Trouble copying itunes music from external hardrive

ive just had a new hard drive installed on my laptop. i backed all my files to the external hard drive, and when i downloaded itunes, obviously none of my music was there. i have tried to copy it from the hard drive, but cannot do it? can someone talk me through it please??? i'm sure it's simple.....

Presumably you are going to rebuild your iTunes library on the new laptop. If this is the case, the location of the iTunes library (under Edit, Preferences, Advanced) will be C:\Users\[username]\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music by default.
You then click "Add Folder to Library" from the File menu and then select the folder on your external drive where your music is stored. iTunes will then copy all the contents from the external drive onto your laptop. Depending on the size of your music collection, it can take a while for this to happen but you should see progress in the iTunes window right at the top.
If your external drive is connected via a network, rather than a USB2 socket, the process will take even longer.

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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?

How to play itunes music from external hard drive

How do I either play continuous music from my external hard drive, or make itunes recognize my external hard drive as the library.

Hi Jim
I've recently upgraded to a macbook Pro and I copied all data, profiles etc across from my old macbook. I have also created a second account in my mackbook Pro. I am able to play my iTunes music from the external HD in the 'old' account, but not in the 'new' account, despite trying what you've said above. On the external HD, there are two folders: iTunes music and iTunes media. I have tried selecting each of these, but both times, I get this message: "An iTunes library file could not be found in the folder "iTunes Media". Please choose a different folder." ... Please can you help?
Many thanks in advance!

Putting iTunes Music Onto External Hardrive

Hi guys,
Just wondering if someone can help answear my question hopefully or give me some help
I have a macbook air and currently have all my itunes music stored onto the mac internal hard drive. However, I recently bought an external hard drive and was wondering, If i can or if its possible?? If I move all the music from my mac onto my external hardrive, would the music still play or be rejistered in my iTunes library because my iphone is on auto sync for music with itunes.
I know that once I draged and dropped a music clip straight from my external into itunes and it still played, registered even when i didnt have my external plugged in and also didnt have a copy of it on my mac at all. Just wondering if its the same for music???
Cheers,
Thomas

Awesome thank you Niel.
It's just copying over to my external now. Afterwards can I delete the itunes music folder off my mac cause i need to free up a lot of space. If i do this after opening itunes with holding the option key down and click chose library which will be from my external. Then will all itunes music still work even when I dont have the external plugged in

I have 2 yr old Iphone 4 and have not backed up or connected to Itunes or backed up for 1 yr. I have new computer and want to connect and copy Itunes folder from external HD to new computer and install Itunes. What steps should I take and what precautions

I have a 2 yr old Iphone 4 and have not backed up or connected to Itunes up for 1 yr. I have new Windows 7 computer and want to connect and copy Itunes backed up folder from external HD (a year ago) to new computer and install new Itunes and new IOS. What steps should I take and what precautions? I don't want to lose any data on my phone such as music, photos, contacts, notes, texts etc, nor lose music from prior backed up Itune folder. Apps should be OK from app store? Thanks for any help.

Hello CosK,
The following guide can step you through the process of using a backup of your iPhone 5 to transfer your content to your iPhone 5s.
Transfer content from an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to a new device
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2109
Should one or both of your phones fail to appear in iTunes, the following article provides troublesooting steps that can assist.
iOS: Device not recognized in iTunes for Windows
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1538
Cheers,
Allen

Copying TV shows from external hardrive to laptop?

I use an external hard drive as my main iTUNES library. If I download TV shows, can I copy them to my laptop iTUNES library?
If so, how?
Thanks.

Yes. You can simply connect your ext hd and drag the files over. You may have to find them again when playing them from iTunes because it will expect them in the old location. I would do this rather than changing the location of your iTunes folder within iTunes. Pain in the butt. However, simly dragging and dropping will work fine if you just want to be able to take the shows with you. You could even just create a new folder on the desktop, drag and drop the files then double-click the episode you want to watch.
Just remember that EVERYTHING in your iTunes music folder is organized the same way. They are in a folder named TV Shows, within your iTunes Music folder (IF you have chosen to keep your iTunes folder organized. And if you haven't, shame on you. )
Good luck!

Help me get my iTunes music from external HD to iPod??

New iPod is plugged into Mac. Set to automatically update. What steps do I take now to get music from my External HD onto the iPod?? Thanks.

The music has to be in iTunes first.
Go ahead and eject the iPod from iTunes...
How to Eject the iPod
Now, go to file-->add folder to library. Find the folder on the external HD that has all the music on it. Add that to the library. Then go back and sync the iPod. Note that iTunes will look for the songs from the ext. HD, and if it is not connected, the songs will not work in iTunes.
btabz

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.

Copy iTunes Music from one User to Another, Same iMac

I'm running OS X 10.7, iTunes 10, and I want to copy (not share, _copy_) my iTunes music library from one user to another on the same iMac.
Please don't give me a solutioon that works on your OS X 10.5 or 10.6 software as 10.7 seems to be quite different and those answers do not work.

Choose Go to Folder from the Finder's Go menu, provide /Users/Shared/ as the path, drag it to that folder, log in from the other account, and copy it from there. Alternatively, log in from the other account, open the first account's home folder, drag it to the desired location, and authenticate when prompted.
(70510)

Is there anyone having trouble copying itunes music to their psp?

i'M trying to copy my music library onto my psp(using a 4gb memory card from datel)but only certain songs copy about 79 out of 960. Does anyone have any ideas as what this could be?

Or do a "Search discussions" >>>>> over on the right
I typed in PSP and found this link
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1694001&#1694001

Copying itunes music from old to new Windows PC

Hi,
I currently have iTunes installed on my laptop, the iTunes config files are in the default directory on the C:\ however the actual music files and folders are on an external USB drive.
I have just purchased a new Dell Inspiron 6400 and want to transfer my iTunes onto this new laptop. I assume I have to install iTunes onto the new laptop but after that I have no idea.
1. What are the steps to copy over my iTunes from old to new laptop?
2. Will it keep the playlist and folder structure on the new laptop that is already setup on old laptop?
Cheers Col.
Dell Laptop Windows 2000 iTunes 6.0.4.2

If you download a program called ephPod you will be able to copy all the songs from your iPod to a folder of your choice on your new computer. Its free as well, which is always good.
once downloaded, connect your ipod to your new computer and ephPod will load up all the songs on it. if you click on songs at the top (as in, sort by songs), then select all and copy to directory it will ask u to select a folder on the computer to copy the songs to. then just simply press ok and it shold work. any photos can be copied by going into your iPod via My Computer and just clicking on iPod -> Photos. good luck!

Can't copy my music from external hard drive to new MacBook Pro hard drive. "This operation can't be completed because you don't have permission to access some of the items."

I already tried going to "Get info" and "apply to enclosed items" but that doesn't work. I can copy over about 2gbs of music into my iTunes library but after that, it stops and I get the error. Please help. Any information that would lead to a solution would be great. Thanks!

Hi..
Best to post your topic in the iTunes for Mac community here.

Was able to transfer itunes music from an external drive to a computer, but cannot listen to it without external drive being connected. There are "!" next to the transferred music.

Was able to transfer itunes music from external drive to computer, but they won't play. There are "!" marks next to all transferred songs and a message reads "Unable to locate songs". How do i get the transferred songs to play without having the external drive connected.

Select a single song with a broken link, press CTRL+I to Get Info, cancel when asked to locate the track and take a look at the Summary tab. Post back where iTunes is looking for the file. It begins file://localhost
Where is it really?
Please post back both paths so that I can make suggestions. Full paths please, exact spellings, you can replace your user name with <User> if needed.
tt2

I recently reset my computer and copy my music from an external hard drive to my itunes library. When I click on a song to play i get an error message that says " the song could not be used because the original file could not be found". need help

I recently reset my computer and copy my music from an external hard drive to my itunes library. When I click on a song to play i get an error message that says " the song could not be used because the original file could not be found". But when I have my external hard drive plug in the song will play with no problem. What do I need to do to play my music without having the external harddrive plug in ???????? Please help

Because the location for each song in your library is on your hard drive. If the hard drive isn't there, how can iTunes play it?
You'll have to move/copy the music from your hard drive to your computer's hard drive.
Basically, EASIEST way to do all this, if you don't care about your play counts, etc...
-Delete EVERYTHING from iTunes, so that your library is now empty.
-Go to "Advanced" inside of the "Preferences" window, found in the "Edit" drop-down. You can also access Preferences by pressing Ctrl+, (Press Ctrl and the comma key)
-Change your iTunes Media Folder Location to something simple, but on your computer. I use C:/iTunes. Make sure "Keep iTunes Media Folder Organized" and "Copy files to...." are both checked. You can close Preferences now.
-Now, drag and drop your music from your hard drive into your iTunes library. iTunes will automatically add the music to your library, as you would expect, and also creates a copy of each file to place into that iTunes Media Folder you just created.
Shouldn't have any more problems...

HT4527 i just copied some music from my external hard disc to my macbook . how can i make all that music be shown in my iTunes without having double copies of the music??

i just copied some music from my external hard disc to my macbook . how can i make all that music be shown in my iTunes without having double copies of the music??

Hello Sudhanshu Mishra,
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities!
You can have iTunes reference the content where ever it is on your HDD without copying the content to the iTunes library, thus using twice the space.
If iTunes is set to "Copy files to the iTunes Music folder when adding to library," iTunes will copy all content that is added to the iTunes library to the iTunes Music folder. To adjust this setting or change the location of this folder, go to the Advanced tab in iTunes Preferences.
From: Adding music and other content to iTunes
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1473
Additionally if you want the content to then ALSO be located in your iTunes Library folder so everything is all kept together nice and tidy, use this:
Consolidate your files in the iTunes folder
Depending on how you imported items into iTunes, some items in your library might be stored in different locations (in another folder or on another hard disk, for example).
You can consolidate all the files in your library in the iTunes folder—for example, to make it easier to move your library to a new computer.
Choose File > Library > Organize Library.
Select “Consolidate files.”Files remain in their original locations, and copies are placed in the iTunes folder.
To create folders (Music, Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts, Audiobooks, and so on) inside your iTunes folder, and place all your imported media files in the appropriate folders, select “Reorganize files in the folder ‘iTunes Media.’”
From: help://bookmark='https://help.apple.com/itunes/mac/11.0/help/index.html?localePath=English.lproj# itns2999'
Cheers,
Sterling

Trouble copying itunes music from external hardrive

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