Broken Links for music stored on external drive

I take my laptop with me when I go on the road but do not take my external HD where I have much of my music stored. If I am gone long enough - itunes will "forget" where those files are stored and will ask me to individually point to their location. It will of course recognize the external HD when I return - but the file extension data on how to connect each library entry with its corresponding data file is wiped. This gets a little old when we are dealing thousands of files. Isn't there any way to tell itunes what you would tell any other pathetic child looking for a lost toy, "just look in the last place you left it you dummy?"

Sorry but iTunes is stupid that way. I have just learned to not open iTunes unless I am connected to my home network where my library is stored.

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I cannot download the update for itunes - music stored on external drive - download error state invalid "H" drive ? anyone have any ideas ? Cheers

I cannot download the update for itunes - music stored on external drive as computer got full up - download error state invalid "H" drive ? anyone have any ideas ? Cheers

See "Invalid drive X:\" install errors.
tt2

Itunes won't play music stored on external drive after upgrade to 10.5.3

I updated to 10.5.3 with music files stored on external drive. iTunes shows all music, but will not play. I did have the library file stored locally-I'm not sure if this is why the files all show in Itunes. Music files are about 40gb so I don't have space on my MBpro to store files locally without lag.
When I click a song to play nothing happens. I've read a bunch of other discussions but the only option I've seen is to delete the library and start over. I have a bunch of playlists so I don't want to lose that data and I would rather not have to go to each playlisty and export and import again. Suggestions?
I use match and also store everything in the cloud-but that isn't showing up either

Okay, found the reason in another tread...

Automatically syncing with music stored on external drive?

I most of my music on an external drive. The drive isn't always connected to the PC. Prior to iTunes 9.1 I could have iTunes automatically sync the music to my iPhone. If the external drive was disconnected iTunes would simply ignore the missing files and leave them on the phone.
With iTunes 9.1 (and 9.2) I now check the "Convert higher bit rate songs to 128 Kbps AAC" option. When I first used this I found that if I synced my phone with the external drive disconnected, it would remove all the music files from the phone that were stored on the external drive and had been converted to 128 Kbps. That was extremely annoying to say the least so I set iTunes to sync manually to prevent that from happening. I read there was a bug in the original iTunes 9.1 that caused iTunes to always try and sync 128 Kbps converted files every time which could explain why they were being deleted, but I never tried again after upgrading.
Yesterday I clicked to sync books to my iPhone, not realizing that it would wipe out all music, movies and TV from my iPhone. Again very annoying. I went to manually sync them back and noticed my Genius mixes won't sync and I read that they only sync if auto-sync is enabled.
My question is, is there an easy way to keep my music files on an external drive, automatically, sync and have them covert to 128 Kbps without having to worry about all my music being wiped off the phone if the drive is disconnected at the time iPhone syncs?

I don't believe you can do that. The convert to 128 bit only converts the songs being written to the iPod. Every time you play a song it changes (the play count goes up) so iTunes is going to go try to find those and update them every time it syncs.
I am able to disconnect my external that holds my movies and the movies remain but those are not being converted. I think that is where the problem is.
Good luck!

Music stored on external drive but doesnt appear on new computer

I store my music on an external drive and in a folder E:\ Hugo's Tunes because my laptop drive is too small. Recently laptop died and I have installed itunes on another laptop also with a small drive. I cannot see my content on the new itunes. I have set location in preferences to E:\Hugo's Tunes without any benefit. Clearly I'm doing something silly but don't know what. Help please

Hi Hugo. If the content was stored on the external drive but the library files were stored on the internal then you have lost all your original library information such as date added, ratings and play counts. Having pointed iTunes to the external drive already you still need to import the content into your new empty library. If, on the other hand, you had successfully put your library files on the external then you need to hold down shift when starting iTunes and browse to the library on the external drive.
Assuming my first guess was correct I'd actually recommend that you use the hold-down-shift-when-starting-iTunes method to create a new empty library at <External>iTunes, then move the existing media files into *<External>\iTunes\iTunes Media* and finally import *<External>\iTunes\iTunes Media* into the library. This will make moving the library between machines much easier in future.
tt2

Music stored on external drive to new Itunes

Hello folks
Been flicking through some some posts in this section, but can't find any quite the same as the query I have:
I recently had my internal hard drive die on me, so my itunes library information has gone for good, but I do still have all my itunes, ipod, and iphone media on an external drive. What is the easiest way to link the now newly installed itunes to these external files?

andyrh68 wrote:
my itunes library information has gone for good
... unless you have a backup copy of your *iTunes library file*. do you use time machine or any other means of backing up ?
What is the easiest way to link the now newly installed itunes to these external files?
if the answer to above question is no, you will have to start from scratch, i.e. no playcounts, ratings, playlists, etc. from your old library will be there.
assuming you have *copy files to ... when adding to library* checked in preferences > advanced, option-drag the folder containing your media files into an open iTunes window. iTunes will index the path to the location of the original files, but won't copy them physically.
btw, pointing *iTunes media folder location* to another spot will only tell iTunes where to put newly added content, not where the current content is.
JGG

Music stored on external drive

I have moved my itunes library from my c drive to an external drive (f:). How can I direct my itunes icon to open my library on the external drive? (My c drive was full, thus the move.)

Hello Stained Glass,
And welcome to Apple Discussions!
Head to the Edit drop down menu and choose "Preferences." Then head over to the Advanced tab. You will an option that says *iTunes Media folder Location*. Go ahead and click the change button. From there, navigate to your folder on your F drive and make the appropriate selection.
B-rock

When syncing my ipod, how do I get it to look at external drives for music stored them? It just tells me it can't find something and gives me no option to tell it where it is located.

When syncing my ipod, how do I get it to look at external drives for music stored them? It just tells me it can't find something and gives me no option to tell it where it is located.

Hi SouthMountainSound,
It sounds like the tracks may be missing from your iTunes library. When tracks in iTunes display a it means the file cannot be located; it may have been moved or deleted. If it cannot be located, this may cause the issue of not being copied to your iPod. For this issue, we will need to refer to the following article:
iTunes: Finding lost media and downloads
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1408
Alternatively, if your media was downloaded from the iTunes Store, you may be able to download it again free of charge:
Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2519
Thanks,
Matt M.

Music stored on external hard drive

hi,
i have a lot of music stored on an external hard drive, too much to put on my laptop and therefore can not keep it in my itunes library. is there a way to keep it in some kind of library so i can view and play it in albums, artists etc like is possible with itunes?

In the "Advanced" iTunes preference, set it to not copy to iTunes Music folder when adding to library. You can then drag folders of music files from external drives to iTunes playlists. They will be added the the iTunes library, but the files will stay on the external drives, and will not take any space on the internal drive (except for a small amount of space for entries in the iTunes database).

How do I have itunes use/detect my external hard drive and place music on the external drive from the itunes store? There are no music files on my pc yet. I will like to do this after installing itunes 11 on my pc for the first time. I am using windows 7

How do I have itunes use/detect my external hard drive and place music on the external drive from the itunes store? There are no music files on my pc yet. I will like to do this after installing itunes 11 on my pc for the first time. I am using windows 7. HP computer intel Dual Core. Thanks for any help!

Hey idw3,
Welcome to Apple Support Communities, and thanks for the question. Follow the instructions on this article to move your iTunes Media folder to an external hard drive:
iTunes for Windows: Moving your iTunes Media folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364
Regards,
David

How do I sync music from an external drive

I recently moved all my iTunes content including music to an external hard drive (multiple reasons: space, SONOS capability, etc.). In addition, I purchased a new iMac. I can wipe the nano, no problem, but how do I get music from the external drive that is not on my computer (but which iTunes will play via iCloud) onto the nano?
Do I need to download everything back to my computer from iCloud and sync that way or is there some toggle I'm missing that allows me to load the external drive --> iTunes--> nano?
Thanks!

Jairy,
You may need to run through the following steps:
Once you've done that, follow the next set of steps to change your iTunes Media folder location to the new drive and then consolidate your library to the new location. This not only copies your audio and media files over, it also retains your ratings and playlists. Note: If you move your music and media to an external hard drive, you will need to have that drive connected to access your files. No matter what, it's always a good idea to have a backup of the media you have in iTunes.
Open iTunes.
From the iTunes menu, choose Preferences.
Click the Advanced button in the Preferences window.
Click the Change button in the iTunes Media folder location pane.
In the Change Media Folder Location window that appears, navigate to the location where you would like your new iTunes Media folder to be created.
Note: By default, your iTunes Media folder is a folder named "iTunes Media" in ~/Music/iTunes/ where the tilde "~" represents your home directory.
Click the New Folder button in the Change Media Folder Location window.
In the New Folder window that appears, enter the name of the new iTunes Media folder.
Click Create.
Click Choose in the Change Media Folder Location window.
Click OK in the Advanced window.
From the File menu, choose Library and then Organize Library if using iTunes 9 or later. If you're using iTunes 7 or iTunes 8 for Mac, choose File > Library and then Consolidate Library.
In the Organize Library (or Consolidate Library) window, select Consolidate files.
Click OK. Important: This action copies all of your music and media files to the new location. There must be enough hard disk space available to copy all of your music and media files.
After the folder has been copied, locate your original iTunes Media folder, and drag it to the Trash. Important: Don't remove the iTunes Library files that may be in the same location as the iTunes Media folder. For more information about the iTunes Library files, see this article.
Quit iTunes and then open iTunes once more.
If you receive the alert "The folder containing "iTunes Library" cannot be found, and is required. Please choose or create a new iTunes library," you most likely moved the iTunes Library files. If this is the case, move them out of the Trash and back to where they were.
If you can open and close iTunes without encountering the above alert, empty the Trash.
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449
Cheers,
Allen

Proper sync from newly downloaded music to my external drive

Hi to all you experts out there...
I have successfully followed article 301748 and consolidated all my existing music to my external HDD. However, it just occurred to me, if I start piling up music files in my iTunes on the computer again and I want to back it up (consolidate) to my external HDD again, will I have problem sync. them? Or does it mean I will have to create a different file name so I'll have two files of my music? Will I have problem viewing/playing the two files on my iTunes at the same time ? I'm a bit of organize freak, I would love to be able to see the two files merged and sort properly instead of one file at a time.
Thanks and your help is greatly appreciated.

Hi,
If you followed Article 301748 to move your music to an external drive, then in iTunes Preferences you changed the location where your music is stored to the external drive.
Therefore, any new music that you add will be stored in that location, and not on your computer.
Regards

ITunes not seeing music library on external drive?

I recently moved my iTunes to an external hard drive. I read the instructions on the apple support site on how to do everything. It said, down at the bottom of the article, that the hard drive must be opened before you launch iTunes in order for iTunes to see the library. Although I did everything instructed my iTunes, when launched, is not seeing any of the files that are on my external hard drive. They are still on the hard drive and I am scared to do anything more without some help for fear I may lose the data on my hard drive. Help!!

If you copied the music to the external drive yourself, you did not do it correctly.
Do you see any music when you open iTunes?

My macbook pro logic board died. I had all my music on an external drive. How do I get my iTunes library, playlists etc. from my dead computer onto my new one?

My logic board died on my old macbook pro. I have a new one, but I want to get my iTunes library off my old hard drive and put it on my new one. I had set up my old MBP to store all my iTunes music on an external drive, so I have the music. The iTunes program was on the old MBP hard drive.How do I essentially recreate my previous iTunes library, playlists, etc on my new laptop?

You will need the iTunes Library.itl file which generally lives in ~/Music/iTunes/. You can recover this from the backups you were making before the HDD died. Otherwise, you cannot recreate the library.

How do I consolidate backed up music from an external drive into itunes?

I had to replace my ipod and am trying to consolidate my old music from an external drive with the itunes library on our home computer. My gf has music there already. I have tried consolidate library, edit/prefereces/change, copied my music in itunes folder BUT nothing works. iTunes just will NOT pick up/recognize my music. Any ideas will be much appreciated. cheers

Consolidate takes what is in the iTunes library (what you see when you open iTunes) & copies it into the iTunes music folder as shown in iTunes prefs - > Advanced.
If you cannot see the songs when you open iTunes, you need to File -> Add folder to library and select the folder with your music.

Broken Links for music stored on external drive

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