How do I get iTunes to recognise media on a new external hard drive?

I had moved my entire iTunes library to an external HDD after running out of space on my 2007 Macbook. Unfortunately my HDD then broke so I sent it for data recovery. Now I've got it back I can't seem to be able to get iTunes to automatically recognise my new HDD, and iTunes seems to have changed the location where it's searching for the music back to the default one.
If memory serves me correctly I did this on an older version of iTunes but am now running the latest one. Dunno whether that makes any difference or not but I just want to be able to access the music which the data recovery company salvaged (tens of GBs' worth) so I can update my iPod and hear my tunes!

Hi aghill77,
Sorry to hear of your troubles. If you click on a song and it will not play, you can delete it. Then you can redownload it from the iTunes Store or re-import it from a CD or file as described above. The links below will show you how to delete purchased content and redownload it from the iTunes Store. There also a link to review your entire purchase history and get help from the iTune Store Support team if you need it.
iTunes Store & Mac App Store: Seeing your purchase history and order numbers
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2727
How to delete content you've downloaded from the iTunes Store, App Store, iBooks Store, or Mac App Store
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5772
Downloading past purchases from the iTunes Store, App Store, and iBooks Store
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2519
Good luck!
- Judy

Similar Messages

How can i get Itunes to route my music to an external hard drive once my Internal drive is full?

My Internal hard drive is getting full and im starting to worry about how i will store tracks in the future. I have my itunes set to auto organize the files into the Music folder when dragged into Itunes. I am a DJ, so i do get music quiet frequently that i need to add to Itunes for My DJ Software, Serato, To read. Is there anyway i can have Itunes begin rerouting the new songs onto an external HD? and can i play songs from two different hard drives with itunes open? Example, Song A is on internal.. once i finish listening to it or having serato acess it, If i then want to play Song B, which is on an external HD, will Itunes need to "Relocate the file" or will it remember its stored on the connected External HD?
Thank you

If that doesn't work for you then you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes .
tt2

How do I get my MacBook Pro to recognize my Toshiba external hard drive?

How do I get my MacBook Pro to recognize my Toshiba external hard drive? I'm working on transferring my music from our home computer to my new laptop and I already got all my music onto the hard drive but now, when I plug it into my MacBook Pro, it doesn't recognize it. There isn't an icon that pops up and nothing happens at all. The blue light on the hard drive that indicates that it knows it is plugged into something comes up but that's about it. Someone told me I might have to "format" it but I don't know what that means and I don't know how to do it. I just want to get my music from the hard drive to my laptop so please help!

natgray17 wrote:
I don't know about your first question... I went to finder, preferences, then general but I didn't see anything for the hard drive.
Huh, in the Finder menu, Preferences, you will see this:
Nope, disk utility cannot see it. I've tried unplugging it and plugging it back in but it still won't recognize it.puter that's a Mac...
If DU cannot see it then the preferences is just an academic exercise.
If this is a USB drive then as mentioned above you may need a powered USB hub since there may not be enough power from the USB to run the drive. What else do you have plugged into the USB ports? If there's some stuff you can unplug it then do it and see if your drive mounts.
What do you mean from a Windows machine? It's a Toshiba hard drive and I put my music on it from my home computer that's a Mac...
Which is all I wanted to know, i.e., whether the drive came from a Winows machine. So it's been formatted and created on a mac. Therefore it should mount on this other mac machine. So it most likely is a power problem.

How Can I Migrate My Time Machine Backups To A New External Hard Drive?

I have a external hard drive that has 500 GBs left, but I want to buy a larger drive.

ivan wrote:
How Can I Migrate My Time Machine Backups To A New External Hard Drive?
I have a external hard drive that has 500 GBs left, but I want to buy a larger drive.
Hi iVain
Fire up *Disk Utility*, click the Restore tab, then drag your old and new TM drives into the Source and Destination fields. Click Restore, and a complete copy of your old TM files will be made on the new drive. Go to TM preferences and select the new drive, and it will continue backing up just as it left off.
Hope this answers your question. See:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2595485&tstart=0

How do i make itunes find my music library on an external hard drive?

OK. So i got a new PC and ive downloaded itunes. Ive authorised itunes. However, no matter how hard i try, i cannot get it to find my existing itunes library which is situated on an external hard drive.
I know ive done it before with my last PC but cannot remember how...and itunes made sense back then rather than the nonsense it is now.
Any tips?
Cheers

Hi there,
You may find the information in the article below helpful.
iTunes: How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1589
-Griff W.

How do I transfer an existing Aperture library to a new external hard drive

I have a new external hard drive where I want to store my pictures to free up room on my iMac
How do I take an existing Aperture library and move it to the external hard drive so that Aperature can find and use it? Once it is moved can I delete the library from my iMac without causing problems with my new hard drive library?
thanks

Hello Barty,
is your library referenced or managed?
If your Aperture Library is managed, then you can simply copy it to your new external drive using the Finder. Make a backup of your old library and convince yourself that the backup is working.
If your library is referenced, then use Aperture to relocate your master image files to the external drive (select all images, then File -> Relocate Master), then copy your Library to the external drive using the Finder.
To point Aperture to the new library location, double click the new Aperture Library to open Aperture with it. Test it thoroughly, before you delete the original library.
You might consider only to relocate the master images to your external drive and to leave the then much smaller Aperure Library on your system drive. That way Aperture will work faster, and you will be able to browse and share your images, even when our external drive is not connected.
Regards
Léonie

How can I have iTunes read my music library from an external hard drive?

I am trying to use an external hard drive with more memory to store my iTunes music and movie library. How can I get iTunes to read this external hard drive?

Move the library to the external drive in its entirety.
Then in Perferences > Advanced for iTunes in the box labelediTunes Media foler location point iTunes to the location of the library on the external drive.
Allan

How can i stop itunes from finding duplicate tracks from my external hard drive?

All my music is stored on C: drive and backed up on an external hard drive. when I install I iTunes it detects all tracks from both sources giving me 20000 duplicates. I have tried uninstalling iTunes and then installing without the external drive plugged but iTunes still shows both copies, only the f: drive version has the ! next to it. How can I get iTunes to only search in one place?

Uninstalling and then reinstalling iTunes doesn't reset the library. To that simply delete the iTunes Library.itl file in the iTunes folder. For completeness delete the other files in that folder and the subfolder Album Artwork.
Don't let iTunes scan the computer, or if you do disconnect all of the additional sources of media. Better not to scan and then use File > Add Folder to Library so you are in control.
See Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy for a suggested method of keeping the original and backup of your library in sync.
tt2

How do I get the pictures from my iPhoto on my external Hard Drive to show up in the already existing iPhoto on my MacBook?

I have an early 2008 MacBook. I had been using iPhoto on this MacBook until I purchased an iMac in 2011, at which time I copied my iPhoto Library from my MacBook to my iMac. Then I realized that my pictures and music were consuming the memory on my iMac, so I moved iPhoto and my iTunes LIbrary to an external Hard Drive. Now I am in a situation where I do not have access to my iMac, but will need to use my MacBook as my main computer for the next year. So, I have my iPhoto on an external hard drive and I plug it into my MacBook and see the iPhoto Library folder, but when I click on it, it opens up the old iPhoto that is still existing on my MacBook and will not show any of the new pictures?! At first I thought it wasn't able to show up anything because my MacBook was running two operating systems behind what my iMac was when I was running my iPhoto Library from that computer. So, I upgraded to OS X 10.7.5 and upgraded the existing iPhoto on my MacBook to iPhoto '11 version 9.4.3. However whenever I plug in the external hard drive and click on the iPhoto Library folder to open it up, it is still just opening up the already existing iPhoto on the MacBook (with my older pictures) rather than the iPhoto on the hard drive (with my newer pictures). How can I access my pictures that are on my external hard drive?

Thank you for your advice. I followed your directions, but came up with the same results. However, I did discover that whenever I open up the iPhoto Library that is already existing on my MacBook a certain set of pictures shows up. But then when I open up the iPhoto Library from the Hard drive another set of pictures shows up. BUT not ALL of my pictures are showing up on the iPhoto Library from the hard drive. At least the last two years of pictures are not showing up?! Actually, it appears that all the pictures are there from when I started using iPhoto about 5 years ago up until around the time that I got my iMac desktop computer and started using that (2 years ago). I have noticed that more recent videos I have made are showing up in a folder on the hard drive, but will not appear when I open up iMovie?! Any ideas on how to access my pictures from the last 2 years off of the hard drive???

Trouble getting iTunes to sync with music on my external hard drive

PLEASE HELP ME! I recently moved all of my music to my external hard drive to free up space on my computer. I have all the original files on my hard drive now, but (perhaps stupidly) deleted all the files from my actual computer. Now, I'm afraid I can't get all my ratings, last time played, number of plays, playlists, etc. back.
This is basically what I did:
1. Moved music from computer to External
2. In my iTunes preferences menu, I changed my "iTunes Music Folder Location" to the same original folder on my external hard drive.
My problem is that after I did that, iTunes didn't automatically add all my files back into the program. Now, it seems like I've got to add everything back one by one and everything without my customized info (#plays, recently played/added, rating, playlists, etc).
Will someone please just talk to me about this since AppleCare represetatives refuse to deal with problems that have absolutely anything to do with products that aren't made by them....even though I bought the thing at an Apple Store. I'm not sure if I'm giving the right info...I just need someone to ask me the right questions! PLEASE!

Here's Apple's method of moving your Music Folder:
iTunes: Moving your iTunes Music folder
It refers to iTunes 4 but works for iTunes 6. Notice step 14. Leave the iTunes Library & iTunes Music Library files in the ~/Music/iTunes folder on your internal HD. This is where iTunes, also other iLife apps, expect to find them.
What are the iTunes library files?

How do I get rid of a partition in a LaCie external hard drive?

I just bought a new LaCie 1 TB external hard drive and while setting it up I didn't realize that by default it set a 200 GB Windows partition. I really would like to get rid of it since I am a 100% Mac user but don't know how to do it. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Niel.
thank you very much for your help! FWIW (for what it's worth) I found a way to resolve this problem and it has worked for me. Here is the link to the site where I got the solution:
https://www.lacie.com/support/support_manifest.htm?id=10560&article=1019

How do I get Photoshop Elememnts 7.0 to read my external hard drive?

I have a signature 500 gp hard drive that pse 7.0 will not find or read. In order for me back up photos I must do it through Digital Photo Professional or trhough Windows. No matter what I try i cannot seem to get pse to read the external hard drive. Can anyone shed some light on this subject?

Just to be sure...I'm reading your post as your external is not available in the navigation list.
I'm assuming the USB (or firewire) is connected to your computer. I have a couple and have on occasion turned one on and had the USB plugged in for the one that was off.
This next link probably isn't going to help as it's how to navigate to an external...but I'll include it anyway.
http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/photoshopelements/articles/pse_fromfolders.html
Not sure what else it can be assuming the external is good and doesn't have any compatibility issues with your OS or Elements. Hopefully, someone else will pipe up if they have any ideas.

How can I get iTunes to find dislocated files on my portable hard drive?

I have had to move my music files onto a portable hard drive to save space but now when I plug my portable hard drive in and try to play tunes the exclamation mark comes up. iTunes can identify individual mp3's when I want to play them, through a manual file search, but is it possible for iTunes to find all the music files at once either when I ask it to or even better identify them automatically for me?

It looks like too many changes already had taken place in the 'iTunes Library' file, to start from the original situation.
You can of course restore all the links manually, but you're probably still busy doing that next week.
Try to rebuild the library, using the instructions in this article:
How to recreate your iTunes Library
You could loose some information.
BTW. If your library mainly contains MP3's and AAC's and Apple Lossless, you won't loose any track related information (artwork, name, artist, album etc.)
That information is stored inside the song file.
Other information is stored inside the library files.
More info in: What are the iTunes library files?
You already made changes. Some links probably point to the external disk and some point to the internal. So I'm not sure re-creating the library will give satisfactory results. I hope it does of course.
If it's all a mess now, you could consider to start from scratch.
By doing this, you will loose all playlists, ratings, podcast subscriptions etc. but not track related info as mentioned above.
To do this, trash the 'iTunes Library' file and run iTunes. you will start with an empty library. Drag and drop the 'iTunes Music' folder on it.
All music will be added to the library.
Consider this as a last resort. Try re-creating first.
M
17' iMac fp 800 MHz 768 MB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.6) Several ext. HD (backup and data)

How do i get everything form now on saved onto my external hard drive?

i only have 7 gb on my comptuers hd i have a 500 gb external ahrd drive connected. how do i make verything automatically save onto the external? thanks..

You can use the following instructions(iTunes, iPhoto) to move the libraries to the external drive.
You can also drag your home folder to the external drive in the Finder and then change the home property for your user account in the NetInfo Manager, which is in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder, if you need more space. When changed, this property should be along the lines of /Volumes/externaldrive/Users/yourname. If this is done, you should create a second account in the Accounts pane of System Preferences in case you run into trouble or the drive isn't available.
Additional space can be freed up by deleting items in the /Library/Packages/ and /Library/Printers/ folders you don't use, and running Monolingual to delete unnecessary languages. Don't use Monolingual to delete any architectures on an Intel Mac; the PowerPC architecture is necessary for Rosetta applications to run.
(21724)

How do I get iMovie to import all movies from my external hard drive

Lifetime PC guy moving to Apple, so I'm new to Macs. Just bought the base version of the Mac Mini and loaded the most current OS version.
I have an external drive originally from my PC. I have video clips spread through out it. How do I have iMovie (or other tool) scan through the entire drive to select and import my video clips? I don't want to do it one by one.

You can use the following instructions(iTunes, iPhoto) to move the libraries to the external drive.
You can also drag your home folder to the external drive in the Finder and then change the home property for your user account in the NetInfo Manager, which is in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder, if you need more space. When changed, this property should be along the lines of /Volumes/externaldrive/Users/yourname. If this is done, you should create a second account in the Accounts pane of System Preferences in case you run into trouble or the drive isn't available.
Additional space can be freed up by deleting items in the /Library/Packages/ and /Library/Printers/ folders you don't use, and running Monolingual to delete unnecessary languages. Don't use Monolingual to delete any architectures on an Intel Mac; the PowerPC architecture is necessary for Rosetta applications to run.
(21724)

How do I get iTunes to recognise media on a new external hard drive?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for