Help with itunes librairy and external hard drive

My question is that , when I buy an external hard drive to save my movies, music, shows, etc off of itunes store, then how do I save them to the external drive automatically? When I download the itunes store, or librairy, on my computer should it be downloaded to my computer, or the external hard drive? I'm confused.

This article should help...
iTunes: Moving your iTunes Music folder
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748
Patrick

Similar Messages

  • 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.
    tt2

  • Help With Airport Extreme and External Hard Drive

    I just purchased the Airport Extreme and I couldn't have been happier. I have attached my western digital external hard drive, but I have run into a slight problem/dilemma which I'm hoping someone who is apple savvy can help me out.
    I live in a house with a couple of other guys and so I put all of my movies and media onto the hard drive so we can stream it throughout the house, but how do I make sure that someone won't accidently delete the files (The copies on the hard drive are the only ones I have)? I have tried to right click "get info" and change the sharing & permissions properties on the folders that I don't want deleted, but it doesn't save the changes or even allow me to select another option other than Read & Write. I formated the hard drive with the disk utility before I connected it to the AirPort so I know that it has nothing to do with the format of the drive. I also tried to create different user accounts for each roomate so that they could view the files (Read Only) but I get an error message explaining that if I continue, the contents of the hard drive will not be accessible. I'm sure its something simple but I'm obviously missing it.
    Thanks!

    Airport Utility under Disks/File Sharing has guest access rights.

  • Problems with itunes 10 and external hard drive

    Hi
    I was recently forced to change the internal hard drive on my G5 Tower, and the external hard drive where I keep my music library.
    The new external drive had all my music files copied to it. I reloaded my itunes library files (that I had backed up from old computer) into my music folder and I named the new external drive as the media folder in Itunes preferences. The first time I used itunes it asked me if I wanted it to locate all files to which I pressed OK. itunes quickly found the majority of files and I cleaned up / organized the small mess left behind.
    Trouble is a few problems have occurred. Firstly, itunes seems slow – there’s a sluggish pause flicking between tracks – where as before it used to snap into response. Occasionally I’m asked to locate files which I thought was a task it had already done - and every now and again when I check the external hard drive music library I find files have been moved from there album locations to ‘untitled’ folders, etc. I can only assume itunes is doing this. I’ve also noticed I can’t remove the external hard drive from the desktop without closing itunes first which never happened before.
    This is getting somewhat frustrating. Can anybody advise?
    Much appreciated.
    K

    Hi Nick,
    Avoid the WD files completely, not needed & often a problem.
    You need to erase the Drive, & to use it on both Format it MS-DOS/FAT32, on the Mac or PC, but will have a 4 GB filesize limit, as well as other limitations.
    One option not mentioned yet is MacDrive for your PCs... allows them to Read/Write  & Format HFS+, so no need to reformat it...
    http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/

  • ILife with both internal and external hard drives?

    I've been considering switching from a homebrew, multi-boot desktop to a MacBook for my primary computer, in part so I can hang out with my family in the living room rather than be exiled to the home office when I want to compute.
    But here's my concern: I have media. We have about 50 GB of iTunes; maybe 30 GB of iPhoto; and tons and tons of digital video that would be stored in iMovie. Obviously the libraries are all interlinked. And it's all growing. I also like to rip DVDs and re-encode them for my iPod and AppleTV. Right now, my desktop has 480 GB of internal storage and that's just about enough.
    I have discovered that the MacBook only comes with an option up to 250 GB. I absolutely need AppleCare, so I can't get an aftermarket hard drive. (All my Macs break - this one from the office that I'm on right now has a bum DVD drive, and my wife's has needed both fan and logic board replacements.)
    While I'm aware of the existence of external hard drives, I'm concerned about Apple's non-external-hard-drive-friendly way of storing iLife data. If I wanted to keep more recent or useful music and photos on the internal drive but older stuff on an external, and still be able to use iLife seamlessly, would that be possible? (I see myself editing recent video in the living room, but then hooking back into the external HD in the office if I need older stuff.)
    What solutions are out there for integrating data stores on both internal and external hard drives into an iLifestyle?
    Thanks!

    Sascha Segan1 wrote:
    .. What solutions are out there for integrating data stores on both internal and external hard drives into an iLifestyle?
    all iApps (iPhoto, iTunes, iM08) support usage of external drives as 'mass storage' devices.. you can tell all apps which drive to use for the Libraries.. there some tools out there, which even allow the usage of 2/many different Libraries in iTunes/iPhoto..
    for iM in detail: the Projects are small files, and should stay internal (allthough I'm discribing a 'hack' on my site: http://karsten.schluter.googlepages.com/im08tricks Project Library (and Events) on External Harddrive); the Events (=GBs) could be located on as much ext. HDDs as you want..
    but ...
    all iApps are single-user .. you can NOT 'share' Libraries to 2/many different users; the idea of a 'media server' which hosts/shares all kind of data to all kind of users is not 'on concept' of iLife ..

  • Iphone 3gs will not sync with itunes copied from external hard drive.

    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

  • Help!  Album artwork and external hard drive

    Hello! I have a slight problem. I just moved my husband's iTunes and music to an external hard drive and all of the music showed up no problem. The problem is the artwork that he spent about 25 hours putting on iTunes. They disappeared!! I don't know where they went, where to look or anything! Help! He has over 11,000 songs and I don't want to have him start from scratch with the album covers. Any ideas of where they could be or how to hook them back up with iTunes? Any ideas would help!! Hopefully I can find this thread again...I've never used this message board before. Thank you!
    Sandy
      Windows XP  

    (5) On August 2, 2014, I switched from Comcast to AT&T and had the AT&T turn off the router function. (I have been using the router from my apple time capsule)
    (6) Under Network I switched to bridge mode.
    (7) And since August 2, 2014 my time capsule has not been backup.
    If you got ATT to turn off router function in their modem..
    Then 6. is wrong.. You cannot have the Network switched to bridge mode..
    You must have it set to dhcp and nat.
    That is also why you cannot backup.. the TC is off the network.
    Please change back to router mode in the TC.
    Ensure the internet tab shows dhcp and you create a wireless network.
    Then power down the TC... power down the ATT modem.. wait about 20min (you can try 5min.. but it might not be long enough).
    Power up the ATT modem.. wait 2min for things to flash lights in de right blinkin order.. then start the TC.
    Open the airport utility and make sure your TC captured the public IP and is now working as the router.
    That should fix that end of it.. the hotspot end??
    Tell us what happens.

  • 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

  • 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
    ps.. the HD i bought was an iomega 80gig HD with usb 2 and 7200 rpm

    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.

  • Problems with time machine and external hard drive

    Hi all
    In 2009 with my imac I bought a WD external hard drive which the computer says is 148GB formatted. I recall that the hard drive contained folders with files for the running of the hard drive when I bought it - and after it had been plugged in to a mac and used as a time machine, it no longer worked on windows computers.
    Now I have used 195 GB on my computer's internal hard drive and wish to stop using the external hard drive as a time machine and instead use it for swapping files between computers and the like.
    How can I wipe the time machine back ups and start using it as per usual again? do i need to obtain the WD files from somewhere?
    thanks in advance
    Nick

    Hi Nick,
    Avoid the WD files completely, not needed & often a problem.
    You need to erase the Drive, & to use it on both Format it MS-DOS/FAT32, on the Mac or PC, but will have a 4 GB filesize limit, as well as other limitations.
    One option not mentioned yet is MacDrive for your PCs... allows them to Read/Write  & Format HFS+, so no need to reformat it...
    http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/

  • Itunes Library and External Hard Drive

    I store the majority of my music on an external hard drive since the hard drive in my laptop is very small. iTunes works great when I have my hard drive plugged in, all my music is there, ready for me to play. When I am just using my laptop though, iTunes still displays all the music I have, regardless of whether I can't play it. Is there any work around for this? Otherwise I have to search through a bunch of music I can't play, or remember exactly albums I have left on my laptop.

    All I can suggest is, go through your library and make a playlist of the songs you have on the laptop. Then when you unplug the external drive, use the playlist.
    But as far as it changing the icon to the exclamation point without trying to play it, I do not know of anyway to get that to work.
    One thing you might try.... close itunes, then unplug and relaunch itunes, it might check the files.

  • Downloading with itunes on an external hard drive

    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.

  • ITunes 6 and External Hard Drive issue. Please Help!!

    Hi Gang!
    I'm having problems when using iTunes 6 to work with my external HD as my iTunes Music library vault.
    Under iTunes Advanced section I have set my Preference to change my music library from my iMac G5 to my external HD. Everything works fine, but everytime I restart my computer, iTunes automaticaly sets the Preferences back to the Music Library folder in the iMac G5 instead of the the external HD. I never had this problem before with other versions of iTunes.
    Am I missing something or is there an extra step I should take to having iTunes accept the external HD as my permanent iTunes Music Library holder?
    Thanks for any input.
    Alex

    Hi TP2GO!!!
    Thanks for your reply!! You mention that this problem is being caused due to the fact that my external HD is not available at start up. But the driver is always available, since it is always hooked up to my iMac at all times. I've noticed, though, that iTunes starts up at login and maybe system is running it before it runs my external HD (if I follow your logic), possibly causing iTunes to set the iTunes library back to default since it cannot find the external driver where the new library should rest. So, my new question is: how do I disable iTunes from running at start up to try and see if this is what's causing my problem?
    Thanks very much indeed for your input!!!!
    Alex

  • Help With iTunes Recovery From Old Hard Drive

    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...
    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

  • Help with iTunes Library and External Music Management

    Okay, this nightmare has been getting worse and worse over the past few weeks so let's break it down so people can understand what I'm trying to do.
    1) I have music on both my internal laptop drive and external drives.
    2) I want to have two libraries, one for the internal drive featuring all the music on my internal drive (and possibly some stuff on the external since that's how it currently is), and the other which is ALL my music from all my drives.
    3) I want all new podcasts/itunes store content to save to my external drive.
    4) I want the iTunes music folder to reflect which library I'm running (that is to say, if I am in my internal library, the iTunes music folder would be on the internal drive so if anything is copied to "itunes music library" it would copy to my internal, if on the external drive the itunes folder would be on the external drive and anything copied would end up there)
    5) I want iTunes to keep each library organized.
    6) for my External library I would LOVE to keep all my playlists, and iTunes store purchases in the library (something that didn't happen when I created a new library)
    IS THIS POSSIBLE!?!
    Basically here's what i did in the past. created a new library on the external and added all my music on the external to it. this caused it to organize everything fairly nicely. I then copied imported the XML data from my old internal library so I would get my playlists and iTunes store stuff to show up, along with anything on the internal drive. this cause MAJOR duplication issues (i have 3 copies of songs now in my external drive which Im going to have to sort through). I tried multiple libraries but everytime I switch back and forth my iTunes music folder keeps changing. (ie. the folder location will carry over to any library - not stick to just the one) This is a HUGE pain in the ###.
    Basically, if I'm on the road I want to be able to open iTunes, it automatically launch my internal library which has everything in my internal drive, know that the music folder is "my username/music", and then when I come back home and able to plug into my external drive be able to launch that external library and it know that my music folder should now be "externaldrive/music".
    i cannot seem to get iTunes to save this folder preference PER library. is this even possible!?! I just want this stupid thing to work!
    Message was edited by: ehmjay

    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

Maybe you are looking for