Transferring music from peripheral hard drives

I just go a new mac mini(old one died with my itunes libraries) and I have music stored on several peripheral hard drives what is the best way to get it into the new computer that as yet has no music in it. I want to store the music and library on one of the peripheral drives and play from that.

I have a similar problem... my external hard drive, PC formated, is one that can be connected and media viewed through your TV. I want to keep all my "pc" files on the hard drive and add MAC (.avi, .mp3, .mp4, etc.) files to the hard drive to free up space on my laptop.
As you said, I can read/copy files from the hard drive to my MAC but cannot copy from my MAC to the hard drive. Will the software you speak of allow me to copy those files? If not, must I burn all from my files to a disc, reformat the hard drive, and then copy back?

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Transfering Music from external hard drive

Thought I copied music files from external hard drive to new computer sucessfully, but when I try to play music on computer I get an error message telling me that the original file can't be found and do I want to locate it. Looks like everything is there, artwork, playlists, but can't play. Help. Thanks!!!

Hi,
These Links may be just what you are Looking for...
iTunes on External Drive
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751
Moving your iTunes Media Folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364
Cheers,

Problems transfering music from external hard drive to ipod.

When I plug both ipod and external hard driver (WD 1600B014) into my Gateway laptop, only 1 device will work at a time with the other saying "usb device not recognised". This means I am unable to copy selected itunes songs onto my ipod.
This is driving me insane as I have 60gb of music on my hard drive which I want to chop and change frequently.
I have tried all manner of solutions including buying a powered usb hub (belkin) and starting a clean sheet with my laptop, installing all manner of new drivers for the usb ports.
I have the same problem with my 5G ipod 40gb.
I have tried the same problem on my dads desktop computer and the same problem arrises.
Does anyone have any answers as this has been driving me mad for ages and ages.
Is this a common thing or is it a problem with Western digital hard drives (although i thought they were a pretty big brand).
Any help would really be appreciated.

if I want to copy all those song files onto my iPod, they have to be copied into itunes first, and there's not nearly enough space on my desktop for that.
No, you don't have to copy the tracks to your internal hard drive. Just turn off the "copy music to iTunes Music Folder when adding" option in the iTunes Advanced preferences. Then use the "Add To Library" menu command and select the appropriate folder(s) on your external drive. iTunes will add the tracks to the Library but not move them to the internal drive.
Once that's done, use iTunes to transfer the music to the iPod. You can then, if iTunes is set for manual synchronization, remove the tracks from the Library if you want to remove the reference to the external drive.

New mac user, need help transferring music from external hard drive

I am new to using a mac. I have had an iphone for almost a year so I am catching on quickly to my macbook but this problem has stumped me and all my mac using friends.
I have a 500gb seagate external hard drive aswell as a new 500gb seagate internal.
I transferred all my music from an old ipod onto the external hard drive. There is about 50gb of music.
When I plug my external into my pc desktop I can see the music folder organized into subfolders with files inside that are encoded unless they are opened in itunes. My pc doesn't have enough internal memory to open and store my music library so I have just left it on the hard drive. When I plug the hard drive into my macbook it will show the music folder as having 50gb but when the folder is opened, none of the subfolders or files are visable.
I went ahead and dragged the folder from my harddrive onto my desktop. It took about an hour to transfer all the files but now the folder is sitting on my desktop and when I open it, it is empty. If i look in the folders info, it says it has the 50gb. If i try to drag and drop it into itunes nothing happens. If I drag and drop it into the itunes music folder, it will go there but will not show up on itunes.
I'm stumped and no longer eligable for apples telephone support as I bought this macbook from a friend. Any help would be greatly appreciated

I have a couple of theories, but I'm not an iTunes expert. These people are, though:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=782
Try posting your question there. Good luck!

Had to reinstall Lion. Backed up music to external hard drive. When I plug in iPod msg says it's synced w/another iTunes library. Do i "erase and sync" and re-add music from the hard drive?

Had to reinstall Lion. Backed up my music to an external hard drive. When I plug in my iPod a prompt msg says it's synced w/another iTunes library and asks if I want to "erase and sync" (to what is now an empty library) or "Transfer purchases". Do i "erase and sync" and re-add music from the hard drive once that's done?

You just need to tell iTunes where the library is located. If you want it back on your internal drive, copy the entite iTunes folder. Follow the instructions below.
iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer (Mac or Windows):
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527

For some reason I cannot import music from my hard drive to my iTunes library

For some reason I cannot import music from my hard drive to my iTunes library, could you please help?

See Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows.
Apply to the folder that you're failing to import from.
tt2

Old laptop died, got latest itunes on new laptop and recovered all music from external hard drive but ipad not recognised as device when plugged in? Do i reset my ipad2!!!

Old laptop died, got latest itunes on new laptop and recovered all music from external hard drive but ipad2 not being recognised as a device when plugged in so can't sync? Do i reset my ipad2?!!!! Its only taken 7 months to get to this point.
My ipad is set to sync via wifi but it is still trying to look for my old laptop which has been trashed..but i have deauthorised it and removed it from my account and still not recognised.
Please help (an extreme novice to Apple products)

Sync Your iOS Device with a New Computer Without Losing Data
http://www.howtogeek.com/104298/sync-your-ios-device-with-a-new-computer-without -losing-data/
iPad not appearing in iTunes
http://www.apple.com/support/ipad/assistant/itunes/
iOS: Device not recognized in iTunes for Mac OS X
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1591
iOS: Device not recognized in iTunes for Windows
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1538
IOS: Syncing with iTunes
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1386
Apple - Support - iPad - Syncing
http://www.apple.com/support/ipad/syncing/
 Cheers, Tom

HT4914 if you use iTunes match in order to create space and remove music from your hard drive, does that happen automatically when you subscribe and upload your music or is there another step to remove the music from your hard drive once you've uploaded t

if you use iTunes match in order to create space and remove music from your hard drive, does that happen automatically when you subscribe and upload your music or is there another step to remove the music from your hard drive once you've uploaded to iTunes match?

Welcome to the Apple Community.
iTunes match won't automatically remove content from your computer, if you want to do that you will need to do it manually yourself.

How can I move music from a hard drive to iphone

How can I move music from a hard drive to iphone?

Import it into an iTunes library and then sync the iPhone with that library. If desired, launch iTunes with the Shift key held down and create or choose an iTunes library on that drive.
(106987)

HT1727 i copied itune music from old hard drive to memory disk the copied onto new hard drive into itunes and music wont play unless removalbe disk is inserted

i copied itune music from old hard drive to memory disk the copied onto new hard drive into itunes and music wont play unless removalbe disk is inserted

Then your iTunes must be looking at the removable disc, not your hard drive. Did you actually copy the songs onto your computer, or simply tell iTunes to look at the removable drive?
Highlight a song and click on File/Get Info/Summary>Where and check the location that iTunes has listed for the song. What does it say?

Moving Music from External Hard Drive

I just rebooted my pc and I am trying to put my iTunes music from my hard drive back on the computer. How do I do this? Do I just drop and drag directly from the hard drive to the itunes folder in explore or do I have to bring both folders out to the desktop. Thank you!!

Do I just drop and drag directly from the hard drive to the itunes folder in explore or do I have to bring both folders out to the desktop.
Neither. You need to use the Import function inside iTunes, or drag the folder to the library in the open iTunes application window.
(47964)

How do I transfer music from old hard drive to Mavericks?

how do I transfer music from old hard drive to Mavericks?

You need only post once.
More information would help. The simplest answer is drag the files from the old drive to the iTunes window when you have the application open, or the Automatically Add To iTunes folder. If you mean the whole library that is a different answer.

Transferring my music from external hard drive into i-tunes

Help!
I'm sorry if this has been asked before, but I've browsed through a lot of the posts and have not been successful.
I am new to using iPods and iTunes, as I've always had a zune. I have about 80gb of my music backed up on my external hard drive. I am trying to transfer my music files to my itunes and sync to my ipod, and am running into all sorts of problems. Some of my music transferred, the rest didn't. So far, I have only been able to transfer about 21 gb of music from the external into iTunes. I have tried to add folder to library, add file to library, and add playlist to library. In all three, it will not let me select the entire external hard drive, or select more than one individual song that is on my external to transfer. When I tried to transfer my music files individually, I can't find them in my iTunes library. What am I doing wrong?
Bottom line is, how do I get the music off my external hard drive and onto my iPod? It won't all fit on my computer, which is one reason it's backed up externally.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. I am getting so frustrated I could cry. Thanks.

Rosanne Maitland wrote:
Please I need some help with moving music on an external hard drive to my i-tunes library. I think that I have cut and pasted it to i-tunes from this hard drive but once the hard drive is disconnected...i-tunes can not find it. I would appreciate a step by step run down on how I might do this
I am having the same problem, only with music I import into iTunes from a CD. The tracks will import, and will synch to my Ipod, but will not play in iTunes unless the original, source CD is in the computer. It seems to me that once iTunes "accepts" imported tracks, it should play them, whether the source CD is present or not.
I suspect that iTunes will be able to "find" all of your songs, and play them, provided the original source (hard drive) is hooked back up to your computer.
But you shouldn't have to do that. iTunes will play most imported tracks without requiring the source to be present. Puzzling.

When you are pulling music from a hard drive and it says music can not be found, is there a way to stop it from doing that every time I play music from my computer? It used to find all music now it only finds 1 song at a time

When pulling music from a harddrive and it say music can not be found, is there a way to stop this from happening every time I play music on my computer? It used to find all music when serching for song but now it only finds 1 at a time. I have over 2000 songs so I can't go through this every time.

1) However I do not want to move my itunes Music onto the flash drive, only my Movies, and want to keep my music on my hard drive.
Is this possible?
Yes
2) Do the MacBook Air's not have a separate program other than itunes that can play movies? If so, is there a program I can get to solve this problem? I went onto the App Store to see if there was something I could download, but all the apps were for creating DVD's, not simply playing them.
If you can play the movies in iTunes, you should be able to open the movie files using Quicktime, which should already be on your system. If you have already transferred the files to your flash drive, open the flash drive in Finder, and hold control when you click on the movie file (or right click if you have the enabled) and select Open With Quicktime Player. This should play the movie directly from the flash drive.
If you want to set all .m4v files to open with Quicktime by just double clicking on the file, you can follow the steps here: http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/2573/os_x_how_to_change_default_application_to_op en_file_type/
3) If 1. & 2. questions are solvable, will it then be safe to delete the movies from my itunes?
You can move the TV shows to your flash drive by dragging them from the iTunes window to your flash drive in Finder or the flash drive icon on the desktop. When you are sure everything is transferred over to your external device, you can delete the movie from iTunes. I recommend playing the videos from the flash drive first before deleting them in iTunes.
To delete the videos from iTunes, you can highlight them and press the delete key on your keyboard. In the next prompt, you would want to move it to the trash so that it is deleted from your internal hard drive.
I hope that helps!

Music from external hard drive not showing up

I am new to using a mac. I have had an iphone for almost a year so I am catching on quickly to my macbook but this problem has stumped me and all my mac using friends.
I have a 500gb seagate external hard drive aswell as a new 500gb seagate internal.
I transferred all my music from an old ipod onto the external hard drive. There is about 50gb of music.
When I plug my external into my pc desktop I can see the music folder organized into subfolders with files inside that are encoded unless they are opened in itunes. My pc doesn't have enough internal memory to open and store my music library so I have just left it on the hard drive. When I plug the hard drive into my macbook it will show the music folder as having 50gb but when the folder is opened, none of the subfolders or files are visable.
I went ahead and dragged the folder from my harddrive onto my macbook desktop. It took about an hour to transfer all the files but now the folder is sitting on my desktop and when I open it, it is empty. If i look in the folders info, it says it has the 50gb. If i try to drag and drop it into itunes nothing happens. If I drag and drop it into the itunes music folder, it will go there but will not show up on itunes.
I'm stumped and no longer eligable for apples telephone support as I bought this macbook from a friend. Any help would be greatly appreciated. (Please use extreme lay terms as i'm just learning the lingo...thx)

incase anyone is wondering, i figured out how to get the files onto the macbook. I transferred the files from my hard drive onto a flashdrive using my pc and when i plugged the flashdrive into the macbook the files showed up and could be dragged and dropped into itunes! yay!

Transferring music from peripheral hard drives

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