Where is my iTunes folder normally kept on my iMac?

Just wondering - where is my iTunes folder normally kept on my iMac?
I have previously moved my iTunes folder to an external hard drive, and now want to move it back to my iMac hard drive, but I can't remember where it is supposed to go exactly.
Can anyone help me?

Hi, it go in Your user account--Music
Randy

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Where has my itunes folder gone??

Hi there,
I recently opened a new itunes folder for my sister's music and now I don't know what has happened to my own folder and all my music. Can someone please tell how I am able to access my itunes folder/library?
Any help would be appreciated!
Thanks,
Sam

Look in your user's My Documents -> My Music folder for the iTunes folder. If it's there, try launching iTunes with the Shift key held down. When you get the dialog box offering to create a new library or locate an existing one, choose the "locate" option, navigate to your copy of the iTunes library, and select it. Then see if things work properly.
If this does indeed work, you'll need to perform this procedure every time you want to switch between your iTunes library and your sister's. You may instead want to give your sister her own user account in Windows. That way she'll have access to her own iTunes library whenever she logs in and you'll get access to yours.
Hope this helps.

Where are the iTunes update files kept? I need to delete them all.

As it says on the tin.
I have found articles about removing update files on Macs, but not Windows.
WAIT!
%appdata% > Apple Computer > Itunes
Thanks!

It depends on how you have iTunes Preferences set. The default is that when you drag files into the Music list they are copied into the library (so now you have two copies). You can change this so that all the iTunes Library contains is a references to the files - effectively an alias. Obviously if you move the files, iTunes can't find them.
In your case, if your iTune/iTunes Music folder and the album folders inside it contain actual music files then the files outside the iTunes folder are duplicates and can be removed. If the files are simply references, and thus very small, then you can't remove the actual music files.
The quick test is to close iTunes and remove them temporarily. Then open iTunes and see whether your songs play. Scroll through the list looking for the small i in a circle sign to the left of the title which indicates it can't find the file. If you don't find any then you are safe to get rid of the duplicate files.
In doing all this do not tamper with anything in the iTunes folder.

Where should itunes folder be located windows 8

where should my itunes folder be when i installed on pc i put it here Windows 8: C:\Users\username\My Music\iTunes\ put i found another itunes folder in mydoculments folder and it says that is where it was put after itunes 11. so which one do i need

See: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
It may be that you are seeing an alternate path provided for backwards compatibility and there is really only one iTunes folder. The one you should be using is C:\Users\<User>\Music\iTunes. The "My" or "User's" bit gets added on to the name of the Music folder depending on which user you are logged in as, but in reality the folder is simply called Music. Windows Vista and susequent versions attempt to support references to ...<Profile Folder>\My Documents\My Music and redirect to ...<Profile Folder>\Music.
tt2

How do I get all the music on my IMAC in one folder. We have one IMAC and 3 sign ons. When add a song under one sign on it doesn't add to all 3 libraries.

How do I get all the music on my IMAC in one ITUNES folder? We have one IMAC, with 3 sign ons for me and my 2 teens. When you add a song under one of the sign ons it doesn't add it to all 3 libraries. Before I updated to LION, We had one main library with all the songs we bought, imported from cd's etc. Then any of the three of us could add it to our own IPOD instead of buying the song agin. It is one house, one IMAC. It was working fine under Leopard.

The sort fields should generally be empty unless you've putting in custom values to sort solo artists by their surnames. You can apply common changes to thousands of tracks at once, just don't apply the wrong change because there is no undo.
It is a good idea to backup before undertaking large scale changes. See this backup tip for a suggested approach.
tt2
Message was edited by: turingtest2

When importing a cd on to itunes where is the original file kept because my itunes folder doesn't have it, the song does come up when i spotlight search it but i can't locate it

i cannot seem to find where the original file for tracks that have been imported from a cd are kept because they are not in the itunes folder, however the song is somewhere as it does show up on spotlight search and plays when i click it. where would i find it?!

It will be in the iTunes media folder location shown in iTunes prefs > Advanced.
Select the song, right click > Show file in Finder.

TS1967 When trying to recover a lost iTunes library file, the programme moved all the normal contents of iTunes folder to the desktop. Now what must I do?

When trying to recover a lost iTunes library file, the programme moved all the normal contents of iTunes folder to the desktop. Now what must I do? There is no iTunes Library.itl file. On the desktop it is labelled iTunes Library.xml. Several others files have appeared there too including iTunes Music Library.xml
Before I can use the programme is it necessary to take another step?
Thanks for advice.

Don't worry. I'm all for caution. I guess I should have asked a little more about what steps you took while trying to recover your lost library?
The permissions thing may be a red herring, but if there is a problem with file access rights to the designated media folder iTunes has been known to place files on the desktop instead since it can access this location. The most common cause for such problems is working with a folder on an NTFS drive via a differnt account or on a different computer. In the normal course of events folders created inside user profiles have limited rights for other users.
Here are the typical layouts for the iTunes folders:
Normally the iTunes folder will be created at <User's Music>\iTunes with the media folder inside it. The library files should all appear in the same place so your comment about there not being an iTunes Library.itl file is confusing. Is it just the case that the .itl extension is hidden? The two .xml files makes sense from the above and indicates that the active library is not in <User's Music>\iTunes, but you have a recovered file from when it was.
If, in fact, the situation is that your desktop is acting as the main iTunes folder, and contains the library file, Album Artwork, iTunes Media and (optionally) Previous iTunes Libraries folders, with all other content being inside the iTunes Media folder, then it should be relativly easy to rearrange your into the correct shape and move them to the correct location.
If things are more complex, with something other than a library folder containing a media folder, then reestablishing the normal order is more complicated. The iTunes consolidate function is used to bring copies of files stored outside of the media folder into the media folder. It may sometimes be needed as part of the process of tidying up, however it leaves behind originals. There are circumstances where there isn't room for two complete sets of the media files on the same drive which is why I suggested the script might be useful as it produces the same results for the library without leaving the originals for manual clear up.
I think before you do anything however, we should get a clearer picture of exactly what is where. Could you perhaps take a screenshot of the desktop and post it here? Take a look at this post on making a split library portable. The same techniques I outline there can be used to lick your library into shape, it is just a question of working out which to use in which order for the best effect.
tt2

Having moved my Itunes folder to external hardrive and resetting where it is in preferences Itunes can't find them and I have to direct it to every song - I have a months worth of songs on there so this will take avery long time - any ideas on what;s up?

Having moved my Itunes folder to a new external hardrive and resetting where it is in preferences Itunes can't find them and I have to direct it to every song- a little ! pops up next to the song and a dialogue box says Itunes can't find it so thn i have to manually search for it - I have a months worth of songs on there so this will take avery long time - any ideas on what's up?

nellydee wrote:
Having moved my Itunes folder to a new external hardrive and resetting where it is in preferences
That's not how to do it. You don't move stuff then set the iTunes prefs > Advanced.
Once you move the /iTunes/ folder, hold Option, launch iTunes and select Choose library... and select the ITunes folder on the external.
This will use the iTunes library file in the iTunes folder you moved.
Don't change iTunes prefs > Advanced.

HT3832 "Automatically add to iTunes" folder. Where do my files go?

Where do my pdf files go after I add them to the "Automatically add to iTunes" folder?
They appear on my iPad okay, but I cannot find them on my PC any longer

They should go into the Books folder. Locate one of them in the books section of the library, right-click and show in Windows Explorer.
tt2

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

Moved Itunes folder and everything is now gone - how can I recover it?

My C drive was low on disk space - so tonight I sent alot of the files that were on the C drive (only 14 gigs total) to my D drive (140+ gigs w/ tons of room)because I was down to something like 200 MBs.
One of those folders happened to be the Itunes folder w/ the files Itunes music library (xml doccument), Itunes library (Itunes music database file), and Itunes music
I didn't delete anything - and all the files seem to be intact just as they were before - only on my D drive now. Unfortunatly this caused 8 gigs of music to be deleted from my itunes which took me hours to organize
Is there any way to restore my Itunes back to what it was?
Thanks in advance for any help or advice you can offer
Dan

You will not have lost any of the orgainsiation (Playlists/Ratings etc) as long as you don't lose the iTunes library file.
You can re-import the songs from your D: drive, but it would create a different library file (since the library file tells iTunes where all the songs are kept - and this has changed).
If you did it this way, you would keep all the song info (Artist/Name/Genre/CD Cover etc.) but lose your ratings and Playlists.
Just thought of a better way to do this.
Copy your iTunes library file (its v small) back to your C: drive in its previous location.
Go to itunes Preferences (possibly called 'options' on Windows version) and go to the 'Advanced' tab. In the General tab within this, there is an option to change your iTunes music folder location. Hit change and browse to where your music is now stored. This way, your music should appear back in your iTunes library, all playlists intact and all ratings/tags as they were before

HT1751 After "Restoring iTunes Library Backup" it wont link to the files in the iTunes folder. I've followed the correct procedure, and iTunes lists all my music correctly (but with no artwork), but can't locate any of the files. Using Windows 7. Help ple

After "Restoring iTunes Library backup" it wont link to the files in the iTunes folder. I've followed the procedure as described, and the iTunes folder is in the correct location. iTunes lists all my music correctly (albeit with no artwork), but can't locate any of the files.
I've been restoring my iTunes folder from a backup hard drive to a new computer on which I've downloaded the latest iTunes (10.7). If this is a newer version than the one I backed up with could this be the problem? (I had the latest (to my knowledge) iTunes when I backed up the folder about 3 weeks ago, was this version 10.7?)
Or is the version of iTunes (within recent updates) not an issue when restoring a library?
Using Windows 7.
Any help please?

From the top of the page where the scripts live...
The general method of use is to download the script to a folder of your choice, e.g. your Desktop, Downloads folder or create a folder at ...\iTunes\Scripts. Select a playlist or highlight some tracks in iTunes and then double-click on the script to execute it. If no specific tracks are selected the script will try to work with all tracks in the current playlist. Some scripts offer a choice of track by track confirmation of changes or fully automatic processing of the selection. Many of the scripts can optionally display a progress bar while running.
You are strongly advised to backup your entire library, or at the very least the iTunes Library.itl file, before use. Test the behaviour of your chosen script on a small group of files first to make sure it does what you want before applying it to large numbers of files.
Most builds of Windows will execute *.vbs scripts when you double-click them. If that doesn't happen then you might need to visit the Add/Remove Programs or Programs & Features control panel to enable the Windows Scripting Host. I can track down details if you have issues.
Backing up and restoring data is an area that is often glossed over. Most people don't try to learn much about it until they've lost something important. (Me too )
If your iTunes library was in the usual layout then normally copying the whole iTunes folder from the User's Music folder in the old computer to the User's Music folder in the new one will usually work fine. Ideally this is done before iTunes is installed so that there is no empty library to replace, and all settings are picked up from the old library. This post contains more details.
tt2

Moving iTunes folder to an external drive. How ?

My pBook 17" is bloated with iPhoto PICS and iTunes music store purchases. Moving the photo library, and running it off of the LACIE external FW 800 drive was easy. Not with iTunes. I moved the entire iTunes folder to the external, but every time I launch iTunes on the PBook it opens a blank library. How do I get iTunes to recognize the library on the external HD, without a lose of date added, etc. Apple Care was no help, and had no answer. BTW, after erasing the iTunes library from my PB HD, and moving the library back to the PB, everything works as normal. The iTunes library is 10 gB in size BTW.
thanks in advance, rick

It's not hard to overlook something obvious, happens to me too once in a while, so let's start from scratch.
Forget the KB article for know. I just performed all the steps in it on a 'test' account with a small (test) library, and could not detect any anomalies.
The article is OK, but might not be 100% clear (I second William's remark)
Steps to do:
• Quit iTunes (and other applications that use the EHD)
• Unmount and disconnect your external HD.
• Run iTunes and verify that you can play all music. If OK, then it has to be on the Powerbook. If you are presented with exclamation marks, it was already on the EHD.
• You've consolidated the Library a couple of times now, so it should be all together in ~Users/YourUsername/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music.
• Connect your EHD
• In iTunes, change the 'iTunes Music folder location' to the location on your EHD, where you want the music to be. To be sure, create a new folder.
• Now 'Consolidate Library...' again. iTunes will start copying the music. If it doesn't, I'll eat my hat (to be honest, I don't have a hat).
Let know what happens.
M
17' iMac fp 800 MHz 768 MB RAM Mac OS X (10.3.9) Several ext. HD (backup and data)

Without thinking, I dragged my iTunes folder to new hard drive ...

As friendly as Macs are - and as long as I have been using them - the iTunes issues never cease to puzzle me. In this case, I hope there is an easy answer, though I fear I know differently form the posts.
I wanted to move my itunes to my new laCie hub/drive extenral to free up space for FCP on my main internal drives. So I thought (or didn't think) and dragged to make a copy of the iTunes folder from my main 'Music' location. Now, of course, I can't return it or reconnect it. I DO have my ipod fully loaded .. so assume that is an option to restore it.
So a) is there an option i don't know about (I just want it back the way it was! AaRRGGGH!)
or b) can you offer me the info on restoring from ipod (ouch)
Thanks!
Brent

When dragging a folder to another disk, Mac OS makes a copy.
You can drag the folder out of the trash onto the external and open iTunes with the Option key held or you can use the original folder on the internal.
If you want you use the external drive for iTunes.
Quite iTunes.
Drag the iTunes folder from the trash to where you want.
Start iTunes and hold the Option key. Select Choose existing library and select the folder on the external drive.
You should see all your music and playlists.
Quti iTunes.
Drag the original folder on yoru internal drive tot eh trash (don't empty it yet).
Start iTunes normally and make sure all your music works.
If so, you can delete the trash and free up all that space on the internal drive.

How do you make an itunes folder?

Hi,
Whenever I go to download the newest itunes it says "Cannot find /itunes" I accidently deleted it. How do I re-create it?

If you migrate your library properly you don't get the wipe & reload problem. If possible revisit your migration, or use the link at the end to associate your device with the new library.
These are two possible approaches that will normally work to move an existing library to a new computer.
Method 1
Backup the library with this User Tip.
Deauthorize the old computer if you no longer want to access protected content on it.
Restore the backup to your new computer using the same tool used to back it up.
Keep your backup up-to-date in future.
Method 2
Connect the two computers to the same network. Share your <User's Music> folder from the old computer and copy the entire iTunes library folder into the <User's Music> folder on the new one. Again, deauthorize the old computer if no longer required.
Both methods should give the new computer a working clone of the library that was on the old one. As far as iTunes is concerned this is still the "home" library for your devices so you shouldn't have any issues with iTunes wanting to erase and reload.
I'd recommend method 1 since it establishes an ongoing backup for your library.
Note if you have iOS devices and haven't moved your contacts and calendar items across then you should create one dummy entry of each in your new profile and iTunes should merge the existing data from the device.
If your media folder has been split out from the main iTunes folder you may need to do some preparatory work to make it easier to move. See make a split library portable.
Should you be in the unfortunate position where you are no longer able to access your original library or a backup then then see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device for advice on how to set up your devices with a new library with the maximum preservation of data.
tt2

Where is my iTunes folder normally kept on my iMac?

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