ITunes cannot play media from alternate hard drive.

Out of nowhere one day my iTunes (Windows 7) stopped playing my music. I could double click on a song and iTunes would freeze up for a minute, then just unfreeze (No error message or anything). With more research I found out that the only songs that wont play are those on a different hard drive in my computer (M:\). These songs have always been on this drive, and I've never had a problem before. If I move the songs to my C:\ drive, they will play in iTunes fine. The songs play fine from their M:\ location in other media players.
One of the weirdest parts is if I reset the library and try to re-add these songs, sometimes they wont add at all and other times they will add but not retain any meta information like Title, Artist, Album, etc; it will only display the file name. They still do not play in this state.
I've tried:
Reinstalling iTunes
Removing Library files
Re-adding songs to library
Booting iTunes in safe mode
Clearing iTunes cache
Running in compatibility mode
Made sure iTunes is up to date
Other things that I probably don't remember (I've been trying for a while)

I'm a bit upset, too. It's only deleted one song, but why did that random song go, and when will it happen to 100s of them?
I have the song on CD and can re-rip it, but that's not the point - it shouldn't go missing from the hard drive.
I've aleady resigned myself to backing up the ITL library file on a regular basis in case it gets mysteriously corrupted.
I'm not sure iTunes deleted this song, but it sure is suspicious.

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Playing music from external hard drive, iTunes

Hello all,
After years of wanting to own a MacBook Pro, I finally have one. This is the first Mac computer that I have owned so I am still new to everything. One issue that I am having is an issue that I have had over the years on Windows, that always took me hours to get straight. I am going to explain how my iTunes has been setup on all of my previous computers so that hopefully you guys can make sense of what I am trying to accomplish as I could not find a solution on here.
The way iTunes is set up on my Windows PC's was that all of my music was on my external hard drive. Whenever I would want to use my music through iTunes, I would have to plug in my external hard drive and once it boots I can now play music. Without the hard drive plugged in I can only see all the information about my music on iTunes but I cannot play it since the hard drive is disconnected. I am trying to do this same setup with my macbook but I am having difficulty accomplishing that. I honestly do not remember how I did it on my Windows PC other than it took forever. I kept getting duplicates but after trying multiple times, I got it to where there were no duplicates and everything was fine.
What steps do I go about in order to be able to see all my music information on iTunes but having the actual music file on my external? I like it this way as it saves my internal hard drive storage and I don't mind having to plug in my external when needed. I have only attempted once so far to do this procedure on my new MacBook, I failed. It transferred all of the music and worked just how I wanted it to work. However, it created a duplicate of every song, which there is thousands of, so I deleted everything and now iTunes doesn't have anything. Any help is appreciated, sorry for the long post.

So after messing around for awhile I finally figured it out and got everything working how I want it and had it on my Windows machine. It took me forever to find the iTunes library file as it was not in its default location on my Windows machine. I finally figured out what needs to be done and it is really easy like you explained. I discovered that my issue is: 1. The default location of these common iTunes files is not in its default location likely due to me moving it the last time I did this from my prior Windows machine and 2. My external hard drive needs to be cleaned up, at least my music section.
What I am going to do in the future is purchase a new external hard drive specifically for my Mac backups and music. I will have to take a day and transfer my huge library to the new drive so that I ensure everything is organized and kept clean and not make this process more difficult than it should in the future. I am however missing some of my tracks (noted with the !) I do believe that this is due to me accidentally changing the file paths on my external at some point in the past and left certain files on my Windows internal drive. This issue is solved though, hopefully. I appreciate your help.
BTW: I am loving my 15" rMBP, I wish the price didn't hold me back as long as it did.

For some reason I cannot import music from my hard drive to my iTunes library

For some reason I cannot import music from my hard drive to my iTunes library, could you please help?

See Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows.
Apply to the folder that you're failing to import from.
tt2

ITunes Match deleted songs from my hard drive. I had to re-rip them. How can I stop this from happening?

iTunes Match deleted songs from my hard drive. How can I prevent this from happening if I try it again?

iTunes Match can in no way be considered a backup service, this is due to the inexact nature of the 'matching process' (see https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4112, for more detail).
Loss of files from a Disk is certainly possible through media failure. However, the extent of iTunes Match capacity is solely to influence the content of the cloud. Perhaps there was a coincident, or pre-existing, failure of the disk which was simply exposed by the iTunes Match interrogation of the disk content.
There are certainly other services which depending upon your goal may work well. For example, Google Play with gBeats IOS App works very well. My use of Match is to synchronise across several computers and to drive Apple TV and an IOS device - other IOS devices still use sync for specific music and are complimented by gBeats for access to the full library when local mobile signal strength is high.
The strong advice to always start with a secure backup remains but if your primary concern is iTunes Match interfering with physical disk content you can relax - it simply does not have this ability. (Apology to Sherlock, further investigation required).

I've just upgraded to Iphoto v9.4.1 and cannot import photos from my hard drive

I've just upgraded to Iphoto v9.4.1 and cannot import photos from my hard drive. no matter what method I use, either click and drag or through the File menu. All I get is a message 'Preparing to import' - file size is less than 300 kb

As a Test:
Hold down the option (or alt) key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Create Library'
Import a few pics into this new, blank library. Is the Problem repeated there?

Can't play music from external hard drive through iTunes on Windows 8?

I recenty bought a new laptop running Windows 8 with a small internal hard drive, so I don't want to store all my music on it. I backed up my iTunes library onto an external hard drive, but when I plug this into my new laptop I can't play my music no matter what I do.
I have tried:
- selecting the newly created iTunes library by pressing Shift when opening iTunes and playing a song directly through the iTunes player. It selects the song, comes up with the speaker icon next to it to indicate it is playing, but the time doesn't count down and no music plays
- I have gone into Advanced Preferences and specified the iTunes media folder location, still no songs play
- coped a single song onto my new laptop desktop and tried to play this through iTunes, Media Player and the Music app. Media player says "Windows Media Player encountered a problem while playing the file". The Music app says it can't find any music on the computer, so when I select the music folder from my hard drive, it says "Can't Play. Make sure your computer's sound and video cards are working and have the latest drivers, then try again".
I know my laptop can play sound and video as I can watch YouTube videos with no problems. I went to Windows Update, and there are no available updates, I already have every available update.
I have also plugged in a different external hard drive, with different music files on it, and have encountered the exact same problems. It seems I can't play any music at all on this laptop. I know the files are not corrupted, as I can plug both hard drives into a different laptop that runs on Windows 7 and play the music on them with no troubles. Could it be a problem with the files compatibility with Windows 8?
I can also access my iPhone backup through this iTunes library on the new computer, so I know there is no problem with my backup.

I am experiencing a similar problem in Windows 7 64bit. Since my laptop has a 128gb SSD, I have loaded my iTunes library on to an external drive. I can sync my iPhones and iPads from this library, and the songs play fine from those devices. However, when I select a song from my library, and click the play button, nothing happens. iTunes does nothing. I have also tried right-clicking mp3s in my library and selecting "Play", with no results. I do not receive an error message of any kind.
I have also noticed that some of my mp3's within iTunes denote the Time as 00:00. The same mp3's will play and register properly using other mp3 players on my computer, and they also play normally on my iPhones and iPads.
I am running Windows 7 x64 on a Lenovo T530, in iTunes 11.1.3. Everything else in iTunes appears to function normally. I can listen to internet radio stations without an issue, through iTunes, and they play as they should. I have tried three different external drives, with different drive formats, and they all have the same issue. If I copy my iTunes library back to my internal drive, iTunes will play my mp3s.
I did not have this issue with iTunes 10, so I am assuming it is something that has occured within the last few updates.
Has anyone found a fix for this? Unfortunately, I am forced to use iTunes 11 because of my iOS devices, otherwise I would revert to iTunes 10.

ITunes deleted my songs from my HARD DRIVE!

iTunes not only has deleted a few files from my library, but it ALSO deleted songs off my hard drive!
I thought, "Well, maybe they just got moved around somehow." But, I thought about how much I go into my iTunes folder and then it dawned on me that I hadn't done that in about a month or so. The deleting thing started happening about a week ago. It's a few songs a day. Seriously. *?
I feel like if I'm spending several thousand dollars on Apple's products (computers, accessories, and music), Apple needs to be a little more appreciative.
If it's a bug in the new iTunes, then Apple needs to be sensitive to the fact that music is LOST permanently! It's frustrating to think about all the music that I've lost and PAID for. If I'm using the iTunes store and iTunes to buy/play music, then Apple needs to come out and apologize and reimburse for what was lost.
I can understand why some of you are frustrated that iTunes is deleting songs from your library, but is there anyone else who is having music deleted from their hard drive?
<Edited by Moderator>

I'm a bit upset, too. It's only deleted one song, but why did that random song go, and when will it happen to 100s of them?
I have the song on CD and can re-rip it, but that's not the point - it shouldn't go missing from the hard drive.
I've aleady resigned myself to backing up the ITL library file on a regular basis in case it gets mysteriously corrupted.
I'm not sure iTunes deleted this song, but it sure is suspicious.

Having problems using ion tape express with itunes cannot find the song on hard drive

Having problems using ION tape express with itunes. The song is on hard drive as temp1 not the name of the song. And I have problems playing it in itunes
because it says it cannot locate the song'

Then correct the name of the song or point iTunes to the new file.
Issues with restoring should be directed to the manufacturer of the backup software/device... this is not an Apple or iTunes issue.

Re-downloading iTunes purchases once deleted from your hard drive

OK - any help will be greatly appreciated.
I work abroad a lot and download iTunes purchases to watch while away. However, the files take up a lot of space on my MacBook Air, so, once watched, I've deleted them from my hard drive to free up space once I'm home.
Now, when I want to see them again, I go into iTunes, each episode has an exclamation point on the left hand side, no cloud icon to be seen, and when I click on it, I get the message:
The TV show could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?
It can't be located on my computer because I deleted it from my hard drive to free up space.
So why can't I just re-download it from iTunes - I have, after all, paid for it?
Many thanks.

Good day Jane,
As you surmise, the exclamation point symbol next to the song in iTunes means that iTunes can not find the file containing the video. See this article -
iTunes 12 for Mac: Symbols used in iTunes
In order to download the content again you will need to delete it from iTunes before downloading again. To delete the song select it in your music and use the Delete key. See this article -
iTunes 12 for Mac: Delete songs, playlists, or other items
Once the video is no longer in your iTunes library, you can download it again using the steps in this article. Note that this assumes that the item is still available in iTunes in your location. Items that have been removed from the store will not be available -
iTunes 12 for Mac: Download previous purchases from the iTunes Store
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Safe computing,
Brett L

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.

How can I transfer my old iTunes (playlists and all) from the hard drive of my old dead computer to the iTunes of my new one?

So my old PC died before I managed to back up my iTunes library onto DVDs. I do however have the hard drive from the old PC with all the program files, files and folders on. I also have the iPhone 4, which has my top rated playlist on but that only holds about 20% of my entire music collection on.
Is it possible to somehow find all my old iTunes music, videos, playlists, podcasts etc and transfer it into the iTunes on the new PC without losing anything?
Thanks for reading :-)

im trying to do the same. how do you
Copy the entire iTunes folder from <User's Music> on the old machine into <User's Music> on the new one?
im sorry i am totally inept when it comes to this stuff. can you walk me thru the steps to copy? please

Files cannot be located from external hard drive.

I just moved all my iTunes content to my laptop from my external hard drive (that I had been previously using with my PC), thinking it would be available on both as long as I had the Hard Drive plugged in. When I got downstairs however, I found that none of the songs could be located on the PC from the external hard drive, even though I had it plugged in. How do you solve this?

Then I tried to fix the problem by dragging my music from my external, to my iTunes but stopped it when I realised I was going to have a whole iTunes full of duplicates. (still got like 80 though )

Move media from external hard drive

External Hard drive to itunes:
I put all my music, audiobooks, tv shows, movies into a separate folders under the "Itunes Media". I also have the xml and database files on my external hard drive as well. I just purchased a new computer, and I don't want to weigh it down by having all that media on my internal hard drive.
I just downloaded the latest version of itunes. I went to advanced preferences and changed the location to the Itunes Media on my external hard drive. It doesn't ask me the standard questions about not undoing this task. It doesn't do anything! I tried to just consolidate and it took a random album and threw that in my music. That was it.
Am I supposed to have itunes look at just the media folder, or the media folder and the database and xml file? Why don't I get the message about no being able to undo the task after I change the location of where to look for my media files?
Thanks for your help!

OK, you don't get to mess around with iTunes Media as a file name.
iTunes does it and tags it, you don't.
Depending on what you did back then you may only need to change the folder name and then use the "Add Folder" command (Call it 'gramps or something' just not iTunes Media..)
Make sure you have a back up first.
If you really made it impossible you'll have to add folders to music, tv, movies, and so on, one folder (folder not file unless you went for micro-manage in which case it will be one file at a time.) at a time.
For future reference here's how iTunes works : http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/the-complete-guide-to-backing -up-your-itunes-library/
Read the whole thing.

Cannot retrieve photos from external hard drive

I had to upgrade my OS so that i could download the newest version of adobe photoshop. this upgrade also upgraded my iPhoto and erasing all photos. I do have photos backed up on external hard drive but cannot retrieve photos from the external hard drive.

this upgrade also upgraded my iPhoto and erasing all photos.
No update to the OS upgrade iPhoto too. So something else is going on there.
There are 9 different versions of iPhoto and they run on 10 different versions of the Operating System. The tricks and tips for dealing with issues vary depending on the version of iPhoto and the version of the OS. So to get help you need to give as much information as you can. Include things like:
- What version of iPhoto.
- What version of the Operating System.
- Details. As full a description of the problem as you can. For example, if you have a problem with exporting, then explain by describing how you are trying to export, and so on.
- History: Is this going on long? Has anything been installed or deleted? - Are there error messages?
- What steps have you tried already to solve the issue.
- Anything unusual about your set up? Or how you use iPhoto?
Anything else you can think of that might help someone understand the problem you have.

ITunes cannot backup because it says hard drive is full but I have 292gb available

I (my girlfriend) have a MacBook 1,1 from 2006, an iPhone 4s, an iPad Retina and just bought an iPhone 5s.
I'm trying to backup the phones and ipad to MacBook but iTunes is saying that the MacBook doesn't have enough room.
I've checked and I do have enough room 292gb - this is what I would expect because the original hard drive burnt out and so I had to buy a new one (the Macbook has hardly anything on it).
I'm not sure if it's related but i'm also trying to backup this MacBook to an external hard drive (Seagate) and Time Machine doesn't list the external drive, or any other drive at all.
Thanks in advance.
Ryan

@Ronald,
I'm glad to know that you can get by on only 120 GB . However, that's not my experience on Windows. Admittedly, Mac and Mavericks in particular seem to manage memory a lot better than Win. But I've been using PS since ver 4 and it's always been a huge memory drain.
In CS6, I'm finding my scratch disk often exceeds 100 GB. I have dedicated almost 300 GB to mine and it's still not enough for everything I do. But I know how to manage my resources so I can get by on what I have until new computers arrive.
Nancy O.

ITunes cannot play media from alternate hard drive.

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