Time Capsule and iTunes library storage

My time capsule is attached to my iMac by yellow ethernet cable to my DSL router. This was set up by Apple over the phone and works fine. My Time Machine regularly backs up with little or not glitches and I also store my vast iTunes library on the time capsule as well.
As long as nothing much is happening (ie backing up), the iTunes library can locate and import onto my various iPods (including the kids ones' too) without any problems.
FOr some reason, it has decided that none of the tunes that are located in the iTunes Library can be found without manual input from me highlighting each and every tune/movie/song/podcast to get rid of the "!" by the tune.
Does anyone know an easier method of getting the Library of iTunes to locate these songs on its own. They are in the Time Capsule, the set-up has been working fine, but suddenly I have "lost" a huge amount of stuff which I will manuallly have to highlight, start and then move down to the next one, which is very very time consuming.
Hoping for some useful answers.
Many thanks
Frances

I connected it to the TC and wanted to start accessing my iTunes library from the FreeAgent (via Airport Extreme). This can be done right? From what I understand it can be done, but I just have to make sure that I access the HDD before I open iTunes. If I was to do it the other way then iTunes would default back to the HDD on the MacBook. What do you think?
Sorry for posting this twice.
Message was edited by: Austin Nichols

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Can I use Time Capsule for iTunes Library?

I have a Macbook Pro, an Apple TV, 2 iPads, 2 iPhones at home. Just bought 2TB Time Capsule today.
My kids purchased a lot of movies/TV shows from iTunes store, and it is building up lots of space in my MacBook. I also like to rip my CDs into Apple Losses Format to enjoy on my iPhone.
My Macbook is running out of space, I wonder if I can point my iTunes Library (Music, Videos) to Time Capsule. In other words, I hope to have access to my Music library whenever my iPhone is connected to my MacBook, and most importantly, the kids will be able to access their movies/TV shows from Apple TV / iPads.
Could someone please advice how to do that? Thanks!

Thanks!
Bob, if you don't me asking some details - if I will buy an external harddisk to store my itunes library:
1). Does it mean everytime I open iTunes (or before I connect any device), I have to ensure the external harddisk is connected vis USB?
2). Say I have some 50GB of data on my MacBook. If I modify Preference/iTunes Media Folder Location, will all the data be "moved" to the external USB drive automatically?
3). When we talked about "moving iTunes Media folder", does it include everything (i.e. my iPhone, iPad, backup, apps, etc), or it is just Music/Books/TV Shows/Movies?
Shamefully speaking, I might be a stupid dad - I used iPhotos to import all pictures/videos from Digital Camera, iPhones, iPads for a year, until last night I installed Aperture 3. I selected a folder "Pictures" and clicked Import from iPhoto Library, then I was shocked ....my Macbook HDD space shrinks from 40GB free to 1.29GB and still shrinking....as a result I had to move some of my music, videos to trash (to free up another 20 GB of space). Until Aperture finished importing all photos, I had only 2.5GB free
This morning, the first thing I did is to buy a Time Capsule, and try to free up spaces on my Macbook

Time Capsule as Itunes Media Storage

I'm thinking about buying a Time capsule, but I want to know if that's what I really need.
1) My main problem is that I can't use my MacBook to hear music, watch movies or sync my Iphone 4 through my apartment 'cause my Library is in an External hard disk that needs electric power to function, so every time that I need to buy/hear music, watch a movie from my MacBook I have to be connected to my External HD. So, if I buy a TC can I sync/stream wirelessly my devices?
2) Also I have an Apple TV and much of the times I buy music/movies/videos from there. If I connect the Apple TV to the TC, My library stills in just one folder in the TC?
3) The TC is always on? or it starts up when a device is trying to connect to it?
Thank you very much in advance...

Please check out the following article to get one author's opinion on using the Time Capsule as a Media Storage device: theAppleBlog: Using Time Capsule as a Media Drive

Time Capsule and iTunes set up not working, please help.

I have moved my itunes library to my time capsule and changed my itunes preferred path to its time capsule location. However when I restart my apple laptop, after having shut it off for the night, and open itunes (time capsule is visible and accessible to the laptop), itunes has reversed the preferred path I set to point to my time capsule to my local laptop hard drive instead. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I have looked in other discussions concerning lost itunes file paths, however I never had this issue with my wired external drive; and I only start iTunes after I am sure that my computer can access the files on my time capsule. Thank you.
My laptop is a Macbook Pro 2.3 Ghz running Mac OS X (10.5.2)

If you're still experiencing "disconnects," even with the earlier firmware, but not experiencing these at all when directly connecting your computer to the modem, there is a good chance that one of the following may still be the problem:
o Bad Ethernet cable between the D-Link & TC.
o The TC is faulty.
o The D-Link is faulty.
o The TC & D-Link are just not compatible with each other.
o The ADSL signal strength, coming from your ISP into the D-Link, may need "tuning."
I'd start with trying a known good Ethernet cable. If that doesn't resolve the problem try contacting your ISP/ADSL-Provider next to see if they can run a ADSL line diagnostic to verify that there is a good signal to the D-Link; While you have them on the line, see if they can provide you with another modem.
Finally, if available to you, try temporarily replacing the current TC with another TC or another wireless router.

Time Capsule and iTunes

Hey there,
first of all please excuse my bad english. I'm from germany and I don't practise my english as much as I should.
Well, I bought my first MacBook Pro in June this year and I must say it's really great. I am planning to buy a Time Capsule (1 GB) now. I'd like to save my entire iTunes Library on the Time Capsule, but yesterday somebody told me that Time Capsule does not support iTunes-Server. But I don't really understand what that means. Isn't it possible to access my music, movies and podcasts via Time Capsule? Is there any problem with that? Is there any difference between using Time Capsule and using a "normal" external harddisc?
I would really appreciate if somebody could try to help me with that issue.
Thanks a lot.
Greets
Cord

I use this setup at home. My entire iTunes library is on my Time Capsule and it works like that.
But due to the TC drive going to sleep, there are two VERY annoying drawbacks:
1. The TC goes to sleep after something like 1 minute. This means that the TC has to spin the hard drive each time a new track starts in iTunes, generating a few seconds of delay. I'm desperately trying to find a way to increase the TC drive sleep delay, with no luck so far.
2. Be sure to have your TC drive mounted BEFORE lauching iTunes. Otherwise iTunes won't see the library path and will automatically set it to your home directory without any warning. You'll then need to re-set your library path in iTunes preferences. Annoying, I tell you.

Time Capsule and iTunes working with external HDD

Hello all.
I have a situation I would to share with you and see if there is a solution.
I have a PC and a Macbook Air. I had a Time Capsule which had my iTunes library but the drive failed and I lost everything. However when it was running things weren't going great. Because the Time Capsule was a bit clever, it only spun the HDD when TIme Machine was backing my MBA.
This meant that I had trouble accessing my iTunes library because it wasn't always available. So I would have to locate the library on most occasions and on even more occasions iTunes lost the links with my media files and had to go through the time consuming 'Find files' process.
I was wondering if an answer to my problem would be to store all my music and other media on an external HDD (like the GoFlex). The I could plug it into my PC, then my MBA and if I wanted to make it avable to both I could plug it into Time Capsule and it would 'broadcast' it to both.
I was wondering if anyone had tried this and how it worked, Would iTunes see the HDD plugged directly into the MBA as the same as the HDD being plugged into the Time Capsule?
I look forward to hearing your suggestions.

Scipio7 wrote:
it shows 3GB out of 3GB instead of 3GB out of 40Gb total.
Where are you seeing those values?

Time Capsule and iTunes - Can't Locate Files

Ok, so I have a relatively new Macbook Pro 15" and an equally-new Time Capsule. I put all of my 4,500 songs onto the Time Capsule because I only listen to music and home and also because I wanted to save space on my hard drive. While this set up has worked up until now, I am beginning to experience some problems. Right now iTunes says that it cannot locate the file for any of my songs unless I manually show it where those files are on my Time Capsule. I am not worries about losing the files because they appear to be unaltered, however I wanted to know if there was a way to have iTunes automatically search through my music folder and fix the problem. I know there is a way to download all the music from my hard drive to my computer and then back to the hard drive to fix the problem, but I would really like to avoid having to dump all those files onto my pristine hard drive. Any suggestions? And I am sorry if this has been answered elsewhere, I just could not locate a thread with this EXACT problem. Thanks.

Isn't there a better way around this??? Here's what I want: I want to store all of my itunes library on my Time Capsule to save space on my HD. I understand that I won't be able to access the library out of my home, but that's fine. The problem is -
1) When I am at home, I have to manually mount the Time Capsule by clicking on the folder, waiting for it to connect, and then opening iTunes (even if my computer is already backing up files to the Time Capsule). It's a real pain and adds unnecessary steps.
2) When I am not at home and away from my Time Capsule, I can't even open iTunes at all without it prompting me to locate the library or create a new one. Even if I don't want to listen to my songs, I'd like to be able to open iTunes to use the radio, surf the store, etc.
What is the best solution? It seems ridiculous that a wireless HD doesn't connect automatically, and that you can't open iTunes without a library. Is there a workaround? Can I keep the library database file on my HD but have the actual files (songs, movies, etc.) be on the Time Capsule? Please advise.
Thanks.

Use time capsule for iTunes library

I would like to use my new time capsule as the location for my iTunes library. How do I go about doing that? Currently my iTunes library is on my MacBook Pro.

The Time Capsule was designed for your backups, not for everyday or "original" copies of files or folders. It is not a media server.
The smart move would be to get another hard drive and connect it to your Mac. Move the iTunes library to that hard drive.
Then, Time Machine will back up both your Mac and the hard drive to the Time Capsule.
iTunes will run just as fast as if it were on your Mac.....and more importantly....you will have backups for both your Mac and the important data on the hard drive on the Time Capsule.
Note that having the "key" will not help a bit if you are trying to connect a wireless device that does not want to see apostrophes, dollar signs, asterisks, and any other special character.
Change the name of your wireless network to something that uses only normal letters and numbers, with no spaces. Do not exceed 20 characters.
Same rule for password.

Time capsule traps iTunes library

I copied my iTunes music library to my time capsule. Now I can't figure out how to copy it off the time capsule HD. The original library resided on a Firewire HD and is now corrupted. Time machine was not used.

Artie,
Open a Finder window.
Select the TC in the Sidebar on the left.
Click "Connect As..." in the upper right.
Enter the TCs password.
Double click the blue TC folder.
Inside should be everything you have stored there.
Let us know if this solves your issue.
Cheers!

Time Capsule w/iTunes Library

I recently bought a 15" Macbook Pro and a 1TB Time Capsule. I decided to have the TC host my entire iTunes library so I created the iTunes folder on the TC, then made an alias in my iTunes library so it will always go to the TC. This has worked perfectly and my iTunes library is all good on the TC. However when ripping CD's, wireless, it crashes the TC every so often. I will have to completely unplug/plug in the TC to get it back. The airport utility will not find it. After restarting it, closing/opening iTunes everything is good for a while and again while ripping CD's it will crash the TC again. I can't get in more than 5-10 CD's before it will crash. Here is the crazy thing though I copied 80gb straight to the TC through finder and the TC never crashed. I have tried to duplicate this error in other programs and I can only get it to happen in iTunes.

I don't know if this will fix your problem, but instead of using an alias for the iTunes library, you might set the iTunes library location for iTunes as the folder in the TC, which I recall might be done by pressing option as you launch iTunes.

Time Capsule and iTunes full backup problem

Hi,
Every time I add something to my iTunes library the time capsule does a full backup of the entire library rather than just doing an incremental backup.
This has only been happening for the last month or so but it is very annoying and has resulted in my 2TB time capsule starting to delete older backups!
Any ideas why this might be happening and any suggestions on how to solve it?
I could delete all the previous backups and start again but would prefer not to have to do that.
Thanks,
Anthony

have a look at this user tip.

Time Capsule as iTunes Library

I acquired my TC as a high quality disc to use as the designated library for iTunes. I do not want to use it for backing up anything, but as the repository for the content for iTunes. How do I do this?
AND, it would be great to use the USB port on the Capsule to connect another hard disk and to be able to access it via TC rather than having to plug it into the sole port in my Air. There is nothing connected to Ethernet other than the Air and the TC to each other. I plugged in the hard disk and it is recognized in the Time Machine utility, but clicking on it causes TM to want to backup to that disk.

What I meant by incomplete backup. If I backup my 'downloaded applications' file and then restore it, which is a folder within the Finder> Applications file, apparently some folders associated with a particular utility are filed in various places within the OSX, such as in Library>, etc.
The technician said that if I should restore the DNLD'D apps file, an application in that file might not have complete information because of its associated data being in various places in the OSX that were not backed up nor restored.
My uses of the Air is simple enough that I can enjoy the luxury of doing a complete erase and install when it begins to behave 'fuzzy' and I cannot find those 20 GB's or so of 'dark data' to erase to make it work better. Downloading the 6 or so of the utilities that I use regularly from the internet requires a bit of up time, more so when I include the other 20 or so that need to be there when I need to use them.
Saving selected prefs and files when reinstalling never gives me as much free space as when I start over again. I have used my Air for two years without needing to clean house, but some of the symptoms of bloated OSX are starting to appear, the whirly disk happening more often.
I now have 30 GB of SSD space free, but it is hard to find what to throw out. My iBook G3 worked much better if I re-did everything over every 6 months or so. Recently, I ran a 2 hour virus scan, just in case, and it came up with only 3 tracking cookies, so I am fortunate that way.
This should be in a separate Discussion Thread, but since we are here, I'll just leave it here
About backup utilities, Time Machine is cumbersome and overbearing and the umbrella icon backup provided with OSX is arcane. The one that came with La Cie worked, but it was another automate or else utility and pop up's to backkup would appear in the middle of a writing session or while watching a movie, so after much effort tracking down all of its files, I managed to trash it.
What's Keeping Me and AppDelete don't find everything every time. Especially if it is a Microsoft application that foisted itself on my Air when I visited a site unwittingly. It took me a month to get all of CNET out of the system. Too bad, I really liked TechTracker.

ITunes Library on External Hard Drive via Time Capsule and plugged in directly to laptop when away from home

To save space on my macbook pro I would like to export my iTunes library onto an external usb hard drive. So that I don't have to have the hard drive plugged in to my laptop all the time when I am at home I would like to plug it into a Time Capsule and access it over my wireless network. This is the simple part that I am confident about setting up.
The tricky part is as follows. When I take my laptop out of the house when I am traveling I would like to still be able to access my iTunes library by plugging the external usb hard drive directly into my laptop as I will not be able to access my home network anymore.
I know this will potentially break all of the tracks in my iTunes library as the file paths will change as it will be plugged directly into my laptop rathern than via the Time Capsule. Does anybody know of a way to quickly fix all of the broken tracks in the library or a way I could achieve the above?
I hope someone can help me

I have nothing wireless in the house and no experience with Time Capsules. However, as long as the drive appears on the desktop in both scenarios there should be no problem. If there is, hold down the option key while starting iTunes and guide it to the library.itl file on the external drive.
Do not confuse moving your library with moving your media, as many people do. Your library is your whole iTunes folder. You move it by copying the whole folder to the other drive and starting iTunes with the option key as above. If you want to move only media you do so through preferences settings in iTunes,making sure you organize (consolidate) your media so it actually copies it to the other drive. There are advantages and disadvantages to either situation, but generally unless you are going to have media on one several drives, or you plan on sharing media but not library listings with other users, you are best off moving teh whole library. Moving the whole library also has less potential for resulting in broken links since your library is all in one package and not split across drives.

HT1449 Can I move my iTunes library onto Time Capsule and share it across my devices (similar to a NAS drive)?

Hi
Would anyone know if I can I move my iTunes library onto Time Capsule and share it across my devices (similar to a NAS drive)?
This would give me some hard drive space on my iMac and more importantly mean my iTunes library is available all the time. Although I have Home sharing I need my iMac on and if not I use iTunes on iCloud I always seem to be downloading the tracks I need.
Current configuration / devices:
iMac 20-inch, Mid 2007 - nearly full!
Processor 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory 4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
OSX Mavericks
Time Capsule (1TB)
iPad
iPod Touch
Apple TV
iTunes 11.1.5 (5)
Many thanks

What "devices" are these? By devices I normally understand i-devices and not computers. How many computers?
If you put the whole library on the Time Capsule (TC) you can only use it with one computer at a time because the iTunes library file can only be opened by one copy of iTunes at a time. If you put only media on the TC but have a copy of the library files on each computer you can use media by multiple computers but you then have the headache of trying to make sure that any changes done to the collection by one computer are mirrored by the libraries on the other computers which will be more or less independent.
I hope this TC isn't also your backup drive. When the TC drive fails (and it will someday) then your whole collection is gone. Don't rely upon Apple to always have copies for you to download. For one, if a distributor puylls an item then it is gone period. Additionally, Apple only keeps media, not the actual organization that is your set of library files. If you do this, buy another backup drive.

Moved iTunes library to Time Capsule and now can't see music in iTunes

G'day People
I moved my iTunes library to my Time Capsule and pointed iTunes to the new location via Preferences - > Advanced.
However, when I start up iTunes, it's empty. When I check the Preferences in iTunes, the location of the library is correct, that is, my music folder on my Time Capsule.
Has anybody else had this problem or know why my library is blank when, in fact, iTunes IS pointing to the location that holds the library?

I moved my iTunes library
What exactly did you move?
and pointed iTunes to the new location via Preferences - > Advanced.
That simply tells iTunes where to store music in the future.
However, when I start up iTunes, it's empty. When I check the Preferences in iTunes, the location of the library is correct, that is, my music folder on my Time Capsule.
No, that is the location of the iTunes music folder.
The iTunes library contasts of the \Music\iTUnes folder and all contents and the iTunes music. wherever it may be located.
Let's try and fix it.
Again, what exactly did you move?

Time Capsule and iTunes library storage

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