Tip & How-To about Computers & Internet

ITunes library on a new drive

If you have the two files iTunes.itl and iTunes Music.xml, you can trick Itunes into seeing your new library location when you move it to another drive.
Start with iTunes closed.

1. Copy the two files to a safe location.
2. Hold the Shift key down while opening iTunes
3. Tell iTunes to create a new library and locate it on the new drive.
4. Close iTunes
5. Copy all the music files into the new drive and iTunes folder
6. Copy the two files from the old location over the newly created iTunes files in the new folder.
7. Open iTunes
8. Check the music for playability.

This method will save you hours of importing time.

Related Questions:

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my apple iPod shuffle appears in Windows but not in iTunes

Here's how I fixed it:

I downloaded iTunes & Quicktime.

I then uninstalled all the Apple applications (iTunes, Quicktime, MobileMe, Bonjiour, Updates, etc.).

I had to delete the files in the iTunes folder (iTunes Library.itl, iTunes Library Extras.itdb, iTunes Library Genius.itdb, and iTunes Music Library.xml). I don't know if I needed to delete all of them, but I know that the the iTunes Library.itl file is definitely a problem. When I upgraded to 8.2, it updated this file and essentially forced me to delete it and rebuild my music library. This is where my files were located:

C:\Users\USERNAME\Music\iTunes

Also, remember to reboot your PC after all of the uninstalls. I also reset my iPod Touch (not a restore, as the above helped me avoid this, so I did not loose the data on the iPod Touch... though I did have to rebuild the music library.

It was a pain, but certainly worth it to hook up my iPod Touch and have instant connectivity. I don't think I forgot anything, but these are the key things.

One last bit of advice... back up all of your data before you begin, so you can restore the data and music and data.

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Apr 05, 2011 • Apple iPod nano

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