Is it possible to keep all iTunes media on an external hard drive and not on my Mac Book and have ITunes still function?

Let me begin by saying I'm new to the Mac world as well as to the realm of online forums so I apologize if this is a question that was already asked and/or if it is a very noobish question...
But anyway, I just recently got the new Macbook Pro 15" with RD and I am curious if I can keep all of my Itunes media on an external hard drive without keeping any of it on the Macbook itself and have Itunes still function (when the HD is connected of course). I am trying to keep the computer memory clutter free and not fill it up with music and stuff so I want to keep all of my media on a 1T Buffalo external hard drive so the computer stays like brand new for a long time..Right now I have about 5G worth of music on my hard drive and I thought it was only on the hard drive and I just recently found out that it is also within the music folder on the computer itself. Any thoughts? Sorry if it is an odd question, I can try to rephrase the question if need be. Any tips or advice is greatly appreciated, Thanks!

Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Open iTunes and immediately hold down the Option (alt) key (shift on Windows), then guide it to the iTunes Library.itl file in the moved iTunes folder.
If you put the copied iTunes folder in the default location of Macintosh HD > Users > *User Name* > Music then you don't even need to start with the option key held down, iTunes will automatically look for it there. (Make sure there isn't anything already in the iTunes folder there that you want to keep since you will be replacing it with the one you are moving.)
Longer answers if for any reason you do not think all library files are inside your iTunes folder (changed preferences settings at some point):
iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music [library] to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527 - a somewhat bewildering and not always easily understandable set of options.
For the record there's this reference for iTunes 11 but it really doesn't strike me as having the specifics you need. iTunes 11 for Mac: Move your library to another computer - http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12168
2011 ilounge article: Transferring your iTunes library - http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive/ - An article with good background information (similar to the links above), particularly if you are not sure your media files are all grouped for quick answer above. Unfortunately under the single term "transferring library" it describes two very different moves; relocating just your media (not really transferring your library and not recommended unless you really need this configuration), and relocating media+database (really your whole "library"). Make sure you understand the difference before electing to move only media.

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HT1751 My win8 pc hard drive failed. After the hard drive was replaced, I copied iTunes Media backupfiles from external hard drive (Karen's Replicator was used). ITunes does not recognize the back up files - help! (it does show cloud & recently burned m

My win8 pc hard drive failed. After the hard drive was replaced, I copied iTunes Media backupfiles from external hard drive (Karen's Replicator backup software was used). ITunes does not recognize these back up files even though the location is the same as cloud & recently burned music that does show- help! The backup files consist of 34,000+ songs; almost all burned from my own CD collection. I do have most of the songs on an ipod classic but hesitate to try to restore from that. Can someone tell me how to get these 34,000 songs to show up in iTunes? Thanks!!

This diagram shows how a typical iTunes library ought to be set out (click on it to enlarge)
The red outline highlights the media folder and its contents, the various subfolders are only created if that kind of content is in your library. The right-hand side shows the files that should be found in the iTunes library folder; sentinel is normally hidden so may not be visible. The core of your iTunes library is the file iTunes Library.itl, you need to restore this, the other library files and the Album Artwork folder, as well as the media folder, to restore your library.
tt2

I moved my itunes media from one external hard drive to another. How do I change the shortcut on my desktop to open to the new external hard drive?

Ok, so i originally installed itunes on an external hard drive (G drive) and not my PC. So my itunes runs completely from my external and that how I like it. Well over time it got full so I bought and moved all my media over to a bigger 2TB external hard drive (D drive). I verified that all the media (music, movies, tv show etc) are all on the new drive and everything points to it. However the itunes shortcut on my desktop still points to the G drive external. If I unplug it and try to open itunes it gives me an error. So I have to keep the G external drive plugged in just to launch itunes and then use my new D external to get the media. How the heck do I change that? I tried moving the itunes.exe file over to the new drive but that didnt work. I want it to run exclusively off the new D external. Please Help Me!!! I am using Win 7 if that helps.

My DeDuper script is designed to help clean up. See this thread for background.
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How do I access my iTunes media from an external hard drive?

I have a new MacBook Air and want to access my media files from an external drive. I previously had a MacBook Pro and had to move all media to an external drive because I ran out of space. I've tried launching iTunes, going to Preferences, going to the Advanced Tab and then moving the location to the external drive and got this question: Would you like iTunes to move and rename the files in your new iTunes Media folder to match the “Keep iTunes Media folder organized” preference? Should I say yes? If I say yes, will iTunes be able to automatically find my files on the external drive?

hey, basically i had the same problem as you. i had all of my itunes on an external hard drive and just bought a macbook pro, so here is what i was told to do....plug in the external hard drive to your MBA and then when you open itunes hold down the option button while you click and hold it down till you see a pop up window, it will ask you what library you want to use, click choose library and choose the itunes file that is on your external hard drive. and then all of your stuff will be in the itunes.
what i have seemed to run into though is, when the external hard drive isn't plugged in itunes won't open unless you choose another library or plug in the external hard drive. - my question is this, should i open another library on my macbook pro's internal hard drive so i can at least look at itunes when i don't have my external hard drive connected. my old macbook did this, it would point to another library on my macbook and i would still be able to see all of my media but couldn't play it without the external hooked up, is there a way to do this on lion?
i hope i was able to answer your question sam and hopefully can have my question answered too.
thanks!
- sorry sam, don't mean to hijack your thread but hopefully it will help us both - i don't want to store any media )movies, music, podcasts, apps, any of that stuff on my macbook pro's hard drive, so say there is a way to get itunes to open without my external hooked up and i can still see my media, or not see my media and i want to download a song or a app that i see when i am not near my external....what is the easiest way to get that file onto the external and not have it taking up space on my macbook pro's hard drive? sorry for all the long questions
Message was edited by: thenumbersarebad - thought of one more thing - sorry

Can I keep all my apps on an external hard drive?

My MacBook Air has 64GB of flash storage and I recently purchased a 500GB G-Drive external hard drive. I was hoping to free up the installed flash drive since I show about 19GB of Apps on it. It won't go over and now Time Machine is not backing up all my photos and music to the external. I figured I paid for them, I should be able to save them as I see fit and not have them stuck on my flash drive. What gives?

Your problem(s) could be caused by a number of different issues. I suspect that the reason you can't copy the applications over to your external drive is a permission's problem. I selected my external drive and then chose File>Get Info from the menu. You should do the same.
The above is what I see after the GetInfo. I clicked on all the triangles to make the picture smaller because what I want to point out is at the bottom. In the bottom right hand corner is a lock. I clicked that and then typed in my password. Then in the bottom left is the Ignore ownership on this volume checkmark. I clicked on it so ownership is ignored. This lets me put files on the drive reguardless of who owns the files. I suspect your external drive doesn't have this option checkmarked.
Now, having fixed this problem (I hope) I urge you to be very careful about putting applications there. I have two hard fast rules: 1) never move any program when it comes with an installer and 2) never move any program I buy from the App Store. The reason is simple: when these programs receive updates the programs are expected to be where they were originally placed and the updater doesn't look for them. Consequently your programs aren't updated and sometimes odd 'gifts' are placed in your Applications folder.
However, many programs come in DMG packages and you drag them to your applications folder to install them. These can be safely moved anywhere you'd like to. Usually, but not always. Even with these programs, some have dumb updaters that won't work properly and some mysteriously stop working if you move them.
It is best to move data not applications. Movies (and other video), music, and photos are the best choices since they tend to be large files.
You also indicated that TimeMachine isn't backing up all your photos and music any longer. Are the files all in one place? In other words, is the music being backed up and the music not being backed up all on the same hard drive? I have a suspician they aren't but I want to confirm that first.

Is it possible to use Boot Camp to partition an external hard drive so there is a OSX partition and a Windows partiton? I want to use the external drive for backup only, NOT to load Windows and NOT to use as a boot drive.

I have partitioned the internal hard drive and am running Lion and Win7 Pro on my iMac i5 2.7GHz with 16GB RAM. Can I use Boot Camp to create a Windows partition on an OSX external hard drive to use for backing up both systems to the same HDD? I do NOT want to install OSX Lion or Windows 7 Professional on the external drive. I do NOT want to boot either system from the external drive. The 3TB external drive is for backup only.

Use NTFS for Windows and buy Paragon NTFS for OS X
You can also try Paragon HFS for Windows
As long as you are using for data and backups, you can leave the drive as GPT too.
I would recommend strongly to always have a 2nd bootable Mac OS drive, only need 30GB partition. System maintenance. Though LIon Recovery Mode finally makes it less but not totally unneeded.
And yes you can use Windows to create a partition.
Boot Camp is too broad. Do you want or mean BC Assistant? not needed but probably possible.
MBR has trouble with 3TB drives.

ITunes media folder on external hard drive

I moved my iTunes librrary to my external TC and hook up to it wirelessly. How do I get my iTunes library to stop changing to my local drive on my MBA? It has changed now 3 times from my TC to MBA.
iTunes 11.1

Interesting . . . I run iTunes off an external. My computer does not sleep, but I don't have any issues when I restart, though I technically don't log off. Do you have other users on your computer? If so, do they use the same external drive for music?
Sharon

ITunes Library on an external hard drive to be used by Mac and PC

I have my music library on my PC and am willing to do whatever it takes to have it be read by both computers from the external drive. The external drive is already formatted properly so I don't need to worry about anything there.
I transferred all of the files from iTunes Media folder to the external drive and am currently loading everything into the Mac's iTunes library, but I feel like I may have missed a step along the way. As it stands, both machines are pointed to the external drive from the Preferences > Advanced tab.
What else has to be done to assured that they are both read and can be used interchangeably? Also, by doing this does the start-up time of iTunes suffer? As in it will have to load and reload the library every time my external drive is taken in or out?

And after doing this, what if I wanted to add some more songs to my library? Would I have to go through the entire process of having to rei-mport the updated library or is it just a matter of throwing them in the folder with the rest of the music?

I recently transferred my itunes library to an external hard drive. Now I get the error message 'the original file could not be found. Could you like to locate it' when i try to open songs. My iPod syncs ok.

I recently tranferred my iTunes library to an external hard drive. Now I cannot open songs and get the error message ' The song "***" could not not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it'. This applies to all 9742 songs!!. My iPod still syncs ok, but I can't play songs on the PC. Can anyone please help.

It would help to have more background about your iTunes collection such as if you keep it on an external drive, or if you have moved or renamed anything recently. iTunes is very sensitive to you renaming or moving files or folders involved with your media. iTunes only keeps a reference to where a media file is located and then goes to look for it when you try to play it. If you have changed things since it was added to itunes then it's like me sending you to look for a friend in my addressbook but that friend has moved.
The other possibility is your computer is starting to lose files. Again, the computer uses a reference database to tell it where on the drive to look for a file. If that database gets corrupt then it starts losing files. Use Dsk Utility's first aid to verify your hard drive.

ITunes library on external hard drive that nots always connected.....

Can anyone help please?
I have a laptop running Win XP and i have the latest version of itunes. I want to keep all my music on an external hard drive because i can't fit it on the laptop. This in itself isnt a problem - i have all the files on the external HDD and have set iTunes up and everything is fine HOWEVER because i have a laptop, i'm not going to lug my external drive with me everywhere. So i am getting problems where when i do plug the external drive in and run iTunes - it comes up with question marks against EVERYTHING and i have to effectively add the library file again. Surely there is some other way round this?! can i not keep all my music on the external drive then just connect when i need to? why is itunes not happy with this? i dont use itunes unless i am connected to the external drive.
Many thanks for any help!

As long as you don't launch iTunes until after the external hard drive is mounted, you shouldn't have a problem. I've been using such a set up for years.

How do I create an iTunes library on an external hard drive?

I have a MacBook Pro running OS10.6.8 and iTunes 10.3.1.
I have simply run out of hard drive space on my laptop.
I want to create a secondary iTune library on an external hard drive.
(I know how to create a new iTune Library - it ends up in my Music folder on my laptop hard drive).
So how do I:
a) create or move this folder to an external hard drive, and
b) once done, how do I move my video files (television programs and movies) from my laptop iTune folder to the external hard drive?
Thank you for any assistance.

no need to create a secondary library - too troublesome, IMHO. you can spread your library over as many drives you can connect to your Mac (wired or wirelessly):
iTunes > preferences > advanced.
point iTunes media folder location to the external
on the same tab, ensure the copy files ... when adding option is checkmarked
okay out of preferences
highlight the content to be moved in iTunes and right-click
select consolidate files from the pop-up menu
wait for the process to finish
when done, you may delete the original files from your boot drive.
alternatively, you could move the whole shabang to the external HD:
copy the entire iTunes folder (not just the iTunes music or media folder) from <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music to the external, launch iTunes while holding the option(⌥) key, click on choose library when prompted, and select the iTunes folder you copied to the external.
when done, be sure to point iTunes media folder location to the external so that new additions to your library will be put there. also, you need to make sure the external is mounted on your desktop before you fire up iTunes.

I have two apple id's one from my old laptop and one from my iPhone. I saved my iTunes library to my external hard drive and then tried to transfer it to my iMac. My music skips like a scratched cd now and I can't add any to my iPhone. Help please!

I have two apple id's one from my old laptop and one from my iPhone. I saved my iTunes library to my external hard drive right before my old mac laptop died and then tried to transfer it to my new iMac. Now when I try to play my old music it skips like a scratched cd. Also, now I can't add any music to my iPhone unless it was purchased recently through itunes and downloaded through icloud. I tried to "Organize" my library in hopes of correcting the problem but my iMac just ejects my external harddrive part way through. Please help!

Ejects the harddrive?
Of what did your old Mac die?
It sounds to me like you have some file corruption somewhere. Either in the transfer of your library to the external or the external itself is flaky if it keeps ejecting.

Re-locate itunes library from NTFS external hard drive to Time capsule

I have 90% of my itunes files on an external hard drive which I used as the location of my itunes library when I was using a pc.
I now use a macbook 80GB.
I cannot use my external hard drive with my macbook as it's filing system is NTFS, and so incompatible with macs.
I wish to transfer all my music from the external hard drive to my Time Capsule, and use the TC as my new external hard drive and the location of my itunes library, ( as well as using the TC as my main back up location with Time Machine.)
Firstly....the very basics.....
How do I use TC as a external hard drive generally?
To be the location of my large folders, files ( and itunes collection)that take too much space on my macbook.
Next....
Am I right in thinking that I need to do the following...
Get Airtport utility on my pc, connect to TC and transfer from external HD to TC.
I would greatly appreciate all help and suggestions, as I am unsure as to all of these tasks.
Many Many Thanks
Hoo

You could plug the WD drive straight into the TC but it will be much faster to do it with the WD drive plugged into the computer.. and just mount the TC hard disk in Finder.
To move itunes library you must follow the Apple instructions.. http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449
You may need to reconnect itunes to the library before you try to move it.. !!

How do I Play videos from external hard drive on Apple TV2? Can I just move the iTunes Library to the External Hard Drive?

I have several HD videos stored on an external hard drive and would like to bring them into iTunes and play them via iTunes on my Apple TV2, but I am not sure how to go about it. I don't want to store the movies on my iMac hard drive because it would eat up to much space...so do I just move the iTunes Library to the external hard drive? And, if so...will the Apple TV2 find the iTunes Library on the external hard drive? Thanks for any help anyone can suggest.

iTunes content on an external drive isn't a problem.
The simplest method is to just move your library to an external drive.
If you wanted to keep just movies on an external drive, that's a little more difficult. You'd need to put the movies where you want them to reside on the external drive and add drag and drop them onto iTunes while holding down the option key. Obviously any movies already in iTunes would need moving from their current location and removing from iTunes first.

Can I keep my photos from iphoto on external hard drive?

Before I got iphoto I used to keep all my photos on an external hard drive, is there any way I can still do that rather than keep on imac hard drive

Moving the iPhoto library is safe and simple - quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive - depress the option key and launch iPhoto using the "select library" option to point to the new location on the external drive - fully test it and then trash the old library on the internal drive (test one more time prior to emptying the trash)
And be sure that the External drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) (iPhoto does not work with drives with other formats) and that it is always available prior to launching iPhoto
And backup soon and often - having your iPhoto library on an external drive is not a backup and if you are using Time Machine you need to check and be sure that TM is backing up your external drive
LN

Is it possible to keep all iTunes media on an external hard drive and not on my Mac Book and have ITunes still function?

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