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Restoring iTunes library from a back up

I have my iTunes library set up on an external hard drive. That is also where my back ups are located as well. Anything that I find when I search on help with restoring it tells me to go into my back up and search for the latest iTunes back up, because my library isn't located on my Mac, I am unable to find that. I tried going into the preferences and selecting my iTunes library from my external hard drive but it does nothing, but ask if I want to copy. Is there any way to restore my library back to what it was before my clean restore? Thanks in advance.

Posted on Dec 11, 2011 11:57 PM

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8 replies

Dec 12, 2011 5:35 AM in response to wrxie

Just to note, having your iTunes folder and the backup copies on the same drive is not wise. Some day you are going to plug that drive in, it will refuse to start up and all will be gone. Your current system is okay if you're just worried about file corruption or accidental deletion, but you're not protected against hardware failure. "Failure" can also mean somebody stealing the drive that has all your iTunes files on them.

Dec 13, 2011 5:58 AM in response to wrxie

For some reason the Option key didn't work. I ended up just reloading it and now I'll have to just make sure it's all the way it was.


I will however find another place to do my back ups, not on the same hard drive. Though I never take it out of my house, failing doesn't seem like a good option so I'll do that just to make sure. Thank you!

Apr 3, 2015 7:32 AM in response to Eric Ross

Hi, I followed all the steps as suggested for backing up and restore iTunes library in the apple support website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751 but I have problems with the 'choose library' part in the last step. I clicked it the iTunes folder while holding down the Shift key but all that happened was that it just opened the folder and showed me what I have inside and not restore it. Do you know why?

Restoring iTunes library from a back up

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