How do I update Itunes when music is on external hard drive

I have all of my music on a external hard drive and I need to update Itunes. When I tried to update Itunes this week, it gave me an error message saying that it could not update it. I also tried to update Itunes directly from the this website and I get stuck. Can someone let me know the steps?
Thank You

You may not get the required help here as this is the forum for the iPod Classic.
There is a dedicated forum for installing and updating iTunes on Windows, and here's the link.
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=792
You might want to post what the error is also.

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How do I get itunes library to move to external hard drive automatically?

I have a 250 GB Verbatim external hard drive. This hard drive has an existing itunes library from my PC. I figured out how to combine the two itunes libraries, (1 from PC and 1 from Macbook). I cannot figure out how to set up itunes to automatically save to external hard drive. In other words, I've gotten everything onto my Mac, but not onto the external, which is what I want. When I try to move the itunes folders to my Verbatim in Finder, it gives me the circle with the line through it. It will not let me move anything over to the Verbatim. Please help!

On the copying issue, if the drive was used with a PC initially it is quite possible it is formatted to NTFS. Macs can read NTFS drives but not write to them You could try to use a utility such as NTFS-3G to enable read-write, or you could use Disk Utility to reformat the drive to FAT (probably FAT32) which can be read by both PCs and Macs. FAT has certain disadvantages too, such as not being repairable by Macs, and there is a limit on single file sizes (2GB or 4GB depending upon the FAT version).
Once you get your whole iTunes folder (not just media) onto the external drive, start iTunes with the option key held down and show it the new location.
iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
do not confuse moving your whole folder and library with just storing media on another drive:
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449

How to route iTunes to music folders on external hard drive?

Here's my story: Three years ago, I successfully rerouted iTunes so that the program would find my music library on external hard drive. Two days ago, my Apple MacBook computer was updated to the Lion operating system. iTunes was also updated.
Now I have to go back into iTunes and give the program new instruction to go find the music files on external hard drive.
Details:
My folder on external hard drive, called "iTunes Music," contains various music files and also, I notice, a folder called "iTunes."
Within that "iTunes" folder, the following folders or files are located:
FOLDER: Album Artwork
FOLDER: Automatically Add to iTunes
FILE: iTunes Library Extras.itdb
FILE: iTunes Library Genius.itdb
FILE: iTunes Library.itl
FILE: iTunes Linrary.xml
FOLDER: iTunes Media
None of this makes any sense to me!
Meanwhile, on the computer's hard drive, following this routing, in the folder called "iTunes," the following folders and files are located:
Users -- Hard Drive -- Music -- iTunes
FOLDER: Album Artwork
FOLDER: Album Artwork 6.29.26 PM
FOLDER: Automatically Add to iTunes
FILE: iTunes Library 6.29.26 PM
FILE: iTunes Library Extras.itdb
FILE: iTunes Library Extras.itdb 6.29.26 PM
FILE: iTunes Library Genius.itdb
FILE: iTunes Library Genius.itdb 6.29.26 PM
FILE: iTunes Library.itl
FOLDER: iTunes Media
FOLDER: iTunes Media 6.29.26 PM
FILE: iTunes Music Library 6.29.26 PM.xml
FILE: iTunes Music Library.xml
I do not understand any of this. I do not understand WHICH FILE OR FOLDER I should instruct iTunes to go to in order to find the desired music files.
Once the desired files are found, they should appear in the iTunes window on screen. This is not happening.
I have tried holding down the Option key while starting iTunes, which yields a window that asks for me to CHOOSE LIBRARY. I choose the iTunes library file ( iTunes Library.itl) that is located on external hard drive. However, NOTHING HAPPENS. iTunes does not do anything. When the program opens, nothing is visible in the iTunes window, where normally songs are listed. No playlists on the lefthand side. NOTHING.
Thanks for your attention and for any insight you might be able to share.

Just so people know, there's already been several posts on this in this forum: https://discussions.apple.com/message/18642460

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How can I create a single file of my entire Itunes "library" so I can move it to an external drive for backup, using Windows XP?

restoring a formatted drive - not sure I'm following you there
but in the future the best way is to reformat the drive, hook up your external hard drive, and then drag and drop those music files back into your my music folder the exact opposite of when you drug them onto your external drive
worst case is you would have to point itunes to that music folder through options

Itunes identifying music in an external hard drive

Hi.
I am having difficulty getting ITunes to pull in music that is stored on an external hard drive. Let me explain.
Sometime back I moved all my music onto an external firewire drive I keep connected to my laptop. I used the standard instructions available on the apple website and that worked just fine.
However, recently I was having serious system software issues so I decided to reformat the hard drive and reinstall the system software. That appears to have solved the problem with the system.
However, I cannot figure out now how to get Itunes to pull the music in so it can actually be played. I did go to preferences-advanced-change and told Itunes where the folder is in which the music is located. I also went to advanced-consolidate library (I am using an old version, 7.6) and clicked this. But, of course, the purpose of that is to take music in Itunes and store in the new folder. Since there is no music in the old Itunes library nothing happened.
If I go to file-add to library a dialogue screen comes up and shows the Itunes music folder with the organized sub-folders in it that looks right. If I do 'choose' Itunes will bring in music but I then lose the folders and playlists - Just a long list of alphabetized music.
So, how do I get ITunes to recognize and pull in my music along with the folders, playlists, etc.?
Thanks.
Michael

I think the playlists etc are stored on a separate library file in the iTunes folder.
If you formatted the OS HD and the library file was on that then you would have lost your playlists.
ITunes is just like an index that telles your computer where to Ho for certain files.
Exactly what disk did you format?

How to sync iPod without losing music? (Lost external hard drive, which I used as a source)

I stored my iTunes library on my external hard drive, which held music purchased through iTunes, other sources, and personal music files.
My external hard drive recently broke. I will have to rebuild my library, but I have some things I'd like to add to my iPod. If I sync it now (the songs still show up in my library on iTunes, but there are no files to support them), will I lose all those? Previously, there have been times where I synced my iPod without my external hard drive and it kept them as long as I didn't delete them from the library or uncheck them. The only thing was that if I did remove them, I wouldn't be able to put them back. Does it still work like that?
I'd rather not risk all my music to put 4 songs on, if it won't work, you know?

Try syncing using the manual method
Try syncing using the manual method
Managing content manually on iPhone, iPad, and iPod
However, the rebuilding you did may have resulted in the iPod seeing the library as a new library. You can only sync with one library/computer. In that case:
Syncing to a "New" Computer or replacing a "crashed" Hard Drive: Apple Support Communities

How move to move itunes files from laptop to external hard drive for 4 profiles, How move to move itunes files from laptop to external hard drive for 4 profiles

My current laptop has no free space, it has my iTunes on, my wife's, and ours kids too.
In order to sync our iPhones/ iPad I need more free space.... Therefore was going to purchase an external hard drive and move the files from my laptop to the external hard drive.
But have no clue on which files to move across?
Need to move them across and keep the individual iTunes accounts for me/wife/ kids.

This article may help
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1751

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Sept. 2010, Consolidate selected content - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2589812 and April 2014, https://discussions.apple.com/message/25414357

How do I get all my music from new external hard drive into itunes????

Just loaded all my music on my new external and need to put into itunes, how do I do that??

There may be other ways but I think the easiest is to just reinstall iTunes. when you reinstall it gives you the option to search for all music, just make sure the external is pluged to the PC and on when u do it. An other thing is with your music on a external, anytime u turn it off or unplug it you will get abunch of ! beside all the songs in iTunes until u turn it on and plug it back in

Having macbook find my itunes folder/music on my external hard drive

short story/question:
my itunes library with all my music (1000+ songs, and iphotos) is on one of those external harddrive firelite things. how do i set up my macbook to search for the itunes library on my external harddrive, rather defaulting to an itunes library mistakenly loaded on my computer?
long story: (bare with me, because i'm in a panic stress mode without my music)-
my kids both have macbooks. my daugther made a video that was on a flashdrive. she couldn't get the flashdrive to open the video on her macbook. unbeknownst (?word) to me, she inserted her flashdrive into my macbook. my external harddrive, with all my music on it was NOT hooked into my macbook at the time.
when she inserted the the flashdrive, the macbook said something like "can't find itunes, would you like to choose an itunes folder?" i still didn't realize she was using my macbook, so i clicked on "choose a folder". now i get a little confused, but two folders came up, the first was labled "itunes", i believe that was an old folder we (apple geniuses) had labled as the orginial music in my library for my external harddrive. there was also a second folder i remember creating labled, itunes1 (or something), which i believe was an updated copy of the most recent music on my external harddrive. i had to give the folder a different name otherwise it wouldn't accept the music again. i thought i deleted the original folder though, after i made a copy of the most recent music. i'm digressing though, sorry.
anyway, i chose the first itunes folder, and her flashdrive video didn't open, so i clicked on the second folder. her video opened up. she was happy. she removed the flashdrive (the wrong way, by just pulling it out. then inserted it again, and removed it correctly.
as she went to shut down the computer, i realized she was using MINE rather than hers or her brother's. i flipped, because know i realized i somehow download some form of origin itunes setup directly onto my macbook.
i inserted my external harddrive with my music, and needless to say, it couldn't find my music. i double clicked on the external harddrive to try to find or open the music... nothing. i find it hard to believe that i lost my music off my external harddrive, considering it was never connected in the first place.
other issue- i recently downloaded some music (from a grateful dead website) not off itunes (which i rarely if ever do). when i clicked on "a button" in itunes, it seemed to download just that music into, i believe the itunes on my macbook. (that music was also in my external harddrive).
bottom line:
how do i get my macbook to search for my intues folder/music that was on my external harddrive, rather than on the macbook itself? i think the macbook needs to know to search the external hardrive, rather than the macbook itself.
i have an appointment with the apple genius bar on saturday, but if someone thinks there's a simple solution that i can do (that will ALWAYS work to have my computer search my external harddrive, rather than the itunes folder on the macbook itselft). i'm willing to try.
my biggest fear... losing, or having lost ALL of my music and photos from the external harddrive.
btw: i hopefully have most of that music backed up to a SECOND external harddrive. which i bought just in case the first one crashed.
help. please. and thanks for listening.
not sure which macosx i have. i think it's 10.6.8, but it may be 10.6.7. i'm typing from work now.
thanks,
anthony

You need to close itunes (right click the icon in the dock and close that way), plug in the external harddrive, wait until the computer recognizes the external harddrive, then click on itunes WHILE HOLDING DOWN THE OPTION KEY. This will bring you to the dialog box that allows you to choose the library you want. Select the external harddrive then select the folder where itunes library is housed. Problem solved.

How can i transfer itune movie from compuer to external hard drive

I am trying to transfer my itune movies to an external drive in order to free space in my MAC hard drive, can someone help me with this task? thank you

Just movies, or the whole library? The whole library is easy:
iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
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 new location of the library.
Just movies can be done with more effort and routine upkeep on your part. There's various solutions depending upon how organized you are and details on the results you desire.

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Do a Time Machine backup to an external drive. It backs up everything.
Instead of restoring from time machine backup, go into time machine and drag out the things you want to restore.
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I have all my music on my external hard drive when I try to add it to iTunes it is automatically added to my MacBook Pro's hard drive. How do I stop this from happening? I just want the music to stay on the external hard drive. Thanks!

I have all my music on my external hard drive when I try to add it to iTunes it is automatically added to my MacBook Pro's hard drive. How do I stop this from happening? I just want the music to stay on the external hard drive. Thanks!

This is true of course, but doesn't cover the situation where some files are in the iTunes Media folder and others are on an external drive. In my case I keep my music in the Media folder and all my films on an external drive (there are too many to have on the internal drive). In iTunes 11, and before, it was easy to add those external files by holding down the alt/opt key while dragging to the sidebar. In iTunes 12 this is no longer possible. There are several workarounds: use TuneSpan to move the file after it's been added; delete the file from the Media folder and empty the trash then use iTunes Get Info which will report the file is missing and allow you to locate it; constantly switch the Add to iTunes toggle on and off as required. All of these require a lot more work than just holding down the alt/opt key while adding.
It constantly gets harder.

I perviously transfered all my iTunes music to an external hard drive. But now when I connect the external hard drive and try to play a song, I get an error message saying that I need to "locate" my music. I don't how to find it on my external hard drive.

I perviously transfered all my iTunes music to an external hard drive. But now when I connect the external hard drive and try to play a song, I get an error message saying that I need to "locate" my music. I don't how to find it on my external hard drive. Please help for I am not that computer savy and don't want to mess anything up.
Thanks!

I called Apple Support and they walked me through it. They told me to basically copy and paste my music to the external hard drive. (I think.) Or maybe it was they had me transfer a folder to the EHD. I don't exactally remember it was a few years back. But I tried to plug in the EHD before starting and...nothing. Still says same thing, "locate file."

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tt2

How do I update Itunes when music is on external hard drive

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