Importing Itunes Library From External Hard Drive To


If you're used to buying songs, movies, e-books, and other media from the iTunes store, your computer would be getting full and become slower and slower with the increasing media files added to iTunes library; and in order to protect your iTunes library in case of data loss, it's better to backup your iTunes library. Here, we’ll show you how to backup the iTunes library to an external hard disk and how to transfer iTunes music & Apple Music tracks to an external hard drive.

Method 1: Backup iTunes Library to External Hard Drive

Method 2: Backup iTunes Music to External Hard Drive with A Third-party Software

Method 1: Backup iTunes Library to External Hard Drive

To ensure that you copy everything from iTunes over to an external hard drive, you should first consolidate your library. Even if you think your library has all your information consolidated already, it can't hurt to do a manual check before moving any data.

This tutorial shows you how to move your iTunes library to an external hard drive. This is very useful is you are running out of space. Video originally cr.

  • On Windows, hold down the SHIFT key and then double-click to open iTunes. When you do this, you’ll get a dialog before iTunes loads. From the two options, you want to click on Choose Library. Now navigate to the external hard drive and open the iTunes folder. There you will find an iTunes.itl file, which you want to select and then click Open.
  • Furthermore, copy the iTunes backup from the external hard drive and paste it to your new computer’s Music iTunes folder. After the backup is copied, launch iTunes on your system. If it is already open, then first close iTunes from running in the background.
  • Subscribe Now:More:an external hard drive for iTunes i.

Step 1 Find iTunes Advanced Preferences:

To consolidate iTunes library, on your Windows, launch iTunes > go to 'File' > 'Library' > 'Organize Library' > tick 'Consolidate files' > click 'OK'.

Part 2: Drag iTunes Library to External Hard Drive

After completing these steps, your iTunes library files are all in one place and are ready to be backed up to your external hard drive.

Step 1 Quit iTunes and connect your external hard drive to the PC via USB.

Step 2 Go to 'Edit' and select 'Preferences'. In the Preferences window, select Advanced. And check 'Keep iTunes Media Folder Organized' and 'Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library.'

Step 3 In the same panel, click 'Change' and you are guided to select a new folder in your external drive for you to store the iTunes library.

Step 4 Drag the iTunes folder to your external hard drive. This will begin the iTunes backup. The amount of time the backup will take depends on the size of your library. When the transfer is done, your backup is complete and your external hard drive can be disconnected.

Step 5 After the transfer process is complete, your iTunes library has been successfully transferred to your external hard drive.

Method 2: Backup iTunes Music to External Hard Drive with A Third-party Software

From the above-mentioned part, you probably have felt a little complicated to move the iTunes library to an external hard drive. If you also need to backup your iTunes M4P music and Apple Music to an external hard drive or a new computer, you'll need to remove restrictions from these files firstly.

Sidify Apple Music Converter is an excellent all-in-one iTunes Audio Converter that is capable of converting Apple Music tracks, iTunes M4P music, and iTunes Audiobooks to MP3, AAC, FLAC, WAV and AIFF format, thus you can transfer all your iTunes music to an external hard drive. In the following, we'll guide you to use Sidify Apple Music Converter to convert iTunes music & Apple Music and transfer them from PC to an external hard device.

Sidify Apple Music Converter

  • Convert Apple Music and M4P files to MP3, AAC, FLAC, WAV or AIFF.
  • Unlock from iTunes & Audible audiobooks
  • Preserve high fidelity sound quality after conversion.
  • 10X conversion speed; Keep ID3 tags and metadata.
  • Highly compatible with the latest iTunes and Mac/ Windows OS.

Part 1: Convert Apple Music Songs to MP3 with Sidify

Step 1 Download and Install Sidify Apple Music Converter

Simply click the download button to download and install the Sidify Apple Music Converter on your Mac or Windows computer. After installing the program, please launch Sidify Apple Music Converter. Before getting started, please make sure all the Apple Music tracks or iTunes music are downloaded from iTunes or Music App to your local computer.

Step 2 Add iTunes Music with Sidify program

Launch Sidify Apple Music Converter and click '+' or the interface of the program, all your tracks downloaded from Apple Music and iTunes will show out as below. Choose the music that you want to convert, then click 'Ok'.

Step 3Choose Output Format

Clicking the setting button on the top right of the Sidify interface, a setting window would pop up. Here you can choose the output format as MP3, AAAC, WAV, FLAC, AIFF, adjust the output quality, output directory, and output file name, etc.

Step 4 Start Conversion

Once all the settings are made, go ahead and click on the “Convert” button.

Step 5 Find the converted iTunes Music Files

Once the conversion finished, click to find the converted Apple Music files under target folder.

Step 6 Transfer Converted iTunes Music from Computer to External Hard Disk

Now, all of iTunes music and Apple Music tracks are converted to common audio tracks and you can directly transfer all of iTunes files from the computer to your external hard disk.

Importing Itunes Library From External Hard Drive To

Note: The free trial version of Sidify Apple Music Converter enables us to convert the first 3 minutes of each audio for sample testing, you can unlock the limitation by purchasing the full version.

Transfer Itunes Library From External Hard Drive To Pc

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iTunes can be our good helper in managing and listening to music on the computer. You may like to add some non-purchased music to iTunes from an external hard drive. In this way, you can listen to your own music on the computer and also sync songs to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod. Here in this guide, we will show you two solutions for you to choose from. Let’s begin.

Also Read How to Backup iTunes Library to External Hard Drive >

Part 1. Transfer Music from External Hard Drive to iTunes Directly

iTunes supports users to directly add music from external hard drive. But one thing needs to be mentioned is that you can only transfer iTunes-supported music formats, such as MP3, AAC, M4A, WAV, M4R, AIF, AIFF and M4B. Here are the detailed steps of how to transfer music from a flash drive t your iTunes.

Step 1: Open iTunes > Plug in your external hard drive.

Step 2: Click on File menu in iTunes > Choose Add to Library.

Step 3: Select your external hard drive > Choose the music or music folder > Click on Open.

Transfer Music from External Hard Drive to iTunes Directly

Importing Itunes Library From External Hard Drive To Usb

If you cannot find Add to Library option, you can go to Preferences > Advanced > Select Keep iTunes Media Folder organized and Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library > Click on OK to enable it.

Part 2. Transfer Music to iTunes with AnyTrans

Users who are familiar with iTunes would be known that this tool is pretty tricky. All kinds of iTunes errors happened with no sign, and you don’t know whether the transferring is success or not because iTunes will send no notice. So if you don’t like iTunes and want to try other tools that can help you with ease.

Here we recommend AnyTrans to you, which can help you put music from an external hard drive into iTunes. Besides, you can export music or other files to iPhone/iPad/iPod. Also, it supports you import music from iDevices/iTunes to external hard drive to save the music you like. Let’s check other features that AnyTrans can do for you:

AnyTrans – Music Transfer

  • Transfer external hard drive music to iTunes with no quality/data loss.
  • Support downloading music from media sitesto external hard drive.
  • Support managing other content like ringtones, photos, messages, etc.
  • Support all iPhone models and both Windows and Mac.

Transfer Itunes Library From External Hard Drive To Mac

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Step 1. Launch AnyTrans > Plug in your external hard drive to the computer > Click Device Manager and choose the Music tab on the homepage.

Select Music Tab in AnyTrans

Importing Itunes Library From External Hard Drive To Router

Step 2. Click on the Add button under Songs option> Choose the songs you want to transfer from external hard drive > Click on Open.

Itunes

Step 3: Select the songs that have been transferred from external hard drive > Click on Send to iTunes under More option.

Choices of Music Management

Step 4. When syncing finished, click view files, or iTunes will pop-up automatically. Then you can view and play the music from an external hard drive on iTunes.

You can delete the songs by clicking the Delete button if you do not like the songs stored on your device after the transfer.

How To Transfer Itunes Library From External Hard Drive To New Mac

The Bottom Line

Hope this guide can help you transfer music from an external hard drive to iTunes successfully. If you are interested in AnyTrans, just have a free trial and explore more!

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