How Do I Set Up Itunes To Search For Songs In An External Hard Drive?

I would like to keep my music on an external hard drive, how do I set up Itunes so that it goes right to that drive and folder when updating or the Itunes store placing the songs I purchase in the external drive?

Ok, here's my deal. I backed up our old laptop onto an external drive. We got the new laptop and my wife bought a new iPod. I downloaded the latest version of iTunes onto the new computer and posted the questions above. I guess I need more help so here goes.
Is there a way to use the library she had on the old laptop? I'm writing this on her behalf as she is basically technically ingorant and I am only slightly more knowledgeable but I know zero about iPods. Apparently she had her old library set up so some of the songs on her iPod we linked to the songs in my daughters iTunes folder? So.....is there a way to use the old library and if so, will it automatically find the mapping she set-up previously? If not, how do I go about getting this all sorted out? THANKS!!

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How do I set up iTunes to read my music from my external hard drive after I have changed to a new computer with new operating software (previously WinXP now Win7)?

Before I got my new computer (which was operating on Windows XP), I successfully moved my itunes library to my external hard drive and ran it off that so as not to take up space on my laptop. I now have a new computer which runs off of Windows 7. I've tried going to iTunes-->preferences-->advanced-->"itunes media folder location" and pointing it to my external hard drive but it still doesn't show my library. What do I need to do to make my iTunes library on my new computer read my iTunes library off of my external hard drive?

As Chris says... but if the media is on an external drive as above then you also need to make sure the external drive has the same drive letter on the system you are moving to or iTunes won't be able to find the files.
You might also find this topic useful: Make a split library portable.
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Just bridge the TC..
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What are you using to search? You should be able to search any drive in from the Finder. If you're having trouble, try "EasyFind" from the App Store (free). You can search any volumes with it.
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How do you set a security password to control access to an external hard drive?

how do you set a security password to control access to an external hard drive?

The only way to reliably protect data, especially on an external hard drive, is to encrypt it. Permissions don't have to be respected. One way to encrypt data is to create an encrypted sparse bundle disk image with Disk Utility. See:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1578
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http://www.truecrypt.org/
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How can I move my iTunes movies from my computer to an external hard drive? After I copy them to the drive, do I just delete them from my computer? How will I be able to watch them again?

Hi,
I have a MacBook Air (July 2013) with the latest Mavericks OS X. I also have the lastest version of iTunes.
My computer has very little memory left, so I wanted to free some up. When I looked, movies were taking up a considerable amount of space. I want to move them from my computer, but still be able to watch them if I want to later. I haven't purchased an external drive yet, because I didn't know what size to get. I also have a lot of Photoshop files that are taking up a lot of memory, so I might put some of those on too. Would you recommend a 1 TB one or bigger?
Can you take me through the exact process of moving my iTunes movies to the external drive? I understand where to find the files (My Name<Music<iTunes Media<Movies), but am stuck from there. Do I simply drag them to the external drive and then delete them? Will this delete them from my iTunes library? How will I go about watching them again? I assumed that I would just plug the external hard drive in, click in the movie and watch. Is it this simple? I only want to move my movies, otherwise I would follow tutorials for backing up the library. Once you back up the movies, can you delete them from your computer?
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iTunes does not have provision for automatically storing one kind of media on a separate drive, so you have some basic decisions to make first. Do you want these movies to still appear in your iTunes library, or are you content with browsing filenames on a drive in Finder when you want to look for one? The second's the easiest thing because then you don't have to have an external drive permanently turned on and attached to your computer (wired or wireless). To do that you literelly only need to drag your movies folder to an archive drive and delete movies from iTunes. To watch them again you can add it back to iTunes while holding down the option key so the movie is used from its location on the external drive.
There's ways to move the movies to an external drive while keeping them in iTunes but the external drive iwll always have to be turned on and connected to the computer or you will see a bunch of broken link exclamation marks.
Realize what you are talking about is not "backup". Backup (which you should do) is putting a second or more copy of items on external drives for the day when your internal drive fails and everything on it is lost, inclduing all your home photos and perhaps things that have been pulled from the iTunes Store and can no longer be re-downloaded.

How can I restore my itunes on a new computer from an external hard drive without a back up?

How can I restore my itunes on a new computer?
I use an external hard drive to store all my information i.e. music / apps / movies but my current laptop has just blown up so now using a temp laptop.
I am looking to try & restore my itunes & all of its information like my playlists / apps & everything else from the hard drive but it does not have a back up in the programmes to restore from that.
Currently running Windows 7.
All I want to do is have my itunes back without the pain of looking & reloading all my info which will take me an age.
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Did you store the media library files on the external drive as well?
If so press and hold down shift as you start iTunes, use the choose option, and connect to the iTunes Library.itl file on the external drive.
If not you will need to start a new library and import the content into it. Do you have any devices that might hold ratings and playlists that could be recovered? If so see the second and third entries from the bottom of the table of recovery tools in Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device, and read the rest of it if you have any iOS devices.
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How do I import my itunes to my new computer from an external hard drive?

So i have reciently bought a new laptop and want to transer all of my itunes on to my new computer. I have put all of my itunes onto an external hard drive but am unsure of how to put it on to my new computer. I have downloaded itunes on to my new computer already, but if i have to remove it that is alright. I just don't know how to get it on my new computer! thanks for any help!

Drag the folder containing them to the laptop's internal drive, and from there into the open iTunes application window. If the folder contains a complete iTunes library, you can also launch iTunes with the Shift key held down and select it.
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ITunes isn't saving songs to my external hard drive like I want.

Hello,
This might be a simple problem.
I have my iTunes set-up to download directly to my external hard-drive. However, when I inport a CD....it's not showing-up in my external hard-drive?! Since I am assuming the songs are being stored somewhere, I would liek to know how to get them on my external hard-drive and then make sure they're actually NOT on my PC.
Many thanks for anyone that can help this not-so-tech-savy individual though this!
THANKS!

If you go to Edit>>Preferences>>Advanced, you will see the location of the iTunes Media folder. The default location is My Music\iTunes.
This is where iTunes will store imported CD and purchases from the iTunes store.
You can change the location to your external drive, but this only produces an effect in the future. Anything already added, stays where it is.
If you want to move stuff, you have to consolidate your library. File>>Library>>organise.
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If you use an external drive you must have it working when you start iTunes or iTunes will go back to the default location for the iTunes media and then you will have to reset preferences again.

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Hi Bengt, Thanks for your input, much appreciated.
I have a WD 1TIG hard drive and are using usb connection, is it possible to use fire wire with these? I have had trouble with a lot of the videos I Imported, once they downloaded the file in the viewer window showed up blank and when I mouse over them it places a picture of another file in the window and wont drag and drop into the movie window, like their corrupted or something? Had to delete just about all of them and start again. Also is it possible to select a bunch of videos in the viewer window as to change the dates to the correct dates? All I have been able to do is "select all" which is no help.

ITunes can't recognize songs on my external hard drive

Hi,
I moved my iTunes folder onto another external, and then redirected the iTunes to my new drive. It updated all my songs. Then I found that randomly a lot of the songs (about 20%) did not sync up. They all have a "?" icon next to the songs. Now 20% of 500gb is a lot of songs, so there is no way I can updated each and every one.
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I still have the original songs in the old external drive, so if someone can tell me the right procedure I can copy the songs again to do another re-sync.
I have the latest iTunes and most updated system on a Macbook pro.
Thanks!
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Whether it can fixed or not depends on how the drive is formatted. If it is FAT32 you may be out of luck, but if it is in a standard Mac format you should be able to fix it. Take a look at this thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5908325
For FAT32 I have been unable to find any information at all on either the cause or a solution.
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Francine
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How to make iTunes recognize the music library in my external hard drive after instaIling Yosemite?

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The issue is not related to the external drive. iTunes Match has difficulties matching tracks ripped fom CDs because they may differ slightly from the versions on sale in iTunes. You can try the match again. Otherwise do a search of this forum. There are already many discussions on this subject here that may help you.

How do i make itunes find my music library on an external hard drive?

OK. So i got a new PC and ive downloaded itunes. Ive authorised itunes. However, no matter how hard i try, i cannot get it to find my existing itunes library which is situated on an external hard drive.
I know ive done it before with my last PC but cannot remember how...and itunes made sense back then rather than the nonsense it is now.
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Cheers

Hi there,
You may find the information in the article below helpful.
iTunes: How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1589
-Griff W.

I have two separate iTunes libraries on two separate Computers. I need to consolidate them so I can play them on a brand new computer. How do I do this so I can play them off an External Hard Drive on my brand new computer?

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Why, if it told you you have insufficient space on your computer, would it suggest making more space available on your phone?
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Can you save your itunes and songs onto an external hard drive so that incase your computer crashes you will still have all your music?

Can you save your itunes and songs onto an external hard drive so that incase your computer crashes you will still have all your music?

The procedures below are for "moving" your library but as long as you don't delete it from your internal drive you are basically backing up.
iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
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How Do I Set Up Itunes To Search For Songs In An External Hard Drive?

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