Music stored on external drive

I have moved my itunes library from my c drive to an external drive (f:). How can I direct my itunes icon to open my library on the external drive? (My c drive was full, thus the move.)

Hello Stained Glass,
And welcome to Apple Discussions!
Head to the Edit drop down menu and choose "Preferences." Then head over to the Advanced tab. You will an option that says *iTunes Media folder Location*. Go ahead and click the change button. From there, navigate to your folder on your F drive and make the appropriate selection.
B-rock

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I cannot download the update for itunes - music stored on external drive - download error state invalid "H" drive ? anyone have any ideas ? Cheers

I cannot download the update for itunes - music stored on external drive as computer got full up - download error state invalid "H" drive ? anyone have any ideas ? Cheers

See "Invalid drive X:\" install errors.
tt2

Itunes won't play music stored on external drive after upgrade to 10.5.3

I updated to 10.5.3 with music files stored on external drive. iTunes shows all music, but will not play. I did have the library file stored locally-I'm not sure if this is why the files all show in Itunes. Music files are about 40gb so I don't have space on my MBpro to store files locally without lag.
When I click a song to play nothing happens. I've read a bunch of other discussions but the only option I've seen is to delete the library and start over. I have a bunch of playlists so I don't want to lose that data and I would rather not have to go to each playlisty and export and import again. Suggestions?
I use match and also store everything in the cloud-but that isn't showing up either

Okay, found the reason in another tread...

Automatically syncing with music stored on external drive?

I most of my music on an external drive. The drive isn't always connected to the PC. Prior to iTunes 9.1 I could have iTunes automatically sync the music to my iPhone. If the external drive was disconnected iTunes would simply ignore the missing files and leave them on the phone.
With iTunes 9.1 (and 9.2) I now check the "Convert higher bit rate songs to 128 Kbps AAC" option. When I first used this I found that if I synced my phone with the external drive disconnected, it would remove all the music files from the phone that were stored on the external drive and had been converted to 128 Kbps. That was extremely annoying to say the least so I set iTunes to sync manually to prevent that from happening. I read there was a bug in the original iTunes 9.1 that caused iTunes to always try and sync 128 Kbps converted files every time which could explain why they were being deleted, but I never tried again after upgrading.
Yesterday I clicked to sync books to my iPhone, not realizing that it would wipe out all music, movies and TV from my iPhone. Again very annoying. I went to manually sync them back and noticed my Genius mixes won't sync and I read that they only sync if auto-sync is enabled.
My question is, is there an easy way to keep my music files on an external drive, automatically, sync and have them covert to 128 Kbps without having to worry about all my music being wiped off the phone if the drive is disconnected at the time iPhone syncs?

I don't believe you can do that. The convert to 128 bit only converts the songs being written to the iPod. Every time you play a song it changes (the play count goes up) so iTunes is going to go try to find those and update them every time it syncs.
I am able to disconnect my external that holds my movies and the movies remain but those are not being converted. I think that is where the problem is.
Good luck!

Music stored on external drive but doesnt appear on new computer

I store my music on an external drive and in a folder E:\ Hugo's Tunes because my laptop drive is too small. Recently laptop died and I have installed itunes on another laptop also with a small drive. I cannot see my content on the new itunes. I have set location in preferences to E:\Hugo's Tunes without any benefit. Clearly I'm doing something silly but don't know what. Help please

Hi Hugo. If the content was stored on the external drive but the library files were stored on the internal then you have lost all your original library information such as date added, ratings and play counts. Having pointed iTunes to the external drive already you still need to import the content into your new empty library. If, on the other hand, you had successfully put your library files on the external then you need to hold down shift when starting iTunes and browse to the library on the external drive.
Assuming my first guess was correct I'd actually recommend that you use the hold-down-shift-when-starting-iTunes method to create a new empty library at <External>iTunes, then move the existing media files into *<External>\iTunes\iTunes Media* and finally import *<External>\iTunes\iTunes Media* into the library. This will make moving the library between machines much easier in future.
tt2

Broken Links for music stored on external drive

I take my laptop with me when I go on the road but do not take my external HD where I have much of my music stored. If I am gone long enough - itunes will "forget" where those files are stored and will ask me to individually point to their location. It will of course recognize the external HD when I return - but the file extension data on how to connect each library entry with its corresponding data file is wiped. This gets a little old when we are dealing thousands of files. Isn't there any way to tell itunes what you would tell any other pathetic child looking for a lost toy, "just look in the last place you left it you dummy?"

Sorry but iTunes is stupid that way. I have just learned to not open iTunes unless I am connected to my home network where my library is stored.

Music stored on external drive to new Itunes

Hello folks
Been flicking through some some posts in this section, but can't find any quite the same as the query I have:
I recently had my internal hard drive die on me, so my itunes library information has gone for good, but I do still have all my itunes, ipod, and iphone media on an external drive. What is the easiest way to link the now newly installed itunes to these external files?

andyrh68 wrote:
my itunes library information has gone for good
... unless you have a backup copy of your *iTunes library file*. do you use time machine or any other means of backing up ?
What is the easiest way to link the now newly installed itunes to these external files?
if the answer to above question is no, you will have to start from scratch, i.e. no playcounts, ratings, playlists, etc. from your old library will be there.
assuming you have *copy files to ... when adding to library* checked in preferences > advanced, option-drag the folder containing your media files into an open iTunes window. iTunes will index the path to the location of the original files, but won't copy them physically.
btw, pointing *iTunes media folder location* to another spot will only tell iTunes where to put newly added content, not where the current content is.
JGG

Music stored on external hard drive

hi,
i have a lot of music stored on an external hard drive, too much to put on my laptop and therefore can not keep it in my itunes library. is there a way to keep it in some kind of library so i can view and play it in albums, artists etc like is possible with itunes?

In the "Advanced" iTunes preference, set it to not copy to iTunes Music folder when adding to library. You can then drag folders of music files from external drives to iTunes playlists. They will be added the the iTunes library, but the files will stay on the external drives, and will not take any space on the internal drive (except for a small amount of space for entries in the iTunes database).

Proper sync from newly downloaded music to my external drive

Hi to all you experts out there...
I have successfully followed article 301748 and consolidated all my existing music to my external HDD. However, it just occurred to me, if I start piling up music files in my iTunes on the computer again and I want to back it up (consolidate) to my external HDD again, will I have problem sync. them? Or does it mean I will have to create a different file name so I'll have two files of my music? Will I have problem viewing/playing the two files on my iTunes at the same time ? I'm a bit of organize freak, I would love to be able to see the two files merged and sort properly instead of one file at a time.
Thanks and your help is greatly appreciated.

Hi,
If you followed Article 301748 to move your music to an external drive, then in iTunes Preferences you changed the location where your music is stored to the external drive.
Therefore, any new music that you add will be stored in that location, and not on your computer.
Regards

My macbook pro logic board died. I had all my music on an external drive. How do I get my iTunes library, playlists etc. from my dead computer onto my new one?

My logic board died on my old macbook pro. I have a new one, but I want to get my iTunes library off my old hard drive and put it on my new one. I had set up my old MBP to store all my iTunes music on an external drive, so I have the music. The iTunes program was on the old MBP hard drive.How do I essentially recreate my previous iTunes library, playlists, etc on my new laptop?

You will need the iTunes Library.itl file which generally lives in ~/Music/iTunes/. You can recover this from the backups you were making before the HDD died. Otherwise, you cannot recreate the library.

How do I consolidate backed up music from an external drive into itunes?

I had to replace my ipod and am trying to consolidate my old music from an external drive with the itunes library on our home computer. My gf has music there already. I have tried consolidate library, edit/prefereces/change, copied my music in itunes folder BUT nothing works. iTunes just will NOT pick up/recognize my music. Any ideas will be much appreciated. cheers

Consolidate takes what is in the iTunes library (what you see when you open iTunes) & copies it into the iTunes music folder as shown in iTunes prefs - > Advanced.
If you cannot see the songs when you open iTunes, you need to File -> Add folder to library and select the folder with your music.

How do I have itunes use/detect my external hard drive and place music on the external drive from the itunes store? There are no music files on my pc yet. I will like to do this after installing itunes 11 on my pc for the first time. I am using windows 7

How do I have itunes use/detect my external hard drive and place music on the external drive from the itunes store? There are no music files on my pc yet. I will like to do this after installing itunes 11 on my pc for the first time. I am using windows 7. HP computer intel Dual Core. Thanks for any help!

Hey idw3,
Welcome to Apple Support Communities, and thanks for the question. Follow the instructions on this article to move your iTunes Media folder to an external hard drive:
iTunes for Windows: Moving your iTunes Media folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364
Regards,
David

HT1751 Just installed itunes on my new computer. My music is on an external drive. How do i get newly installed itunes on new computer to recognize the music on the external drive?

I just got a new PC, thank goodness. All my music is on an external drive (F). i installed Itunes on my new computer. Now want to get itunes to recognize all the music on my external drive. Don't want to put music on new computer, but keep on external drive. Can anyone help me - thanks

Was the media solely on the external library? If so, it is likely that iTunes was started at some point with the external drive unaccessible. Simply point iTunes to the correct library location. To do this, close iTunes. Hold <SHIFT> and launch iTunes. When prompted to find library or create a new one, select the find option and point iTunes to where the iTuneslibrary.itl file is at on your computer (or external drive).

I refreshed my windows 7 and lost my itunes on my computer. I have my music on my external drive, how do I get everything back? HELP

I need help reseting my itunes after I refreshed my windows 7 on my pc. I have my music on my external drive & my ipod. How do I set up again?

This question has to do with how to restore your computer drive if you backed up the computer to an external drive. Did you use backup software or did you just copy the data from the old computer to the new computer? If you just copied, then you need to just copy over the Music folder which should contain the iTunes folder.

How do I share music from an external drive?

I'd like to share music from a external drive on my network. I do not want to add the music to my library, but I would like to view and play it in iTunes. Can thie be done? I'm using iTunes on a Windows 7 platform.
Thanks.

I'd like to share music from a external drive on my network. I do not want to add the music to my library, but I would like to view and play it in iTunes. Can thie be done? I'm using iTunes on a Windows 7 platform.
Thanks.

Music stored on external drive

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