Restoring iTunes Library after hard drive failure.

So a few days ago I had to re partition my hard drive (erase all the data) because I received an unfixable problem from Finder error 10810. The problem created overlapping files on my hard drive which was able to be solved by doing a repair disk from Disk Utility. So I made sure I had a backup of all my information on my iMac, and erased the hard drive and re-installed Snow Leopard. After the installation was complete I began restoring all the files I had from Time Machine, but when I got to my iTunes library I received the error message saying that "You cannot access the iTunes folder because you are not authorized". So if anyone can help me out with this that would be great, I tried calling Apple but i'm not willing to pay the ridiculous $50 fee to speak to a human being.

I'm trying it file by file, because I don't need everything back on my hard drive but things like my iTunes Library I want. And I did use a different username when doing the setup assistant, but I thought about that and went back and re-named my current account and then went into my backup files and set all the sharing permissions to Read and Write for all accounts.

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Restoring iTunes library after hard drive crash

The hard drive on my Macbook pro (mid-2009) crashed. I took it to the genius bar for a diagnostic. The drive was physically fine so they wiped it and reinstalled Mavericks, which is now running 10.9.4. I am restoring user files from Time Machine individually to keep things clean. Hooray!
I'm now running iTunes 10.3.1. Years ago, I placed the iTunes library in Users>Shared on the hard drive, so my wife could access the files when she logged in. We don't need to do that now, so today I dragged all the music files from Time Machine to the "Music" section on the iTunes window.
They seem to have installed and indexed fine, but I lost some of the original data--like date added and numbers of plays--which would be nice to have. (Then all now read as installed today with zero plays.) My playlists are all gone as well; I'd like to have them back.
Is there any way to restore the music so those things stay intact, by basically making my library the way it was?
I considered dragging the entire set of folders over from the Shared section of Time Machine, but was afraid the music would not index, and the folder structure and nomenclature was different (for example, it had iTunes Music instead of iTunes media and there were a couple other anomalies). I imagine this is because the Shared library was set up under a different version of iTunes.
I hope this doesn't further complicate things but my user name was changed at the genius bar (from what it was prior to crash); they added my last name to my user name. I didn't notice till I got home. So far I have had no trouble accessing the files I have dragged in (Numbers, Word, etc), but don't know if the permissions on the music files might be affected.
All help greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Answers to all your questions are in the links below:
What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
More on iTunes library files and what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management
What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html
Where are my iTunes files located? - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
iTunes 9 [and later]: Understanding iTunes Media Organization - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3847 - plus supplemental information about organizing to new structure https://discussions.apple.com/message/26404702#26404702
Image of folder structure and explanation of different iTunes versions (turingtest2 post) - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-7392 and making an iTunes library portable.
06/2014 ChrisCA post: Restore iTunes library from Time Machine backup - https://discussions.apple.com/message/26104480#26104480

How to restore Itunes account after Hard Drive replacement programme

I was part of the Hard Drive replacment programme by Apple after which I have set up my computer as normal to find all the music, filmas and apps have gone from my Itunes Acccount can anyone help

Restore all of your important data from the backup of the computer.
If you have no backup, the library and playlists should be possible to recreate by following the instrucitons here: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1451

Keeping song data in iTunes library after hard drive crash

I have an iPhone 3GS that I used to sync with iTunes on my Windows PC. Then the hard drive on that PC crashed, but fortunately I had made a backup of my entire iTunes library on an external drive. Now I have a new Windows PC that I want to transfer my music to so I can sync it with the iPhone as before.
However, since the crash I have continued to listen to music on my iPhone, so the play counts, song ratings etc in the backup copy of my library will be out of date. I thought that simply copying the backup library onto my new PC would allow my iPhone to sync with it as if nothing happened (so that the iPhone would update the song data on iTunes on my computer), but when I ticked the box to sync music, it warned me that it was going to do an "erase and sync". As I understand it, that means it scrubs the music off my iPhone together with its data, and then replaces it with the rebuilt library.
Is it possible to persuade the iPhone to recognise the rebuilt library as the one it is allowed to sync to (without erasing its own library first)? Or even just copy the iPhone's song data to the computer (with or without the song files themselves) and then restore from that once the iPhone has done its erase & sync?
Thanks in advance.

Wonderful! The iPhone recognised its own library and synced happily, updating the iTunes metadata as I wanted.
Rebuilding the library took a bit longer because the backup wasn't consolidated and the library didn't know where to find some of my music, but it was sorted with a bit of file jiggling. Now the two devices are getting on like best friends. Many thanks for your help.

Retrieving iTunes library after hard drive dies.

Here is my dilemma.
My external hard drive that containes my entire itunes library of over 17,000 songs just died.
First, what is the best way to reassign my iTunes library back to my computer instead of the now-dead external hard drive?
I have an iPod that also has all my music on it but it is set up to automatically sync with iTunes. Once I get my iTunes library back on my computer will it erase everything on my iPod? I am aware of some programs that can take music off an iPod and put it on any computer, so if it doesn't earse it all when it syncs, I would most likely do this.
I also have a seperate external hard drive set up with Time Machine. I could possibly retrieve some of my old iTunes library from it but I only need to restore iTunes and not the entire computer.
What is my best course of action for mantaining the majority of my iTunes library?

Unfortunately unless you specifically told Time Machine to back up the contents of your external Media HD it won't do it automatically, so it seem you iPod is the only repository for your music. There are plenty of tutorials on the web that will walk you through getting music off your iPod.

Restoring iTunes library after hard disk crash and replacement

My iTunes library was on my hard drive which crashed and died last week. I now have a new hard drive. My iPod 80gb was up to date before the new hard drive was installed... can I copy the content of the iPod back to the new hard drive... HOW???
Alternatively I have a backup of my old hard drive (which included the "My Music/iTunes" folders... can I restore from there?... I tried simply copying files which didn't work. I also tried "Add folder" from iTunes, it kind of worked but many of the tunes were grayed out and had a download icon next to them, even though they were previously ripped from CDs or bought through iTunes.
what should I do???

Hey Dave W RI,
Perhaps, it would be more helpful, for you to search this forum for terms like recover music, or something related.
That would return threads, from others, that have had this same question.
Hope this helps,
Generik

How to restore itunes library after a drive got corrupted

I have iTunes on my PC. I have my media on D drive while library file on C drive.
My C drive got corrupted and my computer started showing Blue Screen of Death. I tried every thing possible but was not able to restore any files from that drive. I had to reformat the drive and reinstall windows 7 again.
Since D drive was fine all my songs, videos, movies, apps and books are fine. How can I restore my library as is. There is no option to add the whole folder in iTunes. There are a lot of files to add individually. Please help.

Restore all of your important data from the backup of the computer.
If you have no backup, the library and playlists should be possible to recreate by following the instrucitons here: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1451

Restoring iTunes files after hard drive problems

HI.
I recently had hard drive problems and since the recovery of the data I have lost all my files from iTunes. The sogs I have put on to the Mac via CD's are all still there but all the iTunes downloads have disapeared. This is probably because I didn't back up!
I also have numerous duplications, which I eventually removed from itunes but I know the majority of which will return if I drag my music folder across.
This will be a hige taks again to remove the duplications.
I want to use this unfortunate incident to my advantage though and now have a clear out of my unwanted files and keep my iTunes nicely organised.
I also lost my playlists, which is a major pain.
By looking at the support threads it seems that I can use my ipod to put my library back as it should be. Will this also replace my downloaded songs? My other issue is that some of my iTunes downloads, downloaded with some problems, which are obviously on my ipod. How do I go about getting the songs repaired?
Thanks for any help.

[Zevoneer's detailed instructions on getting music off an iPod|http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=9053179#9053179]
[Wired's How To: Get Your Music Off of Your iPod|http://howto.wired.com/wiki/GetYour_Music_Off_of_YouriPod]
[http://www.metaphoriclabs.com/articles/5-ways-to-copy-music-off-your-ipod-windo ws-mac-os-x>
I imagine if the files exist on the ipod you can get them transferred over. if they don't exist, they are gone.
As for the corrupt files you would need to provide more information on the issues.

Restoring iPhoto library after hard-drive crash

I lost my entire hard drive on my iMac and had to physically replace it. I recovered all my files from Carbonite, but didn't notice until it was too late that there were errors restoring my iPhoto library. When I open iPhoto '11, the iPhoto library doesn't show any of the 43,000 photos (that includes thumbnails, "faces" files, etc. that were on my old library).
If I search my "Macintosh HD" drive for all ".jpg" files, I can see them all. They are all in a file path that is "Pictures/iPhotoLibrary/Masters."
But when I open iPhoto and select "import to library" and then search for the photos or the Masters folder, it doesn't see it. When I try to do a work-around by selecting the files individually and telling the computer to use iPhoto to open them, it says that I can't open the files because they're already part of the library.
I can't seem to find a solution to this exact question. Any ideas out there?

You can try Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its rebuild function. This will create a new library based on data in the albumdata.xml file. Not everything will be brought over - no slideshows, books or calendars, for instance - but it should get all your albums and keywords back.
Because this process creates an entirely new library and leaves your old one untouched, it is non-destructive, and if you're not happy with the results you can simply return to your old one.
But if this fails you'll need to accept that your back up is faulty and you'll need to make a new Library and start over from scratch.
Regards
TD

Retrieving content for iTunes library after hard drive crash

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's encountered this situation, but i couldn't find a decent answer anywhere. My HDD crashed, but i recovered all my documents, together with all iTunes documented files (including songs). I didn't lose any data. The problem is that iTunes can't just read copy pasted files (to avoid the spread of bought iTunes songs/apps). How can i get all those songs back in there?
1) I've still got everything on my iPod, but my iPod won't even be recognised with the name i've given it. Synchronising my iPod is out of the question...
2) I've got screenshots of files i found in the back-up document files
http://s720.photobucket.com/albums/ww201/Ollii/Computer%20Info%20Screens/
3) I can upload every song back again, but that takes ages. And I would like to have my apps back too
Thank you in advance

I built a new computer and I copied and pasted the entire itunes file that was in my music for XP to the music file in win 7. After it was done I downloaded itunes agreed to all the fun stuff and it found everything when i opened it. To play the purchased music I need to sign in to my account. After that everything worked great with no problems and it was like it never moved. As for your apps I still live in the stone age with an 80G ipod and an apple TV. So good luck with that but I do not see a problem with that as well. For any purchase from apple you have a total of 5 computers to use with you account. So I hope you were able to unauth. the old hard drive. If not you have to rest you count which can only be done 1X a year.

Updating iTunes library after hard drive reformat

Is there a way to upload songs from an iPod to the iTunes library? I had to reformat my hard drive and was able to upload purchases, but I would like to upload all songs on my iPod as opposed to reloading all the CDs.

For everything else (music from CDs, other downloads etc.) there are a number of third party utilities that you can use to retrieve the music files and playlists from your iPod. You'll find that they have varying degrees of functionality and some will transfer movies, videos, photos, podcasts and games as well. You can read reviews and comparisons of some of them here:
Wired News - Rescue Your Stranded Tunes
Comparison of iPod managers
A selection of iPod to iTunes utilities:
TuneJack Windows Only (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
SharePod Windows Only (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iPod2PC Windows Only
iDump Windows Only
YamiPod Mac and Windows
iPod Music Liberator Mac & Windows
Floola Mac & Windows
iPodRip Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iPod Music Liberator Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
Music Rescue Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iGadget 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
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

Restoring address book after hard drive failure

my hard drive has just died on me and been replaced. I now want to sync and restore my address book from .Mac onto my address book on hard drive - but am scared am going to wipe it out on .Mac instead.
Is it as simple as syncing? I just want to check it won't wipe out my .mac address book.
thanks

my hard drive has just died on me and been replaced. I now want to sync and restore my address book from .Mac onto my address book on hard drive - but am scared am going to wipe it out on .Mac instead.
Is it as simple as syncing? I just want to check it won't wipe out my .mac address book.
thanks

Keeping itunes library after hard drive has been wiped

Help! We had a problem with our computer in that the whole hard drive was wiped so it's gone back to factory settings. Does this now mean that we'll have to start again and put the whole library of songs back on? I've got over 2,000 songs on my ipod so really want to avoid this if I can.
Cheers

Do a 'Search Discussions' for posts by Zevoneer, that will set you up.

IMovie does not see Aperture / iTunes library after hard drive restore

Hi all,
I recently exchanged the 320GB drive in my MacBook for a 500GB drive. I installed the 500GB drive and restored everything from my time machine backup. This went flawlessly and the MacBook works great, except for two issues:
1st: It did not read NTFS volumes anymore, I had to reinstall NTFS-3G - problem fixed.
2nd: I do not see my Aperture and iTunes libraries in iMovie '09 anymore. This worked great before.
Does anyone know how to fix this? Or what the problem could be?
Many thanks,
Michael

DaneelGiskard wrote:
.. restored everything from my time machine backup.
.. I do not see my Aperture and iTunes libraries in iMovie '09 anymore. ..
Does anyone know how to fix this? Or what the problem could be?
read about that problem frequently.. never got an answer, if the following usual advice fixes the problem:
• check permissions with Disk Utility
• check read/write rights of specific Folder AND files inside via Finder..

How to restore iTunes library after operating system changed?

How to restore iTune library after operating system changed on the laptop? The syn is not working because it doesn't recognize the computer.

Recovering your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device: Apple Support Communities
Syncing to a "New" Computer or replacing a "crashed" Hard Drive: Apple Support Communities
Sync Your iOS Device with a New Computer Without Losing Data - How-To Geek

Restoring iTunes Library after hard drive failure.

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