My itunes library is on an external drive and i just got a new computer and i cant seem to get the new computer to recognize the connection ?

new computer isn't recognizing external drive containing itunes content?

This article should help. You didn't mention what format the files are in and what format the external hard drive is, however this article povides the basics. You're probably most interested in the last section titled 'Adding content on your computer to iTunes'.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1473

Similar Messages

My one computer's gone for repairs, all my iTunes info is on an external drive. I just bought a new machine, I want to use iTunes on it with my original external drive. How can I do this?

Hi, I have an important question which I need to ask you folks.
For the past four years, I have been using iTunes on my laptop, the only computer I have had to use iTunes. All of my movies, songs, etc are saved to an external hard drive which connects through its USB port.
That laptop is not currently working, and for the past couple of months has been upstate at a friend's house, as he is attempting to fix it.
I just got a new portable tablet capable of running iTunes today. I have not set it up yet has I have been busy at work; but I want to have the tablet have iTunes on it as well under my existing iTunes account, but I am not sure exactly how to go about it. This will be my second computer machine that iTunes will be installed under, and I want to be able to plug into it the external hard drive, The exact same hard drive I have been using on my old computer with all my iTunes information on it.
How do I do it?

If the iTunes database files are on that drive, launch iTunes with the Shift key(Windows) or Option key(Mac OS X) held down, select Choose Library, and navigate to it. The computer may need to be authorized to play protected content, and if the library contains rented movies, those won't play.
If not, import the content to an iTunes library.
(100371)

ITunes library help - moved to external drive and now my apps are gone?

I moved my iTunes library to an external drive, but now my apps are gone? I do have iTunes match and iCloud, so my songs are all on the cloud, but none of my apps are showing...
I copied everything over, consolidated, but I must have messed something up as I think I have too many library files on the external drive now. I can see all my files on the external drive, but they are not showing up when I open itunes. It looks like it linked to a new copy of a library as only my most recent apps are showing, nad none of my existing ones are on itunes. What should I do to fix this? How do I know which files to delete?
Thanks.

I followed the instructions from Apple support to move itunes to an external drive, did what it said (obviously I messed something up). I then started itunes and missed the part where it says to tell itunes where the library was, and consequently itunes created a new library with none of my apps or anything in it.
All of my music is on icloud and I als ohave itunes match, so all of my music is on the cloud.
I have read some of the other postings to delete the newly made (and missing apps) itunes library file and ithen point it to the correct library file, but I am now paranoid I would delete the wrong one.
Thanks in advance for your help.

TS3683 Not enough space on my Mac HD to back up my iPad. My iTunes library is on an external drive. Can I use this same drive to Back yup my iPad?

I don't have enough space on my Mac HD to back up my iPad. Actually, my iTunes library is on an external drive. Can I use this same drive to Back up my iPad?

1. First make sure iPhoto is not running. If it is, quit it. Use the Finder to copy your iPhoto Library file to your external drive. Unless you've changed it, its located inside your Pictures folder and is named "iPhoto Library".
2. After the copy is complete, start iPhoto while simultaneously holding down the option key. iPhoto will bring up a dialog box. The file in the list is your existing Library on your internal disk. Click the "Other Library" button and navigate to your external drive. Select your freshly copied iPhoto Library file and click "Open". iPhoto will from now on open and work with this library on the external drive.
3. After you've confirmed iPhoto is working properly with the newly copied library you may wish to delete the original library in your Pictures folder to recover the disk space.
Don't forget to keep a backup copy of your library on a separate disk. It's not a matter of "if" your external drive will fail but "when". You need to make regular backups or you'll be sorry someday.

I have moved my Itunes media folder to an external drive and Itunes does not find the items in the folder

Running Win7. I moved my entire Itunes library to an external drive to free up space on my laptop. Itunes recognized the change and all was well. That worked fine and I have synced several times from the laptop with the library on the external drive. Now the laptop is in the shop (sigh, not Itunes related a dead network card). I connected the external drive to my desktop, made sure my software was up to date. opened ITunes went to edit/preferences/advanced. Went to change Itunes media folder location and navigated to the proper folder on my external drive and clicked OK. None of the music, videos, etc, that are in that folder show up in iTunes on the desktop. Restarted ITunes, no help, reboot computer, no help. Have I done something wrong or left out a step. I could copy all the media onto the desktop individually and build new playlists but that seems like something that should not be needed? One of the reasons I moved my Itunes media folder to the external drive was so I could use the laptop for iTunes while travel and the desktop for iTunes while at home. Do I have to copy the entire folder to my desktop and take up space there? That would be counterproductive to using the external drive. I searched and saw a hint to hold down shift while starting ITunes but that did not change anything. Any help would be most appreciated!
Jim in WV

Thank you for your prompt response - I did as you said and did a drag and drop into the iTunes window - it imported and got my album art from the net. When I started Itunes with the shift key down I was prompted to choose a library but since I copied over the media folder and not the library folder I was unable to select that so I guess I will have to create a new library and add in all the music, videos, etc. unless I wait for my laptop and export the library or at least that seems to be the case? In short, all my data (iTunes media folder) is on my external drive and can be added to the blank iTunes screen but I can not choose a library folder. Is there anyway around completely making all those playlists again? I am not sure my laptop will survive the shop with data intact and really hate to start over on those.
In an unrelated question - I collect old TV shows from the 1950's. Can I make playlists within the home video folder somehow? In other words like one for Quiz shows, one for comedies, one for police and detective shows, etc. while I am remaking all my playlists for my music if I end up having to go that route?
Once again thank you for helping me out. I am not too Itunes savvy and really appreciate you taking the time to answer.

HT4236 I've run out of room on my hard drive. I bought an external drive and exported all my albums to the external drive then deleted the albums from iPhoto. I want to sync both from my ext drive and new albums in iPhoto. No dice. Help!

I've run out of room on my hard drive. I bought an external drive and exported all my albums to the external drive then deleted the albums from iPhoto. I want to sync both from my ext drive and new albums in iPhoto. My photos on the devices get wiped out when I sync to iPhoto since I deleted all the albums. But when I sync to my hard drive (where I maintained the album structure) the photos are copied to my iPad but lose all the hierarchy and folder structure. Now I have to scroll through thousands of photos to try to find the one I'm looking for. Before I sync any more devices I want to know the following: 1) can I restore the album structure on my iPad by using the photo cache? 2) is there a way to sync both new iPhoto albums AND pictures in the folders in my hard drive? And 3) how can I keep the photo hierarchy structure from my hard drive intact on my devices?

TigerMom28 wrote:
I've run out of room on my hard drive. I bought an external drive and exported all my albums to the external drive then deleted the albums from iPhoto.
Don't do that.
Copy /Photos/Photo library/ to the external.
Hold Option and launch iPhoto.
Select Choose library and select the Photo library you copied to the external.

I have just bought an iPhone 5 and it won't sync to iTunes. It says it needs iTunes 10.7, which I have downloaded and installed. I still get the error message and looking at "about iTunes" it says 10.6.3. What do I do??

I have just bought an iPhone 5 and it won't sync to iTunes. It says it needs iTunes 10.7, which I have downloaded and installed. I still get the error message and looking at "about iTunes" it says 10.6.3. What do I do??

Perhaps check to see if you're accidentally running two different versions of iTunes. There's some information on troubleshooting that in the Opening iTunes section of the following document:
Troubleshooting iTunes installation on Mac OS X

HT4527 After copying my iTunes library across from an external drive it does not show in iTunes. Why?

My old computer died. I had my iTunes library backed up to an external drive. I have followed the steps outlined and moved the itunes folder from the external to the music folder on my new imac. I have checked that the addres is correct but when I opened itunes non of my music shows up. I can find a track file click on it and then it will open up, play and stay in itunes. But I would spend the rest of my life importing the songs one by one. Help ?

Thank you for your prompt response - I did as you said and did a drag and drop into the iTunes window - it imported and got my album art from the net. When I started Itunes with the shift key down I was prompted to choose a library but since I copied over the media folder and not the library folder I was unable to select that so I guess I will have to create a new library and add in all the music, videos, etc. unless I wait for my laptop and export the library or at least that seems to be the case? In short, all my data (iTunes media folder) is on my external drive and can be added to the blank iTunes screen but I can not choose a library folder. Is there anyway around completely making all those playlists again? I am not sure my laptop will survive the shop with data intact and really hate to start over on those.
In an unrelated question - I collect old TV shows from the 1950's. Can I make playlists within the home video folder somehow? In other words like one for Quiz shows, one for comedies, one for police and detective shows, etc. while I am remaking all my playlists for my music if I end up having to go that route?
Once again thank you for helping me out. I am not too Itunes savvy and really appreciate you taking the time to answer.

Transfered all songs to an external drive and now cant access them

I thought I could move my songs to an external drive and still access them the same way I did when they were on my PC. I have the external drive plugged in Itunes gives a message "the song could not be used because the orriginal file could not be found. Would you like to locate it." I can then search and find it on the external drive one song at a time. I wnat the Itunes to work as if the song were in their orriginal location. Can this be done with out mooving them one by one back to an almost full hard drive?

Yes you could move everything back to your computer start over with a new a new library if you wish. Just so long as you aren't concerned about things like ratings or playlists or the number of times something was played etc. If the songs are all in one folder you could add that folder to your new library and it would bring all the songs with it just go to Edit>Add Folder to Library. To create or access a second (or more) library, hold down the Shift key in Windows when launching iTunes. In the resulting dialogue you will get the option to create a new library or open an existing one: Using multiple iTunes libraries -Windows

How to create new iTunes library from songs on external drive

I've seen numerous questions about moving an iTunes library TO an external library, but I want to do the reverse. I have a brand new iTunes program on my (brand new) Mac, and I have a large song collection (140 gigs) on an external drive. How do I put the song names into my Mac iTunes library without actually downloading the songs to the computer? I don't want to clog up the Mac with 14000 songs, I'd rather just have it access the drive to play the tunes.
Thanks in advance,
Ron

Hi Ron,
A couple ways to go about it. One is to simply go into iTunes preferences and under the Advanced tab DE-select (un check) the "Copy Files to iTunes Music folder when adding to Library" option. Now when you add your external drive tracks they will remain where they are and are just added to the library listing and will be played from the external location.
Keep in mind that this will happen to ALL songs you add to your library. So if you add one from your download folder and another from a server, etc. they will not be copied in and accessed from that location. If you like, you can always uncheck that, add your 140GB of external tracks, then when it is done, reselect that option so all other things added to your iTunes get copied into the iTunes Folder on your internal drive.
Are the tracks on the external drive arranged in any sort of special organization you want to keep? Or would you be willing to resort them a bit and let iTunes manage the organization? If you are will to let iTunes do the managing, you can set it up so everything goes onto the external and all your existing tracks will get organized by iTunes.
Patrick

How do I combine an old itune library thats on an external hardrive and a newer library thats on a newer computer into 1 library and keep them on the external hard drive so I won't use up all my memory on my newer laptop

I copied an old iTunes library off my old Toshiba laptop with windows xp and put it on an external hard drive. I have a newer Microsoft surface pro laptop with windows 8.1. I have a small iTunes library on my newer laptop. I want to combine the 2 libraries into 1, add newer podcasts to the combined library daily, but keep it all on my external hard drive, so I don't use all my memory on my surface pro. I have an older ipod classic that I have all my old library on. I love it and don't want to stop using it, but want to be able to add podcasts from my 1 library from time to time. What I usually do is download podcasts for a few weeks then, download them to my ipod. Haven't done any of this in about a year. But want to start getting regular with it again. PS I'm not very computer savy Thanks for any help or advice!

This article explains how to open a different library: iTunes: How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one. The assumption is that the whole library was copied to the external drive from the old Toshiba laptop, not just the media. If that isn't the case make a new library on the external drive in a folder called \iTunes and move the media inside \iTunes\iTunes Media before adding it to the library.
Once iTunes is using the library on the external drive you can add any content stored on the internal drive to the library by drag & drop or by moving/copying the content into \iTunes\iTunes Media\Automatically Add to iTunes. Make sure the option under Edit > Preferences > Advanced to Copy files to the folder iTunes Media when adding to library is selected. Once complete you can delete the original copies on the internal drive.
Should your library contain duplicates after merging see this recent post on deduping.
If there are ratings, playlists, play counts, or content stored on the iPod classic and not located anywhere else then see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
Ideally you should backup your library to a second drive for security. See Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy for a suggested strategy.
tt2

How do I share itunes library files using an external drive?

I can't find the exact answer I am looking for.
I have an XP Machine and a Mac. I have a shared external USB drive with all of my music files on it. The files are accessed by itunes on both machines as needed. I do not have both networked, so Home Sharing is not an option, it also is something I am not interested in doing in this particular case.
Here is my problem, if I add a song on my Mac, it does not show up on my PC and visa versa. The other problem is that it does the play count, playlist updates etc. on only one machine.
So my question is this. Is there any way that I can have itunes use only one library file no matter which machine is operating? In other words, if I add a song while on the PC, I want it to show up on my Mac library. If I want to change a playlist on my PC it will be changed on the Mac when I get on.
Can anyone answer this one?

Bump

Can I keep my iTunes library solely on an external drive?

I have the macbook air with 128gig HD. I currently have a Windows laptop with a bigger HD housing my itunes network with all of my music and digital copies of movies. I've been using this computer as my primary laptop since I bought it (love it too much) and was considering taking the library over to this computer. Unfortunately with all the movies, it takes up a huge amount of HD space. I have a 500gig external drive. Can I have my itunes library on that, and plug it in when I want to sync or use itunes? Or does it all need to be on the actual computer's HD.
(Fingers crossed a cloud-based storage system somewhere in NC makes this all irrelevant later this year)

Hey
No problem keeping your itunes library on an external drive, just follow the instructions here to move it
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364
In future make sure your external drive is connected and detected by your computer before opening iTunes.

My ITunes Library is on an external drive. I later installed the newest version of ITunes 12.1.0.5 and now I cannot play the music on my external dive. What to do?

I put I TUNES library on my external hard drive.
Then I installed the newest version of ITune - 12.1.0.5.
Now I can;t play the music on the external drive.
What to do?
Thanks

Thanks, Limnos,
Worked perfectly.

HT4527 Help I followed the steps one by one to download my iTunes Library from my old external drive to my new iMac... it didn't work... I'm crying here!!

PLEASE IM BEGGING!! I need your help ...I cant lose my music library. Its all on my old windows laptop hard drive. I have removed the hard drive and put it into an enclosure. When I double click on the 'untitled' hard drive i see so many things Im confused. (im completely computer illiterate) I cant afford to take this in to the shop and I followed all the steps posted in above thread. I dont have my music. Is there anyone who can walk this old lady through (patiently) on how to do this?

Hello,
I would recommend taking a look at the article below for more information about migrating your iTunes library.
iTunes for Windows: Moving your iTunes Media folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1364
-Griff W.

My itunes library is on an external drive and i just got a new computer and i cant seem to get the new computer to recognize the connection ?

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