ITunes external/internal hard drive mixup

A somewhat unique situation has arose with my itunes library over time, and I'd like to set it straight. Right now some songs in my library are accessed from an external hard drive, while others are from my imac's internal hard drive. I'd like to have all my songs accessed from the internal hard drive so I do not have to worry about the external hard drive being on or connected. At the moment, my entire itunes library is on the internal hard drive and in the itunes music folder. Do I have to reimport everything, or is there a simpler solution? I'd also like to keep the play counts ect. Any suggestions?
Also, I plan on buying a macbook soon and transferring my itunes library through firewire. Will the same situation with the songs only playable while the external hard drive is connected still exist?

If you have iTunes 7, then you can just drag the entire iTunes folder to your desired location. Then hold down the Shift key while launching iTunes. You'll be given a dialog box where you can select the iTunes library you want to use. Navigate to and select the iTunes folder in it's new location.
Forum Tip: Since you're new here, you've probably not discovered the Search feature available on every Discussions page, but next time, it might save you time (and everyone else from having to answer the same question multiple times) if you search a couple of ways for a topic, both in the relevant forums, in the User Tips Library and in the Apple Knowledge Base before you post a question.
Regards.

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Moving iTunes from internal hard drive to external hard drive

I would like to know if it is possible for me to move my iTunes library and all iTunes files from my internal hard drive to the external drive that I just purchased. My Laptop is running out of memory and I assume if I move it to the external drive it will free up space. Can anyone here help me?

If you have iTunes 7, then you can just drag the entire iTunes folder to your desired location. Then hold down the Shift key while launching iTunes. You'll be given a dialog box where you can select the iTunes library you want to use. Navigate to and select the iTunes folder in it's new location.
Forum Tip: Since you're new here, you've probably not discovered the Search feature available on every Discussions page, but next time, it might save you time (and everyone else from having to answer the same question multiple times) if you search a couple of ways for a topic, both in the relevant forums, in the User Tips Library and in the Apple Knowledge Base before you post a question.
Regards.

Using external & internal hard drives on one project

I'm working on one project.
I've captured a lot of raw video. I'm about to run of space on my external hard drive which is a Lacie d2 qadra 500 GB. Is it OK to start capturing on the iMac's internal hard drive and use both for one project on one timeline?

Yes, you should be able to do this easily by setting adding the internal drive as a capture drive via the 'System Settings' then select the 'Scratch Disks' tab. Checking the Video Capture should automatically select the Audio capture for that drive as well.

How do I migrate my itunes library from an external hard drive to my mac mini's internal hard drive?

I have my iTunes library on an external hard drive because my macbook pro's internal hard drive didn't have enough room. I would like to migrate or transfer the itunes files while continuing to keep my playlists. Is there a way to do that with the migration software?

Thank you for your help. My biggest concern is losing all of my sorted music into playlists. I have 124GB of music and resorting it will very difficult. When I moved the itunes library with the help of a supervisor at apple tech to the external HD I had to resort it.
Will it move the entire library and setting as they are now?

The backup files for my devices are saved to my internal hard drive. I have a small internal hard drive and would like them to be saved to an external drive. How can I change where iTunes automatically backs up to?

The backup files for my devices are saved to my internal hard drive. I have a small internal hard drive and would like them to be saved to an external drive. How can I change where iTunes automatically backs up to?

This has nothing to do with iTunes as iTunes provides no way to move or relocate the backup files.
A search of google or the fourms would reveal ways to create a folder link to relocate the physical location where the files are stored.

How do you move just your movies and tv shows to an external hard drive and have iTunes recognize that that is where that media is (keeping music on the internal hard drive itself and putting only movies and tv shows on an external hard drive)?

I'm not sure about how to get iTunes to recognize that my music is in one location (on my MacBook's internal hard drive) and my movies and tv shows are in another (on an external hard drive I purchased). I know how to make iTunes recognize that all of my iTunes files are on an external hard drive, but not only some of them. Please help me out. Thanks.

While you can do that, it is not a feature of iTunes. Put your movies on the external drive, then add them to iTunes by dragging the files to iTunes while holding the option (alt) key down so it leaves the files where they are located. There are other ways to move them if they are already added but they can be more involved and tricky. If it's just one or two try: http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=relocateselected

My itunes Library is on an External Hard Drive, but my internal hard drive crashed, I have to re-install windows XP--What do I do to re-associate my Library on the external drive and not wipe my iphone when I synch?

My ITunes Library is on an external hard drive, however, the internal hard drive on my laptop crashed, requireing a complete re-format and re-installation of Windows XP--When I re-install Itunes, what do I need to do to make sure I do not lose all of the content on the two iphones I have, and to re-associate the library with Itunes ( i know how to change the path) but I am fearful that somehow the library link will be broken since the old Itunes installation is gone, and who knows what else might go awry.
any help or advice is welcome.

You're Welcome...
This Link explains the correct way of putting iTunes onto an External Drive...
If you have have not done it this way that could explain a lot...
Backup iTunes to an External Drive
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751

I can only access the itunes library if i plug in my external hard drive. is there a way to add the music to my internal hard drive?

i can only access my itunes library if i plug in my external hard drive. how do i find where the itunes songs are on my external hard drive and how do i move them to my computers internal hard drive so i no longer have to have the external hard drive plugged in?

When the drive is connected, use the Organize Library command in iTunes. If the entire library is located there, drag it to the internal drive, launch iTunes with the Shift key held down, and point it there.
(59363)

Can I directly back up my itunes files to an external hard drive? To save my internal hard drive.

Can I directly back up my itunes files to an external hard drive? To save my internal hard drive.

If your intent is to remove the songs from your computer's internal drive you don't want to manually move them because iTunes won't know where they are. The safe way to perform this move is to start iTunes, open iTunes Preferences, and select the advanced tab. Plug in the external drive if it isn't already.
Using the picture above as a guide, (1) click on the Change button and select your external hard drive. (I created a Music folder on my external drive because I keep more than just music on it). 2) Click to put checkmarks in the boxes marked (2) and (3) and then click on the Ok button. This sets the stage for copying the music to your external drive and will make sure all your new music is put there as well.
The last step is to select the File menu, choose Library, and then Consolidate Library. This actually moves the music. Depending on how large your music library is and the speed of your external drive this will take a few minutes to a few hours.

How to move an iTunes library from the internal hard drive to another bootable disk.

         I got two Mac OS X installations on my i Mac system. One on the internal hard drive (320 Gb), that has been there since the iMac was bought 3 years ago, upgraded to Lion on 2 August. (call that INT) . I have a USB external drive, and recently bought a firewire Lacie external drive (2Tb), so to boot from there when I can, with hard drive space getting tight this year. I successfully installed another copy of Lion on LACIE.
         Then I went to work to transfer my iTunes library, which the media files were optioned to store on the USB drive. Intending to transfer both the music and video files, and the megadata ( playlists, ratings, playcounts ) I found the media files and the iTunes library file and the .xml document in my iTunes folder from INT. I made a new folder in the USB drive, and copied the contents from the old iTunes folder to that new folder. I re-started in LACIE, and found my empty iTunes folder. I copied over to the new iTunes folder, then opened iTunes. My eyes saw the music library to the same number of items, with the playlists etc showing.
        However, I tried to sync an iPod Nano, and a window came up saying 100 songs could not be copied to the iPod because they could not be found. After ejecting the iPod I tried to play a song from iTunes, and the screen filled with exclamation points. A small window came up, asking for a password to open "sparsebundle" and my name. I entered my password for the administrator's log-in and it said try again with the password. Without knowing what password to put in, I clicked Cancel, and got another small window asking to locate the file. Then clicked Cancel again, not knowing where to search. All the media folders were showing after quitting iTunes and opening Finder .
      I re-booted into INT, and opened iTunes. The library was still there. I synced my iPod again, ejected it, played 3 songs on the iPod, synced again, ejected it again, and opened the playlist "Recently Played". It showed up okay with no problems. So my iTunes library in INT is alright.
      Has anyone got any idea how to make the transfer into LACIE and get it running alright, or what went wrong with what I did ?
      In the meantime I will empty my LACIE iTunes library folder's contents to the trash, and securily empty the trash .

Solved the issue without using the trash . I tried to consolidate the library in LACIE, then clicked on any exclamation-mark song and tried to locate the file. Repeating those steps 3 or 4 times cleared it up. That was confirmed when I synced the entire library on a iPod Classic, and showed up no problems after syncing the Nano.
     What went wrong was perhaps to fail to consolidate the library at first .

Can I clone and transfer from the internal hard drive to an external hard drive ?

I got an intel duo iMac, the machine is very good even if it is almost 3 years old. But with the internal hard drive having 320 Gb I am running out of hard drive space. I have looked into changing the internal hard drive but that involves having to send the machine away to have that done. So I was wondering if I could just transfer all the Mac OS X and all the applications and settings within three user accounts to say a 2 TB external hard drive, and boot from that, using cloning software.
Alternatively, is there a way to transfer the iPhoto and iMovie libraries to an external hard drive. That would free up space. I do not know how, if that is possible, although I have managed that with iTunes. My iMac is running Snow Leopard.
Regards from John5801

John,
USB should be fine for general computer use, but media may add a little too much for the sustained rate that USB2 provides. In a previous career I did a lot of video editing. Firewire was much preferred in that task because of its stability at higher rates. I can see why the SuperDuper! people might suggest it.
When I cloned the wife's iMac, I had replaced the HDD on the MacBook Pro with a USB pocket drive that I've kept the original MacBook's installation mounted on. I've booted directly to that external drive, so you should be okay if you can make the clone across the USB. When I cloned the wife's machine I booted the MacBook Pro with a fresh HDD in Firewire target mode and connected it as an external Firewire 800 drive. Firewire 800 is much faster, but you'll need the cable and everything to be right.
Firewire has a better reputation among people running a lot of media from their drive. I would suggest that you try and get an external drive kit that can support both. I think your iMac supports both firewire 400 AND firewire 800 along with the 3 USB2 ports. I'm guessing based on my wife's 24" imac. The fastest would be the Firewire 800, but that standard is about to be pushed aside in both cases.
Hope that helped.

How do you move or can I move Itune folders (Movies), (TV Shows) and (Home Videos) to other internal hard drives (running out of space) on my computer's main hard drive and have Itunes recongize where they are?

I built my own computer which has 4 internal hard drives with 3 internal hard drives that are 3tb. With my movies and tv shows, I need to know if I can move the Itunes folders (Movies, TV shows and Home Video's) and move each one of them to 3 seperate internal hard drives while Itunes can still find them to play with my apple tv. Does anyone know how I can do it?

While you can do that, it is not a feature of iTunes. Put your movies on the external drive, then add them to iTunes by dragging the files to iTunes while holding the option (alt) key down so it leaves the files where they are located. There are other ways to move them if they are already added but they can be more involved and tricky. If it's just one or two try: http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=relocateselected

HT204370 I have changed my internal hard drive on my macbook pro. I have put old hard drive into a capsule and have this plugged into my laptop. I can't find the movies on my old hard drive now? Any idea how I can move them to iTunes again? cloud taking H

I have just changed my internal Hard drive on my MacBook pro. I had recently downloaded some movies on iTunes which I want to put into my iTunes library on my new internal hard drive. I have put my old internal hard drive into an external capsule but when I open the icon of the hard drive from the desktop I can't find my movies.
At the moment I have the new movies downloading again from the cloud but it is literally taking hours for even one movie to load.
When I changed the internal hard drive I restored my info from my old external hard drive which hadn't been backed up in a month and hence does not have my latest movies...
I am concerned that I might go over my internet usage limit (flatmate is refusing to change to unlimited package!!!!) by downloading all the movies again from the cloud never mind how long it is taking...
Is there any way to restore all my info and media from the old internal Hard drive in the capsule as well as from the external hard drive?

It means there is no bootable system on the drive. If you still have access to the old drive, then I suggest you boot from it then clone it to the new internal drive. Use OPTION boot to boot from the Recovery HD on the old drive:
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
     1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu then press the Continue
         button.
     2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
     3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
     4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it
         to the Destination entry field.
     5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to
         the Source entry field.
     6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Source means the external old drive. Destination means the new internal drive.

Is it possible to store iPhoto files externally in a similar way as iTunes? My hard drive is almost full now and I really need to clear some space.

The capacity on my internal drive is quickly approaching it's limit, this is due to the amount of photo's I have stored thru iPhoto's, I do back them up externally, but as it is, if I want to transfer photo's to an iPad or iPhone, it seems they need to be on my internal hard drive. I see no way of storing them externally in a way which allows syncronisation with my devices. If as with iTunes where you can set a path for storing songs etc externally, this would be very helpful.
Can anybody offer suggestions on how to overcome this problem?
Thanking you in advance...

Move your iPhoto Library to an external disk.
Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
3. Hold down the option (or alt) key while launching iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library' and navigate to the new location. From that point on this will be the default location of your library.
4. Test the library and when you're sure all is well, trash the one on your internal HD to free up space.
Regards
TD

Importing FROM external hard drive to new internal hard drive

How can I move my backed up Itunes library from my external hard drive to my new internal hard drive? I went through the steps listed on the support page, and imported the .xml playlist that I moved to the desktop. Now all my playlists (names only) are on Itunes, but there is no content. Help?

lksj wrote:
How can I move my backed up Itunes library from my external hard drive to my new internal hard drive? I went through the steps listed on the support page, and imported the .xml playlist that I moved to the desktop. Now all my playlists (names only) are on Itunes, but there is no content. Help?
assuming you moved the whole iTunes folder to your new internal HD, try this:
launch iTunes with the options key pressed. this window will appear
click +choose library+ and navigate to the _iTunes library file_ on your internal HD.
any luck ?

ITunes external/internal hard drive mixup

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