New computer, transfered music via external hard drive, library there but music wont play, message "The song " " could not be used because the original file could not be found. Tech did everything, said call Itunes support

New Computer
transfered Itunes library via clickfree backup. New computer Tech support(Premier PC) did this, Now can not play library within Itunes. Message says "The song " song name " could not be found. Would you like to locate it? Same Tech tried different things via on line support could not fix and said call itunes support and say Itunes will not play on new computer.

I was given the option to locate the file where the song is held. If so select "locate" and direct it to the folder / file where the song is and open it. itunes then will give you the option to use this process to update all of your library. OK that as this will do it automatically instead of doing them one by one. I hope this helps.
Martin

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Running Itunes library on a new computer off of an external hard drive

Hello, I've recently purchased a Macbook and an external hard drive. I transferred all my files from my old Mac onto my external and would like to try to run my itunes library from there through my new laptop as opposed to putting all the files onto the new computer.
Is it possible to have the files exclusively running off the hard drive and never going onto the new macbook? How might I go about doing this?
I've tried following some of the video tutorials but that just seems to route you to do it from your old computer off of a external hard drive, and nothing to do with using it on a new computer.
Basically what I want to do is get everything running off the external (all the old computer's data) and none of it ever to set foot on my new Macbook.
Thank you all in advance for your help!
-Rob

Assuming you use the iTunes default settings where iTunes copied added items to your iTunes folder and organizes your library (meaning - everything is all self contained in the iTunes folder), then all you have to do is drag & drop your iTunes folder (not just the iTunes Music folder you find inside the iTunes folder) to the external drive and copy the entire thing.
If you want to test that it worked or would like to actually start using it from that location instead, use these instructions when you start iTunes to point it to the new location...
How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304447
If you are just testing to make sure a backup copy works and still want to use the internal location, then close iTunes after you verify it works, and restart iTunes again with the same instructions and point it back to your internal drive (original) location. Otherwise you are all set to use the library from the external location.
When you move the external drive to another computer, use the same start up instructions above to point your iTunes on that computer to the library on the external drive.
Additional info...
Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307074
Cheers,
Patrick

Old laptop died, got latest itunes on new laptop and recovered all music from external hard drive but ipad not recognised as device when plugged in? Do i reset my ipad2!!!

Old laptop died, got latest itunes on new laptop and recovered all music from external hard drive but ipad2 not being recognised as a device when plugged in so can't sync? Do i reset my ipad2?!!!! Its only taken 7 months to get to this point.
My ipad is set to sync via wifi but it is still trying to look for my old laptop which has been trashed..but i have deauthorised it and removed it from my account and still not recognised.
Please help (an extreme novice to Apple products)

Sync Your iOS Device with a New Computer Without Losing Data
http://www.howtogeek.com/104298/sync-your-ios-device-with-a-new-computer-without -losing-data/
iPad not appearing in iTunes
http://www.apple.com/support/ipad/assistant/itunes/
iOS: Device not recognized in iTunes for Mac OS X
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1591
iOS: Device not recognized in iTunes for Windows
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1538
IOS: Syncing with iTunes
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1386
Apple - Support - iPad - Syncing
http://www.apple.com/support/ipad/syncing/
 Cheers, Tom

How do I replace my old external hard drive with a new larger external hard drive and move my music so itunes can find it?

How do I move music from an old external hard drive to a new external hard drive and have itunes find it?

If you have a time machine back up of your current drive you can do this
Shut down your computer, install the new drive. While the computer is off plug in the external hard drive that you have your time machine back up on. Hold Option key while the computer turnes on, let go of the option key once you get a grey screen. Shortly after you'll see a list of bootable drives, select the one that has your time machine back up on it and boot into that drive.
From there go into disk utility, format your new drive too, osx extended journaled ( I think, double check that, its been awhile since ive had to do this), hit format
Exit disk utility and then you can use time machine to copy all your exisit data to the new hhd and then your pretty much done.
There is also a program called Carbon Cloner that will do esentially the same thing however I've never uesed it.

I recently reset my computer and copy my music from an external hard drive to my itunes library. When I click on a song to play i get an error message that says " the song could not be used because the original file could not be found". need help

I recently reset my computer and copy my music from an external hard drive to my itunes library. When I click on a song to play i get an error message that says " the song could not be used because the original file could not be found". But when I have my external hard drive plug in the song will play with no problem. What do I need to do to play my music without having the external harddrive plug in ???????? Please help

Because the location for each song in your library is on your hard drive. If the hard drive isn't there, how can iTunes play it?
You'll have to move/copy the music from your hard drive to your computer's hard drive.
Basically, EASIEST way to do all this, if you don't care about your play counts, etc...
-Delete EVERYTHING from iTunes, so that your library is now empty.
-Go to "Advanced" inside of the "Preferences" window, found in the "Edit" drop-down. You can also access Preferences by pressing Ctrl+, (Press Ctrl and the comma key)
-Change your iTunes Media Folder Location to something simple, but on your computer. I use C:/iTunes. Make sure "Keep iTunes Media Folder Organized" and "Copy files to...." are both checked. You can close Preferences now.
-Now, drag and drop your music from your hard drive into your iTunes library. iTunes will automatically add the music to your library, as you would expect, and also creates a copy of each file to place into that iTunes Media Folder you just created.
Shouldn't have any more problems...

I tried transferring my iphoto library from my old macbook onto my new macbook pro (via external hard drive), but when i open the new iphoto, it seems to have transferred ALL images ever used on my old macbook. so i tried to just del

i tried transferring my iphoto library from my old macbook onto my new macbook pro (via external hard drive), but when i open the new iphoto, it seems to have transferred ALL images ever used on my old macbook. so i tried to just delete all those images so i could try a different approach to transferring, but the new iphoto won't let me do anything and every time i try to delete anything it crashes (since the image amount is so high). please help!!
MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), iphoto '11, version 9.4.2

To move an iPhoto Library to a new machine:
Link the two Macs together: there are several ways to do this: Wireless Network,Firewire Target Disk Mode, Ethernet, or even just copy the Library to an external HD and then on to the new machine...
But however you do choose to link the two machines...
Simply copy the iPhoto Library from the Pictures Folder on the old Machine to the Pictures Folder on the new Machine.
Then launch iPhoto. That's it.
This moves photos, events, albums, books, keywords, slideshows and everything else.

I have just bought an iMac, and when I had my PC I had all my mp3 music on external hard drive and used to stream using software called ps3 server and tveristy which used to pick up on my Roberts radio via network wi fi hiw do I get iMac to do it

I have just bought an iMac, and when I had my PC I had all my mp3 music on external hard drive and used to stream using software called ps3 server and tveristy which used to pick up on my Roberts radio via network wi fii and on my iPad via AirPlay. How can I do the same with iMac as this software isn't compatible

To install apps from developers Apple doesn't recognize go to Security and Privacy in the System Preferences and change Allow apps downloaded from anywhere

Recently got a new computer and installed itunes from external drive - all music shows up in the library, however when i click on a song i receive this message "the song could not be used because the original file could not be found". What do i do?

I recently got a new computer and installed itunes from which had been saved onto an external drive - all music shows up in the library, however when I click on a song I receive this message "the song "abc" could not be used because the original file could not be found". What can I do?

I was given the option to locate the file where the song is held. If so select "locate" and direct it to the folder / file where the song is and open it. itunes then will give you the option to use this process to update all of your library. OK that as this will do it automatically instead of doing them one by one. I hope this helps.
Martin

New mac user, need help transferring music from external hard drive

I am new to using a mac. I have had an iphone for almost a year so I am catching on quickly to my macbook but this problem has stumped me and all my mac using friends.
I have a 500gb seagate external hard drive aswell as a new 500gb seagate internal.
I transferred all my music from an old ipod onto the external hard drive. There is about 50gb of music.
When I plug my external into my pc desktop I can see the music folder organized into subfolders with files inside that are encoded unless they are opened in itunes. My pc doesn't have enough internal memory to open and store my music library so I have just left it on the hard drive. When I plug the hard drive into my macbook it will show the music folder as having 50gb but when the folder is opened, none of the subfolders or files are visable.
I went ahead and dragged the folder from my harddrive onto my desktop. It took about an hour to transfer all the files but now the folder is sitting on my desktop and when I open it, it is empty. If i look in the folders info, it says it has the 50gb. If i try to drag and drop it into itunes nothing happens. If I drag and drop it into the itunes music folder, it will go there but will not show up on itunes.
I'm stumped and no longer eligable for apples telephone support as I bought this macbook from a friend. Any help would be greatly appreciated

I have a couple of theories, but I'm not an iTunes expert. These people are, though:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=782
Try posting your question there. Good luck!

How to play iTunes and music from external hard drive?

I recently back up all my music from my old computer on to an external hard drive. I have a new computer but don't want to store all the music on the computer's hard drive. I would rather play iTunes and all the music straight off of the hard drive. How do I do this?
I already downloaded and installed iTunes on my external hard drive and my music is on a separate folder. When I open iTunes it says that I have no music in the library. How do I tell iTunes to use all the music from the external hard drive? I do not want to save anything on my computer's internal hard drive if possible because I do not have enough space.
Thanks for the help. Also, if I should clarify anything else then please just let me know!

did you ever find the answer to this question? I have the same problem

Syncing -whenever I connect my iPad to my computer it ejects my external hard drive which is where my iTunes library is stored? What's the deal???

Syncing -whenever I connect my iPad to my computer it ejects my external hard drive which is where my iTunes library is stored? What's the deal???
Anyone know how to fix this?

You can't connect directly to the external drive, but should be able to use iTunes Home Sharing via the laptop.
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH1453

How do you transfer iTunes to Windows 8 when you use an external hard drive to store you music/media files

I've tried a number of different search terms and yet can't quite seem to find an exact answer to my question.
I currently use a Windows 7 computer and have my songs for iTunes on an external hard drive. I would like to find some step by step instructions on how to transfer my library to a new Windows 8 computer and still utilize the external hard drive to store my music. What I find very confusing is I have similar folders for iTunes on both my computer and the external hard drive (ex. Album Artwork, iTunes Library Extras, Previous iTunes Libraries). I'm not sure which files to move over to the new computer to make for a smooth transition.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Paul

See also Make a split library portable.
tt2

ITunes can not find my music on external hard drive

Had to redo my hard drive; had all music on external hard drive; copied iTunes folder onto external hard drive. Now that my desktop hard drive is clean, and new iTunes downloaded, it can not find my music on the external drive which I have always used. Is there some setting I am missing, do I have to copy music onto CPU?

Hold the SHIFT key while launching iTunes. You will get the option to navigate to the iTunes folder on your external drive. In the iTunes folder point it to the iTunes Library.itl file.

I had ITunes on a Dell laptop. I copied it all to a Compaq laptop via external hard drive. The Dell is deauthorized. The Compaq is authorized. My IPod Classic will not Sync on the Compaq. I have transferred purchases, but "Sync" is greyed out.

I had ITunes on a Dell laptop. I copied it all to a Compaq laptop via external hard drive. The Dell is deauthorized. The Compaq is authorized. My IPod Classic will not Sync on the Compaq. I have transferred purchases, but "Sync" is greyed out. How can I get the IPod to sync with the Compaq?

If the iTunes sidebar (along left side of window) is hidden, from the menu bar, under View, select Show Sidebar.
The iPod should appear in the sidebar, under DEVICES. Select it there. To the right, its Summary screen is shown. Toward the top, there is a bar of buttons starting with Summary. Click on Music next to Summary. This Music screen is where you tell iTunes how to sync songs ot the iPod.
Check the box for Sync Music. This is the switch to enable automatic syncing. If your iTunes music library fits on the iPod, you can choose to sync Entire music library. Otherwise, you can choose to sync Select playlists, artists, albums, and genres. Then select what you want on the iPod from the lists below.
Click Apply to intiate automatic syncing between that iTunes library and your iPod (based on how the iPod's Music screen is set up in iTunes).

Moved iTunes library to an ext hard drive to make space on my int drive... Followed steps from apple. Now I cannot access my music... It says: "File could not be used because the original file cannot be found. Would you like to locate it?"

Moved iTunes library to an ext hard drive to make space on my int drive... Followed steps from apple. Now I cannot access my music... It says: "File could not be used because the original file cannot be found. Would you like to locate it?"
I moved my iTunes library to my external hard drive some time ago and I followed the directions listed here on the apple support page. It did copy my library and now is on my hard drive... I can open iTunes and use it to sync all of my devices but I would like to play my music... I can see all of my music files but can not play them if I click on an album or song it says the following: "(file name) could not be used because the original file cannot be found. Would you like to locate it?" I click locate but do not know where to go from there? I need a way to access all files and not to hunt down one at a time on my hard drive... I am pretty sure I deleted the original library to make space on my internal drive which was the reason for moving it. I have tried and tried to fix it and do not have a lot of time to do so with a one and two year old at my house who do not like it whenI sit down at my computer. What to do??? Any help is much appreciated!!!

See Make a split library portable. Move all of the bits of the library together in the the correct shape and it should work. Or undo exactly what you did and then start over.
If you're a former Windows user don't try merging two folders together that have the same name by dropping one into the same folders as the other, as that goes badly on a Mac.
tt2

New computer, transfered music via external hard drive, library there but music wont play, message "The song " " could not be used because the original file could not be found. Tech did everything, said call Itunes support

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