ITunes Media on External drive locked, internal - okay

First I am running OSX 10.8.3 & iTunes 11.02. I have split my iTunes library being that I have ripped a significant amount of my DVD & BluRay collection. I keep the Movie & TV media on a 6TB external drive while the music on the internal 1TB drive. Recently I haven't been able to fill in any of the meta data in the 'get info' of the movie & TV files. They are greyed out. The music files on the other hand are fine and I can edit them to my hearts content. Here's a screen shot of my movies Info folder:
This is basically the same permissions as the rest of the system, internal start up drive as well. Except for my home folder and everything included (e.g. Music, Pictures, etc.) which is as follows:
It leads me to believe this as more of a permissions issue rather than an iTunes issue. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
(This permissions thing is a real downer)

Copy the iTunes Library.itl file from the old computer.  iTunes can handle a change in drive letters as long as the relative paths from the database to the media is the same - typically where you have an iTunes folder (preferably in the root of the external drive) that contains both the iTunes Library.itl file and the iTunes Media folder, as follows:
See turingtest2's user tip on Make a split library portable for steps that may be necessary to bring your library into this layout.
Then, hold down SHIFT as you start iTunes, and when you see this prompt:
click on Choose Library..., navigate to the iTunes folder on your external drive, and select the iTunes Library.itl file.
Note also that the iTunes Media folder location setting in Edit > Preferences > Advanced does not provide iTunes information about the location of your library (that info is all within the database file).  This setting is used, in conjunction with the Keep iTunes Media folder organized setting, to determine where iTunes stores new media when you add it to your library.
Once everything's sorted out, use a second external drive to create and maintain a backup of your library.

Similar Messages

  • Move Itunes media from external drive

    Itunes media file located on failing external drive. Need to move time machine backup copy (on a different external drive) back to mac hd. Advice on this procedure please

    Open Time Machine, find the iTunes folder you want to restore, select it, right click and select Restore to...  and select /Music/ on the internal drive.

  • How to switch my Itunes library from External Drive to Internal drive

    I recently formated my hard drive and backed up all my tunes to an external drive. When the computer was back and running I imported my tunes from the external drive to my Itunes. However itunes still reads music from the external even though the music is also in a Itunes folder in my Music folder in documents. I tried deleting Itunes and reinstalling but it still looks at the external first. When I look at the advanced tab in itunes it says the music plays from my C drive but if I disconnnect my external drive the music won't play because it's still looking there. I would like the music to play from my internal drive and only use my external drive for backing up. What should I do? Thanks!

    Choose Home from the Finder's Go menu, double-click the Music item, and drag it there.
    (123001)

  • How to move itunes media to external drive

    I'm running iTunes for Windows 10.6.3.25 and have 3000+ songs in the library. I'd like to move the music files to an external hard drive, without losing the dates added, plays, genres or the directory structure. I've already made a copy of all the folders and music files to my external drive (I've called it M: for Music), but now I need to tell iTunes to look there for the music and not at my laptop's D-drive. Changing the iTunes media folder in the Edit-Preferences-Advanced tab doesn't seem to have any effect on the existing songs.
    Anyone out there with tips or advice?
    Thanks
    H-tac

    Type "move itunes library" into the search bar at the top of this page or your favorite search engine and follow the instructions.

  • ITunes Media on external drive and moved to new PC laptop

    Environment: Dell PC laptop, Window 7 32-bit, iTunes 12.1.1.4
    I have all of my iTunes Media on an external hard-disk drive. I want to keep it on that drive. I have a new laptop and have connected the external drive to it. I have installed iTunes on the new laptop and in Advanced Preferences I have changed the iTunes Media folder location to E:\iTunes and I have checked the box "Keep iTunes Media Folder Organized." I have also checked the box "Copy files to iTunes media folder when adding to library."
    When I open iTunes, the software does not seem to recognize the content in E:\iTunes. It does not recognize that I have already downloaded most of my purchased content (everything previously downloaded still has the little cloud icon in the bottom right corner) and it won't play anything I've already downloaded. Also, music that I have previously imported from CD's is not accessible.
    I have read through some of the other support discussions and have seen situations similar to mine, but not exactly like mine. I would copy the file "iTunes Library.itl" from the old computer, but I have one concern: on the old laptop the external drive was Drive G: and on the new laptop it is Drive E:
    I tried File --> Library --> Consolidate Files, but nothing happened.
    I'm not sure what to do. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
    Regards,
    Brandon

    Copy the iTunes Library.itl file from the old computer.  iTunes can handle a change in drive letters as long as the relative paths from the database to the media is the same - typically where you have an iTunes folder (preferably in the root of the external drive) that contains both the iTunes Library.itl file and the iTunes Media folder, as follows:
    See turingtest2's user tip on Make a split library portable for steps that may be necessary to bring your library into this layout.
    Then, hold down SHIFT as you start iTunes, and when you see this prompt:
    click on Choose Library..., navigate to the iTunes folder on your external drive, and select the iTunes Library.itl file.
    Note also that the iTunes Media folder location setting in Edit > Preferences > Advanced does not provide iTunes information about the location of your library (that info is all within the database file).  This setting is used, in conjunction with the Keep iTunes Media folder organized setting, to determine where iTunes stores new media when you add it to your library.
    Once everything's sorted out, use a second external drive to create and maintain a backup of your library.

  • Moved iTunes media to external drive but...

    Hello all,
    I followed the instructions for moving my iTunes media folder to an external drive (it had taken up most of my mac book's memory) and at first I was able to access the DVDs and CDs I had ripped but no longer. I can go into the external drive and they are still in their respective folders but only the music and movies I have purchased from the iTunes store show up in my library. Does anyone know how to get my iTunes to accept these into my library without re-importing the into my hardrive?
    Thanks much,
    Nick

    Which instructions? There's lots out there and some are flat wrong.
    Close down iTunes.  Turn on the external drive and start iTunes again.  Does it work?  If not try to play a track.  When it asks you to find the file it should play, find that file on the external drive.  It should ask if you want it to find the rest.
    I suspect you have omitted details in describing the situation.  Normally iTunes does not lose links to external files unless the drive is not on when iTunes is started.  Even then trying to play a file will get it to do a second check and find the drive is really there.  You probably have to do something such as renaming the drive, or have a completely corrupt library in order for it to lose track of the media.
    Unless you have to keep only media on the external drive it is much better to keep the whole library together.  Make a split library portable

  • ITunes Media folder external drive location not found at restart

    How can I force iTunes to remember where my iTunes Media folder is located? I have followed the Apple iTunes Media library move instructions to the letter and the new folder location is correctly shown in the iTunes/Preferences/Advanced tab. If I close and reopen iTunes it finds the folder OK however when the laptop is shutdown it appears to forget. After a laptop restart and iTunes relaunch I get a media location failure warning and I have to manually direct it to where the media folder is every time, very annoying. The media library is actually located on an Apple Time Capsule which Time Machine happliy finds/connects to every time it backs up but for some reason iTunes does not. Any advice/tips much appreciated.

    Hi Chris
    I have now experimented a little more and discovered that although Time Capsule (TC) is showing in Finder as a Shared Drive at laptop startup (and showing a status of a connected user, me) it is not actually 'mounted' in the true sense of the word i.e. the unmount/eject symbol is not showing next to it nor either of the drives connected to the TC. By clicking on either of the 2 drives (i.e. the TC 'Data' disk or the TC USB-connected drive) the status changes to show the dismount symbol on both the selected drive and the TC in the Finder side bar. Launching iTunes after this intervention works every time as per your advice. Not the Apple 'it just works' that I have come to expect and appreciate but at least I now understand how to make it work reliably..........many thanks and I hope Apple just makes it work sometine in the future

  • ITunes Media on external drive; populating iTunes

    I've got my Media folder on my external and just did a clean Mavericks install.  I remember previously pointing iTunes to the Media folder and then drag+drop'ing the folder into iTunes.  Is there a better way than this?  Since I've told iTunes to look at the external HDD can't I just tell it to populate from there? 

    Hi bobsbarricades,
    If you have questions about moving your iTunes media folder, you may find the following article helpful:
    iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder
    http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449
    Regards,
    - Brenden

  • HT1660 move iTunes library from external drive to internal drive

    I had to move my iTunes library from my internal hard disk to an external one so that they could replace the recalled hard drive on my iMac. Is moving the library back to the internal drive as easy as dragging it into the Music/iTunes folder?

    iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music [library] to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527 - a somewhat bewildering and not always easily understandable set of options.
    Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings:  Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive.  Open iTunes and immediately hold down the Option (alt) key (shift on Windows), then guide it to the new location of the library.itl file in the moved iTunes folder.

  • ITunes Settings for Media on External Drive via Airport Extreme...

    iTunes Settings for Media on External Drive via Airport Extreme base station versus plugging directly into laptop.
    My current configuration is that my iTunes Media (700gb) are all stored in an External Drive that's plugged into my Airport Extreme Base Station. This works great for me having wireless access to my iTunes external drive.
    Whenever I need to back up that hard drive with Time Machine, I just plug it directly to my laptop...
    But how do I let iTunes (or iTunes library) know that this is the same hard drive where all my media is stored when it's plugged directly into the laptop as opposed to trying to access it from my Airport Extreme network?

    No there isnt any files call library in the folder i created I am now in the process of copying them back but I guess I will loose all my playlists and playcounts. I do have a Copy of my drive that i made with carbon copy cloner. So maybe it will be best to boot from there, restore and start again.
    Chris it was just the media folder. I was following the instructions on the apple support page. Got to point 14 didn't get the warning but did seen to have a brand new itunes, so emptied the trash as they said expecting everything to be fine but it wasnt.

  • ITunes in an external drive?

    I would like to save iTunes in an external drive, because I have almost 150G on it, but I can't install iTunes in an EHD... What can I do? I have copied the library to the external hard drive, but it's not pratical...
    I have several EHDs, one for music, one for videos and one for music. The perfect situation would be iTunes on each of them...
    Thanks
    Maria

    Hi eduarda,
    Whilst you should leave the iTunes application in the default location, you can move the iTunes Media folder to an external hard drive. Please read the following support article:
    iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder
    Regards,
    Acros-Krik

  • New iTunes folder on external drive...move xml file there?

    About a year ago, I created a new folder on an external hard drive and I thought that I followed the apple designated steps to move my itunes music to that folder.  I then selected the advanced tab in preferences in iTunes and selected the new folder on my external drive as my "iTunes" folder.  iTunes seems to have worked OK for this past year using the folder on the external drive.  After updating to the latest version of iTunes (11.1.1), I tried to sync some apps to my iPhone 4, and I got the message that the external drive folder I am using as my "iTunes" folder on the external drive is not the one associated with my iPhone.  iTunes asks if I want to erase my iPhone and use the contents of my external drive folder on my phone.  This is the first time I have seen this message, even though it has been a year, and I have connected my phone to iTunes during that time.
    In investigating this, I see that the .xml and .its files are not in the folder on the external hard drive.  In fact, there is no folder at all called "iTunes" on my external drive. They are still in the "iTunes" folder in my music folder on my internal hard drive.  This is what is still in the music folder in my home folder on my internal drive:
    Should I manually move the .xml, the .ita and the other files into the folder on the external drive?
    Thanks

    In my message above, I tried to include a .png file of what my internal hard drive has in the music folder, but that did not work, so I am trying to paste it in here.  I am wondering if I should manually copy these files to the music folder on my external hard drive.  There is no folder on my external drive names "iTunes".

  • Want to run iTunes from an external drive, how?

    I want to run iTunes from my external drive, I have already made back ups of my library and media files but I can't figure out how to save iTunes to the external drive? When you download itunes it just automatically downloads to the computer. Can you even do this? If not, how can I use the saved info on my external drive (library and media files) with my itunes on the computer. The problem we are trying to solve is a lack of space on our computer and we want to free as much space as possible. Thanks!

    I want to run iTunes from my external drive, I have already made back ups of my library and media files but I can't figure out how to save iTunes to the external drive?
    Drag the iTunes library to the external drive, launch iTunes with the Shift key held down, and point it there.
    (56927)

  • I redirected iTunes to an external drive and moved my iTunes library and folder, but my hard drive is still low on space.  How can I be sure that my music is all on the external HD ONLY, especially with the new iCloud technology?

    I redirected iTunes to an external drive and moved my iTunes library and folder, but my hard drive is still low on space.  How can I be sure that my music is all on the external HD ONLY, especially with the new iCloud technology?  It doesn't look like I created any more space by doing this, AND I totally lost all my iTunes playlists.  I'm not sure if because I added old library materials manually if this messed up my playlists, or if the new location is just not reading my moved library.  In any case, I followed step by step instructions and found a few holes and thought I'd just "figure it out" but I guess I'm not as smart as I thought since I'm still scratching my head many hours later.
    Thanks for any support ;-)
    Eaglerocker

    Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings:  Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive.  Open iTunes and immediately hold down the option (alt) key (shift on Windows) so you get a prompt to select a library, then guide it to the 'iTunes Library.itl' file in the moved iTunes folder.
    If this is to a new computer and you put the copied iTunes folder in the default location of Macintosh HD > Users > *User Name* > Music  then you don't even need to start with the option key held down, iTunes will automatically look for it there.  (Make sure there isn't anything already in the iTunes folder there that you want to keep since you will be replacing it with the one you are moving.)
    iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music [library] to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527 - a somewhat bewildering and not always easily understandable set of options.

  • Question about moving itunes to wd external drive?

    i found the page where it says u can move itunes music to external drive but will that include my tv shows also and if so can i delete it from my laptop after i move it to other drive?

    \Music\iTunes\ folder is the main iTunes library location. It contains the library files, music files and everything else.
    I have all of my music files already stored on an external HD. But for some reason when i moved it all
    What exactly does "moved it all" mean? What did you move?
    in other words in the old drive I still have the following files:
    itunes library genius
    -itunes library extras
    -itunes library
    These three are all the same type of files. I don't know what type of files they are
    The iTunes library.itl file is the iTunes database file. Without that, iTunes is empty.
    Since i already have all of my music files on my ext. HD can I delete these files without messing anything up?
    Only if you want iTunes to be completely empty and you want to start from scratch.
    Moving the music file syourself is not the correct way to do it. iTunes will lose everything.
    If you want to move everything, copy the entire \Music\iTunes\ folder to a new location.
    Hold Shift and launch iTunes.
    Select *Choose library* and select the iTunes library.itl file in the iTunes folder you moved.

Maybe you are looking for