One iTunes Library Two Hard Drives

I want to share one iTunes Library or Media folder (Its the same thing isn't it?) between two bootable partitions. Each has its own copy of iTunes.
There are 3 partitions in total: The first 2 (mentioned above) each run an OS an the 3rd is a Data partition for storage. The Data partition is where I want to store my iTunes Media folder.I have managed to move and successfully run the iTunes Library/Media folder from the Data partition on the Lion partition. But it my computer won't play fair and share its musical toys with the other iTunes app.
I don't see any reason why this is not possible but just I can't get a shared parition to work on both Lion and Snow Leopard partitions. The partitions do have different versions of iTunes on if that makes a difference (Lion has iTunes 10 & SL has iTunes 11)?
I'd love to get this sorted iTunes takes up huge amount of space on my computer and I really miss my music when I'm working on Snow Leopard!
All helpful words an whispers much appreciated!

If you want to use two external drives to store your itunes content, there are a couple of ways you could go about it.
You could choose to have just movies (for example) on one HDD and everything else on the other. You could further choose to have your itunes music folder on one HDD and have all content copied to it by default. When it comes to movies (in this example) you can place these on your second HDD and add them to itunes by using OPT-drag, which will temporarily disable itunes from copying the file to your itunes library.
You could also entirely disable disable itunes copying files to your itunes music folder from the itunes preferences and manually manage all your content.
Personally I'd just buy a 2 TB (for example) drive and ebay your old drive once you have moved everything from it to your new one.

Similar Messages

Deleting a song from iTunes library and hard drive on Itunes 11.0

how do i delete a song from iTunes library and hard drive on Itunes 11.0 at the same time.

Hello CleveCo, Inc
And welcome to Apple Discussions!
At some point in time, you may have selected the option to prevent that dialog from appearing again when trying to delete tracks from your library. To reset all of iTunes warning dialogs, click the Edit drop down menu and choose Preferences from the list (on a Mac it is *iTunes -> Preferences* ). When the window pops up, head over to the Advanced tab and click the *Reset Warnings* button. Then quit iTunes and relaunch it. That do the trick for you?
B-rock

One Itunes Library, 2 external drives in different locations...

Here's my problem... I go everywhere with my laptop... iphone and ipod... My laptop contains my itunes library.. I connect at work to an external 1tb drive which houses my entire music collection..
My goal is to be able to copy that drive (64,000 songs) to another external that I can leave at home.. I want to be able to plug in both places without having to carry the external with me..
Is is possible to have one library and 2 externals with identical music folders? Any help would be appreciated.

How to use multiple iPods with one computer , describes two methods.
If you both use the same account (and one iTunes library), the easiest way is to create separate (Smart) Playlists for each iPod.
Hope this helps.
M
17' iMac fp 800 MHz 768 MB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.7) Several ext. HD (backup and data)

Keeping song data in iTunes library after hard drive crash

I have an iPhone 3GS that I used to sync with iTunes on my Windows PC. Then the hard drive on that PC crashed, but fortunately I had made a backup of my entire iTunes library on an external drive. Now I have a new Windows PC that I want to transfer my music to so I can sync it with the iPhone as before.
However, since the crash I have continued to listen to music on my iPhone, so the play counts, song ratings etc in the backup copy of my library will be out of date. I thought that simply copying the backup library onto my new PC would allow my iPhone to sync with it as if nothing happened (so that the iPhone would update the song data on iTunes on my computer), but when I ticked the box to sync music, it warned me that it was going to do an "erase and sync". As I understand it, that means it scrubs the music off my iPhone together with its data, and then replaces it with the rebuilt library.
Is it possible to persuade the iPhone to recognise the rebuilt library as the one it is allowed to sync to (without erasing its own library first)? Or even just copy the iPhone's song data to the computer (with or without the song files themselves) and then restore from that once the iPhone has done its erase & sync?
Thanks in advance.

Wonderful! The iPhone recognised its own library and synced happily, updating the iTunes metadata as I wanted.
Rebuilding the library took a bit longer because the backup wasn't consolidated and the library didn't know where to find some of my music, but it was sorted with a bit of file jiggling. Now the two devices are getting on like best friends. Many thanks for your help.

"Ghost" copies of iTunes Library on hard drive?

I was just doing some routine file maintenance when I discovered that I have two directories of music on my hard drive. The first directory is exactly where my iTunes 9.1 preferences is set to store my media libary: Users/Home/Music.
The second directory that I just discovered, is located in Users/Home/Documents. It has a name which appears to be some kind of binary gibberish, about 48 characters long plus dashes. Inside, though, is a nearly complete copy of my iTunes directory. (My iTunes library is 115 GB; this directory is about 100 GB). The "Gibberish" directory has files inside of it that have been modified as of today, so it isn't a totally dead archive or something. The folders inside this document start, seemingly randomly, in the D's (with "Daryl Hall and John Oates"). A quick check shows that only one of the two Hall & Oates songs I purchased from the iTunes store are in this directory. (Both songs are in the other directory). There are probably other such anomalies but I haven't found them yet.
Anyone have any idea what's up here? I'm afraid to delete the gibberish directory and lose part or all of my library. It has an /iTunes sub-directory in it that includes files like iTunes Music Library, iTunes Library Extras, etc. These files have been modified today (minutes ago in fact). In the other "normal" directory, there is what appears to be an identical folder, and the files modified time exactly matches the files in the gibberish directory.
Thanks for any help...

Nobody?

Question about backing up iTunes library to hard drive

So I was looking at getting a MacBook Pro, and was going to buy an external hard drive (WD My Passport for Mac) to transfer the files to the new computer. I was wondering if my movie / digital copies will go to the external hard drive as well as music & everything. Also how would I go about doing the transfer, I'm sure it will be pretty easy to figure out just want to make sure everything goes to the new computer.
Thanks

it may not be necessary to get an external HD, although you could use it for back up purposes.
one simple solution to transferring your complete library would be to connect the two Macs with a firewire cable, boot the source Mac in _*Target Disk Mode*_, and copy the entire iTunes folder (not just the iTunes music folder) from <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music on the source to <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music on the target (overwriting the iTunes folder in place there).
launching iTunes on the MBP should then take you to the exact same library you were used to on the old machine.
JGG

One Mac g5 Two Hard Drives + Two Libraries.

I have 2 hard drives with music on both. Id like to pull from both hard drives using only 1 iTunes Library on 1 Hard Drive with out transferring all music to 1 HD. Help?

Open the Advanced section of the iTunes preferences, turn off the option to automatically copy music to the iTunes folder, and then drag one or both of the folders into the open iTunes window.
(35532)

Two iPods One Computer with two hard drives

HELP! HELP! HELP!
I have a 20GB iPod set up on my computer using the computer's hard drive which is only 40GB.
I have just purchased a 60GB Video iPod and want to set it up with the program, a second iTunds and it's playlists on an 80GB external hard drive.
I copied the iPod program and iTunes over to the portable drive, but can't get my new iPod to be recognized. And, the iTunes on both locations shows my playlists for my original iPod. Each time I plug in the new iPod, it says there is no iPod connected. When I plug in my old iPod, it works fine.
I am not real good at setting things up and need as much detail as possible for getting this to work.
The goal is that I can choose which iPod to access and set up each play list separately. I want to have my music on my old iPod and use the new one for pictures, videos, etc.
PC Windows XP
PC Windows XP

These links should help:
Natalie Beresford: Multiple iPods/iTunes Installations
How to use multiple iPods with one computer
How to share music between different accounts on a single computer

Restoring iTunes Library after hard drive failure.

So a few days ago I had to re partition my hard drive (erase all the data) because I received an unfixable problem from Finder error 10810. The problem created overlapping files on my hard drive which was able to be solved by doing a repair disk from Disk Utility. So I made sure I had a backup of all my information on my iMac, and erased the hard drive and re-installed Snow Leopard. After the installation was complete I began restoring all the files I had from Time Machine, but when I got to my iTunes library I received the error message saying that "You cannot access the iTunes folder because you are not authorized". So if anyone can help me out with this that would be great, I tried calling Apple but i'm not willing to pay the ridiculous $50 fee to speak to a human being.

I'm trying it file by file, because I don't need everything back on my hard drive but things like my iTunes Library I want. And I did use a different username when doing the setup assistant, but I thought about that and went back and re-named my current account and then went into my backup files and set all the sharing permissions to Read and Write for all accounts.

Restoring iTunes library after hard drive crash

The hard drive on my Macbook pro (mid-2009) crashed. I took it to the genius bar for a diagnostic. The drive was physically fine so they wiped it and reinstalled Mavericks, which is now running 10.9.4. I am restoring user files from Time Machine individually to keep things clean. Hooray!
I'm now running iTunes 10.3.1. Years ago, I placed the iTunes library in Users>Shared on the hard drive, so my wife could access the files when she logged in. We don't need to do that now, so today I dragged all the music files from Time Machine to the "Music" section on the iTunes window.
They seem to have installed and indexed fine, but I lost some of the original data--like date added and numbers of plays--which would be nice to have. (Then all now read as installed today with zero plays.) My playlists are all gone as well; I'd like to have them back.
Is there any way to restore the music so those things stay intact, by basically making my library the way it was?
I considered dragging the entire set of folders over from the Shared section of Time Machine, but was afraid the music would not index, and the folder structure and nomenclature was different (for example, it had iTunes Music instead of iTunes media and there were a couple other anomalies). I imagine this is because the Shared library was set up under a different version of iTunes.
I hope this doesn't further complicate things but my user name was changed at the genius bar (from what it was prior to crash); they added my last name to my user name. I didn't notice till I got home. So far I have had no trouble accessing the files I have dragged in (Numbers, Word, etc), but don't know if the permissions on the music files might be affected.
All help greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Answers to all your questions are in the links below:
What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
More on iTunes library files and what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management
What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html
Where are my iTunes files located? - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
iTunes 9 [and later]: Understanding iTunes Media Organization - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3847 - plus supplemental information about organizing to new structure https://discussions.apple.com/message/26404702#26404702
Image of folder structure and explanation of different iTunes versions (turingtest2 post) - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-7392 and making an iTunes library portable.
06/2014 ChrisCA post: Restore iTunes library from Time Machine backup - https://discussions.apple.com/message/26104480#26104480

Retrieving content for iTunes library after hard drive crash

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's encountered this situation, but i couldn't find a decent answer anywhere. My HDD crashed, but i recovered all my documents, together with all iTunes documented files (including songs). I didn't lose any data. The problem is that iTunes can't just read copy pasted files (to avoid the spread of bought iTunes songs/apps). How can i get all those songs back in there?
1) I've still got everything on my iPod, but my iPod won't even be recognised with the name i've given it. Synchronising my iPod is out of the question...
2) I've got screenshots of files i found in the back-up document files
http://s720.photobucket.com/albums/ww201/Ollii/Computer%20Info%20Screens/
3) I can upload every song back again, but that takes ages. And I would like to have my apps back too
Thank you in advance

I built a new computer and I copied and pasted the entire itunes file that was in my music for XP to the music file in win 7. After it was done I downloaded itunes agreed to all the fun stuff and it found everything when i opened it. To play the purchased music I need to sign in to my account. After that everything worked great with no problems and it was like it never moved. As for your apps I still live in the stone age with an 80G ipod and an apple TV. So good luck with that but I do not see a problem with that as well. For any purchase from apple you have a total of 5 computers to use with you account. So I hope you were able to unauth. the old hard drive. If not you have to rest you count which can only be done 1X a year.

Updating iTunes library after hard drive reformat

Is there a way to upload songs from an iPod to the iTunes library? I had to reformat my hard drive and was able to upload purchases, but I would like to upload all songs on my iPod as opposed to reloading all the CDs.

For everything else (music from CDs, other downloads etc.) there are a number of third party utilities that you can use to retrieve the music files and playlists from your iPod. You'll find that they have varying degrees of functionality and some will transfer movies, videos, photos, podcasts and games as well. You can read reviews and comparisons of some of them here:
Wired News - Rescue Your Stranded Tunes
Comparison of iPod managers
A selection of iPod to iTunes utilities:
TuneJack Windows Only (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
SharePod Windows Only (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iPod2PC Windows Only
iDump Windows Only
YamiPod Mac and Windows
iPod Music Liberator Mac & Windows
Floola Mac & Windows
iPodRip Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iPod Music Liberator Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
Music Rescue Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iGadget Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iRepo Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iPod Access Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
TouchCopy Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
There's also a manual method of copying songs from your iPod to a Mac or PC. The procedure is a bit involved and won't recover playlists but if you're interested it's available on page 2 at this link: Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer - The Definitive Guide
I would also advise that you get yourself an external hard drive and back your stuff up, relying on an iPod as your sole backup is not a good idea and external drives are comparatively inexpensive these days, you can get loads of storage for a reasonable outlay: Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive

Retrieving iTunes library after hard drive dies.

Here is my dilemma.
My external hard drive that containes my entire itunes library of over 17,000 songs just died.
First, what is the best way to reassign my iTunes library back to my computer instead of the now-dead external hard drive?
I have an iPod that also has all my music on it but it is set up to automatically sync with iTunes. Once I get my iTunes library back on my computer will it erase everything on my iPod? I am aware of some programs that can take music off an iPod and put it on any computer, so if it doesn't earse it all when it syncs, I would most likely do this.
I also have a seperate external hard drive set up with Time Machine. I could possibly retrieve some of my old iTunes library from it but I only need to restore iTunes and not the entire computer.
What is my best course of action for mantaining the majority of my iTunes library?

Unfortunately unless you specifically told Time Machine to back up the contents of your external Media HD it won't do it automatically, so it seem you iPod is the only repository for your music. There are plenty of tutorials on the web that will walk you through getting music off your iPod.

Keeping itunes library after hard drive has been wiped

Help! We had a problem with our computer in that the whole hard drive was wiped so it's gone back to factory settings. Does this now mean that we'll have to start again and put the whole library of songs back on? I've got over 2,000 songs on my ipod so really want to avoid this if I can.
Cheers

Do a 'Search Discussions' for posts by Zevoneer, that will set you up.

One iTunes library, two users?

My brother and I share a computer, and we both have the same taste in music. Is there any way that we can both have access to the same iTunes library without having to duplicate it? How about iPhoto?

iTunes: How to share music between different accounts on a single computer tells you 2 methods of sharing.
You would be interested in the second method which describes setting up a library at a shared location.
I don't know about iPhoto either. Check the iPhoto forum or post a question there.
Hope this helps.
M
17' iMac fp 800 MHz 768 MB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.6) Several ext. HD (backup and data)

One iTunes Library Two Hard Drives

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