Importing music FROM an external hard drive

My dance studio has an external hard drive with over 15,000 songs in MP3 format, and I would like to be able to put some of those songs on an iPod. My problem: I do not want double copies of my 15,000 songs (one copy in the external hard drive and one copy in iTunes) as that would take up A LOT of computer space. Space I don't have. I have recently installed iTunes on the studio computer (preferring the program for my personal music), is there a way to import the songs from my external hard drive into my iTunes library with out making two copies of each song (in different formats as explained earlier)? Can you "tell" iTunes to find its music in an external hard drive?

Check your iTunes Preferences. Go to Edit>Preferences>Advanced and see if you have "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library" checked. If you haven't then all you did was add a reference to the original location (the external drive) to iTunes without copying the song files them selves. With the external drive disconnected iTunes can no longer locate the file to play from. If that's the case you'd need to delete the songs from iTunes, change preference and add the songs over again.

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How to import music from an external hard drive to my itunes on my computer?

how can import music from an external hard drive that i saved my itunes music to. i dragged the music from my hard drive to the itunes on my computer but the music does not play from my itunes. it does however play on my ipod. it gives me an error that the original can not be found and do i wish to locate it. i am thinking that i did not drag the right file or all of the files necessary .thanks. kevin

To import music into your iTunes library on the computer go to iTunes>Help>iTunes Help>Add items to iTunes and follow the instructions

HT2518 How do I transfer music from an external hard drive to my itunes on my mac? I have put the files into the itunes media, but they are not showing up in iTunes!

How do I transfer music from an external hard drive to my itunes on my mac? I have put the files into the itunes media, but they are not showing up in iTunes!

Hi, did you try iTunes>File>Import?

How do I load my music from my external hard drive without saving it to my computer?

I have alot of music and all of it is saved on my external hard drive. I dont want to save any of the music on my computer because it takes up too much space. I just want to be able to play my music from my external hard drive. Can someone answer this?

Did you import the music on the external hard drive into your iTunes library on your new PC or point iTunes at the location of your library stored on the external hard drive?
B-rock

I imported files from an external hard drive to Itunes on a new computer. they imported & play fine, but the ratings & playlists are gone & i am unable to update any info. I found a file name playlist on old drive & imported now most files are missing!

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Can you locate the iTunes Library.itl file on the old drive? Ideally you would have simply copied over the entire iTunes folder structure from <User's Music> on the old computer into <User's Music> on the new one to transfer the library will all playlists, ratings, play counts etc. intact.
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Importing Itunes from my external hard drive

I had a Macbook with my itunes music on it. Unfortunately, it was owned by my employers, so I had to return it when I changed jobs. I put all of my music files onto an external hard drive. I got my new Dell computer and am trying to import my music from my external hard drive to my new dell. The message reads that "The song cannot be used because the original file can't be found. Would you like to find it?" Interestingly, the music plays when my external hard drive is plugged in. Can anyone help me? My music is all legit....no illegal downloads....its all from my own cd library or itunes. I am so frustrated

It appears that you did not have "Copy to iTunes Music folder when adding to library" checked in Edit>>Preferences>>Advanced>>General when you added the tracks to your library.
(It might as well to look and see how you have this set).
So the library just contains a pointer to the external drive - so the tracks can only be found if the drive is pugged in.
If I have guessed right, consolidating your library will copy the files across into your iTunes Music folder. But be aware that it will do the same thing to any other music in your library but not in the iTunes Music folder.

I recently reset my computer and copy my music from an external hard drive to my itunes library. When I click on a song to play i get an error message that says " the song could not be used because the original file could not be found". need help

I recently reset my computer and copy my music from an external hard drive to my itunes library. When I click on a song to play i get an error message that says " the song could not be used because the original file could not be found". But when I have my external hard drive plug in the song will play with no problem. What do I need to do to play my music without having the external harddrive plug in ???????? Please help

Because the location for each song in your library is on your hard drive. If the hard drive isn't there, how can iTunes play it?
You'll have to move/copy the music from your hard drive to your computer's hard drive.
Basically, EASIEST way to do all this, if you don't care about your play counts, etc...
-Delete EVERYTHING from iTunes, so that your library is now empty.
-Go to "Advanced" inside of the "Preferences" window, found in the "Edit" drop-down. You can also access Preferences by pressing Ctrl+, (Press Ctrl and the comma key)
-Change your iTunes Media Folder Location to something simple, but on your computer. I use C:/iTunes. Make sure "Keep iTunes Media Folder Organized" and "Copy files to...." are both checked. You can close Preferences now.
-Now, drag and drop your music from your hard drive into your iTunes library. iTunes will automatically add the music to your library, as you would expect, and also creates a copy of each file to place into that iTunes Media Folder you just created.
Shouldn't have any more problems...

Why can't I simply drag music from my external hard drive to my ipod classic?

Why can't I simply drag music from my external hard drive to my ipod classic using my mac?

downpat wrote:
So after I get my music put on my computer, then moved to my ipod, do I have to delete music from itunes to free up space?
Not a good idea.
What you could do, is have the Library content on the external hard drive and simply tell your iTunes programme to look on the hard drive for your music etc.. However, once you set that up, that hard drive needs to be connected and ready to read, before you start the iTunes programme. If it isn't ready, iTunes will simply go back to the default location for the music, find nothing and then you'll be back here saying that you've lost your Library.

How do i import bootcamp from a external hard drive

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Try this link, http://www.libbyh.com/2008/01/17/cloning-my-boot-camp-partition-to-a-new-hard-dr ive/

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Hello B3NN13,
If you would like to add the music from your external hard drive to iTunes without copying it to the iTunes Library on your internal hard drive, you may find the following article helpful:
Add files to your library without adding them to your iTunes folder
When you add an item already on your computer to your iTunes library, iTunes places a copy of the file in your iTunes folder. The original file remains in its current location.
You can change this setting so that files are added to your iTunes library without being added to the iTunes folder. You might want to do this, for example, if you prefer to store video files on an external disk but still want to view them in iTunes.
Choose iTunes > Preferences, and click Advanced.
Deselect the checkbox next to “Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library.”
From now on, when you drag a file to your library or choose File > Add to Library, the item appears in iTunes, but the actual file isn’t copied or moved.
Tip: You can temporarily reverse this setting by holding down the Option key while you drag files to the iTunes window.
iTunes 12 for Mac: Change where your iTunes files are stored
Sincerely,
- Brenden

Can i show and play music from my external hard drive in iTunes without adding it to my Mac hard drive?

I have more music than I can keep on my Macbook hard drive by over 200GB. I'm hoping to be able to show and play all music from my external hard drive in iTunes without having to add any of it to my Macbook Hard Drive

Hello B3NN13,
If you would like to add the music from your external hard drive to iTunes without copying it to the iTunes Library on your internal hard drive, you may find the following article helpful:
Add files to your library without adding them to your iTunes folder
When you add an item already on your computer to your iTunes library, iTunes places a copy of the file in your iTunes folder. The original file remains in its current location.
You can change this setting so that files are added to your iTunes library without being added to the iTunes folder. You might want to do this, for example, if you prefer to store video files on an external disk but still want to view them in iTunes.
Choose iTunes > Preferences, and click Advanced.
Deselect the checkbox next to “Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library.”
From now on, when you drag a file to your library or choose File > Add to Library, the item appears in iTunes, but the actual file isn’t copied or moved.
Tip: You can temporarily reverse this setting by holding down the Option key while you drag files to the iTunes window.
iTunes 12 for Mac: Change where your iTunes files are stored
Sincerely,
- Brenden

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How do i transfer music from an external hard drive to itunes on my macbook pro?

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George Karakadas, hope this helped u. if it helped u PLZ RATE MY AANSWER AS: "CORRECT ANSWRER" thnx

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You should probably post in itunes forum, not iphone forum for more answers.

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Importing music FROM an external hard drive

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