Playing Music on Apple TV from an External Hard Drive
I just purchased the latest Apple TV and love it! Unfortunately I have aquired a large music library and so I have much of my music on an external hard drive. I can play the music located in my iTunes library on my laptop; however I can't play the music from the hard drive. Can you tell me how to play the hard drive music on my Apple TV?
The way I understand it is if I load the content into iTunes then it will be on my laptop hard drive. This will take up too much space on my laptop hard drive. I think if I click on a song to listen to it, it copies it to my laptop hard drive, so in order not to over pack the computer I delete the song from the lap top. I feel like I must be doing something wrong.
Similar Messages
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i created a new itunes, but when i add the music i added it from my external hard drive by accident, so when i disconnect it and wish to play music without having it connected, obviously it asks me to located my songs, i dont want to locate each song and i dont want to have to add all my music again, is there anyway of changing the location to a new folder all at once? for example, if it is my computer/harddrive/music/.... can i change it to mydocuments/musis/...
and having the exact same music folder so all the further directions are accurate?
thanks
please i need helppass the music on your external hard drive to the computer then drag the to Itunes
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Itunes doesn't sync music that was transferred from an external hard drive
I transferred a song from an external hard drive onto itunes on my laptop. The song plays through itunes on my laptop after I've disconnected the external hard drive, but it won't sync the song to my iPhone. I have a lot of music on that ext. HD and I'd like to listen to it on my iPhone.
Hi, Alex 58.
Thank you for visiting Apple Support Communities.
Try opening iTunes with the external drive connected and sync the music over to the iPhone. If all media is located on the external drive, iTunes will not sync the requested media to the device without the drive connected. You may need to remove the sync music preference and reapply it for the media to transfer.
iTunes 11 for Windows: Set up syncing for iPod, iPhone, or iPad
http://support.apple.com/kb/ph12313
Cheers,
Jason H. -
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?
Is there a way I can then play all the content stored on the Time Capsule through apple tv without the need to clog up my macbook hard drive?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?
B-rock -
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... -
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 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 -
Erasing all music from iTunes and starting over from an external hard drive
Hello,
I tried moving all my media to an external hard drive to make room on my MacBook Pro and just be able to run the media (ie music movies etc) from the external hard drive when it was connected.
Well this backfired big time probably because I did not follow any sort of instructions.
1st I backed up Finder > music > iTunes > iTunesMedia folder to two seperate external hard drives just in case.
2nd I think (this was back in March 2013) I decided to cut/delete the folder Automatically Add to iTunes and moved it to one of my external hard drives (this folder for some reason contained mostly everythiing that was in the iTunes Media folder).
3rd I finally decided to erase content from iTunes Media Folder
4th I deleted the iTunes Media folder because I felt it was stupid to have a "iTunes Media folder" and "iTunes Music Folder" in the same place but not actually have anything in the iTunes Music folder (probably really stupid of me in retrospect)
5th I unchecked the box under iTunes > Preferences > Advanced "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library"
6th I believe I changed the location of "iTunes Media folder location" in the Advanced area under Preferences thinking this should be pointing to my external drive
I then believe I tried to run iTunes and play my content, but when I did all it did was copy my music/media back to my MacBook Pro hard drive but I did not realize it was doing this until later the next day when I tried to play some music and realized I had 3 copies of everything in my iTunes program (ie music movies podcasts tv shows etc) however, I could play all three versions of whatever it was I selected there was no "error message" saying that iTunes could not located that file, would you like to try and locate.
So I checked Finder to see if there were 3 copies of everything (by the way at this point I stopped connecting my external hard drive for the sake of making more copies on iTunes) but there wasn't??? So I tried to go through Option+View > Show Exact Duplicate Copies and delete all but one of the items. When I would delete them and it asked if I wanted to move them to my Trash Bin I clicked yes and all the 2nd and 3rd copies were gone!!! Yeah, so when I played those songs/movies that remained they would play!!!!!
Than I realized that my Internal Hard Drive was almost full and went looking around for things I could delete to help make my MacBook run better, and realized that my Trash had a large amount of data in it and that emptying it would significantly reduce space on my Internal Hard Drive, but when I went back to iTunes and selected music or movies to play it placed the infamous "!" next to that track or movie and it could not locate those items anymore?
Long long long story short hopefully, can anyone help me set up iTunes so that it only can play content/media off of my external drive and not take up space on my internal hard drive? Is this even possible to do that or will always start to copy those files from the external hard drive back onto the internal hard drive? and second is there anyway to use the Apple router external hard drive to use as the source for all my media?
PS I am running Mac OS X Lion version 10.7.5 and iTunes 11.1.3 (8) 64-bit2012EVOL wrote:
Hello,
I tried moving all my media to an external hard drive to make room on my MacBook Pro and just be able to run the media (ie music movies etc) from the external hard drive when it was connected.
Quit iTunes.
Copy the entire /Music/iTunes/ folder to the external. Don't only copy the iTunes media folder.
Hold Option, launch iTunes, select Choose library... and select the iTunes folder on the external.
This is all you need to do.
Everything for iTunes (except the application) is on the external.
2nd I think (this was back in March 2013) I decided to cut/delete the folder Automatically Add to iTunes and moved it to one of my external hard drives (this folder for some reason contained mostly everythiing that was in the iTunes Media folder).
Make a shortcut to this folder on your desktop.
Nothing should be in this folder. When you put a file here, it will get moved by iTunes and added to the library.
The reason it had files in it is because you moved it. -
How do I stop iTunes from automatically importing songs I listen to from my external hard drive into the music library?
Mac OS X: Double-Clicking a File Opens the Wrong Application - http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2291
-= Changing the application used to open all files of a certain kind (written with reference to OSX 10.4 but may not have changed) =-
1) In a Finder window highlight a file of the kind you want to change the application to open that kind of file.
2) While that file is highlighted, select File > Get Info or press command (apple or propeller icon) + i to get a file information window.
3) In the lower part of the info window there is an "open with" menu with a list of applications.
4) If your application is already in the box then it is the default application for opening that kind of file and you don't need to do anything more. Close the get info window.
5) If the application showing in the menu is not the one with which you wish to open the file then select a new application. If your application does not appear there then select the "other..." and track down the application (usually in the Applications folder at the main level of the computer).
6) If you wish to change all files of this type to open with this application in future, make sure the "change all" button is selected.
7) Close the get info window. -
How to use one music library from one external hard drive on two different computers
I have 57 gigs of music in my itunes library on my laptop (Windows Vista). I backed up the library onto an external hard drive. I would like to play the music on a second computer (Windows XP) without putting the music on the second computer, just keeping it on the external hard drive.
I have the latest version of iTunes and Quicktime installed. In iTunes on both computers, under Advanced Preferences I changed the iTunes media folder location to the folder on the external hard drive and checked the boxes for "Keep iTunes media folder organized" and "copy files to iTunes media folder when adding to library". Also under the File tab, "Organize Library", I clicked on "Consolidate Files" and "Reorganize Files in the folder itunes music".
On the second computer I tried holding SHIFT while launching iTunes until the prompt appears asking to create a new library or point to an existing library. While attempting to point to the new location, I am only able to open the music folder, not set it as the location. In advanced preferences when I click "change" for the itunes media folder location, I can locate the folder but the only button I can click on is "open" or "cancel". "Open" will open the folder showing all my music. I tried typing in the location. It shows the correct location.
I was able to see the songs in the library in itunes on the second computer but it won't play the music. There are no exclamation points next to the songs. I am also able to see the playlists but there aren't any songs in the playlists.
There are no problems with itunes on the first computer. Everything works as it should.
Ideally I would like to use the same folder on the external hard drive for both computers if possible. But for now I want to at least get the music playing with the playlists on the second computer from the external hard drive.
Please help.See this post on making a split library portable.
tt2 -
Importing music FROM an external hard drive
My dance studio has an external hard drive with over 15,000 songs in MP3 format, and I would like to be able to put some of those songs on an iPod. My problem: I do not want double copies of my 15,000 songs (one copy in the external hard drive and one copy in iTunes) as that would take up A LOT of computer space. Space I don't have. I have recently installed iTunes on the studio computer (preferring the program for my personal music), is there a way to import the songs from my external hard drive into my iTunes library with out making two copies of each song (in different formats as explained earlier)? Can you "tell" iTunes to find its music in an external hard drive?
Check your iTunes Preferences. Go to Edit>Preferences>Advanced and see if you have "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library" checked. If you haven't then all you did was add a reference to the original location (the external drive) to iTunes without copying the song files them selves. With the external drive disconnected iTunes can no longer locate the file to play from. If that's the case you'd need to delete the songs from iTunes, change preference and add the songs over again.
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How do I load my music from my external hard drive without saving it to my computer?
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?
B-rock -
How do I download and access music directly from an external hard drive
How do I download and access music directly from an external hard drive through iTunes
Hello Docwa
Check out the article below to move your iTunes Media folder to an external drive so that way you can have the media externally. If you have not added the media yet, go ahead and move the folder if you do not have enough room on your computer so you can import the music
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449
Regards,
-Norm G. -
How do I stop ITunes from loading songs into library when played from an external hard drive
How do I stop ITunes from loading every song I play into my library from an external hard drive?
Mac OS X: Double-Clicking a File Opens the Wrong Application - http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2291
-= Changing the application used to open all files of a certain kind (written with reference to OSX 10.4 but may not have changed) =-
1) In a Finder window highlight a file of the kind you want to change the application to open that kind of file.
2) While that file is highlighted, select File > Get Info or press command (apple or propeller icon) + i to get a file information window.
3) In the lower part of the info window there is an "open with" menu with a list of applications.
4) If your application is already in the box then it is the default application for opening that kind of file and you don't need to do anything more. Close the get info window.
5) If the application showing in the menu is not the one with which you wish to open the file then select a new application. If your application does not appear there then select the "other..." and track down the application (usually in the Applications folder at the main level of the computer).
6) If you wish to change all files of this type to open with this application in future, make sure the "change all" button is selected.
7) Close the get info window. -
My iTunes is running from my external hard drive because I need to make space on my C drive. Could/should I remove the music from the C drive?
Hello Willlig
If iTunes media is taking up a good majority of space on your computer, you can move it by following the steps in the article below.
iTunes for Windows: Moving your iTunes Media folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1364
Regards,
-Norm G.
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