Relinking Itunes with files on external HD

I have been storing music files on both an external HD and on the computer (different files). For some reason Itunes has lost it's connection with those files on the external (Maybe through upgrading, I don't know)>
So I have consolidated he music files onto the External HD, and I want to connect all files with Itunes again, continuing to keep the files on the external. Is there an easy way? I can't do this file-by-file.
Thanks
Sean Kernan

If using Win XP, remap the drive letter to match the drive letter in iTunes.
Find location mapped in iTunes: Select a song, right click and select "Get Info"
the lower part should display "Where: G:\..." where G is the drive letter of the external HD.
Remap Drive Letter:
Start -> Control Panel -> Performance & Maintenance -> Administrative Tools ->
Computer Management -> Disk Management
Select the external hard drive letter, right click then select "Change Drive Letter and Paths" -> Click on "Change..." Select the drive letter that matches iTunes and click "OK"
This has worked for me with may laptop.

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Relinking songs with files on external HD

I recently downloaded the newest iTunes version. I have over 16,000 songs in iTunes, located on an external HD.
I opened iTunes today to sync my iPod (I rarely open iTunes - matter of fact, its been maybe 5 months since I last had it open), and every file I have has lost its link. I get the dreaded exclamation point.
When I click on a song, I get this warning:
"The song """" could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?"
I also have about 30 playlists each containing 100 or more songs - there is a lot of time spent in organizing these.
Apple support told me to unhook my external, delete my entire library, then hook my external back up and go to file, then add folder to library. I lose all of my playlists, etc though. Plus, it is not in one clean folder - I have folders by artist that require you to go to each individual one.
Here's my question (and I'm not sure how to do this, but heard you can): Can you bring up a calendar and select a date in the past to make your PC think it is from that day and time. For instance, if my iTunes was working on Nov. 25th of last year, can I select that day as the day my computer will think it is, essentially giving me an earlier version of iTunes and having the song addresses in tact?
If this will not help, is there any easy way to reallign the song with its file on my external?
Thanks in advance....frustrated because this will be the 3rd time I've had to potentially rebuild my iTunes.
Message was edited by: bri bell

If using Win XP, remap the drive letter to match the drive letter in iTunes.
Find location mapped in iTunes: Select a song, right click and select "Get Info"
the lower part should display "Where: G:\..." where G is the drive letter of the external HD.
Remap Drive Letter:
Start -> Control Panel -> Performance & Maintenance -> Administrative Tools ->
Computer Management -> Disk Management
Select the external hard drive letter, right click then select "Change Drive Letter and Paths" -> Click on "Change..." Select the drive letter that matches iTunes and click "OK"
This has worked for me with may laptop.

Help with transferring ITunes media files to external HD

Hi!
I'm trying to free up space on my MacBook by moving all my ITunes media files to an external HD.
I followed the support instructions which told me to go to ITunes preferences, advanced, and choose a new location for the files. I did that part and files were copied across to the external HD. However, the next step is to move the original files from my macbook into the trash. I've gone to home/music/Itunes to delete the originals, but they don't seem to be exactly the same as the ones copied across to the eternal HD..? For instance, the size of the ITunes folder is different, and inside the folder some files are not there, and all the music is not there either (in the external HD copied location).
I'd just like to know I'm going to be deleting the right files before I do it, so if anyone can help that would be really appreciated.

For instance, the size of the ITunes folder is different, and inside the folder some files are not there, and all the music is not there either (in the external HD copied location).
Then the first thing to do would be to consolidate your new iTunes library as well: Open your new iTunes Library in iTunes and
Open iTunes Preferences:
Mac: Choose iTunes > Preferences.
Click Advanced.
Make sure the option to "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library" is selected.
Click OK.
Choose File > Library > Organize Library.
Then check if now your music is included in your new Library.
To see where iTunes stores a song, select the song in the iTunes Browser and control-click (or right-click) it and from the pop up menu select "Show in Finder".
If you see that the songs are inside the new Library, you can delete them from your old library.
The structure of your Library depends on your iTunes Version, so I can't tell you where to look - please post the version of iTunes you are using and the OS:

ITunes Music Files on External Drive

I have an iBook and am running short on internal hard disk space primarily because of a large number of music files (~24GB). I would like to move all my music files to an external disk to free up space on my internal HD. How would I do that with iTunes and make sure any music I import or download/purchase goes to my external hard drive?

Interesting thing happened when I moved all my iTunes folder files to the external HD. Even with the EHD connected, iTunes did not display my music library. I had to import the music files from the EHD. Then I found that iTunes had placed the Album Artwork, iTunes Library database file and iTunes Music Library.xml file in the default location on my internal HD even though the path in iTunes Preferences links to the EHD. Now when I open iTunes the library displays but the actual audio files are on the EHD. I'm wondering where a purchased, downloaded audio file will go. What's up here?

Moving iTunes media files to external drive broke connection

I recently moved my iTunes media files to an external drive. All other iTunes related files were left in my home folder. Everything worked great for about a month. Then, mysteriously, I went to access a movie and it said that it could not be found. I performed the search to my external and the movie played just fine. Somehow, my connection to iTunes has been broken. Incidentally, all media files in my external drive show up in the respective folders in iTunes. They just have exclamation points associated with most of them. Strangely, some of the files play just fine without having to search. Very confused. Can anyone provide a solution to re-establishing my link to iTunes? Thank you very much.
Bill

You had the drive plugged in and mounted before starting iTunes?
Sometimes a link will get broken, but then re-established, such as doing the aforementioned forgetting to start the drive first. When you double click the track it will try again and suddenly find it works again. It can be a nuisance having to test each track this way. You may find that Dougscript "List MIA" will help do this.
http://dougscripts.com/itunes/
I have not seen any successful automated way to re-form truly broken links. You have to either do it by hand or just add the media again. If you add the media again some things will be re-set such as date added (obviously), playcount, etc. I don't use any of those so it doesn't matter to me if I have to do this (and there are tricks to storing them in places where they will be kept).
Why they got broken? One reason mentioned before. Have you re-named anything or moved it? Have you ever had multiple drives with the same name plugged in?

Moving iTunes music files from external to HD that already contains songs

Okay, here's my situation as best I can explain it:
I changed the location of my iTunes Music folder to be on my external hard drive a few years ago, which was where all of my iTunes music was until recently. A few months ago, I noticed that my iTunes Music folder on my laptop (my only computer) was starting to have songs in it again. I realized that with an update I did, iTunes changed the folder location back to being on my computer, so any song I had added since that date was now within the folder on my laptop's HD.
So now, I want to put all of my music back into the main iTunes folder on my hard drive to be the main folder and delete the one on the external. The problem is I can't use the 'Consolidate Library' option because I had to do a restore CD and have duplicate copies of multiple songs, and I don't want to have to go into iTunes and spend more time to fix this, which is why I've been working on this problem manually, adding songs I find on my hard drive that I want into iTunes one at a time. Point is, I don't have enough hard drive space on my computer to consolidate and then delete duplicates.
So am I going to have to create an entirely new folder and copy contents of both iTunes folders into that one? I did this so long ago, I can't remember how I did it. I know I can't just move the files to a new folder because the iTunes program doesn't recognize the new location unless you put them into iTunes directly, which is not an option because they are within folders and I'm not going to take the time to go one by one through my thousands of folders. Please help.

Okay, I've done some reading and it seems consolidating is an option if I understand it correctly. So, if I choose consolidate, iTunes will ONLY copy music files that are currently within iTunes and not currently located in the library into the library folder, correct? i.e. It will not copy songs in my Public folder that I have not put in iTunes yet, or any duplicates, right?
So that way, I could do that which will put any songs from my external into the folder on the HD, and then I can delete the iT folder on my external so that there will be no duplicates, correct? Then I could go about fixing the rest of the random songs floating on my hard drive.
Has anyone done the 'Consolidate' option and then deleted their original files? There are no adverse effects right? Then I would be free to back up the iTunes library onto my external and all will be well...

HT1751 How to transfer iTunes media files from external drive to another external drive and bring in the library from the main drive.

I have my iTunes media on an external hard drive while the library is on the main computer drive. I want to move both to a larger external drive. How do I get both together? When I consolidate, it only transfers the media files. Help.

Since I already consolidated, can I just move the library to the root level of the external drive then option click to point to that library? But using that method, all the media files are at the root level along with the iTunes folder. So nothing will be in the iTunes media folder itself. WIll that work?

ITunes with files on a server, but after reboot, all files have "!" by them

I have a MacBook Pro with iTunes that has "stuff" on it from my networked home server, and when I reboot it, all of the music, movies and TV shows ave the "!" next to them. Then, I have to delete all of the music, movies and TV shows, and reload them (add to library).
I have a PC laptop with iTunes on it, and to my knowledge, all of the preferences are setup the same way and this issue never happens. Any ideas why the Mac version has this problem, or what setting(s) I need to change?
Thanks!
Todd

The external drive has to be on and mounted before starting iTunes or iTunes will create an empty library on the MBP. See the "additional information" at the end of this article: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449
Go to  -> System Preferences -> Accounts -> Login Items and add your server to the list.
Alternatively, always open iTunes with the option key held down and you will get a dialog box asking you to choose a library. See this: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1589

ITunes, music files from external dr F to new computer dr C... problems?

I currently have a setup with an older computer and external hard drive, but will be getting a new computer in the near future. That is to say, I have not yet encountered a problem, but am anticipating one.
As it is, iTunes is installed on the old computer, and the library of songs and videos is all on the external hard drive.
I will be wanting to install iTunes on the new computer, and put the entire library on that computer as well.
I understand that moving a library between computers can be fairly simple, just as long as you keep the path the same. I expect that moving everything from C:\Program Files\iTunes on one computer to C:\Program Files\iTunes to a new computer would be quite easy. However, since the library currently points to files on drive F, the external harddrive, I am wondering if there will be a problem when I dump my library onto the new computer's drive C? If so, how can I get around this?
I'll try saying it another way;
currently, my directories are like so:
iTunes Folder - C:\Program Files\iTunes
Library - F:\iPod
and what I want, when I get a new computer:
iTunes Folder - C:\Program Files\iTunes
Library - C:\Program Files\iTunes\library

First of all, about the moving the 'program files\itunes' directly: don't do it. Install iTunes properly.
Then do this:
Copy the contents of 'iTunes Music' within My Music to the same location on the new computer.
Then connect the external drive and start up iTunes. It should appear identical to the way it did on the old computer.
Then use these directions to move them to My Music or anywhere else you want:
MacMuse: Moving iTunes to a new drive

How do I relink iTunes source files to Projects in iMovie 11

I moved my iTunes library and all the songs in my iMovie Projects unlinked and will not play. How can I relink those files?

http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html
Export to DV Stream and then use the .dv file with any version of iMovie.

Itunes accesses files on external drive but not showing in finder

I'm running OS 10.6.8. I have an external NTFS drive that I read and wirte to using NTFS mounter. I have files that iTunes show are in a folder on the external drive. iTunes will even play the songs. When I navigate to that folder in Finder there are no files displayed. I connected the drive to a PC and navigated to the folder. Windows says the file (folder) is corrupt. How is it possible that iTunes can read the files? How can I get read & write access to my files?

You'll have to try to repair the drive on a PC.
How is it possible that iTunes can read the files?
Some things will still be readable when corruption occurs, the big problem is when writing occurs when there's corruption.

How to get the itunes with those 3 colored buttons on top left corner ????ner ???

Please help [humble request] ----
I have 3 problems can u please help me out --
1) How to get the itunes with the 3 colored buttons (i'm new to apple ,just 8 days so i dont know much stuff) on top left corner ,i've downloaded thrice from apple's site directly i everytime got the same sort of itunes with 'File' ,'Edit' ,'View' ,'Controls' ,'Store' ,'Adanced' ,'Help' on the top ,and also whenever i open the itunes store (in this itunes) only the app store opens ,now music albums ,movies ,tv shows nothing !!
2) I dont know how to import video files from the computer to itunes
3)i bought an app [fifa 11] ,n downloaded another 1 [contract killer] {ive deleted them and downloaded them thrice ,and they dont sync to my itouch it shows error (0xE800004C)
Please please please help me im getting worried and frustrated
please help me out with this

but illaass
i asked 2 of my frnds both of them have windows n not mac ,both of them are sayin dat they have the coloured buttons one , and i asked them dat how to access the itunes music store they said that when they kliked d itunes store option in the left side a screen appears where 6 -7 categories are there which are music store ,app store ,podcasts ,movies ,tv shows etc . bt when i open it it only shows d app store ,and on the bar only 4 options are ther the home icon , app store , podcasts and itunes u ,and when i klik movies ,tv shows on the left side ,there is an option "browse for movies in the itunes store" i klik it and only the app store opens and nothing else .
and thanks now i know how to import videos
and sigma 1337 ,
ive downloaded the apps 4 -5 times now , still d same error mssg it comes like dis :-
" Some of the apps in your iTunes library were not installed on the ipod "Shomik's ipod" because one or more errors occurred "
please help me im gettin frustrated

ITunes Library: Keep 2 external HDDs in sync with same music files

I am trying to run iTunes with 2 external HDDs, keeping in sync with each other. One large one for my desktop and a second portable one to take away from home when I need to travel. What is the best way to do this?
What I have done so far is changing the location of my media library via iTunes advanced preferences to the other ext HDD and then consolidating my library, but I noticed that it tries to re-copy the entire library or at least part of it so I end up with music files like:
Back in Black.mp3
Back in Black 1.mp3
I'm sure this has been thought of before and an obvious solution should be available, but I've never been able to find one, so I'd be really glad if someone could tell me how to do this!

Jef Van der Voort wrote:
There are lots of sync and backup solutions but they always require the 2 hard drives being connected at the same time.
did you have a look @ ChronoSync ?
JGG

Have itl and xml files on external hd am running home premium. can no longer access files, am told this is because they were created with a newer version of itunes. also when i try to download 10.3 it wont, just says invalid drive j and for me to try aga

i am running vista home premium on desktop and vista basic on laptop. have placed my itunes music with .itl and .xml files onto external drive connected to another desktop running vista and can no longer access music on first two mentioned comps only on the one connected to external drive. always am told that the library cant be read because it was created using a newer version of itunes. have tried to download 10.3 but it always tells me that i have and invalid hard drive j and to try again. any ideas?

Older versions of iTunes cannot read libraries created with newer versions of iTunes. You need to have the same version of iTunes on all your PCs. Is that the case?
As far as the problem installing iTunes goes, see this article from b noir on dealing with the problem:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2450004
If you get to the point where you need the Microsoft Installer cleanup utility, you will need more help as it has been withdrawn by Microsoft. but I am hoping the virtual drive trick will work,

HT1349 Hello, how to move the iTunes master file from C drive to an external drive and them iTunes stick with the external drive after on an on going basic?

My desktop C drive is full HD of 1 TB, I would like to move the current iTunes master file to an external 4TB drive and then iTunes stick with the external drive
Could this be done, if yes how to do it?
Thank you for your help
Henri

If it's the same as with a PC, the procedure would be to:
(a) Plug in the new external drive,
(b) Set your iTunes preferences such that the iTunes Music Folder is on the new drive,
(c) Use the iTunes "Consolidate Library" utility to copy your library to the new location.
(d) When the transfer is complete, check "Get Info" on some songs to verify their location.
The original files will remain on the old drive, so you'll have a way to recover should there be a problem. You may need to manually copy any iPhone/Touch Apps to the new drive since I'm not sure those are transferred with the Consolidate utility.

Relinking Itunes with files on external HD

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