Moving iTunes to network drive - Seagate or WD

I need to move my 800G iTunes library off my iMac (external USB drive) to a network drive. This is a migration for which I don't have a budget so I am looking for a low-cost solution.
My Gigabit network is fed by a Netgear WNDR3700 router, to which a USB drive can be attached, with ReadyShare software built in to manage it. So I have two options
attach a 2Tb drive to the router - the choices are WD MyBook or Seagate Expansion
ignore that and buy a standalone networked drive - WD MyBook Live
These particular drives are on special offer, which makes them just about affordable!
Option 1 is cheaper. BUT the drive does not support HFS+. So I will have to use it as FAT32 which limits filenames to 32 characters. Which means I will have to rename hundreds of iTunes track names.Some of these are quite complex, such as
Overture in the French Style in B minor, BWV831:10 Gigue.aiff
Option 2 appears to be plug and go - I know of two users who use WD MyBook Live in this way, but it is 30% more expensive
So: Two questions:
Which option for hard drive is likely to be the most reliable and be fast enough to stream iTunes music to my (wired) Airport Express which feeds my hifi
If I go the router/USB route, what is the easiest way to rename the track filenames?
Complexity means they cannot simply be truncated. So I was thinking of using Better Renamer or similar on an album-by-album basis altho' this breaks the "never edit filenames in the iTunes folder" mantra .But does this matter since I am moving them to a new location which will have to be "recognized" as the new iTunes folder.
Any and all help appreciated

If you want to make another drive (direct or portable) on your PC the main music location for iTunes, move all song files there, as well as any future imported music from CDs, here is one method (see the links below):
You will maintain your playlists, ratings, comments, etc. This will only move your music folders location, NOT your iTunes program files. It is my opinion that programs (i.e. – iTunes) work better when installed on your main hard drive. At the very least, it makes it easier to manage all your programs if they are centrally located on one hard drive (the Windows default standard).
See these links for some step-by-step info:
iLounge: Moving your iTunes Library to a New Hard Drive
MacMuse: iTfW: Move iTunes music/Library to new drive
iTunes: Moving your iTunes Music folder
If you are moving the music to an external hard drive or network drive, after the transfer (and to work correctly), the drive must be running prior to your opening iTunes. If not, iTunes will reset the location of your music folder location to the default location (usually: ‘C:\...My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music’). If this happens, you need to manually change the path back to your external location, or future CD ‘Imports’ will be deposited on your internal HD.

Similar Messages

Moved iTunes to different drive - now my library is empty???

I should've left well-enough alone, but someone suggested I move my files to my second hard drive. I moved iTunes from C drive to F drive and changed the settings in my iTunes preferences; however, now my iTunes is empty. I moved them back to C drive, but still nothing. I can find the files when I look under C drive in my computer, but I can't get them to show up in my library.
Any suggestions??

Set the location to what you need and then try the steps here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93313

ITunes library repair/moving to external network drive

Hello all, I wonder if you can help. I have searched high and low for a solution to my situation, but to no avail, and so you really are my last hope. I've been trying to get my iTunes library in order for quite a while and things have gone wrong, and it has really got me down as I'm worried I'm about to have to start again from scratch. It has taken me about 6 weeks (spread out over the course of a few months) to rip the 18,000 tracks in my library, then another month or so to get all the metadata right, weed out duplicates, etc. However, the music collection is so big I have had to place it on a network drive in batches (which has the benefit of being able to access it on any laptop at home - but whatever I do iTunes just doesn't like it.
I can't actually bring myself to recount everything I've done as it's a bit upsetting so I thought I might just summarise the situation that I'm now in to see if anyone could help. I would be very grateful.
I now have a network drive with an iTunes style folder structure within it's music folder, and within that artist/album/song.wav file path. For reasons I'll explain later I have many MP3s, a few AACs, and *lots* of WAV files - which sadly, don't hold track metadata, otherwise I could have just re-imported all the files into a new iTunes library. However correct metadata and having the files as WAVs are vital (again, I'll explain later), so it's not something I can change.
I have moved iTunes libraries before when I have moved PCs without any hitches, by moving the music folders and files and doing a search and replace in the library file to point to the new locations. I thought this would be the same situation. It's complicated by the fact that I had been hoping to put the music files and library on the network drive so that iTunes on my Mac and PC would be able to access it and write back metadata changes, play counts and so on.
I've not been able to work out how to do this as file paths to the network drive differ on both OS's - Windows paths are more like \\DISKSTATION\Music\ etc etc whereas Mac ones are more like file://localhost/Volumes/Music etc etc
I don't understand networking very well so quickly gave up on the idea of trying to get my library to work off two machines with two OSs (though is someone can explain how/if this is possible, I'd like to try it again).
Now I was left trying to get the library to work with iTunes on either just the Mac or just the PC, and I haven't managed it yet. When I have been experimenting with amending the file paths in the library and opening it iTunes again I get little WiFi style icons, like the ones you see in the radio section of iTunes - indicating an audio stream - next to every track, and if you click play, it tries to open the track - but doesn't - and keeps trying. It does this on both machines. I've tried windows style file paths on the PC, and Mac ones with OSX, I've tried referring to the drive's network IP address and so on - but can't get it to work. Most of the time it behaves as described above. Some times it deletes the whole library and starts again from scratch. At present the file seems to have reverted to the point after I had added all my tracks but before I'd amended the metadata.
(I have a backup of the library file with all the correct data in it, but pointing to files in the wrong places, so I am happy to experiment.)
I've read a lot of threads on similar external drive nightmares people have been having, and it is often mentioned elsewhere to consolidate the files to the iTunes folder once you have told iTunes of the new location, but this wouldn't have been practical - there was over 400gb of them to move over a (relatively) slow network. And I can't consolidate now with the music files on the network drive as iTunes has all the information in the library, it just seems to not be able to find the files.
So my question is what am I doing wrong and/or how can I fix the library to point to the files in the new location? It must be possible as I have a version of the XML file with all the artist/album/filename.wav structure intact - it's just getting the bit before it correct and getting iTunes to accept the library once I've amended it. Is there a way to get my library to recognise the files on the network drive properly - even just on one machine?
I would be happy to start reloading tracks into a new, clean library but there is no metadata WITHIN the wav files like there is in the MP3 and WAVs and so I'll be left with a lot of wavs that aren't titled properly (and I really can't face going back and adding the titles and artists for thousands of tracks again). Before moving the library I *did* rename the files with artist - track - genre - year etc. etc. information - so if there was a way for iTunes to rebuild the library with information from the filename, I'd be happy to try it. But even the great Doug's iTunes Scripts website can't even offer anything like that.
To explain the point about the files being all WAVs - the files are going to be used for broadcast and so need to be in the best quality in a format that can be opened - FLAC won't work. And similarly, the metadata is important as it will be used in a professional situation too.
Any help would be gratefully received as if this doesn't work I seriously think I will stop buying music as I don't want to add to the problem! I can't face months of ripping everything in again. I'm so fed up.

Yes it's quite possible, that's how I have mine set up, and Moving iTunes Music will tell you how to go about it.
Pitfalls? Can't really think of any.
Regards
TD

MSI installer closes with error 1327, Invalid drive on Win 7 Ultimate when My Documents is moved to a network drive

I have several computers with Windows 7 Ultimate installed here at the Pioneer Library System. We have ~20 workstations running XP Pro on a Active Directory domain and are planning on rolling out Windows 7 this fall. I am running Windows 7 to test our programs
(have since RC1) but I am running into an issue when installing software.
The problem I am running into is that when I try to install any program that uses the MSI installer on Windows 7 , it fails with a 1327 error at the point where it is preparing to install and says "Invalid Drive H:\".
All the users in our domain have the "Home Folder" on their active directory profile set to
H:\ (which is mapped to \\PrimaryDC\user$ in the same place). We have also moved the
C:\Users\user\Documents folder to H:\ so as to keep all documents on the server where they get backed up regularly.
If I move "Documents" back to C:\Users\user\Documents the MSI installer works fine. When I look into the registry as suggested in
this thread I found that in "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders " and in "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell
Folders " the key "Personal" points to "H:\".
But, H:\ is a valid connected network drive. Installing from the same account on an XP computer with
C:\Documents and Settings\user\My Documents moved to the H:\ drive works fine.
I have tried setting up another 7 machine and get exactly the same results on it.
Is there a workaround for this besides creating a admin account that does not have Documents mapped to the network drive
H:\ to use for installing programs?
Thanks
Aaron Z
PLS

I do not have the option with some of these files to pass parameters to the MSI installer. For example, if I download the Acrobat Reader installer from http://ardownload.adobe.com/pub/adobe/reader/win/9.x/9.3/enu/AdbeRdr930_en_US.exe and run AdbeRdr930_en_US.exe
it extracts the MSI file to C:\Users\USER\AppData\Local\Adobe\Reader 9.3\Setup Files and then runs it.
To reproduce this an a Windows 7 computer (does not have to be on a domain):
Prep Work:
Create a user (test1)
Create a folder on the root of C (C:\Test)
Set permissions on C:\Test to allow the test1 user to have full access to it
Share the C:\Test folder as test1 (again, set the permissions to allow the test1 user full access)
Set the "Home Folder" for the test1 user connect to Z: and point that to \\127.0.0.1\test1
Login as test1
Check that you have Z:\ mapped and that it works
Check that it works:
Install Acrobat Reader 9.3 from the link above
Note that it works
Uninstall Acrobat Reader 9.3 using "Programs and Features"
Break it:
Login as test1
Check that you have Z:\ mapped and that it works
Go to C:\Users\test1
Right click on the Documents folder and click on properties
Click on the Location tab
Click on "Browse" and select the Z drive
Allow Windows to move the files to the new location
Check that it is broken:
Check that you have access to the new Documents folder at Z:\
Install Acrobat Reader 9.3 from the link above
Note that it extracts itself to C:\Users\test1\AppData\Local\Adobe\Reader 9.3\Setup Files
and runs the MSI installer from there
Note that after the MSI installer is started it pops up an error saying Error: 1327, Invalid drive Z:\.
I also see this with various other install programs (VMWare vSphere Client, VMWare Player and Kaspersky Antivirus for example)
Is there any reason why this should not work? Is there something that I should be doing differently?
Thanks
Aaron Z

Newbie - loading music to itunes from Network drive

I just bought my first mac and I'm attempting to start using itunes with my Ipod touch and load music from a network drive that I have both of my PC's music backed up to.
In itunes, it sees some of the music from the network drive but not all of it. The folders/music are all available and I can see them in Finder but Itunes doesn't find all of the music.
Is there anyway to point itunes to the appropriate folder so I can add the music?

Welcome to the Forums, Scott!
You can add a folder of music to iTunes by pressing Command-O or going to iTunes-> Add To Library...
Hope this helps!
-Nate

Itunes from networked drive?

Okay, so I have a powermac and a macbook pro and until now I've had copies of my music library on each but the MBP drive could use a little cleaning so I want to dump the itunes music from there and then connect to the powermac over the network.
Two reasons for this:
1. less space on my MBP hard-drive. 100GB compared to 1.3TB
2. Adding a song or changing my library on one or the other computer reflects on both.

Yes, you can keep your music on a networked drive - my wife and I are doing this at home with our MacBooks, keeping only a small amount of our music on the MacBooks themselves. Keeping the larger library online makes syncing our pods more convenient.
But there's two caveats. First, since my wife and I have different, but overlapping musical tastes, we keep our library files on our own computers. This keeps her Rachel Wilson off my computer and my Dropkick Murphy's off hers. For this reason, we have to make sure the network drive is mounted before starting iTunes. Second, I've never attempted keeping the iTunes library file on the network drive so I don't know if that is doable or even desirable.

ITunes on networked drive

My household is networked via some Windows NT protocol. I'm the only one in my house who uses a Mac. There is a share which has our music on it (ripped from discs we own, every piece of it legal as church on Sunday).
I can get to the share with the music just fine. I can put all of the songs in an iTunes library, assuming I'm patient -- about 20G of music, and it takes forever and ever, but it can be done. Here are my problems.
The person running the music share claims that iTunes "messes up" the files, it rearranges where the files are within the directories, and even mucks around with the directories. Does this happen when I add files? Can I prevent it?
Music is added to the share directly, which means it doesn't go through iTunes to get indexed -- or whatever you call it -- and I don't know about the new music unless someone mentions it or I go looking. Is there any way to get iTunes, under these circumstances, to add new music that I'm not adding to my library.
Finally, is it possible to switch between libraries? I have a library of just my own stuff that no one else cares about on my private external drive. Can I (easily) switch from the one library to the other.
Thank you.

Here are some answers:
1) to avoid iTunes "messing with the folders": Preferences->Advanced (general)->Check OFF "keep iTunes Music folder organized and "Copy files to iTUnes Music folder"
2) No you can't get iTunes to automatically add to your library new music from the network drive.
3) It's not possible to easily swtich between libraries. What you can do however is have access both to the networked songs and the songs on your external drive at the same time. The way an iTunes LIbrary works is that it indexes songs from various locations, they don't all have to be in one location. So do File->Add to Library the folder from your external drive and then you'll be able to see taht music as well as the other music at the same time. THis will not add those files to the network drive.
Lastly, have you considered using the iTunes Music Sharing feature? Enable "share my music" and "look for shared music" on the computers in the Preferences and then you'll see the other comptuers libraries as playlists in your library, It's much simpler than your setup, but it has a few disadvantages, incuding not being able to add the other computers' songs to your iPod.

MOVED: Cant load networking driver for neo 2 plat

This topic has been moved to AMD64 nVidia Based board.
Cant load networking driver for neo 2 plat

1. Put your Windows CD in the drive.
2. Select Install Windows.
3. Let install continue.
4. After the first restart, you will see something about Recovery Console. Do NOT select this option. Just let setup continue.
5. You will soon see a message "searching for existing Windows installation".
6. Soon after, you will be given the option to REPAIR that installation or make a new installation.
7. Select REPAIR.
8. Just keep going.
That's it. Hopefully things will be just fine after the repair is done.

Moving iTunes from external drive on PC to external drive on Mac

Hi can anyone help getting totally confused with all the different help topics!
My iTunes currently runs of an external hard drive (I://) via Windows 7.
I've changed to an iMac and want to move my iTunes to here using a new PC & Mac compatible external HD (J:// via the PC/Samsung via the Mac).
I've followed the instructions on here but iTunes doesn't seem to be picking up the library or playlists, and not sure where I've gone wrong.
Can anyone help at all please?

Those instructions tell you how to move media (as they say). A library is more than just media. For people using regular iTunes settings it is everything in the iTunes folder which includes the critical iTunes Library.itl file. This file generates the structure you see in the iTunes application. You need - Moving a library: Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its sub-folders and files) intact to the other drive. Hold down the option (alt) key (shift on Windows) and open iTunes. At the prompt to create or choose a library choose the copied iTunes folder.
Note, I am leery about your "PC & Mac" compatible drive, whatever that is. While it is possible to use a FAT formatted drive with a Mac you have to realize that it has file size limitations and cannot be repaired with any Mac based tools.
What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
More on iTunes library files and what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management
What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html
Where are my iTunes files located? - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
iTunes 9 [and later]: Understanding iTunes Media Organization - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3847 - plus supplemental information about organizing to new structure https://discussions.apple.com/message/26404702#26404702
Image of folder structure and explanation of different iTunes versions (turingtest2 post) - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-7392 and making an iTunes library portable.

Moved iTunes from C Drive to D and now no songs on iTunes?

I'm trying to make space on the laptop C Drive and have been transferring stuff to the D Drive, when I did this with iTunes it doesn't have any songs in the Library, Im not sure where these songs are and am too scared to sync my ipod as the only options it gives me is to transfer purchased songs (which is ony about 4 as the other 1500 have come from my CD's) or it offers to copy the blank Library to my ipod ..... Noooooooooooo.....So is there a way of making the songs on my ipod become my Library, sort of back to front?
Please help I am not the most technically advanced (as you may have gathered).
Sarah x

Hey parlorsoldier,
Could you please elaborate the same on how have you moved Acrobat from C to D drive.
Did you completely uninstalled the software and then performed custom installation for the C drive location.
Let me know your workflow, please.
Regards,
Anubha

Moving iTunes from external drive to new computer

I have my itunes stored on an external drive lettered "E". How can I move them to my new computer. The external drive letter "E" is not available on the new computer but the hard drive is plenty large enough to hold my whole collection and I would like to install them on it. I have already copied my itunes music folder and libraries to the new computer.
Thanks for any input.

This did not work. I signed into the iTunes store as the same user and I can still not play the music I purchased or the music I am authorized to play that others purchased. Can anyone help out with this question?

MOVED: Realtek PCIE Network Drives Not Installed.

This topic has been moved to Intel Core 2 Duo/Quad boards.
https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=152080.0

Is your network cable inserted all the way?
You have to insert the cable until it clicks.
Quote
Sometimes I touch/press the silver box that contains the net cable socket on the motherboard and, on restarting, I have the net card back.
But this looks like the block and the PCB have a bad connection or is broken.
If that's the case then you need to get the board repaired.
Or simply insert a networkcard.

Re-establish old itunes library on network drive

After an extended period of not using itunes, I installed it today on my current desktop (Win7-64). Immediately, I had all my prior purchases available which was nice to see. My old library (about 4gb) is on a secondary drive. What's the best way to re-establish access to the old library. I also want these files moved to a network drive which is connected to a different computer and which will not have itunes on it.
I do not wish to use home sharing, and I do not want to use icloud for the old music.
Thanks for any assistance.

You can press & hold down shift as you launch iTunes to open a library on any path, however performance may be poor with a large library that isn't located on a local drive. The library is easiest to move from one path or computer to another however if it is in a portable form, with the library folder containing the media folder. If needed once the library has been established on your chosen path the library files can be copied to a local (internal or external) drive for improved performance. They can be copied back to the network path and accessed there before moving the library again.
See make a split library portable for some more information.
tt2

No Sync when network drive connected

Hello,
I have an ipod nano that won't sync through itunes when network drives are mapped.
I am not trying to sync to the network drive, but just the presence of network drives stops the nano from syncing with itunes.
As soon as I disconnect the network drives the ipod syncs with itunes fine.
I have tried this on two different computers and the same thing happens.
I am using Windows XP-sp2 with the latest itunes (6.0.4) and the latest updates for the ipod.
Has anyone else experienced this?
Any workarounds?
Thank you in advance.
Chris

Hi win,
See this article, in particular the bit about mapped drives and changing the drive letter. Might help.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93499
Good luck,
Maz

Moved itunes to another disk now everything is gone

ok so my (C) disk was low on space, so I went to iTunes, and moved itunes to another drive. after I went throught that whole process, I copyed the iTunes folder from the (c) drive to the (d) drive (the new drive) and then after it had finished pasting, I deleted the iTunes folder from the original drive. I then opened itunes and it now is empty what do I do in order to get everything back? thankyou in advance.

annaliesebieberninjaaah wrote:
ok so my (C) disk was low on space, so I went to iTunes, and moved itunes to another drive. after I went throught that whole process, I copyed the iTunes folder from the (c) drive to the (d) drive (the new drive)
I'm confused.
You moved iTunes to another drive and then then you copied the iTunes folder to the D: drive?
How did you first move iTunes to another drive?
Then why did you copy the iTunes folder after that? Isn't this moving iTunes to another drive"
Hold Shift and launch iTunes.
Select Choose library... and select the iTunes folder you copied to the other drive.

Moving iTunes to network drive - Seagate or WD

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