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).

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    Close itunes, go into windows disk mgmt and set the drive letter back to F:
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    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307844

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    Okay, I thought as much. I too wanted to also separate my movies, photos and music for example videos and photos on one external hard drive and music on another. It seems like this is not possible therefore I ask, if I buy a larger external HD, what is the general feeling people have about taking all 100+ gigs on current hard drive and moving/copying to a new larger one? Playback quality loss an issue?
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  • I have just purchased my 1st mac and want to start my iTunes fresh.  I have all my music on an external hard drive and want iTunes stored on it.  How do i do this

    I have just purchased my 1st Mac Mini,
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    I have 100gb of music on an external hard drive (already formatted to Mac OS Journaled.
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    I also want to know the best way of adding my music on the Ext Hard drive  e.g.:  "add folder to library" or "import"
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    Launch iTunes with the Option key held down, click on Choose Library, and specify it. If the external drive doesn't contain the iTunes database files, create a new library there and import that music.
    If the library contains any rented movies, they won't play on a different computer.
    (109334)

  • Storing Music on an external hard drive

    I have all of my music on an external hard drive because I have alot of music, and it won't all fit on my computer. How do I have my all of my music show up in itunes without copying it to my computer? I want it to go directly to my external hard drive. I tried installing itunes directly on my external hard drive and that didn't work.

    chadrhawkins,
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    Second, let iTunes know about the music that is already on your external drive by using the File menu > Add Folder to Library option and select the external drive in the pop-up window that appears.
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  • Migrating music to an external hard drive for access by Windows & Mac

    Hey folks
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    2) Selecting "Consolidate library" from the Advanced drop-down menu.
    Afterwards, I moved my library file to the same parent directory I put my iTunes music folder in on the external (in fact, I moved my entire iTunes folder excl the music folder which was obviously already on the hard drive). When I restarted iTunes I held down OPTION and then chose the library file on my external as the iTunes library file to be used. This was all done on a Mac.
    No problems - all swell. But... I moved the library file to the external because I want to be able to use the external with multiple computers from which I can import music that will automatically be copied to the same folder (the music folder on my external) and managed accordingly. When I tried to open the library from my Windows laptop at home nothing happened. The library file I copied from my Mac had no extension, so I renamed it .itl so the Windows version of iTunes would pick it up, but selecting it as the new library did nothing.
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    The procedure for sharing a library between a Mac and Wintel PC on an external drive is quite simple. I did this myself so that I would have my music available to me when I worked in my lab.
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    Now you have two options for using your library on two machines. The first, which I prefer, is to leave your Mac’s iTunes library in place and use the external strictly for the Wintel PC. In this instance, you would need to add the .itl extension to the iTunes Library database file. When you attach your external to the Wintel PC at work and choose the library, your should be taken into iTunes with your music library intact.
    In this instance, your external drive can also serve as a backup of your iTunes library because it is highly improbable that both your external drive and Mac Pro’s iTunes folders will go bad simultaneously. For backup purposes, you will need to place another copy of your iTunes Library database file on the external drive, without the extension, for your Mac; I have had issues with Macs recognizing .itl files. Of note, the content of your library on the external drive will be the same if you need to recover from the external drive, but as the Wintel PC will not update the database file without the .itl extension, any settings you change or playlists you add in Windows will not be transferred to the Mac unless you recover the Mac’s library from the iTunes Music Library.xml file that the PC would have kept current.
    In the second instance, if you wish to run your library off of the external drive for both your Mac and Wintel PC, you would follow the same procedure described above, but you would need to have both an iTunes Library (Mac) and iTunes Library.itl (Windows) database files. Effectively, this would mean that once a change is made on either system, it will not be reflected on the other. As you are most likely to add new songs via your home computer, you will need to replace the .itl file with a copy of the Mac database file whenever you add music, playlists, etc.
    Given the storage capacity of my Power Mac G5 and the logistics involved in managing a library stored solely on an external volume going between a Mac and PC, I find the second option to be more trouble than it is worth. For me, it is easier to maintain my Mac’s iTunes library then copy the iTunes folder over to the external drive overnight when I wish to make any updates (e.g., new content, playlists, etc.) available to my work computer. In the morning, I just add the .itl extension to database file before disconnecting the external drive and taking it to work.
    Now that your first two questions are answered, yes you can have more than one library, but doing so is poor database management. You should have all of your content in a single database and use iTunes to separate content. iTunes already separates music, movies, podcasts, audiobooks, etc., but further division of content is up to the user. iTunes has had playlists and folders for a few versions now, so it is quite easy to organize your library’s content in as simple or complex a folder/playlist structure as you please.
    How album artwork is saved depends on how you acquired your music. Music you purchase from the iTunes Store has its artwork placed into a separate artwork database built in the Album Artwork folder in your iTunes folder. I believe that the same occurs if you allow iTunes to find and import album covers. If you rip CDs or acquire music from other sources, you manually add the artwork, in which case the images are stored in the music files.
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  • How can I transfer my music from an external hard drive to my Time Capsule and can I play it through apple TV?

    All my music is currently stored on an external hard drive, but I would like to transfer everything onto my Time Capsule, so that everything is backed up, what is the best way to do this?
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    Did you import the music on the external hard drive into your iTunes library on your new PC or point iTunes at the location of your library stored on the external hard drive?
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  • HT1660 Can I play movies and music from my external hard drive or do I have to re-instll them on my computer?

    Can I play my movies and music from my external hard drive or do I have to reinstall it on my computer?

    Hello B3NN13,
    If you would like to add the music from your external hard drive to iTunes without copying it to the iTunes Library on your internal hard drive, you may find the following article helpful:
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    iTunes 12 for Mac: Change where your iTunes files are stored
    Sincerely,
    - Brenden

  • How can I play the music on my  external hard drive with my laptop?

    Look before everyone points out that this has been asked lots of times before, I wanted to state that in this particular case it might be a little bit more complicated. You see I think I've been an idiot.
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    Thanks

    Am I being a plonker, but it doesn't seem as simple as that. If I try and import via itunes it seems to want me to select the individual music file not the folder which holds all the music.
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    I have more music than I can keep on my Macbook hard drive by over 200GB. I'm hoping to be able to show and play all music from my external hard drive in iTunes without having to add any of it to my Macbook Hard Drive

    Hello B3NN13,
    If you would like to add the music from your external hard drive to iTunes without copying it to the iTunes Library on your internal hard drive, you may find the following article helpful:
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    When you add an item already on your computer to your iTunes library, iTunes places a copy of the file in your iTunes folder. The original file remains in its current location.
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    Tip: You can temporarily reverse this setting by holding down the Option key while you drag files to the iTunes window.
    iTunes 12 for Mac: Change where your iTunes files are stored
    Sincerely,
    - Brenden

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    I have alot of music and all of it is saved on my external hard drive.  I dont want to save any of the music on my computer because it takes up too much space.  I just want to be able to play my music from my external hard drive.  Can someone answer this?

    Did you import the music on the external hard drive into your iTunes library on your new PC or point iTunes at the location of your library stored on the external hard drive?
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