Itunes cannot see the itunes music folder on my external hard drive

I recently put all of my music on an external hard drive to free up space on my computer,
However, when I am in itunes and trying to point the library to the music folder, itunes still cannot see it. Instead all it can see is the E drive WD Passport, and folders named autorun, WD Sync Data Wd Windows Tools.
Can anyone tell me how I can see my itunes music folder on my external hard drive while I am in preferences, advanced, library location, change??

I don't know enough about iTunes for Windows to help you with this. But if you post your question in the Using iTunes for Windows forum you will get help from people who know more about this.
(This is the forum for Apple's Mac OS X web browser, Safari.)

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ITunes Music Folder Missing on external hard drive after changing iTunes Media Folder Location from MacBook Hard Drive. Not deleted...just missing?

I store my iTunes media folder on my external hard drive and can no longer find it there. It seemed to becomd lost after I re-designated the default iTunes media location. I had downloaded some things from iTunes without my external hard drive plugged in and when they downloaded they downloaded to the default location on my Macbook Pro. In recognizing that, I wanted to move those files from the hard drive on my MacBook Pro to the external hard drive. When I re-selected the location as the external hard drive a copy process began. I cancelled the copy process fearing the small number of files from my Macbook Pro would over-write all of the files on my external hard drive so I quit the copy process. Now I do not see my "iTunes Music" folder on my external hard drive. I fear that I have somehow lost the path but I believe the content is still on my external hard drive although I no longer see the "iTunes Music" folder on my external hard drive. I know I didn't delete it, but it isn't there. Is there a way to make it re-appear? I would really appreciate any guideance anyone has.
Thank you.
Best,
Matt

When you change the location in preferences it tells iTunes to start, from this point on, storing new media files in the new location. It then presents you with the option to move any old files in their current locations to the new location. It doesn't move the library files which are not media files. Read the links below to understand how iTunes works because you are the one with the computer in front of you and are in the better position to understand how it stands as regards to iTunes files.
What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
More on iTunes library files and what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management
What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html
Where are my iTunes files located? - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
Now, did you keep the whole library on the external drive, or did you keep just media? From your description of the situation it sounds as if you kept the whole library there and when the external was not attached it returned to default location on the internal drive. What you should have done then was plug in the external drive, hold down the option key, and guide iTunes to the library file on the external. At this stage you could have dealt with the mislocated new files on an individual basis.
I guess the key question is, did your trying to move the couple of new media files to the external drive overwrite the iTunes folder there, which because you then canceled may have also just resulted in it being deleted. I am not going to test the theory on my system.
How big was your library on the external? If it was 40GB do you now suddenly have 40 GB free?
Look for any iTunes folders on the external drive. In view options turn on "calculate all folders sizes" and see if there are any big ones.

ITunes Music Folder Missing on external hard drive after changing iTunes Media Folder Location from MacBook Hard Drive

The store my iTunes media folder on my external hard drive and can no longer find it there. It seemed to becomd lost after I re-designated the default iTunes media location. I had downloaded some things from iTunes without my external hard drive plugged in and when they downloaded they downloaded to the default location on my Macbook Pro. In recognizing that, I wanted to move those files from the hard drive on my MacBook Pro to the external hard drive. When I re-selected the location as the external hard drive a copy process began. I cancelled the copy process fearing the small number of files from my Macbook Pro would over-write all of the files on my external hard drive so I quit the copy process. Now I do not see my "iTunes Music" folder on my external hard drive. I fear that I have somehow lost the path but I believe the content is still on my external hard drive although I no longer see the "iTunes Music" folder on my external hard drive. I know I didn't delete it, but it isn't there. Is there a way to make it re-appear? I would really appreciate any guideance anyone has.
Thank you.
Best,
Matt

Any ideas? Anyone?

Can I copy music iTunes Music Folder from my external Hard drive to new PC?

not sure if this is possible but I copied my folders (documents/music/itunes/itunes music folder) from my local hard drive from laptop to my external (for backing up purposes) and now i have a new computer. can i just simply copy/paste this folder to my new computer and open itunes and it will be there. i know it's probably too easy but was hoping someone could help me out???? thanks.

You can by dragging them from itunes to your external drive this will copy them to it. Then do the opposite for from you drive to the new computer. Just make sure if you don't intend to keep the drive connected to your new computer. That you put copies of the songs in a folder on it before putting them on itunes or you have problems playing your songs.

Can I move my itunes media folder to an external hard drive without having Itunes managing the media folder

Hi all....I have spent weeks tidying up my music collection. I moved it all to Itunes media folder. Since I don't like how Itunes manages this folder I manually organised it myself so that albums where together etc. I am wondering if there is a fool proof way to move my media folder to an external hard drive without letting itunes manage and consolidate files as this will reverse all the work I did in organising. Im not sure if Im posting to the right place but fingers crossed:)
Thanks in advance

Just one more thing puhlease:) This is the list of things that are in my iTunes folder. Album artwork, Automatically add to iTunes, iTunes media, Mobile apllications, podcasts, previous itunes libraries, voice memos. Then it has files itunes preferences, itunes libary extras, itunes libarry genius, itunes libraary, itunes music library......Is there stuff in there that doesnt need to be there as some are repeated in itunes media folder which contains....automatically add to itunes, books, downloads, home videos, mobile applications, music, podcasts, tones, voice memos and itunes preferences. Any thoughts on deleting some folders??? Thankyou so much for your time on this

How do I move my iTunes Music folder to a new hard drive?

I've installed a new drive in my Mac Pro. I now have to move my iTunes Music folder into the new drive and junk the old one. I know that I can use iTunes/File/Add to Library menu item to get iTunes to locate the new Music Library; however, this is going to leave me with two entries for every track, one good and one broken after I remove the old drive. I think I should junk the old library and then have iTunes rebuild it from the Add To command... what is the best way to avoid problems? Select All, move to Trash and then locate and add them back? Expert advice appreciated.

No, it's simpler, epecially if iTunes manages your music for you (default).
iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
do not confuse moving your whole folder and library with moving just media files as in
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449
Quick answer if you let iTunes manage your music: Copy the whole iTunes folder and all its subfolders and files intact to the other drive. Start iTunes with the option key held down and guide it to the new location of the library.
I'm not sure abot your model Mac but you might be able to do this with the computer in Firewire Target Disk Mode.
How to use FireWire target disk mode - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661 - includes description of hardware and software requirements.
Target Disk Mode - Mac OS X 10.6 Help: Transferring files between two computers using FireWire - http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/8443.html

Need Help! I lost entire itunes library after copying "My Music" folder to an external hard drive.

I was recently hire by one of my sisters friends to set up a new computer and to repair wireless router. The client asked me to copy music files from their old computer to an external hard drive so that they could be transfered to the new computer. So I connected the external hard drive to the old computer and copyed the entire "My Music" folder to it. I never deleted files from the old computer. I did however uninstall a few applications at the clients request such as Microsoft Office and Kodak EasyShare which have nothing to do with itunes. I got a call from the client a few hours later stating that their entire itunes music library is no longer there. I do not have much experince with itunes this just doesnt make any sense to me. I am sure the music is there but itunes is not pulling it up. Can someone please tell me how to fix this problem?
Thanks so much

I was recently hire by one of my sisters friends to set up a new computer and to repair wireless router. The client asked me to copy music files from their old computer to an external hard drive so that they could be transfered to the new computer. So I connected the external hard drive to the old computer and copyed the entire "My Music" folder to it. I never deleted files from the old computer. I did however uninstall a few applications at the clients request such as Microsoft Office and Kodak EasyShare which have nothing to do with itunes. I got a call from the client a few hours later stating that their entire itunes music library is no longer there. I do not have much experince with itunes this just doesnt make any sense to me. I am sure the music is there but itunes is not pulling it up. Can someone please tell me how to fix this problem?
Thanks so much

Reconnect music folder/files on external hard drive to iTunes library?

Recently reinstalled iTunes. All music files previously recognized by iTunes on my external hard drive are now unrecognized by iTunes when I try to play a song within iTunes. How do I get iTunes to re-recognize all files without doing search to external hard drive and reconnecting every individual song (thousands of them!)?
An error that comes up when I first open iTunes is:
iTunes cannot locate CD Configeration Folder so you cannot import or burn a CD. This folder must be in same directory as iTunes.

Why not change Compatibility mode back, then?

I am trying to move my iphoto and itunes to an external hard drive to free up space on my macbook...i have followed the steps to the change itunes media folder location (chosen external hard drive) but my new folder is greyed out so cant continue ?help?

I need to free up space on my macbook pro as hard drive is full!! So with 20 000 photos/video clips and itunes I would like to move this to a external hard drive!
I have followed steps on apple support but when i get to the Change itunes media folder location and chosen external hard drive it will not let me access the new folder option ?? help?

errrrrrrm!
Yes external drive shows up in finder on desk top and can change to in the media folder location thing!
My external hard drive is a WD Elements. I have no idea about permissions to the external? Do i Have to format external hard drive to a mac?
I am trying to follow the steps on the apple support page to transfer files (consolidate library etc) just cant get further down steps as the new folder option is greyed out!
Thanks for you help

How do I move my iTunes media folder to an external hard drive on my iMac with OS 10.6.8?

I am running out of space on my iMac hard drive so I bought an external hard drive. I want to transfer my iTunes music library onto that drive. I think I have to do it through iTunes, but I can't even see the hard drive on iTunes like I can see other devices. The drive is definitely connected. I can transfer files on my iMac drive directly to the external drive using the Finder.

Quit iTunes.
Copy the entire /MusiciTunes/ folder from internal drive to external drive.
Hold Option & launch iTunes.
Selelect Choose library... and select the iTunes folder you copied to the external.
After you make sure everything works, you can delete /MuusiciTunes/ folder.

If I move my iTunes media folder to an external hard drive, will Time Machine still back up that externally-located iTunes library?

To be precise, I've moved my iTunes Media Library to the same external hard drive where my TM backups are stored, although there's plenty of free space on that drive for both.
As I write that, however, it strikes me that if that external drive fails, I've lost my entire iTunes media directory AND my TM backup. So I suppose I should use a separate external HD for each, right?
But my main question is whether or not TM will still back up that iTunes media folder even if it's no longer located on the same boot drive as my main machine, which is a Mac Mini.
The whole reason I'm doing this is because my MM has a 250GB solid-state drive that is rapidly filling up because my iTunes library is 150+GB.

mende1 says:
I recommend you to store the library on another partition on the external disk and keep the first volume only for Time Machine backups.
and you say:
As I write that, however, it strikes me that if that external drive fails, I've lost my entire iTunes media directory AND my TM backup. So I suppose I should use a separate external HD for each, right?
From what people report here I'd say more people lose collections through whole drives failing and not just individual volumes becoming corrupt. A drive failing will take out all volumes on that drive.
Whatever the scenario, you will need multiple external drives. For convenience you could do as mende1 suggests and partition the TM drive. Keep TM on one part and your library on the other. This would be convenient because then you would only have one external connected to your Mac most of the time. However, then you should do as you observe and back up the partition used for iTunes to another external drive as often as you deem necessary. Basically you always want two copies of everything on two different drives, but they don't all have to be on the same two drives. Your TM drive acts as the backup for your computer and the primary for iTunes. Your computer acts as the primary for what's on TM and the second external acts as the backup for iTunes.

I cannot find the best way to format an external hard drive for MAC, PC, TV?

Hello,
I have a problem: I want to use an external hard drive on my Mac as well as on a PC and a TV. The normal structure of Mac (Journaled) isn't supported by PC/ TV. I changed the structue into DOS(FAT) on my Mac. That's suppoerted by TV and PC. But I'll use the hard drive for storage of HD films so I'm afraid that the structure is not good enough for this (it seems old to me DOS.....) And I don't want the quality to be influenced by a bad structure.
Then I've formatted into NTFS on my PC, but then I cannot put files from Mac on the hard drive.
What is the best solution?
Hope someone can help me!
Regards, Kim

FAT works great, but the problem is that it's old and that you can't store files that are bigger than 4 GB. In this case, you have exFAT, a filesystem compatible with OS X and Windows, but I don't think that the TV will read it.
If you want to use NTFS, you need a third-party application to be able to write in it on OS X, like Paragon NTFS

Can I use an iTunes Music Folder on an External Ethernet Drive with 2 Macs?

I have 2 macs at home both with Tiger 10.4.10 and iLife '08 and would like to be able to access the same iTunes and iPhoto library from both. I'd like to buy an ethernet hard drive to connect to my router so I can have networked storage of both my iTunes and iPhoto folders, and be able to access and write to them from either computer, meaning, I can purchase music from either computer and it will put it in the same place on network. Is this possible? I'd like to know before I go out and buy a drive. Has anyone tried it?
Ben

I don't know enough about iTunes for Windows to help you with this. But if you post your question in the Using iTunes for Windows forum you will get help from people who know more about this.
(This is the forum for Apple's Mac OS X web browser, Safari.)

ITunes cannot find the "My music" folder

Whenever I try to open iTunes, it fails to open and instead I get an error message saying "The folder "iTunes" cannot be found or created, and is required. The default location for this folder is inside the "My Music" folder".
Last time I used iTunes I had moved my My Music folder to my external hard drive, I even told iTunes in the settings the new location. It worked for a while (it's not my main music player, I only use it to synch my iPod) but now I get this annoying error message.
I can't even get into iTunes to change the settings and tell it where the music now is, because it won't open and I have tried uninstalling it, deleting all the folders and reinstalling it more times than I care to count. The only thing slightly different to normal is that My Music folder is actually called "<Windows Logon name>'s Music", which could be confusing the poor program.
Could anyone help please?

This is normally a registry issue, the location of My Music is not correctly set, see this Apple article:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302398
If you have a prexisting iTunes installation with library, you may be able to work round this but starting iTunes with the shift key held down. When asked to choose a library, navigate to the iTunes folder and choose iTunes Library.itl. This doesn't fix the basic registry problem though.

How do I load iTunes on a new computer and keep my music files on an external hard drive?

I keep all my iTunes music files on an external hard drive. I am going to buy a new computer and want to load up iTunes on that computer whilst keeping my music on teh external GD. How do I do this? Nothing seems to specifically deal with this.

Hi,
See this Support Article:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751
Restoring your iTunes Library backup
These Links may also be of Interest:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/12803190#12803190
https://discussions.apple.com/message/12699828#12699828
Cheers,

Itunes cannot see the itunes music folder on my external hard drive

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