Transferring Itunes library to external HD EMPTY library

I was following these exact instructions http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364 but when the itunes library was completely consolidated I went back and deleted my Entire MUSIC folder in my computer. I verified that everything was copied correctly and went back and deleted my entire Music folder. Now i have no Itunes library. I followed everthing except the last note "Note: Don't remove the iTunes library files that may be in the same location as the iTunes Music folder. For more information about the iTunes library files" I did delete the files but then i went back and restored it and it dosent work. PLEASE HELP.

I went back and deleted my Entire MUSIC folder in my computer.
Why?
No where does it say to delete your entire Music folder.
File -> Add folder to library and select the top level folder where your music is.

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Transferring iTunes from Mac to PC with library already on a network drive

I recently bought a MacBook Pro and need to transfer all of my iTunes content from my Windows laptop. This is for use with my retina ipad mini.
I already had my iTunes library located in a folder on a NAS drive. Note I don't have any iTunes server or home sharing set up - I simply located the library on the NAS drive. Anyway I have pointed the Mac iTunes to the folder and can sync fine with my mini. However none of my books or music (other than a couple of items I purchase from apple) has appeared in the library on the Mac iTunes.
The content is however all still there on my iPad mini.
The guides I've found on here don't seem to apply to my situation. I am not moving the physical library at all - I just want the Mac iTunes to start using the library that's already there on my NAS.
Any ideas how I can get this to work?
Also how do i get my books content into iBooks, either from my mini or from the library?

Hold down the option/alt key while starting iTunes and guide it to the library.itl file in the iTunes folder on the NAS.

Cannot Burn CDs Since I Transfered Itunes to an External Dirve

Hello
I need help with Itunes, Itunes does not open. Also I cannot burn Cds since I transfered Itunes to external dirve.
Please help.
Steve

iPods don't look for the library. iTunes does.
I recently moved my itunes music folder
Don't move your music folder.
Let iTunes do it.
Point iTunes prefs to the location where you wan tit.
Then go to menu Advanced -> *Consolidate library*.
This will copy the iTunes music folder to the location in iTunes prefs.

Transferring iTunes files to external hard drive - now iTunes can't find them

I believe I have really effed up my iTunes library. My basic question is once the links in iTunes have been broken are there only two ways to get them back (one being going through every title and locating it on the drive vs two starting fresh and copying all the song files into iTunes and recreating all the play lists).
I have over 10,000 titles accumulated over many years and sorted into a couple dozen playlists to keep track of each family member's music on various pods / phones etc. I was running out of internal hard drive space so I tried moving the files over to an external drive in order to free up the internal drive. I thought I was following the instructions correctly, but something has gone horribly wrong. I'll try to take you through the steps as best as I can.
I had changed the iTunes preferences to show the external drive, and when importing new songs they were stored on that external drive. I thought everything was working fine as all the files showed in the Finder on the external srive so I deleted the files from the internal drive. Of course this was the wrong thing to do as at that point iTunes could only locate the newly imported files and none of the old ones.
So I began to panic and searched the support and communities and tried a number of things that were recommended including copying the files back to the same spot on the internal drive, changing the preferences, and I also tried consolidating the files under the File / Library / Consolidate FIles. This made another folder in the iTunes folder called music (my previous folder was called iTunes music inside the iTunes folder). I have tried these steps on both the internal drive as well as the external drive. So now on either drive, iTunes will reconzie maybe 20-25% of the files. I think these 25% have been moved to the new folder iTunes and the file number has a 1 appended to the end. So now for each file I have 2 to 4 copies. One copy is in the Itunes music folder on the internal drive. A second copy is in the iTunes music folder on the external drive. I believe that iTunes cannot find either of these ones. The third copy with a 1 appended is in the Music folder on the internal drive and the fourth copy (also with a 1 appended) is in the Music folder on the external drive and as I said I think iTunes "sees" these files.
So my question is, is there only two ways to fix this (both of which are incredibly time consuming) - one to point each unknown file to the external drive (about 8,000 files at least to do), or the other is to start from nothing and drag all the music files in and recreate the playlists (I think this would be more work since some of the songs were on multiple playlists). Is there nothing else other than a month of solid work in front of me!?!

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GOOD player (very good)
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Transferring iTunes music from external HD to new iMac

I've searched and read and still am a little confused, so apologies ahead of time for asking yet another transfer music question.
I had to do an erase and install of Leopard onto my iMac Intel; I've since performed a software update and now am running iTunes 9. My iTunes music is still on an external HD back-up.
Can someone be kind enough to list the steps needed to transfer my iTunes 8 library from the external HD to the iMac's iTunes 9 while maintaining playlists, album cover art, etc.? I also have some other music (mp3s) in a separate folder (user/Music/allofmp3) that I need to transfer over as well.
Much thanks ahead of time!

Can someone be kind enough to list the steps needed to transfer my iTunes 8 library from the external HD to the iMac's iTunes 9 while maintaining playlists, album cover art, etc.?
My iTunes music is still on an external HD back-up.
If you only backed up your iTunes music and not the entire \Music\iTunes\ folder, you have no playlists, album cover art, etc.

Transferring itunes with an external hard drive

I bought a new computer and need to transfer itunes. It is backed up on an external hard drive, but won't transfer correctly to the new computer. This includes many of the purchased songs. How do I get them all to transfer/play?

iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
Quick answer if you let iTunes manage your music: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Start iTunes with the option (shift on Windows) key held down and guide it to the new location of the library.
To see your iTunes folder click on the Music folder icon in your Finder sidebar.

Help! transfering itunes from my external hard drive to my new laptop

I don't have my old laptop anymore but I do have my itunes backed up on an external hard drive. Copy and pasting does not seem to be working, how do I transfer it over to the new itunes? Thanks!

Are you trying to get just your music to appear in your new iTunes, or are you trying to maintain playlists, play counts, etc?

Will Not Find Library on external hard drive

Ok ,I have done everything according to the book, moved my itunes library on my external drive,(It all there)when I open itunes nothing there, so I created a alias of it (the library) and put it were the original was (that I Trashed) and still nothing,one thing I don't understand is if there is no folder in my user/music folder, when I open itunes it automatically puts one there, why? so what am I doing wrong ?
I'd love to run itunes because of its size off my external drive

Hi,
You've missed something out or else iTunes wouldn't be creating empty Library files. It only does that if it can't find the moved Library.
Is your external disk connected and showing in Finder before you launch iTunes?
Double check the instructions - a lot of people have used them to move their Library with no problems.
Regards,
Colin R.

Iphone 3gs will not sync with itunes copied from external hard drive.

We transferred itunes from an external hard drive to a new laptop pc, after copying it from our old desktop. I connected a new iphone 3gs on the laptop (first iphone on any of our computers), and itunes does not recognize the iphone, so it does not sync. Is there any solution to this problem?

did you copy the itunes folder from my music? and any other folder your music files might have been in.
Another folder to copy is user/appdata/roaming/apple computer

I have iTunes on an external HD. Can I access it through my Time Capsule via USB connection?

To save space on my MacBook Pro, I've transferred iTunes to an external HD. Can I plug the external HD into the USB connection on my Time Capsule and thereby access my music, etc?

Is it possible to connect an external drive to the time capsule that I could use to store and access my primary iTunes files?

New computer, transfered music via external hard drive, library there but music wont play, message "The song " " could not be used because the original file could not be found. Tech did everything, said call Itunes support

New Computer
transfered Itunes library via clickfree backup. New computer Tech support(Premier PC) did this, Now can not play library within Itunes. Message says "The song " song name " could not be found. Would you like to locate it? Same Tech tried different things via on line support could not fix and said call itunes support and say Itunes will not play on new computer.

I was given the option to locate the file where the song is held. If so select "locate" and direct it to the folder / file where the song is and open it. itunes then will give you the option to use this process to update all of your library. OK that as this will do it automatically instead of doing them one by one. I hope this helps.
Martin

Transferring iTunes Library to an external hard drive - help needed

I recently moved my iTunes library (aka all of my 32 GB of music) onto an external hard drive so as to save space on my laptop, but I messed up somehow and now I can't add songs to my iPhone. The chain of events went something like this:
1. I copied my iTunes library onto my external hard drive.
2. I changed my iTunes library location (in the itunes settings) to it's new spot on the external.
3. I deleted the songs off my laptop.
This worked fine at first, but then I think I opened iTunes with my external NOT connected and I got a blank library. I plugged in my external but my itunes was still blank. Then I decided I'll just add everything back to my itunes library. I did that, but I lost all my playlists and whatnot, but I didn't really care - all my music was there.
Now I just tried to add new music to my iPhone and it won't let me. When I try to turn manual music management it gives me an error saying "this iPhone is synced with another itunes library".
Is there some way I can retrieve my original itunes library from before I did all this stuff? Help much appreciated.

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) so you get a prompt to choose a library, then select the copied iTunes folder.
If this is to a new computer and you put the copied iTunes folder in the default location of Macintosh HD > Users > *User Name* > Music then you don't even need to start with the option key held down, iTunes will automatically look for it there. (Make sure there isn't anything already in the iTunes folder there that you want to keep since you will be replacing it with the one you are moving.)

Transferred itunes library from Windows XP PC to new Windows 7 PC. plugged in 3rd gen Ipod. Ipod icon appears along with playlists, music etc. Songs are grayed out and won't play. Please help!

I recently transferred itunes library from windows XP PC to new Windows 7 PC. The transfer was successful, however when I plug my 3rd gen Ipod Nano into the new PC, the Ipod icon appears along with the music, playlists, etc. The songs are shown but are 'grayed out' and wont play or sync.The 'Devices & Printers' window in new PC shows icon for Ipod driver & is OK. The icon for the Ipod appears but depicts a delta shaped warning icon that states that the Ipod is'not operating properly'. Tried troubleshooting. The troubleshooting message states the the Ipod is 'disconnecting'. Can you help me with this problem?

Then, I dropped the entire itunes file from the old PC (XP) into an empty external drive.
That "itunes file from the old PC"? Is that the iTunes folder, from the old PC, that was in the user home folder's Music folder?
All of the library, playlists, etc. from the ipod as they always have been are shown, by they are 'grayed out' and will not open or play.
That's on the iPod, correct? Are all of your old playlists in iTunes, from the old PC, still there in iTunes on the new PC? Are the songs in iTunes still playable?
This document provides the steps to transfer a complete iTunes library between two computers. See the section called External drive.
iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer - Apple Support
There are many steps, but this is a summary. (1) On the old PC, consolidate all of your iTunes data into the iTunes folder. (2) Copy this iTunes folder to the external drive. (3) On the new PC (that has iTunes installed but NOT running), replace its existing iTunes folder with the one from the old PC (on the external drive). When you run iTunes, it uses the iTunes folder from the old PC, and it should look like iTunes on the old PC (with all the playlists, ratings, play count, etc.), and your iPod will see the iTunes library as the same iTunes library (because it is the same library).
If you did something different, and the old PC is still accessible, you may want to try it using the method from the linked document.

I am trying to backup my Itunes onto my external hard drive. I am at the step where I on Itunes, click on File - Library - Organize library. I am suppose to check mark both boxes there, It won't allow me to check mark the second box, why? How to fix this.

I am trying to backup my Itunes onto my external hard drive. I am at the step where I on Itunes, click on File ->Library ->Organize library. I am suppose to check mark both boxes there, the first being "Consolidate Files" & the second being "Reorganize files in the folder 'Itunes Media'. I am able to checkmark the first box but It won't allow me to check mark the second box, why? How can i fix this? Please help!

Well you must have made a mistake somewhere. The last instruction of step four reads:
When you've found your iTunes library folder, drag that folder to your external hard drive. This will begin the iTunes backup. The amount of time the backup will take depends on the size of your library. When the transfer is done, your backup is complete and your external hard drive can be disconnected.
Normally dragging content from to a new location on a different drive will result in a copy action which is what you were supposed to do. At a guess you somehow managed to move the iTunes folder. Then when you started iTunes it created a new blank library for you assuming it had just been installed rather that raising a warning.
Close iTunes. Rename the iTunes folder on the internal drive as iTunes (Empty) then copy the iTunes folder from the external back into the User's Music folder. Start iTunes. All should be well.
When you've made sure it all works please read my User Tip and use that method to backup in future. Since you already have a folder with the backup in place you can skip the "Make New" operation in the fourth step and simply choose the external folder.
tt2

I had an HP laptop with Itunes on it and kept my library on an external hard drive. I had a 160gb classic Ipod. My computer died and i am buying a new one (mac is out of budget) When I get my new computer, obviously I will download Itunes. My Ipod s

I had an HP laptop with Itunes on it and kept my library on an external hard drive. I had a 160gb classic Ipod.
My computer died and i am buying a new one (mac is out of budget)
When I get my new computer, obviously I will download Itunes. My Ipod still has all the music on it and the external hard drive is ok.
I don't want to "erase" or lose any information when I sync with a new itunes that is "empty"
What are the steps? After I download Itunes and set the folder location to my external harddrive what is next? Will Itunes recognize my IPOD? Will it load the music/list from my ipd or external into itunes?
Thanks in advance

The following user tip is worth checking through:
Recovering your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device

Transferring Itunes library to external HD EMPTY library

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