Is it possible to use an external hard drive to store my music?

I am attempting to clean my internal hard drive. Is it possible to have my iTunes library on an external hard drive? If not, what about on a different internal hard drive?
Thanks.

Sure, it's possible to move your music library to a different drive, internal or external. You do have to be a little careful, though, or else iTunes can get very confused about the location of your files. This Apple knowledge-base article describes the exact process to follow:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748
If you search these forums, you'll find both many tales of success, and the occasional tale of woe, most typically from someone who didn't follow the correct procedure and ended up with an iTunes library full of little exclamation marks next to each song - the sign that iTunes has lost track of a file. But if you follow the documented procedure above exactly, you should be good to go.

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How do you transfer iTunes to Windows 8 when you use an external hard drive to store you music/media files

I've tried a number of different search terms and yet can't quite seem to find an exact answer to my question.
I currently use a Windows 7 computer and have my songs for iTunes on an external hard drive. I would like to find some step by step instructions on how to transfer my library to a new Windows 8 computer and still utilize the external hard drive to store my music. What I find very confusing is I have similar folders for iTunes on both my computer and the external hard drive (ex. Album Artwork, iTunes Library Extras, Previous iTunes Libraries). I'm not sure which files to move over to the new computer to make for a smooth transition.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Paul

See also Make a split library portable.
tt2

Using an external hard drive to store itunes music.

I have recently put my itunes music library onto an external hard drive instead of storing it on my laptop, to save space. I have also told itunes where the new itunes library is on the external hard drive, using the 'preferences' folder.
Whilst the music was stored on both places, the files would play fine in itunes. However now that i have deleted them from my laptop, the songs cannot find the location of each music file, despite me having changed the location of the itunes library in the 'preferences' folder. Can anyone suggest why this is happening and what I can do to fix this?

Can anyone suggest why this is happening
Because you moved your files incorrecty.
iTunes prefs -> Advanced and point you riTunes music folder where you want youer music to gbe located.
Then iTunes menu File -> Library -> Consolidate.
and what I can do to fix this?
iTunes prefs -> Advanced. Make sure the iTunes music folder location is pointing to the iTunes music folder on the external.
Then File -> Add folder to library and select the music folder on the external.

Is it possible to use an external hard drive for time machine backup and also as a regular hard drive?

Is it possible to use an external hard drive for time machine backup and also as a regular hard drive?

I am using an external drive in the exact way that you described. You just keep it plugged in to the computer when you want to access the movies and files. In order to put files on it, just go to finder open up the drive under devices and drag and drop files onto the drive. It is just like using a usb drive with a terabyte of space.

Is it possible to use an external hard drive to use the music collection at home and at work?

I recently started using iTunes both on my home notebook as on my desktop computer at work. I also discovered it is not possible to download the songs I bought on both machines. It's a pitty, but I can understand Apple's point of view.
I was thinking of bying a small portable USB powered hard drive to store my music collection on but I'd like to know whether this is possible before I buy myself a USB drive only to find out it's a waste of time and money. I assume it is possible the USB drive is assigned a different letter on each machine, but I think I can work around that. But is there anything else I need to keep into account?

Sync iPod/iPad/iPhone with two computers
Although it isn't possible to sync an Apple device with two different libraries it is possible to sync with the same logical library from multiple computers. Each library has an internal ID and when iTunes connects to your iPod/iPad/iPhone it compares the local ID with the one the device normally syncs with. If they are the same you can go ahead and sync...
I have my library cloned to a small 1Tb USB drive which I can take between home & work. At either location I use SyncToy 2.1 to update the local copy with the external drive. Mac users should be able to find similar tools. I can open either of the local libraries or the one on the external drive and update the media content of my iPhone. The slight exception is Photos which normally connects to a specific folder on a specific machine, although that can easily be remapped to the current library if you create a "Photos" folder inside the iTunes Media folder so that syncing the iTunes folders keeps this up to date as well. I periodically sweep my library for new files & orphans with iTunes Folder Watch just in case I make changes at one location but then overwrite the library with a newer copy from the other. Again Mac users should be able to find similar tools.
As long as your media is organised within an iTunes Music or Tunes Media folder, in turn held inside the main iTunes folder that has your library files (whether or not you let iTunes keep the media folder organised) each library can access items at the same relative path from the library folder so the library can be at different drives/paths on different machines. This solution ensures I always have adequate backups of my library and I can update my devices whenever I can connect to the same build of iTunes.
When working with an iPhone earlier builds of iTunes would remove any file not physically present in the local library, even if there was an entry for it, making manual management practically redundant on the iPhone. This behaviour has been changed but it will still only permit manual management with a library that has the correct internal ID. If you don't want to sync your library between machines on a regular basis just copy the iTunes Library.itl file from the current "home" machine to any other you want to use, then clean out the library entires and import the local content you have on that box.
tt2

Can I use a network hard drive to store my music

This might be more of an Itunes question, but I would like to know if there is a problem using a network Hard drive to store all my music on? I'll be using 2 computers to access it, 1 computer handles my kids for there Ipods each having there own logins, and the 2nd computer for my Ipod..
Or do I need to have one computer with 3 seperate logins.. I just want to do things the right way without violating anything.
Thanks for your help.

No problem with using network drive. Many do.
Easiest when doing this from the start but can be done at any time. Some things will depends on drive. For me, only one can access drive at a time. create a folder on network drive for the library to be in. For each user on each computer map the folder on the network drive to a drive letter. Set iTunes to use this mapped drive as the library location.
Notes to be aware of. Each user will have access to all files on network drive. Files added by one user will be accessible to other users but they must manually add them to their own library. If multiple users subscribe to same podcast there will be duplicate files of episodes in folder. If one user deletes a file from device other users will be affected if tracks was in their library.

Can you use a network hard drive to store your music

This might be more of an Itunes question, but I would like to know if there is a problem using a network Hard drive to store all my music on? I'll be using 2 computers to access it, 1 computer handles my kids for there Ipods each having there own logins, and the 2nd computer for my Ipod..
Or do I need to have one computer with 3 seperate logins.. I just want to do things the right way without violating anything.
Thanks for your help.

No problem with using network drive. Many do.
Easiest when doing this from the start but can be done at any time. Some things will depends on drive. For me, only one can access drive at a time. create a folder on network drive for the library to be in. For each user on each computer map the folder on the network drive to a drive letter. Set iTunes to use this mapped drive as the library location.
Notes to be aware of. Each user will have access to all files on network drive. Files added by one user will be accessible to other users but they must manually add them to their own library. If multiple users subscribe to same podcast there will be duplicate files of episodes in folder. If one user deletes a file from device other users will be affected if tracks was in their library.

Is it possible to use an external hard drive wirelessly w Leopard?

Upgrading to Leopard seems to have ruined my wireless home network, which worked very smoothly with Tiger. After a couple of tries, I was unable to connect wirelessly to my external hard drive (connected directly to Airport). I was then unable to even access the data directly. I am right now using Data Rescue II to see how much of the data on the hard drive can be retrieved.
I tried an old external HD with airport to see if that would work, and it failed also.
Is it even possible to set up a wireless network with Leopard that will let me move data to an external HD??
Any help is appreciated.
Message was edited by: Joe Mondo

I may have phrased my question poorly.
Pre-Leopard, my external HD was connected directly to Airport. I used it wirelessly.
When I upgraded my MacBook Pro to Leopard, it was almost impossible to access the HD wirelessly, and then outright impossible.
I tried the same setup with another external HD and that didn't work either. When I try to access the HD wirelessly, I get nowhere.

Is it possible to use an external hard drive as the windows partition with boot camp?

I am looking to get a Macbook Pro adn was researchin the different software advantages over PC and found a program called oot Camp that allows you to run Windows on your Mac. I thought that this was interesting as it was sort of the best of both worlds. I wanted to know from people who have used this before: How well does it work? Does it slow down the computer at any noticable rate? Etc.
The last question that Ive been trying to find an answer to, but have no conclusive results, is wether you are able to select the partition as an external hard drive or not. Also how it affects your ability to use an external drive as well. Answers are much apreciated, thank you.

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
Boot Camp is an application that emulates a BIOS so you can install Windows on a second volume on your hard drive. It can't be installed on an external disk because Windows can't be installed on an external hard drive. It works well if you need performance

Using an external hard drive to store music

Hey, i am using an iMac G5 and just installed leopard. i also bought an external hard drive so i can use time machine. I also hoped to put my music files on my external HD so it would take up less HD space on the iMac. My question is, is it possible to have the files solely on the external HD and still be able to keep them in my itunes library and play/manage the files from itunes? Thanks for the help

Follow the instructions in this article.
(25492)

Using an external hard drive to store and edit videos?

Hi
I have read many articles that suggest placing all video projects/events in an external hard drive to save space on my Mac Book or Mac Air.
I just ordered this: http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Passport-Ultra-Portable/dp/B00E055H5O/ref= sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1429627818&sr=1-…
So, how should I format/set up the external?
If I save projects/events on the external, can I come back and edit projects/events that only live in the external drive?
I also want to be able to take the external to whomever's computer to import videos shot by other cameras stored in other peoples computers. Is this ok?
I would be using either iMovie or Final Cut Pro.
Thank you.
Sebastian

To add to Karsten's post - Libraries on an external drive behave just the same as those on the boot drive. (Like many people, I have all of mine on an external drive).
If you connect the external drive to another computer to use with iMovie or FCPX make sure that the other computer is using exactly the same version of iMovie or FCPX. This because some updates to both programs (even minor 'third-digit' updates) have required events from earlier versions to be updated. This cannot be reversed and updated events will no longer work with earlier versions.
Geoff.

Should I use an external hard drive to store the files while editing and how should I do this?

Getting used to FCPX and want help learning how to store my Canon D60 Video files on either my internal Mac book pro or on an external hard drive while editing projects?   Do the files need to be transcoded on the computer drive or can that happen on an external HD?
Thanks,
Greg

Well, in my opinion, it all comes down to speed. There are a lot of editors that swear that working with footage on your system drive will do all sorts of horrible things, cause crashes, etc. Really its a bunch a malarkey. The most it will do is slow you down when your system needs access to the drive. Bandwidth is bandwidth is bandwidth - its all the same. If working with video on your system drive caused crashes, so would doing thousands of other things and we would all have dumped apple long ago for Microsoft or linux.
Here's what I tend to get for sustained read speed on various drives (ie reading a few large files like video files):
USB 2.0: 25 - 30 MB/sec. Drive RPM doesn't matter much since USB is limiting factor, unless you're running a system.
Firewire 400: 28 - 34 MB/sec. Drive RPM doesn't matter much since FW is limiting factor
Firewire 800: 55 - 60 MB/sec. Drive RPM doesn't matter much since FW is limiting factor
internal drive on SATA II or III connection, or USB 3.0 external drive:
    7200 RPM: ~100 MB/sec
    5400 RPM (most laptop drives): probably ~70-80 MB/sec
SSD: 250-500 MB/sec if installed internally or over USB 3. USB 2 or firewire connection for an SSD is a waste of SSD speed *except* that they have fantasticly fast random access for reading many small files, so I got a really fast launching system in an experiment installing a system on an SSD and connecting it via FW 800 - but that's not relevant here
so - to make a short story long - do whatever works for you. avoid using USB 2.0 or firewire 400 drives if you're editing HD - you can't play transcoded ProRes 1080p footage from them reliably. And once you have more than one clip overlapping, like at cross dissolves, you're sunk. You're internal drive is likely much faster, even with the overhead of the system using it too.
Blackmagic Disk Speed Test on the app store is a good HD speed tester. Ignore all the video specific stuff at the bottom - its mostly for uncompressed video, which I doubt you're working with.
Since i have a recent macbook pro (late 2011) and my edits are usually not more dense than 3 layers of video at a time (mostly concert video rather than narrative film), I actually almost never transcode, or even render - and this is for 1080p HD video - because FCP X is so good at playing the imported original h.264 files. I store my media I'm working with on my internal laptop drive (which i upgraded to a 7200 RPM) or a FW 800 7200 RPM external drive.
h.264 files from the camera are much smaller than transcoded ProRes files, so they will play back from USB 2 or firewire 400 drives, but I would only do it in a pinch.
enjoy your editing.

I was using an external hard drive to store video with my MAC. I absent mindedly connected the external drive to a Windows PC and now my mac will not recognize the video files.

convert my video files back to a mac recognizable format on external hard drive.

What did you do to the drive while connected to a Windows PC?

Is it possible to use an external hard drive to just copy files off a Mac?

I am looking into getting a WD Passport as my MacBook's hard drive has recently crashed. All I want to do is use it like I use a USB stick, so take it out, plug it into another computer occasionally and generally just store info and photos etc externally as a back up. Is TimeMachine the best thing to use or just manually take it from the MacBook and onto another PC when I need without using any software?

If you wish to use Time Machine as your backup system, it is best to use an external HDD dedicated to that one application.
If you want to use the new WD HDD on PCs as well as your Mac, the make certain that it is formatted so it is compatible with both systems, Macs can read PC formatted HDDs but not write to them. FAT or exFAT are two choices you may consider.
Ciao.

It keeps saying my hard drive is almost full even though I delete as much as possible and use an external hard drive, cant figure out where else I need to look?

I've tried to keep my computer as organized and clean as possible. I only have 400 songs and not a ton of pictures. I can't figure out where else I need to look on my hard drive. Any suggestions?

I can't really figure out how much I have left in memory but here is some basic info:
Model Name:          MacBook Pro
Model Identifier:          MacBookPro5,5
Processor Name:          Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed:          2.26 GHz
Number Of Processors:          1
Total Number Of Cores:          2
L2 Cache:          3 MB
Memory:          2 GB
Is there somewhere to look to see a breakdown of what memory is used where?
Thanks for your help!

Is it possible to use an external hard drive to store my music?

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