Problems backing up I-tunes library to external hard drive.

Help - I'm having problems backing up I-tunes library to external hard drive. The drive appears on the desktop but when I try to drag in my i-tunes music folder I just get the circle with a line through it symbol. I can drag items from my mac to a different 4 gig memory stick with no problems. I put some music onto the hard drive from a windows p.c. and that dragged into my i-tunes fine. Any help would be much appreciated.

i'm guessing the external HD is NTFS formatted, which your Mac cannot write to (read only).
you will either have to reformat it (FAT32 or, better yet, for Mac) or install the _*NTFS 3G*_ driver.
JGG

Similar Messages

Problems Moving I-Tunes Library to External Hard Drive

I've ran out of disk space on my internal hard drive so have bought an external hard drive and want to move my iTubes database and music to the new drive and free up my internal hard drive. I have music that has been ripped from my CDs in iTunes, plus I have loaded into iTunes other music I had lying around elsewhere on my internal hard drive. I changed the location of the iTunes database to the new drive and then selected Consolidate Library. It then starts copying the files elsewhere on my internal hard drive and then errors before it gets around to copying the rest of the files in the iTunes library ie. none of the music that I have imported directly into iTunes has copied across to the external hard drive, only a large number of the other music files I had on the drive before I installed iTunes. Any ideas how I either (a) find the offending file(s) and remove them, or (b) get around this problem and continue copying everything I possibly can without erroring out.
thanks in advance
Andy

Ick, that message usually shows up while trying to sync an iPod. Well, iTunes thinks one of the files is corrupt and doesn't tell you which one, lovely, isn't it?
The only thing I can think of is what I had to do when I got an error message from the consolidate command. I kept watching the folder it was consolidating to using Windows Explorer, look at the column Date Modified or Date Added. The last file in there is the last file iTunes was able to copy with success.
Now, you need to go hunt for the next file, the file that made it error in iTunes. The consolidate command copies files in the order they were added to your library.
iTunes menu > View Options > Date Added must be checked off.
Now click twice on the Date Added column so iTunes will sort by Date Added, oldest files at the top. Find the file AFTER the last successful song. Either delete it from the iTunes libary list (not your hard drive), or rename it (which is waht I did - I had to rename a whoel album it was freaking on).
Hope that makes sense. It took me hours to consolidate my 200G+ library.
Some people just give up and create a new library with no playcounts or ratings, but I persevered; perhaps you will, too.

Transfering I tunes Library to external hard drive?

Hi,
The other day to free up space on my hard drive I transferred my Itunes Folder to an external hard drive. When I updated to 5.0 and went into preferences to point to the new location for the library I tunes does not recognize the library.
I have not synced up my ipod which has all my bought songs which of course are not backed up. So my question is can the library be on a external hard drive? And if not can I sync up my ipod so that the songs from the ipod will fill the new 5.0 and not lose my songs?
Thanks
Erik

Welcome to Apple Discussions.
Check this: MacMuse, "Move iTunes music/Library to new drive", 12:34pm Oct 12, 2004 CDT

Transferring i tunes library to external hard drive

to be honest, i am not mac savvy, so i am obviously doing something wrong. i am trying to transfer my i tunes library to my external hard drive. i have made multiple attempts, including consolidating, but it doesn't seem to work. i go thru the process and check the external hard drives and the songs are not there. any suggestions on how to take care of this issue are appreciated.

welcome to Apple discussions !
click here for tips/instructions on how to move your library properly.
JGG

Moving I-tunes library to external hard drive??????

Ran out of memory with all the pics and music on computer. So I bought an external harddrive that connects with USB 2.0. How should I move the library over to the external hard drive and having it work while itunes is installed on the internal hard drive? Any help would be much appreciated.

To move your iTunes music...
Quit iTunes.
Move the entire iTunes folder including music to the external drive.
Click on the iTunes icon to start it, then immediately press an hold the Shift key in Windows, Option key in Mac.
iTunes will ask to Create new library or Choose existing library. Select Choose existing library and select the library in the folder you just moved.
Move the old iTunes folder to the trash but do not empty it.
Restart iTunes normally and verify the songs work. If they do, empty the trash.

Backing up entire iTunes Library on external hard drive?

I have recently purchased an external hard drive to backup all media on my computer (photos, music etc).
However, having searched apple.com for backup advice, the only instructions available refer to creating backup discs on an a CD.
I have already copied my Itunes Library to the external hard drive. However, please can someone confirm that this is sufficient and if, in the event that everything goes wrong, the $800 of music that I have from iTunes won't disappear.
Thanks for you help

Unfortunately the iTunes backup only works with DVD/CDs.
You can simply copy your iTunes directory to the external disk, or you can use backup software outside iTunes to manage it for you. If you have XP pro you already have a backup program. If you have the home edition, it has to be installed from the Windows CD if you got one with your PC.
There is a good article on backup here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1522195&#1522195

I recently had to back up itunes play lists to external hard drive, how do I restore the library from the external hard drive to the new computer

I recently had to back up itunes play lists to external hard drive whilst computer was fixed. reinstalled itunes but dont know how to reinstall my music from external hard drive. help?

The same way the library was copied/moved to the external drive.
Copy it from location A to location B.
Then point iTunes to the correct library.

Iphoto library on external hard drive now does not show all the photos when i access it from macbook

i backed up iphoto library to an external hard drive. Deleted photo library on the macbook. After transferring some new photos to macbook from a camera, when i access the iphoto library on external hard drive only the new photos show up. Originals are still in files, but don't appear when opening iphoto library on external hard drive.

Make a temporary, backup copy of your library if you don't already have one (Control-click on the library and select Duplicate from the contextual menu) and apply the two fixes below in order as needed:
Fix #1
Launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.
Select the options identified in the screenshot.
Fix #2
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
Click on the Add Library button, navigate to your Home/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the File ➙ Rebuild Library menu option
In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
Click on the Create button.
Note: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments but not books, calendars or slideshows. The original library will be left untouched for further attempts at fixing the problem or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory.
OT

Can time machine back up an imac and an external hard drive?

I currently back up my imac via time machine but to reduce space on my hard drive I want to move my itunes library onto an external hard drive. If i do this can time machine still back up my imac and the external hard drive with the itunes library on automatically?
Regards
Toekoms

toekoms wrote:
I currently back up my imac via time machine but to reduce space on my hard drive I want to move my itunes library onto an external hard drive. If i do this can time machine still back up my imac and the external hard drive with the itunes library on automatically?
yes, given enough space on the destination drive (your library may grow over time). also, the drive needs to be connected directly to your Mac.
you might want to make sure the drive is not excluded from TM backups by checking in system preferences > time machine > options.
also, as for moving your iTunes library, see this read for tips/instructions.
JGG
edited by the Jolly Green Giant (where Green stands for environmentally friendly)

If i backed up my iPhotos on an external hard drive can i delete them off my mac?

I recently backed up my Macbook pro on to an external hard drive. I was wodnering if i could delete my photos from my iphoto library to save space, and if so can i then get them back on my computer from my external hard drive?

Depends on exactly what you did
And if you delete the information from your main computer then you do not have a backup - to have a backup you need hte original on your computer and an exact copy on another disk
What format is the external drive? It must be Mac OS extended (journaled) to have your iPhoto library on ti
What did you copy to the external drive? The iPhoto library or your photos?
What you probably need to do is to run your iPhoto library on an external drive and to have a second external drive to backup to - Time Machine is a good choice
To run your iPhoto library on an external drive verify that the drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) and drag the iPHoto library to it intact as a single entity - depress the option and command keyus, launch iPhoto and select the new location - fully test the library on the external drive and after one successful backup cycle verify that the external drive is being backedup - then delete your iPhoto library on the main drive - test one more time before emptying the trash
LN

I am backing up my computer to an external hard drive using Time Machine. It has been at 288.91 "used" for a while... should I just let it ride? It's been going for about 7 hours now.

I am backing up my computer to an external hard drive using Time Machine. It has been at 288.91 "used" for a while... should I just let it ride? It's been going for about 7 hours now

It does not immediately delete the files that are missing.. it merely tries to backup the new files it has discovered on the external drive. Since you moved the files there, the backup at least for a while will contain both copies.. and that is why it doesn't have enough space to backup.
Fixing the problem.. hmm pondini is the expert.. you should be able to delete the backup of the photos in existing backup.. there are instructions to do it.. but it is a very poor way to do things.
Much better. .archive off the existing backup.. this is long and slow but worth it. you need a usb drive of the same size as the TC drive. Then erase the TC and start a fresh set of backups.
The alternative is to use the USB drive as a new target.. but it is much slower than the TC internal drive.
http://pondini.org/TM/12.html

I have been backing up my photos to an external hard drive. I usually choose the photos, copy and paste them to the EHD. It has started saying "an item named "unnamed.jpg" already exists in this location. I don't know what to do.

I have the MacBook OS X 10.5.8, 2.4 GHz, 2 GB. I have been backing up my photos to an external hard drive since I purchased it. I usually choose the photos, copy and paste them to the EHD. It has started saying "an item named "unnamed.jpg" already exists in this location. Do you want to replace it with the one you're moving? Don't replace/Stop/Replace". I don't know what to do.

Thanks Jim, I kind of thought that was the answer, but was hoping against hope that I was just missing something. Like I said, it's not a big problem. One work around I've found is to name a folder on the external hard drive the same as the name I give the folder to import to and then choose this folder to back up to. I still get a subfolder inside that folder named Imported on...... but at least it's in the folder with my chosen name.
Thanks again,
Jack

Backing up imported photos to an external hard drive

I've searched for an answer to my question, but came up blank. So, here goes. First I guess I should say that I'm using mac OS 10.5 Leopard and have Lightroom 1.4.1
When I import photos, at the same time I also back them up to an external hard drive. So far so good. At import I select Organize: Into one folder, then check the box for Put into subfolder and give the folder a unique name. I then check the box to select a location to back up to, which is my external hard drive.
The photos are now imported into a folder with it's unique name in my pictures folder on my hard drive, they also are now in a folder of the same name in the folder list in Lightroom, but the folder they are backed up to on my external hard drive is named, Imported on (date).
I can't seem to find a way for the folder with the backups to have the same unique name as the folder I imported to. It seems to me that would be normal. The folder I imported to has it's own name pertaining to the contents and the file name dates are by choice, the date they were shot, but if I didn't import those photos for a week after shooting, the folder they are backed up into won't have anything in it's name to relate to if I need to search for a lost photo.
Anyone have a solution that I'm missing? I've tried everything, but can't seem to get past this point.
Thanks,
Jack

Thanks Jim, I kind of thought that was the answer, but was hoping against hope that I was just missing something. Like I said, it's not a big problem. One work around I've found is to name a folder on the external hard drive the same as the name I give the folder to import to and then choose this folder to back up to. I still get a subfolder inside that folder named Imported on...... but at least it's in the folder with my chosen name.
Thanks again,
Jack

Backing up 5th Generation iPod to External Hard Drive

I use a Western Digital external hard drive coupled with the "Backup and Restore Center" feature present in my Vista's systems. When I connect the WD hard drive to my computer to do my weekly file backup, my iPod is occasionally also connected, and the Backup and Restore Center asks me if I'd like to back up the files located on "External Hard Drive" (the iPod in question).
Which brings me to my question: Is it possible to back up files -directly- from my 5th Generation iPod to my external hard drive, just in case my iPod unexpectedly goes to Apple Heaven, or is that a breach of the Apple Terms of Use? If it is in fact possible, is there anything I should watch out for in the process?

A lot of what is stored on your iPod is stored in hidden folders and files. If your backup software does not normally back up the hidden files and folder on your computer, then it likely won't really be backing up the iPod either.
Your iTunes library should be your iPod backup and your Western Digital should be your iTunes library backup.
Of course the flip side of your question, which I do not know the answer to is, if the backup software does indeed backup the iPod's hidden stuff, is it able to restore it to the iPod directly? You could plug in your iPod and let the software back it up, then test it and see if you can find a way to restore the iPod and see if it works or not. If it doesn't, then you can always just resync it back with iTunes like normal.
Patrick

I replaced my hard drive and I backed up my files on an external hard drive but when I reloaded my iweb to my imac none of my files were on it so I can't make changes to my Published web site have I lost my files what can I do

I replaced my hard drive and I backed up my files on an external hard drive but when I reloaded my iweb to my imac none of my files were on it so I can't make changes to my Published web site have I lost my files what can I do

By default iWeb keeps its data in (user)/Library/Application Support/iWeb in a file named Domain. Without this file you cannot proceed (other than by recreating the site from scratch using the published version as a reference) so you need to locate it on the original disk.
To confuse matters, Apple have hidden the user’s Library folder in Lion and Mountain Lion to casual viewers, in an attempt to stop new Mac users messing their machines up. To access it, in the Finder go to the ‘Go’ menu and hold down the Option (Alt) key; the Library folder will appear as a choice.

Problems backing up I-tunes library to external hard drive.

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for