Help with transferring ITunes media files to external HD

Hi!
I'm trying to free up space on my MacBook by moving all my ITunes media files to an external HD.
I followed the support instructions which told me to go to ITunes preferences, advanced, and choose a new location for the files. I did that part and files were copied across to the external HD. However, the next step is to move the original files from my macbook into the trash. I've gone to home/music/Itunes to delete the originals, but they don't seem to be exactly the same as the ones copied across to the eternal HD..? For instance, the size of the ITunes folder is different, and inside the folder some files are not there, and all the music is not there either (in the external HD copied location).
I'd just like to know I'm going to be deleting the right files before I do it, so if anyone can help that would be really appreciated.

For instance, the size of the ITunes folder is different, and inside the folder some files are not there, and all the music is not there either (in the external HD copied location).
Then the first thing to do would be to consolidate your new iTunes library as well: Open your new iTunes Library in iTunes and
Open iTunes Preferences:
Mac: Choose iTunes > Preferences.
Click Advanced.
Make sure the option to "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library" is selected.
Click OK.
Choose File > Library > Organize Library.
Then check if now your music is included in your new Library.
To see where iTunes stores a song, select the song in the iTunes Browser and control-click (or right-click) it and from the pop up menu select "Show in Finder".
If you see that the songs are inside the new Library, you can delete them from your old library.
The structure of your Library depends on your iTunes Version, so I can't tell you where to look - please post the version of iTunes you are using and the OS:

Similar Messages

HT1751 How to transfer iTunes media files from external drive to another external drive and bring in the library from the main drive.

I have my iTunes media on an external hard drive while the library is on the main computer drive. I want to move both to a larger external drive. How do I get both together? When I consolidate, it only transfers the media files. Help.

Since I already consolidated, can I just move the library to the root level of the external drive then option click to point to that library? But using that method, all the media files are at the root level along with the iTunes folder. So nothing will be in the iTunes media folder itself. WIll that work?

Moving iTunes media files to external drive broke connection

I recently moved my iTunes media files to an external drive. All other iTunes related files were left in my home folder. Everything worked great for about a month. Then, mysteriously, I went to access a movie and it said that it could not be found. I performed the search to my external and the movie played just fine. Somehow, my connection to iTunes has been broken. Incidentally, all media files in my external drive show up in the respective folders in iTunes. They just have exclamation points associated with most of them. Strangely, some of the files play just fine without having to search. Very confused. Can anyone provide a solution to re-establishing my link to iTunes? Thank you very much.
Bill

You had the drive plugged in and mounted before starting iTunes?
Sometimes a link will get broken, but then re-established, such as doing the aforementioned forgetting to start the drive first. When you double click the track it will try again and suddenly find it works again. It can be a nuisance having to test each track this way. You may find that Dougscript "List MIA" will help do this.
http://dougscripts.com/itunes/
I have not seen any successful automated way to re-form truly broken links. You have to either do it by hand or just add the media again. If you add the media again some things will be re-set such as date added (obviously), playcount, etc. I don't use any of those so it doesn't matter to me if I have to do this (and there are tricks to storing them in places where they will be kept).
Why they got broken? One reason mentioned before. Have you re-named anything or moved it? Have you ever had multiple drives with the same name plugged in?

Help with "The iTunes Library file cannot be saved. An unknown error occurred (-54)"

Hi,
Has anyone else had this problem? And how do I correct it? "The iTunes Library file cannot be saved. An unknown error occurred (-54)"

adamwineguy wrote:
I was having this issue as well, after doing two things: updating iTunes yesterday, and installing and running ClamXav, a Mac antivirus tool.
I have now fixed the issue, first I made sure that I had the proper permissions for iTunes and it's library folders. Then I completely removed ClamXav and all its related files and restarted iTunes. Now I no longer get this error when adding new media to iTunes or updating apps, and the library file saves fine. For some reason I think it was related to the antivirus software.
I think it was a coincidence as ClamXav only modifies permissions on the files it installs and none of those are anywhere near your iTunes folders, but I'm glad you got it working.

Help with encoding windows media file

Hello, I have recently stared using After effects to edit some movies. Basically I am importing some .wmv videos (with sound), adding some visual effects to them and and want to export them just like they were but with the effects. After that I will then want to copy the videos to an external hard drive and be able to connect it to a Sony blu ray player and watch them on the tv. The entire process works fine with the videos before all the editing happens. But something happens to the audio. It plays fine on the PC but when I play it through the blu ray player, there is no sound and it says it is"this audio type is not supported."
My best guess is that it looks like AE wants to encode the audio with Windows Media Audio 10 Professional by default and it's possible that the bluray player can't play that. Does this sound right to you?
I know you can choose Windows Media Audio 9 and 9.2. for the output but 9 played back in slow motion sound and I'm currently waiting for 9.2 to export.
Any advice for using another codec like AVI or FLV? Or maybe something else?
Thanks so much for any help!!!!
Cheers,
Aaron

I suggest exporting your files through Adobe Media Encoder (AME). It has Blu-ray encoding presets, as well as handling WMV encoding better than After Effects.
Here is the AME forum:
https://forums.adobe.com/community/ame

Need help with transferring iTunes library to different computer

My old iPod stopped working so I bought a new one. For my older iPod I use a different computer but I want to use a different computer for my new iPod. I have all my songs on an external hard drive and I want to use that for my other computer. How do I keep the same library stats such as play count, last played, date added etc. on the new computer? When I am looking through the iTunes files there are multiple library databases and I don't know which one contains all my stats data that I want to transfer over to the new computer. Also, how do I transfer all my playlists to the other computer? Thanks!

Copy the entire iTunes folder from the old computer to the new computer.

HT4061 help with transferring itunes library to new pc

HAVE DOWNLOADED MY ITUNES FILE FROM OLD PC TO NEW PC AND WHEN I GO TO OPEN THE MUSIC IN ITUNES SAYS ORIGINAL FILE COULD NOT BE FOUND... THEY ARE ALL IN MY MUSIC FOLDER UNDER ITUNES.... HELP???

Please turn off your CAPS lock.
Typing in all CAPS is difficult to read and indicates shouting.
To transfer the iTunes library, copy the ENTIRE iTunes folder from the old computer to the new computer.

Can someone help with moving iTunes & iPhoto from a external harddrive to my new computer?

I got my new computer 3 days ago. I'm loving it so far. My question is...I have an external harddrive that I was using as my backup for my old computer. It was running OS X 10.4 My new computer is 10.8.2. I have no idea how to get the info for iTunes or iPhoto off of my external drive. I've never had to do that before so I'm a little lost.
Thank you for your time.

Migrating from an older Mac OS to a newer one is usually smooth (not vice-versa, there may be problems). Depending on the app used for backup, you may use it in the reverse order (you used to to backup, it must have a restore function).
Alternatively, you may simply copy the iTunes and iPhoto folders into ~/Users/logged in user/Library/Music and ..../Pictures, respectively.
You may also continue to use the folders on the external drive by pressing Option/Alt key upon starting iPhoto and iTunes. You can do that any time you wish to keep these folders in another location than the default one. See screenshots below.
If not clear, please come back with details.

HT1751 My win8 pc hard drive failed. After the hard drive was replaced, I copied iTunes Media backupfiles from external hard drive (Karen's Replicator was used). ITunes does not recognize the back up files - help! (it does show cloud & recently burned m

My win8 pc hard drive failed. After the hard drive was replaced, I copied iTunes Media backupfiles from external hard drive (Karen's Replicator backup software was used). ITunes does not recognize these back up files even though the location is the same as cloud & recently burned music that does show- help! The backup files consist of 34,000+ songs; almost all burned from my own CD collection. I do have most of the songs on an ipod classic but hesitate to try to restore from that. Can someone tell me how to get these 34,000 songs to show up in iTunes? Thanks!!

This diagram shows how a typical iTunes library ought to be set out (click on it to enlarge)
The red outline highlights the media folder and its contents, the various subfolders are only created if that kind of content is in your library. The right-hand side shows the files that should be found in the iTunes library folder; sentinel is normally hidden so may not be visible. The core of your iTunes library is the file iTunes Library.itl, you need to restore this, the other library files and the Album Artwork folder, as well as the media folder, to restore your library.
tt2

Itunes seems to be unable to locate original file to play songs. Songs are in the itunes media file and playable direct from file. Preferences/advance file location is correct. Some files are playing and others aren't with no obvious pattern.

Itunes is unable to locate original file when attempting to play music. Songs are in the itunes media file and playable direct from there. Preferences/Advanced file location pointer is correct. Some songs play but most don't. I did move files around a bit in an attempt to share music with another account on same computor, however this did not work so have returned file to original location. Please help, I am way outside my feild in this one. Ta.

I have solved the problem. i think when I moved the media file back out of public to my account, I put it back into the wrong place and ended up with a media file inside a media file, inside another media file!! So I moved it again and fixed!! Now I just need to work out why i can't share with another account user of same computor.

How to move iTunes Library/Media Files to external firewire Hard Drive and make it the master library, and then point iTunes to that when adding new content??

How to move iTunes Library/Media Files to external firewire Hard Drive and make it the master library, and then point iTunes to that when adding new content??

Copy your ENTIRE iTunes FOLDER to an External Drive...
Full Details Here > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751
To Operate iTunes from the External Drive...
Start iTunes with the Option key held down and guide it to the new location of the library.
Be Sure the drive is Formatted Mac OS Extended (journaled)
Also... have a look at these 2 Videos...
http://macmost.com/moving-your-itunes-library.html
http://macmost.com/moving-your-itunes-media-to-an-external-drive.html

My old computer crashed and deleted my iTunes media file with all my playlist. However, my iPod has the playlist I lost on the computer. How can I replace (reverse synch?) my iPod media information back onto my (now reinstalled) virgin iTunes media folder

My old computer crashed and deleted my iTunes media file with all my playlist.However, my iPod has the playlist I lost on the computer. How can I replace (reverse synch?) my iPod media information back onto my (now reinstalled) virgin iTunes media folder?

Yes it's possible to sync music back from a iPod back into iTunes that (I assume) wasn't purchased on the iTunes Store.
Apple allows iTunes Store purchases on devices to be reversed back into iTunes, just not cd rips and stuff like that. For that it's a one way trip to the device from iTunes.
I likely can't suggest such software here, but if you visit iLounge you can ask what is the latest software that works for your platform.
Really it only takes a mere few minutes to backup your iTunes Library and stick in a few cd/dvd's or a external drive. iTunes even has a menu command for it to make it oh so simple. Please use it and backup all your data.
Hard drives fail, computers burn up, thieves steal, stuff gets forgotten. Plan for something happening because it will.
Good Luck

Like an idiot I changed the location of my iTunes Media File in the Advanced section of my Preferences - now half my songs won't play as they can't be found....I know they are there as I played these songs yesterday.....help !!!....

Like an idiot I changed the location of my iTunes Media File in the Advanced section of my Preferences - now half my songs won't play as they can't be found....I know they are there as I played these songs yesterday.....help !!!....
.....what folder do I need to reset it to so I can play my entire library??
Frankie C

You can also reset the location fo the media folder in the advanced tab.

HT201269 I'm not a tech person, but need help with my Itunes account in transferring money and downloads onto new phone I purchased 2 weeks ago when my Iphone was stolen. I don't know how to get the money or music on new phone?

Need help with Itunes transferrs and can I use my Edge phone as a router?

I'm not a tech person, but need help with my Itunes account in transferring money and downloads onto new phone
Is this an iPhone?
Set it up using the AppleID you used on the previous iPhone.

Is it possible to keep all iTunes media on an external hard drive and not on my Mac Book and have ITunes still function?

Let me begin by saying I'm new to the Mac world as well as to the realm of online forums so I apologize if this is a question that was already asked and/or if it is a very noobish question...
But anyway, I just recently got the new Macbook Pro 15" with RD and I am curious if I can keep all of my Itunes media on an external hard drive without keeping any of it on the Macbook itself and have Itunes still function (when the HD is connected of course). I am trying to keep the computer memory clutter free and not fill it up with music and stuff so I want to keep all of my media on a 1T Buffalo external hard drive so the computer stays like brand new for a long time..Right now I have about 5G worth of music on my hard drive and I thought it was only on the hard drive and I just recently found out that it is also within the music folder on the computer itself. Any thoughts? Sorry if it is an odd question, I can try to rephrase the question if need be. Any tips or advice is greatly appreciated, Thanks!

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), then guide it to the iTunes Library.itl file in the moved iTunes folder.
If 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.)
Longer answers if for any reason you do not think all library files are inside your iTunes folder (changed preferences settings at some point):
iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music [library] to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527 - a somewhat bewildering and not always easily understandable set of options.
For the record there's this reference for iTunes 11 but it really doesn't strike me as having the specifics you need. iTunes 11 for Mac: Move your library to another computer - http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12168
2011 ilounge article: Transferring your iTunes library - http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive/ - An article with good background information (similar to the links above), particularly if you are not sure your media files are all grouped for quick answer above. Unfortunately under the single term "transferring library" it describes two very different moves; relocating just your media (not really transferring your library and not recommended unless you really need this configuration), and relocating media+database (really your whole "library"). Make sure you understand the difference before electing to move only media.

Help with transferring ITunes media files to external HD

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for