Browsing an external drive makes iTunes skip

Hello there!
Please help me to solve this issue.
Couple of days ago I had to set up a new account on an iMac (2.7Ghz Intel i5 quad core, 8Gb RAM) and restore all my stuff from Time Machine.
I have two hard drives connected to the iMac (Iomega Mini Max 2Tb for time machine, and a 1Tb for just other stuff). Since yesterday when I browse the 1Tb one in the Finder iTunes start playing jumpy or skip the song. It acts like there is not enough CPU performance or enough disk space on your hard drive, however I have more than 200Gb and no other applications are running.
My iTunes library is on the iMac's HDD, so in my opinion it shouldn't interact with the 1Tb external drive.
Any thoughts?
Thank You for your help! Appreciate that!
Best wishes,
Laszlo

Hi,
Perhaps this Link may be of some help...
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449
Cheers,

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I have an existing mini mac and 4 tb external drive. My iTunes library exists on the external drive under /itunes... I have purchased a new mini mac and I want to leave the library where it is but move to new mini mac.. what do i need to do ?

I have an existing mini mac and 4 tb external drive.
My iTunes library exists on the external drive under /itunes...
I have purchased a new mini mac and I want to leave the library where it is on the external drive but move to new mini mac and have it show as it did on the old mini mac..
what do i need to do ?
I have found multitude of articles about moving itunes to external drive or other similar things but I don't want to move itunes from the external drive, just change mini mac machines and have everything in itunes the same..
Thanks

I had already tried that one and got this...
below is screen shot of what is on the new mac mini
and what is on the external drive now connected to the new mac mini..
There are no media files on the mac mini just the library files and on external just media files..
Do I need to copy anything over from the old mac mini ? xml files ? .. the itunes folder on old mini is about 840mb in size which looks to have artwork ect ? .. I am fairly computer literate, but this one has me stumped.. ?
thanks for help

Should I create a partition on external drive for iTunes music?

...or will it create it's own space outwith my backup stuff?
(Secondary question: would moving my iTunes music from internal to external drive noticably improve performance of my Mac? I'm using about 135GB of a 250GB drive, 60GB of which is in iTunes Music folder)

Should I create a partition on external drive for iTunes music? or will it create it's own space outwith my backup stuff?
I see no good reason to create a separate partition unless you're backing up with Time Machine. TM prefers to have it's own volume, so in that case partitioning would probably be a good idea.
would moving my iTunes music from internal to external drive noticably improve performance of my Mac? I'm using about 135GB of a 250GB drive, 60GB of which is in iTunes Music folder.
No, probably not. As long as you're not getting the drive too full - opinions vary but about 20GB remaining should be plenty for most uses - you probably won't see any overall change in performance just from moving the iTunes content.
Message was edited by: Dave Sawyer

How do I add music from an external drive to iTunes

I have been trying to add music from my collection on the external drive to iTunes, so that I can further add it on my iPod Touch. Trying to do that I lost a lot of songs that I had on my iPod already. The latest versions of iTunes have made it difficult to understand & not so user friendly. Can somone help

Open up itunes and on that home screen simply drag and drop the songs(from the external drive) to the itunes library and the plug in your ipod, go to the music section and check sync all songs from the library, thats all!

Apple TV sync problems when using external drive in iTunes

I have my iTunes library on an external drive in order to save HD space. Unfortunately the external driver some times get disconnected and I need to mount it again.
Since iTunes can not find the songs when the drive get disconnected, all songs are marked with an exclamation mark . So far no problem as the song will play immediatelly when i click on it.
The problem is now with the Apple TV. It seems that as soon as a song get an exclamation mark it get removed (!!!) from the Apple TV playlists. I would expect that the song is still available in Apple TV although in iTunes is marked with an exclamation mark, as this is only a temporary non availability.
The consequence is that one song in Apple TV may or may not be available for playing in dependency of the availability of the original song and its external drive in iTunes.
may be "its a feature", but a very annoying one..
Alex

I believe you created this problem at the very beginning by not letting iTune to manage your iTune folder. When this occurs iTune can only play songs when your external HD is connected.
You mentioned you want to save HD space. The better solution will be to put the most played songs in your HD and let iTune manage the folder and backup all the other songs to your external HD. Best way to find out is to check out the most played from your list and backup the least played to your external HD. Better yet, backup all songs.

Reliably use one external drive with iTunes files with two computers?

Hi all,
I have an iMac with a 200GB external firewire drive as my main desktop. I also have a 12" Powerbook that I use around the house. I've also used the PB to stream music from my iMac to my stereo. I have the odd bit of trouble with this, music stopping and not reconnecting etc.
We had a party last weekend and to stop the problems with wireless streaming occuring, I unplugged my firewire drive from my iMac and plugged it in downstairs to my Powerbook.
To get the files to appear in iTunes on the PB, I had to drag everything across to from the finder to iTunes. After a while everything was there.
The party went well: one visit from environmental health telling us to turn things down, and one visit to accident and emergency.
Next day, I returned my firewire drive to to my iMac and now every track in itunes has an exclamation mark next to it.
I know how to sort this out, and I'm not bothered about losing my playlists: what I want to know is a safe method to allow me to move my harddrive around and make sure it's all OK when I plug it into my iMac again.
Any ideas?
I suppose I probably left on the "Organise the music into folders" option when I first plugged in the drive to my PB and the files have actually moved a bit. Would making sure that this was set on both machines be a food thing to do?
Cheers
Stuart

I suppose I probably left on the "Organise the music into folders" option when I first plugged in the drive to my PB and the files have actually moved a bit. Would making sure that this was set on both machines be a food thing to do?
That probably changed the file locations, presumed the 'Organize' option was turned off on your iMac.
Now your 'iTunes Library' file (iTunes' database) on the iMac can't find the files.
It's a good thing to have the option turned on (or off) on every Mac you connect your external drive to.
I used to have my library on an external disk too. The only thing I had to take into account was to copy the 'iTunes Library' file from one computer to the other when connecting my external HD.
Never ran into problems.
More info about the library files here.
If you're running OS X 10.4, you could create an Automator workflow to copy the file to your external HD and another one to copy it from the external HD to the Powerbook.
Hope this helps.
M
17' iMac fp 800 MHz 768 MB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.6) Several ext. HD (backup and data)

Problem with Shift to New External Drive for iTunes

Hi,
I hope I can explain this clearly. I currently have all my music files on an external drive however the iTunes Library files, xml, etc are on my laptop. The external drive is running out of space so I simply got another external put the same exact music files on there but am having trouble getting iTunes to read from this new location. Is there a way to simply get the computer to read from this new file WITHOUT copying all the files over via changing the Media Folder Location and using the Library>Organize Library>Consolidate function? That seems ridiculous when I already have the files on the external drive and I'm worried that they will somehow be altered in the copying process.
I also like to have my iTunes Library files on my hard drive but is it better to have them with the music on the external drive?
I hope that makes sense and thanks in advance for the help, I simply couldn't find anything on here that quite describes that problem.
JP

OK, not having a Mac I keep forgeting details. See this support document for how to use Option to open an alternate library.
Can I just confirm that you've already copied your existing media from External/Music/iTunes to
New?External/Music/iTunes without changing the layout of any of the subfolders inside. If so then we should be good to go. While there are quite a few steps the aim is to avoid recopying any files that are already where they need to be and make sure that your playlists, playcounts and other meta-data remains intact.
1. Copy the *Album Artwork* folder and the files *iTunes Library, iTunes Library Extras.itdb, iTunes Library Genius.itdb & sentinel* from <User>/Music/iTunes/ to External/Music/. Ignore the XML file, it would get a new name in this location and will be recreated automatically.
2. Start iTunes, pressing Option until prompted to choose or create a libray. Chose the library at External/Music/.
3. Check that the media plays. Check under *Edit > Preferences > Advanced* that the location of the media folder reads as External/Music/iTunes.
4. Close iTunes.
5. Copy the *Album Artwork* folder and the files *iTunes Library, iTunes Library Extras.itdb, iTunes Library Genius.itdb & sentinel* from External/Music/ to New?External/Music/. Again, ignore the XML file.
6. Use Option-Start iTunes to open the new library at New?External/Music/.
7. Check that the media plays and that under *Edit > Preferences > Advanced* that the location of the media folder now reads as New?External/Music/iTunes/.
8. Close iTunes, rename the folder New?External/Music/iTunes/ as *New?External/Music/iTunes Media/*.
9. Start iTunes. Check that the media plays and that under *Edit > Preferences > Advanced* that the location of the media folder now reads as *New?External/Music/iTunes Media*.
10. Close iTunes, rename the folder New?External/Music/ as New?External/iTunes/.
11. Use Option-Start iTunes to open the library at New?External/iTunes/.
12. Check that the media plays and that under *Edit > Preferences > Advanced* that the location of the media folder now reads as *New?External/iTunes/iTunes Media/*.
13. You should now be able to use *File > Library > Organize Library... > Consolidate files* to consolidate any files left behind in *<User>/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/* that you weren't able to consolidate to your old external drive.
14. If you haven't already done so then you should also select the option *File > Library > Organize Library... > Re-organize files in the folder "iTunes Media"*. If the option is greyed out then you have already upgraded to "iTunes Media Organization".
15. Rename the folder <User>/Music/iTunes/ as *<User>/Music/Old iTunes/*. Now if you ever start iTunes without connecting the external first iTunes will complain that it can't find the library instead of silently switching to the old internal one. This is likely to lead to less confusion in the long run.
16. Backup... You should get another drive big enough to hold everything so you have a backup copy for disaster recovery. Now that everything is organisized sensibly you just need to copy the iTunes folder from one external drive to another to back it up or better yet locate a folder syncing tool so that only new & changed files need to be copied across when you back up.
tt2

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I have a MBP who is slowly running out of space... I have a dlink router 826L with a 2TB external hard drive that is plugged in by usb into the router. dlink has settings to set it up as storage, but it wants to use a sharepoint software thing. I want to know if I can put all my music on it and then have itunes look for my music there. I have to admit, when it comes to networking, etc. i become so so so dumb.

Well did you let iTunes import all your music into its folder structure or just let it create a database of the songs?
More then likely it copied your music into itself because that is the default behavior of iTunes unless you first turn that off. So all your music is in the iTunes Library. Go to your Home folder, Your User Name folder, then Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music and all your music is in there.
But you can just copy the complete iTunes folder, ~/Music/iTunes, to your external drive then open iTunes and go to Preferences and the the advanced section and click the Change button
then browse to your external drive and select the iTunes folder that you copied over to the external.
Once you do that you can Delete, move to trash, the iTunes folder in your username music folder.

Recommended External Drive for iTunes

Can anyone recommend a good 2-3 terabyte external drive to be attached either to Mac Mini or Network and to hold all my current and future iTunes media ??
I have 500gb already and dont want to use up the entire Mac Mini drive
Tha

I have been using a Western Digital 3TB drive for about 3 months now ( upgraded from a 2TB other make ) and have had no issues. It is quiet and reliable and fast enough sending movies to ATV over LAN that I don't notice any delays.
Sometimes it will sleep but wakes upon accessing a movie.... the movie starts playing after a few seconds buffering.
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I have moved my Itunes media folder to an external drive and Itunes does not find the items in the folder

Running Win7. I moved my entire Itunes library to an external drive to free up space on my laptop. Itunes recognized the change and all was well. That worked fine and I have synced several times from the laptop with the library on the external drive. Now the laptop is in the shop (sigh, not Itunes related a dead network card). I connected the external drive to my desktop, made sure my software was up to date. opened ITunes went to edit/preferences/advanced. Went to change Itunes media folder location and navigated to the proper folder on my external drive and clicked OK. None of the music, videos, etc, that are in that folder show up in iTunes on the desktop. Restarted ITunes, no help, reboot computer, no help. Have I done something wrong or left out a step. I could copy all the media onto the desktop individually and build new playlists but that seems like something that should not be needed? One of the reasons I moved my Itunes media folder to the external drive was so I could use the laptop for iTunes while travel and the desktop for iTunes while at home. Do I have to copy the entire folder to my desktop and take up space there? That would be counterproductive to using the external drive. I searched and saw a hint to hold down shift while starting ITunes but that did not change anything. Any help would be most appreciated!
Jim in WV

Thank you for your prompt response - I did as you said and did a drag and drop into the iTunes window - it imported and got my album art from the net. When I started Itunes with the shift key down I was prompted to choose a library but since I copied over the media folder and not the library folder I was unable to select that so I guess I will have to create a new library and add in all the music, videos, etc. unless I wait for my laptop and export the library or at least that seems to be the case? In short, all my data (iTunes media folder) is on my external drive and can be added to the blank iTunes screen but I can not choose a library folder. Is there anyway around completely making all those playlists again? I am not sure my laptop will survive the shop with data intact and really hate to start over on those.
In an unrelated question - I collect old TV shows from the 1950's. Can I make playlists within the home video folder somehow? In other words like one for Quiz shows, one for comedies, one for police and detective shows, etc. while I am remaking all my playlists for my music if I end up having to go that route?
Once again thank you for helping me out. I am not too Itunes savvy and really appreciate you taking the time to answer.

Adding Music when away from external Drive where Itunes Library is stored

I have a macbook and an Ipod 60gb. I have come across a slight frustration in Itunes. I have limited space on my internal drive and as such have my iTunes music stored on an external hard drive. I frequently am away from this drive when I import a cd into itunes. The problem, itunes switches where my library is stored from the external drive to the internal drive. Is there an option that someone knows about that would keep this from happening?
I have a suggestion for itunes, why not make an option to add music to a briefcase folder, and when connected to the external drive add it to the main library. This would allow for music to be imported to the computer and then be added to the main storage source when available.
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mattbeardall wrote:
Is there an option that someone knows about that would keep this from happening?
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under the iTunes menu choose the Feedback menuItem.

HT1473 How do I import my library from an external drive to Itunes quickly

How do I import my library from an external drive to my Itunes on my computer quickly? When I pull up ITunes, I only show Add File to Library and so I would have to manually add each file one by one, isn't there a faster way? In the old Itunes there used to be Import Library?

Press ALT or CTRL+B to display the menu bar. This gives access to File > Add Folder to Library.
If the external drive contains a complete self-contained iTunes library that you want to open, press and hold down shift as you launch iTunes and keep holding until prompted to choose or create a library. Click choose and browse to the iTunes Library.itl file on the external drive.
If you have devices that sync with your previous iTunes library either open the copy on the external as above, or copy the entire iTunes folder into your internal drive and keep the external as a backup.
tt2

Use same external drive for itunes in mac and windows?

Hi,
I have a Macbook Air that has bootcamp and I use 99% of my time under Windows 7.
All of my music and movies are on an external hard drive and I have a problem using
it for iTunes under Windows and the Mac at the same time.
Is it possible to have both versions point to the same external drive?
I tried almost everything but it fails as the file paths are stored once and for all in
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Now if I reimport everything in iTunes for OS/X it will change all the paths and then
Windows will not be able to fetch the files.
Isn't there a way to have relative paths so both the OS/X and Windows versions
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Steve

Anyone?

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You don't install iTunes on the external.
You put the library and music on the external.
To move your iTunes music...
1 - Quit iTunes.
2 - 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.
3 - 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.
4 - Move the old iTunes folder to the trash but do not empty it.
5 - Restart iTunes normally and verify the songs work. If they do, empty the trash.
Note that the external must be connected, powered up and online BEFORE you start iTunes.

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Have a look at this article in the Apple Knowledge Base.

Browsing an external drive makes iTunes skip

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