Location of ITunes Playlists on hard drive

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Level 1

6 points

Location of ITunes Playlists on hard drive

I have ITunes currently on my desktop PC at home, but am trying to download it to my Surface Pro 3 (running Windows 8.1) to use when we travel. I successfully downloaded it to added all the music to the tablet, BUT NOT THE individual playlists I have created. The only thing I can think of is that the Playlists must be stored on the hard drive of the computer where ITunes runs, and NOT on some ITunes cloud. I am thinking that, if I can find where the Playlists are stored on my home PC's hard drive, I can copy them to a flash drive, then download them to the tablet. This question has been asked several times in the past. BUT, when I follow the pathway mentioned in those responses, I come to files that look to be the individual albums I have added to ITunes, and NOT the Playlists I have created from those added albums. Am I thinking about this wrong? OR, if Playlists ARE stored on each individual computer, does anyone know the pathway to find them? I am running Windows 7 on my home PC where I am trying to find the Playlist files.

itunes-OTHER, Windows 7

Posted on Apr 30, 2015 12:15 PM

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Answer 1

lmendol Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 30, 2015 12:53 PM in response to hhgttg27

Thanks. I looked at the Apple link, so with that and your explanation, I think I understand what to do. I also spoke with someone at Apple Tech support, and they verified that this is the ONLY way to move playlists. I just need to wait the 4+ hours to download the ITunes file onto my flashdrive, so I can try to copy it to my Surface Pro 3. Once I add the big ITunes file to my surface Pro, I then import playlists into ITunes. I assume that ITunes will simply reach into this larger file and extract the playlists from it and add it to ITunes.

Hope this works. Thanks for the help!

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Answer 2

hhgttg27

Level 5

5,597 points

Apr 30, 2015 12:22 PM in response to lmendol

Playlists are stored, along with the locations of all media in the library, ratings, links to artwork downloaded from the Store, etc. in the iTunes database - the iTunes Library.itl file that is, by default, stored in C:\Users\username\Music\iTunes. If you want to replicate your library across multiple computers you need to copy this folder and all its contents - not just the media. See turingtest2's user tip on Make a split library portable and the official guidance on How to move your iTunes library to a new computer - Apple Support.

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Answer 3

hhgttg27

Level 5

5,597 points

Apr 30, 2015 1:00 PM in response to lmendol

"I assume that ITunes will simply reach into this larger file and extract the playlists from it and add it to ITunes."

Not exactly - you need to replace the iTunes Library.itl file on your Pro 3 with the one from your desktop. I have a similar situation to yours, but I use MS SyncToy to replicate the library to an external hard drivethat I then connect to the netbook that I use when traveling (shortly to be replaced by a Pro 3!) - you can then shift-start iTunes and select the library on the external drive, without any further need to copy media or database onto a smaller capacity device.

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Answer 4

lmendol Author

Level 1

6 points

Apr 30, 2015 1:45 PM in response to hhgttg27

Well, believe it or not, it worked. The Apple person told me all I needed to do was import the playlist using File/Libraries/import function. But, that didn't work. So I found the ITL file and dragged it into the ITunes file - it asked if I wanted to replace the existing file, and I crossed my fingers and said yes, and it worked!

Only strange thing is that, when I tried out one of the playlists, it showed a song that it said couldn't be played because the original song couldn't be located. I just went to the album where it was and added the song back to the playlist, and it worked. Guess I'll need to check all the playlists to see if there are any more glitches like that.

Thanks again!

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Answer 5

hhgttg27

Level 5

5,597 points

Apr 30, 2015 1:51 PM in response to lmendol

You're welcome - you may find some glitches like this if the files and folders on your Pro 3 don't exactly match those on your desktop. Even if you want to have your library replicated on the Pro 3's internal storage, I'd still suggest using the SyncToy method referenced above to periodically backup your library on the desktop and then restore this to the Pro 3. Added benefit, of course, is that you have a separate backup of your library to deal with hard disc or other system failures.

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Answer 6

turingtest2

Level 10

277,985 points

Apr 30, 2015 1:50 PM in response to lmendol

You may find my script FindTracks useful for fixing broken links, assuming Surface Pro 3 can run vbScript.

tt2

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Answer 7

Apr 30, 2015 2:05 PM in response to lmendol

Please close this thread/ set as solved.

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