Keeping iTunes library on external drive

I have moved all of my music files to an external hard drive to free up my laptop's drive. Now I want iTunes to read and save to the external hdd without moving any of the files back to my laptop. How can I set this up? Please Help. Thanks.

you have to tell i tunes that you want your music stored and read from your ex hard drive.if i remember you go to itunes on your computer then in upper left corner at top go to edit>preferences...then put in your storage folder or harddrive info. after you have copied your itunes library to the harddrive, close out itunes and unplug the hard drive. hook up the harddrive back to the computer open the harddrive, open your music folder in the harddrive, play 1 song out of the harddrive, (itunes should reopen on its own as long as it is the default music player on your computer)the song should start playin. this tells you that it downloaded correctly. once this is fine, you can erase your i tunes music library on your computers' internal harddrive. you then can reload the file into itunes(just remember that you changed where your music file is stored and read from)this will repopulate your tracks and albumsand will be kept in your computer. every time you want to play music, hook up the ex harddrivefirst then open itunes on your computer. this is very important especially when you go to add or download a cd or music, otherwise if you open itunes without the harddrive hooked up first your new download will go to your computers internal harddrive and start taking up space on your computer. you will also know if you did it right by disconnecting the external harddrive then open up itunes on your computrt and play a song, you should get an error msg saying (itunes cannot play the file because origional file cannot be found)do you want to locate the file? close it, hook up the harddrive wait a min then play a song and it will play.research other similiar questions and the ere will be exact way to do this. if your having problems.

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I have my iTunes library on external drive and can access from any PC. However I cannot access from new MacBokk Air.

My iTunes library is on an external drive and been using it on two PCs with no problem.
Now that I got a new MacBook Air I want to access the same iTunes library from the external drive and keep all the library and media on that external drive.
When I try to change to another iTunes library by hitting "option" with iTunes and select the library on the external hard drive I get the following message:
"The iTunes library file is locked, on a locked disk, or you do noy have write permission for this file."
I have read many posts in which many suggest to go to the library or media file on the PC and right click to make sure the read only tab is not checked.
I uncheked the read only tab and gave full permission to all the iTunes files and folders.
The unusual part is that I can use this external drive on many PCs that I have tried with no problem at all.
I just select a different library, which is on my external hard drive and everything works, play lists and everything.
However, when I try it on a MAC i get the message stated above:
What can I do to be able to access my External iTunes library from new MacBook Air while keeping everything on the external drive like I can on PCs?
I am running latest version of iTunes and Mavericks.
Please advise.

Here are the official Apple Support instructions:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
Ciao.

How to transfer itunes library to external drive and keep playlists and ratings

I don't have much space on my laptop. I have attached an external drive. I want to access my Itunes library from
the external drive. All attempts to move the library now result in me losing my "playlists" and even more importantly
my ratings and genre information.
How can I move the library with all my associated data intact such as the playlists, ratings, genres?
I want this external drive to be the main location where I access my Itunes library.
Once that is done I will work on backing it up, as that will be the only place that the data exists.
Also, will my Apple TV be also be able to access my Itunes library with playlists. thus far I have not been able to do this.

Start by consolidating your library. When you consolidate, any songs in the iTunes Library that are not in the iTunes Music Folder are copied to the Music Folder and the Library is updated to point to those new files. Files already in the iTunes Music Folder have no changes made to them: Consolidating your library - Windows
Then copy the iTunes Folder to your external drive. 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?
Disconnect your external drive and connect it to your new computer, copy the iTunes folder to the new pc. When you copy the iTunes folder make sure you put it into the default location on the new computer. On a PC this is \Documents and Settings\Username\My Documents\My Music\ (or C:\Username\Music\ in Vista). You should also use the same version of iTunes on both computers.
Once you have copied everything over hold down the Shift key in Windows when opening iTunes. In the resulting dialogue you will get the option to create a new library or navigate to an existing one. Navigate to where you placed the copy of the library file and open it up: How to open an alternate iTunes Library file
If you have any iTunes purchases in your library don't forget that you'll need to authorise your new computer to play them. Also if you are disposing of the old one remember to deauthorise it so you don't use up one of your allowances: About iTunes Music Store Authorisation and Deauthorisation

How do I reconnect to an iTunes Library onan external Drive?

I have a huge iTunes library comprised of 10,000's of songs and 1000's of videos. I keep this library on an 8TB Raid 5 network attached storage device. I reciently had a catestrophic hard drive crash on the computer running my iTunes application (the local HD on my computer, not the network drive which is reasonably imune to an HD failure). Everything is gone from that computer's drive except for the files in scope of my automatic backups. There are two locations on my external hard drive that are candidates for the location of the iTunes files:
M:\Music\iTunes and
M:\SharedFiles\Music\iTunes.
Location #1 looks to be an early version of my library prior to consolidation into the "SharedFiles" location. My delemma is that I have attempted to point my iTunes (on my replacement computer) to location #2 and I don't get any of my library files. I am running Windows 7 (the old computer was running Vista). Looking at the M:\SharedFiles\Music\iTunes\iTunes Library.xml file (using a text edditor) In the first "<dict>" record I see: "<key>Music Folder</key><string>file://localhost/M:/SharedFiles/Music/iTunes/iTunes%20Music /</string>". So, thinking that was the "iTunes Media Folder" I pointed my iTunes application to that folder. I used Edit->Preferences->Advanced to change the location of my library. This resulted in an empty iTunes (no music,no movies,no devices).
One thing I noticed is that before changing the iTunes folder was pointing to a default location of "C:\Users\Bill\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media". However, I do not have an "iTunes Media" folder at either location #1 or #2. Under location #2 I see sub-folders for "Album Artwork", "Automatically Add to iTunes", "iTunes Music", and "Previous iTunes Libraries". Within the "iTunes Music" sub-folder I see a "Movies" folder with sub-folders for all of my movies, and a "Music" folder with sub-folders for all of my music.
After all of this, my question is: How do I connect my new iTunes application to my networked iTunes Library?

I figured it out!
After setting the iTunes Library to M:/SharedFiles/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music, I then used File->Library->Import Playlist and then navigated to M:/SharedFiles/Music/iTunes and added it. This then went to work for an hour or so reading my entire library. After that I connected to iCloud, Match, shared with home network, and connected to iTunes Store. I am now watching my movies on my big screen using Apple TV again.

After connecting my itunes library (on external drive) to another laptop iphone no longer recognized

I'm hoping to get some help on a matter of 'portability' of my itunes library.
My itunes library resides at work attached to my MacBook Pro 17" running 10.7.5 but on an external USB drive.
Using iTunes 10.7 on Macbook Air and 11.1 on MacbookPro (to which the iTunes library is normally attached from the USB drive).
I bought a Macbook Air to travel with also running 10.7.5.
I connected the external drive (where the itunes library resides) now that I'm away from from the office to the Macbook Air, changed the itunes media location to the external USB drive itunes library, with "Keep iTunes Media Folder Organised" and "Copy files to iTunes Media Folder when adding to my library" then did the File/Library/Organise Library/Consodilate Files function.
Alas, my iphone when connected to the MacBook Air is still not recognised on sync. I want to be able to back-up my iphone when not at the office (but not to the iCloud, to a local drive). Is this possible?
Thanks very much!
Dan
Message was edited by: DZReinstein

You might want to post this over in the iTunes Match forum.

Moved iTunes Library to external drive- now can't move iPad purchase to Mac

I moved my iTunes Library to an external drive because I didn't have enough internal HD space to move a movie purchased on the iPad to my Mac. Now iTunes won't sync my iPad - and wants to reformat it - because it says it was formatted on another Mac.
I've tried Aiseesoft iPad Manager but the movie - a iTunes+ movie, so I assume it is a package of some sort - doesn't show up in the movie pane.
This is a really crappy position to be put into. If I could re-download the movie I'd just reformat my iPad and be down with it. Unfortunately, this is not an option.
Help!

As a best practice, you should move your content to an external drive and import references to into iTunes rather than moving the whole database and app files. In iTunes > Preferences > Advanced, uncheck "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library". This will keep all your music and movies on the external drive, but iTunes and all references to the content on your desktop.
I know that's not what you wanted to hear as a fix, but this is how I have my MacBook Air setup and it works fine with the iPad. My son tried to move the whole app and database to a hard drive and we had endless problems with it.

Can i keep itunes on an external drive

i am out of hard drive space and dont use itunes that much can i keep it on an external drive

Yes. Drag your library to it, launch iTunes with the Shift key held down, click on Choose Library, and navigate to it.
(75667)

ITunes library on External drive connected to Time Capsule

So i have all my data(HD home movies etc 1.5TB)on an external drive that is connected to TC via usb 2.0. I have told iTunes to include this data and it has moved over all the titles (music & movies)but itunes keeps getting hung up as it is trying to organize the files. It has been trying to do this for over 24 hours now and we are not even 5% done and it may not be updating anymore.
All this is being done wirelessly thru TC. How do i speed this up or cancell it? If I use firewire between my macbook and the extrnal hd my library won't be available wirelessly? I also need to stream this data to apple tv but that's for another day.
How do i get iTunes to work properly again?

You'll be more likely to get a quick and accurate answer if you ask in the Using iTunes for Mac forum. This forum is for users of iTunes on Windows systems and so probably not the best place for this question.
Regards.

How to get itunes library from external drive to new computer

i recently purchased a new computer w/the windows vista platform. there were posts regarding how to transfer the library w/playlists on this board, which i followed to the point of hitting shift while opening itunes, and choosing a library. however, when selecting such from my external drive, which has the itl and xml on it as well as the itunes music folder, it gives me an error noting it is locked or that i dont have write permission to use it. my external drive on my old computer was the G drive, now it is the F drive on new one. can anyone please advise what to do other than copy all music over and have to completely recreate all playlists?

polydorus, this was the response/post that i found and it was posted by sweepea on 9/4/2007. and all my music is now from the external drive to the itunes music folder on my laptop and it let me keep all my playlists. thank you again for your help!
I had that problem too. I tried to remove iTunes from my computer and then download it again, but that did not make any difference. Then I tried polydorus' answer ("starting iTunes with the shift key held down, when asked to choose a library, navigate to your iTunes folder and choose iTunes Library.itl"), but that did not work either and that same message about the library being locked appeared again.
Then I had a brainwave. I deleted that iTunes library.itl file. (To find it, go to My documents, then My Music, then iTunes, and there is the itunes library file). I now tried to open iTunes by clicking on the iTunes icon on my desktop, nothing happened, as if I had not clicked on it at all. I restored the file from the recycling bin to where it was before. But that also returned me to where I had been before, i.e. I got that locked-library message again. So I deleted that file again. Then I tried right-clicking on the iTunes icon. On the little menu that appeared, I clicked 'Open' and hey presto, suddenly the iTunes set-up assistant appeared and everything went smooth from then on. When I checked, there was a file called iTunes library.itl again and this one worked OK.
By the way, I did not lose any of my music downloads or podcasts when I deleted that file, so it's definitely worth a try.
custom built Windows 2000

Help understanding shared iTunes library on external drive

Here is what I tried to accomplish:
merge two iTunes libraries (currently on two MacBooks) and store all music files on external drive, but keep each MacBook's custom playlists intact - the idea is to make space on each laptop.
I started comparing libraries on each laptop with the external iTunes library and copied missing media files/folders over to the external drive.
Question: is it save now to delete media folders from each laptop and just keep the library files in each laptops Music > iTunes folder?
Question 2: which folder do I select when changing to new iTunes Media folder in Preferences?
There is no iTunes Media folder on the external drive.
The folders Music, Movies, Podcast etc just reside in a folder called iTunes (which also holds some library files)

Launch iTunes with the Shift key held down, click on Choose Library, and navigate to that instance of the library.
(86658)

Importing iTunes library from external drive

Cannot play iTunes after importing library from PC into Mac.

Simply highlight and delete
But doing so it will also trash all playlists, data added, ratings, etc. Something the OP said about having to rename lots of files during a previous library rebuild suggests to me they may even be stored in WAV format. If the OP deletes them from the library all the labels will be lost, they will get added back with only file names as track information and they will have to be renamed again.
This will delete not only the reference to the file, but the library.itl file that Limnos refers to.
I don't think so. The file will still be there, it will just be stripped of any entries.
Now you should have an empty iTunes.
Now go to where the files are on your external drive. Two options. Choose the one you prefer:
In iTunes, go to >> Preferences >> Advanced -- Select the location of your files on the external drive. Tick OK and iTunes should re-add all the files. Depending on how many, it may take some time as it organises everything. But your files will remain on the ext drive. Any new songs you get will get added to your external drive by default now.
Changing this preference setting will not get iTunes to inventory the files in the media folder, nor add them. It simply tells iTunes to put any new media added in the location selected.
Or, select the files on your ext drive, hold down OPTION and drag the files into iTunes. It will add them to your library, but leave the files on your external drive. Note that any new files you add directly to iTunes (like from the store) will be added to your default iTunes folder, not the external drive.
Well, yes, it will do it, essentially creating a brand new library that the OP will have to organize again vs. using the existing organization. My reservations about the need to rebuild the library from scratch still exist.
If the OP desires to keep storing media on the external drive in the long run it is best simply changing the preferece to use the external drive for media storage.

How to back up iTunes Library to external drive so it can be restored

I recently moved my iTunes Library from a firewire Lacie external hard drive to a Western Digital USd hard that is now having problems (It keeps unmounting itself and I don't think that's good). It was not easy to move my iTunes folder and make it work again. I do not want to send 3 weeks plus using my spare time relinking songs or recreating playlists. I had to re-link 6,000 songs one by one. I iTunes will make a backup on CDs or DVDs why not an external device? Why would I want to copy 80 plus gigs to CDs?
If I simply copy my iTunes folder to the LaCie drive like apple recommends and the WD fails, I will lose all my playlists, track info, art work. I just got it all back. There must be some type of back up program I'm not seeing.
Please, some one help me. I am very disappointed that this solution is not on here.
I'm going to copy the file for now but it's really a poor solution.
Message was edited by: CindyLoo

I want to back up every thing, but I can't find a way to do it. That is the problem. Apple recommends if you are backing up to an external drive to copy folder the music folder to the drive via drag and drop. But I know when you do this that if you try use the backup you will only have the songs as if they were first added to iTunes.
I was able this time to move my music folder successfully (Last time the problem wasn't immediately apparent as it didn't affect my iPod, so I hope I'm not jinxing it). For now, my music is back on the Lacie drive, but it's still not backed up. If the LaCie drive were to fail I'd be faced with reimporting all my music and re-purchasing the TV shows and movies. (I almost always make a CD of new iTunes Purchases. which is why I have no desire to have a second huge stack of CDs.) My computer will not burn DVDs.
I want to backup everything so that it could be restored and be like it is now, but I don't see a way to do it. And I am not backing up all 80 plus gigs to CDs. My computer would crash and burn.

Moving iTunes Library to External Drive

Hey there,
I would like to free up 25GB of space on the hard drive of my computer by moving my music library to my external drive.
I tried once to have iTunes consolidate the library onto the external drive, and by doing that iTunes had difficulty locating the music on the hard drvie and the external drive. I had iTunes reload all of the songs off of my main computer and in doing so, I managed to lose all of the information from each song. Album art, lyrics, comments, some dates and genres were all wiped out. So now I had a huge collection of tunes that had none of that information and they all had the same date of being aquired. I have since repaired the blank-out by readding all of the information. I would still like to have my music folder on the external drive and I want to keep all of the information as well.
I currently have the music files on the external drive as back up incase something happens to my computer. I just dragged and copied the I Tunes music folder onto the hard drive icon.
I am wondering if there is a way that I can have my music library on the external drive, without the danger of having all of the additional information wiped out?
Thanks for your time with helping,
IslandB
Cicero Windows XP

iTunes: Moving your iTunes Music folder
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748
The above article includes moving the folder to an external drive.
Patrick

Second iTunes library on External Drive

I have a very large music collection (about 4,000 cds) that I would like to digitize. Ideally, I would like to be able to use the iTunes library on my MacBook Pro as a smaller, sort of "current playlist" library, while keeping the majority of my library on an external drive that I have access to when I attach the external drive. How do I do this?
Thanks!

use 3rd party apps such as these to rip the CDs and store the resulting files on the external.
temporarily disable +*copy files to ... when adding to library+* in preferences > advanced, then drag the content from the external into an open iTunes window or use the +add to library+ command from the file menu. iTunes will index the path to the location of the files but not add them physically to your designated iTunes music (or media) folder.
if you want to move certain files to your MBP's music folder, you could use this script:
[_*Re-Locate Selected v1.1*_|http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=relocateselected]
This script will re-locate the files of the selected iTunes tracks from their current location to a new user-chosen folder. iTunes will be updated with each track's new location and all of each track's meta-data will be preserved. Option to remove the files from their original location. (I don't advise using this on more than an album's worth of tracks or so at a time; re-locating dozens of tracks' files to a single folder doesn't seem to make much sense to me.)
NOTE: If your "Keep iTunes Media folder organized" preference set, you will not be able to create new folders in or re-locate files within the iTunes Media folder; outside is OK.

How to relocate itunes library to external drive

Hi Folks,
In another forum on the above topic I found an answer that consisted as a TWENTY-FOUR-PAGES-long forum discussion. I hope that there is someone who can nutshell 24 pages for this newbie
I have an external SimpleTech hard drive, Windows Xp, Compaq, laptop. I don't want to lose my itunes library, if my computer crashes. And, I don't want to eat up all my computer memory with music and podcast/vodcast files.
1) Is there a simple, step-by-step operation to relocate my itunes library to my external drive? I hope one of you are willing to take the time to help me out.
2) In addition to HOW to do it, what does it mean, practically? I mean itunes remains on my computer, right? And, it just goes back and forth to the external drive for my music files, right?
3) Can I put my album artwork on the external, as well?
Thank you
Randy

Is there a simple, step-by-step operation to relocate my itunes library to my external drive?
Yes:
- Launch iTunes, click Edit > Preferences > Advanced tab > General tab
- Click the 'change' button to redirect your iTunes Music Folder to your external hard drive. It's sometimes helpful if you open that hard drive through Windows Explorer first, and create a folder on it called 'iTunes' or something similar.
- Select both options to "Keep iTunes music folder organized" and "copy files to iTunes music folder when adding to library" and then click OK
- Click your Advanced menu and choose Consolidate Library
This copies your library files onto the hard drive and ensures that iTunes looks there for the files. Once this is completed, and you've verified iTunes is reading the files from the external drive (you can right click on the file and click Get Info, then click the Summary tab, and at the bottom it'll say "Where" and show you where your file is stored) you can go into your My Music folder on the computer and delete the iTunes files.
The iTunes program files will still be stored on your C: drive, to make Windows happy, and it just refers to your external hard drive to find the files so it can play them and sync them to your iPod.
When you follow the above steps, your Album Artwork should copy to the external drive as well.
Apple has this support document on the issue:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751
Hope this is helpful
CG

Keeping iTunes library on external drive

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