HELP, RAN OUT OF SPACE! TRANSFER SONGS TO EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE (xhd)

I spent forever filling my iPod video with digitized songs from my CD collection and have many songs left that didn't fit. I bought a Lacie XHD as a library so that I can move all the songs back and forth from my iPod to the External Hard Drive on an as needed basis.
I still have the ORIGINAL songs saved on 3 different PCs all with an authorized copy of iTunes. I now have ran out of space on 3 computers and 1 iPod Video and promised my wife that I would get rid of all the CDs months ago.
The problem is that I have tried different fixes, programs that were recommended but the tags, iTunes reading of the xhd, etc. get screwed up along the way.
What is the best way to simplify this swap?
Any help is most appreciated!
Thanks.....
Dell Windows XP

I am afraid you question is not very clear.
I understand you correctly you have iTunes installed on three different computers each with their own libraries of music.
Is there any duplication of files between the computers or are they all different? I am going to assume there is no duplication.
You want to transfer all the music files to an external drive.
Do you mind losing play counts, ratings and playlists? I am not sure that it is possible to retain all the information from all the separate library databases, but you could retain one. Let’s call that computer A.
So here is one way of doing it.
You need to have all your music in the iTunes Music folder on computer A, and if it isn’t you need to consolidate.
With iTunes closed, copy the iTunes folder from My Music on computer A onto the external drive. Now start iTunes with the shift key held down. When asked to choose a library navigate to the iTunes folder on the external drive and choose iTunes Library.itl.
You should now have a duplicate iTunes running on the external drive.
Now go to Edit>Preferences>Advanced>General
Make sure that “Keep iTunes Music folder organised” and “Copy to iTunes Music folder when adding to library” are checked.
Now close iTunes and eject the external drive and plug it into the second PC. Start iTunes with the shift key held down and choose iTunes library.itl on the external drive. Now use add folder to library to add the iTunes Music folder on the internal drive to iTunes. If you have music files in other folder add those too.
Now repeat the process on the third PC.
You should now be able to use the amalgamated library on any of the three PCs by plugging the external drive.
Does that sound as though it is what you want to do?

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Library Help - ran out of space

Please bare with a non-savvy user here, but i can't translate the help docs and the attempts i've made haven't been successful.
In a nutshell:
* My laptop is out of room and i have existing downloads pending (some movies which are huge!) ... so my PC is out of space
* I have an external drive with 50 gigs open.
Can i have two libraries - my PC for music and my drive for movies?
or can i just move everything to the external ... but what do i do about the pending download files?
Ideally - i'd like to still have the music on my PC and the extra on the drive.
but i can't get this approach to work ... is it even an option, or can you only have 1 single storage location?
THanks for any tips and how to do it!

Welcome to AD!
Since you said yourself that you're a non-savvy itunes user, my advice is to stick with one location for all the iTunes content.
You also said the help documents don't help. I agree, they are difficult to understand sometimes. Here is a good article from iLounge on moving your media files to a new drive. The itunes program and database stay on the C: drive - but they don't take up much room, so you should be fine.
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive/
If the iLounge article doesn't make much sense, you can simply change your itunes preferences so all future downloads will go to the exHD. That would include your pending downloads, they would be sent to the exHD.
This will put your music in two places. Everything you have to day will still be on the C: drive and anything new will be on the exHD. So just be aware of that.
itunes preferences > advanced tab > itunes music folder
You would browse it to a folder on the exHD.

I've run out of space on my computer's hard drive. How can I clear up?

I need to remove a few gig of data on my laptop. But I don't want anything to be deleted from my iPOD.
I called the local Apple store, where the CSR said, "if you delete a tv show that you bought from iTunes you will be able to download it again at a later date."
Tested that out with an old episode of Lost. But now the episode is lost because when I tried to download again, I got the message that you 1) can't download again but 2) can burn to CD/DVD. Only that second option failed for me when I tried to burn copies of 30 Rock: I was told I did have a license to make a backup.
The CSR asked if she could research the issue and then hung up rather than put me on hold.
So I called again and got India instead of the local store. He said I could manually sync the iPOD and that would give me the control I needed.
Plugged in the iPOD, unselected "Sync music" from the appropriate tab. And iTunes warned: if you do this, we will delete every playlist and song on your iPod. So the EXACT opposite of what I want.
Possibly the only factual information I got from the second rep was that he would charge me $29.99 to answer the question.
So I'm hoping someone on the forum knows how to do this.
I'd be fantastically disappoitned if Apple has not given us a way to do this, epecially since their license/subscription model is what's kept me from backing up to CD anyway.
Thanks
Scott

*unselected "Sync music" from the appropriate tab. And iTunes warned: if you do this, we will delete every playlist and song on your iPod*
To change to manually managing an iPod you don't "unselect" sync music, you "select" manually manage songs and videos. If you want to delete songs from iTunes and keep them on the iPod you need to change the update option of your iPod by checking the box beside "manually manage songs and videos" in the Summary tab and clicking Apply. Your iPod will not sync with iTunes in this mode so it can have different content, you can get details here:
Managing content manually on iPod
iPod 101: Fill 'er Up
One major word of caution. If you delete songs or videos from your computer and have no back up other than the iPod you will risk losing them permanently if your iPod fails or you find you have to restore it to solve a problem. You should consider investing in an additional internal or external hard drive to store/back up your music. Alternatively at the very least back up anything you can't replace such as iTunes downloads to CD or DVD: How to back up your media in iTunes
Something else to be aware of when using an iPod in manual mode is that the "Do Not Disconnect" message will remain on the display until you physically eject the device. In that case use Safely Remove Hardware icon in the Windows system tray on your desktop or check this link: Safely Disconnect IPod
I don't have any TV shows so I can't speak from experience here but looking at the TV tab it appears you can only sync shows, there's no manually manage option. Syncing would require that you keep the shows on your computer otherwise they would be removed from the iPod the next time you syncronised with iTunes.

Songs on external hard drive

So I am trying to put all my songs on to an external hard drive because I have too many songs and it slows down my computer. My goal is to have all 25,000+ songs on a external drive as well as keep a couple albums on my internal drive just for when I want to play something from my computer (but these couple albums will also be on the external drive, to make it easier to sync the ipod when plugged in). I am struggling in doing this. Several people from the boards have tried to help me out. First someone suggested this website (http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=relocateselected) but in order to do this I need iTunes 10, which for some reason I can not update to (I have tried to but it keeps saying my iTunes is up to date and no downloads are needed). Then I found this tutorial
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Quit iTunes.
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Hold Option and launch iTunes.
Select Choose library... and select the iTunes folder on the external.
Which worked in copying songs over and getting my iTunes to choose only the external drive folder but now I can't open iTunes without my external drive connected. As I mentioned my goal is to be able to plug in my iPod and external hard drive in at the same time, and sync the ipod that way, while having just a couple albums in iTunes to be able to play without having the external hard drive plugged in all the time. I hope this all makes sense. Is this possible and if so, can someone please help me, I have been trying to accomplish this for weeks.
Thanks!

If you have itunes preferences set to "copy files to itunes music folder when adding to library" that is what it will do. Uncheck the item and it will leave the music wherever you have it located. However, simply playing it with iTunes will add it to the itunes library and if you don't want it to do that then you will have to play it with Quicktime. Furthermore, unchecking the box will leave the file on the external drive but if the external is disconnected when you start itunes the track will have an ! next to it.

Copying songs onto external hard drive

So I am trying to put all my songs on to an external hard drive because I have too many songs and it slows down my computer. My goal is to have all 25,000+ songs on a external drive as well as keep a couple albums on my internal drive just for when I want to play something from my computer (but these couple albums will also be on the external drive, to make it easier to sync the ipod when plugged in). I am struggling in doing this. Several people from the boards have tried to help me out. First someone suggested this website (http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=relocateselected) but in order to do this I need iTunes 10, which for some reason I can not update to (I have tried to but it keeps saying my iTunes is up to date and no downloads are needed). Then I found this tutorial
(http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive/) and have tried to follow it to transfer the songs over, including consolidating the files, etc. but I can't get that to work. Next someone suggested following these steps:
Quit iTunes.
Copy the entire /Music/iTunes/ folder to the external.
Hold Option and launch iTunes.
Select Choose library... and select the iTunes folder on the external.
Which worked in copying songs over and getting my iTunes to choose only the external drive folder but now I can't open iTunes without my external drive connected. As I mentioned my goal is to be able to plug in my iPod and external hard drive in at the same time, and sync the ipod that way, while having just a couple albums in iTunes to be able to play without having the external hard drive plugged in all the time. I hope this all makes sense. Is this possible and if so, can someone please help me, I have been trying to accomplish this for weeks.
Thanks!

You may find these Links of Interest...
Moving iTunes Media Folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449
http://macmost.com/moving-your-itunes-media-to-an-external-drive.html

How can I transfer Itunes from external hard drive to a new computer?

Hello,
I had a Dell laptop with Windows XP on it recently crash, but I have everything saved to a Seamagine external 1 terabyte hard drive. I have about 250 gigabytes of media on it, mostly CD's and audiobooks. The setup I had on the XP computer was my Itunes folder saved on the C drive, but I kept all the actual music and audiobooks on the external hard drive, which was labeled the F drive.
After the crash, a relative sold me their three year old Compaq laptop, with Windows 7 instead of XP as the OS. My relative already had Itunes downloaded on it, but when I opened the Itunes on the new (new to me) laptop, Itunes only recognized their (my relative's) account. So, I uninstalled their Itunes and then I re-downloaded Itunes for 64-bit Windows 7. I then opened the Windows Explorer folder so to drag and drop my backed up Itunes folder and library information from the old C drive to the new Itunes folder in the new C drive. But, it wouldn't do anything. It still wanted the password info from my relative's account. It wouldn't recognize my account, even though I had uninstalled and then reinstalled a newer version of Itunes. Dragging and dropping my backed-up Itunes folder from my external hard drive to the new C drive didn't work because it said it didn't have certain permissions or something like that. I think I might have downloaded a newer version of Itunes, different from what I had saved a couple of days ago, which might be one of the problems here, not to mention that I switched OS's from XP to Windows 7.
When I plugged the external hard drive USB into the new laptop no Seamagine manager came up for user-friendly accessibility. I didn't know what to do, so I installed Seagate Dashboard onto the new computer. It didn't do anything for me either. No problem, I thought, I'll just use Windows Explorer to move the Itunes library, and then once I transfer (i.e., drag and drop) the old Itunes folder to the one, all will be as it was. I could then direct my Itunes account to use my external hard drive as the media source folder. I was wrong. It won't let me do that either. It says I don't have permission to do it.
How c an I get my old Itunes library info onto the C drive of this new computer, but keep the 250GB of media files on the external hard drive, just like the setup I had on the old laptop before it crashed? If you can help me, then you will be my hero. I'm scared to death that I've lost my library info and afraid to mess with it too much more for fear of erasing it or, worse, losing the 250 GB of media that is on the external hard drive, which has taken me a tremendous amount of time and money to compile. It is, in effect, irreplaceable. I'm very worried and frustrated. I've been working on this for days, to no avail. You're my last hope. Thank you.

Hmm, I think we should start over...
Here are the typical layouts for the iTunes folders:
In the image above the red outline denotes the "media folder", that is the folder listed under Edit > Preferences > Advanced. In the standard layout where the "media folder" is inside the "library folder" the iTunes library has the advantage of being self-contained and portable. Since you've lost the "library folder" from your old computer you're going to have to start over so you might as well get organized properly.
If the folder curently holding your media files is called G:\iTunes then rename it as G:\Media.
The support doc How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one explains how to create a new iTunes library where you want it. In short click the icon to start iTunes and immediately press and hold down the shift key. Keep holding until asked to choose or create a library, click Create and browse to G:\, make sure the folder is going to be called iTunes and click save.
Move the folder that actually holds the media inside the folder G:\iTunes\iTunes Media. We're going to let iTunes reorganize everything (unless you have a collection of .wav files in which case stop and tell me because they require a different approach).
Use File > Add folder to library and select the folder G:\iTunes\iTunes Media. iTunes will search through the whole series of subfolders adding all media files into the library and reorganizing them into the correct artist & album folders.
Again, for data security, you really ought to obtain a second external drive at some point and backup your library to it. Only having one copy, as you have found, leaves you vulnerable to failure. External drives are no less prone to it.
A) Windows uses \ as a folder separator in path descriptions, Mac uses /.
B) Do you have a backup of the iTunes folder that was on drive C:\ or are you simply referring to the location of your media as a "backup" when it really the only copy? If you have a backup copy of your "original" iTunes library you could move/copy that to G:\iTunes shift-start-iTunes to open it, and then I can offer tools or techniques for fixing the links that will be broken becuase the drive letter has changed.
C) Use Store > Sign out and then Store > Sign in to sign into your iTunes account. You will also need to use Store > Authorize the computer to allow playback and transfer of any protected content. If your new library contains protected content from any other accounts then you will have to authorize the computer for those too.
tt2

Can't transfer files to External Hard Drive

I'm trying to transfer files to an external hard drive, Free Agent, which I was freely able to do from my pc.
Get Info on the hard drive gives me, Sharing & Permissions: You can only read.
I went into Sharing in System Pref. Added the hard drive and all it's folders to Shared Folders. Put a tick in File Sharing. And under Users it says that the System Admin. can Read & Write.
But I am still unable to transfer files to the H.D. Holding down CMD doesn't help nothing; they just go flying back to the orig. folder!
Where do I go next? Thanks.

Make sure the file format of the new hard drive is the same as supported by Mac OS
Is that HDD formatted with NTFS? Check it out via selecting the HDD icon and pressing CMD+I and look under format.
FAT32
Read/Write FAT32 from both native Windows and native Mac OS X.
No individual file larger than 4GB.
NTFS
Read/Write NTFS from native Windows.
Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X
To Read/Write NTFS from Leopard: Install MacFUSE and NTFS-3G. You can install both with NTFS-3G for Mac OS X.
To Read/Write NTFS from Snow Leopard: Guide: Enable native NTFS Read/Write in Snow Leopard
(Be aware that some are of the opinion that enabling native NTFS in SL is unstable/unreliable, and favor the MacFuse/NTFS-3G method for Snow Leopard)
HFS
Read/Write HFS from native Mac OS X
To Read/Write HFS from Windows, Install MacDrive
To Read HFS (but not Write) from Windows, Install HFSExplorer

Backing up songs to External Hard Drive

When i first bought my external hard drive, I slid my entire itunes folder into the external hard drive to save all my songs.
My question is, what is the best way to save ONLY the new songs onto your external hard drive?
I don't think it would be necessary to slide the entire music folder AGAIN into my external hard drive, just for two new songs that I added.
Thanks.
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Empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash
Hopefully it's not been too long since you last upgraded iTunes, in fact if you get an empty/incomplete library immediately after upgrading then with the following steps you shouldn't normally lose a thing or need to do any further housekeeping. Note that in iTunes 11 an "empty" library may show your past purchases with links to stream or download them.
In the Previous iTunes Libraries folder should be a number of dated iTunes Library files. Take the most recent of these and copy it into the iTunes folder. Rename iTunes Library.itl as iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl and then rename the restored file as iTunes Library.itl. Start iTunes. Should all be good, bar any recent additions to or deletions from your library.
Alternatively, depending on exactly when and why the library went missing, there may be a more recent .tmp file in the main iTunes folder that can be renamed as iTunes Library.itl to restore the library to a recent state.
See iTunes Folder Watch for a tool to catch up with any changes since the backup file was created.
When you get it all working make a backup!
Should you be in the unfortunate position where you are no longer able to access your original library, or a backup of it, then see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
Would you mind telling me which anti-virus package you use? It may be that it is disturbing iTunes when it tries to write out the fresh database, as it does after almost any activity with your library. I'm noticing more of this type of problem than usual and trying to see if there is any pattern. It may help to prevent a repeat of the problem if you look at the advanced options for your AV package and see if you can find a way to exclude the main iTunes library folder (and subfolders if possible) from any real-time scanning process.
tt2

Exclamation Point for Songs on External Hard Drive

This should be pretty straight-forward, but I've been searching for the past two hours and haven't found anything to solve this issue.
I have my entire music library (35,000+ songs/320 GB) on an external hard drive. I plugged my iPod into my PC to charge it and didn't have the external hard drive connected and the message *"Some of the items in the iTunes library, including [song name], were not copied to the iPod [ipod name] because they could not be found"* and every song that was in my playlist shows the dreaded "!" exclamation point next to it.
I've disconnected the iPod, connected the external hard drive, and reconnected the iPod only to get the same results.
How do I get iTunes to remap all the exclamation point songs without:
1. Consolidating my entire library to my PCs hard drive (which doesn't have enough storage)?
2. Manually re-mapping hundreds/thousands of songs?
3. Deleting and re-adding every song in my library (takes 4-6 hours)?
Some additional details (just in case):
Windows XP
iTunes 9.1.1.12
3rd Generation 4GB Nano
There has to be a simple way to address this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the replies and the detailed information. I appreciate the assistance but remapping the drive letter won't help. My iTunes library is still completely visible and per the XML file, the library location (not the physical music file location) is on the C: drive, which is correct. For whatever reason, when iTunes couldn't find the hundreds/thousands of songs that were on my playlist it changed the file path of just those files to file://localhost/E: from the original file path (which was F:/music/...). The external HD is still mapped to F:.
Any file that wasn't on my playlist is fine. What I need to know is how to get iTunes to find those hundreds/thousands of songs that were on my playlist and get rid of the exclamation point. This should be a pretty cut and dried case:
1. iTunes recognizes all the file paths of all the songs on the external HD
2. I plug in my iPod without the hard drive plugged in
3. All the songs on my playlist (and only the songs on my playlist) are now flagged with an exclamation point and won't open unless I physically browse for them.
4. All other songs not on my playlist still play/synch without issue.
This is a simple situation...does anybody have a simple solution? I can't be the only person out there that is encountering this.
Thanks in advance!

The cause of duplicate songs with external hard drive??

I would love to eliminate this annoying problem... I keep my itunes music library on an external hard drive, so when my old g4 died and I got a Macbook I added the old song library to my new library. Almost all of the songs added in duplicates, triplets, and more. I tried to rectify the problem... but it's just gotten worse. And it does the same thing again each time I add something new. I have no idea why this is happening... does iTunes think I have two libraries? In which case, why do I have multiple libraries? There are so many songs that there is no way I could go through and delete multiples. Help please?

My music has done the same thing. Moving my music library to an external firwire Lacie hard drive has made duplicates. I'm sorry it has happened to you but am happy to know it wasn't just me.
Still haven't figured out why.........

How do I transfer data from external hard drive to new computer

We had been using a PC with XP that had four different users and ITune libraries. It was attacked by viruses that got deep in op system and could not be fixed. We purchased a new PC with Windows 8. I had transfered the itune files by copying them from the hard drive to a external hard drive. Is there a way to transfer the files from the external hard drive to the iTunes that I just downloaded onto the new computer. I thought that it would be as easy as copying the files from the external hard drive to the iTunes file on the new computer but this did not work. If I go into iTunes and select copy file from library it will import the file just file but I really don't want to copy thousands of files one by one. However, when I try to open those files I get an error message. We have two iPads and four iPod Touches. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I found a posted answer from someone else who asked the same question and it worked. It said to copy the entire file that was saved on the external hard drive to the my music folder before ever opening ITunes that was newly installed and it worked.

Transfer files from External Hard Drive to PC?

Sadly, my iBook g4 1.2 GHz (2005) is on the fritz (see my other question on Apple Discussions if you're curious as to why) and so I must get a new laptop. Unfortunately, I can't afford any of the Macs available, and so will be purchasing a PC. I have been using a 250GB external hard drive to store my iTunes library (about 25GB, too much for my iBook's 30 GB HD to handle) and as a Time Machine. I need to know how to be able to put all of my music and docs onto the new PC. Would it be best to not use TM and just put everything I want on the external HD and then access it from the PC? Alternatively, I do have a small home wireless network (using an Airport Express)...if that's the better option, how do I use it to transfer files? Any help would be wonderful!

The easiest solution is to erase the external hard drive and re-partition it to use on the PC:
Extended Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to MS-DOS. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to MBR then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
Open iTunes and de-authorize your computer.
Copy your iTunes library in it's entirety (/Home/Music/iTunes/ folder) to the drive along with any other data you wish to transfer.
See the following about how to convert your iTunes library for the PC:
Macworld - How to transfer iTunes libraries between PC and Mac;
Geek to Live- How to move an iTunes library from a PC to Mac (and back).

HELP, RAN OUT OF SPACE! TRANSFER SONGS TO EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE (xhd)

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