How to get new iTunes installation to "recognize" library on different drive

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Level 1

4 points

How to get new iTunes installation to "recognize" library on different drive

I had two hard drives on my PC - call them A:\ and B:\.

iTunes was installed on A:\.

A:\ was limited in storage capacity, so at some point I moved my iTunes library to the much larger B:\ - and it remains there today. The iTunes Media Folder location is B:\iTunes\iTunes Media. (This switchover of the library to B:\ was accomplished a long time ago, and frankly I do not remember how I "made it work" - as will become clear in this post...).

The hard drive A:\ crashed and I lost everything. Good thing all the music and other content is on B:\ !

I replaced A:\ with a new drive, call it C:\ and installed iTunes on that new drive.

Now, how to I get the newly installed iTunes on C:\ to use the library that is on B:\ - to display all the music (and movies, etc.), let me create playlists, synch my iPods, iPad and iPhone, etc.?

I went into iTunes to Preferences > Advanced and changed the iTunes Media Folder location to B:\iTunes\iTunes Media, and saved. What do I do now? I thought it would be as simple as using iTunes' "Add file to library", then navigating to B:\, selecting the root iTunes folder and clicking "Open." But that doesn't do it.

What do I need to do?

Also - when I get the new installation of iTunes to work with the old library, will my old playlists still be there?

Will the device profiles of my various devices still be recognized (as they were when using my previous installation of iTunes), or will I have to introduce them to iTunes as if they were new devices?

Posted on Sep 8, 2013 12:10 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

sterling r

Community Specialist

Sep 10, 2013 9:02 AM in response to Mae Sot

Hello Mae Sot,

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities!

It sounds like, from your description that we need to point iTunes to the library located in the 'B:\' drive and have iTunes load it.

You definately did one of the steps to tell iTunes to store and access content to the correct library. Next do this to "load" that specific iTunes library:

If iTunes is running, quit iTunes.

If you are using Windows, hold down the Shift key and from the Start menu and choose All Programs > iTunes > iTunes.

If you are using the Mac, open iTunes and immediately hold down the Option key.

You should see one of the following screens:

From: iTunes: How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1589

It should contain the playlists you had before.

All the best,

Sterling

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Answer 2

Mae Sot Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 11, 2013 1:33 AM in response to sterling r

Hi,

Thanks for the explanation above. I followed the procedure you described, resulting in the loading of a my existing iTunes library on B:\ into the new iTunes software I had installed on my new hard drive (C:\) I then connected my iPod - it was a brand new iPod, my old one having recently died - and it synched with this newly loaded library.

But as I started to use this new iPod, I realized that only a sub-set of my music library was actually on it. Many songs and albums were missing. So I went back, opened iTunes and checked the newly loaded library - these songs and albums were missing from it.

Next, I used Windows Explorer to check the files residing in the library's directory structure on B:\, and those missing songs and albums (the files and folders) WERE still there.

The material that did not get loaded from the library on B:\ into the new iTunes software included both content I bought from the iTunes store, and that I had ripped from CDs.

Therefore it seems that when I created the library using the procedure described above, much of the content from B:\ got left out.

Can you tell me how to fix this problem?

Thanks,

Ted

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Answer 3

Mae Sot Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 11, 2013 1:35 AM in response to Mae Sot

Note - most of my playlists from the library on B:\ were successfully loaded into the new iTunes software on C:\. However, some recently-created playlists did not get loaded into the new iTunes.

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