Restore iTunes library on new computer

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Restore iTunes library on new computer

I recently had to replace my computer. New computer is PC/Windows 11. I wish to restore my iTunes library. My previous library was stored on an external drive. I changed the location in iTunes to point to my external drive but the library did not update in iTunes. Every topic I have read on this subject states to browse to the Library.itl file to get iTunes to populate with my files. However for whatever reason my external drive does not contain the Library.itl file. It does however contain all of my files in the proper consolidated iTunes format (artist, album, title, etc.). How do I get iTunes to import my files without a Library.itl file? Thanks for any information in advance.

Posted on Apr 21, 2023 10:09 AM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

274,634 points

Apr 21, 2023 11:59 AM in response to edwardfromcentennial

See Use multiple iTunes libraries on PC - Apple Support and use the shift-start-iTunes method to create a new empty library at D:\iTunes, or other drive letter as relevant. Move the content of your old iTunes Media folder inside D:\iTunes\iTunes Media. Use File > Library > Add Folder to Library to import the contents of D:\iTunes\iTunes Media. This will import all of your media, but you won't have any of your old playlists. If any of your content is in .wav format used Edit > Preferences > Advanced and turn off the Keep organized option before you import any content, then use a script called TagFromFilename to import details from the file path once the files have been imported. They will initially display as Unknown Artist, Unknown Album.

If you have some of this media on a device try the scripts ImportDevicePlaylists to recover playlists and SyncStats to pull in ratings, play counts, etc.

tt2

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Answer 2

Apr 22, 2023 3:09 PM in response to turingtest2

Thank you very much, I was able to load my iTunes library into iTunes. I was also able to find .xml files that I had saved for most of my playlists. The other playlists I was missing I was able to recover from my old iPod Classic (yes we still have 3 of those in the house). Currently I am struggling with the Protected AAC files that I purchased from Apple. Ironically the songs I actually purchased are the most difficult to get to load. Many of these files were purchased when I had a different Apple ID which was based on my email address. Since email addresses have changed over time (ie netzero and Prodigy no longer exist) I no longer have the password for when those accounts were active so I can’t authorize them on my new computer. I have tried to work around this before by trying to convert the Protected AAC files to MP3s. For some reason they all converted to a song length of 3 minutes and truncated anything past 3 minutes. I am thinking of trying this approach again before calling Apple to try to get the full songs to play again. I would appreciate any insight you might have into this issue. Why did they have to make this so complicated.

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Restore iTunes library on new computer

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