Linking music files on an external drive to a new mac

Hi,
I have recently bought a new macbook, replacing my old ibook, all my music tracks are on an external hard drive, I want to keep them there, but I want to be able to play them on my new macbook, how do I do this?
I have changed the folder so itunes is looking at the right one, but my new itunes is empty. do I need to copy the track listings somehow into the new library?
I can only find instructions for physically moving the media, which I don't want to do.
I had wanted to be able to hook up the hard drive to both computers, is that possible?
thanks very much
vbw

You should be able to do a File -> Add and then point to the iTunes music folder on your external drive and it should fill in the iTunes library for you. Since you are already telling iTunes to use that location, there shouldn't be any copying or moving of files about.
As to hooking it to two different computers, while you can probably get away with it, each iTunes treats the library as its own, so you could end up in trouble when one library alters the library somehow that the other one might not be happy about.
Patrick

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Easiest way to transfer iTunes library on an external drive to a new Mac?

Hello,
I currently have my entire iTunes Library (Music, Movies, TV Shows, etc.) on an external hard drive.
I have a new Mac arriving tomorrow, to replace my current one. What is the easiest way to get my entire Library into iTunes on my new Mac?
I know Migration Assistant is normally supposed to help with this, but I assume that's only if the Library has been stored internally. Can I simply plug the external drive into the new Mac, authorize the computer, and Import my entire Library from the File menu?
Any pointers would be appreciated. Thanks!

mattfromallston wrote:
I have a new Mac arriving tomorrow, to replace my current one. What is the easiest way to get my entire Library into iTunes on my new Mac?
From your OLD computer...
Copy your ENTIRE iTunes FOLDER to an External Drive... and then from the External Drive to your New Computer..
Full Details Here > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751
An Added Bonus is that you will have a Backup of iTunes.
Also... Have a look at these 2 Videos...
http://macmost.com/moving-your-itunes-library.html
http://macmost.com/moving-your-itunes-media-to-an-external-drive.html
NOTE:
It is important that the External Hard Drive is formatted as Mac OS Extended (journaled).

How do I link my itunes library on an external drive to my new mac?

I have an older Mini with about 600 gigs of losses files on an external drive. I have a new mini and I want to use the same drive. Can I somehow point the new mac to the same location?

To Operate iTunes from the External Drive...
Start iTunes with the option key held down and guide it to the new location of the library.

ITunes cannot find music files, confuses inodes, external drive

I have all my music on an external drive, which is not always connected to the Mac. When I start iTunes w/o the hdd connected iTunes occasionally marks some of the songs as not found. Which is ok so far. BUT if it finds the same inode (of the original file on the external hdd) on the internal hdd it changes the location of the songs to the internal hdd. In my case to files like /Previous System/<some path>/Info.plist. So iTunes thinks the files are still there and cannot play them. After deleting all the Previous Systems files iTunes marks all those files as not found, that is, it does not search for the inode on the external hdd again. Very confusing.
Yesterday I started from scratch with an empty iTunes Library (I moved the original one) and the problem reoccurred instantly after I imported all my music, quit iTunes, disconnected the external HDD and started iTunes again. So some of my songs are lost, iTunes will never find them again w/o me reimporting them. Also the problem might occur anytime in the future and I seem to not be able to cure it, because iTunes tried to be intelligent. But how it can confuse inodes w/o looking at the device ID and why the songs did not return after I removed the /Previous Systems folder I cannot image.
I checked the inodes on the internal and external hdd for some of the songs and they were indeed identical. So iTunes seems reset the path/location in the Library DB if it can find the inode of a song which it cannot find by path. Why it does not look at the device id in combination with the inode# is a mystery.
Some additional details:
iTunes Music Folder Location: on external hdd
The Library files are on the internal hdd at ~/Music/iTunes.
I hope someone can answer that. I do not want to start from scratch every week. I hope my iPod which holds all the songs synchs meta info like play count and rating back as well.
Kind regards, soryu2.

And further....
I went into iTunes to try to download all my purchased music. Some, but not all, is showing up under iTunes>iTunes Media>Music. It looks like the library thinks some if the music is there, but it actually is not.
Seems like my library is corrupted (or something).
Since I have to upload all music from CD anyway, should I delete my iTunes library and start over, first by downloading all purchased music.

Putting some music files on an external drive, but keeping only one library

I know how to keep two libraries, one on an external drive, and one on my HD...but I'd like to know how to do this:
move some of my music files off of my HD and to my external drive, but maintain the same library (and only one) on my HD. So...when iTunes opens, I see all of the music files in the database, and if I choose a song that physically resides on the HD, it plays it from there, and if I choose one that physically resides on the external drive, it plays it from there. I want to free up space on my HD, but I don't want to have to keep two separate libraries.
Any help is appreciated!

It's easy. After you split the music you can add the music from the different locations to the library and it will play them from wherever they're at. The important thing to do is to go into *System Preferences* in iTunes Advanced and uncheck the *Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library* or iTunes will put duplicates in what ever iTunes Music folder you have iTunes pointed at. This folder is only important when you are adding content that you do want copied to the Library, such as from a CD.
I use this for my iTunes music and movies that is stored three different drives. One is a network drive.

ITunes unable to locate music files saved on external drive

Hi all,
This is proabably something incredibly simple but my iTunes was installed on to my laptop wih music added till my memory was all used up.
So I bought an external drive, and re-added all my music saving it to the external drive, my iTunes however remained installed directly on my laptop.
This worked fine initially as long as my external drive was selected in the Preferences section of my Itunes, but recently all my albums are available but it says that Itunes is unable to locate the files, even though none of them have been lost or deleted from the external drive.
Ive tried everything I can think of - does anyone know how to rectify this?
Thanks....

I switched computers and tried to reload all my backed up itunes files. It loaded the files fine the first time. After I logged off the files disappeared from my Itunes. Apple tech told me to add itunes folder to library. It worked fine until i logged off again. I tried it several times because my files never stayed on itunes. Finnaly I added two new CD's into my library and I went to file Libray and I entered consolidated Library. This brought everything I had before and then some to my itunes library. I logged off, shutdown and even hibernated and my files still remain. I was able to create playlist, my movies, podcast, there all there. Hope this helps.

Original file cannot be found for most music files, w/large external drive

Hello.
I am getting the error message "original file cannot be found" most times that I play a song in iTunes 6, though I am always able to locate the music file in my iTunes Music Folder. This is infuriating!
My music collection is large -- 90.08 GB, and is on an external FireWire drive.
Can somebody help me?

mgallope,
welcome to Discussions.
Everytime you turn your ext hd off, iTunes reverts your library to its original location, which is within your mac HD.
In order to locate the music files, turn your ext hd on, plug it into your mac and wait it be recognized in Finder. After that, open iTunes Preferences>Advanced and change the location of your library from the original location to the new one. Wait until iTunes reorganizes the library and try playing any song.
Unfortunately, you´ll have to do this every time you shut your ext hd off.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Paulo

I have a macbook air late 2010 and keep getting a warning that my hard drive is full and to delete things so I purchased a external hard drive (1TB) but I'm just not sure what the correct way to transfer and store files to the external drive is. First MAC

I purchased a macbook air about 5 months ago and lately i keep recieving a warning that the hard drive or disk is full and that I will need to move items to trash in order to free up space on it. I purchased a external hard drive 1 TB but I'm very new to mac and ios and unsure as to how I'm suppose to transfer my files (video, pics, music etc.) from my mac over to the external hard drive in the correct way so I won't end up deleting them permenately or screwing anything up with my mac as far as the applications and programs being able to run. Am I supposed to just copy to the external hard drive and then move to and empty the trash? That's pretty much all I could come up with, but then what if i need or want to access that file again at a later time. Also, I have an i Phone and i pad so with i cloud it automatically syncs all my purcheses and if i delete something from itunes on my mac it deletes from my ipad.
I'd appreciate any kind of input i think im just a little lost here. I have to say i love my Mac and wouldn't trade it for anything (except maybe a macbook pro w/more memory)... Is there something I'm missing???

To free up hard drive space the best bet is to move data files that you don't need access to all the time. Likely candidates are music, video, and photos. Things like word processing and spreadsheet files can also be moved but they tend not to be very large and so don't free up much space. The problem with moving the above mentioned files is that iTunes and iPhoto need to know where the files are stored.
Here's an article explaining how to move the iTunes folder. You can move the iPhoto library using the Finder but there is a slight complication. Start iPhoto, open the Preferences and click on the Advanced tab. The first option is "Copy items to the iPhoto Library". If this option is checked, copy the iPhoto library to your external folder (drag it from the Pictures folder to your external drive) and then delete it from your Picture folder. If this option is not checked, it is a bit more complicated and we'll need to talk a bit.

Getting files from old external drive to a new one

I have a dying Acom ac powered 80gig external drive on my eMac and a powerbook that is running out of drive space.
The Acom has one USB and two firewire outputs, one firewire is hooked up to the eMac . The Acom is all itunes music (none from the Apple Store) .
I had an ex-friend set it up so I don't know squat about using external drives . I think I'll get the LaCie Mobile firewire . From what I've read it seems the best . Any other suggestions are welcome .
Is there a good tutorial somewhere on how to do this ? I would like to transfer all the music from the Acom to the new drive and be able to use it like I did the old one AND use it with my powerbook to do the same thing .
Will there be a problem with library ? In iTunes (4.7) I have "Create file names with track number " checked but I don't have "Copy files to iTunes music folder when adding to library" I don't really know what this does but it sounded like it took up space so I haven't ever checked it .
as mentioned the eMac is iTunes 4.7 using Panther and the powerbook is iTunes 6.0.2 using Tiger .
G4powerbook tiger- G4eMac panther Mac OS X (10.3.9)

What you like to do can be done, but not using different main versions of iTunes.
The reason for this is, that the 'iTunes Library' file has different structures with different main versions and is not downwards compatible.
Unless you have a reason not to upgrade iTunes on the eMac, my advice would be to upgrade.
If you purcase music at the iTMS, using iTunes 6, you won't be able to play them on previous iTunes versions.
If you have MIDI files, don't upgrade to the latest iTunes 6.0.4, unless you own QuickTime Pro.
iTunes 6.0.3 and 6.0.4 are having troubles with them (iTunes: MIDI files cannot be converted in iTunes 6.0.3 and 6.0.4).
I have an G4 iMac running iTunes 6.0.4. and an G3 iMac DV running itunes 6.0.2.
My music is stored on an external drive and it is no problem at all to use it on both computers.
There are a few requirements however (more about that later)
My advice would be to take the next steps.
• Purchase the mobile drive and transfer the music to it, using the instructions in the 'Moving your iTunes Music folder' article.
You will still have a backup on your Acom (as long as it still is running) in case something might go wrong.
• Upgrade iTunes on the eMac
• Copy the 'iTunes Library' file from eMac to the new mobile drive, attach the drive to the Powerbook and copy the 'iTunes library' file from mobile drive to Powerbook. Read "What are the iTunes library files?" to find the exact location of the file.
• Run iTunes on the Powerbook. you should see the entire library as you saw it on your eMac.
A few things to consider and take int account:
Decide which computer to use to add and import music. This will make things a lot easier.
You can of course add music on both computers, but you have to swap the 'iTunes Library' over and over to keep the libraries on both computers synchronized.
Always attach the mobile drive to the computer, before running iTunes. If you fail to do so, iTunes will reset the 'iTunes Music folder location' to the default location on the internal drive on the computer. Unless you 'point' iTunes to the location on the mobile again, songs you add and import will then be stored on the internal disk.
Let know if you have further questions.
M
17' iMac fp 800 MHz 768 MB RAM Mac OS X (10.3.9) Several ext. HD (backup and data)

How do I copy my files from an external drive to my new computer

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File -> Add folder to library.
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All formatting etc. will be intact, since TM makes sure it is.
As for perfomance, the biggest performance boost would be a solid state drive. Have you looked at that option?
And one of the more prevalent reasons for perfomance hit is an over-stuffed start up drive. Mac OS X needs empty space on the start up disk to do its tasks, make sure you give it enough. Take a look at this: http://macs.about.com/od/faq1/f/How-Much-Free-Drive-Space-Do-I-Need.htm

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How to transfer files from a faulty drive to a new mac?

Hi, at the beginning of this year I experienced one of the worst things in my life: my 4 year old macbook air had a kernel panic attack, which resulted in me taking it in for repair at a local computer repair place (since it was out of warranty i took it there because I new apple support wouldn't cover it) anyway, after that the technician says that my hard drive was failing and that he would try to recover my files (I had previously erased all my photos from other computers and had them in this mac) which included about 10,000 pictures that sumed almost 8 years of my life, anyway, the technician did saved a couple of pictures but the iphoto file was no were to be found, he told me that it was too large and he couldn't access it (i believe he forgot about iphoto in the first place because he was able to retrive my documents and some pictures from my desktop) the thing is he returned my mac, which was not fixed and instead of having the kernel panic attack, it went straightly to a grey screen haveing the apple rotate for about 45 secs and then blank. I used disk utility to try and see what was going on and my macintosh HD had been greyed out unmounted without any luck of mounting it back. So my question is, is there a way I can access it without having it mount (i tried mounting it several time but got some error message saying unable to mount or no disk found to mount) I ordered a firewire cable to see if theres a chance i can access that disk and retrive all of my photos. Please help me!

Try using a data recovery product such as the ones listed here. Don't write anything else to the drive until the files are recovered or you choose not to recover them.
(108298)

ITunes can't see my music on My Book external drive

HI
Have just had to have the hard disk on my Powerbook G4 replaced and am now trying to restore contact between iTunes and my music library that lives on a My Book external drive (set up, formatted and updated over many months by this Powerbook).
I have changed the settings under iTunes Advanced Preferences to point to the music folder on the My Book, but the Library stays empty. I can access and play (using Finder) all the music files on the external drive, I just can't get iTunes to see them. Dragging and dropping doesn't work and though I've tried to Import the files the menu won't allow me to choose them (or the folder).
Any thoughts? Please!!

I don't know if this will help, but I'd suggest you update to iTunes 6.0.5. That will run on 10.2.8 and is much more current and complete. You'd also want QuickTime 6.5.2. Worth considering, anyway.
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Linking music files on an external drive to a new mac

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