Help with iTunes and an external hard drive please

I have an external hard drive that I like to store my music on since I usually have a good deal of it.
Anyone know the best way to do this?
Cause what I have done in the past is set iTunes to monitor the folder on the ext hd where my music is. But it still seems to create an iTunes music library folder on the Mac hd. So then I have double of everything. One on my Mac hd and one on the ext hd.
Anyone have advice? Or know why it might be doing this or how to fix it...
Thanks
MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.7) I'm new to Mac

For instructions, see:
iTunes: Moving Your iTunes Music Folder
Don't delete the tracks from the old location until you've confirmed that they're working correctly from the external drive. And IMPORTANT: do not delete the iTunes folder or the preference files it contains from your boot hard drive; delete ONLY the tracks themselves (i.e. the contents of the old iTunes Music folder).

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Help with iTunes library on external hard drive

Hi!
I have a new computer and I don't want to put anything in it but the programs I need. When it comes to movies, music, etc. I have an external hard drive.
Now, I want my iTunes to read the music from that hard drive, and, when I download something (more music, podcasts, apps, etc.) I'd like them to go straight to the folder "iTunes" that I created in that hard drive.
I had a look at a few pages and people where only talking about creating back-ups, but I don't need that, because I have a second HD that I'll use for that.
Someone told me to do this:
Go to the File Menu, then choose Add Folder to Library. Then navigate to your external drive and folder where your music is to add it. Then all you have to do is download your new stuff to that folder.
I did that and the podcasts I had in the external HD showed up there, but when I downloaded a new one, it downloaded onto my computer. What I want to do is have my iTunes library on an external HD and when I download from iTunes I want it to go straight to that external HD so I don't clog up my computer.
I have iTunes 10.6. something =)
Thank youuuuu very much!!!! =)

As long as you don't have an existing library that is synced with a device or holds oodles of carefully crafted playlists, ratings etc. then...
Hold down shift as you start iTunes. You should get an option to choose or create a library. Click create, browse to root of the external drive and click save so that your library is say X:\iTunes where X: is the letter of your external drive. All new content downloaded to the library will stay on the external drive.
See this user tip for a backup strategy.
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I'm having a problem with downloading multiple app updates and moving songs between iTunes and my external hard drive.

I'm having two problems with iTunes, but I'm not sure if they're related issues. First, when I try to click "Download All Updates" for apps, only one update will download and I will get successive error messages for all of the other updates. However, if I click update for each individual app, they download fine. Why am I not able to download all app updates simultaneously now.
My second issue is that I cannot move songs from iTunes to my external hard drive or vice versa. When I drag the files, the blue plus sign appears, but the file does not appear where I moved it to.
Both issues have been occuring for about month. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

While downloading select Downloads in the left-hand column and make sure Allow Simultaneous Downloads is unchecked. This seems to help with partial downloads...
The other issue doesn't ring any bells.
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We transferred itunes from an external hard drive to a new laptop pc, after copying it from our old desktop. I connected a new iphone 3gs on the laptop (first iphone on any of our computers), and itunes does not recognize the iphone, so it does not sync. Is there any solution to this problem?

did you copy the itunes folder from my music? and any other folder your music files might have been in.
Another folder to copy is user/appdata/roaming/apple computer

Itunes and an external hard drive.

I'm using itunes with an external harddrive. Recently, after traveling with my computer, and resyncing upon returning, itunes has been unable to find any of my music. I get the ! next to the songs. I have itunes pointed to the external drive but to no avail?
I have noticed that the external drive just has the mp3's which are not in any folder at all. I would expect that the music would be in a folder named "itunes music"? I don't know if this could be the problem. I'm being really careful because this is the only copy of this music, and I don't currently have a back-up drive big enough to copy them to.
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As long as you follow the tip that was linked, you should be OK.
A couple of things:
1. You can't start iTunes when the ext hard drive is not connected. Doing so will result in a library messed up at least a bit, possibly a lot.
2. To safeguard against that little bit, you're going to want to backup your library files occasionally.
3. Somebody (may have been StarDeb55) suggested renaming the iTunes program link to 'check external' as a reminder.
4. If you'd like to still be able to use iTunes for some music, say, like during travel, you can make another user account, and put the desired music there (make sure it's all on the actual laptop).
5. Any ext hard drive sold nowadays should do. USB2 or Firewire.
<hr>
What are the iTunes Library files?

Itunes and my external hard drive

I recently moved all my music from both my pc and my laptop (both windows) onto my external hard drive. I followed the step by step instructions set out by apple support. Everything was working great until I opened Itunes without my ex hd being connected. The itunes media file location has now gone back too F/;itunes. And 90% of the music in my library now wont play as it cannot find its original location.
How do I get back to using my ex hd?
Itunes scares the life out of me and im petrified that if I simply change it back to the filepath to my ex hd it will all go t*ts up basically?!
How do I fix it without messing up everything? Will I get duplicates then on my library?
And what folder in my hard drive do I direct it back too?
Would I be as well deleting itunes and reinstalling?
Any help would be great!!
Please dont be too techinal in your responses as Im not great with the pc lingo! Explain like you would to a child lol!!

With the external drive connected, correct the media folder location (Edit > Prefrences > Advanced) so that it points to media folder ont the external drive, then shut down iTunes and restart it. Links to the files should be repaired. If that doesn't work try out my FindTracks script.
See also this post.
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Help managing iTunes library on external hard drive

I moved my iTunes library to a WD Mybook Live in order to free up disk space on my main computer. But in the process of transferring the library to the external hard drive, I accidentally made duplicates of each song. I want to delete the extra songs, but the "Show Duplicate Items" command isn't working when I try to use it on the library on my external hard drive. (That command works fine for songs stored on the local hard drive of the computer, but the command is "dimmed" and not clickable when I try to use it for the library on the external hard hard drive.) Also, I notice that I cannot use iTunes to delete songs on the external hard drive. (However, I *can* delete songs on the external hard drive manually by using Windows Explorer.) So I'm puzzled. How can I use the "Show Duplicate Items" command to help me delete thousands of duplicate songs on my external hard drive? Does iTunes disallow certain kinds of access to shared libraries? Why would iTunes not let me delete these songs when I can go into Windows Explorer and delete them. Help! Thanks. (I'm running iTunes 11.1)

As long as you don't have an existing library that is synced with a device or holds oodles of carefully crafted playlists, ratings etc. then...
Hold down shift as you start iTunes. You should get an option to choose or create a library. Click create, browse to root of the external drive and click save so that your library is say X:\iTunes where X: is the letter of your external drive. All new content downloaded to the library will stay on the external drive.
See this user tip for a backup strategy.
tt2

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Hey everyone hope you are all well. I was wondering if I would be able to have my itunes library on an external hard drive and then be able to access it from two different apple tv's in different houses.

Yes, that works fine.
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So I just hooked up my external hard drive (LaCie d2 160GB) and I moved all of my music onto it to free up some space on my computer. I have a lot of music (30+ GB), and my computer was sluggish because of it. Well now I have my music on this nice handy dandy hard drive, but when I open my iTunes, every song has an exclamation point next to it. I already went to iTunes preferences and changed the iTunes music folder location to the LaCie hard drive, but it still won't locate the songs unless I do it manually. I DO NOT WANT TO MANUALLY LOCATE 6500 SONGS!!!! What can I do???? I already restarted my computer, but I can't get these files recognized!!!

This is how Apple say it should be done:
iTunes: Moving your iTunes Music folder
If you moved it manually and then changed the preferences to tell iTunes where the music folder is you are really telling iTunes where to put new stuff.
Move all your music back to where it was and then follow the instructions above.
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Greetings. All my songs are save in my extereal portable hard drive (Under the music folder). I DO NOT like saving song in the hard drive of my ibook because it eats up too much space. When I connect the external hard drive to my mac and open itunes, the songs do not come out in itunes. The songs only come out when i connect my ipod. My seeting for my ipod is manual. What I would like to do is- whenever i transfer songs to itunes, the song in my ipod are also automatically updated. the songs in the external hard drive should also be updated. In short, the songs that i should have in the ipod should be the songs in itunes and in the external drive. how do i do this? what settings should i do? I am afraid to click on automatically update songs because it might erase my whole ipod library. Please advise. thanks.

First I would use Finder and go verify that your songs are actually on your external hard drive. If they are, then make sure you specified iTunes directory is pointing to the correct directory on that external hard drive.
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How can I not lose the music on my ipod while downloading when it has been moved to an external hard drive (my book)? Presently, I can't download new music to my ipod as it will erase what is there. Also, my playlists are gone! If I move the music back to the mac itself, the computer will freeze. Can someone help me?

PhoenixR wrote:
If I do this do I run the risk of her deleting files?
yes.
If I let her create her own library isn't it just a bunch of duplicate files eating up space?
yes, but it would be safer.

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Hi, recently I had A PC issue where I needed to replace my hard drive. I was originally running XP on a 500 GB drive, I didn't want to loose all my flies on that drive so I reinstalled XP on A 80 GB drive. I now running XP off the 80 GB drive (C:) have access to the files on the 500 GB drive (D:). I am worried about reimporting my music because I have more than 200 GB of music so it wont fit on the drive C: & also I have manually tagged all my music in iTunes and from my experience in the past re-importing may loose/revert my personal tagging. I will note I like to have iTunes manage my library. I was thinking if I move the iTunes library file from D: to C: it will put ! next to all 20,000 songs asking me to manually relocate all of them, but what if after that I change the iTunes location in the preferences to match the D: location would that resolve the ! file location? Any way I'm stuck any input would be appreciated. Thank You.

As long as you don't have an existing library that is synced with a device or holds oodles of carefully crafted playlists, ratings etc. then...
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See this user tip for a backup strategy.
tt2

Need help with iMovie storage on external Hard drive

Is there any external HD that is fast enough to run iMovie? I just bought an 80gig ext. hard drive trying to solve that nasty memory problem that iMovie HD has... Well iMovie will not run because it's not fast enough, and the video clips play slow and choppy.. My question is does anyone know of a brand type or speed of ext. hd that is fast enough.. HELP!!! I need to finish this video pronto!
Thanks
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Eric, for a few dollars/Euros more (..or whatever your currency is..) you could buy a FireWire enclosure ..that's just a box with a socket or two on the back. It's not a drive, but just a box to put the disc drive inside, and it's complete with FireWire connections.
Then unscrew the Iomega 80GB USB box, remove the 7200rpm 80GB disc drive, and insert it into the FireWire box, and connect up the multi-pin connector and power connector between the FW box and the hard drive. Connecting the drive is pretty simple. Look at "Mounting the drive into the bay", about halfway down this page.
Hey Presto! ..You've now got a working 80GB 7200rpm drive ..plenty fast enough for iMovie.. which can be connected to your iMac via FireWire!
Your disc drive is fast enough ..it's just your USB connection which is too slow; so just change the way that your drive is attached to the Mac, so that it uses FireWire.
Suitable boxes are this kind of thing.
It's simple: I have half a dozen assorted drives I've slotted into new bare-bones 'enclosures', and they all work fine by just plugging the enclosure (box) into a Mac FireWire port.
Quick 'n' simple, and cheap!
NOTE: Open up your Iomega box first, so that you can check what size of drive is inside, and thus what size of FireWire enclosure you need. A small 2.5" drive will certainly fit into a 5" enclosure, but a 5" drive obviously won't fit in a 2.5" enclosure! Though something like a WiebeTech DriveDock ..or the bigger and pricier ComboDock.. are open-ended, so they'll take any physical size of drive.

With iTunes on an external hard drive can I allow multiple users access?

I keep my iTunes library on my time capsule since it is far to large to keep on my hard drive. We have always had only one user account. Now that my daughter is onl enough to use the computer on her own I set up her own account so that I could enact parental controls, but I noticed her iTunes is empty. Can I have it access the library on the time capsule. If I do this do I run the risk of her deleting files? If I let her create her own library isn't it just a bunch of duplicate files eating up space? Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks !

PhoenixR wrote:
If I do this do I run the risk of her deleting files?
yes.
If I let her create her own library isn't it just a bunch of duplicate files eating up space?
yes, but it would be safer.

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Help with iTunes and an external hard drive please

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