HELP!!!! Moving Itunes library to External HD.

I want to move the files from my packed machine HD. I have followed steps provided by Apple support, but the files have not loaded back into my ITunes. I currently have the files on the original C: drive AND my new external (F:) drive. I just received a new set of steps to make this transition in ITunes 8. The last two steps involve moving the files from C: and putting them in the recycle bin, then emptying the bin. I really don't want to do this until I know the songs are going to load back properly.
Note: I am working on this issue thru a remote connection for one of my family members. I can understand that when I click on a song, it might play, but I am not going to hear it. However, the song does not play on the original end either. The songs time clicks by like it is almost fast forwarding. But, no audio is being played.
Anyone else had this issue?
Any advice?
HELP!

Beetle73
You have to make sure the exHD is plugged in and running BEFORE starting itunes, or it will revert back to the C: drive.
You also need to make sure Windows is always using the same exact drive letter for the exHD. For instance, if you plug a digital camera in, Windows might change your exHD letter from F: to G: and itunes will still be looking at F:
Use Windows Disk Management to permanently assign the drive letter
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307844

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Moved iTunes Library to External Hard Drive - having trouble - HELP!

I have had quite the ordeal...upgraded my Mac iBook G4 from os 9 to os x 10 Tiger.
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I moved my iTunes library to the external hard drive. Everything seems to be jim dandy...except that when I go to play a music file...the computer does not recognize the file.
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Help - moved itunes folders to external drive and now my itunes is totally

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iTunes uses the iTunes Library files - in particular the iTunes Library.itl file - to keep track of where your song files are located as well as playlist and related information.
Most likely in moving your folders around iTunes has been confused to such an extent that it created a new Library file. With a bit of luck you might still be able to find the old file which would restore your old Library.
So the first thing you want to do is look around your computer and make a note of any iTunes Library.itl files you can find. Generally speaking you'll find them in the iTunes folders on your system and depending on how you've been moving the folders - i.e. whether you "cut" them or "copied" them - you may still find at least one one on your F: drive and some on your C: drive.
Having noted where they are you know want to check each of them out as described in this article in the Apple Knowledge Base. In following those instructions you want to select the Choose Library option and use the pop-up window that appears to zero in on the various .itl files you've located.
Remember that each Library file will show a different Library in iTunes - perhaps slightly different, perhaps completely different - and if the first one isn't what you're looking for you'll have to close iTunes and repeat the procedure by selecting one of the other .itl's.
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Moved iTunes Library to External - Now What?

Moved my iTunes Library to an external hard drive, following the steps provided by the Apple Support.
Everything works fine, but now I want to delete my iTunes Library from my internal hard drive to make more room (approximately 60 gb).
Step 13 has the following:
After the folder has been copied, locate your original iTunes Music folder, and drag it to the Trash or Recycle Bin. Note: Don't remove the iTunes library files that may be in the same location as the iTunes Music folder. For more information about the iTunes library files, see this article.
Went to the Finder / Music / iTunes /:
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None of the folders is showing anything near the size of 60 gb.
So far I only noticed an increase on my internal hard drive of 5 gb gained.
Sorry if this subject has been addressed before. I promise I did do a search on both google and the forum.
Thanks for you help!
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Of course after I post the question, I find the answer...Thanks

Moved itunes library to external HD now major issues

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Moved iTunes Library to external drive- now can't move iPad purchase to Mac

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Moving iTunes library to external HD - all messed up

My C: HD ran out of space and my iTunes library was the biggest part so I decided to move it to an external HD. For reasons too complex to go into I have several. I followed the instructions in the "Help" feature of iTunes before I learned that there was a longer (and completely different) set of instructions on this website. I moved the contents (not the directory) as instructed from "C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music" to "H:\NewMusic". I then changed the reference in Edit->Preferences->Advanced to the new location. I reopened iTunes and it was blank. No music, no playlists. I tried copying things back and reset the reference but nothing. As a safety measure I copied the music to another hard drive but no matter what I do, or where I point iTunes nothing changes.
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I'm taking long deep breaths to keep from yelling and cursing. I read the article and found that nothing would work but putting everything (23 GB) back on my C: drive. I had to move other folders and finally put everything back. Then the original (I suppose) iTunes library seemed to work. Still I had to move and/or re-identify dozens of items. Finally everything worked. I then used the "correct" instructions and moved everything. All seemed okay. I tested everything and it worked. I then did the final instruction - to delete the original iTunes Music folder. Not the iTunes folder on C: - but the iTunes music folder. Now everything is GONE again. The lists in iTunes show everything but nothing will play because it doesn't know where anything is. I can only assume that the iTunes library was in the iTunes Music folder that the instructions said to erase. And no my Recycle bin is not active. several years ago I got tired of running out of disk space and having to erase everything twice. I have tried opening iTunes with everying iTunes Library file on every disk I have and nothing works. So I have to do everything all over again.
Not asking for advice. Not blaming anyone. Just saying.

Moving iTunes Library to external HD--song could not be used

I wanted to move my iTunes library to an external HD, because my internal drive was running out of space. I looked around on here and found directions how to move my iTunes Library to an external hard drive. I followed those directions, and everything seemed copacetic the first time I started iTunes after the move and pointed it at the moved library. Songs played and everything was great.
But tall subsequent times I've started iTunes, I get the dreaded "song could not be used because the original file could not be found" message for every song I've tried.
I looked around on the discussion boards here some more, and seem to be seeing that there is no general solution. There's no good way to tell iTunes, "Go match up all the lines in the iTunes database with all the song titles in such-and-such a location."
I also read the article about "What are the iTunes Library files." I see that there are 2 basic files. One is a database file called "iTunes Library," and the second is a text file called "iTunes Library.xml." I opened up the XML file and looked around a bit. Here is what I find:
Every song in the XML file seems to be referred to with a relative path, such as: <string>file://localhost/Users/rodney/Music/iTunes/iTunes%20Music/Krys%20Mach,%20Jo%20Az usa,%20Jerome%20Mokar/Native%20Spirit/01%20Cave%20Dweller.m4a</string>
The thing is, that's not the right path, unless localhost happens to be pointed at my external HD, which I don't know why it would be.
I suspect that this is the exact same problem inside the database file, too.
I'm looking around for a definition of localhost... the only thing I'm finding is in /etc/hosts, which looks like:
127.0.0.1 localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1 localhost
I think it's odd that localhost is in there twice, but maybe that's normal.
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Rodney

I don't know if this is at all useful to other people having similar problems, but I did get all my songs back more or less, and this is how:
1) With iTunes shut down, I went into my iTunes directory (ExternalHD/Users/rodney/Music/iTune), and moved my "iTunes Library" and "iTunes Library.xml" files to someplace else.
2) I started iTunes while holding down the Option key.
3) When iTunes popped the "Quit / Create New Library / Choose Library" dialog, I selected "Create New". I chose the path back to where my original iTunes Library used to live and where my music is; ExternalHD/Users/rodney/Music/iTunes.
4) iTunes started up with a completely blank library. I went and looked in the above directory, and yes, there was now a very small "iTunes Library" file there.
5) Under the File menu in iTunes, I chose "Add to Library". I then navigated to the location of all my music, which was ExternalHD/Users/rodney/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music.
6) When I selected this folder, iTunes started going through a bunch of gyrations of scanning, organizing, adding... I don't know what all it thought it was doing, but it finished 24 GB of music in about 3 minutes.
And now my music is all playable again! Of course, all my playlists are toast... completely gone, since they were in the old library.
The thing I notice is that iTunes moved all the artist folders... For instance, my album by the group Baka used to be in "ExternalHD/Users/rodney/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Baka" with previous versions of iTunes, but now iTunes 8 seems to want to flatten that out and it moved that directory to reside at "ExternalHD/Users/rodney/Music/iTunes/Baka". So, while it works, it looks messy. I liked it better when all the artist folders were down a level in the directory /iTunes Music/. Then the only things in the iTunes folder were the database files, a few other files iTunes has created over the years, and the iTunes Music folder.
But whatever... at least I don't have to add thousands of songs back into iTunes manually.
Just as a side note, I took a clue from the directory flattening out, and I tried one other thing: I put all the artist folders back down in the /iTunes Music/ folder, and I moved my original "iTunes Library" files down into that folder too. Then on startup, I tried pointing iTunes at the original library which was now down one level. But that didn't help... the individual song paths in that database are apparently still pointing onto my internal HD.
Rodney

Sync problems since moving iTunes library to external HD

My wife's MacBook Pro is the syncing computer for our house. Since she moved her library to an external drive we have had to start all over. iTunes is current. In preferences the library is mapped correctly to where it resides on the external drive. The sync begins and then almost immediately stops with an error message that the file type (music and TV shows total of 100 errors) is not supported by this Apple TV. The Apple TV has been reauthorized in iTunes Store. I am as I write this syncing the photos, but since they are in iPhoto, that seems to work fine. I disabled the syncing of music for this sync until I get this figured out. The cover art for all the movies and TV shows is not available. All of this content synced fine before the change to the external drive. I suspect that once the photos are done syncing the TV shows and movies won't sync because the above mentioned error messages will prevent this from happening.
Any help much appreciated.
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Hi Winston,
After 4 hours of futzing around and finally fixing, I found my answer on the iTunes forum. Simply mapping the external drive which now has the content to iTunes, is not enough. All that does is tell iTunes where to put new purchases. The library list is there, but when trying to play or sync anything, there is an alert exclamation mark. When you click on that it tells you that the song can't be found and asks would you like to find it. I knew something was wrong when none of the cover art was available. So I did a test and "found" 2 missing songs, and 2 TV shows. The exclamation mark then disappeared next to each, the songs played, and I tried to sync just the aforementioned content, and that worked perfectly.
So now I'm faced (since I didn't know how to do this, and frankly still don't have the easy answer) with "finding" every single piece of content manually. Yikes!. So I found on the iTunes forum the "add to library" command and everything shows up fine and plays fine except that I now have duplicates of everything. One each of the exclamation point and one of the real content. LOTS! 1000 plus songs, 2 dozen movies 100 plus TV shows, audio books, podcasts.
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The sync took quite a long time, about 9 hours, because there is alot of video content, but it's all on the TV now. Everything! Phew!
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Many thanks for your help.
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HELP! iTunes library on external HD mysteriously lost!!

Help!
I have about 3 times as much music on my Lacie HD as I do on my computer, and when I just opened it up, the entire iTunes library was gone! This morning, everything was there, and now it's gone! Anyone know how this could have happened? The backup of my iPhoto library is there, as well as some documents, etc., but no iTunes! Where could it have gone? The thing that worries me, is I connected my iPod to my computer through the HD for the first time in months, and the iPod did not show up in the desktop or in iTunes...I'm really this didn't cause anything that can't be undone...Anyone ever have anything like this happen? I'm desperate...

Biene Maya wrote:
what i have to choose "create" or "choose" library?
neither !
i have a folder on an external HD with all my music inside
can you let us know how you moved the folder to your external HD ? did you just just the finder to copy the folder across or did you consolidate your library ?
JGG

Help managing iTunes library on external hard drive

I moved my iTunes library to a WD Mybook Live in order to free up disk space on my main computer. But in the process of transferring the library to the external hard drive, I accidentally made duplicates of each song. I want to delete the extra songs, but the "Show Duplicate Items" command isn't working when I try to use it on the library on my external hard drive. (That command works fine for songs stored on the local hard drive of the computer, but the command is "dimmed" and not clickable when I try to use it for the library on the external hard hard drive.) Also, I notice that I cannot use iTunes to delete songs on the external hard drive. (However, I *can* delete songs on the external hard drive manually by using Windows Explorer.) So I'm puzzled. How can I use the "Show Duplicate Items" command to help me delete thousands of duplicate songs on my external hard drive? Does iTunes disallow certain kinds of access to shared libraries? Why would iTunes not let me delete these songs when I can go into Windows Explorer and delete them. Help! Thanks. (I'm running iTunes 11.1)

As long as you don't have an existing library that is synced with a device or holds oodles of carefully crafted playlists, ratings etc. then...
Hold down shift as you start iTunes. You should get an option to choose or create a library. Click create, browse to root of the external drive and click save so that your library is say X:\iTunes where X: is the letter of your external drive. All new content downloaded to the library will stay on the external drive.
See this user tip for a backup strategy.
tt2

No success moving iTunes library to external hard drive

I'm trying to move my iTunes library to an external hard drive to free up some space on my laptop. I'm working on a Macbook running OSX 10.8.2 and trying to transfer the library to a WD My Passport for Mac (which is optimized for Mac OS Extended). I followed all of the steps in this article from apple: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449. When I reopen iTunes, as instructed in step 15, I get the message that "The folder containing "iTunes Library" cannot be found, and is required. Please choose or create a new iTunes library." In the article, it just says that if you get that message, then take your old library back out of the trash. It offers no real solution! I don't want to keep my iTunes library on my Macbook! I've tried holding down the option key when opening iTunes and choosing the folder on the external drive. When I do that I get this message: "An iTunes library file could not be found in the folder "iTunes 1" (which is what I called it). Please choose a different folder." What am I doing wrong? This should be a simple process!

I just want to clarify: Your library had been moved to an external, but your database files are still where they ought to be, right? In the home / music / iTunes folder?
If not, try putting these files back in the Music / iTunes folder in your user folder.
/Users/username/Music/iTunes/iTunes Library.itl
/Users/username/Music/iTunes/iTunes Library.xml
Keep the media on the external drive. If you get a message about missing content, go to preferences and make sure that the library location points to your external drive's itunes folder.

Moved iTunes library to external drive

NOTE: I have the most recent version of iTunes (as of 14 DEC 08).
I moved my iTunes library to an external hard drive. The music videos I purchased shows an exclamation icon next to them. Is there a way I can reference all those videos to their new location on the external hard drive? Or is the only way to do it is one at a time? Thanks!

No longer an issue.

Moving iTunes Library to external hard drive when iTunes can't consolidate.

Hi guys, hope you can help.
I want to move my whole iTunes library to an external hard drive and then delete it all from my laptop, and from reading around I realise I have to consolidate the library into the iTunes music folder. However, as my internal hard drive on my laptop is completely full, iTunes won't let me do this, saying I don't have enough space. Is getting the libary into the iTunes music folder the only way of getting it onto the external hard drive?
I can't really free up much space on the laptop as most of it (45 out of 60Gb) is the music I want to transfer!
Thanks very much!

Over half of my stuff isn't there.
Isn't where? In iTunes or not in the iTunes folder?\>Is it possible to copy the iTunes music folder from my laptop to the external, and consolidate from iTunes directly onto there?
Why not do as I posted above? Point iTunes prefs Advanced to the external then consolidate. Everything will be consolidated to the external.
You can then delete \Music\iTunes\Media\ folder and hunt around the internal and delete all the other songs that were not in the iTunes folder.

I am having trouble moving itunes library to external hard drive

It is a WD My book essential external hard drive (1 tb) that I just bought. I already have a ton of files I put on from my PC and I want to get my itunes library from my mac. When I try and drag the itunes folder into the hard drive folder it says somthing like "Can not move 'itunes' because 'music' can not be modified'" help please. Not sure about the oporating system I added below.

i'm guessing but could the WD be NTFS formatted ?
if so, your Mac can only read from, but not write to it. you may have to install the NTFS 3G driver for it to work.
to install the driver, you need to be on OS X 10.4.11 !

File Vault: Moving iTunes library to external HD

I am using File Vault (ouch!) but I would like - for space reasons - to move my iTunes library to two external HDs (preferably copy first, then test, then delete original from internal HD).
Firstly, I tried while logged in as Administrator (with File Vault active).
When I tried to follow the steps in the procedure "iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Music Folder" I reached Step 5 (the Change Music Folder Location window) but the New Folder button was greyed out.
Next I tried again while logged in as a different user - again Administrator but without File Vault - but this time I could not seem to get access to my real iTunes (instead I got the actually empty default iTunes for that second non-File Vault Adminstrator user).
What am I missing ? My apologies if it is terribly obvious! - Thanks

Hi Chuck,
Ya know, I've never heard of anyone using Filevault AND moving the iTunes folder... I wonder if it would even work, since Filevault is designed to keep everything within... just a thought should we not succeed here!
First thing I'd try is just making that "New Folder" outside of iTunes first, then in that procedure see if the "Choose" button works inside that folder.

HELP!!!! Moving Itunes library to External HD.

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