Restoring itunes from backup on external hard drive

I backed up my itunes to an external hard drive but have been unable to restore my library onto another computer. I wanted to know if the files on my external hard drive backed up my library in case my computers hard drive crashed. Any help would be appreciated.

Lewis:
You've posted in the wrong forum. This is the iPhoto 5 forum, image management, for Mac. Give the iTunes for Windows forum a try.

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How to restore library from backup on external hard drive

I am helping my wife move her library to a new computer after the old one crashed. I backed up my wife's music library to an external hard drive by simply copying and pasting all the files in her My Music >> iTunes folder into the external hard drive. When she got a new laptop, I tried placing those same files from the external hard drive into the My Music >> iTunes folder on the new computer (overwriting the few default files that were there), but that didn't seem to work. iTunes does not acknowledge that any songs have been added. I also noticed that almost all of the files say "(protected)", although I'm not sure if that is having an impact on the failure.
Additional information: some of the songs are iTunes purchases and some are from CDs we imported. Because restoring involves more than just iTunes purchases, I can't simply plugin her iPod to the new laptop and use the import purchases feature.
Finally, I see a great deal of information in customer support about restoring from a CD or DVD, but not from an external hard drive, although an external hard drive is mentioned as one way to backup iTunes music, so I believe there must be a valid way. Any literature on that would be helpful as well.
Thank you.

EmmanIsaac,
Do you just want a new drive that can be read by Macs and PCs? I would suggest taking a look at MacMall and shopping for, at least, a 1TB drive (they're cheap these days) and, when you get it, format it as FAT32 on a PC. Then you'll be able (with some limitations) to share the drive on both platforms.
For the limitations on using FAT32, see here.
Good luck,
Clinton

Trouble restoring my playlists to iTunes from either my external hard drive or time machine

Hi,
I've been trying to restore my playlists to iTunes from either my external hard drive or time machine, but have had no success so far. I seem only to have .itl files in both places. When I restore iTunes to a previous date, none of the playlists reappear. Same when I try to restore from my back up (though I'm not positive I am doing this proper.y)
I've tried restoring and then importing the itl files to itunes, but I keep getting a message saying 'The file “iTunes Library.itl” cannot be imported because it does not appear to be a valid exported file.' This message appears when importing from my time machine and my hard drive.
I am desperate to get my playlists back as many, many hours of love have gone into them. Please help! Thanks!

Correction, I can't locate any .itl files in my external hard drive...

How do I restore lost iTunes from a crashed external hard drive?

My external hard drive that I used to store my downloaded cds has crashed and I was using iTunes to play my songs. Is it possible to recover my them? No backup was ever done.

This is a tricky one.
Open up Time Machine and go back to a date using the timeline on the right side of the window when you know the drive was working and was backing up as part of Time Machine backups.
Click on the name of your Mac under the Devices heading on the left side of the window in Time Machine, and if things are working correctly you will see Macintosh HD (or whatever you have named it) and the name of the external hard drive that was backing up in the past.
Right-Click on the name of the external hard drive and then click on "Restore (name of drive) to....." You may be asked for your adminstrator password at this point.
It might be easier to restore the drive contents to your desktop if you have room on your Mac, and then copy things over to the new external drive where you want to store the Aperture and iMovie Libraries.
Once the libraries have been moved over the new external hard drive, you will likely need to "point" Aperture and iMovie to the location of the libraries on the new external hard drive.

Restoring itunes songs kep on external hard drive

hi all - some time ago on my power pc mac I put my entire itunes songs on an external drive, whilst keeping the song details on the computer. My power pc gave up the ghost and I transferred the contents of the old power pc mac to my new intel imac. The problem is that the intel mac cannot read the external hard drive and therefore cannot play the songs. Thankfully all the songs were backed up onto my time capsule and I have them all on the next intel mac - it is just that the computer cannot read the correct path to match the songs to the titles. Any advice? No data has been lost - I just want to avoid spending hours recreating my playlists etc.

Lewis,
I truly hope you have your current working iTunes Library and music files still on the original PC. From what I read of your process, you did not backup the music files at all.
There is little need to backup the iTunes Program Files as long as you have the installer file available (or can download the most current one from Apple).
Here is a link for my method to Completely Backup iTunes.
This is somewhat similar, but helps with moving (cloning) iTunes to another PC: Move (Clone) Your iTunes
Give them a read over and post back here with any questions.

Install Leopard OS X from backup on external hard drive?

BACKGROUND: I backed up all the data from my Powerbook G4 onto my external hard drive and then proceeded to completely restore my Powerbook by inserting the Install OS X DVD, holding down C, going into Disk Utility and erasing everything on the drive.
The Install OS X DVD in question is the one that came with the laptop back in 2005. It is Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger). However, a couple years ago I upgraded to Leopard OS X but have since lost that install DVD.
Now that I am trying to transfer all my backed up data from my hard drive back onto my PB, I am running into the problem where Migration Assistant for Tiger OS X only gives me two options to transfer data - 1. Connect to another Mac or 2. Connect to another volume.
PROBLEM: Apparently, I can only connect to another Mac with a firewire cable (which I don't have) and Migration Assistant does not recognize my external hard drive as a "volume" to transfer data from (I can open all the files, just can't transfer them in bulk).
QUESTION: Is there a disk image or something of Leopard OS X somewhere in my backup data on my external hard drive? I'm thinking that if I could only just install Leopard again, I could use the updated version of Migration Assistant and just transfer everything from external HD back onto the PB.
Why I erased everything is irrelevant, trust me. It will just complicate the story more.
Any advice/suggestions would be GREAT.

QUESTION: Is there a disk image or something of Leopard OS X somewhere in my backup data on my external hard drive?
No, there isn't. If the backup on the external is a *bootable clone* of the internal drive's original contents, you can simply boot from it and clone it back onto the internal drive. If it isn't a bootable clone, it won't do you any good for reinstalling Leopard — but you'll be able to use Migration Assistant to restore your data (as you suggest) after buying a new Leopard installer disc and reinstalling Leopard from that.

How do you move itunes from comp. to External Hard Drive???

I have an older computer with only like 60 GB. Since I bought a 40GB ipod I am now experiencing many problems with my computer b/c I just have way to many files on my computer. Recently I purchased a 100 GB external hard drive, and would like to figure out how to move my itunes from my computer to my external hard drive.... Can anyone help me with this? I would GREATLY appreciate it!!! Thanks.

Welcome, Charles, to the Apple Discussions!
Have a look at:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748
Any further questions, post back.

I recently had to back up itunes play lists to external hard drive, how do I restore the library from the external hard drive to the new computer

I recently had to back up itunes play lists to external hard drive whilst computer was fixed. reinstalled itunes but dont know how to reinstall my music from external hard drive. help?

The same way the library was copied/moved to the external drive.
Copy it from location A to location B.
Then point iTunes to the correct library.

My computer was totally destroyed & I do not have backup or external hard drive with my iTunes library. Will I be able to access my iTunes library when I purchase a new computer? It was the only computer authorized to play library.

My computer was totally destroyed & I do not have backup or external hard drive with my saved iTunes library from it. That was the only computer authorized to play library. I do not have an iPod or iPhone with any of that library (which has over $2K in music purchases & over 5K in songs I ripped). Will I be able to access my iTunes library when I purchase a new computer?

You should be able to access your past iTunes purchases. You'll need to re-rip your CDs See: HT2519 - Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store.
See also this backup tip so you don't get caught out again.
tt2

HT1751 I am trying to backup my iTunes library onto an external hard drive but it won't complete due to 'insufficient privileges for some of the items'. Am I doing something wrong and is there a solution to this problem?

Hi All,
I am currently trying to backup my iTunes library onto an external hard drive so that I can copy it onto my new Macbook Pro. I have been following the steps posted on the Apple website however each time I get a dialogue box stating:
'The operation cannot be completed because you do not have sufficient privileges for some of the items'.
Is this because I have items that were bought under another persons iTunes account? If so, is there a solution to this problem? Or am I doing something completely wrong?
Thanks in advance,
Sbrooks19

Go through the below forum with similar issue and follow the process mentioned by "Macjack" in the beginning.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4499820

I have two apple id's one from my old laptop and one from my iPhone. I saved my iTunes library to my external hard drive and then tried to transfer it to my iMac. My music skips like a scratched cd now and I can't add any to my iPhone. Help please!

I have two apple id's one from my old laptop and one from my iPhone. I saved my iTunes library to my external hard drive right before my old mac laptop died and then tried to transfer it to my new iMac. Now when I try to play my old music it skips like a scratched cd. Also, now I can't add any music to my iPhone unless it was purchased recently through itunes and downloaded through icloud. I tried to "Organize" my library in hopes of correcting the problem but my iMac just ejects my external harddrive part way through. Please help!

Ejects the harddrive?
Of what did your old Mac die?
It sounds to me like you have some file corruption somewhere. Either in the transfer of your library to the external or the external itself is flaky if it keeps ejecting.

How do I have itunes use/detect my external hard drive and place music on the external drive from the itunes store? There are no music files on my pc yet. I will like to do this after installing itunes 11 on my pc for the first time. I am using windows 7

How do I have itunes use/detect my external hard drive and place music on the external drive from the itunes store? There are no music files on my pc yet. I will like to do this after installing itunes 11 on my pc for the first time. I am using windows 7. HP computer intel Dual Core. Thanks for any help!

Hey idw3,
Welcome to Apple Support Communities, and thanks for the question. Follow the instructions on this article to move your iTunes Media folder to an external hard drive:
iTunes for Windows: Moving your iTunes Media folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364
Regards,
David

Hi, I have a hard disk failure so to recover my data I am using disk utility to restore the data on an external drive while booting from a second external hard drive. When I perform the operation it gives me an input/output error and stops. Any tips?

Hi, I have a hard disk failure so to recover my data I am using disk utility to restore the data on an external drive while booting from a second external hard drive. When I perform the operation and after having selected both my destination and source drives, the operation begins but soon fails due to input/output error. If I try to create an image of the drive it gives me the same error message. Any help would be much appreciated.

Disk Utility only creates a image of the drive, so it's no help getting exactly what you want, which is your files. If the file structure is messed up or the drive is failing then it's no help.
If you have a external boot drive and you can't access the internal non-booting drive though the typical Finder and windows to transfer your files via drag and drop methods, then you need to install Data Rescue on the external boot drive and it will do as best as it can to recover your files. (works on non-encrypted/non-Filevaulted drives only)
.Create a data recovery/undelete external boot drive
Are you sure you have hard drive failure, or that OS X isn't merely not booting?
Because if the drive is working physically, then there is a host of fixes
..Step by Step to fix your Mac
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents#/

I have and apple tv,,..how do i play movies,from my apple mac,onto the apple tv..my movies are not on my itunes,but on an external hard drive...i just want to mirrow whats playing,on my mac to the tv...

I have and apple tv,,..how do i play movies,from my apple mac,onto the apple tv..my movies are not on my itunes,but on an external hard drive...i just want to mirrow whats playing,on my mac to the tv...

Are the movies in the correct format:
Video formats
H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format
Audio formats supported
HE-AAC (V1), AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV; Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound pass-through
When you say tit only sees your music folder, are you saying it only sees your music folder or does it see other empty folders.

I got a new computer and backed up my iTunes library to an external hard drive. The external hard drive is not allowing me to access the drive. Is there a way to transfer the songs from my iPod touch to my new computer?

I got a new computer and backed up my iTunes library to an external hard drive. The external hard drive is not allowing me to access the drive. I no longer have access to the old computer. Is there a way to transfer the songs from my iPod touch to my new computer?

That's a bummer, didn't realize the exHD files were corrupt, esp if you have tried from another PC and not just this new computer.
You can get purchases from the itunes store transferred from an iPod using these directions:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1848?viewlocale=en_US
If you want everything (meaning non-itunes songs, app data, photos, etc) you need to buy a 3rd-party ipod manager that support iTouch. Here is an iLounge article to start your research:
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/copying-music-from-ipod-to-co mputer/P2/

Restoring itunes from backup on external hard drive

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