ITunes not finding library on external hard drive

I have my iTunes installed on my external hard drive and that is where all of my music is stored. Every time I open iTunes it does not "remember" that my music is supposed to be saved on my external, not my laptop. I have to "add" my external to the library again and change the location of my music to my external drive. This is EXTREMELY annoying because I have a lot of music and this LITERALLY takes mulitple days, as well as the fact that it ruins all of my playlists and ratings. What can be done to solve this problem?

I was going to ask that, but I won't Small point though, not only must it be plugged in but the drive must be "ready" as well. If it's still running up the hard drive to full speed, it isn't ready.
In addition, the external drive must have the same drive letter allocated to it as before. If, for any reason, your laptop gives the external drive the drive letter E the first time, but drive letter D on the subsequent occasion, then once again, iTunes will fail to find the Library as it's "on a different drive" (letter).
Various things can transpire to cause the drive letter to be different; other deivces such as cameras, scanners, printers, or even memory card readers are all assigned a drive letter when plugged in, usually on a first come, first served basis. Perhaps your laptop has some quirk that means it decides on a different drive letter.
As a test, make a note of which drive letter has been used before you power off. Then check the next time iTunes fails to find the Library whether the drive has been given the same letter as before.

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ITunes not finding music on external hard drive! Help!

My music is on my external hard drive and for quite some time now, whenever I want to sync my iPod, I've had to manually tell iTunes where each and every song is--this gets annoying very quickly. I have the preferences set so iTunes should know where my music is, but each time I open the program up, I have to tell it where the songs are... I turn on the hard drive and THEN open iTunes. I'm not sure what else to try.

I was going to ask that, but I won't Small point though, not only must it be plugged in but the drive must be "ready" as well. If it's still running up the hard drive to full speed, it isn't ready.
In addition, the external drive must have the same drive letter allocated to it as before. If, for any reason, your laptop gives the external drive the drive letter E the first time, but drive letter D on the subsequent occasion, then once again, iTunes will fail to find the Library as it's "on a different drive" (letter).
Various things can transpire to cause the drive letter to be different; other deivces such as cameras, scanners, printers, or even memory card readers are all assigned a drive letter when plugged in, usually on a first come, first served basis. Perhaps your laptop has some quirk that means it decides on a different drive letter.
As a test, make a note of which drive letter has been used before you power off. Then check the next time iTunes fails to find the Library whether the drive has been given the same letter as before.

Will Not Find Library on external hard drive

Ok ,I have done everything according to the book, moved my itunes library on my external drive,(It all there)when I open itunes nothing there, so I created a alias of it (the library) and put it were the original was (that I Trashed) and still nothing,one thing I don't understand is if there is no folder in my user/music folder, when I open itunes it automatically puts one there, why? so what am I doing wrong ?
I'd love to run itunes because of its size off my external drive

Hi,
You've missed something out or else iTunes wouldn't be creating empty Library files. It only does that if it can't find the moved Library.
Is your external disk connected and showing in Finder before you launch iTunes?
Double check the instructions - a lot of people have used them to move their Library with no problems.
Regards,
Colin R.

Itunes new install on windows 7 can't find library on external hard drive

I just installed itunes on a new windows 7 computer - On my previous computer I had my itunes library on an external hard drive.
I can't get itunes to find most of my music.
I can't figure out why this has to be so hard - please help.

iTunes: How to re-create your iTunes library and playlists
More useful info:
iTunes: What are the iTunes library files?

My computer was totally destroyed & I do not have backup or external hard drive with my iTunes library. Will I be able to access my iTunes library when I purchase a new computer? It was the only computer authorized to play library.

My computer was totally destroyed & I do not have backup or external hard drive with my saved iTunes library from it. That was the only computer authorized to play library. I do not have an iPod or iPhone with any of that library (which has over $2K in music purchases & over 5K in songs I ripped). Will I be able to access my iTunes library when I purchase a new computer?

You should be able to access your past iTunes purchases. You'll need to re-rip your CDs See: HT2519 - Downloading past purchases from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store.
See also this backup tip so you don't get caught out again.
tt2

ITunes Music Folder Missing on external hard drive after changing iTunes Media Folder Location from MacBook Hard Drive. Not deleted...just missing?

I store my iTunes media folder on my external hard drive and can no longer find it there. It seemed to becomd lost after I re-designated the default iTunes media location. I had downloaded some things from iTunes without my external hard drive plugged in and when they downloaded they downloaded to the default location on my Macbook Pro. In recognizing that, I wanted to move those files from the hard drive on my MacBook Pro to the external hard drive. When I re-selected the location as the external hard drive a copy process began. I cancelled the copy process fearing the small number of files from my Macbook Pro would over-write all of the files on my external hard drive so I quit the copy process. Now I do not see my "iTunes Music" folder on my external hard drive. I fear that I have somehow lost the path but I believe the content is still on my external hard drive although I no longer see the "iTunes Music" folder on my external hard drive. I know I didn't delete it, but it isn't there. Is there a way to make it re-appear? I would really appreciate any guideance anyone has.
Thank you.
Best,
Matt

When you change the location in preferences it tells iTunes to start, from this point on, storing new media files in the new location. It then presents you with the option to move any old files in their current locations to the new location. It doesn't move the library files which are not media files. Read the links below to understand how iTunes works because you are the one with the computer in front of you and are in the better position to understand how it stands as regards to iTunes files.
What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
More on iTunes library files and what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management
What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html
Where are my iTunes files located? - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
Now, did you keep the whole library on the external drive, or did you keep just media? From your description of the situation it sounds as if you kept the whole library there and when the external was not attached it returned to default location on the internal drive. What you should have done then was plug in the external drive, hold down the option key, and guide iTunes to the library file on the external. At this stage you could have dealt with the mislocated new files on an individual basis.
I guess the key question is, did your trying to move the couple of new media files to the external drive overwrite the iTunes folder there, which because you then canceled may have also just resulted in it being deleted. I am not going to test the theory on my system.
How big was your library on the external? If it was 40GB do you now suddenly have 40 GB free?
Look for any iTunes folders on the external drive. In view options turn on "calculate all folders sizes" and see if there are any big ones.

Trying to copy iPhoto Library to external hard drive for backup. Error message: The Finder can't complete the operation because some data in "iPhoto Library" can't be read or written (Error code -36).

Trying to copy iPhoto Library to external hard drive for backup. Error message: The Finder can't complete the operation because some data in "iPhoto Library" can't be read or written (Error code -36).

That code is
-36
ioErr
I/O error (bummers)
Make sure the EHD is formatted OS X Extended (journaled) and run Disk Utilty on the EHD and repair the disk. If that fails to help I'd try the following:
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
Click on the Add Library button,
navigate to your Home/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the Library ➙ Rebuild Library menu option
In the next window name the new library and select the external HD as the location of the newly rebild library.
Click on the Create button.
Note 1: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments. However, books, calendars, cards and slideshows will be lost.
Note 2: Your current library will be left untouched for further attempts at a fix if so desired.
OT

How do I transfer iTunes Library from external hard drive to another drive?

I have filled by 160GB drive with my iTunes music library so I am purchasing a 400GB external drive. I want to transfer the entire library to the bigger drive. Can I simply drag via fire wire then entire libarary to the new drive and then "tell" by iTunes Mac where it is? Any step by step would be appreciated.
Thank you.

I just posted this to another topic, but it applies here as well. Hopefully there's no prohibition on cross-posting on this board, my apologies to all if there is:
"I haven't read the whole thread, so someone could have already mentioned this, but I did the same thing, move my music library to an external drive. The Help articles are helpful, but only up to a point. When that didn't work, I called up AppleCare support up, and they took me through all the standard steps, and got stumped at the same point I did. Finally she suggested trying something, and that ended up doing the trick. So here in brief is what you do:
1) Copy over your "iTunes Music" folder to the external hard drive
2) Go into Advanced preferences to have iTunes look for the "iTunes Music" folder in the new location. If you're like me, your music won't appear in the Library.
3) In iTunes, go to the Library window (which is probably blank), then in a Finder window, find the icon for the "iTunes Music" folder in the new location. Drag that icon onto the Library window.
You should now see a progress window pop up showing all the songs that it's populating the Library window with."
20" Intel iMac 14" iBook G4, 233 MHz Beige G3 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Backup and restoring itunes library from external hard drive?

is there a way to backup and restore my itunes library to external hard drive and not through the internal itunes backup utility cos i have over 20gbs of music and i want to keep my album art and renamed songs etc. because i will be reformating my pc and dont want to go through painful task of manually adding stuff again.

Try this...
*Fast backup for iTunes library (Windows Only)*
Grab SyncToy 2.0, a free tool from MS. Use it to create a backup copy of your iTunes library & any other media folders onto another hard drive or network share. After making the initial backup copy use SyncToy to periodically synchronise the backup copy with your library and only the changed files will be copied saving lots of time.
When the time comes to reformat your PC, do a final sync, then open iTunes & deauthorise the PC, reformat & rebuild Windows, copy the backup folders back to the same location as they were previously, install iTunes and it should all work perfectly.
tt2

Itunes will not store in an external hard drive

I use an external hard drive to store my music.
The last few CDs we have put onto itunes do not appear in the external hard drive, why?

Hello compsec1951,
It sounds like the content may have been saved in the default iTunes folder location in the Music folder.
Use this article to determine how iTunes is setup and where it is saving the new content. While it may be accessing the library on the external drive, it may be saving new media to a different location.
Where are my iTunes files located?
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
Mac OS X: Click the iTunes menu and choose Preferences.
Windows: Click the Edit menu and choose Preferences.
Click the Advanced pane. iTunes displays the location of your iTunes Media folder.
You can then:
Note where your media folder is, such as for backing up your media.
Use the Reset button to reset it's location to the default (which is the iTunes folder).
Click the Change button to select a folder for a new location. Once you change this location:
If you make a new or alternate iTunes library, the new location will be used by that library.
Existing files will not be moved unless you choose File > Library > Organize library and choose the option to "Consolidate files."
Regards,
Sterling

I have my itunes media stored on my external hard drive. On this external drive I have a folder called "TV shows". How do I incorporate this folder back into the itunes library?

I have my itunes media stored on my external hard drive. On this external drive I have a folder called "TV shows". I previously cut and pasted itunes TV shows to this folder to free up some space. How do I incorporate this folder (TV shows) back into the itunes library?

assuming the copy files ... when adding option is checkmarked in preferences > advanced, drag the folder into an open iTunes window while holding option (⌥).

Time Machine appears to be doing back-ups, but they do not appear on the external hard drive. The last one I can find is June 30. I did a utility scan of the hard drive disk and it is fine.

Time Machine appears to be doing back-ups, but they do not appear on the external hard drive. The last one I can find is June 30. I did a utility scan of the hard drive disk and it is fine. What do I do?

Click the Time Machine icon in the menu bar. The time of the last backup is shown in the drop down.

ITunes won't show library on external hard drive

I have just bought a MacBook Pro but I don't know how to get library on external hard drive to show in iTunes... Any suggestions please?

This is relevant portion of the support document with a bit of editing for clarity.
If iTunes is running, quit iTunes.
Using a Mac click the icon to open iTunes and immediately press and continue to hold down the Option key.
You should see the following screen:
If iTunes opens normally, close it and try again.
Once you've got that dialog you have two options. If your previous iTunes library database is stored on the external drive use Choose Library to browse to it and open it. If you only have the media folder on the drive then use the Create Library option to create a new iTunes library at /iTunes on the external, move the media folder to /iTunes/iTunes Media and then add it to your new empty library.
tt2

Iphoto library on external hard drive now does not show all the photos when i access it from macbook

i backed up iphoto library to an external hard drive. Deleted photo library on the macbook. After transferring some new photos to macbook from a camera, when i access the iphoto library on external hard drive only the new photos show up. Originals are still in files, but don't appear when opening iphoto library on external hard drive.

Make a temporary, backup copy of your library if you don't already have one (Control-click on the library and select Duplicate from the contextual menu) and apply the two fixes below in order as needed:
Fix #1
Launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.
Select the options identified in the screenshot.
Fix #2
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
Click on the Add Library button, navigate to your Home/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the File ➙ Rebuild Library menu option
In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
Click on the Create button.
Note: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments but not books, calendars or slideshows. The original library will be left untouched for further attempts at fixing the problem or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory.
OT

Re: Best Way to (Continuously) Back up iTunes Library to External Hard Drive

Hello friends :
My iTunes music library is getting rather large and I feel it's time to "properly" back it up to an external hard drive.
I understand that you can back up your iTunes music folder to an external hard drive by the simple old "click and drag" approach using Windows Explorer.
What I'd like to know is ... after intially copying the entire iTunes music folder onto the external drive, how can I achieve regular back-ups where only the files, playlists, etc. that have changed since the last back up are then added to the external drive . . . rather than having to copy the entire rather large folder all over again (and again)?
Hopefully, you know what I mean! Thanks for your help.

The first time I backed up my iTunes on an external drive, it took a 1 hour +. Do I basically need to start over on my external hard drive? Or is there an easier/faster way?
Yes there is a faster way.
Check this out -> Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy
Don't change the library location or hold Option to update the backup on the external.

ITunes not finding library on external hard drive

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