How to use itunes, and sync ipod from an external hard drive

All of my music files are on my external hard drive. I moved my itunes media folder to my external hard drive. I have 150 gig of music and only 25 gig free on my macbook, so I'd like to put it all on my ipod without putting it on my computer, as there isn't enough memory. Every time I try to move the music from my external hd to itunes it starts adding music to my computer's internal hard drive- i thought this would be solved by having my media library in my external hd but it isn't I'm not sure how to get around this. I've already followed the directions here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449 but it didn't accomplish what I wanted: For all my music to show up in itunes, and be able to sync my ipod to it, without the music being on my computer's internal hd. I have a macbook.

Make sure the copy to iTunes media folder is unchecked.

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Erasing all music from iTunes and starting over from an external hard drive

Hello,
I tried moving all my media to an external hard drive to make room on my MacBook Pro and just be able to run the media (ie music movies etc) from the external hard drive when it was connected.
Well this backfired big time probably because I did not follow any sort of instructions.
1st I backed up Finder > music > iTunes > iTunesMedia folder to two seperate external hard drives just in case.
2nd I think (this was back in March 2013) I decided to cut/delete the folder Automatically Add to iTunes and moved it to one of my external hard drives (this folder for some reason contained mostly everythiing that was in the iTunes Media folder).
3rd I finally decided to erase content from iTunes Media Folder
4th I deleted the iTunes Media folder because I felt it was stupid to have a "iTunes Media folder" and "iTunes Music Folder" in the same place but not actually have anything in the iTunes Music folder (probably really stupid of me in retrospect)
5th I unchecked the box under iTunes > Preferences > Advanced "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library"
6th I believe I changed the location of "iTunes Media folder location" in the Advanced area under Preferences thinking this should be pointing to my external drive
I then believe I tried to run iTunes and play my content, but when I did all it did was copy my music/media back to my MacBook Pro hard drive but I did not realize it was doing this until later the next day when I tried to play some music and realized I had 3 copies of everything in my iTunes program (ie music movies podcasts tv shows etc) however, I could play all three versions of whatever it was I selected there was no "error message" saying that iTunes could not located that file, would you like to try and locate.
So I checked Finder to see if there were 3 copies of everything (by the way at this point I stopped connecting my external hard drive for the sake of making more copies on iTunes) but there wasn't??? So I tried to go through Option+View > Show Exact Duplicate Copies and delete all but one of the items. When I would delete them and it asked if I wanted to move them to my Trash Bin I clicked yes and all the 2nd and 3rd copies were gone!!! Yeah, so when I played those songs/movies that remained they would play!!!!!
Than I realized that my Internal Hard Drive was almost full and went looking around for things I could delete to help make my MacBook run better, and realized that my Trash had a large amount of data in it and that emptying it would significantly reduce space on my Internal Hard Drive, but when I went back to iTunes and selected music or movies to play it placed the infamous "!" next to that track or movie and it could not locate those items anymore?
Long long long story short hopefully, can anyone help me set up iTunes so that it only can play content/media off of my external drive and not take up space on my internal hard drive? Is this even possible to do that or will always start to copy those files from the external hard drive back onto the internal hard drive? and second is there anyway to use the Apple router external hard drive to use as the source for all my media?
PS I am running Mac OS X Lion version 10.7.5 and iTunes 11.1.3 (8) 64-bit

2012EVOL wrote:
Hello,
I tried moving all my media to an external hard drive to make room on my MacBook Pro and just be able to run the media (ie music movies etc) from the external hard drive when it was connected.
Quit iTunes.
Copy the entire /Music/iTunes/ folder to the external. Don't only copy the iTunes media folder.
Hold Option, launch iTunes, select Choose library... and select the iTunes folder on the external.
This is all you need to do.
Everything for iTunes (except the application) is on the external.
2nd I think (this was back in March 2013) I decided to cut/delete the folder Automatically Add to iTunes and moved it to one of my external hard drives (this folder for some reason contained mostly everythiing that was in the iTunes Media folder).
Make a shortcut to this folder on your desktop.
Nothing should be in this folder. When you put a file here, it will get moved by iTunes and added to the library.
The reason it had files in it is because you moved it.

How do I manage and catalogue photos from an external hard drive

My new laptop is fast, but does not have a huge amount of storage. Therefore, the store advised I keep the photos on an external hard drive However, when I am in elements and want to have my list of folders - under folders - so I can then catalogue them - it keeps asking me to import the photos.

Drag the folder containing them there in the Finder. If you're dragging an iPhoto library and not a collection of loose photos, it needs to be put on a drive, partition, or disk image formatted as Mac OS Extended.
(102873)

How to use iTunes on multiple computers with an external hard drive.

I am trying to use two computers, one Macbook and one mac mini, with the same itunes library. I have searched and found info on doing this, but it was older info and I am pretty sure that what was suggested does not work. I can not get itunes to recognize the library files on the external drive, it will however recognize the media. This would be fine, except the mac mini is being used as my media center and I update things on the macbook. The thing that I am having a lot of trouble with is the home movies section. Of course all my movies are not "movies" so I have sorted through the "homemade" tv shows and movies, but when I switch computers, all this info goes away. Why can't it follow the media? I have had pretty good luck with keeping the cover art, but when I label the file as a movie or mark it as watched, this info is not transferred. In some of the other answers people had given about this, they said itunes should ask where to go if the external drive was disconnected. When I do it this way, itunes will just make a new file when the drive is unplugged. I have about a thousand movies and I have changed info on these files twice now (thanks for adding home videos apple!), and it looks like I will be doing it for a third time, I just don't want to do it a fourth time on the other computer. Any help would be great. To break it down to the basic form, I would like to have an external drive that will sync file info between two or maybe more computers. Is there a better solution?

Make sure the copy to iTunes media folder is unchecked.

Have copied my iTunes library back-up from my external hard drive (saved from my iTunes on my pc) onto my new Macbook and loads of the tracks have been duplicated, some four times some not at all?? any ideas guys?

Have copied my iTunes library back-up from my external hard drive (saved from my iTunes on my pc) onto my new Macbook and loads of the tracks have been duplicated, some four times some not at all?? any ideas guys?

Have copied my iTunes library back-up from my external hard drive (saved from my iTunes on my pc) onto my new Macbook and loads of the tracks have been duplicated, some four times some not at all?? any ideas guys?

How do I move my iphoto library from one external hard drive to another?

how do I move my iphoto library from one external hard drive to another?

Drag it there in the Finder and then launch iPhoto with the Option key held down. Point it to the new instance of the library.
(58012)

How do I transfer a specific backup from my external hard drive to my mac book air?

How do I transfer a specific backup from my external hard drive to my mac book air? I downgraded my mac's software from Mavericks to Mountain Lion because of the computer's limations so I need to transfer all the info I had when Mavericks and down to Mountain Lion. I already went to the Apple Genius Bar and they helped me downgrade, but I want to transfer information from a specific backup on my external hard drive?

time machine backup? Go into the backups.backupdb (time machine) and extract out the specific files, drag them to your desktop etc.
consider in the future additional backup methods than time machine for easy file extraction.
Methodology to protect your data. Backups vs. Archives. Long-term data protection

After moving my iTunes and iPhoto libraries to an external hard drive and deleting the originals i found i still had no space on my mac.help

i moved my itunes and iphoto libraries to an external hard drive to free up space on my mac.
after i had moved them and checked they could be found i trashed the originals and checked again that the could be found on the external hdd.
all seemed to be ok.
when i checked the disc utility it did not show i has made any more free space than i had before.
any help please as i am loving tje mac but i am still quite new to it.

Did you empty Trash?

Need to move (consolidate) my iTunes files (media/library) from my external hard drive (i use time capsule as an ext hd) back to my main iMac where my iTunes is located.

I used my time capsule (1st gen) as an external hard drive to store my iTunes files and my iTunes app is on my main iMac. Now, I've decided to move those iTunes files from my external hard drive (TC) back to my iMac where my iTunes app is located. What is the best way to do this?

Is the Time Capsule the right piece of kit for the job?
Not really, no.
TC is a dumb as board hard disk in an airport extreme router. It has no media servers.. no backup.. it is slow and designed for TM target for laptops. The major one here is lack of backup. Any files you put on the TC can and will be lost at some point.. and to backup you need to have a computer connected to it with an external hard disk.. and a 3rd party backup because TM is too dumb to back up network drives.
TC is designed to spin up slow and spin down quickly at the end of backup. You will have issues when you stream media from it.
ATV needs to connect to itunes server.. not the library. You will still need a computer running. Same for lots of things.. since apple designed their system to be dependent on itunes.
The best idea is a media computer.. a mac mini is ideal. Don't need the latest greatest.. but an actual mac running itunes. Unfortunately it doesn't have large internal drives.. so it is still a bit kludgy in needing a fast external drive.. but at least you have automatic backups.

Can i show and play music from my external hard drive in iTunes without adding it to my Mac hard drive?

I have more music than I can keep on my Macbook hard drive by over 200GB. I'm hoping to be able to show and play all music from my external hard drive in iTunes without having to add any of it to my Macbook Hard Drive

Hello B3NN13,
If you would like to add the music from your external hard drive to iTunes without copying it to the iTunes Library on your internal hard drive, you may find the following article helpful:
Add files to your library without adding them to your iTunes folder
When you add an item already on your computer to your iTunes library, iTunes places a copy of the file in your iTunes folder. The original file remains in its current location.
You can change this setting so that files are added to your iTunes library without being added to the iTunes folder. You might want to do this, for example, if you prefer to store video files on an external disk but still want to view them in iTunes.
Choose iTunes > Preferences, and click Advanced.
Deselect the checkbox next to “Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library.”
From now on, when you drag a file to your library or choose File > Add to Library, the item appears in iTunes, but the actual file isn’t copied or moved.
Tip: You can temporarily reverse this setting by holding down the Option key while you drag files to the iTunes window.
iTunes 12 for Mac: Change where your iTunes files are stored
Sincerely,
- Brenden

How can I delete items in trash from an external hard drive?

I have a Macbook Pro and have installed Paragon so that I can use an external hard drive on both my Mac and my PC. But some files I deleted from my external hard drive (Seagate 3TB) while on my Mac can't be deleted from the recycle bin.
When I try to delete, the files just stay there. When I do a secure empty, a message comes up saying the files are in use. This has persisted for two days. I have restarted the Mac, reconnected the drive, and also cheked the drive on my PC for errors and found none. Of course, the files only appear in the trash when the drive is connected. I ejected the drive properly each time, and didn't just unplug it from the Mac.
I have tried to do a secure empty with option and/or shift keys down, but I still get a message that the files are in use. I tried a fix involving writing a command including the term "trash" (I don't have the full command at my fingertips) in Terminal in the Utilities application, and this did not work. There appears to be a program called "Trashit" which might help, but my computer says it will not open under my security settings because the author of the program is not listed.
The files remaining in trash are part of an old iTunes library that I wanted fully deleted from my external hard drive and my trash. It was a big file (over 200GB) and about 99% deleted and empltied. Reformatting the drive should not be necessary, might not help, and would probably erase the drivers on the drive and ruin it anyway.
I'm wondering what is happening, and how I could fix it. Many thanks for any advice, in advance.

I actually fixed this by plugging the drive into my PC, changing the settings to "show hidden files and folders," then finding the folder ".trashes" on the drive and deleting everything in there. When the drive was plugged back into the Mac, the trash was empty as it should be. (It was a very large folder I deleted, and a very small portion of the files were apparently corrupted.) In case anyone else ever needs this fix, it works. Good luck.

How do I copy backed-up files from an external hard drive back to my MBA, but under a different user than the one from which they were backed up?

On the advice of the Chicago Mac Genius Bar, in order to get better performance on my few years old MBA, I copied my Home folders (but not Library) to an external hard drive, created a new user, deleted the old user, and tried to copy the Home folder contents from the external hard drive back to the MBA under the new user. However, I get an error message and can't open most of the folders on the external hard drive (e.g. "The folder “Desktop” can’t be opened because you don’t have permission to see its contents.") Help! Thanks.

As captfred says, yes (as long as the drive is formatted for a Mac, not Windoze).
You might want to review the [Time Machine Tutorial|http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/#timemachinebasics] and perhaps browse [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of this forum).

How do I import all my songs from my external hard drive?

Earlier I backed up my iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive. I want to make sure that importing my library to my new computer is seamless.
Thank you

So it sounds like you want to copy your iTunes library from your external drive, back to an internal drive?
Try this:
In iTunes, click Edit > Preferences > Advanced tab > General tab
Select the options to "Keep iTunes music folder organized" and "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library"
Make sure the iTunes Music Folder location is directed to where on the internal drive you want to save your files
Click OK
Then, click Advanced > Consolidate Library
This will copy the files to the internal drive, as well as make sure iTunes is reading your files from that internal drive, and not the external
Hope this is helpful
CG

How can you back up your ipod onto your external hard drive that you're using in time machine?

I just bought an external hard drive and want to put my ipod music on it but can't figure out how. My ipod has music that my itunes library on my computer doesn't have. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I would also suggest you get a 2nd, much larger hard drive, partition it if desired, move your data to it, and start a 2nd Time Machine backup on it. You can set Time Machine to alternate between the 2 drives by adding the new drive to System Preferences/Time Machine. If you want to make a copy of your current backup on the new drive, you can do that using the Disk Utility Restore tab. If you chose to do that, make the copy first since using the Restore tab erases all data on the drive or the partition.

I use Time Machine to back up my iMac. How can I copy some iPhoto events from my external hard drive to my MacBook?

I back up my iMac on my external hard drive. When trying to copy the iPhoto Library onto my MacBook, I get the message "Cannot use TM backup as main library". I don't even see an option to choose certain Events to copy. Is there any way I can choose particular Events in iPhoto to copy to my MacBook? How can I get the photos on my MacBook?

If you're on Leopard or Snow Leopard, or Lion with iPhoto '08 or earlier, see the gray box at the end of Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #15.
If not, you cannot restore individual photos; just the entire iPhoto library. A workaround is to restore it to an alternate location, such as your desktop, then export the selected photos from there. See the pink box in the same article.

How to use itunes, and sync ipod from an external hard drive

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