2 CD Music Files in External Hard Drive

I remember you told me how to file my iTunes music folder into my existing one in my external hard drive (EHD).
When I slide the one from my PC directly over the iTunes Music File in my EHD it copies and updates everything fine. However, when I look in the iTunes Music folder file on the EHD to see all the songs, there is another iTunes music folder with all the same songs in that one too.
In other words, I have two of the same folders on my EHD that read 'iTunes Music folder." Understand what I'm saying?
So should i delete one of them since they are apparently the same?

Go to File -> Add then naviage to and pick your new location where your songs are. They should all be added to the library and hopefully have the right information. You may still need to go in and delete the older pointers which now have the in front of them.
Patrick

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My PC computer was wiped (virus) including itunes. How do I transfer the many playlists and music to the new re-installed itunes?? Ipod is synced to old itunes. I have all original music files on external hard drive. Please help?

My PC computer was wiped (virus) including itunes. How do I transfer the many playlists and music on my ipod to the new re-installed itunes?? Ipod is synced to old itunes. I have all original music files on external hard drive. Please help?
New itunes is trying to wipe the ipod. But have many many playlists (many hours making) which I want to save. Any help would be appreciated.

If you want to just extract the playlists from your iPod, plug it in iTunes. When it appears under devices, right->click on it and choose Export Playlists. Save them to a location such as your desktop and them import them into your library once you have copied and imported all of your music back into it.
See this older post from another forum member Zevoneer covering the different methods and software available to assist you with the task of copying content from your iPod back to your PC and into iTunes.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2452022?start=0&tstart=0
B-rock

How do I get iTunes to access music files on external hard drive?

We moved all of our music to an external hard drive. The hd is always on and I connect to it wirelessly. I don't know how to get iTunes to use the library that is on the hard drive, can anyone help me please.

iTunes expects to find its library in the ./Music/iTunes folder. To get iTunes to see music on another drive, you first have to create the library on your internal drive. Once you've done that, you copy the iTunes folder over to your external drive, and redirect iTunes to that drive, using an alias. (I originally did this in Tiger and it continues to work fine in Leopard. I don't know if doing it originally in Leopard would make any difference.)
Note: If your external drive library is already too large for your internal drive, simply use as much of it as you can to create the original library on your internal drive. You can add the rest of it once you've got iTunes looking at the external drive. In this case, remember to name any "iTunes" folder on the external drive to something else, so you don't erase everything in the following procedure.
Load up as much music as you can on your internal drive, making sure it appears in iTunes.
Quit iTunes and copy the iTunes folder from your internal drive to your external drive (be sure you don't erase whatever's already on the external drive). Copying that folder to the root of the external drive is OK.
On your internal drive, rename the 'iTunes" folder to something else (like orig_iTunes) -- or move it out of the Music folder.
Open your external hard drive to the directory containing your iTunes folder.
Cmd-Option drag the iTunes folder from the external hard drive to the internal hard drive Music folder, creating an alias in the internal drive's Music folder.
Launch iTunes. You should now see the music from the external hard drive. If necessary, you can now add back any missing music, and it will automatically create the necessary music and library files inside your iTunes folder on the external drive. Once you've got them all added, you can delete both the orig_iTunes folder, and the folder on your external drive that served as the source for adding your library back in.

Moving music files via external hard drive-- Can you keep ratings/playlists

I keep all my music on an external hard drive in order to prevent it getting lost. Anyways... what I'm wondering is if I go to move my music from one computer (comp. A) to another computer (comp. B), is it possible to keep all the ratings and my playlists? I've seen the stuff for transfering with your ipod, but the problem is my 30Gb doesn't hold all my music, and I would reeeeeaaally hate to go through and redo all the ratings. If anyone knows maybe a file involved with itunes that might contain the ratings or playlists that I could store with the files themselves to transfer that would be excellent. Thanks to anyone who can help out. If you need clarification on any of the details just lemme know.

It looks like it should, thanks. One other bit that I'm wondering about is how do I load that Library list once I've installed itunes on comp B? Is it just a matter of going file>import or file>add new file to library? Thanks again

Hard Drive Crash--Restoring music files from External Hard Drive

My hard disk crashed, but I think (at least I hope) that I'm backed up. I had copied all of my Itunes music onto an external hard disk before the crash, although I'm not sure I copied everything that you are supposed for a full backup (i.e. all files in the Itunes folder). I'm uncertain as to the process to get everything restored.
Right now, Itunes is not installed on the new hard disk. Obviously I need to download and reinstall Itunes, which I'll do. But from here I'm confused, and I haven't seen a straightforward explanation of the next steps. Is it then as easy as copying all the old music from the external hard drive into the new Itunes music folder once Itunes is reinstalled, then synching? Or, do install itunes, then reopen it while the external hard drive is attached, and "consolidate" the old library into the new? Or do I first have to plug in the Ipod, authorize the new drive, and move the purchased music from the Ipod to the new drive through the manually managing music process that I've read about? Is there a relatively straightforward "step by step" process someone can point me at?
I'd appreciate any guidance anyone can provide, or any directions to some materials that I can read. Thanks very much.

If you copied the entire iTunes folder to the external, then all you have to do is install iTunes like normal, then start up with these instructions and point it to your backup on the external...
How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304447
Assuming that works, you can either leave everything as is and continue to use it directly off the external. Or close iTunes, then again copy the entire iTunes folder back to your internal drive, then reopen iTunes with those instructions again and re-point it back to your internal drive's copy.
Patrick

How to keep music files on external hard drive

My laptop is only 80 gigs. My external hard drive is 500. I want to keep my music on the external drive because I have over a hundred gigs of music. I would like iTunes to just reach into the external drive and play the tunes without bringing them into my laptop, yet whenever I add the files to my library, they are brought into my laptop, filling up all the space. How do I get them into the library without bringing them into the laptop? My favorite way of playing music is by Shuffle.

Turn off the preference setting for "Copy Files to iTunes library"
Choose Edit > Preferences and click Advanced.
Uncheck the "Copy files" checkbox.

Accessing music files on external hard drives with Home Sharing

I use my iMac as a computer and music server. I have it connected via USB and SPDIF to my audio system, and access my music files with the Remote app on my iPhone. It works fine except when the Remote app occasionally wants to take a brief break. The problem is that I have a LOT of high-res music files, and my IMac's hard drive is filling up and slowing the processor down. Is there a way to access music files located on external hard drives (I have two) AND the files located on my iMac using Home Sharing and the Remote app on my iPhone. I'd like to move some of the files off of the iMac's HD to free up space. Thanks.

The best thing to do is to get an external drive that is large enough
and has sufficient room for growth and move your entire iTunes
folder to it.
Then start iTunes holding down the option key and when the dialog
box comes up, select choose library and navigate to the new iTunes
folder location.
This way, nothing will be lost, confused, or otherwise messed up since
the entire library will be intact.

ITunes transferring SOME!!!! (not all!) music files to external hard drive

How do I transfer SOME music files NOT ALL to an external hard drive. Is there some sort of systematic way I can do this, such as highlighting a selection of items and then transfering them?

You can transfer purchased content ONLY! Unfortunately, you have no choice as to what gets transferred. Here are some work arounds
1. Delete off iPod Touch/iPhone/iPod then transfer
2. Transfer all content then delete from computer

Moving music files to external hard drive

I bought an external hard drive and want to free up my main C drive by moving my music, pictures and videos to it. One of the folders in My Music is "iTunes" which has the folder "iTunes Music" which holds all of the music that iTunes communicates with. The new external drive is the "H" drive. How do I tell iTunes that all of my music is now located elsewhere, without actually having to go down the list song by song, which would be impossible, time wise. Some sort of single bulk change from one drive to another. Thank you

Well, you never said that's what you wanted to do, so why don't you calm down and stop yelling at the people who are trying desperately to help you.
"How do I tell iTunes that all of my music is now located elsewhere, without actually having to go down the list song by song, which would be impossible, time wise. Some sort of single bulk change from one drive to another. Thank you."
All you asked for was assistance with moving your iTunes music. We provided instructions, which you chose to ignore.
Moving your entire My Documents folder is a completely different procedure and you could have saved everyone a lot of frustration if you just made it clear that you wanted to do that in the first place.
At the risk of complicating this thread any further, I am going to remove myself from it. Moving your My Documents folder is not something I feel comfortable helping with, as I am not a Windows user and I don't want to provide the wrong info for you and end up screwing up your entire machine.

How to route iTunes to music folders on external hard drive?

Here's my story: Three years ago, I successfully rerouted iTunes so that the program would find my music library on external hard drive. Two days ago, my Apple MacBook computer was updated to the Lion operating system. iTunes was also updated.
Now I have to go back into iTunes and give the program new instruction to go find the music files on external hard drive.
Details:
My folder on external hard drive, called "iTunes Music," contains various music files and also, I notice, a folder called "iTunes."
Within that "iTunes" folder, the following folders or files are located:
FOLDER: Album Artwork
FOLDER: Automatically Add to iTunes
FILE: iTunes Library Extras.itdb
FILE: iTunes Library Genius.itdb
FILE: iTunes Library.itl
FILE: iTunes Linrary.xml
FOLDER: iTunes Media
None of this makes any sense to me!
Meanwhile, on the computer's hard drive, following this routing, in the folder called "iTunes," the following folders and files are located:
Users -- Hard Drive -- Music -- iTunes
FOLDER: Album Artwork
FOLDER: Album Artwork 6.29.26 PM
FOLDER: Automatically Add to iTunes
FILE: iTunes Library 6.29.26 PM
FILE: iTunes Library Extras.itdb
FILE: iTunes Library Extras.itdb 6.29.26 PM
FILE: iTunes Library Genius.itdb
FILE: iTunes Library Genius.itdb 6.29.26 PM
FILE: iTunes Library.itl
FOLDER: iTunes Media
FOLDER: iTunes Media 6.29.26 PM
FILE: iTunes Music Library 6.29.26 PM.xml
FILE: iTunes Music Library.xml
I do not understand any of this. I do not understand WHICH FILE OR FOLDER I should instruct iTunes to go to in order to find the desired music files.
Once the desired files are found, they should appear in the iTunes window on screen. This is not happening.
I have tried holding down the Option key while starting iTunes, which yields a window that asks for me to CHOOSE LIBRARY. I choose the iTunes library file ( iTunes Library.itl) that is located on external hard drive. However, NOTHING HAPPENS. iTunes does not do anything. When the program opens, nothing is visible in the iTunes window, where normally songs are listed. No playlists on the lefthand side. NOTHING.
Thanks for your attention and for any insight you might be able to share.

Just so people know, there's already been several posts on this in this forum: https://discussions.apple.com/message/18642460

I have all my music on an external hard drive. I just transferred all my files to a new hard drive . How do I sync all my files with my itunes library without losing all my playlists etc and keep everything intact?

I have all my music on an external hard drive. I just transferred all my files to a new hard drive . How do I sync all my files with my itunes library without losing all my playlists etc and keep everything intact?

Launch iTunes with the Option key held down, click on Choose Library, and specify it. If the external drive doesn't contain the iTunes database files, create a new library there and import that music.
If the library contains any rented movies, they won't play on a different computer.
(109334)

HT2518 How do I transfer music from an external hard drive to my itunes on my mac? I have put the files into the itunes media, but they are not showing up in iTunes!

How do I transfer music from an external hard drive to my itunes on my mac? I have put the files into the itunes media, but they are not showing up in iTunes!

Hi, did you try iTunes>File>Import?

I recently reset my computer and copy my music from an external hard drive to my itunes library. When I click on a song to play i get an error message that says " the song could not be used because the original file could not be found". need help

I recently reset my computer and copy my music from an external hard drive to my itunes library. When I click on a song to play i get an error message that says " the song could not be used because the original file could not be found". But when I have my external hard drive plug in the song will play with no problem. What do I need to do to play my music without having the external harddrive plug in ???????? Please help

Because the location for each song in your library is on your hard drive. If the hard drive isn't there, how can iTunes play it?
You'll have to move/copy the music from your hard drive to your computer's hard drive.
Basically, EASIEST way to do all this, if you don't care about your play counts, etc...
-Delete EVERYTHING from iTunes, so that your library is now empty.
-Go to "Advanced" inside of the "Preferences" window, found in the "Edit" drop-down. You can also access Preferences by pressing Ctrl+, (Press Ctrl and the comma key)
-Change your iTunes Media Folder Location to something simple, but on your computer. I use C:/iTunes. Make sure "Keep iTunes Media Folder Organized" and "Copy files to...." are both checked. You can close Preferences now.
-Now, drag and drop your music from your hard drive into your iTunes library. iTunes will automatically add the music to your library, as you would expect, and also creates a copy of each file to place into that iTunes Media Folder you just created.
Shouldn't have any more problems...

I moved itunes file to external hard drive and want to move the file on my pc to recycle bin. When I move i get an error message that it cannot delete ituneshelper.dll access is denied. Can I move that file to the recycle bin?

I am trying to free up space on my pc and moving itunes files to external hard drive. I have followed instructions and believe I have file copied to new drive, but I am having trouble moving file to recycle bin as the instructions say. I am getting the following error message: cannot delete ituneshelper.dll:access denied, make sure disk is not full or write protected and file not in use. I know the file is not in use when trying to move. Any help would be most appreciated. I am on Windows XP.

Yes. And you should not have moved that folder. Put it back. To move your iTunes library move the folder from User's Music.
tt2

Migrating music to an external hard drive for access by Windows & Mac

Hey folks
I recently migrated my collection of music to an external hard drive by:
1) changing the iTunes music folder location from the default (Music/iTunes/iTunes Music) to my external hard drive through iTunes Preferences.
2) Selecting "Consolidate library" from the Advanced drop-down menu.
Afterwards, I moved my library file to the same parent directory I put my iTunes music folder in on the external (in fact, I moved my entire iTunes folder excl the music folder which was obviously already on the hard drive). When I restarted iTunes I held down OPTION and then chose the library file on my external as the iTunes library file to be used. This was all done on a Mac.
No problems - all swell. But... I moved the library file to the external because I want to be able to use the external with multiple computers from which I can import music that will automatically be copied to the same folder (the music folder on my external) and managed accordingly. When I tried to open the library from my Windows laptop at home nothing happened. The library file I copied from my Mac had no extension, so I renamed it .itl so the Windows version of iTunes would pick it up, but selecting it as the new library did nothing.
Q1: Are iTunes library files (I assume always .itl's?) interchangeable between Mac and Windows? If not this might explain why the library didn't load up.
Q2: Is my method wrong? Is there a different procedure for getting multiple copies of iTunes on different computers and operating systems to all use the same library, saved on an external hard drive, which itself references music from the same external hard drive? Is this goal even possible?
Q3: Is it possible to have 2 or more libraries for a given installation of iTunes?
Bonus Q4: How is the album artwork saved? When I consolidated my music on the external, did this move the artwork across with it (integrated with each music file?) or was it still sitting on my Mac hard drive in the Album Artwork directory? I have since moved this folder to my external as well, when I moved the entire directory including library file across, and album artwork is visible when the library is open on my Mac, but I don't know whether its getting the images from the hard drive or the external hard drive.
Okay last one - I swear! Q5: When I couldn't get the laptop version of Itunes to open my Mac library file, I imported all my music into the default laptop library which references the music files still all located on the external. Considering the 130GB of music I'm dealing with, this took a while, but what took even longer was "Processing album artwork", which dragged on for ages. What is actually happening during this procedure - is iTunes accessing an online database to find the artwork, or is it working with the artwork already processed and saved in the album on the external?
Thanks very much in advance! Sorry for all the questions but I'd like to crack this thing once and for all.

The procedure for sharing a library between a Mac and Wintel PC on an external drive is quite simple. I did this myself so that I would have my music available to me when I worked in my lab.
First before you transfer anything to your external hard drive, the music library on your Mac should already be consolidated. Once that is done, transfer the iTunes folder (./Music/iTunes) to the external drive. Unless your music files are in a folder outside the iTunes folder—for instance, my music files are on a separate, larger volume on my Mac from the iTunes folder that is on the boot volume—copying your iTunes folder will put everything that iTunes needs onto the external drive.
Now you have two options for using your library on two machines. The first, which I prefer, is to leave your Mac’s iTunes library in place and use the external strictly for the Wintel PC. In this instance, you would need to add the .itl extension to the iTunes Library database file. When you attach your external to the Wintel PC at work and choose the library, your should be taken into iTunes with your music library intact.
In this instance, your external drive can also serve as a backup of your iTunes library because it is highly improbable that both your external drive and Mac Pro’s iTunes folders will go bad simultaneously. For backup purposes, you will need to place another copy of your iTunes Library database file on the external drive, without the extension, for your Mac; I have had issues with Macs recognizing .itl files. Of note, the content of your library on the external drive will be the same if you need to recover from the external drive, but as the Wintel PC will not update the database file without the .itl extension, any settings you change or playlists you add in Windows will not be transferred to the Mac unless you recover the Mac’s library from the iTunes Music Library.xml file that the PC would have kept current.
In the second instance, if you wish to run your library off of the external drive for both your Mac and Wintel PC, you would follow the same procedure described above, but you would need to have both an iTunes Library (Mac) and iTunes Library.itl (Windows) database files. Effectively, this would mean that once a change is made on either system, it will not be reflected on the other. As you are most likely to add new songs via your home computer, you will need to replace the .itl file with a copy of the Mac database file whenever you add music, playlists, etc.
Given the storage capacity of my Power Mac G5 and the logistics involved in managing a library stored solely on an external volume going between a Mac and PC, I find the second option to be more trouble than it is worth. For me, it is easier to maintain my Mac’s iTunes library then copy the iTunes folder over to the external drive overnight when I wish to make any updates (e.g., new content, playlists, etc.) available to my work computer. In the morning, I just add the .itl extension to database file before disconnecting the external drive and taking it to work.
Now that your first two questions are answered, yes you can have more than one library, but doing so is poor database management. You should have all of your content in a single database and use iTunes to separate content. iTunes already separates music, movies, podcasts, audiobooks, etc., but further division of content is up to the user. iTunes has had playlists and folders for a few versions now, so it is quite easy to organize your library’s content in as simple or complex a folder/playlist structure as you please.
How album artwork is saved depends on how you acquired your music. Music you purchase from the iTunes Store has its artwork placed into a separate artwork database built in the Album Artwork folder in your iTunes folder. I believe that the same occurs if you allow iTunes to find and import album covers. If you rip CDs or acquire music from other sources, you manually add the artwork, in which case the images are stored in the music files.
Lastly, when iTunes has to build a library it can take a while. Your library is twice as large as mine and on a slow(er) laptop drive the time to built a library will be excessive. Unless iTunes is crashing or freezing, let it runs its course until the library build is completed. Also, if you have copied your music files to your laptop’s internal hard drive, you should not leave iTunes referencing the external drive. In the worst case, you would want to copy your iTunes folder from the external to the laptop’s internal drive’s default iTunes folder location. Remove the iTunes Library file and allow iTunes on your laptop to rebuild the library from the XML file.

2 CD Music Files in External Hard Drive

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