Locating songs after moving to external hard drive.

I have moved my itunes music files over to an external hard drive. My issue now is it gives me the message, it cannot locate the song. I have to find it myself. I have a large music library. Is there any way I can do it all together, instead of each song?

If you move the songs yourself, iTunes will still look for them in the old location because you did not update the iTunes database (by moving the music incorrectly).
To fix your problem, do this...
Open iTunes prefs -> Advanced and make sure the iTunes music folder location is set to the iTunes music folder on the external.
Then run this script -> iTunes Track CPR v1.3
In the future, the correct way to move your music is...
Go to iTunes menu Edit -> prefs -> Advanced.
Set the iTunes music folder location to where you want on the external drive.
Now go to iTunes menu File -> Library -> Consolidate.
This will copy everything in iTunes to the location on the external.
Once it is finished, you can delete \Music\iTunes\ iTunes music folder.
Delete ONLY the iTunes music folder on the internal.

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IMac cannot find library after moving from external hard drive?

After transferring my library from an external hard drive to my new imac the library cannot be found by itunes, although i can see the content in the folder I selected in advanced preferences and the content appears to br there

In Preferences set the loaction of the library that should do the trick.
I have about 1TB of content on an external drive and it works sweetly ( drive needs to be turned on before launching iTunes ).

I have my iTunes music folder stored on an external hard drive. I recently purchased a new Mac. After attaching the external hard drive, all the songs imported without any problem except my Playlists. Any clue about where they are or how to revive them

I have my iTunes music folder stored on an external hard drive. I recently purchases a new Mac. After attaching the external hard drive, all songs imported without a problem except my playlists. Any clue about where they are or how to revive them for use on my new Mac?
Thanks!

Rysz wrote:
To retain your playlists, artwork, play counts, etc, you need to move the entire iTunes folder, not just the music files..
Correct.
After that just select the new folder location in iTunes> Advanced settings.
Incorrect.
Hold Option and launch iTunes.
Select Choose library and select the iTunes folder.
This will read the iTunes library.itl file in this folder and the library as it was previously will be opened.

Itunes cannot locate my files on the external hard drive - I changed preferences but still not locating songs?

itunes cannot locate my files on the external hard drive - I changed preferences but still not locating songs?

This work for the most part:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/20361846#20361846

Help needed - New PC with all Songs and library on External Hard Drive

I hope someone can help me - I have just bought a new PC and have downloaded iTunes. All my songs are on an external hard drive, which I know how to get them on to iTunes - but I want to keep the playcounts and playlists that are also stored on the HD - I have tried looking for the answer to this, but cannot seem to find it anywhere. Thanks to anyone who can help.

Use these instructions to open the library from its location on the external hard drive...
How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304447
This assumes that everything needed for an iTunes library is on the external hard drive which includes the data base files that contain the info you are concerned about (playlists, counts, ratings, etc.).
Patrick

I have moved all my songs onto a new external hard drive but it has wiped my iPod clean. Although when I connect my iPod it's starts teh process of sync'ing - so many songs in I get a pop up advising the siong could not be read or written to?

I have moved all my itunes onto a new external hard drive to free up space. It has wiped my ipod clean! I can still see the itunes on the new hard drive so I restored my iPod and tried to sync. Although when I connect my iPod it's in the process of syncing, so many songs in I get a pop up saying could not copy to my iPod as xyz song title could not be read or written. I click ok for this pop up to dissapear and then another pop up appears saying could not coyp to iPod because of unknown error.!!! Help I'm going crazy.

Did you go into iTunes to change the location of your media files? if not you will need to go into iTunes and click on preference and select the advance tab then click the iTunes Media folder location. Select the location of your on external hard drive.

ITUNES MUSIC NOT PLAYING AFTER BEING MOVED TO EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE

I moved my itunes library to an external hard drive a long time ago no problem. Now i bought a 1TB to transfer it because i was running out of space on the other one so i transfer the folder itunes music everything went okay.But now when i turn off the other hard drive to make sure my music came to this new hard drive and play it doesn't. Unless i go one by one and find the file in the new hard drive it won't play. So what can i do? I just move the itunes music folder everything else is where it was. I followed all directions i found on the internet they all say just moved the music folder which i did. So where did i go wrong? Any help is greatly appreciated!!

It depends on what you want. If you want everything to be on the external drive, and all of your music is in the iTunes folder now, then you can just drag the entire iTunes folder (the entire folder, not just the iTunes Music folder) to your desired location. Then hold down the Option key while launching iTunes. You'll be given a dialog box where you can select the iTunes library you want to use. Navigate to and select the iTunes folder in it's new location. Everything - playlists, ratings, etc. - should remain intact and all future purchases and imports should go to the new location on the external drive. Once you're certain that everything is working as it should from the external drive, you can then delete the iTunes folder from your internal drive.
Caution, though: once you do this, make sure the external drive is connected and mounted before launching iTunes. If the drive isn't mounted, iTunes will automatically switch back to using the default location on your internal hard drive and will of course show a blank library. This won't be a problem, though; just quit iTunes and relaunch using the Option key and select the folder on the external drive once again.

Pictures in iPhoto do not show up after being moved to external hard drive.

I moved an iPhoto library to an external hard drive. When I created this library I did not tick on "Copy items to the iPhoto library" when importing. I wanted to keep the pictures in the folders neatly. These folders were moved to the external hard drive along with the iPhoto library. However, when I tried to go to Find -> Original File/Modified File it said that the picture was not found. When in actuality, the folders of the original files had been moved to the external drive.
I understand one solution is to create a brand new iPhoto library with these pictures in my external hard drive. However, when I do that I loose all the photo albums which were created in the internal hard drive. Is there a way to move the iPhoto to external hard drive and still have the links work, and not lose my albums?

This is the primary reason why experienced users recommend not using a referenced library. Simply, there is no way to move it without braking the path to the photos, and short of hacking the SQL database, there is no way to update the paths except for each photo, one by one.
I wanted to keep the pictures in the folders neatly.
Doing what you have done means more work, moe complexity and no extra power at all. It's uttterly unnecessary. iPhoto keeps the files quite neatly itself. But that simply doesn't matter as you never access the files via the FInder anyway.
Now you need to decide what you want to do.
If you return the Library and the Files to exactly where they were on your internal you can the recreate the Library - but only as a managed library - with iPhoto Library Manager
If that worries you from the point of view of accessing the files then have a read of this:
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4491
If you purchase Aperture ($70 on the App Store) then you can use it's Relocate Masters command to move the originals and the Library to the external.
Or, if you feel like hacking an SQL database you can read how to do that here
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3216539?tstart=30
Not for the faint hearted, and be sure to back up first.
For my money: rebuild as a Managed Library. It's easier going forward, saves work, and means you never have to face this issue again.
Regards
TD

Want to move all songs from laptop to external hard drive...

I was hoping someone could help me move all of my songs from my laptop to an external hard drive in the most efficient manner. My library is using up too much space on my laptop. Any other time I would just copy and paste the songs from one folder to the new folder on the ext HD and delete the files on the PC. If that is okay to do, then how do I redirect iTunes to always search and save to the ext. hd? Or is ther a migration tool that does all of this in iTunes??
Thanks,
Sean

This has been covered here multiple times, but again:
If you are running iTunes 6,, see:
iTunes: Moving Your iTunes Music Folder
IMPORTANT: do not delete the iTunes folder or the preference files it contains from your boot hard drive; delete ONLY the tracks themselves (i.e. the contents of the old iTunes Music folder).
If you have iTunes 7, then you can use the procedure above, but a better way is usually to just drag the entire iTunes folder (the entire folder, not just the iTunes Music folder) to your desired location. Then hold down the Shift key (Windows)/Option key (Mac) while launching iTunes. You'll be given a dialog box where you can select the iTunes library you want to use. Navigate to and select the iTunes folder in it's new location. Note that this procedure assumes that all of your tracks are contained in the iTunes Music folder. If they're scattered around your volumes, moving them becomes much more complex.
In either case, don't delete the tracks from the old location until you've confirmed that they're working correctly from the external drive.

Locating songs after moving library

I hooked my old iMac up to my new Mac Pro via firewire and moved my iTunes library to the new computer. All the music copied over but iTunes can't locate nearly half of the songs . It will be a crazy amount of work to LOCATE each song one by one, though I have started this arduous process. Isn't there a way to reconnect the library to the media (like Reconnect in Final Cut Pro) where iTunes can see where its library is now and reconnect all files with matching names?
If not, please add this feature to the next release.

I did the same exact thing yesterday. My wife's computer was getting low on memory so I took the iTunes folder and copied it to an external hard drive with 750 GB of memory. I changed the file path in the Advanced Options of iTunes, but now when I click on a song, it tells me that the file cannot be found. When I locate the file manually, it works, but this will bealong and tedious process for 3900 songs. Is there something I missed? Any help would be appreciated! Thank you!.

Rebuilding iTunes after Loss of External Hard Drive

Hello Everyone
I have a problem similar to others I have seen addressed, but different, and I have not been able to find any place where it is addressed by Apple or in any of the discussions here.
Several weeks ago, I transferred, in the way that Apple directs, my iTunes media files (formerly called music files) to an external hard drive, leaving the other iTunes library files on my MacMini. As a result, my iTunes app thinks the media files are on that external HD, and looks for them there (or should, but that may be an issue here, as I'll mention in a moment).
A week ago, the external HD died. I have replaced it with a new HD and copied to it all the music files from my backup of them on Time Machine.
I do not know how to bring into alignment my iTunes library on the MacMini and the iTunes media files on my new external HD.
I experimented with renaming the new external HD, giving it the same name I had used for the old one, but that did not result in iTunes finding the music files. In the course of doing that, I doublechecked in the iTunes preferences, the 'advanced' ones, for the indicated location for the iTunes media folder. Oddly, I thought, as I expected it still to include a reference to the old external HD, it simply reads as '/Users/russell/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media'.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Russell

Hello Limnos, and thank you for your additional help.
Unfortunately, my knowledge and experience are not enough that I was able to figure out and get comfortable with your suggested approach.
Basically I crawled into a hole and ignored the whole problem for a few days.
Today, I bit the other bullet and looked into restoring my iTunes using Time Machine. I'll tell the story here both for your (possible) interest and on the chance that it might help someone else in future.
After moving my iTunes music files to the external drive that broke and then getting a new external drive, I moved all of my iPhoto photo files to the new external drive.
As a result, I had enough space again on my Mac's hard drive to put my music files there. I decided to try to restore through Time Machine, as of a date just before I had moved my music files to the external drive, when iTunes existed entirely on my Mac's hard drive, my entire iTunes folder, with all its subfolders (not just the music files). (Out of caution, when restoring I chose the option one is given of preserving my existing iTunes folder, but this proved to be a caution I did not in the end need.)
Following the restoration, which I just completed, iTunes is working as it should, with no broken links (yet - knock on wood).
All seems to have ended well, and I thank you again for your help.

Files moved to external hard drive - now nothing playing in iTunes...help!

*Hi guys,*
*Just wondering if someone can give me some advice really. I think / know I've made a bit of a botch up of my files :-(*
*Here's the story - I'll try to be brief...I have done a number of different things to try and sort this mess out and this is the latest...*
*- Laptop storage full, with over 5000 music files saved on it. Laptop unhappy - says needs more space. I try to accommodate.*
*- Already have all music files backed up on external storage drive. Nice. Delete music files in C:/Program Files/iTunes file. Laptop happy - has enough space.*
*- Delete current iTunes music files. Drag and drop music files from external hard drive into iTunes window. Transfers music. No problem.*
*- Add new files to external hard drive - try to update in iTunes. iTunes not happy - shows exclamation marks by most songs, which then won't play.*
*- iTunes only opened with external hard drive connected and working.*
*- Me now not happy.*
*- Try changing path where library is saved. Does nothing useful.*
*- Only available option is to click on each track and manually locate it. Not fun when there are 600+ files.*
*- Decide to drag and drop files into iTunes window again.*
*- Now ended up with 12000 tracks in my iTunes, half of which are duplicates with exclamation marks that won't play.*
*- Now at end of my tether. Takes hours to move tracks and now using up unecessary room with unplayable tracks.*
*Does anyone know a. where I went wrong (given I've faffed around with it so much...I just want it organised once and for all...) and more importantly, b. what I can do to sort this mess out.*
*Is it actually possible to have all your music stored externally but to have them play through iTunes to transfer onto my iPod???*
*Also, if I used my iPod as a disk drive, and copied the files straight onto there from my hard drive, would they actually play, thus ruling out iTunes altogether?*
*Many thanks in advance.*
*Frustrated MP3 wrangler*

*Also...is there any way I can filter out all the tracks with the ! so I can delete the unplaying copies as they're taking up room in my iTunes? I know how to find duplicates, but then I have to go and delete each one individually...*
*Thank you!*

I did an upgrade and lost all of my music. i had most of the songs (1400) on an external hard drive. how do i put these songs in my itunes library.? i was able to get them on my ipod some how but i cant play from just the itunes

i recently did an up grade on my ipod touch and lost all of my music (1700 songs). all of my music wason my ipod. i have an external hard drive with most of my songs (1400 songs) on it. through playing around and just trying to fiquire it out, i managed to get the music from the external hard drive to my ipod touch. the problem that i just found out is that i cant play those songs from my computer unless my iopd is connected to the computer. when i try to play a song, it gives me thiserror message " THIS SONG CAN NOT BE USED BECAUSE THE ORIGINAL FILE COULD NOT BE FOUND. WOULD YOU LIKE TO LOCATE IT. please help.what did i do wrong?

To import music into your iTunes library on the computer go to iTunes>Help>iTunes Help>Add items to iTunes and follow the instructions
Delete the "songs" that do not play in your iTunes library and reimport them.

How do I move my iTunes Library from one PC to another when all my actual songs live on an external hard-drive?

Need to transfer my iTunes from one Win7 laptop to a new one. The trick is that all my music files live on an external hard drive, which I also use for Home Media Server use (iTunes only has a portion of my full collection under management for use on my iPhone).
I don't want to consolidate the music files to the My Music folder (which almost all tutorials say is the first step to transfer the library) - I want to keep them on the external drive. I want to retain my playlists mainly, as well as things like Podcasts which are unique to the iPhone.
How does one accomplish this?
Thanks in advance!!
-Matt
Columbus, Ohio

OK. So your current media library is at C:\Users\Matt\Music\iTunes.
Your current media folder is C:\Users\Matt\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music.
Your library is in the old style layout.
The bulk of your media is at F:\MP3 and you're happy with the layout of it.
Are you OK with the media files moving to F:\iTunes\iTunes Media but otherwise retaining the same file & folder names they have now. If so carry on, otherwise I'll give you the steps for migrating the library without making it portable first, or indeed at all.
With iTunes closed backup the iTunes Library.itl file somewhere.
Open iTunes.
Open Edit > Preferences > Advanced tab. Check the media folder location is given as C:\Users\Matt\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music.
Make sure Keep iTunes Music folder organised and Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library are turned off.
Close preferences.
Use File > Organise Library > Rearrange files in the folder iTunes Music. This will pull the files in the Mobile Applications folder into your current media folder and tell iTunes you want to use the new layout in future for anything that it is managing, e.g. podcasts, apps etc. Exisitng content on F: won't be touched.
Open Edit > Preferences > Advanced tab. Change the media folder location to F:\MP3. When you click OK you will be asked if you want to copy existing content to the new location. Click No.
Close iTunes. Reopen it. Check that media folder location is now correctly given as F:\MP3.
Use File > Organise Library > Consolidate files. This will pull any files that are outside F:\MP3 into it, but leave those that are already inside alone.
Close iTunes.
Copy the files iTunes Library.itl iTunes Library Extras.itdb iTunes Library Genius.itdb sentinel and the folder Album Artwork into F:\.
Click the icon to start iTunes and immediately press and hold down the shift key until asked to choose or create a library. Click choose and naviagate to the library file at F:\.
Test that the library works i.e. that your files play.
Close iTunes.
Create a folder called F:\iTunes.
Move the files iTunes Library.itl iTunes Library.xml iTunes Library Extras.itdb iTunes Library Genius.itdb sentinel and the folders Album Artwork & MP3 into F:\iTunes.
Click the icon to start iTunes and immediately press and hold down the shift key until asked to choose or create a library. Click choose and naviagate to the library file at F:\iTunes.
Test that the library works.
Close iTunes.
Rename F:\iTunes\MP3 as F:\iTunes\iTunes Media.
Open iTunes, test the library.
If at any stage the library won't play your media undo the preceeding step where this has involved moving or renaming files or use the shift-start-iTunes method to open the previous copy of the library.
If you've made it this far you can now connect this drive to your new computer and connect to the library with the shift-start-iTunes method without needing to worry which drive letter has been assigned. If your new machine has a big enough drive you can copy the entire iTunes folder to, say, C:\iTunes and it will just work, meaning that your external drive can function as a backup... You really should keep at least two copies of eveything.
Fast backup for iTunes library (Windows)
Grab SyncToy2.1, a free tool from MS. This can be used to copy your entire iTunes library (& other important data folders) onto another hard drive or network share. You can then use SyncToy periodically to synchronise or echo your library to the backup. A preview will show which files need to be updated giving you a chance to spot unexpected changes and during the run only the new or updated files will be copied saving lots of time. If your media is all organised below the main iTunes folder (which is the point of doing all the above) then you should also be able to open the backup library on any system running the same version of iTunes.
tt2

Can't access files moved to external hard drive

I moved my pics to external hard drive using copy function. Then I deleted the files from Iphoto on the hard drive. I see thumbnails on both, but neither photo will open. I get an ! in a circle. What file(s) do I need to restore?

tell us what you did - it is generally not possible to restore the iphoto library in parts - it is a single entity and must be restored as such
When you moved your iPhoto library and tested it was it fine? Did you switch to it (depress the option key and launch iPhoto using the select library option)?
how did you move "your pics" to the external drive - the correct way is
Moving the iPhoto library is safe and simple - quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive - depress the option key and launch iPhoto using the "select library" option to point to the new location on the external drive - fully test it and then trash the old library on the internal drive (test one more time prior to emptying the trash)
And be sure that the External drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) (iPhoto does not work with drives with other formats) and that it is always available prior to launching iPhoto
And backup soon and often - having your iPhoto library on an external drive is not a backup and if you are using Time Machine you need to check and be sure that TM is backing up your external drive
LN

Locating songs after moving to external hard drive.

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