Help storing itunes library on an external hard drive

Hi,
I have put all my music on an external hard drive (Lacie) and deleted it from my Mac Book Pro. I have gone into preferences - Advanced in the itunes menu and changed the location of my itunes music folder to my external hard drive. Then when I go to click on a song in itunes it comes up with a message saying "the song ... Could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?".
The file is definitely on my eternal drive because I have checked many times, and its in the folder that I have specified when I go into the itunes - preferences - advanced pane.
Do you know why this would be happening? I have deleted all the music from my computer and it is only on my hard drive now.
Any help would be greatly appreciated, I have spent hours trying to figure this out!

Well that will certainly teach you not to delete your original before you CHECK your new location copy, right?
So, here is the deal. Set the location back to the way it was before you made the move. Close iTunes. Now copy all your stuff back from the external back to the internal the way it was before. Now before you do anything else, open iTunes and CHECK (!!!!!!) that they now play ok back in their original place. Do they?
If they do, now close iTunes and copy the entire "iTunes" folder (not just the iTunes Music folder found inside it) to the external hard drive. Now use these instructions to open the library from this new location...
How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304447
Actually now that I think about it, you might be able to get away with just moving the database file to the external then using the above instructions. In other words, say you copied the "iTunes Music" over originally. On the external create an "iTunes" folder. Drag and drop the "iTunes Music" into that folder. From your internal drive, in the iTunes folder, drag and drop any other files that are not yet on the external drive like the two database files ("iTunes Library" (database file), iTunes Music Library.xml, Album Artwork folder, etc.). Once all over on the external so you have basically recreated your internal folder on the external, NOW try the instructions above to open the library from that location.
Patrick

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Storing iTunes Library on an external hard drive

I have been considering moving my iTunes Library (and iPhoto Library) to an external hard drive. I think that would make it easier for me if I decided to start downloading TV shows and movies. Right now they are too big for my powerbook's 80gb hd to store many. I think I have that part down, but I do not know what to do when I do want to temporarily put a playlist of songs or a couple videos on my laptop and play them in iTunes (or the same for iPhoto). Does anyone have any advice for me? Also, can anyone recommend a good FW800 external HD for the purpose I've described.

Well that will certainly teach you not to delete your original before you CHECK your new location copy, right?
So, here is the deal. Set the location back to the way it was before you made the move. Close iTunes. Now copy all your stuff back from the external back to the internal the way it was before. Now before you do anything else, open iTunes and CHECK (!!!!!!) that they now play ok back in their original place. Do they?
If they do, now close iTunes and copy the entire "iTunes" folder (not just the iTunes Music folder found inside it) to the external hard drive. Now use these instructions to open the library from this new location...
How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304447
Actually now that I think about it, you might be able to get away with just moving the database file to the external then using the above instructions. In other words, say you copied the "iTunes Music" over originally. On the external create an "iTunes" folder. Drag and drop the "iTunes Music" into that folder. From your internal drive, in the iTunes folder, drag and drop any other files that are not yet on the external drive like the two database files ("iTunes Library" (database file), iTunes Music Library.xml, Album Artwork folder, etc.). Once all over on the external so you have basically recreated your internal folder on the external, NOW try the instructions above to open the library from that location.
Patrick

Help! I need to open my iTunes library from my external hard drive

Hey everybody
I recently moved my iTunes library to an external hard drive. It worked great for a while; whenever I opened iTunes I made sure my hard drive was plugged in. Since then, I've used iTunes without plugging the hard drive in to sync my iPhone contacts, so there is also a local iTunes library without any files. My question: how do I tell iTunes to open the library on my external hard drive again? The hard drive is plugged in but iTunes won't open the library on the hard drive. I think there is some key I have to hold down while opening iTunes (?) it's not ctrl or option. Help! Thanks
Ryan

Yep. You're right. My problem was that I wasn't holding the option key down long enough... wow, epic fail... but thanks! I now have my music back!

I have two apple id's one from my old laptop and one from my iPhone. I saved my iTunes library to my external hard drive and then tried to transfer it to my iMac. My music skips like a scratched cd now and I can't add any to my iPhone. Help please!

I have two apple id's one from my old laptop and one from my iPhone. I saved my iTunes library to my external hard drive right before my old mac laptop died and then tried to transfer it to my new iMac. Now when I try to play my old music it skips like a scratched cd. Also, now I can't add any music to my iPhone unless it was purchased recently through itunes and downloaded through icloud. I tried to "Organize" my library in hopes of correcting the problem but my iMac just ejects my external harddrive part way through. Please help!

Ejects the harddrive?
Of what did your old Mac die?
It sounds to me like you have some file corruption somewhere. Either in the transfer of your library to the external or the external itself is flaky if it keeps ejecting.

Transferring iTunes Library to an external hard drive - help needed

I recently moved my iTunes library (aka all of my 32 GB of music) onto an external hard drive so as to save space on my laptop, but I messed up somehow and now I can't add songs to my iPhone. The chain of events went something like this:
1. I copied my iTunes library onto my external hard drive.
2. I changed my iTunes library location (in the itunes settings) to it's new spot on the external.
3. I deleted the songs off my laptop.
This worked fine at first, but then I think I opened iTunes with my external NOT connected and I got a blank library. I plugged in my external but my itunes was still blank. Then I decided I'll just add everything back to my itunes library. I did that, but I lost all my playlists and whatnot, but I didn't really care - all my music was there.
Now I just tried to add new music to my iPhone and it won't let me. When I try to turn manual music management it gives me an error saying "this iPhone is synced with another itunes library".
Is there some way I can retrieve my original itunes library from before I did all this stuff? Help much appreciated.

Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Open iTunes and immediately hold down the option (alt) key (shift on Windows) so you get a prompt to choose a library, then select the copied iTunes folder.
If this is to a new computer and you put the copied iTunes folder in the default location of Macintosh HD > Users > *User Name* > Music then you don't even need to start with the option key held down, iTunes will automatically look for it there. (Make sure there isn't anything already in the iTunes folder there that you want to keep since you will be replacing it with the one you are moving.)

Using my iTunes library from an external hard drive to a brand new Macbook.

This seems to be such a simple thing to be able to do but I'm fearing it's not. Basically I've had an iMac for 3 years and during that time have built up around 165gb in my iTunes folder. So I learnt off the net how to move my library onto an external hard drive so that I can free up the space on my iMac and play my iTunes library from the external drive. So far so good. My iPhone 4 is obviously connected to my iMac and thats how I get my media on and off the phone. Here's where my problems begin.
I've just bought a Macbook Pro. Its obviously empty and has no media on it. I have paired my iPhone 4 with the new Macbook but obviously the iTunes library on my new Macbook is empty. I downloaded a couple of podcasts onto my new machine and tried to put them onto my phone but got a message saying that the podcasts I currently have on my phone (that are on there from my iMac iTunes library) were going to be deleted and the new ones would be put on. Still with me? So, if I could get my original 165gb library thats now on my external hard drive to be seen on my new Macbook that would possibly solve my problems. But I cant see a simple way of doing this. I've pointed the iTunes Media Location folder in the preferences on my new Macbook to the same folder on my external hard drive as is on my iMac but iTunes on my Macbook is not showing up my library. Do I really have to open every album into iTunes on my Macbook seperately? It seems such a stupid, laborious way of doing it. As if you cant have two Apple computers and run one iTunes library off an external hard drive so that its the same on both machines.
Help!
Message was edited by: Eels290776

Eels290776 wrote:
if my external hard drive is not connected to either of my machines, and I download something onto my iMac and then something different onto my Macbook, where are my machines going to be storing the new downloaded media
when the drive is not connected, +iTunes media folder location+ will default back to <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music/iTunes/iTunes music (or media)
and when I next connect the external hard drive how will I easily get the newly downloaded media onto the external HD
you'd have to point +iTunes media folder location+ back to the external via preferences > advanced > iTunes media folder location, then file > library, organize library > consolidate files
and essentially, to have it easily readable on both machines?
in that case it might be best to copy the entire iTunes folder to the external. then, on each machine, launch iTunes while pressing option on your keyboard. when prompted, click on +choose library+ and navigate to the iTunes folder on the external.
note only one iTunes can access the iTunes library @ a time !
also, make sure the external is mounted on either machine before launching iTunes.
JGG

I've copied my itunes library onto an external hard drive. Is there any way I can do this and delete songs from my PC without also deleting from the external drive? Already lost two songs!!!

I've copied my itunes library onto an external hard drive. Is there any way I can do this and delete songs from my PC without also deleting from the external drive? Already lost two songs!!! I just want a back up - using a work PC and don't want others accessing my songs. Hope someone can help. Thanks!

I see. To get a better idea of what is being stored where please download and run the script iTunesInfo which should output something like this:
I'm interested in the block of 4 results starting ITL location. If your profile name shows up somewhere replace it with <Name>. It is also worth checking under Edit > Preferences > Advanced to see where iTunes thinks your media is supposed to go. My script estimates the setting based on the location of the first media file it can actually find.
tt2

Itunes library both on external hard drive and mac.

Hello.
I wish you could help me. I transfered my itunes library to an external hard drive. However, there are times that I would forget to put it back on. Now, there are some files that itunes can't locate.
How do I back up the new files i have on my itunes to the external hard drive.
Thank you very much.
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iTunes content on an external drive isn't a problem.
The simplest method is to just move your library to an external drive.
If you wanted to keep just movies on an external drive, that's a little more difficult. You'd need to put the movies where you want them to reside on the external drive and add drag and drop them onto iTunes while holding down the option key. Obviously any movies already in iTunes would need moving from their current location and removing from iTunes first.

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My DeDuper script is designed to help clean up. See this thread for background.
tt2

Can i store unused iTunes Library on an external Hard-drive?

Hi There,
I have 3 account on my Macbook each have an itunes library on them, the on is use all the time, but the other 2 never change and are never listed to becausethe only used of the laptop!
is there any way I can move the library on to my hard-drive so i can free up space on my laptop, but still have accesses to them if i need to update the 2 of them to put new music on there iphone and ipods?
Thanks and help would be greatly appreciated??
Tom Green

See this Apple note about moving an itunes library to an external hard drive.

How do I move my iTunes library from my external hard drive back to my computer?

Just wondering how do I move my entire iTunes library from my external hard drive back to my computer? It was moved to an external hard drive a few years ago, and now I'm wondering how to move it back to my iMac to increase performance.
Where does it belong in the computer?
Any suggestions?

The library itself is the /Home/Music/iTunes/ folder in its entirety. Did you also change where preference files were stored? Normally, they would be in the /Home/Library/Preferences/ folder.

How do I migrate my itunes library from an external hard drive to my mac mini's internal hard drive?

I have my iTunes library on an external hard drive because my macbook pro's internal hard drive didn't have enough room. I would like to migrate or transfer the itunes files while continuing to keep my playlists. Is there a way to do that with the migration software?

Thank you for your help. My biggest concern is losing all of my sorted music into playlists. I have 124GB of music and resorting it will very difficult. When I moved the itunes library with the help of a supervisor at apple tech to the external HD I had to resort it.
Will it move the entire library and setting as they are now?

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I´d like to copy (note: copy NOT export) my iTunes library to an external hard drive but I just can´t figure out how! It says that the external hard drive can not be changed, therefor I can not drag and drop the iTunes files to it. The external hard drive is called iXternal (80GB). Please help, I´m on a tight dead line!

Select the external drive on the desktop and Get Info (Command-I).
At 'Ownership & Permissions:', click on the small triangle till it points down.
Verify that 'You can Read & Write'.
You should also see a checkbox 'Ignore ownership on this volume'.
If it is not checked, check it.
Hope this helps.
M
17' iMac 800 MHz, 768 MB RAM, 200 GB HD, DL burner Mac OS X (10.4.8) iTunes 7.0.1

How do I authorize my MacBook Pro to add new files to my iTunes library on an external hard drive?

Recently I switched from a PC running Windows XP to a MacBook Pro running OS X 10.5.8. I successfully imported my iTunes library from my external hard drive. The existing files play without a problem, but the computer is preventing me from loading any new music or podcasts onto the external drive. This includes podcasts through iTunes as well as outside sources such as Amazon. I get a message which reads that I am not authorized to make changes. I am the administrator on this computer. What should I do now? Thanks for your help.

What exactly is the message you are seeing?
I successfully imported my iTunes library from my external hard drive. The existing files play without a problem, but the computer is preventing me from loading any new music or podcasts onto the external drive.
This is confusing. If you "import" the library it is on your internal drive, but you say it is on the external. Anyway, I think the drive's the problem. Highlight the drive in Finder and get info on it. If it says it is NTFS format that is a format commonly used with Windows but Macs can only read NTFS format, not write to it. You will either need to reformat the drive (ideally to Mac extended) or buy software which will ket you use NTFS drives with a Mac computer.
NTFS drivers for Macs (there may be others):
Paragon NTFS - http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/ - recommendation: https://discussions.apple.com/message/18708633
Tuxera NTFS 2012.3.2 - http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/33122/tuxera-ntfs
NTFS for Mac OS X 9.5.3 - http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/26288/ntfs-for-mac-os-x
http://macntfs-3g.blogspot.com/ and http://i.vishalagarwal.com/post/30387627819/ntfs-write-on-lion-or-mountain-lion

Help storing itunes library on an external hard drive

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