Can I store music on an external drive and point iTunes to it?

My wife has a G4 with a 20gig hard drive. Can she buy an external drive and just use that for the music?
Would anyone tell me the procedure we would have to do to get this working? She doesn't ever need to disconnect the external hard drive we would purchase.
Thanks

This document tells you how to do that:
iTunes: Moving your iTunes Music folder
If you have additional questions, let us know.
M
17' iMac fp 800 MHz 768 MB RAM Mac OS X (10.3.9) Several ext. HD (backup and data)

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Can I store my music on an external drive and have itunes pull from c:drive

so, without changing or reassigning my drive location is it possible to store my library on one drive and the itunes on the c:drive? i have tried to load itunes on my external drive, but it continues to place on my c:drive instead. and, since the space available on my c: is not nearly as much as an external drive i have......what can i do????

Have a look at this article: "iTunes: Moving your iTunes Music folder" http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748

How can I merge music from an external drive and my iMac.

Well, I've made progress. I have a set of tunes on my external hard drive that contain some, but not all the tunes on my iMac in addition to tunes not on my iMac. I just replaced my hard drive on my PowerBook. I'd like to have all my Tunes on it. All the music on my iMac plus the non-duplicated music on my external hard drive. Is there a simple way to do this. In my question yesterday I had transfered all the music from my iMac. I then took and transferred the music folder from my external drive to my desktop and tried to import it into iTunes. What a mess. I finally got everything deleted so there is now nothing in either my music folder or iTunes. Can someone help please.
Thanks
Carl

File > Add to library and select the folder on the external.

HOW Do I Store All My MP3 files on an external drive, and point iTunes?

I see on this forum that folks are storing byte-hogs like MP3 and MP4 files on an external hard drive, leaving the internal drive with more room for processing.
My internal drive is full, so I got a 2 Tb external drive where I want to store my MP3 and MP4 files.
After I move the files to the external drive, HOW do I point iTunes, iPhoto, and iMovie to the external drive?

Type "move itunes library to external drive" into the search bar at the top of this screen next to "Support".

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

I need to get rid of the load my iTunes library is putting on my laptop. Can I store music, vids, etc in iCloud and DELETE it from my pc?

I need to get rid of the load my iTunes library is putting on my laptop. Can I store music, vids, etc in iCloud and DELETE it from my pc?

Take a look at this: iTunes in the Cloud and iTunes Match Availability
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5085?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

I am new to mac. Do I need to store photos on the hard drive to use iPhoto or can I store pics on a network drive and still edit with iPhoto?

I am new to mac. Do I need to store photos on the hard drive to use iPhoto or can I store pics on a network drive and still edit with iPhoto?

iPhoto needs to have the Library sitting on disk formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Users with the Library sitting on disks otherwise formatted regularly report issues including, but not limited to, importing, exporting, saving edits and sharing the photos.
See this article
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5168
for more. Note also the comment:
“Additionally, storing the iPhoto library on a network rather than locally on your computer can also lead to poor performance or data loss.”

I moved my itunes library to external drive and now itunes wont work.

I moved my itunes library to an external drive and now itunes cannot find the library. I followed a youtube video and all seemed to work fine until i deleted the old library and emptied the trash. Prior to deleting and emptying the trash I checked preferences to verify the path of Itunes was to the external drive. It seemed to work even when I moved the original library to the trash.
Now when I launch itunes the song listings show but the songs cant be found. I checked the volume of my itunes that I moved to the external and it was about 4 GB that i moved. I have approx 2000 songs.
Any suggestions?

Hold down the alt/option Key when you start iTunes a dialog box will open
Select Choose Library and select the itunes library on your external drive

How Can I Keep Music on an External Drive?

I've dealt with this issue before and asked questions about it, but I STILL don't understand how iTunes works when it comes to its "Library" "Media Folder" etc.
Can anyone break it down for me exactly how it all works? Is there a good resource to explain it?
The basic problem I have is the same one that many people have: I keep my actual music on an external hard drive. However, if I launch iTunes when that hard drive isn't plugged in, iTunes somehow changes so that all my music vanishes no matter what I do. Plugging in my hard drive doesn't help. iTunes has created a new Library that contains a list of all my music but with no idea where that music is. I try to tell iTunes where that music is, but nothing works.
You'd think an easy fix would be to always plug in the hard drive first. However, even that doesn't help. iTunes will sometimes not see that hard drive when it is plugged in, and I have no way to predict when it sees the drive and when it doesn't. I start adding new music or podcasts, and it might all be being added to some new library iTunes created and I'm totally lost once again.
On the Preferences/Advanced tab there is the option to change your Media Folder location, but that doesn't work. My music is on the external hard drive, but there is no Media Folder there. The iTunes Media Folder is here: My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Media
I've read that you can hold down the Shift key when you launch iTunes and then you get the option to "Choose Library" or "Create Library." The idea is that iTunes has created a new empty Library and that you just have to select your old Library to get things back to normal. However, there is only ever one Library file listed. There is no new one and old one to select from. There is no Library file on the external drive, either. So I have no idea what I'm looking for.
If I choose "Create Library", it then asks me for a "Folder name". I don't know what that is, either. I thought I'd just have to give my new Library a name. The more I try to deal with this issue, the more confused I get.
To further muddy the waters, under the "General" tab on the iTunes preferences page, it lists my library as "Doug's Library", the name I gave it long ago. However, the option to choose "Doug's Library" never comes up. I've never seen a file with that name or a Library with that name. So what is that all about?
I've used Windows Explorer to go into the iTunes folder to see what files are there, and then it gets more confusing. There is a file called "iTunes Library" and a second file called "iTunes Music Library." Why does the music have a second Library file?
Any suggestions or guidance? There has to be a way to cut through all this confusion. I've had so many problems with iTunes along these lines that I've literally stopped using it to listen to music. It's just not worth the hassle. I spend far more hours trying "fix" iTunes than listening to music with it.
Thanks to anyone who can point me in the right direction.
Doug

I do the same thing as you do...
My music is on an external drive as to not use up gigabytes of storage that need not be used for media.
There are a couple basic principles to iTunes that I believe you should know.
1. iTunes is not a media storage program. It does not store your media "in iTunes". It simply is an organization tool for your media already on a hard disk.
2. As iTunes is not a storage mechanism, it has no way to "know" whether or not the media that is listed is actually there. This is where the "design" of iTunes comes into play.
I like to think of iTunes as a bread-crumb trail. The "music" in iTunes, isn't actually there. The bread crumb is the location on the external hard drive.
If that bread crumb trail disappears (in this case the external drive you use). If said external drive is not plugged in, that bread crumb trail is not able to be followed. iTunes is "lost" and unable to find the media. The only way to remedy this is to place the media on your local drive.
To address your issue of the library. If you hold down shift, you can select your library on your external drive. It will be a file with an .itl extension. The folder name will be your external drive.
I go into edit > preferences > advanced and set my library to the correct location. Make sure you check the box "Copy to iTunes Folder when importing" (or whatever it says).
You can't fix the issue of iTunes not seeing the media if your drive is unplugged unless you physically move the content to your OS HDD...Or any other HDD you use.

Store music on a network drive and access from different computers

hi!
i have several mac's and windows pc's here and a windows server. i want to store my music on the server and let all itunes' access the same library to have ratings etc. all the same on all machines.
when i set the itunes folder to my network drive and open itunes it does not find any of my music.
my next idea was to run itunes on the server and to use the music sharing function but my macs can't access the windows itunes library because of some error -3259. my windows itunes can access the windows itunes without problems, the imacs itunes can't
anyhow its a bad solution when i have to sync my ipods with the server since this one is in the basement
does anybody know something about itunes libraries on a network drive ?
thanks a lot
philip

Hi !
Did nobody has developed a kind of sync tool yet ? Its interesting to know that the library is always stored locally. I think it should be possible then to copy the library from one computer to all others only the network name must be the same on all computers.
I'll try it

HT1349 Hello, how to move the iTunes master file from C drive to an external drive and them iTunes stick with the external drive after on an on going basic?

My desktop C drive is full HD of 1 TB, I would like to move the current iTunes master file to an external 4TB drive and then iTunes stick with the external drive
Could this be done, if yes how to do it?
Thank you for your help
Henri

If it's the same as with a PC, the procedure would be to:
(a) Plug in the new external drive,
(b) Set your iTunes preferences such that the iTunes Music Folder is on the new drive,
(c) Use the iTunes "Consolidate Library" utility to copy your library to the new location.
(d) When the transfer is complete, check "Get Info" on some songs to verify their location.
The original files will remain on the old drive, so you'll have a way to recover should there be a problem. You may need to manually copy any iPhone/Touch Apps to the new drive since I'm not sure those are transferred with the Consolidate utility.

Can Aperture store projects on an external drive?

Is it possible to store my aperture projects on an external drive or must it reside on the Mac drive? I use an external USB drive to store all of my photos on and just cannot see using HD space for these photos.
Is it possible?

Just physically move the Aperture project file to the external drive (when Aperture is not running). Then, when you re-launch Aperture, go to preferences, select library location, and find it on the external drive. You'll have to quit and re-launch, but voila you're done.
A bit hairier than it could be, but it's a one time thing -- takes about 30 seconds and you're done.

Can I put apps on an external drive and run them from there?

I want to know can I put apps downloaded from the Mac App store onto an external hard drive and launch them from there? The storage on my mac is full and I want to put apps onto an external drive to create more space on my mac.

Bad idea. See this:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3472949?q=run apps on an external drive
Ciao.

How do I sync music from an external drive to my itunes library?

Hello,
All my files (music, films etc) are stored on an external hard drive. I've set the drive as my iTunes Media Folder in preferences.
How do you import all the files into my iTunes library?
Thanks!

File > Add to library and select the folder on the external.

How to store photo's on external drive and still use Time Machine and secondary back up plan

So, My Macbook Pro is now going on 4 years old and I've accumulated around 15,000 photos in iPhoto now. I would like to move everything (or at least everything older than 12 months) onto a portable external drive, but i'm not sure the best way to do this and still keep a good back up plan. My current process is the following -- I have external HD same size as my current internal drive on the MBP, which is formatted that i use Time Machine. I also have a paid subscription to Crash Plan online cloud back up that is connected to my laptop drive (CrashPlan is constant and easy, so I just USB plug in MBP to EHD a few times a month and that's it). If I were to move most of my picture/video's/important docs to an external drive, how would I back that up with Time Machine, and if I did, how would I back up my laptop drive with Time Machine also, and what drive would I assign my Crash Plan online account too? Cant seem to wrap my brain around the easiest and best method. (In short, I want most pics/video's stored off the laptop so that my HD is not consumed; but still easy to access if needed, and easy to back up) Also driving this need for a solution is the fact i would like my next lap top to be an Macbook Air, which I know I can't keep my current set up would not work. Any thoughts are appreciated.

if your internal drive has 250 GB and the external drive with the iPhoto library as well, your TimeMachine should have at least 1 TB.
I have read over some of CrashPlans support docs and it sounds like it will be able to back up and restore the iPhoto library, and as long as you restore the entire library and not single photos, it will save and restore all metadata as well.
I studied their documents to. They are saying they can backup any filetype. And they are saying the iPhoto libraries or Aperture libraries will be backed up automatically, when they are in in the Pictures folder, because the Home folder will be backed up.
On their screenshot you can see, that the libraries are backed up as a nested set of folders, and not as a package. That let's me doubt that the dependencies within the package will be treated correctly. To restore from the backup they recommend to restore the set of nested folders. What I could not find anywhere in the documentation is any information on the filesystem they are storing the backup on. If it is not Apple's MacOS Extended (Journaled, not case sensitive) the restored library may be corrupted, because the internal links in the databases may not work. Try to find out something about the filesystem on the backup servers, before you entrust your iPhoto library to that servers.

Can I store music on an external drive and point iTunes to it?

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