Can I move just music to an external hard drive?

I'm trying to set up our home network so that everyone can access our large music library through a hard drive attached to apple extreme, but manage all of their other iTunes media files (apps, podcasts, etc) on their own devices. Is it possible for iTunes to have this type of split personality?

Um, it could be set up, but not easily, and might be fragile to somebody doing the wrong thing.
Here are some variants:
iTunes: How to share music between different accounts on a single computer - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1203 - relocating iTunes' media folder to a shared area but leaving separate library files - extra tip at https://discussions.apple.com/message/17331189
Chris CA's instructions on sharing one iTunes music library between multiple user accounts - https://discussions.apple.com/message/8974074 - Multiple users using a single library file - similar post at: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3753008

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HT1660 Can I play movies and music from my external hard drive or do I have to re-instll them on my computer?

Can I play my movies and music from my external hard drive or do I have to reinstall it on my computer?

Hello B3NN13,
If you would like to add the music from your external hard drive to iTunes without copying it to the iTunes Library on your internal hard drive, you may find the following article helpful:
Add files to your library without adding them to your iTunes folder
When you add an item already on your computer to your iTunes library, iTunes places a copy of the file in your iTunes folder. The original file remains in its current location.
You can change this setting so that files are added to your iTunes library without being added to the iTunes folder. You might want to do this, for example, if you prefer to store video files on an external disk but still want to view them in iTunes.
Choose iTunes > Preferences, and click Advanced.
Deselect the checkbox next to “Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library.”
From now on, when you drag a file to your library or choose File > Add to Library, the item appears in iTunes, but the actual file isn’t copied or moved.
Tip: You can temporarily reverse this setting by holding down the Option key while you drag files to the iTunes window.
iTunes 12 for Mac: Change where your iTunes files are stored
Sincerely,
- Brenden

I have so many photos I only have 1G of memory left. How can I move the photos to my external hard drive that is connected to my iMac?

I have so many photos on my Mac I only have 1G of memory left. How can I move the photos to the external hard drive that is plugged into my iMac.

1GB? It's a miracle your Mac is running at all!
This is our resident iPhoto guru, Terence Devlin's, advice:
You can move your iPhoto Library to an external disk:
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library Folder as an entity from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.
4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.

How can I transfer my music from an external hard drive to my Time Capsule and can I play it through apple TV?

All my music is currently stored on an external hard drive, but I would like to transfer everything onto my Time Capsule, so that everything is backed up, what is the best way to do this?
Is there a way I can then play all the content stored on the Time Capsule through apple tv without the need to clog up my macbook hard drive?

Did you import the music on the external hard drive into your iTunes library on your new PC or point iTunes at the location of your library stored on the external hard drive?
B-rock

Mac-format to PC-format: How can I get my music off an external hard drive?

I had a mac-formatted iPod for years, and all of my music is on an external hard drive that is hooked up to that computer. When I got a new iPod after mine was stolen, I had to get a PC-formatted iPod. How can I get my music off of the hard drive and onto my PC (and eventually my iPod)? I tried uploading the files into my iTunes account on the Mac, but they don't show up in my account on the PC. Most of the music are CDs that I copied onto my computer years ago, and had on my old iPod. Help!

Your Firefox profile would have the data. You can find it at:
*C:\Users\<Windows login/user name>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile folder>
**The file you want is called ''places.sqlite''
You can copy that file if you want to restore your bookmarks to your current Firefox by going back to ''C:\Users\<Windows login/user name>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile folder>'' and overwriting the current file. Keep in mind, doing this will erase your current bookmarks.

How can I play the music on my external hard drive with my laptop?

Look before everyone points out that this has been asked lots of times before, I wanted to state that in this particular case it might be a little bit more complicated. You see I think I've been an idiot.
I backed up all my physical music onto my external hard drive, but only the physical music. So now I have my nice new laptop and haven't got a clue how to play the music off my external hard drive, since I don't have an itunes library on my external hard drive.
Anyway any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks

Am I being a plonker, but it doesn't seem as simple as that. If I try and import via itunes it seems to want me to select the individual music file not the folder which holds all the music.
Also if I simply import it, won't my mac copy the files from my external hard drive back on to my laptop? Which makes me think I change the location where all the music is stored in itunes...?
Thanks for the help!

My itunes can't find the music on my external hard drive.

My itunes was working fine using my external hard drive. Then I played a song that was not part of that music folder. Now itunes says it can't find any of the songs that are listed. The little evil exclamation point pops up. How can I reconnect to the hard drive without having to start all over?

Thanks for the clarification of check vs click. I guess once I saw the word "double" I stopped reading. I ended up "reloading" the drive to itunes. The interesting thing is that itunes isn't setting the location for the external drive. It is set for a folder under "my music" The actual songs aren't there, but the folders are there. When i put my external drive music to a new itunes library, i did so without copying the songs. So about 100 gig of music is in a folder that is really only about 300mb. I noticed before i restarted that the location was this folder. When i opened it, it was empty. After redoing everthing all of the songs are on the folder. I probably should have just changed it to go to the external drive like you suggested. Just for fun i changed the location to the external and bypassed that small folder. It worked great. It only took about 2 minutes to update, and it works great. I thought i had to use that stupid little folder. Thanks for all of your help!!

How can I move my pictures to an external hard drive to free up space?

Does anyone know how to move pictures in iPhoto to an external hard drive? My computer is running out of memory and therefore running very slowly. I get the spinning circle constantly.
Thank you!!

I don't know if you're under Applecare, but I've used them often to guide me through the process of both moving my photos & music, and getting my laptop to know where to look for them. I've stored my media on an external drive for years and the Apple techs always help, from partitioning the drive to moving the libraries.
They can also help you understand the difference between RAM & 'memory'. It's possible the computer needs the 81 GB's for 'running purposes', though that sounds a bit high for that. Someone else may know.
What Clinton describes does work, by the way. But if you're not sure you get how to do that, don't be shy about calling Applecare.
Karen

Iphoto: How to safely delete or move photos. I have over 7000 photos. When I deleted some, I found that the event still shows up with a blank frame. Can I move some photos to an external hard drive but leave the pointer in iphoto?

iphoto: How to safely delete or move photos. I have over 7000 photos. I would really like to move tsome of the older photos to an external hard drive. (They are backed up in Time Machine, but I like the immediacy of having them available.) So question 1 - is it possible to split the iphoto library so that the directory tree points to an external drive in some cases? And if that doesn't work--I am willing to export and delete some of these photos. However, an earlier delete left me with events that have a name in the event folder, but no photos. Question 2 -- How do I properly delete photos so that all references disappear?
example:

Warning: Time Machine is not an Archiving application. It keeps rolling back ups. That means if you delete something from the source Mac it will eventually be also deleted from Time Machine. How long that takes depends on the amount of disk space TM has. So, remember, backing up in Time Machine is not the same as Archiving.
For the blank thumbnails: This can happen if you try delete too many photos at one go. Experienced users suggest you should delete in batches of 100 or so.
Yes you can split the Library, where some of the Masters are stored locally and some on an external disk, but really, you don't want to do that. iPhoto's file management tools are limited at best, and if the path to the files changes then you could find yourself repairing the links to the files - all of them, one by one.
Better: Have your entire Library on an External Drive.
Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.
4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.
If you want to have a smaller library on your internal disk:
Here's one way to do what you want:
Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
Now you have two full versions of the Library.
3. On the Internal library, trash the Events you don't want there
Now you have a full copy of the Library on the External and a smaller subset on the Internal
Some Notes:
As a general rule: when deleting photos do them in batches of about 100 at a time. iPhoto can baulk at trashing large numbers at one go.
You can choose which Library to open: Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library'
You can keep the Library on the external updated with new imports using iPhoto Library Manager
Regards
TD

Can i move original photos to an external hard-drive

Hi
I want to free up some space and would like to move all the original copies of my photos to an external hard-drive, whilst keeping the iphoto library on the macbook. Is this possible, or do the originals need to be kept within the iphoto folder?
Thanks
Jamie

Yes and No
The Yes part:
It is possible to run an iPhoto Library with the Originals stored outside the Library folder, but I strongly caution against it - especially if the Library and the files are on different volumes, as you propose. Why? the short answer: if the files become detached from the database then you will end up reconnecting every single one, one by one. For more see this:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3062728?tstart=0
Further, if the external is not plugged in when you launch iphoto it will ask you where each file is. All of them. One by one.
So that's really a 'Yes... but...' I suppose.
The No part:
You have currently got a Managed Library. There's no way to convert to a Referenced one.
Then there's the... 'how much money do you want to throw at this' bit?
If you purchase Aperture this is a cinch. It can relocate masters, reconnect them if they get seperated and so on. Pay more, get more options. And Aperture can use the same Library as iPhoto, but there is a bigger learngn curve.

Can I move scratch files to an external hard drive.

I am completing a project in which I am making DVDs of the interviews of 50 people. I saved the FCE project file into which I uploaded their interview for each person onto a external hard drive, but the scratch disk for these files is in my Documents. After completing about 10 of them the memory on my Mac Book Pro is running low. I deleted all of the render files, but still need more room.
Can I move the scratch files for the first 10 people I have completed onto the same external hard drive where their FCE file is located? And then reset my scratch disk to be the next external hard drive I start to upload to?
What steps would I take to make sure all of the information I needed had been transferred to the external drive before moving the scratch files on my documents into the trash and emptying the trash?
Thanks!

If you relocate the files, FCE will give you a message when it opens asking to reconnect them. Look at this thread for more information on reconnecting media, specifically my post with the pictures:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1968953&tstart=15
You can reset your scratch disk to put all future captured files onto your external in FCE System Settings.

Can I move idvd projects to an external hard drive?

I need to make space on my hard drive and would like to move all the dvd projects to an external hard drive. Can I do this without causing any problems with accessing them again?

Yes and No
The Yes part:
It is possible to run an iPhoto Library with the Originals stored outside the Library folder, but I strongly caution against it - especially if the Library and the files are on different volumes, as you propose. Why? the short answer: if the files become detached from the database then you will end up reconnecting every single one, one by one. For more see this:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3062728?tstart=0
Further, if the external is not plugged in when you launch iphoto it will ask you where each file is. All of them. One by one.
So that's really a 'Yes... but...' I suppose.
The No part:
You have currently got a Managed Library. There's no way to convert to a Referenced one.
Then there's the... 'how much money do you want to throw at this' bit?
If you purchase Aperture this is a cinch. It can relocate masters, reconnect them if they get seperated and so on. Pay more, get more options. And Aperture can use the same Library as iPhoto, but there is a bigger learngn curve.

I am over capacity and think it's because I have Downton Abbey Season 1 saved in iTunes. How can I move the episodes to an external hard drive?

I am over capacity on my #GS iPhone and I have a very large amount of audio space that I think might be taken up by season one of Downton Abbey. I have tried to copy and save episodes to my external hard drive but I get a message saying I "don't have permission". How can I move the six episodes out iTunes ??

dckramermd wrote:
How can I move software program over to an external hard drive to free up space on my imac. I have move documents and photos and movies but the only thing left is softward programs. How do you move them to the external drive?
EXTREMELY poor idea! Leave the apps on the internal HD. You can move files and libraries from iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, Aperture, etc.. to an external HD but leave the apps them self on the internal HD.
Did you empty the Trash after moving all that data to the EHD??

How can I download my music to an external hard drive from my ipod ?

I am trying to figure out how I can download my music from my ipod to an external hard drive.
Thanks

Drag and drop the music from your Itunes to your desktop - to the external hard drive.
- Works for me, Works for you.

HT1751 How can I copy only music to an external hard drive from Itunes and not video?

I only have 32 GB worth of space and 54 GB worth of itunes. I only want to transfer the music on to a drive for back-up. Please help!

Drag and drop the music from your Itunes to your desktop - to the external hard drive.
- Works for me, Works for you.

Can I move just music to an external hard drive?

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