Playing music off and external hard drive

I've been thinking about getting another hard drive whos sole purpose will be house my (somewhat large) CD library. Though I'm not sure if I import the CDs and drag their files to the other HD that i'll be able to just hook up the hard drive and open iTunes and they'll be there if I should disconnect the HD because I have a laptop.

I agree with William about a firewire drive.
Just moving the library, and changing the location in the preferences will not work however.
Recent iTunes versions can track moved music on the same drive, but not when moved to another drive.
iTunes: Moving your iTunes Music folder tells you the correct way.
One thing to keep in mind is, that iTunes will reset the 'iTunes Music folder location' when the external drive is not connected. After connecting it, set the location again to the external.
Failing to do so will not effect the playback of songs, but new ripped CDs will be stored on the internal disk.
The song locations (and some other info) are stored in the 'iTunes Library' file (more info here)
M
17' iMac fp 800 MHz 768 MB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.6) Several ext. HD (backup and data)

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I have two separate iTunes libraries on two separate Computers. I need to consolidate them so I can play them on a brand new computer. How do I do this so I can play them off an External Hard Drive on my brand new computer?

I have two separate iTunes libraries on two separate Computers. I need to consolidate them so I can play them on my brand new computer. How do I do this so I can play them off an External Hard Drive on my brand new computer?

Why, if it told you you have insufficient space on your computer, would it suggest making more space available on your phone?
At a guess, you have insufficient space on your phone. Installing software will typically require more space than the final size of the software, perhaps even twice or three times as much, for the installation process. You can easily dump some videos or music temporarily, and then synch them back in afterwards.

Can i show and play music from my external hard drive in iTunes without adding it to my Mac hard drive?

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:
Add files to your library without adding them to your iTunes folder
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.
You can change this setting so that files are added to your iTunes library without being added to the iTunes folder. You might want to do this, for example, if you prefer to store video files on an external disk but still want to view them in iTunes.
Choose iTunes > Preferences, and click Advanced.
Deselect the checkbox next to “Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library.”
From now on, when you drag a file to your library or choose File > Add to Library, the item appears in iTunes, but the actual file isn’t copied or moved.
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

Mac-format to PC-format: How can I get my music off an external hard drive?

I had a mac-formatted iPod for years, and all of my music is on an external hard drive that is hooked up to that computer. When I got a new iPod after mine was stolen, I had to get a PC-formatted iPod. How can I get my music off of the hard drive and onto my PC (and eventually my iPod)? I tried uploading the files into my iTunes account on the Mac, but they don't show up in my account on the PC. Most of the music are CDs that I copied onto my computer years ago, and had on my old iPod. Help!

Your Firefox profile would have the data. You can find it at:
*C:\Users\<Windows login/user name>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile folder>
**The file you want is called ''places.sqlite''
You can copy that file if you want to restore your bookmarks to your current Firefox by going back to ''C:\Users\<Windows login/user name>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<profile folder>'' and overwriting the current file. Keep in mind, doing this will erase your current bookmarks.

Playing music transferred by external hard drive

I just got a new laptop since I'm going to college. I installed itunes on it and used my new external hard drive to transfer the music i had from my PC at home to my laptop. The problem is, the music is on my laptop but I can't play it without my external hard drive plugged in and a little exclation mark shows up on the side of the song. Does anyone know what I can do?

After all of your music copies onto the laptop (may take time depending on how much music you have)go to Edit> Preferences> Advanced.
There you'll see the option to browse your folder and select the path so that itunes can find it.

How to play music through my external hard drive through iTunes on my mac?

I recently purchased a external hard drive for my mac for my movies and music, as my disc was almost full.
I have spent HOURS searching how to play music through my itunes without transferring them onto the mac.
BUT everytime I click media destination folder in prefrences and advance, the whole music library in my external hard drive folder is greyed out, and when i click it nothing happens.
PLEASE someone help...

First, a brand new drive is likely formatted for use with Windows. You need to reformat it for use with Mac.
Pondini: Formatting, Partitioning, Verifying, and Repairing Disks... - http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/DU.html
Second, you are better off moving the whole iTunes library to the external drive, not just the media.
iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Open iTunes and immediately hold down the Option (alt) key (shift on Windows), then guide it to the new location of the library.
Do not confuse moving your whole folder and library with moving just media files as in
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449

Playing Movies Off an External Hard Drive?

I just got an external hard drive since I have a ton of stuff and would like to put my movies on the external HDD. Is it possible to play the movies off the HDD if it is connected to the computer I am synched too?

yes. use i Tunes to move the files to the external.
In iTunes 9.
iTunes prefs -> Advanced.
Set the iTunes media folder location to the external.
Then select the movie files (or any files in iTunes) and right click Consolidate.
This will copy only the movies to the external location.
After it finishes, iTunes prefs -> Advanced and set the iTunes media folder location back to the internal. This will tell iTunes to use the internal drive for new files.
You can then delete the movies from \Music\iTunes\ on the internal to free up space.
To copy a movie back to the internal, simply right click - Consolidate (since you pointed iTunes back to the internal).
just edit these instructions to meet your needs.
JGG

How can i play music from my external hard drive not purchased in itunes on my iphone

I have all of my music backed up to an external hard drive and have copied it to my new laptop and linked it to my itunes. I can play all the music on itunes but cannot play it on my iphone. The music was mostly uploaded from cd's that are now lost. Help!!!

thank you, I had done all that and I know seem to have sorted the problem by dragging the folder containing the music into the itunes music folder through the side bar.
cheers

Is it possible to play music from my external hard drive on my ultrabook? I don't want to take up space in the internal drive.

I recently bought an ultrabook (windows) and transferred all of my music (from itunes) onto an external hard-drive. I don't want to transfer all the music onto my new laptop because that would take up too much space. So is it possible for me to add new music or log on to home share by using my external drive plugged into my new ultrabook? How do I play music through my computer using music held on the itunes in my external drive?
I've been trying to figure this out for a long time now.
thank you so much!

Hi there,
I would recommend taking a look at the article below.
iTunes for Windows: Moving your iTunes Media folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1364
-Griff W.

Playing Music off of Portable Hard Drive

I have all my music on a portable hard drive which I use as a main storage location. I hook it up to my computer through USB. I've not had trouble playing until I downloaded the latest version of iTunes. All my drivers are current.
The problem is that I've been playing through a list of songs, and part way through the songs, music stops coming out of the speakers. iTunes still is playing something, but the music isn't coming out. The music will pick back up when it gets to the next song. It always picks back up on the next song.
Anyone having similar issues?
Thanks,
Jon

Actually, what I've realized is when I have a VPN connection open, it has the problem. I tried disabling searching for shared music and sharing my music, and I still had the same issue with my VPN connection open. When I close the connection, everything is just dandy, but if I open it, music stops playing. Anyone know of a way to get around this? The VPN client I am using is Cisco Systems VPN.

Playing music from an external hard drive through Itunes on my laptop computer.

I have a laptop computer with a 100 GB hard-drive. I have my music files on an external hard drive. I don't want to copy the music files to the laptop because the laptop drive's capacity is too small. I can't figure out how to configure Itunes to look to the external drive for the music files. I've tried to change the location of files under the "advanced" tab under "preferences" but I tunes won't scan the external drive for media. There's probably a really easy answer to this question but i'm sorry but i'm not seeing it. Thanks for any help.

Make sure the Advanced preferences for "Keep..." and "Copy..." are both not checked.
Then add songs from the external using File > Add File (or Folder) to Library. iTunes will add them, but will not copy or move the file from the external.
Try it with a few songs on the external so you can see how it works. Once you are comfortable, you can add more.

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.
I backed up all my physical music onto my external hard drive, but only the physical music. So now I have my nice new laptop and haven't got a clue how to play the music off my external hard drive, since I don't have an itunes library on my external hard drive.
Anyway any help would be much appreciated.
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.
Also if I simply import it, won't my mac copy the files from my external hard drive back on to my laptop? Which makes me think I change the location where all the music is stored in itunes...?
Thanks for the 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". 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...

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:
Add files to your library without adding them to your iTunes folder
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.
You can change this setting so that files are added to your iTunes library without being added to the iTunes folder. You might want to do this, for example, if you prefer to store video files on an external disk but still want to view them in iTunes.
Choose iTunes > Preferences, and click Advanced.
Deselect the checkbox next to “Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library.”
From now on, when you drag a file to your library or choose File > Add to Library, the item appears in iTunes, but the actual file isn’t copied or moved.
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

I perviously transfered all my iTunes music to an external hard drive. But now when I connect the external hard drive and try to play a song, I get an error message saying that I need to "locate" my music. I don't how to find it on my external hard drive.

I perviously transfered all my iTunes music to an external hard drive. But now when I connect the external hard drive and try to play a song, I get an error message saying that I need to "locate" my music. I don't how to find it on my external hard drive. Please help for I am not that computer savy and don't want to mess anything up.
Thanks!

I called Apple Support and they walked me through it. They told me to basically copy and paste my music to the external hard drive. (I think.) Or maybe it was they had me transfer a folder to the EHD. I don't exactally remember it was a few years back. But I tried to plug in the EHD before starting and...nothing. Still says same thing, "locate file."

Playing music off and external hard drive

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