ITunes won't recognize folders on external hard drive

Moved my network hosted iTunes library (Drobo) from PC to Mac (via http://t.co/jfyX9PB). Got most of metadata (ratings, playlist, comments, etc) to port over. However I have a 100 or so songs that iTunes cannot locate. Tried to manually locate them in iTunes and found that the root problem is that iTunes won't even recognize the folder. I can go to Finder and see that the folder is indeed there.
The only solution I've figured out is to open the missing file in Finder where iTunes creates a second duplicate of the missing song. However, once iTunes adds the new duplicate song the old song works. I can then delete (and "keep" the deleted song) so that the old "unlocated" song works and I don't corrupt the date added of my library.
Was just curious if you've ever run into this and know why iTunes doesnt recognize folders? Or if you know if there is a quicker batch fix instead of the tedious method above?

kaze1sd wrote:
Or if you know if there is a quicker batch fix instead of the tedious method above?
what do you think of this script:
_*Music Folder Files Not Added v2.0*_
This application will list the file paths of the files in your designated "iTunes Media" folder which are not in iTunes' library. Additionally, you can select a different parent folder and its contents will be compared to the iTunes library. Options to Add a selection of found files to iTunes or move them to the Trash.

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ITunes won't recognize media on external hard drive

Hello Everyone....
So I have a 17" Macbook Pro, that was recently repaired under Future Shop's PSP that I purchased. They wiped it completely clean, so I essentially have a brand new computer again.
Luckily, I put almost all of my data and media onto my external hard drive before it went in. I have been operating with my iTunes media stored on an external drive for some time now with success.
Now that my computer is completely new, I did all the available updates, and then went to link my library to my iTunes, as it's "new again". It doesn't have my library attached anymore. I think I forgot to save the actual library files that I'm now reading about, and instead just saved the actual mp4 files. To be honest I didn't know there were library files and actual media files, seems weird...
I've changed my preferences back to the external drive folder where my media is located, and I've clicked "consolidate files" and nothing happens.
I've tried to hit the "scan for media" button that pops up when you have a wiped or new computer and nothing has happened.
I tried to physically click and drag everything from my external drive into my iTunes, and the little "processing xyz..." popped up with the blue and white striped progress bar, however when I woke up this morning nothing had happened. I'm not sure how that developed.
I can't seem to find anything on the internet to assist with this particular issue. I have all my media stored properly in the iTunes media folder but no actual "library" file. I guess I didn't realize they existed!
Any ideas? I am losing my mind. This mac is my second and has been in for repairs twice, and has given me nothing but problems. I am aware this "problem" is my own dumb fault but I feel like it should be much easier to recognize your existing media when it's right there in front of you.

Preferences does not scan for media, it only changes the storage location for new additions. The files have to be added to the library. It sounds like you tried this in one of your attempts but it did not work (I don't know why it didn't unless there is some detail I missed).
Where do you want your library? On the external or internal?
If the internal, start iTunes. Drag your media files to the "Automatically Add To iTunes folder. iTunes 9: Understanding the "Automatically Add to iTunes" folder. - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3832 Or use the "Add" menu item to add files to iTunes, or drag them to the iTuens library in the sidepanel.
If somewhere else, start iTunes while holding down the option/alt key, select a library location. Add as above.
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

Yoga 2 Pro won't recognize my Seagate external hard drive

I have a Yoga 2 Pro that won't recognize my Seagate Backup Slim 2TB USB 3.0 external hard drive.
I ordered one from Amazon and it didn't recognize immediately when I plugged it in. The disk drive shows up in Devices and in Device manager with the Yellow caution triangle, but it never shows up in drives under my computer or in Disk Management (Where you change partitions, etc.)
So I ordered a replacement from amazon, I thought it was broken. I had tried it in a different computer and the same thing happened so I assumed it was the drive. On a whim I tried it on the alternate machine again except this time I bypassed the USB hub and plugged it directly into USB 2.0, it worked!
I installed a Paragon HFS+ software (it's for Mac Only Seagate drives to work with windows, even though this drive is NOT Mac only) and the installation failed, and my computer started messing up. It wouldn't completley power off nor restart. It just hung at the shutting down screen indefinitely.
Finally, I let the computer die, turned it back on, plugged in the hard drive and it worked. But I had already ordered the replacement. So I had to return the original and go tthe replacement and now it won't read at all.
Since I plugged it in, my computer will NEVER shut down, it will just sleep unless the battery dies, it won't restart either, it'll just hang at the restarting screen.
The drive still won't work, and the touchscreen doesn't work sometimes after a reboot. (Because I have to force shut it off everytime I want it off.)
I went into power settings and turned everything on max power (To help my battery die faster) and even changed the USB power option thing to disabled. I still don't know how I got it to work that ONE time and now I'm stuck. Any help or advice?

Oh I also had a message that came up when I tried to reconnect it to my comptuer. This is what the message stated:
The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer.
and my only options I have are
Initialize..., Ignore, Eject
what are my options of getting my data restored? I don't care so much about the drive, I am concern about my 2TB of data on there. Please anyone help me with this!!!!! I am open to suggestions to get my data back.

Mavericks won't recognize my lacie external hard drive

I've been using a LaCie external hard drive for my Time Machine backups and it's been working fine until a couple of weeks ago. Mavericks no longer recognizes the drive. I tested the drive out on a non-Mavericks Macbook and it booted up fine. I see there are issues with this, but wondering if anyone has a work around or if you've found there is a fix I can do? Really frustrating to not be able to access my archives or be able to back up my work!

Apple doesn’t routinely monitor the discussions. These are mostly user to user discussions.
Send Apple feedback. They won't answer, but at least will know there is a problem. If enough people send feedback, it may get the problem solved sooner.
Feedback

HT1751 My iTunes won't drag to my external hard drive...any suggestions?

When I attempt to drag my iTunes library to my external hard drive, it will not transfer the folder. I am using a Mac osx and a free agent external hard drive. Any suggestions?

See this migrate iTunes library post. Depending on the layout of the library you may simply need to copy the entire iTunes folder using Windows Explorer without ever firing up iTunes.
tt2

ITunes won't show library on external hard drive

I have just bought a MacBook Pro but I don't know how to get library on external hard drive to show in iTunes... Any suggestions please?

This is relevant portion of the support document with a bit of editing for clarity.
If iTunes is running, quit iTunes.
Using a Mac click the icon to open iTunes and immediately press and continue to hold down the Option key.
You should see the following screen:
If iTunes opens normally, close it and try again.
Once you've got that dialog you have two options. If your previous iTunes library database is stored on the external drive use Choose Library to browse to it and open it. If you only have the media folder on the drive then use the Create Library option to create a new iTunes library at /iTunes on the external, move the media folder to /iTunes/iTunes Media and then add it to your new empty library.
tt2

ITunes won't sync correctly with external hard drive

I have long kept my music on an external hard drive and had absolutely no problems with adding files to my iTunes library. Whenever I added songs to iTunes, they would automatically be copied over to my external device (a Seagate Freeagent 1TB USB External Hard Drive) everything would be fine. I could erase the song data remaining on my notebook without any problems.
But, after recently upgrading to Windows 7, I'm having some trouble keeping everything organized. I did a clean install so I had to reinstall iTunes, and upon doing so I specified for it to access my library from my external device like before. It does that just fine, but when I add songs to iTunes, they don't copy over to the hard drive, and when I consolidate the files, all of my songs get copied onto my notebook hard drive.
Is there a fix to this? Something I skipped when telling iTunes where to get/keep my music? I want to be able to add songs to the library and have them copy directly to my external device.

But, after recently upgrading to Windows 7, I'm having some trouble keeping everything organized. I did a clean install so I had to reinstall iTunes, and upon doing so I specified for it to access my library from my external device like before. It does that just fine, but when I add songs to iTunes, they don't copy over to the hard drive, and when I consolidate the files, all of my songs get copied onto my notebook hard drive.
Hmmmm. By any chance, do you have 4 GB of RAM and an NVIDIA USB EHCI chipset on the Fujitsu? If so, perhaps see the following Microsoft document:
[You encounter problems when you move data over USB from a Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2-based computer that has an NVIDIA USB EHCI chipset and at least 4GB of RAM|http://support.microsoft.com/kb/976972]

My new 24in imac doesn't recognize my usb external hard drive- snow leopard

i was attempting to do a new time machine back up on my new mac but it won't recognize the usb external hard drive (kaser 250gb). i used it frequently on my old g5 imac, no problems. i plugged the hard drive into my g4 ibook and it recognized it right away. i followed the apple tip of pulling the power plug out of the wall power socket and pulled all the usb cables out as well (i have the wireless keyboard). i let it rest for over 5 minutes and only plugged in my wacom stylus and usb external hard drive. still nothing. and it doesn't show either in disk utility. i also downloaded as per another thread the 3g ntfs system preference but to no avail. the only thing i can of doing is erase and reformat my external on my ibook, but i don't want to risk loosing the data without a back up.
anything else i can try? (before i buy time capsule) thanks

i just checked again by plugging the external into my ibook g4 and checked how it was formatted - mac os extended (journaled).
Then the 3GFS software is not required at all.
i have an idea, not sure if it will work and it will have to wait a couple days until i get my firewire back from a friend, but this is what i'm thinking: my intel imac has a 1tb hard drive. could i use target mode between my imac and ibook? with my ibook i'd attach the external hard drive, then using the firewire and target mode start it up. hoping that the ibook hard drive and the attached external hard drive would show on my intel mac for which i could copy over the external back ups onto my imac. once completed, i could erase and reformat the external on my ibook and then try again on my imac to see if it appears on my desktop. do you think this might work (even though it is correctly formatted already?)
I use Target mode on a regular basis for mounting the internal drive on a Mac to transfer or salvage data. I don't know if you will be able to connect to an external drive on the Target computer. There's not usually any reason for this and I don't know if the Target Mode will enable the Logic board to deal with the USB ports and transfer data. I kinda doubt it, but other more experienced users can jump in here.
I don't think the problem with your external drive is the format, since you've already checked it and it is already formatted for a Mac. Intel Mac's will mount drives formatted by a PPC Mac with no problems, unless your OS doesn't support the chipset in the USB case that connects to the drive. There are some USB drives that are known to not work well with SL but worked fine with Leopard.
You can buy a cheap USB case (about $30) and move the drive from the old case to the new case, or buy a USB to IDE adaptor cable (about $20), or you can buy a larger external drive that will work on the iMac and use the G4 to transfer the date from the old drive to a new one. Or you can take both drives to a friend with a Mac and use Disk Utility to restore the USB drive to a partition on the Firewire drive. That doesn't fix the USB drive to work with your new Mac, but unless the vendor comes out with a firmware fix, I think that's a lost cause anyway.
other than the above, i may just go buy a 1tb time capsule,
I would not be getting a Time Capsule to back up a single computer. Wireless backups are a lot slower than FireWire or USB (of course, it's the initial backup that takes so much time). If you do have several Mac's that need a TM backup volume, then the Capsule can help you out. It is supported by Apple (and there are a lot of users here in the forums). I'm using a ReadyNAS device for network backups, but it is not supported by Apple, and I have to rely on NetGear for fixes if an OS update breaks my backup system.
BTW, it's a good chance that a TC device will be able to see and mount your USB drive. The incompatible chipset problem with some drives seems to be limited to the USB drivers in SL which the TC is not running. That's why I said that a USB hub may also let you see your drive, the problem is there's no guarantee's...

Want to save files, documents, bookmarks, iTunes and iPhoto libraries, each in separate folders to external hard drive prior to full sweep and overwrite for the purpose of full sweep of Macbook?

Never done this before and cannot find a manual for OS X 10.7.5 Lion. Basically I want to clean my 2009 Macbook6,1 as though I were selling it and start out fresh but before I attempt it I want to stash my contents (Files, Documents, Bookmarks, iTunes and iPhoto libraries to my external Hard Drive, all in separate folders to return them to Macbook after the full sweep and big overwrite. Can anyone help me?

That may not be the best approach (see below).
Format the drive for a Mac (see #1 in Using Disk Utility if you're not sure how).
Create the folders you want on it.
Open a second Finder window and drag what you want from one to the other.
If you only copy the stuff listed, you'll lose your AddressBook, Mail, Calendars, preferences, and probably all sorts of other things.
A better option might be to back up your entire system, either with Time Machine or one of the "cloning" apps. Then you can restore selectively from TM, or copy selectively from the clone.

Why won't itunes find my library on my external hard drive? All that shows up are the purchased songs in the cloud?

Why won't itunes find my library on my external hard drive? All it shows are my purchased songs in the cloud.

See also this migrate iTunes library post or Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
tt2

How do I get my MacBook Pro to recognize my Toshiba external hard drive?

How do I get my MacBook Pro to recognize my Toshiba external hard drive? I'm working on transferring my music from our home computer to my new laptop and I already got all my music onto the hard drive but now, when I plug it into my MacBook Pro, it doesn't recognize it. There isn't an icon that pops up and nothing happens at all. The blue light on the hard drive that indicates that it knows it is plugged into something comes up but that's about it. Someone told me I might have to "format" it but I don't know what that means and I don't know how to do it. I just want to get my music from the hard drive to my laptop so please help!

natgray17 wrote:
I don't know about your first question... I went to finder, preferences, then general but I didn't see anything for the hard drive.
Huh, in the Finder menu, Preferences, you will see this:
Nope, disk utility cannot see it. I've tried unplugging it and plugging it back in but it still won't recognize it.puter that's a Mac...
If DU cannot see it then the preferences is just an academic exercise.
If this is a USB drive then as mentioned above you may need a powered USB hub since there may not be enough power from the USB to run the drive. What else do you have plugged into the USB ports? If there's some stuff you can unplug it then do it and see if your drive mounts.
What do you mean from a Windows machine? It's a Toshiba hard drive and I put my music on it from my home computer that's a Mac...
Which is all I wanted to know, i.e., whether the drive came from a Winows machine. So it's been formatted and created on a mac. Therefore it should mount on this other mac machine. So it most likely is a power problem.

ITunes music is stored on an external hard drive. How do I play...

I just transferred all of my music onto an external hard drive to save space on my computer.
Is it possible to set iTunes so that it uses the external hard drive as the source of the iTunes music library. iTunes seems to only want to have the "iTunes Music" file on the C drive so that it can access it automatically as iTunes opens.
How do I switch it from looking at the C Drive to a specific folder on my G drive?

I followed all the instructions for consolidating my music into one folder on my external hard drive. (I'm struggling with this because my ext HD was renamed when I synched my iPod shuffle last night. The "E:" drive has now become the "F:" drive and all my songs have those dreaded exclamation points next to them. Exploring my computer, I found "My music" folders in two place on my C: drive and one place on my external hard drive... and the song list in each place is different.
Argh.
So... following the directions in the article reference here, I attempted to consolidate all of my songs into one folder on my external hard drive.
But.. I checked the song list when the "consolidation" was complete... and MANY songs are missing. They're still on the C: drive, but don't appear to have been copied to the new folder on the ext HD.
I would appreciate any suggestions.
Thanks so much!
Edit: I tried to reassign the ext. HD a permanent letter, but my Control panel does not appear to offer the option of Administrative tools. Is there an easy way to get to this, as this seems to be the root of the problem?
Thanks.
Message was edited by: hbdivegirl

Maverick wont recognize my toshiba external hard drive. Any idea?

Maverick wont recognize my toshiba external hard drive. Two days ago, before attaining Maverick (what a mistaaake), it recognized the external. Now it only recognizes other external hard drives, but not my toshiba. All my music is locked away
Thanks for your time...

Once I press mount it says:
The disk "TOSHIBA EXT" could not be mounted.
Try running First Aid on the disk and then retry mounting.
I have a very valuble music collection on this. I got it around a week ago and it hasn't been acting the same since Maverick. I'm just hoping the problem IS maverick here. But it must be.... Because Maverick won't even recognize my brookstone mini projector. I really appreciate the help, what should I do from here?

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 restore iTunes library from Backup files on External Hard Drive?

How do I restore iTunes library from Backup files on External Hard Drive and keep the new iTunes library on the External Hard Drive. I have all the media and playlist and .xml .itl files, just want the iTunes to recognise the content.
I backedup my iTunes content by dragging to External Hard Drive. Formatted and reinstalled OS. My iTunes content is so large, that I wish for the Library and content to remain on the External Hard Drive. I have all the music files and playlists, I just cannot get the iTunes application to display all the content. Hoping to Not have to drag and drop all the content to be recopied into new iTunes organised files.
Troubleshooting this by researching other conversations on the web, I have come stuck for a solution. One Troubleshoot told me to hold down the Command key and then lauch iTunes and a dialogue box will appear to Choose a new library, however when I try this, no Dialogue box appear to give me the option!?

It sometimes has that funny switch symbol on it too.
tt2

ITunes won't recognize folders on external hard drive

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