Unable to copy iTunes folder to external WD My Book drive

No idea what's going on here. If I attempt to copy my iTunes folder to an external HD it fails with the error message
"The operation cannot be completed because you do not have sufficient priviledges for some of the items"
If I attempt to copy a single (artist) folder it fails with the same message after creating the destination folder (though empty)
If I manually copy the contents (songs) of a folder from the iMac to the destination folder on the HD it works.
Any ideas ? I have Read/Write permissions on the source, the target drive is a 750Gb WD My Book formatted as FAT under OSX. I even ran Repair Permissions on the iMac drive

If that works, then my guess is that the iTunes folder and its sub-folders probably have some sort of a permissions limitation placed on them, probably an Access Control List. Try doing a "list really long with every option known to man" on the iTunes folder and various sub-folders. Start with the iTunes folder itself:
ls -alO@e ~/Music/iTunes
Hit return and let's see what it says. If your iTunes folder is in the default location inside your home Music folder you can just copy and paste the command. Since you have managed to copy the stuff using Rsyncx you may not want to bother, as tracking this stuff down can be tedious.
Francine
Francine
Schwieder

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HT1751 unable to copy iTunes folder from mac to external hard drive, says hard drive can't be modified

when attempting to copy itunes folder to external hard drive, response is unable to copy file, hard drive can't be modified. What does that mean and how to I use external HD to transfer itunes library to new PC?

The drive is probably formated as NTFS, and your Mac doesn't have an NTFS write driver installed. Why not transfer the folder over your network?
tt2

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,
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HT4796 I am unable to copy a folder on mac to an external hdd or even to a usb

I am unable to copy a folder on mac to an external hdd or even to a usb

If the external drives are formatted for Windows (NTFS), you can't write to them natively on a Mac. Your options are (1) to back up and reformat the devices as FAT32 or ExFAT, or (2) to install third-party software that enables writing to an NTFS volume (not recommended.)

Backup-Restore v Copying itunes folder structure to a backup drive.

Is there any difference whatsoever in performing a backup to DVD and then a restore, and copying the itunes folder structure to a back up drive and using that to restore? (Assuming you know how)
I know there are other files involved in itunes that aren't in the main folder, such as cd names database files and other hidden files. Do these get backed up during a proper DVD backup from the file menu and are they necessary really?
I like the convenience of simply copying the folder structure as a means of backup but don't want to miss out on important files that may be backed up the recommended way with DVD's.
Is it a big deal if I don't use DVD's and just continue to copy the folders? What am I missing out on by doing this?
Also - Is it wise to un authorize my computer before I perform a reformat and re install of the entire operating system and iTunes?
-Frankie

1. yes you should deauthorise your PC before reinstalling Windows, then reauthorise after reinstalling itunes.
2. Assuming you have the default arrangement for iTunes i.e. Music\iTunes\iTunes Music with all your music files in iTunes Music.
You can backup iTunes by copying the iTunes folder in Music with all its subfolders to an external drive.
Then after you have reinstalled Windows and iTunes, you can replace the empty iTunes folder created at installation with the one from backup.

I put all my itunes folder on external hard drive, now I want to put it back on the mac how do i do this

put all my itunes folder on external hard drive, now I want to put it back on the mac how do i do this.

Drag the entire iTunes folder back to /Music.

Problems copying iTunes folder to an external hard drive - "The operation can't be completed because the item FILE NAME is in use"

Hi,
I have been trying to back up my iTunes folder from my MacBook hard drive over to a new LaCie external hard drive. However, whenever I try to do it at some point during the copying I keep getting the warning "The operation can’t be completed because the item FILE NAME is in use". Each time I have tried it, it is always a different file name that comes up and at different points of the copying. Following the warning, the copying stops and cannot be restarted.
I tried copying the iTunes folder to another Lacie external hard drive that I have, and it worked fine so I am guessing that it maybe something wrong with the hard drive.
I've been trying various approaches all day and can't seem to get anywhere with it - all very frustrating, so any help would be much appreciated!
Thanks.

If you don't have other backup data on it, reformatting external drive could solve the problem.

How do I copy iTunes folder which is on my external hard drive to my iTunes folder on my mini mac?

I am new to Apple computers. I have just downloaded an iTunes file from my pc onto an external hard drive and I want to know how I copy this file into my iTunes folder on my imac.

Connect the external hard drive to your iMac.
Open iTunes, go to the File menu, then select the item "Import into Library" and select your song in the file chooser that will appear. Press the ok button.

When copying Itunes to an external drive, how do I get iTunes to feed from the file on the external drive and not the computer/

I've already copied my iTunes folder onto my external hardrive. I'm having problems getting iTunes to pull the information from the external hardrive and not the computer's internal one, though. Any suggestions on how to get it to work?

iTunes works off of an ITL file in the iTunes folder
instead of dragging the folder out of the external hardrive and onto the desktop just do this
-hold shift key and double click iTunes to open it up
-you will get a prompt asking to create a new library or choose library, click choose library
-an explorer window will open up and you are going to navigate to the external hard drive and open the iTunes folder
-in the iTunes folder you are going to find a file that doesn't look like a folder but a page with a corner folded on it that is your iTunes library file
-double click the iTunes library file and your library will appear and you are good to go
WARNING: this is a good method for making sure your music doesn't take all of your computer's storage but keep in mind if you remove the external hard drive from the computer you may have issues accessing the library example next to the song titles

Cannot copy itunes from one external hard drive to another.

I have been using an external hard drive for storing my itunes and iphoto for a while now. I have never experienced any issue copying it to a larger drive for back up. My current drive is only 80 gigs (LaCie) and is almost out of space. I bought a new g-tech 500gig mini drive to replace it. Every time that I try to move the files from the old drive to the new one, I get the following error message 10 gigs into the transfer-
[You can’t copy “Music” because it has the same name as another item on the destination volume, and that volume doesn’t distinguish between upper- and lowercase letters in filenames.]
There is nothing on the new drive. I even took the iphoto folder off to make sure there was nothing on it to cause this message.
Is this an external drive issue or a Finder issue? I had no issue moving the iphoto library onto the new drive, fwiw...

I am getting exactly the same problem. It's just with the music folder. I dont get the problem copying other folders over. It gets about 22gb into copying 100gb from one external hard drive to another then I get the error message "You can’t copy “Music” because it has the same name as another item on the destination volume, and that volume doesn’t distinguish between upper- and lowercase letters in filenames." So I tried just copying the itunes folder and I still get the same message. Any advice welcome.

Moved ITunes folder to external drive now can't get Ipod to sync

I have moved my ITunes folder from laptop to external drive. Had to move each album folder individually to ITunes and when I went to Sync my Ipod, says its in Restore mode and can't get out of it as it stays in Restore mode over and over and over.

As a best practice, you should move your content to an external drive and import references to into iTunes rather than moving the whole database and app files. In iTunes > Preferences > Advanced, uncheck "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library". This will keep all your music and movies on the external drive, but iTunes and all references to the content on your desktop.
I know that's not what you wanted to hear as a fix, but this is how I have my MacBook Air setup and it works fine with the iPad. My son tried to move the whole app and database to a hard drive and we had endless problems with it.

Moved iTunes folder to external hard drive

I have a 40-gig iBook and wanted to create more space on the hard drive so I pick up a 160 gig external hard drive. I copied the iTunes folded onto the new external hard drive including the iTunes Library, iTunes Music and the iTunes Music Library.xml files. I then went to the iTunes reference folder and changed the location of the folder to the new external hard drive. My music shows up in iTunes but when I select a song I get the “The song “___” could not be found. Would you like to locate it” error message. How do I fix this problem without relocating each song?

OK try this. Warning, while I am hoping it won't this might lose all your ratings, playcounts, and playlists.
Exit iTunes. Go into the iTunes folder and make a copy of the two database files onto your desktop. These are the files that contain the ratings, playcounts, playlists, etc. If you don't care about those things, then skip this and go to the next step.
Now create a NEW iTunes library by following these instructions...
How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304447
Now, grab, drag, and drop the iTunes music folder where your music and other media already is, onto your new library. It should now add all the stuff to the library AND know where it is now. It may create a new copy of everything on your hard drive, so you need to have enough room to do this. When it is done, you can go ahead and delete the old location you just dragged and dropped if it was all copied into the new library's music folder.
Again, if you don't care about ratings, playlists, etc. you can stop here since you now have everything back in your library and working. If you want to try and save your ratings, etc. we can try this...
Exit iTunes. Go get those copies of the database files you put on the desk top. Move them and overwrite the ones that were created in your brand new library. Restart iTunes. Did you get them back?
Patrick

Problem copying iTunes to a external hard drive

I have been trying to move my very large iTunes library from my Macbook Pro to a external HD to free up space.
I have upgraded to iTunes 9 and upgraded the iTunes media organization.
I have consolidated my library on my Macbook Pro.
I have gone to advanced preferences and changed this to provide a pathway to my brand new external hard drive and then tried to consolidate to this to copy all my music, video, apps etc over.
This is where my problems start, when most of the files have been copied over I get the error message "copying files failed. The disk could not be read from or written to"
I have tried to do this several times and get the same response. I have been able to copy other things (non iTunes) to this external HD and all works well. I believe that I have read write permission as I have checked this for itunes and the external HD.
Note that the External HD and my laptop are also formatted the same (Mac OS extended journaled).
Whats the problem, any help would be appreciated
Thanks

Drag your iTunes folder with all its subfolders to your external drive. Restart iTunes with the option key held down, then navigate to the new library on the external drive.
[Discussion: Moving itunes library to external hard drive|http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=9127522] - link to article on moving your library to an external drive and warning tips about having drive switched on when you start up itunes.
[ilounge.com: Transferring your iTunes Library|http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-l ibrary-to-a-new-hard-drive/48] - Good background but for the simplified version read: [http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2362775]
[How to redirect your iPhoto and ITunes files to an external harddrive|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6058202]

Cannot copy iTunes folder from Windows to Mac because of Permission

I have my iTunes library on a windows machine, running windows 7. The library is organized inside the iTunes folder.
I am trying to put this same iTunes onto my new macbook pro. I tried copying the folder to an external HD and plugging that into my mac. When I tried to just copy the iTunes folder to the Mac HD I got:
I messed around with the permissions in Windows, but I couldn't get it to change. I tried everything I could find in the security tab for the disk and the permissions on the folder.
I decided to try and see if iTunes could just do it itself. So I replaced it itunes library (which was blank) on my Mac with that of my windows. I then opened a song, and followed the promt to locate it. iTunes found all my songs (on the external HD) just as you would expect. Now I tried to consolidate to get everything over to the mac. About halfway through i got this error:
So SOME of the songs and apps and books copied over but only about half and now it won't go any further. I went back to windows and tried to mess with the HD secruities again, but nothing worked.
One more note: when I open the HD on my mac it says "You have read access only" in the security tab. I know every other thread on this like suggests changing that but there is nowhere for me to do that.
Can anyone help me?

I then opened a song, and followed the promt to locate it. iTunes found all my songs (on the external HD) just as you would expect.
That's not what I would expect if you copied the entire /iTunes/ folder to the new computer.
Try this...
Open a Finder window.
Select Users/yourusernname.
Right click - get info.
Scroll to the bottom (Sharing & Permissions).
Make sure you can Read & Write.
Click the gear icon at bottom and select Apply to enclosed items.
Let it finish.
Delete the /Music/iTunes/ folder.
Then copy the entire /iTunes/ folder from the external to /Music/ on the internal.

Unable to transfer iTunes Library to external Harddrive

I followed the online directions and tried to transfer my iTunes library to my external hard drive, but it wont do it and I get the message "required file is in use". Does anyone have any suggestions?

stelladuce wrote:
Hi,
How do I properly open iTunes now with my library on th external drive. When I open iTunes it seems unable to open Music/ podcasts and audiobooks now?
iTunes is still looking for the iTunes Folder that you deleted. Just open iTunes and then select iTunes at the top menu bar, then select Preferences. When the Preference windows opens, select Advance, select General and you will see the old location listed. Now click the Change Button and from the popup window, navigate to the New iTunes Library Folder Location on the external drive and select it. Then click the Open button and the new path to the iTunes Library should now be set. Click the OK button to close the Preferences window and If iTunes doesn't open them, just quit & reopen iTunes.
That should doit.
Later ...
!http://homepage.mac.com/buzzlightgear/Buzz.tiff!
Buzz

Unable to copy iTunes folder to external WD My Book drive

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