased after syncing.....

Here's the scoop....Been running itunes 7.0.2 on Windows XP w/ no problems at all. I ran out of space on my internal drive so I added a WD My Book usb external drive last night. I want to use it for my main drive for the library, so I changed my library directory and then consolidated it all to the external drive, according to the directions here. Everything seemingly went ok.
Everything works just fine, until I sync up my ipod. It does the typical "slow way down, and maybe occasionally lock up" that I've read about so much here. Sometimes it will "finish" syncing after about 2-3 hours. That's not the big problem though. The main issue is that the library in the ext drive disappears as soon as I plug in my ipod. After syncing, my ipod is still unchanged, no songs added or deleted, and the ext drive is empty. The songs appear to be in my itunes library, but if I try to play any of them w/ the itunes player, it says they can't be found. And when I search the ext drive w/ windows explorer, it shows up empty. I have to run system restore to get them back. After that, everything is back to normal until I plug my ipod in again, then the whole vicious cycle starts over.
So far I have tried 4 of the 5r's. I'm afraid to do a restore on the ipod quite yet, cause I don't wanna risk losing it all. I've searched the forums a bit, but can't really find anything addressing this issue. Not really sure where to go from here, so any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!!
Emachines Pile-O-***** w/ Celeron D Windows XP
Emachines Pile-O-***** Windows XP

It sounds like your itunes is getting confused in the drive letter of the ipod since the new external hard drive was added you might want to change the drive letter of the ipod.....
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93499

Possible to save itunes library to external HD, when partial is on HDD?

I moved my itunes library to HDD to save space on my macbook, but as i continue to add songs to itunes, it added onto the macbook copy of itunes. Is it possible for me to save this itunes library to overwrite the old copy i saved on the HDD? How?
I know its confusing. Say
I saved my entire itunes library on external drive yesterday
today, i added 5 new albums on itunes, but it's residing on my macbook.
I would like to add this new library (old plus 5 new albums) and permanently move my itunes library to external disk.
I use to not like to have the external drive always attached to macbook since i use macbook as my primary browsing thing, but now i mainly use ipad.

I have most of the iTunes Library backed up in an External HD
What exactly do you have backed up on the external?

Is there a way to back up your itunes library onto a disk?

i need to back up my itunes library onto a disk, so i don't lose all my music again, is their a way to do this?

Most people find backing up to CDs or DVDs woefully inadequate with modern media files and library sizes. In addition, when you change the tags on some files then you have to back up the whole thing again to a whole new set of DVDs rather than just update a few files. Definitely get an external drive (it will be cheaper in the long run) and make backing up your iTunes files part of a strategy to back up the whole hard drive.

Moving iTunes library from external HD to MacBook Pro

Ok, so a while ago, my iTunes library had grown so large I was running out of space on my Mac, so I moved all the files to an external HD. Of course, I could only listen to my music (as well as sync my iPhone and iPod) with the external device plugged in.
Fast forward to today, and I've decided that I'd like to reverse this process, as it's far too big a pain in the rear to continue, not to mention the fact that I'm a little sick and tired of entire albums disappearing for no apparent reason.
That said, if I simply go to Files>Add to Library and click on the iTunes Music file on my external HD, will I end up with duplicates of all 2300 of my albums? This is what I'm dreading, as I have nightmarish visions of my sitting here all weekend deleting duplicate files.
Sorry if this is a ridiculous question, but there it is...
Danke schoen!

Did you move the whole library or just media (there is a big difference)?
Whole library:
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 iTunes Library.itl file in the moved iTunes folder.
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
Just media:
Consolidate is how you move your iTunes media files to a new location. Consolidate simply looks at everything you have in iTunes and copies them to the iTunes media folder location specified in iTunes prefs -> Advanced.
iTunes 11 for Mac: Change where your iTunes files are stored - http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12165 - more information at: https://discussions.apple.com/message/22026652

Switching library from PC itunes library to new MAC itunes library via ipod

I have a pc and itunes and a nano with an extensive library and many playlists. I just decided to switch to mac and got a new imac and plugged my nano in. I can't transfer my music and or my playlists. It gives me a dialogue box saying the nano can only have a music library on one machine and that it can sync the nano to the new machine but will only sync purchased music and will erase the rest!!!! ACCHHH - How do you transfer your music and hopefully the playlists to the new imac itunes library?
Help.

1). Connect your iPod to your computer. When you get the message that it is linked to a different library and asking if you want to link to this one and replace all your songs etc, press "Cancel". Pressing "Erase and Sync" will irretrievably remove all the songs from your iPod.
2). When your iPod appears in the iTunes source list change the update setting to manual, that will let you continue to use your iPod without the risk of accidentally erasing it. Check the "manually manage music and videos" box in Summary then press the Apply button. 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
3). Once you are connected and your iPod is safely in manual mode there are a few things you can do to restore your iTunes from the iPod. iTunes will only let you copy your iTunes Store purchases directly from an iPod to the computer, you'll find details in this article: Copying iTunes Store purchases from your iPod or iPhone to a computer
For everything else (music from CDs, other downloads and including iTunes purchased songs and in some cases, videos and games) 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)
expod Mac Only (iPod Touch & iPhone compatible)
PodView Mac Only
PodWorks Mac Only
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
4). 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.
5). I would also advise that you get yourself an external hard drive and back your stuff up, relying on an iPod as your sole backup is not a good idea and external drives are comparatively inexpensive these days, you can get loads of storage for a reasonable outlay: Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive

Backup and restoring itunes library from external hard drive?

is there a way to backup and restore my itunes library to external hard drive and not through the internal itunes backup utility cos i have over 20gbs of music and i want to keep my album art and renamed songs etc. because i will be reformating my pc and dont want to go through painful task of manually adding stuff again.

Try this...
*Fast backup for iTunes library (Windows Only)*
Grab SyncToy 2.0, a free tool from MS. Use it to create a backup copy of your iTunes library & any other media folders onto another hard drive or network share. After making the initial backup copy use SyncToy to periodically synchronise the backup copy with your library and only the changed files will be copied saving lots of time.
When the time comes to reformat your PC, do a final sync, then open iTunes & deauthorise the PC, reformat & rebuild Windows, copy the backup folders back to the same location as they were previously, install iTunes and it should all work perfectly.
tt2

I was loading some CDs into my iTunes library when the disk drive refused to "suck in" the next CD. Does anyone have a suggest on how I might proceed?

I was loading some CDs into my iTunes library when the disk drive refused to "suck in" the next CD. Does anyone have a suggest on how I might proceed?

Yes, that is a Catch 22. If you have another Mac you can connect your Mac to it in the Target Disk Mode, Transferring files between two computers using FireWire, and use Disk Utility on the second Mac to try to run the Hardware Test from there. Not sure if it's possible to a connected Mac though.
You can try this several times in the Terminal app and then see if a disk can be fully inserted:
Enter the following command followed by the Enter or Return key:
drutil eject
Do it several times and then try another disk. (A long shot).

Saving aperture library to external disk

I did a search and it appears time machine is not a great way to save aperture, and for my needs in general time machine isnt a great option until I can easily afford huge disks. Anyway, my Aperture library is growing and saving each time from internal disk to external disk is taking longer and longer. Is there any way to save changes in Aperture without having to move the whole library every time?
Thanks

i use this in a shell script. change the paths to reflect your situation and save the file with a .command extension that way you can run it from the finder.
#!/bin/sh
# Sync of Aperture library with external disk muse one
echo "Sync of Aperture library with external disk muse one"
echo "----------------------------------------------------"
rsync -avE --delete /Users/joost/Pictures/Aperture\ Library.aplibrary/ /Volumes/muse\ one/Libraria\ Principal\ Aperture/Aperture\ Library.aplibrary

How to sync ipod touch to new computer itunes library after old itunes library computer crash without wiping out "library" on ipod touch

how to sync ipod touch to new computer itunes library after old itunes library lost in computer crash, without erasing ipod touch

Sync is only oneway, from PC to your device. Unless you have the music on your PC, iTunes is going to wipe out what you have on your device if you are syncing to a new library.
You can only transfer Purchased music over to Itunes on your PC.
iTunes Store: Transferring purchases from your iOS device or iPod to a computer
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1848
As for you own music, you may have to use a third party software. A good Free one is called Sharepod which you can download from Download.com here:
http://download.cnet.com/SharePod/3000-2141_4-10794489.html?tag=mncol;2

Is it better to store iMovies, iPhoto or iTunes on an external drive? I'm running out of space.

Is it better to store iMovies, iPhoto or iTunes on an external drive? I'm running out of space.

Movies for obvious reasons. Photo libraries can get extra large too. When that happens, you have to decide if all your metadata is worth losing, or if you want to keep the entire Pictures folder on a couple external hard drives on their own. Remember, you should never have less than two copies of your data at all times (meaning just before erasing anything, you'll have at least three temporarily). You can always switch the active library with an iPhoto rebuild. command-option keys held down when you startup iPhoto. That lets you pick the Library XML file in the Pictures folder in question out of the Users folder.

I have my iTunes library on external drive and can access from any PC. However I cannot access from new MacBokk Air.

My iTunes library is on an external drive and been using it on two PCs with no problem.
Now that I got a new MacBook Air I want to access the same iTunes library from the external drive and keep all the library and media on that external drive.
When I try to change to another iTunes library by hitting "option" with iTunes and select the library on the external hard drive I get the following message:
"The iTunes library file is locked, on a locked disk, or you do noy have write permission for this file."
I have read many posts in which many suggest to go to the library or media file on the PC and right click to make sure the read only tab is not checked.
I uncheked the read only tab and gave full permission to all the iTunes files and folders.
The unusual part is that I can use this external drive on many PCs that I have tried with no problem at all.
I just select a different library, which is on my external hard drive and everything works, play lists and everything.
However, when I try it on a MAC i get the message stated above:
What can I do to be able to access my External iTunes library from new MacBook Air while keeping everything on the external drive like I can on PCs?
I am running latest version of iTunes and Mavericks.
Please advise.

Here are the official Apple Support instructions:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
Ciao.

Itunes library on external hard disk

I have my itunes library on an external hard disk and use two laptops to access the library. It works fine but when I add new music it only shows on the laptop I used to add the music. The only way I can view it on both laptops is by using the add folder command within itunes.
Is there anyway of getting the library to update itself on both laptops to ensure both laptops view the same music all the time?

Why not move your itunes library ITL file onto the exHD?
Then when you add music to it, the actual music file plus the database itunes uses will be available to each laptop.
For example, say laptop #2 has the most recent additions. Close itunes. Find the ITL file, on XP the default path is
\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl
Drag that over to your exHD.
Now start itunes again, but press *and hold* the shift key. Choose the exHD copy of the ITL when prompted. Now close itunes, connect the exHD t laptop #2 and open itunes again using that shift method.
More info here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iTunesWin/7.6/en/15502.html

How best to add music to new iTunes library on external hard drive?

I just created a new iTunes library on my external hard drive and would like to add songs that I already have stored in a folder on the external hard drive. Should I simply select all of the songs and drag them over the iTunes library folder or drag them into a specific part of the library folder? Or, should I open the new iTunes library and use the import function? I do not want to get the two libraries (powerbook and external hard drive) intermingled.
Also, should I "keep iTunes library organized" turned on?
Many thanks!
RB

You could leave keep library orginised selected - all it does is rename and reorganize files in your music directory to artist-album-track#-songname format.
Since you want to do this, and still keep your libraries separate, here is one option.
Change the itunes music library to a directory on your external disk.
Then anything new you add will go into the library on the external disk.
When you want to add something to your laptop disk, just change the
music library location back to where it was.
iTunes can be a little confusing. There is the itunes "library" file, which is actually more like a catalog file. Then there is the itunes "music library"
which is where itunes puts music if you have "copy to library" selected.

New PC, iTunes library in external disk, ruined after first run

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