How to create new iTunes library from songs on external drive

I've seen numerous questions about moving an iTunes library TO an external library, but I want to do the reverse. I have a brand new iTunes program on my (brand new) Mac, and I have a large song collection (140 gigs) on an external drive. How do I put the song names into my Mac iTunes library without actually downloading the songs to the computer? I don't want to clog up the Mac with 14000 songs, I'd rather just have it access the drive to play the tunes.
Thanks in advance,
Ron

Hi Ron,
A couple ways to go about it. One is to simply go into iTunes preferences and under the Advanced tab DE-select (un check) the "Copy Files to iTunes Music folder when adding to Library" option. Now when you add your external drive tracks they will remain where they are and are just added to the library listing and will be played from the external location.
Keep in mind that this will happen to ALL songs you add to your library. So if you add one from your download folder and another from a server, etc. they will not be copied in and accessed from that location. If you like, you can always uncheck that, add your 140GB of external tracks, then when it is done, reselect that option so all other things added to your iTunes get copied into the iTunes Folder on your internal drive.
Are the tracks on the external drive arranged in any sort of special organization you want to keep? Or would you be willing to resort them a bit and let iTunes manage the organization? If you are will to let iTunes do the managing, you can set it up so everything goes onto the external and all your existing tracks will get organized by iTunes.
Patrick

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How to create new iTunes library from songs on external drive

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