Moving my iTunes to an external drive

I would like to free up space in my macbook pro. I have followed the procedure as outlined for moving the iTunes music library to an external drive i.e.. changing the preferences to point to the external drive, copying the iTunes folder to the external drive, consolidating, etc. However, even if I choose the library in the external drive iTunes would not play the songs. (I also have my library synced with iCloud and so when I turn wifi off I am not able to play any tunes so I figured the way it was running was thru the cloud not thru the copied file). Thanks for the help.
The hard drive I am using is a Porsche design Lacie using a USB 3.0 link.

Our iTunes guru Terence Devlin advises the following:
1. Quit iTunes
2. Drag the iTunes folder from your internal hd - located in ~/Music folder - to your external hd (which has to be formatted as HFS Extended (Journaled)). DO NOT delete the original one from your internal hd... yet!
3. When the transfer is complete, press and hold the Option(alt) key and fire up iTunes.
4. A "Choose iTunes Library" window will come up. Click on the "Choose Library" button.
5. Navigate to where the iTunes folder is located in the external hd.
6. Within the iTunes folder, select the iTunes Library file and click Choose...
That's it. iTunes will now display all your playlists, songs, movies, podcasts etc. At this point, should you wish, you can delete the iTunes folder from the internal hd to free up space.
More info:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751
Or if you prefer a more complicated explanation:
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive

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I moved my itunes library to external drive and now itunes wont work.

I moved my itunes library to an external drive and now itunes cannot find the library. I followed a youtube video and all seemed to work fine until i deleted the old library and emptied the trash. Prior to deleting and emptying the trash I checked preferences to verify the path of Itunes was to the external drive. It seemed to work even when I moved the original library to the trash.
Now when I launch itunes the song listings show but the songs cant be found. I checked the volume of my itunes that I moved to the external and it was about 4 GB that i moved. I have approx 2000 songs.
Any suggestions?

Hold down the alt/option Key when you start iTunes a dialog box will open
Select Choose Library and select the itunes library on your external drive

Moved Itunes to an external drive. When prompted to update versions, the download would not install, now I get an error message indicating file msvcr80.dll is missing.

I moved my ITunes to an external drive. Whe I was prompted to run the update for a new version of Itunes, It downloaded but would not install. now when opening Itunes I get an error message indicating the file msvcr80.dll is missing. How can I restore this, and e

Try the following user tip:
Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates

I redirected iTunes to an external drive and moved my iTunes library and folder, but my hard drive is still low on space. How can I be sure that my music is all on the external HD ONLY, especially with the new iCloud technology?

I redirected iTunes to an external drive and moved my iTunes library and folder, but my hard drive is still low on space. How can I be sure that my music is all on the external HD ONLY, especially with the new iCloud technology? It doesn't look like I created any more space by doing this, AND I totally lost all my iTunes playlists. I'm not sure if because I added old library materials manually if this messed up my playlists, or if the new location is just not reading my moved library. In any case, I followed step by step instructions and found a few holes and thought I'd just "figure it out" but I guess I'm not as smart as I thought since I'm still scratching my head many hours later.
Thanks for any support ;-)
Eaglerocker

Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Open iTunes and immediately hold down the option (alt) key (shift on Windows) so you get a prompt to select a library, then guide it to the 'iTunes Library.itl' file in the moved iTunes folder.
If this is to a new computer and you put the copied iTunes folder in the default location of Macintosh HD > Users > *User Name* > Music then you don't even need to start with the option key held down, iTunes will automatically look for it there. (Make sure there isn't anything already in the iTunes folder there that you want to keep since you will be replacing it with the one you are moving.)
iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music [library] to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527 - a somewhat bewildering and not always easily understandable set of options.

Question about moving itunes to wd external drive?

i found the page where it says u can move itunes music to external drive but will that include my tv shows also and if so can i delete it from my laptop after i move it to other drive?

\Music\iTunes\ folder is the main iTunes library location. It contains the library files, music files and everything else.
I have all of my music files already stored on an external HD. But for some reason when i moved it all
What exactly does "moved it all" mean? What did you move?
in other words in the old drive I still have the following files:
itunes library genius
-itunes library extras
-itunes library
These three are all the same type of files. I don't know what type of files they are
The iTunes library.itl file is the iTunes database file. Without that, iTunes is empty.
Since i already have all of my music files on my ext. HD can I delete these files without messing anything up?
Only if you want iTunes to be completely empty and you want to start from scratch.
Moving the music file syourself is not the correct way to do it. iTunes will lose everything.
If you want to move everything, copy the entire \Music\iTunes\ folder to a new location.
Hold Shift and launch iTunes.
Select *Choose library* and select the iTunes library.itl file in the iTunes folder you moved.

Moved itunes folder to external drive and now lost playlists

To free space on my hard drive, I moved the folder to my external drive. Now, I successfully can access my music library, but my playlists aren't listed and I can't figure out how to get them/point to them. Any ideas?
Thanks!
Compaq Windows XP

polydorus, you are my hero. I launched itunes with the shift key down and was able to select the library on the external drive. I would not have thought of that. Thanks so much.
shockme, I found changed the folder name under the advanced tab wasn't enough. I used File>Import and imported the music from the external drive no problem.
mlevin, I was really scared deleted the original file too. I checked several times that the exact number of bytes were moved in case I wanted to go back. Change the music location, do the import, fix the playlists and get all going and then I assume you can delete the contents in the music folder like I did. Then I did a defrag to clean things up. Good luck!
Compaq Windows XP

Need help - Moving my Itunes to an external hard drive

Help! Help! Help! Am tearing my hair out here!
I recently got my first Ipod so please excuse if I'm being thick here! Basically, I'm about two thirds of the way downloading my not insignificant CD collection onto my Ipod, which I'm doing via Itunes. The C drive on my laptop is now full to bursting and I don't even have enough space left for my anti virus (big problem!). Therefore, I am wanting to transfer my itunes to an external hard drive. First, I followed the instructions on this site for Backing up itunes library by copying to a external hard drive.........
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751?viewlocale=en_US
All that succeeding in doing was mirroring whatever I did on the C:/ drive on the E:/ drive i.e. if I deleted itunes from the C:/ drive it disappeared from the E:/ drive.
Next, I followed these instructions for Moving the itunes media folder to the external drive.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364
This too didn't help as the media folder is not the problem, its the library as its 735kb! Am I right in thinking there's no way of moving the library to the external drive whilst wiping it from the C;/ drive? I need to get these darn files off my laptop and to use my external drive for my itunes. Alternatively, if I were to wipe the files to free up the space (as they are backed up on the hard drive) is there a way of syncing so that it simply adds new stuff to the existing music on my ipod not replacing it..
Hope I'm making sense and that someone can help.

First, I followed the instructions on this site for Backing up itunes library by copying to a external hard drive.........
That's what it does. It makes a backup copy of the iTunes folder. iTunes will not use that folder or do anything to that folder.
All that succeeding in doing was mirroring whatever I did on the C:/ drive on the E:/ drive i.e. if I deleted itunes from the C:/ drive it disappeared from the E:/ drive.
Do you mean after you followed the instructions and copied \Music\iTunes folder to the external drive and then deleted something from iTunes, it deleted it from the external drive also?
As above, iTunes will not use or do anything to that folder.
Next, I followed these instructions for Moving the itunes media folder to the external drive.
Why? You already copied the entire iTunes folder (including th emedia folder) to the external drive.
Hold Shift and launch iTunes.
Select *Choose library* and select the _iTunes library.itl_ file in the iTunes folder on the external.
This too didn't help as the media folder is not the problem, its the library as its 735kb!
What do you mean "the library"?
735kB is small for the iTunes library.itl file and a single file in iTunes is larger than that.
Am I right in thinking there's no way of moving the library to the external drive whilst wiping it from the C;/ drive?
Yes. Follow my intruction above (Choose library) and iTunes will use the iTunes folder on the external.
You can then delete \Music\iTunes on the C: drive.

Moving iTunes Library to External Drive

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

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

Moved iTunes to an external drive, library files can't be located - help?!?

So ok, I knew it couldn't be that easy...
I copied my iTunes to an external drive to free up space on my laptop - followed the instructions for moving files on a PC - and got to the part about moving the old iTunes folder to the recycle bin. Well, the recycle bin wasn't large enough for the folder, so it deleted everything straight out of MyComputer. Apparently the "library files" went with it.
Now I can see all my songs/movies/videos in folders on the external, but can't get my iTunes to associate with it when I open it.
Is there any way to fix this? I'm tearing my hair out, here. I have a full backup on DVDs - will that help?
Thanks!

got to the part about moving the old iTunes folder to the recycle bin.
There is no part about moving the _iTunes folder_ to the recycle bin.
There is a part about moving th _iTunes music folder_ to the recycle bin.
Did you move them to the external by using iTunes menu File -> Library -> Consolidate?
Or did you move them to the external yourself?
Which folders exactly did you move?

HT1449 can i use this process for moving my library to an external drive?

My iMac is dying a slow death and I want to run itunes and iphoto off my external drive as the data may get corrupted if it stays on the computer hard drive.
If I designate a folder on my external drive and then cosolidate will that allow me to run itunes from the external drive?
When My iMac fails will I be able to take the data from that folder for the new iMac?
Thanks,

I'd suggest you 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. Note that this procedure assumes that all of your content is contained in the iTunes Media/Music folder. If things are scattered around your drive, moving them becomes much more complex.
As to moving iPhoto, you may want to confirm the correct procedure for your version of iPhoto in the iPhoto forums.
Your iMac cannot be running Mac OS 9.2.x, by the way. It will help people offer advice if you'll correct that.
Regards.

ITunes in an external drive?

I would like to save iTunes in an external drive, because I have almost 150G on it, but I can't install iTunes in an EHD... What can I do? I have copied the library to the external hard drive, but it's not pratical...
I have several EHDs, one for music, one for videos and one for music. The perfect situation would be iTunes on each of them...
Thanks
Maria

Hi eduarda,
Whilst you should leave the iTunes application in the default location, you can move the iTunes Media folder to an external hard drive. Please read the following support article:
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder
Regards,
Acros-Krik

ITunes hangs with external drives; Genius is totally impossible to setup

iTunes very frequently hangs when I am using tracks on my external hard drive. I have verified the correct xml of the library files, and the drive's permissions are good. I also recently defragged it. However, oftentimes if I am editing the tags on or simply playing a track, the beach ball comes up and does not go away. When I force quit, I cannot reboot iTunes because it remains in the dock, with an arrow under it, even though it no longer is running.
After much trial, error, and grief, I found that when I physically disconnect the firewire drive (improperly, as it's still running, and won't eject due to having its files allegedly in use), the hang magically goes away. I can then sometimes replug it back in and work again, at least until iTunes hangs once more. I am sure this is not good for the drive and its files.
This did NOT happen under previous versions of iTunes and using previous system versions (I'm on iTunes 8, 10.5.5). It is a VERY. BIG. PROBLEM.
One of its many effects is that I have not been able to get the Genius function to work on my machine, as it always hangs. The Genius setup is so slow that I've never made it much past the first step. I have an 800GB or so library, and there MUST be a way to get this to work.
Are there any quick fixes to this drive issue? If not, can Apple PLEASE correct it ASAP? Not everyone has a little bitty iTunes library that fits on the internal disk.

Bummer that this remains a problem. I suspected it was the external drive I was using and from what I read here it seems confirmed. My library is much smaller that both of the ones listed here so I wonder if it's not so much size but the external drive. I thought maybe I just had a crappy network but iTunes has been uncooperative ever since moving my files to the external drive. And I've only got about 50 gig of files. Well, I guess I don't feel so bad now. But it's still crappy.

Question on iTunes libraries on external drives

Back a few years ago I put my itunes music library lived in a NAS drive. If the drive was not mounted however when you launched iTunes the library would reset resulting in a blank iTunes.
This was such a deal breaker for me in the end I ditched the nas.
Now I have my itunes library on an external USB Harddrive. If for some reason the drive is not attached when launched, all that happens is you see your library of music but when you select anything a little alert icon goes next to it with a warning the music could not be found. When you attach the harddrive all is well again.
A friend has an extreme base station with his music folder on. And has just explined to me the self same issue as I used to have.
Can someone explain why iTunes will sometimes work fine, and sometimes reset depending on how it feels? Is there a way to predict this, and more importantly ensure that iTunes simply says it cannot find the tune, and not reset the whole library. Which is a most odd behaviour anyhow.

Your iTunes folder on your Startup Drive (in your USER>MUSIC>ITUNES folder) contains a file that is the roadmap to all of your songs, ratings, playlists, etc. Your iTunes application (in the applications folder on the startup drive) is, well, the application (like an engine) that runs iTunes.
By default, your iTunes Library (where all your actual MP3 files are stored) is in that iTunes folder (in your USER>MUSIC>ITUNES folder). However, when you store it on an external drive, you usually change it's location (in Preferences) so that iTunes knows where the Library is located.
So.....what's probably going on is that you have iTunes set up right for an external drive and it will run properly when that drive is plugged in. iTunes knows where everything is because all that info is contained in the file I mentioned. When you start iTunes and your external drive is not plugged in, iTunes will default to the iTunes Library in the folder on your Startup Drive (USER>MUSIC>ITUNES folder), which is probably empty. It knows where all your songs are on that external drive, but can't access them b/c the drive is off or disconnected.

I tried to transfer itunes onto an external drive, now have serious probs.

I tried to transfer itunes onto an external drive, then i deleted the itunes folder from the computer. This completely emptied itunes......oops... then i put back the music saved on the drive back onto itunes, but its only put on a small amount, all of my playlists are gone and most of the album artwork....aaaahhhh..... I havent synced my ipod yet, is there any way of replacing all of the lost data transferring it back onto itunes from the ipod itself?

Copying from iPod to Computer threads...
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1300144
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=797432&#797432
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=809624&tstart=0
Also these somewhat dated but still useful internet articles...
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/copying-music-from-ipod-to-co mputer/
http://www.engadget.com/2004/11/02/how-to-get-music-off-your-ipod/
http://playlistmag.com/help/2005/01/2waystreet/
Good luck!
Patrick

Backing up iTunes located on external drive to another external drive

Greetings,
I'm on iTuens 11.3 and in preferences have chosen an external drive to keep all my music. I would like to back-up the contents of my iTunes to another external drive.
I have NOT chosen: iTunes - File - Library - Organize Library
Perhaps this is my problem…?
The external hard drive that has my iTunes library does not have a single iTunes folder. Instead, each artist has a folder within which are multiple albums, single albums or songs.
It seems there should be a single file folder somewhere that I can copy to another external hard rive in order to make a back up.
Any help will be much appreciated.

There will only be a single folder if you've told iTunes to organize your library. You need to either do this, or drag all of the individual folders to the second drive, or clone the first drive to the second.
If desired, you can move the iTunes folder to the first drive, launch iTunes with the Option key held down, and choose it before organizing the library.
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Moving my iTunes to an external drive

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