How do i click and drag itunes to external hard drive

how do i drag itunes. to my external hard drive

You mean your iTunes library?
See
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1751

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How to move media and librar[ies] to external hard drive, when 'Keep organized' de-selcted

Newbie to mac, sorry for being so dense. I am nervous about my understanding of iTunes and from the many posts I’ve read realize how easily I could screw this up. Can someone point me to step by step directions for moving the actual media ‘files’, ie the mp3s, as well as the necessary library files, to an external drive, when ‘keep media organized’ and ‘copy files to media folder’ are NOT SELECTED?
I am running OS X 10.6.8 and iTunes 10 [and prefer a solution which does not require updating software …so far that never goes well for me. (:
For myriad reasons, I prefer to maintain my own customized folder and file structure for my mp3s; and have therefore de-selected
1] Keep iTUnes Media folder organized and 2] Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library.
All the directions in the various posts seem to require selecting these options. Is this critical for success?
From the many posts I have read, it seems there’s more to it than just drag and drop, that I need to ensure that iTunes is ‘pointed’ to somewhere? Not the mp3s themselves, but to a ‘library” [is that yet another copy of the mp3s? somewhere on my hard drive?].
Additionally, over the years I have moved about 45GB of mp3s to ‘storage’ external hard drives to create more space on my laptop. Not ideal interim solution. I am again low on space and have decided to buy new external drive for holding all of my mp3s, ie the 45 GB in ‘storage’ and the remaining 75 GB from my laptop. Ideally, I would like to also keep all my artwork, playlists and ratings and the like [which I guess are in the ‘libraries’???]
Am I correct, that I will need to also move to the new external hard drive that folder which holds the .itl and .xml files and which is named ‘iTunes’??? and then there is another step to link the ‘media’ to the ‘library’ to ‘itunes’????
Again, any clarification is greatly appreciated. Thanks very much.

Unfortunately you have the worst possible situation for doing this. If you let iTunes organize files you could simply let iTunes relocate them by consolidating in advanced preferences and it would all be done with a few minutes effort on your part with nothing getting lost. Organizing your own media means when you move things to a different drive iTunes will lose track of many if not all the links.
First, try simply dragging the whole iTunes folder to the external drive and start iTunes with the option/alt key held down. Guide it to the iTunes Library.itl file on the external drive. If you are lucky it will move as a package. If you are not, the link locations will all be bad because it will still be looking for the files on the internal drive. It may look like it is working but get info on a file or two and see if it is still referencing the file on the internal drive or if it is really using the external drive.
When you move the files from the third drive to the new external I can almost guarantee you every single link will break. Again because you do not let iTunes organize media you can't use iTunes' own repair link feature. One solution will be to take the old .xml file and open it in a text editor. Do a global replace of the old drive path with the path to the location of the files on the new drive. Now if all your old links broke for the main library you will have to do this for both the main library on the new drive as well as the relocated files from the main drive. Now this is really starting to get messy and I am going to fade at any minute now because it is getting late. If you needed to do this for all files go ahead and create a new library using the option key method mentioned earlier, then import the .xml into the new library. If you only need to edit the third drive files then remove any references to the old main library files in this edited .xml and import just the edited third drive file references. See? Isn't that all nice and clear? Oh, realize that the .xml does not contain 100% of the information in the .itl (you cannot edit the .itl). You will lose ratings, play count, date added. Ratings and play count can be saved using other tricks which would take about as much typing as I have done already so I won't go there unless they are absolutely critical to you.

IPod wants to sync and delete, iTunes on external hard drive

hope someone can help with this
I had my iTunes on my old laptop which died about a month ago but I was able to save the hard drive which I'm using now as an external hard drive to my new laptop. my old iTunes did not have all the songs that I have on my iPod as I ran out of space so I kept only couple hundred songs.
I have installed iTunes new on my current laptop but when I want to upload songs from the new laptop onto my iPod it states that I have to sync it with the new library which only holds 50 songs and would delete all my music on the iPod.
as I wanted to open the iTunes on my old laptop/now external hard drive it says "ITunes Library.itl cannot be read because it was created by a newer version of iTunes?"
so basically my question now is - is it possible to upload new songs onto my iPod without losing the old ones?
any help would be appreciated

*so basically my question now is - is it possible to upload new songs onto my iPod without losing the old ones?*
If you want to maintain the content of the iPod and add new content from iTunes without syncing the two, you can manage the iPod manually and simply drag the new songs onto it from your library: Managing content manually on iPod and iPhone
You can use a keyboard command to prevent your iPod auto-syncing with iTunes. While connecting the iPod to the computer on Windows with iTunes installed hold down the Shift + Ctrl keys together. This will stop the iPod from auto-syncing with iTunes and the iPod will appear in the source list. Wait until you are sure the iPod has mounted, and that it will not auto sync and then you can let the keys go. This may take between 20 to 30 seconds depending on your computer: iTunes - Keyboard Shortcuts for Windows
Alternatively open iTunes first and go to Edit>Preferences>Devices and check the box "Disable automatic syncing for iPhones and iPods" and choose Ok. Then connect your iPod.
If at any point you get a message that your iPod is linked to another library and asking if you want to link to this one and replace all your songs etc, press "Cancel". Pressing "Erase and Sync" will irretrievably remove all the songs from your iPod. Once you are safely connected you can change the iPod to manual as per the link above.

How to export films from Itunes to external hard drive?

I have movies and TV shows on my Itunes that I have brought from the Itunes Store. I would like to export them on to a external hard drive as I have Keenwood dvd player in my car that can play films from my ipod/iphone.
I have tryed just drop and drag onto my external hard drive but it dose it very quickly and then i go to play it in my car and it can't see it.
Can any one help me out?
Cheers
Nick

See Make a split library portable.
The larger the library and the more playlists you have the longer it takes to process each change in the database.
tt2

HT1751 when I click and drag itunes into a external harddrive all I get is a icon in the harddrive not the files

when I click and drag itunes to an external harddrive all I get is a shortcut an icon to itunes not the files the music to itunes
I am running windows xp home edition

I had this problem once and in my case it happenned with music I had not purchased through itunes and also to music that stored in icloud. Once I brought that music off icloud and into my laptop it resolved most of the issue.

How do I re-download podcasts? My external hard drive failed and I can't figure out how to download them again in the updated iTunes.

How do I re-download podcasts? My external hard drive failed and I can't figure out how to download them again in the updated iTunes.

The Time Capsule drive is a network drive. You have to mount it on the desktop before you will be able to drag/drop files onto the disk. More tips are in this thread:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/17312017#17312017
.....and then delete them from the Mac to free up space?
The Time Capsule was designed for your backups.
If you move a file to the Time Capsule drive and delete the file from your Mac.....you have no backup.
Your only copy of the file will be on the Time Capsule drive. I would only do this with files that I could afford to lose.
All drives fail. When.....not if....the Time Capsule drive has a problem, you will lose your data.

How can I put my recently purchased iTunes movies on to my thumb drive and WD My Passport external hard drive. My Mac keeps saying "can't be copy because it is too large for the volumes format

How can I put my recently purchased iTunes movies onto my thumb drive and WD my passport external hard drive.My Mac is saying that can't be copied because it is too large for volumes format

[file] is too large for the volumes format
That is usually an indication that the Volume was never Erased or Partitioned for GUID partition table and Mac OS, and is still in a Windows format.
Mac OS X Extended (journaled) has no such file-size limitations

The MacBook Pro will not allow me to cut-and-paste to and from or to click-and-drag to the external drive. I can copy-and-paste, but then I must send the original to the trash, which doubles the time and effort. Is there any way to cut-and-paste?

I have recently switched from a PC to a MacBook Pro.
I have a large number of documents and photographs on a multiterrabite external drive, backed up on a second multiterrabite external drive.
Both external drives are formatted for MacIntosh. This has been verified by agents at an Apple store and also at Best Buy in two different cities.
This is the problem:
The MacBook Pro will not allow me to cut-and-paste to and from or to click-and-drag to the external drive. I can copy-and-paste, but then I must send the original to the trash, which doubles the time and effort. Is there any way to cut-and-paste?
Also, the MacBook Pro will not allow me to rename multiple documents or photographs. I can click-and-rename a single one, but this is impossibly time consuming. I can batch-rename in iPhoto, but when I transfer the photographs to the external drive, the rename does not transfer.
I’m reduced to using my wife’s Toshiba to cut-and-past, rename, and transfer documents. It works perfectly. Is there any way to do this on the MacBook Pro?
Thanks!
Roderick Guerry
[email protected]

Roderick Guerry wrote:
The MacBook Pro will not allow me to cut-and-paste to and from or to click-and-drag to the external drive. I can copy-and-paste, but then I must send the original to the trash, which doubles the time and effort. Is there any way to cut-and-paste?
No, this is a philosophical difference between Apple and Microsoft. Apple believes that it's dangerous to cut a file in case the user never pastes it; in that case the file is lost. Microsoft seems to not have this problem (if I remember Windows correctly) because they don't delete the originating file if it's cut but never pasted.
Even though Macs have a lot of keyboard shortcuts, philosophically Macs have traditionally been mouse-first. This applies to file copy operations. In your case, what a Mac user would do is open the source window, open the destination window (on your second drive), and then Command-drag the selected files from the source to destination window. This is because a normal drag would leave the originals behind, while adding the Command modifier key tells OS X that this is a Move, not a Copy, so don't leave the originals behind.
(In addition there are different rules for drag-copying within the same volume or between different volumes. If you drag between two folders on the same volume, the files are moved. If you drag between different volumes, the files are copied unless you hold down Command to delete the copies on the source volume.)
Roderick Guerry wrote:
Also, the MacBook Pro will not allow me to rename multiple documents or photographs. I can click-and-rename a single one, but this is impossibly time consuming. I can batch-rename in iPhoto, but when I transfer the photographs to the external drive, the rename does not transfer.
Two problems in this case. First, batch file renaming is not built into OS X unless you build something with Automator. However, there are many utilities that can do batch file renaming which you can find at macupdate.com or on the App Store. Since I work with media I often batch rename using one of the media managers I have lying around like Media Pro or Adobe Bridge (comes with Photoshop).
iPhoto is a database front end designed to shield the file system from the consumer and let them concentrate on creativity and sharing. As such it is often a poor choice for managing files directly. When you "transferred the photographs" chances are you moved the originals, not the ones iPhoto edited which are stored in a hidden folder.
Roderick Guerry wrote:
I’m reduced to using my wife’s Toshiba to cut-and-past, rename, and transfer documents. It works perfectly. Is there any way to do this on the MacBook Pro?
There will not be a way to do it exactly like Windows. As described above, there are ways to do it "the Mac way." If it is possible to remove judgment on which way is "better" you might find the Mac way to be acceptable, but of course sometimes we simply prefer what we're used to.

How do i copy my itunes and iphoto to an external hard drive?

How do i copy my itunes and iphoto to my external hard drive?

Apple has instructions at:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1751
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1229?viewlocale=en_US
and in case you are interested in iMovie....
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1097

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

My macbook pro's memory is full and I purchased an external hard drive. I am using timemachine, but need to earse/free up some memory on my laptop. How do I do this?

My macbook pro's memory is full and I purchased an external hard drive. I am using timemachine, but need to earse/free up some memory on my laptop. How do I do this?

Christinag1317 wrote:
My macbook pro's memory is full and I purchased an external hard drive. I am using timemachine, but need to earse/free up some memory on my laptop. How do I do this?
Ok when you refer to "memory" that is the Random Access Memory which is temporary memory the processor (worker) uses to store stuff while it's using it. Power goes off whats in the memory is gone.
Your storage drive is where data is pernamnetly stored if the power is on/off.
So what you really mean to say is your storage drive is filled up and you need to make some room.
You have a TimeMachine drive, what this does is makes a image of your internal storage drive as a backup method, it also allows some "back in time" restoration of your previous deleted files depending how much space is on that drive. The more space, the less data you have, the more days you can go back in time to retrieve something.
Unfortunatly the TimeMachine drive is not a extra space storage drive, it automatically rotates what appears on your internal storage drive. So if you delete something from the internal drive, it eventually gets deleted from the TimeMachine drive.
So you need to make some more room on your internal drive, this is rather easy, all you need is ANOTHER external drive and connect it to the Mac. Give it a name like ExtraStorage#1 and thenyou will have to decide which of your User files you really don't need on the internal drive.
For instance the best choice would be to move some movies out of your Movies folder to another MoviesExtra folder on the ExtraStorage#1 drive.
Movies take a LOT of drive space and you can always copy them on or off, or watch them from the ExtraStorage#1 drive as well. But if your going to do this a lot, you should consider getting a Firewire 800/400, USB 3,2,1 combination drive as Firewire 800 is fastest and decently priced (Thunderbolt is very high priced and overkill at this time)
The other things like Documents are quite small, Pictures can take a lot of space if you have a lot, but if you need them on the internal drive then that's better. Music one tends to use a lot or manage playlists and such, but perhaps some music you may which to move off or "prune", I suggest always burning data DVD's of music especially for extra backups.
Once you have freed some room on the internal drive, this liitle neat program will show you what is taking the largest amount of space on your internal drive.
http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net/
After a scan, right click on the big squares to "revel in Finder" to show you what's taking the largest amount of space, be warned it also opens up hidden system files and folders, which you won't be able to move. So concentrate on what's inthe Users folder.
Likely if you have a lot of Movies this is the biggest culprit on most standard internal hard drives. Also if you have something in iTunes that's auto-downloading something like PodCasts and not deleting the older ones and you forget. So go there and fix things and that can free up drive space.
If you bought a small SSD with your new Mac, then the price of that SSD has come back to haunt you with low storage space, you will have to think carefully what you can live without on the internal drive.
Once you have slimmed things down, TimeMachine will update to reflect your slimmer internal drive. What this means is there is only one copy of your data on the ExtraStorage#1 drive.
You need to maintain two copies of your data at all times on seperate hardware, so now you need ANOTHER storage drive (ExtraStorage#2) to copy everythinng of ExtraStorage#1, or else if you drop or have a mechanical problem with ES#1 all that data will be gone!
If you wish to learn more then I suggest reading these two links
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16276201#16276201
http://pondini.org/OSX/Home.html

How do I copy iTunes from external hard drive to iMac?

How do I copy iTunes from external
Hard drive to iMac?

if your main library is on your external, then when not connected, you wont have access to it.
so first decide, where do you want to keep the files.
E.g. In my case, I keep my files on "C:\iTunes Music".
I have a backup on external "Z:\iTunes Backup". If I format my laptop, this is how I restore everything.
Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced.
The iTunes music folder in selects as "C:\iTunes Music"
I have checked Keep iTunes Music Folder Organized, and also Copy Files to iTunes Music folder when adding to ibrary". Click OK to save and close preferences.
My iTunes list is now empty. I go to file, and select "Add Folder to Library". From that window, I select "Z:\iTunes Backup". iTunes then copies everything from the backup to "C:\iTunes Music". For me, backup is backup, I dont need it to play music.
Now decide this. If you do not want to keep music on C:, but want to only connect the external to update music on your ipod, do this:
In preferences, set iTunes Music folder as "Z:\iTunes Backup", and uncheck Copy files to iTunes Music folder, since they are already there. Then in files, select Add folder to library again to build and update the list.

HT1751 My iTunes won't drag to my external hard drive...any suggestions?

When I attempt to drag my iTunes library to my external hard drive, it will not transfer the folder. I am using a Mac osx and a free agent external hard drive. Any suggestions?

See this migrate iTunes library post. Depending on the layout of the library you may simply need to copy the entire iTunes folder using Windows Explorer without ever firing up iTunes.
tt2

How do I keep photos and videos on an external hard drive and run the application on the macbook

I am running out of space on my Macbook and would like to move all my photos and videos to an external hard drive to free up disk space. How do I designate those drives as the destination drive when running the application (iPhoto, iMovie) on the Macbook.

Moving your iTunes Music folder   http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449
Moving your iPhoto library    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1229
Moving iMovie footage to another drive    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1026

Is it possible to have two USB drives for the IPad? I want to bring RAW photo files from my camera, through the IPad and back to an external hard drive. One of my cameras does not use an SD card. How can I do this?

Is it possible to have two USB drives for the IPad? I want to bring RAW files from my camera through the IPad and out to an external hard drive. One of my cameras has an SD card but the other one doesn't have a card that would fit in any of the camera devices I've seen on line. Realted to this, I bought the IPad camera accessory. Can I put the SD card in the device and also hook the external hard drive to the USB port of the accessory and download from the camera to the hard drive? Can I put Lightroom or the Nikon photo editing software on the IPad? Right now I carry a PC laptop and external hard drives with me on wildernes trips. Internet and WiFi are not available. Because I shoot so many photos and they're in RAW I need to download from the camera to the external drive because I run out of memory on the PC (and it has much more memory than the IPad). I have Nikon NX software and lightroom on my PC. I'd love to be able to reduce the weight I carry by using the IPad to edit my photos each night while on trips. Is this possible and how would I do it? I'd appreciate any guidance.

No, the camera connection kit only supports the copying of photos and videos to the Photos app, it doesn't support copying content off the iPad. For your second camera instead of the SD reader part of the kit, does the iPad to camera cable not work with it for direct transfer to the iPad ?
For Lightroom and Nikon software again no - you can only install apps that are available in the iTunes app store on your computer and the App Store app on the iPad, 'normal' PC and Mac (OS X) software are not compatible with the iPad (iOS). There are some apps that perform fairly basic editing functions that are available in the store, but nothing as sophisticated as, for example, Lightroom.

How do i click and drag itunes to external hard drive

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