Moving a portion of your iTunes song files

My music collection has become too large for one hard drive. I know I can move my entire library to another bigger drive, or than I can use an additional drive to add any new music to while still keeping songs on my old drive, however both these scenarios are NOT what I want to do...
What I would like to do is move the music I rarely listen to onto another drive, while keeping the rest of my music where it already is. For instance, if I use the iTunes browser to select all my country music, which currently is stored with everything else on DRIVE A, I believe I can drag all these files to DRIVE B and iTunes will copy everything to that drive... But then how do I delete these same files off of DRIVE A in order to free up that space?
Again, to summarize everything I'm hoping to accomplish:
-keep "primary" music in current iTunes music folder on DRIVE A.
-relocate selected "secondary" music to DRIVE B.
-recover space taken up by "secondary" music on DRIVE A after it is moved.
-have iTunes Library be able to find/play both "primary" and "secondary" music on its respective drive.
-be able to add new music to iTunes music folder on DRIVE A in the future.
Thanks in advance,
Josh

In preferences you can set a specific location for music to be located. While it might appear that setting changes all your music, it actually only changes where music will go when you rip CDs. So the music already in the library doesn't change locations (unless you select the consolidate library function). So this solves part of the problem.
The other part, moving some of the music to another drive, is a bit of a problem. You can move it to another drive but iTunes won't be able to find it. Of course you can then delete those songs from the library and then add them from their new location. The bad news is you will lose your ratings, playcount, and other data that's not stored in the mp3 files themselves. In the past, my solution has been to move music I don't really mind losing that data for.
Of course perhaps the best solution is to buy a very large drive and move all the data there.

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What do you need to do if your itunes songs will not play on the macbook pro?

what do you do need if your itunes songs will not play on a macbook pro?
Message was edited by: 4801832361

You can probably import into a modern version of iMovie (8 or higher).
If you just wish to view the videos the free VLC player can play them back.

ITunes Song File Will Not Upload To iTunes Match/Cloud

I have two song files that are failing to upload. Both files play fine. I have tried creating new AAC files. I have reimported the files from the CD using error check. I have turned off iTunes match and turned it back on, I have deauthorized the computer and reauthorized it. Other files on the CD imported correctly and uploaded. I have tried adding both files one at a time. One file is 6 MB and one file is 4.5 MB.
iTunes Match gets to step of uploading the file, hesitates, stops and restarts the process. Thanks for any suggestions,
Ken

Hi,
These are 2 song files imported from 2 CDs using iTunes as AAC MP4 files. All the other songs on the 2 CDs have uploaded to the iTunes Match cloud with no problems.
Importing one of the songs as MP3 (4.5 MB became 4.1 MB) worked. However, when I repeated the process with the second problem file, iTunes Match again fails at the upload step. Seems to be random, but your suggestion worked for one out of two.
Thanks. Can anyone think of anything else to try?
Ken

Can iTunes, song files, and library all reside on an external drive?

I loaded iTunes and also all of my music and audiobook folders onto an external drive. There are no iTunes files or song files on my local drive. However, when I try to populate iTunes by importing the music and audio folders iTunes insists on creating a library, with copies of all audio files, on my local drive. There is not enough room on my local drive to accommodate my entire music collection but there is plenty of room on the external drive. How can I persuade iTunes to create my library on my external drive? I’ve tried importing the folders manually and also by using PodPlus but the result is always the same – I receive a message from iTunes stating that there is not enough room for all the files. Any help or alternative suggestions would be very greatly appreciated. Thanks.

David, welcome to discussions! You may find this link from MacMuse helpful on how to move iTunes to a different drive, either internal or external. I used this information to move my music to an EHD on my old PC where it worked just fine. One trick, you must always boot up the EHD prior to opening iTunes or iTunes will revert the location of the iTunes music folder back to the main drive & you will have a bunch of dead links to your song files. Post back if you have any questions.
Oops, forgot the link!
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=121879
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ITunes song files not playing, even in Finder preview

I have several thousand songs on external drive that won't play anymore. The files are there taking HD space but clicking iTunes play button does nothing, preview will not open the little player and in iPods when pressing the play those songs will jump to next song after 2 seconds. All the podcast files, videos and some previously added songs work fine.

Same thing happened to me. All of my songs played fine this morning. I upgrade to the latest iTunes after seeing it announced on the website... and after waiting what seemed to be forever for it to analyize my music it would no longer play anything. I would double click a song and the play symbol would change to pause, but the time slider wouldn't move and no sound came out of my speakers. I freaked out and checked on here, but no answers yet. I went and moved all of the plugins i had out of the itunes plugins folder (including eyephedrine, oss3d, barquee, and nastyfft) and restarted iTunes. Everything seems to work fine now but that was quite a scare. I'm guessing oss3d locked it up somehow.

Converting purchased iTunes song files to Xbox 360 friendly format?

I know you can right click on a song and select Create AAC version. Is there any way to do this so that the converted file REPLACES the old one, and I don't have a load of duplicates to clear? Thanks

I know this is an older post, but I myself have recently discovered that my Xbox 360 will not play the Protected or Purchased AAC files from my iPod. I understand that I can convert the Purchased AAC files to AAC and then the song will play on my Xbox; however, the problem with that is not only does it create a duplicate in my iTunes library, but when you go to remove the Purchased AAC file (as you already made an AAC copy of it), the song is also removed from your playlists. The library is now the only place the AAC file is stored in. It isn't enough that one must convert the songs to AAC format and then delete the duplicate, they have to redo their playlists. If you've discovered this by now and know of a way to make it easier to play the Purchased AAC files on the Xbox, please let me know. I'd like to save myself A LOT of trouble.
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Itune song files won't play and my Soundsticks USB audio is not recognized on my G4 Cube running OS 10.4.11.

I have repaired permissions and reinstalled iTunes (ver. 8.2.1), but so far that has not helped.

If all the above fails, then it appears to be time for a relatively painless Archive & Install, which gives you a new/old OS, but can preserve all your files, pics, music, settings, etc., as long as you have plenty of free disk space and no Disk corruption, and is relatively quick & painless...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107120
Just be sure to select Preserve Users & Settings.

I want to use a portion of an iTune song but the section begins 5:48 into the song. How do I edit the sound selection?

Adding iTune selections appear to be defaulted to start at the beginning of the song, and you just trim the end off. But I want to start my selection within the song. How do I edit the song to appear on the video so that I can use a portion of the song 5 minutes and 48 seconds into the song?

Here is a reply I provided last week. Hope this helps. Noreen
Drag the song in to start of show. There is an icon that looks like a gear at the beginning of the green song strip. Click on this to see clip trimmer. The song will open in the screen on the bottom half of the iMovie screen. You drag the yellow start line to the place where you want the song to start. As my children have shown me, watch for the spikes to see the exact place, but listening along works also. You can trim a song from the beginning and the end so that you only use 30 seconds in the middle, if that is what you want.
I would also suggest using audio control to fade the song in, especially if you are starting at a loud point. The default fade in is half a second. I change that to 1.2 to 1.5, depending on the song. Also, if one song is louder than the next, you can equalize the volume by setting sound at 120% or whatever you think sounds correct for a specific song.
When trimming for a song at the end of a slideshow, you may need to drag the black (or any color) screen in to end and set duration for a few minutes so that you will be able to trim the song. Otherwise, the program will only drag in as much of the song as you have video remaining. I know that sounds confusing but once you try it, you will see what I mean. Once you have trimmed the song the way you want it, delete the black screen and fade song to end.

Converting iTunes song file to mp3

I listen to my music almost exclusively on my Verizon XV6700 cell phone pda, using Windows Mobile 5.0.
I thought my iTunes purchase would play on it, but it won't. Is there any way I can convert this file to an mp3 so it will play?
Fred in L.A.
Verizon VX6700 Other OS Windows Mobile 5.0

Tracks purchased from any legal download store carrying major-label content, including the iTunes Music Store, are copy-protected and so cannot be directly converted to any other format. You can, however, burn the tracks purchased from the iTunes Music Store out to an audio CD, at which point it will act just like any other normal audio CD.
Forum Tip: Since you're new here, you've probably not discovered the Search feature available on every Discussions page, but next time, it might save you time (and everyone else from having to answer the same question multiple times) if you search a couple of ways for a topic, both in the relevant forums, in the User Tips Library and in the Apple Knowledge Base before you post a question.
Regards.

Does any one know if you purchased all your itunes songs off your home computer, but now the hard drive is having problems, and i cannot access my account. I'm using our mac pro and trying to sync my nano, but cannot find my playlist.Is there a way to?

I purchased all my Itunes off my home computer. My hard drive is having problems. Is there a way to use my Mac Pro to access my itunes account and find the songs that i purchased, and then transfer them to my Mac Pro so I can sync my nano?

I purchased all my Itunes off my home computer. My hard drive is having problems. Is there a way to use my Mac Pro to access my itunes account and find the songs that i purchased, and then transfer them to my Mac Pro so I can sync my nano?

I moved my song files and now my playlists can't find them

Here's my scenario:
I run iTunes off my laptop and stored most of my songs on an external drive. My external drive went bad, so I copied the songs off my external drive onto the laptop hard drive in a separate folder.
Now when I run iTunes and open a playlist, there are exclamations next to all the songs that used to be on the external drive but are now on the laptop drive.
I can re-locate the songs one by one, but that will be a pain for the 2000 plus songs that used to be on the external drive.
My purchased music stays on my laptop, so I have music in two different folders.
How can I re-point the playlists to the correct folder(s) without doing it song by song? I don't want to lose the playlists (i.e. I don't care about metadata like ratings, play count, etc.) I have seen the "Moving Your iTunes Music Folder" article, but I'm not sure if this applies to my situation because I already moved my song files through Explorer and not through iTunes. I want to make sure that my playlists can find the song files even though I've moved them.
HP pavilion laptop Windows XP

Well, I think I figured it out. My playlists were pointing to an external drive E:, which I had removed from my system. So I gave the playlists something to find: I enabled my iPod as an external disk, moved the files that I had previously removed my exHD and put them on my iPod. With my ipod connected and now acting as a new exHD, I opened itunes and hat cleared up all the exclamation points. Then I consolidated my library (in edit>preferences>advanced menu, check "keep itunes music folder organized," check "copy files to iTunes music folder when adding to library," then OK; in advanced menu choose "consolidate library"). That put all those songs from the exHD into the iTunes music folder. I then deleted those files from my iPod, enabled automatic update again, and now I'm back in business.
Hope that helps anyone else out there with the same problem. My advice is to keep your library all in one place. Easier to backup and restore. Also, if you want to move itunes song files, read the article "changing where your itunes files are stored" and "moving your itunes music folder."

My computer The File "itunes library.til" does not appear to be a valid iTunes library file. iTunes has attempted to recover your itunes library and renamed it to "iTunes Library (Damaged itl)"

My computer crashed when I was using Itunes. I got everything up and running and got this message "The File “itunes library.til” does not appear to be a valid iTunes library file. iTunes has attempted to recover your itunes library and renamed it to “iTunes Library (Damaged itl)” Everything loads up put in takes 10 min. then my music playlists are deleted everytime I turn Itunes on. What can I do to solve this problem? Thanks.

Hi shyanne23,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities. If your iTunes library file has become damaged in some way, you may want to try recreating your iTunes library and playlists by following this article:
iTunes: How to re-create your iTunes library and playlists
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1451
Cheers,
- Ari

Duplicate iTunes database files in Home Folder

Due to an ever-increasing number of songs in iTunes, I downloaded them to an external hard drive -relatively easily(with a lot of help) and successfully for the most part. But....
In order to trash my iTunes Music on the internal drive I had to re-organize the sub-files found in the iTunes file(path - Home>Music>iTunes>). All of the iTunes database files were in the iTunes Music file so I dragged them out and put them in the iTunes file. After I trashed all the music, by highlighting the songs and dragging them to the trash bin, the iTunes Music file(which should be empty) has ‘re-created’ the iTunes database files.
The iTunes seems to work fine. All newly added music is stored on the external hard drive and downloads to my iPod. However now my iTunes window crashes consistently and my external hard drive gets disconnected intermittently.
What should I do about the duplicate iTunes database files and is this duplication causing these new problems?

I would happily assign to you 100 points even now
LOL - just clicked 'Solved' on one of my replies when or if you are happy!
Is it possible that when you create a new library the database files also get duplicated
Well, almost. When you create a new Library, you are creating a new iTunes "window" into which you can import any of your music, irrespective of whether it also exists in another library. So, although the music may be the same, iTunes creates a NEW (not duplicate) set of iTunes Library database files for your new Library. The main one (iTunes Library) holds all your playlists, ratings, etc.
That explains why those new files you found inside your iTunes Music folder were all much smaller than the 4 files you moved out - they were new iTunes Library files. (that's what I meant in paragraph 2; the file sizes of the new set were all wrong - way too small; the set you moved out of the iTunes Music folder, were much more realistically bigger.
However, it may be that the CURRENT set of iTunes Library files is on the eHD with your iTunes Music folder, from what you say. Does the iTunes Library file on the eHD have a very recent timestamp on it? If so, that's the one iTunes seems to be using.
Following your directions in paragraph 3 I couldn't find the main iTunes Preferences .plist file
I'm now inclined to believe that your Preferences are not the problem, though I'm baffled as to how you couldn't find the file. The com.apple.iTunes.plist file MUST be there, I'm not sure how iTunes can run without it. And if it wasn't there, iTunes would create it anew when you run the program. You sure you looked in ~user/Library/Preferences ?
then download iTunes from the Apple site
The problems you describe are from a "wrong way of doing things" rather than a corrupt application, so I'd say no to this, right now.
Could I delete or trash parts or all of the iTunes folders and files somewhere along the path, such as after User/Music and on the external hard drive, without jeopardizing the music located on the external hard drive
{sharp intake of breath} - this is ONLY worth doing once we know which is the Library that iTunes is currently using. Certainly, we haven't got to the bottom of why iTunes re-creates those iTunes Library files in your iTunes Music folder.
One way to track down the current Library file is to add one track only to your iTunes, then quit iTunes. Now, drag each of the "iTunes Music Library.xml" onto TextEdit and then do a TextEdit "Find" for that track name. The .xml file that has that track in it, is part of the set currently being used by iTunes and you should note down where that set is.
Will hear from you again, I'm sure.

HOW TO MOVE YOUR ITUNES LIBRARY TO AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE

Read these directions before actually doing anything, just so you can do this right. I've messed things up before, it can get ugly...
That being said, here's what you've gotta do if you're running on a Mac:
Have all your music on the external hard drive. It should be organized in folders the way iTunes set it up
The folders should be organized something like this:iTunes Media (Top folder, everything is inside of this folder)
Audiobooks
Automatically Add To iTunes
Books
Downloads
iPod Games
iTunes U
Mobile Applications
Music
Podcasts
Ringtones
TV Shows
Voice Memos
Those folders are what I have in my 'iTunes Media' folder on my external hard drive. You don't necessarily need to have all of these folders. (I happen to just have a lot of things in my iTunes.)
Finding your iTunes Library Files
The way iTunes works is there are two parts to make what you see in iTunes work right. There's your media (songs, video, iPod games and Apps, etc) and there are your library files. They tell iTunes what your playlists are, where your 'iTunes Media' folder is located, and a lot of other important things. Here is how to find the iTunes Library files (there will probably be more than one!)
Look in (yourusername)/Music/iTunes
There will be a few things in here:
Album Artwork (It's a folder)
iTunes Library Extras.itdb
iTunes Library Genius.itdb
Itunes Library.itl
iTunes Media (a folder)
iTunes Music Library Backup.xml (this file might or might not be here. If there is no file with this name, it's okay.)
iTunes Music Library.xml
Some "temp" files (maybe, maybe not -- they are not important for this)
Anything in the list that is BOLDED needs to be placed in (yourusername)/Music/iTunesIf you copied these files to your external hard drive, you will need to copy them back onto your internal hard drive. These library files do not need to be in the same place as your iTunes Media folder.
Telling iTunes Where Your Music Is
Now that your iTunes Media folder is on your external drive, and your Library Files are in place in "(yourusername)/Music/iTunes", we need to open iTunes.
On the top bar of the screen, go to iTunes>Preferences.
In preferences, go to the farthest right tab, titled "Advanced" with a picture of a gear.
The top section says "iTunes Media Folder location" and underneath that you see a filepath ending in the 'iTunes Media" folder.
This path is probably wrong, not leading you through the external hard drive.
If it is incorrect:
Click "change" on the right and then locate the folder in the prompt that shows up. Once the "iTunes Media" folder on your external hard drive is highlighted blue, click "Open" in the bottom right corner of the window.
Give iTunes a moment or two (depending on the size of your library) to re-locate all of your songs. Voila!
If it is correct:Do nothing!
While you're in the advanced section, let's check to make sure you have a few important 'housekeeping' things checked off:
"Keep iTunes Media folder organized" (CHECK THIS BOX!)
"Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library" (CHECK THIS BOX!)
At this point, iTunes should be all ready to go. Before I get into any troubleshooting, note a few things:
If you ever unplug/disconnect the external hard drive from the computer, you must first make sure that iTunes is NOT running.
Also, if the hard drive is unplugged and you open up iTunes, all of your songs will have little symbols next to them. Until you plug/reconnect the hard drive, the songs will stay like this and will be missing.
TROUBLESHOOTING:
Not having permission to access the external hard drive:
In Finder (or on your desktop), right-click the external hard drive (if you don't have right-click, control-click will also work).
Click on "Get Info"
A thin, tall window will appear on the screen.
Part One:In the "General" section, make sure that "Locked" is unchecked. If it IS checked, uncheck it.
Part Two:
We are now focusing on the very bottom of the window, where it says "Sharing & Permissions"/
In the bottom right corner of the window there is a small padlock icon. Click it. When asked for an administrator password, type it in, and click "Ok".
You will now notice that the bottom section of the 'get info' window is not greyed out anymore. Make sure your user name (it says in parentheses "(Me)" so there is no going wrong here) has "Read & Write" privileges.If not, click on whichever privilege you currently have, and a drop-down menu will appear. Click on "Read & Write".
If you have any other issues, I will add them to the troubleshooting list to help you out. Hope this was helpful!

My iTunes library is set up the way I said in the top post and works totally fine.
Yes, and that is the default structure to which I was referring. iTunes will organize it that way automatically unless people do start changing settings (in which case they should know what they are doing and how iTunes works with library files and media structure.)
Both ways work, the advantages of mine would be that should iTunes try looking fo a library, it will always be in the default location.
It makes people think they have to change media location in preferences. They do not unless they want to relocate media only and leave other things on their internal drive (in which case there is no point in copying library files to the external, and you certainly wouldn't want to then delete them from your internal).
Downside is that then should someone move their iTunes library to anther computer they need to remember to get those library files on the external hard drive.
Just copy the whole iTunes folder and it will get the library files to the other drive in one step, along with all the other files.
Your post has good stuff but it makes a move appear intimidating and look like people have to do a lot of organizing to move the collection. It also throws in extra steps (namely altering preference settings) that could cause confusion or even make a mess of things. If people leave iTunes to default preference settings (which most people do) the move summarizes into a short line: Copy a folder and hold an extra button the next time you start iTunes.
Note that the instructions in the link I provided earlier do also include many steps, but those are to ensure that everybody does have it all organized correctly before simply copying the iTunes folder. In the end it is just a simple action.

How do I create ringtones from iTunes songs with Garageband?

I have an iPhone 5s. Is it possible to convert itunes songs into ringtones with Garageband ios?

Yes, you can, if you sync your iTunes songs to the Music.app.
See this Help-Page:
http://help.apple.com/garageband/iphone/2.0/index.html#chs39284d66
Share a GarageBand song as a ringtone or text tone
In the My Songs browser, tap the Select button, then tap the song you want to export (or touch and hold the song).
Tap the Action button , then tap Share Song As Ringtone.The Export Ringtone panel opens, showing the name for the ringtone. By default, the ringtone uses the same name as the song.The maximum length for exported ringtones is 30 seconds. If the exported ringtone exceeds the maximum length, a dialog appears. Tap Continue to have GarageBand shorten the ringtone automatically, or tap Cancel to return to the song so you can shorten it.
To rename the ringtone, tap the name and type a new name.
Tap Export.
In the Ringtone Export Successful panel, do one of the following:
To return to the My Songs browser, tap OK.
To choose a use for the ringtone, tap Use sound as, then do one of the following:
To use the ringtone as your standard ringtone, replacing the existing ringtone, tap Standard Ringtone.
To use the ringtone as your standard text tone, replacing the existing text tone, tap Standard Text Tone.
To see a list of your contacts, tap Assign to Contact, then tap the contact you want to use the ringtone with.
To return to the My Songs browser without assigning the ringtone, tap Done to return.
The next time you sync your device, the ringtone also appears in the GarageBand File Sharing area in iTunes. You can drag it to the Tones list to add it to your iTunes ringtone library.
And see this page, how to add a song from the Music.app to a track in GarageBand:
Import a song from the Music app http://help.apple.com/garageband/iphone/2.0/index.html#chsb3f15dc4

Moving a *portion* of your iTunes song files

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