ITunes Music on an External Hard Drive

Sometime ago I put, or as you will see, thought I'd put, all my itunes music on an external hard drive, I used the instructions as outlined on the Apple website, and it all SEEMED to work fine, except that when I choose "organise library" or as it used to be known "consolidate", itunes copies about 300 or so tracks and thats it, but I have over 10,000 songs, vids and podcasts. Also if I go into Spotlight/Finder, there are a lot of iTunes files on BOTH the external hard drive AND in the itunes folder on the INTERNAL hard drive, now I'm worried about copying one from the other in case I lose some stuff, any ideas?

apple-lovin-it wrote:
Sometime ago I put, or as you will see, thought I'd put, all my itunes music on an external hard drive, I used the instructions as outlined on the Apple website, and it all SEEMED to work fine, except that when I choose "organise library" or as it used to be known "consolidate", itunes copies about 300 or so tracks and thats it, but I have over 10,000 songs, vids and podcasts. Also if I go into Spotlight/Finder, there are a lot of iTunes files on BOTH the external hard drive AND in the itunes folder on the INTERNAL hard drive, now I'm worried about copying one from the other in case I lose some stuff, any ideas?
check if iTunes is pointed to the desired location in preferences > advanced like so

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I perviously transfered all my iTunes music to an external hard drive. But now when I connect the external hard drive and try to play a song, I get an error message saying that I need to "locate" my music. I don't how to find it on my external hard drive.

I perviously transfered all my iTunes music to an external hard drive. But now when I connect the external hard drive and try to play a song, I get an error message saying that I need to "locate" my music. I don't how to find it on my external hard drive. Please help for I am not that computer savy and don't want to mess anything up.
Thanks!

I called Apple Support and they walked me through it. They told me to basically copy and paste my music to the external hard drive. (I think.) Or maybe it was they had me transfer a folder to the EHD. I don't exactally remember it was a few years back. But I tried to plug in the EHD before starting and...nothing. Still says same thing, "locate file."

New hard drive on laptop, itunes music stored on external hard drive...

my hard drive on my laptop crashed and I got a new one installed...I kept all my itunes music on an external hard drive, and that is ok. I have reinstalled itunes on my laptop, but how do I get itunes to read the music from my external hard drive??

When you say "when i double click on my itunes files it just opens up this list of music." it doesn't mean anything to me. You need to explain clearly, remember I only know what you tell me.
I need to understand how you have things set up and if you had you iTunes library database on the external drive or the c: drive. That is the iTunes folder containing iTunes library.itl.
What do you see when you open iTunes on the new PC, are your music files there. If not, every time you play a track it gets added to itUnes so you should at least have some files in your library.
What problem are you trying to solve? Is just getting the tracks into your iTunes library, or are you also concerned about ratings, count and playlists from the old PC. If so do you still have access to the old PC?

How do I store iTunes music on an external hard drive?

My iBook has a small hard drive and I can't store any more music on it. How do I store the music on an external hard drive and have it appear as a library (its own or part of the library on the iBook)?

Assuming that your hard drive is plugged into your computer (USB or Firewire connection) and switched on, drag the Music folder (HD > Users > Your Name) on to the external drive icon. The Music folder is the default location for your iTunes files.
If you wish, you can set this new location in iTunes preferences so that any additions or deletions to your iTunes library will be applied to the folder on your external drive. You must remember to swich on the external drive to enable this. To set the new location open iTunes and go to preferences>advanced and click on General. You will see where you can designate the new location for the iTunes Music folder.

Itunes won't find 'itunes music library' on external hard drive by default

I have my Itunes library saved on a wireless external hard drive. When I open itunes for the first time after a re-start it won't automatically detect the itunes music library file and I have to point it to the correct folder on the external hard drive. Once I do this everything works perfectly until I re-start my mac and then I have the same problem.
One of my friends has told me that macs won't automatically connect to wireless devices like windows does but he thinks there is some software that enables it to do so. I presume this would sort the issue out or alternatively any other suggestions are very welcome.
Thanks for any help

Your external HD needs to be mounted before launching iTunes or iTunes will create a new blank library on your startup drive.
You can add your external HD to the list of startup items in  > System Preferences > Accounts to avoid this problem.

How do I fully import my itunes music from my external hard drive to my new HP computer so that I don't need the external HD attached to listen to my music? It won't promt me to fully import songs when I import the folder from the EHD.

When I select File> Add folder to library and then press "select folder" after finding the iTunes music folder I wish to import from my external hard drive, it does not promt me whether to fully import it or not. After the importing is complete, the external hard drive must be attached in order for me to listen to my music. I do not wnat this; I wnat my music fully imported so that I don't need my EHD. What can I do? Thanks!

To import music into your iTunes library on the computer go to iTunes>Help>iTunes Help>Add items to iTunes and follow the instructions

I have all of my iTunes music on an external hard drive (Glyph 3TB), all of a sudden iTunes will not play any of my music. i ran disk utility and i'm good. What else can i do??

Greetings,
I have a macbook pro purchased in 2009. I run the current Yosemite OS X on it, and have over 12, 000 iTunes music tunes stored on an external hard drive (Glyph 3TB). Recently iTunes does not load up on my computer. I've ran disk utility and repair, etc and it says everything is fine, however i can't seem to get iTunes to come up and play music. My questions:
what can i do to fix this?? Is my macbook pro too old that i need to seriously consider purchasing a new one?? If i purchase a new macbook pro, can i hook up the Glyph 3TB to the new one and have it play my music without problems/?
Thanks,
Rich

Click here and follow the instructions.
(37765)

How do I move my iTunes Music to an external hard drive? Please help!

I bought an external hard drive and moved the iTunes Music folder from my local hard drive to the external hard drive and now the iTunes library appears empty. I moved all my music back into the local hard drive and the libarary is now full full of music again. How can I move all the files to the external drive and have iTunes retrieve the music from there?
Thanks!
Paula

This article tells you the proper way to move your music:
iTunes: Moving your iTunes Music folder
After a successful move, always connect your external disk, before running iTunes.
Failing to do so will iTunes cause to reset the 'iTunes Music folder location'.
That means your next ripped CDs will be stored on your internal disk.
If that happens, just set the proper location again in the preferences.
Hope this helps.
M
17' iMac fp 800 MHz 768 MB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.6) Several ext. HD (backup and data)

In order to save disc space on my computer I wish to save all my itunes music onto an external hard drive only. How can I set up itunes to do this. Thanks

In order to save space on my laptop hard drive I wish to load all music via itunes onto an external hard disk only. I do I configure itunes to do this?
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Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive
iTunes for Windows: Moving your iTunes Media folder
Hope this helps.

Error message when moving iTunes music folder to External Hard Drive

I have followed the instructions in Apple support to move my iTunes music folder to an external hard drive. During the consolidate library step, only half of my music is transferred before I get the error message "Copying music failed. The disk could not be read from or written to."
Has anyone gotten the same message, and what was your experience correcting the issue?
15" Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

In Windows, you go through File >> Library >> Organize Library. here you can choose to consolidate your library. this should do the job.. alternatively you could take a look at this blog..
http://www.tuaw.com/2006/09/19/how-to-keep-your-itunes-library-on-an-external-ha rd-drive/
Even though its step by step on mac you should be able to figure it out from there.
Message was edited by: MuldVarp3N

Backing up my iTunes music to an external hard drive

Hi,
Rather than continue to backup my music to CD's, I'm going to purchase an external hard drive soon. What I'd like to do is use the external HD as an archive for restore purposes. My goal is to have two copies of my music, one copy on my iBook and one copy on the external HD. This is possible correct? All I would have to do is drag my "iTunes" folder on to my external HD correct? If there is more I'd have to do please explain.
Thanks for your assistance,
Marvin Jackson
iBook G4, Mac Mini w/ Core Duo soon Mac OS X (10.4.8)

An external hard drive is a good choice. Backing iTunes up by copying the iTunes folder is a good idea. Copying the whole folder brings with it the iTunes Music folder and also the iTunes Library (iTunes Library.itl in Windows) database file which holds all the information about your songs (Playlists, Ratings, Play Counts, Last Played, Date Added, etc). You'll get more information including the Folder/File structure in this article: What are the iTunes library files?

Moving my iTunes music from an external hard drive to my laptop

I have my iTunes music stored on an external hard drive. I now want to put them back to my laptop but find this impossible as all the music does not copy. CAn anyone help?

Gary from MacMost.com posted a video tutorial about this very recently:
http://macmost.com/moving-your-itunes-media-to-an-external-drive.html
Follow the instructions provided there. The process to move your media from an external to your internal is the same.

Can I get back to iTunes Music after failed external hard drive transfer?

I am in the middle of moving a bunch of files to an external hard drive. I followed instructions posted and mentioned on this forum to move iTunes Music; changed iTunes Music folder location to go to the EHD, then consolidated library there. I never deleted the iTunes Music folder that was in My Docs. I noticed a problem with the EHD file and had to delete the iTunes Music folder that I had just set up with a plan to just redo it. I did this thinking that once I reset iTunes to look for the Music folder back in My Docs I would be fine....but, iTunes can not find the original file for any songs. I can manually point iTunes to the song in My Docs, but there must be a better way. I have already changed the Music location in iTunes back to My Docs. Is there something I am missing?
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Dell Windows XP Pro

cgb33,
You can use the Add Folder to Library option as explained in this article in the Apple Knowledge Base.
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Itunes music stored on external hard drive

Hello,
I have my itunes music, movies and tv shows stored on a lacie external hard drive that is getting close to full. I was wondering if there was a way to sync it so that I could use a second hard drive to start storing music on? I have gone to the "advanced" preferences and told itunes where I want to keep my music library.
Also if I have set the preference to tell itunes where the music is, what do I delete from my laptop to make room available on the hard drive (internal)?
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Jack

Okay, I thought as much. I too wanted to also separate my movies, photos and music for example videos and photos on one external hard drive and music on another. It seems like this is not possible therefore I ask, if I buy a larger external HD, what is the general feeling people have about taking all 100+ gigs on current hard drive and moving/copying to a new larger one? Playback quality loss an issue?
Thoughts??
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Itunes music stored on external hard drive -- and itunes library empty

Hi, I recently upgraded to a new external HD (Seagate Go for Mac) and I moved my 111 GB of music media (which was stored on my old ext. HD) onto the Seagate. Only problem then was that when I tried to play a song in the iTunes library, it couldn't locate the file.
So -- after trying various combos of things, I ended-up doing a new install of iTunes. Which of course shows up empty (the iTunes library). And all my music media is still on the Seagate.
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update to the question above -- I went into Time Machine and restored my iTunes library, so it is showing what music I have again in there. FYI in advanced settings, I kept the setting that the music is stored in the Seagate HD.
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So -- how can I get the iTunes library to re-connect with what is in the Seagate HD?
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ITunes Music on an External Hard Drive

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