ITunes & iPhoto on external drive not showing in Media Browser

I moved my iTunes and iPhoto libraries to a NAS device on separate hard drives. Independently they work and I can access them through their respective programs, HOWEVER, when I want to use them in Keynote, Pages, iMovie, etc. they don't show up in the media browser. I have a couple of questions...
1. Will the media browser work with these libraries on external sources?
2. Do I need to set up some sort of alias on my Mac HD to point the media browser to those libraries?
3. If so...how?
Hoping someone has the answer, or at least can point me in the right direction...

I am not sure if they will work off a NAS, but I don't see why not. (But iMovie Events will not work off a NAS)
See this post and focus in on the part about trashing the iApps plist. I would try to trash it and then open up iPhoto and iTunes to repopuplate it. Then try to see if the Media Browser works in iMovie. You should not need to trash the iMovie plist, but it would do no harm if you did.
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4061

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Why is my 7200rpm external drive not findable in Media Browser?

I'm sure this is a basic issue, but I've not been able to find anything helpful.
I'm a relative newcomer to editing, so I may be missing something obvious.
Wanting to use this OWC 3tb FW800 or usb3 as a media drive, but I can't import from it via any option.
Does Premiere absolutely require a RAID or TB drive?
Many thanks.
Premiere Pro CC/ OSX 10.8.5/ MBP 12,1 16gb

I am not sure if they will work off a NAS, but I don't see why not. (But iMovie Events will not work off a NAS)
See this post and focus in on the part about trashing the iApps plist. I would try to trash it and then open up iPhoto and iTunes to repopuplate it. Then try to see if the Media Browser works in iMovie. You should not need to trash the iMovie plist, but it would do no harm if you did.
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4061

USB External drive not showing in Finder, or on Desktop

I have two USB external drives from the same manufacturer. One is for regular storage, the second is for Time Machine and movies.
The first one shows everywhere, on the desktop, in finder and in Disk Utility.
The second drive shows in Disk Utility only. However, it is functioning fine with Time Machine. So it is mounted. I have tried several repairs, and it reports no fault found. So it is certainly functioning correctly, but a setting or error in the operating system is not allowing it to be viewed in finder, or on the desktop.
Any suggestions.

Correction: Title should be Firewire External drive not showing in Finder, or on Desktop.

External drive not showing up on desktop

I have an external hard drive (2T Newertech ministack). We had a power outage the other day. Even though the drive is on it no longer appears on the desktop. I went to Disk Utility and see if it could be repaired but the drive is not even showing up there. Does this mean the ministack was fried by the outage or is there another way I can save it? And yes, the finder preferences are on for external drives to show up on desktop.

It's not likely it would be fried if it's connected to a UPS because then it would not lose power and crash. Have you tried disconnecting the device from the computer, rebooting the computer, then reconnecting the device?
Since you have another Mac try directly connecting the device to it and using Disk Utility to repair the drive. Then give it a try on the other computer.

External drive not showing in sidebar

I have set my Finder Preferences for the Sidebar to show connected servers and external drives. However, I can not get a mounted external drive to show under Devices in the sidebar. It has appeared previously, but now I can't get it to stick on the sidebar when dragging the external drive from the finder window to the sidebar. Noticed some older posts on the Internet from others experiencing this issue. Is there a fix?
MacBook Pro RD, early 2013, OS 10.8.5, with attached Dell external monitor.

Can you see it in Disk Utility? If so, try the mount command in the top menu bar.
You can also try deleting the Finder .plist.
In Finder hold down the option/alt key while selecting the Go menu item. Select Library. Then go to Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist. Move the .plist to your desktop.
Re-launch Finder by logging out/in and test. If it works okay, delete the plist from the desktop.
If the same, return the .plist to where you got it from, overwriting the newer ones.
If you want to make your user library permanently visible, run the below command in Applications/Terminal.
chflags nohidden ~/Library/
You will need to do that after any updates.

Migrating iTunes, iPhoto from external drives to new iMac

We've finally decided to upgrade from our trusty Power Mac G4 tower (10.4.11) we've had since 2002 to a new 21.5-inch iMac. It arrives tomorrow.
I'm already anticipating problems migrating to the new system, tho'. The 20Gb startup disk seemed science-fiction large in 2002, but obviously we quickly ran out of space. Currently, our iPhoto library lives on a second internal SATA HD, and iTunes on an external FireWire drive.
What's going to be the best way to migrate all that stuff to the new iMac's 2Tb (science fiction numbers, again!) drive? Will the migration assistant find the iPhoto and iTunes files on those other disks?

den.thed wrote:
Open iTunes on your new iMac and go to File > Add to Library then navigate to the iTunes library on the External HD and hit the Choose button.
Do the same for iPhoto File > Add to Library while your connected to the G4.
Just for clarity's sake, you're talking about selecting the iTunes/iPhoto media folders, right? Not selecting each file individually, I hope.
And from what you're saying, it doesn't sound like Migration Assistant is going to pull anything over from my old iTunes or iPhoto settings, much less media stored on external/expansion drives, is that correct? I'll have to drag those files over via Ethernet, I imagine.

.m4v movies on external drive not showing in my library?

Some movies held on external drive are not showing in my library. I can open them with iTunes through Finder but they still don't appear in my library. Any ideas why. All my iTunes downloaded movies are there but the .m4v that I have loaded are missing.

Again I do not have iTunes 12 but I recall seeing a picture where movies have their own library section.
I did not fully understand your last post (cosignee?) but if iTunes is playing a file then it is in the library somewhere.
I know with my version of Quicktime Player it shows tag data in a separate information window I can choose to display. You can also use a tag editor such as MetaZ or Subler to edit movie tags.

External Drive not showing up in Finder? Can't access files?

My blue 1TB external WD Passport Drive (whose name is Ralph and who holds all kinds of precious things that I love and can't lose) isn't showing up on my Finder screen. Whenever I connect him, his light turns up and blinks as usual, but I can't access anything on him. I don't even get an error message when I disconnect him without ejecting. I've tried using different USB ports and different cables, but it's not helping. I've also tried connecting him to different computers (3 different macs and 1 Windows 8 PC), but NOTHING.
I've been trying everything the past few days to get him to work. He shows up on Disk Utility occasionally. I've tried verifying and repairing him through Disk Utility, but it says that the verification could not be completed, or that it can't repair him. It tells me to back up as many files as I can and then restore him, but I can't access the files to back them up in the first place. Also, the partition name seems to have changed to 'disk1s3', which appears greyed out on the Disk Utility screen.
In regards to mount point, it says that the disk isn't mounted. I tried mounting it by right-clicking it on Disk Utility, but the mount failed.
I tried restoring him onto another 1TB WD drive (Oscar), but that failed too.
How can we help Ralph? I don't believe in much, but I believe in Ralph.
And that's why we have to help him.

You can call Western Digital, but most likely they will give you the advice they gave another user recently to send it to Drive Savers for data recovery. Drive Savesrs quoted him a price of $999 to just recover his photos from the drive.
There is software you can try. Both have demos.
FileSalvage $90
Data Rescue $99
DiskWarrior might be another option you can try. There is no demo. $99.99 http://www.alsoft.com/diskwarrior/
Drive Savers
http://hard-drive-recovery-services-review.toptenreviews.com/drive-savers-review .html
In the future, you need to backup your important data to another external drive just for situations like this. Another option is to use a service like DropBox to upload files. This is mirrored on your drive so it's not always the best option.

Reinstall of OS: iTunes Library on external drive not recognized

I've always had my iTunes library on my external drive. Now that I reinstalled my OS iTunes will not open the library. I've navigated to the correct library using the advanced preferences but that's not doing it. I've tried discarding the existing library in the music folder. Can't seem to find the answer.
Thanks

JS,
I had some trouble following macmenno's instructions, but have had almost complete success. If you DO have your original itunes library file, this should work for you too.
Background, my situation:
My harddisk was failing but warned me, so i copied the ENTIRE itunes folder to an external drive. The iTunes folder includes the "itunes library" file, the music folder, and the xml file. This was suggested in a book i have on iLife as the best way to backup itunes to an external HD to preserve playlists, et al. But the book failed to say how to copy the folder back if needed.
So the first time i naively just copied the entire folder back to the imac (new HD) but itunes failed to "find" it, even though it was exactly where i had deleted the equivalent default (empty) files/folder. Playing around i managed to get itunes to find the music but not the playlists and ratings...i.e., it was not finding the library file.
Macmenno's instructions:
I started all over: With Itunes closed, I deleted all three items from the itunes folder: the library file, music folder, xml file. to be safe, i also emptied the trash since itunes seemed to be following the files. But i left the itunes folder in place, albiet empty. Per macmenno's instructions, i then copied ONLY the itunes library file and the xml file from my external HD to the imac itunes folder. I then opened itunes, checked the preferences to be sure it was pointing in the right direction. I then dragged the Music Folder from the ext-HD and dropped it on the library icon in the itunes program window.
That worked. i have my playlists, ratings, comments, et all.
Only problem is i now have duplicate listings of all music songs -- one with an exclamation point that doesn't play (apparently came from my itunes library file before i dropped in the songs), one that does play.
So macmenna, if you are still with us, how can i delete the 3,000 song titles with exclamation points? I tried to click on the column head to sort them all together, then block-mark and delete... but apparently we can not sort on that column head.
Or did i miss something in your instructions?
Thanks. and good luck to you JS.
SB
imac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.7) itunes 6.0.5

Folder problems on external drive, not showing correct file size

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I had the same problem with my iMac, first I repaired the disk, then I ejected the disk, restarted, and then reinserted the USB in a different port. All of my files magically showed up. I don't know what caused the error but it has been working fine since.

Music saved in iTunes folders on C drive not showing up in iTunes playlists

I don't know how long I've had the problem, but a couple months back I burned a ton of Ella Fitzgerald CDs into iTunes. They appear in folders when I browse to my iTunes library on my C:/ drive.
But they are not showing up in my iTunes music list. There are songs there that are checked and others unchecked...so even if I haven't selected them to be on my iPod (I only have a Nano right now), they should appear in my Music list but they don't.
I just checked for updates and downloaded the latest version of iTunes, but it did not resolve the problem. Anyone had any luck diagnosing and/or fixing this?
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annespeak

Somehow they've gone missing from the itunes library list, but are stil on your hard drive. So just drag them over from windows explorer into the main litunes library window.
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I have two external hard drives that will not show up in my finder as if it is not activated in my Sidebar or Desktop (even though it is). They don't even show up in my Macintosh HD directory. My other external drives work fine and show up everywhere they are supposed to. This is happening on both my computer and another Intel 8-core, so I am assuming it has something to do with the external drives. They do, however, operate as expected when accessed through the network and when using spotlight.

Sounds like the Invisible bit got set on those drives. Take a look at the article I wrote on the problem as it first appeared in Tiger:
http://www.pinkmutant.com/articles/invisible.html
There is a new wrinkle to this old bug in Leopard, where the invisible bit is sometimes immediately being reset back to invisible. So far there is no solution to that. See this discussion:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=5751668
If you are lucky the reset described in the first article will work for you.
Francine
Francine
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Why does the external drive not show up on the desktop.

My wife has a G5 (iSight). When we turn on the external drive it does not mount. We have tried restarting the iMac with the external drive on and it still does not show up. What is the problem and what is the fix?
Thanks

Is it by chance a WD MyBook? They are known for problems like that. Could be the cable -- try a different one. Or it could be the Firewire port on the computer. Try a different port on the computer or on the external, if it has one. Have a look at this Apple article with other troubleshooting steps.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1151
Message was edited by: WZZZ

Usb external drives not showing up in lion

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Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5
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I reset my PRAM and it works now. I've no idea what that did...
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ok, I have several problems, the first one being the fact that my external drive, where I have all my data, is not mounting or sometimes it mounts but soon dissapears. I was not worried at the beginning since I thought, that is why I have time machine, I have all my files backed up. However, the external drive does not show in any of my back ups. It dissapears from Time Machine too so all my previous back ups from the external drive dissapeared too. I have all those backups before. Any ideas of what is wrong? I have 10.5.8

dakine2403 wrote:
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ITunes & iPhoto on external drive not showing in Media Browser

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