External hard drive, sharing, itunes? Not sure where to post this?

sorry guys but i'm not sure where this belongs, but anyway. I just bought my macbook and purchased a Western Digital harddrive ( external ) anyway I have like 80gigs of pics and music and want to get it from my iPod back onto the computer. Not a problem............My problem is that I can't put it directly onto the external drive I first need to put it on the macbook then transfer it to the externak hardrive. When I do this is winds up on my mac HD and also on my external hardrive. I only want it in one place. Ok, my ultimate goal right now is to buy an iMac which I'm doing this weekend. Got rid of my PC's ( Go Apple !) LOL. I want to put all my music ,videos,pics, movies on the external hardrive and be able to share it with both my Macbook and my imac. I simply want to be able to access my everything from both pc's but get it all from the EHD. Right now it's all on my macbook and I want to free up the space, plus learn how to do it for the future. Sorry to ramble. So far I've posted a few times and someone always comes through. Everyone here is awesome, it's like another planet compared to the PC world.
thanks
Mike , NYC
macbook Mac OS X (10.4.9) HP Desktop

Put your iTunes folder on the eternal hard drive, and make a alias to it from your home directory on the MacBook (Cmd-L). Do the same when you get the iMac.
I didn't quite get how the two computers are sharing the hard drive, or maybe you'll put the hard drive on the iMac and share the library. There's a lot of ways to make this work. You made a good decision.

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Trying to move my iTunes Music and other media from the main drive on my pc to an external hard drive but iTunes is not recognizing the new file location? Ideas?

Trying to move my iTunes Music and other media from the main drive on my pc to an external hard drive but iTunes is not recognizing the new file location? Ideas?

Hello there, Underwriter.
The following Knowledge Base article provides in-depth instructions on how to migrate your content to an external drive:
iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4527
Particularly of note for your situation:
External drive
This option requires more work than Home Sharing, but it creates a backup of your iTunes library on the external drive in addition to moving your content.
Notes before you start:
You can use most iPods as an external drive.
Windows operating systems don't recognize Mac OS-formatted disks (HFS or HFS Plus formats). Because of this, you can't use a Mac-formatted iPod or external drive to move your music to a Windows PC. See iPod: How to determine iPod's hard disk format if you're not sure how your iPod is formatted.
Mac OS X can read Windows-formatted iPods and drives. This means there are many ways to migrate your information from your old Windows-based PC to your new Mac.
Mac OS X: To be sure external drives appear on your desktop, choose Preferences from the Finder menu. Be sure the options for "External disks" and "Hard disks" are enabled.
Part 1: Locating and consolidating the iTunes Media folder
Part 2: Copy iTunes folder from the old computer:
Part 3: Get iTunes ready on your new computer
Part 4: Back up any music that's already on your new computer
Part 5: Copy music to your new computer
Part 6: Add preexisting music that was on the new computer back into the library
Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Pedro.

I recently transferred my ITunes library to an external hard drive. I made sure to copy all the data from the saved location. After the transfer I noticed that a lot of albums are missing the first song and some recently purchased albums are missing.

I recently transferred my ITunes library to an external hard drive. I made sure to copy all the data from the saved location. After the transfer I noticed that a lot of albums are missing the first song and some recently purchased albums are missing. Is there any way to recover the data? Thanks for any help.

I may have found an answer here:
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive
They only thing I can assume is that my external hard drive was slow to start and iTunes defaulted to its old directory (see the last paragraph at the link above). However, once my external was recognized shouldn't everything have fixed itself?
Message was edited by: williamson42
Message was edited by: williamson42

Old laptop died, got latest itunes on new laptop and recovered all music from external hard drive but ipad not recognised as device when plugged in? Do i reset my ipad2!!!

Old laptop died, got latest itunes on new laptop and recovered all music from external hard drive but ipad2 not being recognised as a device when plugged in so can't sync? Do i reset my ipad2?!!!! Its only taken 7 months to get to this point.
My ipad is set to sync via wifi but it is still trying to look for my old laptop which has been trashed..but i have deauthorised it and removed it from my account and still not recognised.
Please help (an extreme novice to Apple products)

Sync Your iOS Device with a New Computer Without Losing Data
http://www.howtogeek.com/104298/sync-your-ios-device-with-a-new-computer-without -losing-data/
iPad not appearing in iTunes
http://www.apple.com/support/ipad/assistant/itunes/
iOS: Device not recognized in iTunes for Mac OS X
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1591
iOS: Device not recognized in iTunes for Windows
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1538
IOS: Syncing with iTunes
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1386
Apple - Support - iPad - Syncing
http://www.apple.com/support/ipad/syncing/
 Cheers, Tom

Why has iTunes seperated a album which I have copied over from my external hard drive into iTunes? How can you pull all the songs back together into one album again?

Why has iTunes seperated a album into indevidual songs, which I have copied over from my external hard drive into iTunes? How can you pull all the songs back together into one album again?

Steve MacGuire a.k.a. turingtest2 - iTunes & iPod Hints & Tips - Grouping Tracks Into Albums - http://www.samsoft.org.uk/iTunes/grouping.asp (older post on Apple Discussions http://discussions.apple.com/message/9910895)
Quick answer: Select all the tracks on the album, File > get info, and either give them all a single "album artist", or check the "compilation" flag (as in https://discussions.apple.com/message/17670085).
If these are from multiple-CD sets you may also need to enter the appropriate information in the disc number fields. If they are not a multiple CD set you still need to make sure the disc number fields are set correctly or all empty.

How to put my music on my external hard drive through itunes

How do i put music on my external hard drive from itunes after creating a folder.

Our iTunes guru Terence Devlin advises the following:
1. Quit iTunes
2. Drag the iTunes folder from your internal hd - located in ~/Music folder - to your external hd (which has to be formatted as HFS Extended (Journaled)). DO NOT delete the original one from your internal hd... yet!
3. When the transfer is complete, press and hold the Option(alt) key and fire up iTunes.
4. A "Choose iTunes Library" window will come up. Click on the "Choose Library" button.
5. Navigate to where the iTunes folder is located in the external hd.
6. Within the iTunes folder, select the iTunes Library file and click Choose...
That's it. iTunes will now display all your playlists, songs, movies, podcasts etc. At this point, should you wish, you can delete the iTunes folder from the internal hd to free up space.
More info:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751
Or if you prefer a more complicated explanation:
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive

Copying Large Blocks of MP3 files from External Hard Drive to iTunes

I'm trying to copy large numbers of MP3 files from my external
hard drive to iTunes. I tried putting them in the iTunes music folder but this did not work. Then I tried selecting blocks of the songs and dragging and dropping them in iTunes. This also did not work because when I select a large block of files and then click on them (holding down the mouse button) to drag them, then they become "unselected." So, I guess my question is 2 fold: Why can I not copy and paste these files to some folder on the Macintosh Hard drive where they will be recognized by iTunes (show up in iTunes) and what is wrong with my clicking and dragging technique? Am I losing it?

If you are trying to add tunes to your library then do the work from within iTunes not via the Finder. Droping the tunes into the iTunes folder will not create a reference for iTunes to find the tunes. You should be able to drag-drop the tunes/folders into the main iTunes window.
It is usually easier to use the 'keep' and 'copy' features selected. This way iTunes will keep your tunes organized and all in one place. If you work from in the iTunes interface then you will likely not go wrong.
From the iTunes File menu select 'add to library' (+O) and navigate to your ext HD and iTunes should bring those tunes into your library.
MJ

Can i show and play music from my external hard drive in iTunes without adding it to my Mac hard drive?

I have more music than I can keep on my Macbook hard drive by over 200GB. I'm hoping to be able to show and play all music from my external hard drive in iTunes without having to add any of it to my Macbook Hard Drive

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 an imac 2009 the disk drive is damaged and I have lost the passwords I need to reset passwords I tried booting with a macosx disk from an external hard drive but did not read the drive how else can I reset password ?

I have an imac 2009 the disk drive is damaged and I have lost the passwords I need to reset passwords I tried booting with a macosx disk from an external hard drive but did not read the drive how else can I reset password ?
I have a 2012 mac book pro can I use that to connect with firewire and load osx that way? and how woudl I do that?
Thanks so much!

To what password are you referring? Do you mean your user account's admin password? Or do you mean the master password for File Vault or do you mean a Firmware Password?
For an admin password:
Forgot Your Account Password
For Snow Leopard and earlier
     Mac OS X 10.6- If you forget your administrator password
For Lion/Mountain Lion
    Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
     When the menubar appears select Terminal from the Utilities menu.
     Enter resetpassword at the prompt and press RETURN. Follow
     instructions in the dialog window that will appear.
     Or see Reset a Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Password and
     OS X Lion- Apple ID can be used to reset your user account password.
If you cannot do the above then try this:
1. Boot to Safe Mode by restarting and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-S keys until a black screen with white type appears.
2. At the prompt, type the following commands pressing return after each command line:
     /sbin/fsck -yf
     If you do not receive a "Filesystem OK" message then repeat this command until
     you do. If after seven tries you still do not receive a "Filesystem OK" message,
     then the system is corrupted and needs to be reinstalled.
     mount -uw /
     cd /private/var/db/netinfo
     mv local.nidb local.old
     rm ../.AppleSetupDone
     shutdown -r now
The second-to-last command above will cause OS X to think that the operating system is newly installed, and when the new owner starts up the computer it will send him/her to the startup wizard where he/she can start a new user without reinstalling.
This last method does not actually change a password. It simply removes the user accounts and lets you create an initial admin account as if the computer were new out of the box.
How to reset the OS X password without a startup CD:
Reboot into Single-user Mode. Enter the following and press RETURN after each command line
   1. Type fsck -fy
   2. Type mount -uw /
   3. Type passwd <username>
I have never tried this method myself.

Can I play my music from external hard drive through itunes?

If this is possible How would a (NEW TO iMac) user do this? Otherwise if that is not possible, how do you export music files from a seagate external hard drive to itunes.

Expanding Niel's answer a bit...
in iTunes, go to iTunes->Preferences->Advanced and insure that "Copy files..." is NOT checked. Then you can add all your music to your iTunes library by dragging the parent folder into the "library" window at the upper left (if you're using iTunes 11, do View->Show sidebar first). You can also do "File->Add to library...".

How do i repair or recover data from a corrupt USB external hard drive that does not show up on my Mac desktop or disk utility

How do i repair or recover data from a corrupt USB external hard drive that does not show up on my Mac desktop or disk utility?
Last night i was using my external hard drive, for some reason the folder just closed and i couldn't find it on my desktop.
After googling solutions, i found it in the disk utilities, i clicked on the 'repair' button many times, but it said the 'error...' message.
So i ejected it to try again, now when i connect the USB external hard drive it doesn't show up on my desktop or disk utilities.
I really just want to either repair or recover the data on it because it literally has everything (documents, work files, photos etc) on it,
I downloaded an application to recover my files but it needs the USB to at least show up.recognise it which mine doesn't.
I know i should've backed it up on another USB, this definitely teaches me for next time to back up all my files.
Are the files lost forever or can i recover them by going to a shop or using a software?

Thank you for responding.
This might sound stupid since i'm not really knowledgeable with Macs,
but since all my files were moved from my mac computer to the external hard drive,
is it possible to recover those files through my Mac - like recovering deleted files?

HT1386 I have a new computer. I have copied Itunes library from an external hard drive. Itunes now tells me I cannot sync with my Ipod as it thinks the 20gb on the computer are different to the 20gb on my Ipod touch! What have I done wrong? How can I fix

I have a new computer. I have copied Itunes library from an external hard drive. Itunes now tells me I cannot sync with my Ipod as it thinks the 20gb on the computer are different to the 20gb on my Ipod touch! What have I done wrong? How can I fix it? Alan

See:
Syncing to a "New" Computer or replacing a "crashed" Hard Drive: Apple Support Communities
Sync Your iOS Device with a New Computer Without Losing Data - How-To Geek

I can't load some content from my external hard drive to itunes,

I can't load some content from 1 of my external hard drive to itunes, it can see it and try to load the folder / files but it doesn't appear, these files worked recently as some of them are currently on my ipod touch - I had to factory restore my laptop this week (virus) so have been trying to put everything back on to sync ipod - any ideas???

To delete files from your external HDD, attach it to your MBP and drag the unwanted files to trash and then empty trash.
Then you select the files that you want to transfer by 'drag and drop' to the external HDD and trash the files on your MBP.
Ciao.

How to use external hard drive and iTunes together?

how to use external hard drive and iTunes together?

Yes I did get to that part.... I went trough external to retrive itunes folder... When I selected the folder, it said that it was locked, choose another folder... I then went to my external again to my itunes folder and and used command I to see if folder was locked and it wasn't.... it was suggested on another forum to reboot.. which I did and still same problem... All I want to do is link my external hard drive that has my itunes playlist from another Mac to my new one.. and to also use the external as the main source for adding new songs to my playlist...

I imported files from an external hard drive to Itunes on a new computer. they imported & play fine, but the ratings & playlists are gone & i am unable to update any info. I found a file name playlist on old drive & imported now most files are missing!

I imported files from an external hard drive to Itunes on a new computer. they imported & play fine, but the ratings & playlists are gone & i am unable to update any info. I found a file name playlist on old drive & imported now most files are missing! Help!

Can you locate the iTunes Library.itl file on the old drive? Ideally you would have simply copied over the entire iTunes folder structure from <User's Music> on the old computer into <User's Music> on the new one to transfer the library will all playlists, ratings, play counts etc. intact.
tt2

External hard drive, sharing, itunes? Not sure where to post this?

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