ITunes library move to external hard drive

Hi guys, I am wondering if u can help me, I have run out of room on my laptop, its 5yrs old and capacity of 100gb. I have recently tried to upgrade my iPhone to the iOS 5 but alas, I don't have any room to do so.
So I have copied my music library across to an external hard drive, changed my iTunes library to search for the music to where the files are kept on the external hard drive and consolidated the library ( basically everything that the apple support forum told me to do)
However , when I click a song to play on iTunes, the exclamation Mark pops up and I need to physically locate each track back to where it is in the file in the external hard drive.
Is there an easier way to do this?? Any help would be great thanks
Peter

Did you use iTunes to copy the mosic or did you manually copy the folders to the external drive?
I used iTunes to moemy music folder to a new 1 tb drive and it worked perfectly.  I have had an issue with some iTunes updates reverting back to the original location and then need to go back through the steps again.

Similar Messages

  • HT1751 Followed instructions on how to consolidate iTunes library, move to external hard drive and restore library back up but my iTunes is still empty.

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    The instructions I followed are here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
    As I got down to Step 7 in 'Restoring your iTunes Library backup', I chose my iTunes library file and waited for everything to be restored but then nothing came up on my iTunes. My iTunes is still empty.
    Is there perhaps another way for me to transfer my iTunes library and my playcount will still be retained? Help on this would be greatly appreciated.

    Recently bought a new macbook pro and obviously the first thing I want to do is move over my itunes library from my PC and keep my playcount.
    The instructions I followed are here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
    As I got down to Step 7 in 'Restoring your iTunes Library backup', I chose my iTunes library file and waited for everything to be restored but then nothing came up on my iTunes. My iTunes is still empty.
    Is there perhaps another way for me to transfer my iTunes library and my playcount will still be retained? Help on this would be greatly appreciated.

  • How do I move my itunes library from my external hard-drive back to my MacBook Pro?

    A couple of years ago I moved our itunes library to an external hard-drive to free up some space. I got a new MacBook Pro and would like to move the itunes library to it.  I don't remeber how I moved it from my old laptop to the external hard-drive and have no idea how to move it to my MacBook.

    See Restoring your iTunes Backup here...
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    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751

  • How do I move my iTunes library from my external hard drive back to my computer?

    Just wondering how do I move my entire iTunes library from my external hard drive back to my computer? It was moved to an external hard drive a few years ago, and now I'm wondering how to move it back to my iMac to increase performance.
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  • How do I move my itunes library to an external hard drive?

    How do I move my itunes library to an external hard drive?

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    (108779)

  • Can I safely move my iTunes library to an external hard drive, to free up memory?

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    Can I move those songs to an external hard drive?
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  • HT1751 if I move my iTunes library to an external hard drive can my computer access these files in iTunes or do I need to move them back to play music, watch movies, etc.???

    If I move my iTunes library to an external hard drive, can my MacBookPro access these files in iTunes or do I need to move them backto my MacBookPro to play music, watch movies, etc.???
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    Yes, it can. Launch iTunes with the Option key held down and navigate to that instance of the library.
    (86939)

  • I need to move my iTunes library to an external hard drive

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    Sounds like you are OK. Be sure to open iTunes then preferences. Click on Advanced icon in toolbar. Set the path to your media folder in the field where you should see the path to the original location. Or, you can hold down the OPTION key while starting iTunes and choosing the library you wish to use.
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  • I need to move the iTunes library to an External Hard Drive to free up space on iMac.  Need suggestions on type of External Hard Drive to use.  A Multimedia Hard Drive like LaCie LaCinema Classic HD Multimedia Hard Drive OR a Large Desktop Hard Drive?

    I need to move an iTunes library to an External Hard Drive to free up space on iMac.  I Need suggestions on type of External Hard Drive to use.  Should you use a Multimedia Hard Drive like LaCie LaCinema Classic HD Multimedia Hard Drive OR a standard Large Desktop Hard Drive like Western Digital/Seagate/LaCie?

    There is no benefit to the multi-media feature on the first drive you mentioned. If you are going to look at differences between certain drives, I'd look at the differences in reliability first.

  • How do I Play videos from external hard drive on Apple TV2?  Can I just move the iTunes Library to the External Hard Drive?

    I have several HD videos stored on an external hard drive and would like to bring them into iTunes and play them via iTunes on my Apple TV2, but I am not sure how to go about it.  I don't want to store the movies on my iMac hard drive because it would eat up to much space...so do I just move the iTunes Library to the external hard drive?  And, if so...will the Apple TV2 find the iTunes Library on the external hard drive?  Thanks for any help anyone can suggest.

    iTunes content on an external drive isn't a problem.
    The simplest method is to just move your library to an external drive.
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  • How do I move iTunes library to an external hard drive to use less space?

    How do I move iTunes library to an external hard drive to use less space?

    Our iTunes guru Terence Devlin advises the following:
    1. Quit iTunes
    2. Drag the iTunes folder from your internal hd - located in ~/Music folder - to your external hd. DO NOT delete the original one from your internal hd... yet!
    3. When the transfer is complete, press and hold the Option(alt) key and fire up iTunes.
    4. A "Choose iTunes Library" window will come up. Click on the "Choose Library" button.
    5. Navigate to where the iTunes folder is located in the external hd.
    6. Within the iTunes folder, select the iTunes Library file and click Choose...
    That's it. iTunes will now display all your playlists, songs, movies, podcasts etc. At this point, should you wish, you can delete the iTunes folder from the internal hd to free up space.
    More info:
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751
    Or if you prefer a more complicated explanation:
    http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive

  • Can i store unused iTunes Library on an external Hard-drive?

    Hi There,
    I have 3 account on my Macbook each have an itunes library on them, the on is use all the time, but the other 2 never change and are never listed to becausethe only used of the laptop!
    is there any way I can move the library on to my hard-drive so i can free up space on my laptop, but still have accesses to them if i need to update the 2 of them to put new music on there iphone and ipods?
    Thanks and help would be greatly appreciated??
    Tom Green

    See this Apple note about moving an itunes library to an external hard drive.

  • How do I create an iTunes library on an external hard drive?

    I have a MacBook Pro running OS10.6.8 and iTunes 10.3.1.
    I have simply run out of hard drive space on my laptop.
    I want to create a secondary iTune library on an external hard drive.
    (I know how to create a new iTune Library - it ends up in my Music folder on my laptop hard drive).
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    a) create or move this folder to an external hard drive, and
    b) once done, how do I move my video files (television programs and movies) from my laptop iTune folder to the external hard drive?
    Thank you for any assistance.

    no need to create a secondary library - too troublesome, IMHO. you can spread your library over as many drives you can connect to your Mac (wired or wirelessly):
    iTunes > preferences > advanced.
    point iTunes media folder location to the external
    on the same tab, ensure the copy files ... when adding option is checkmarked
    okay out of preferences
    highlight the content to be moved in iTunes and right-click
    select consolidate files from the pop-up menu
    wait for the process to finish
    when done, you may delete the original files from your boot drive.
    alternatively, you could move the whole shabang to the external HD:
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  • How do I combine an iTunes library on an external hard drive (laptop) with an iTunes library on an external hard drive on my PC?

    How can I combine the iTunes library on an external hard drive (hooked to laptop) with  the iTunes library on an external hard drive (hooked to PC) so that both external HD's and both laptop and PC have all the music on each one?

    no need to create a secondary library - too troublesome, IMHO. you can spread your library over as many drives you can connect to your Mac (wired or wirelessly):
    iTunes > preferences > advanced.
    point iTunes media folder location to the external
    on the same tab, ensure the copy files ... when adding option is checkmarked
    okay out of preferences
    highlight the content to be moved in iTunes and right-click
    select consolidate files from the pop-up menu
    wait for the process to finish
    when done, you may delete the original files from your boot drive.
    alternatively, you could move the whole shabang to the external HD:
    copy the entire iTunes folder (not just the iTunes music or media folder) from <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music to the external, launch iTunes while holding the option(⌥) key, click on choose library when prompted, and select the iTunes folder you copied to the external.
    when done, be sure to point iTunes media folder location to the external so that new additions to your library will be put there. also, you need to make sure the external is mounted on your desktop before you fire up iTunes.

  • 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?

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