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

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Saving iTunes Movies/TV Shows to an external hard drive

I need to free up space on my dell laptop so I would like to move my iTunes movies/tv shows to an external hard drive while keeping my music on my internal hard drive. So I would like to have two different libraries, one for music on my internal and one for movies/tv shows on my external. What is the simplest way to do this without wiping out my movie collection?

You can create multiple libraries with a shift-start of itunes.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iTunesWin/8.0/en/15502.html
Press AND HOLD the shift key while starting itunes, and create a new library on your exHD.
Name it something like Movies - don't take the default itunes1 name which will not make sense later.
The new library will be blank. Before you do anything, change the itunes preferences > Advanced tab.
The "Copy to itunes Media Folder" and options needs to be turned ON.
You need to change the itunes media folder location to your exHD.
Now, go to your internal HD to the Movies folder using Win Explorer. Drag that Movie folder and drop it onto iTunes (the source list over on the left, onto the word LIBRARY).
Another way to do it is itunes menu > File > Add folder to library
Repeat for the TV shows folder.
This will copy the files to your exHD, since you already changed the preference to "Copy to itunes Media Folder"
Make sure you can play a few seconds of several movies/TV show to satisfy yourself that it all went well.
Double-check the file locations in iTunes by doing a right-click > show in Windows Explorer.
They should be on your exHD.
The files will still be on your internal drive. You can either delete them using itunes or Win Explorer.
If you use Win Explorer, you'll get ! file not found marks in your original music library.
Things to remember about using multiple libraries:
1) iTunes always uses the last library it opened. You have to remember to shift-start between libraries.
2) Every time you do a shift-start, double-check the iTunes preferences advanced to make sure the "itunes media location" and "copy to itunes" is set how you want.
3) It is easy to forget which library you last had opened, so train yourself to always use a shift-start.

Cant get itunes to recognize media library on external hard drive

I'm trying to clear up some space on my MBP's hard drive. I've moved my itunes media files folder to an external hard drive, but I can't get it to recognize the location I even deleted the app and reinstalled the newest version. I changed the media folder location in iTunes preferences to 'volumes'maxtor/itunes' but it wont see it. (all the music files are still there) I've restarted itunes with the alt/option key depressed, to prompt me to 'choose' my library. ...no joy, though. Can someone suggest what I might do to to remedy this?
Thanks in advance,
DJG

Hi Chris,
OK...
I went into Time Machine and restored iTunes from a few weeks ago. Very odd though... It restored all of the music files (about 12.5 GB) to the standard iTunes folder on my internal hard drive, but only 1.63GB showed up in the iTunes Application itself. I went into preferences and changed the folder destination to the one where the song files are, and even restarted iTunes with option held down and 'chose' the same folder, but no joy. The location looks like this: /Users/DJG/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music
I'm lost... any ideas?
Thank you for your help.
D-

ITunes won't fully recognize my external hard drive

I've installed itunes on my new pc but it won't recognize all of the music files saved on my external hard drive. I've set the media folder location under preferences to the correct file path but still no joy. What am I forgetting to do? For example, I have 12 Springsteen CD's in my media folder which I can see through windows explorer, but in itunes I can only see 3.

You must make sure that the external hard drive is mounted before launching iTunes. If you do that, you shouldn't have a problem. However, if you launch iTunes without the external being mounted and do anything in the program, it will change the library back to the default.

HT1751 My iTunes won't drag to my external hard drive...any suggestions?

When I attempt to drag my iTunes library to my external hard drive, it will not transfer the folder. I am using a Mac osx and a free agent external hard drive. Any suggestions?

See this migrate iTunes library post. Depending on the layout of the library you may simply need to copy the entire iTunes folder using Windows Explorer without ever firing up iTunes.
tt2

ITunes won't recognize media on external hard drive

Hello Everyone....
So I have a 17" Macbook Pro, that was recently repaired under Future Shop's PSP that I purchased. They wiped it completely clean, so I essentially have a brand new computer again.
Luckily, I put almost all of my data and media onto my external hard drive before it went in. I have been operating with my iTunes media stored on an external drive for some time now with success.
Now that my computer is completely new, I did all the available updates, and then went to link my library to my iTunes, as it's "new again". It doesn't have my library attached anymore. I think I forgot to save the actual library files that I'm now reading about, and instead just saved the actual mp4 files. To be honest I didn't know there were library files and actual media files, seems weird...
I've changed my preferences back to the external drive folder where my media is located, and I've clicked "consolidate files" and nothing happens.
I've tried to hit the "scan for media" button that pops up when you have a wiped or new computer and nothing has happened.
I tried to physically click and drag everything from my external drive into my iTunes, and the little "processing xyz..." popped up with the blue and white striped progress bar, however when I woke up this morning nothing had happened. I'm not sure how that developed.
I can't seem to find anything on the internet to assist with this particular issue. I have all my media stored properly in the iTunes media folder but no actual "library" file. I guess I didn't realize they existed!
Any ideas? I am losing my mind. This mac is my second and has been in for repairs twice, and has given me nothing but problems. I am aware this "problem" is my own dumb fault but I feel like it should be much easier to recognize your existing media when it's right there in front of you.

Preferences does not scan for media, it only changes the storage location for new additions. The files have to be added to the library. It sounds like you tried this in one of your attempts but it did not work (I don't know why it didn't unless there is some detail I missed).
Where do you want your library? On the external or internal?
If the internal, start iTunes. Drag your media files to the "Automatically Add To iTunes folder. iTunes 9: Understanding the "Automatically Add to iTunes" folder. - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3832 Or use the "Add" menu item to add files to iTunes, or drag them to the iTuens library in the sidepanel.
If somewhere else, start iTunes while holding down the option/alt key, select a library location. Add as above.
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

Itunes doesn't see library on external hard drive

I've been using itunes on my laptop (dell inspiron 2200) with an external hard drive to store my music files.
About a week ago, suddenly, itunes won't "see" the music there. Both my music and my playlists are blank.
I can "see" the external hard drive through "my computer" and my itunes preferences still say to look there for my music, but no go.
Help

If your pluging your hard dive in via USB you may have the same issue I have once and while with my external dive I put all my iTune files in. My hard drive has to USB plugs to get enough power to the hard drive. If I use only one and on battery power iTunes does not see it. But you said you can see it via my computer so you may have to check the place iTunes is putting your files again. In iTunes go to the edit tab on the top of the iTunes window pan down to Prefernces then go to the Advanced tab and at the top make sure your iTunes Music File Location is to your external Hard dive file you have for iTunes.

ITunes won't sync correctly with external hard drive

I have long kept my music on an external hard drive and had absolutely no problems with adding files to my iTunes library. Whenever I added songs to iTunes, they would automatically be copied over to my external device (a Seagate Freeagent 1TB USB External Hard Drive) everything would be fine. I could erase the song data remaining on my notebook without any problems.
But, after recently upgrading to Windows 7, I'm having some trouble keeping everything organized. I did a clean install so I had to reinstall iTunes, and upon doing so I specified for it to access my library from my external device like before. It does that just fine, but when I add songs to iTunes, they don't copy over to the hard drive, and when I consolidate the files, all of my songs get copied onto my notebook hard drive.
Is there a fix to this? Something I skipped when telling iTunes where to get/keep my music? I want to be able to add songs to the library and have them copy directly to my external device.

But, after recently upgrading to Windows 7, I'm having some trouble keeping everything organized. I did a clean install so I had to reinstall iTunes, and upon doing so I specified for it to access my library from my external device like before. It does that just fine, but when I add songs to iTunes, they don't copy over to the hard drive, and when I consolidate the files, all of my songs get copied onto my notebook hard drive.
Hmmmm. By any chance, do you have 4 GB of RAM and an NVIDIA USB EHCI chipset on the Fujitsu? If so, perhaps see the following Microsoft document:
[You encounter problems when you move data over USB from a Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2-based computer that has an NVIDIA USB EHCI chipset and at least 4GB of RAM|http://support.microsoft.com/kb/976972]

LR won't show images from external hard drive now.

I have LR 5. I updated in March from LR3. I just purchased a second external hard drive to start using for my images after filling up my first. I just tried to go back to external hard drive #1 to look at images from last month, and I can't pull them in to lightroom for some reason. When using external hard drive #1 after updating to lr5, I always had to go to Edit >Open Recent to open a previous catalog to access my images. I think this has something to do with it, because there aren't any other catalog options in LR5 when I switch from external hard drive #2 back to external hard drive #1. I need those images pronto to finish projects!!! Please help and thank you!

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

Launching iTunes at Startup using Library on External Hard Drive

I have iTunes set to launch at startup. I just moved my iTunes library to an external hard drive, but now when the computer boots it launches iTunes before the external hard drive can mount. This causes an error message requiring human input.
Is there anyway to reorder this sequence so that iTunes boots after external drives mount?

i had the same problem before i got my new computer i didn't have the room to keep the files on my hard drive so i just moved the music over not the library file its named iTunes library and that is the thing that stores all the library info
also be sure to turn off the move files to iTunes library in settings under "preferences, advanced, general" its a tick box and untick it. when you boot up itunes shouldnt need your imput you just cant play songs untill your external drive mounts.

Airport Extreme won't show the WD external hard drive I plugged into the USB port. How do I connect my external hard drive to my network?

I plugged in my WD external hard drive into my Airport Extreme via the USB port. The hard drive will not show up in the disk section in the airport utility... How do I hook an external hard drive up to the airport extreme? I have tried 2 different WD hard drives. I must be missing something!!!
Thanks!

To be recognized by the AirPort for sharing, the WD HDD has to be formatted in either HFS+ (ideal) or FAT32. The easiest way to format the HDD is to use the Disk Utility in OS X.

ITunes can't locate library on external hard-drive

I have had my iTunes library in a folder on an external E hard drive for some time, and it worked fine.
After I downloaded the latest version of iTunes - in response to a prompt from Apple - it now can't locate any of the tracks. The library is still displayed in full in the iTunes screen, but each track has an exclamation mark next to it, and if I try to play a track, iTunes tells me I have to locate it manually. If I locate a track manually, it plays, but that's obviously not ideal. Also, it won't sync my iPod, but just tells me that the named tracks can't be found.
I looked in the `iTunes music' folder in `My Music' on the C drive, and it has a handful of tracks in it. Those tracks play in iTunes as normal.
Going via Edit-Preferences-Advanced, the `iTunes media folder location' is set as the folder in my E-drive which contains my music library. I had understood that that was all I needed to do in order to enable iTunes to find my library, but I guess there must be another step I've missed.
I suspect that I should be using File-Add Folder to Library, but I'm not sure what the result will be if I do this. Will it copy the files from my E drive onto my C drive (and swallow up all the memory space on my laptop)? Will it duplicate all the tracks in the iTunes display so I have two versions of each track - one with an exclamation mark and one without? Should I delete all the tracks from iTunes before adding the folder?
Thanks for any help you can offer.

Have you assigned E: to the exHD permanently? Because Windows can change USB drive letters on you, if you don't assign them.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307844
That is the most common reason for itunes suddenly unable to find files.

Itunes won't play library on new hard drive

I had to install new hard drive. Moved all itunes files over including library. Downloaded latest version of Itunes, but it won't play any of my music.

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

ITunes won't recognize folders on external hard drive

Moved my network hosted iTunes library (Drobo) from PC to Mac (via http://t.co/jfyX9PB). Got most of metadata (ratings, playlist, comments, etc) to port over. However I have a 100 or so songs that iTunes cannot locate. Tried to manually locate them in iTunes and found that the root problem is that iTunes won't even recognize the folder. I can go to Finder and see that the folder is indeed there.
The only solution I've figured out is to open the missing file in Finder where iTunes creates a second duplicate of the missing song. However, once iTunes adds the new duplicate song the old song works. I can then delete (and "keep" the deleted song) so that the old "unlocated" song works and I don't corrupt the date added of my library.
Was just curious if you've ever run into this and know why iTunes doesnt recognize folders? Or if you know if there is a quicker batch fix instead of the tedious method above?

kaze1sd wrote:
Or if you know if there is a quicker batch fix instead of the tedious method above?
what do you think of this script:
_*Music Folder Files Not Added v2.0*_
This application will list the file paths of the files in your designated "iTunes Media" folder which are not in iTunes' library. Additionally, you can select a different parent folder and its contents will be compared to the iTunes library. Options to Add a selection of found files to iTunes or move them to the Trash.

Why have my TV shows on my external hard drive disappeared when I've deleted them from my iTunes library?

I am trying to free up space on my internal hard drive (MacBook Air). I copied my iTunes TV shows onto an external hard drive, following all instructions carefully. They were all there on the external drive - I opened a few and they played perfectly. I then went back into iTunes and deleted the shows, then emptied trash. When I went back into my external hard drive, all the TV shows had disappeared! Am now in process (yawn) of downloading the shows again onto my laptop, rather defeating my object of freeing up space. Can anyone tell me what I have done wrong?

Hello Janeburows,
You might have setup your iTunes in such a way that you store your Media files on your External Hard Drive and if that is the situation then whenever you delete anything permanently from your iTunes on your Computer when the External Drive is connected then the Content will get deleted from your External Hard Drive. To verify the Location for the Media files which you have on iTunes do the following.
Open iTunes > Preferences> Advanced and you will see it under iTunes Media Folder Location
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391

ITunes won't show library on external hard drive

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