Running your music library off an external drive...

I'm about to format my MacBook Pro and was curious how I can run my iTunes library off of the external drive once I go through the format/re-install process?
My biggest concern is that I use some 3rd party software to DJ (Traktor Pro and Serato Scratch). They both read/access the iTunes Music Library so I want to make sure I set this up correctly the first time.
Are there any articles/posts/tips/tricks/suggestions on how to do that?
I'll be using a G-Tech Mini 7,200 RPM 500 GB.
Cheers,
Keith

Have a look at this page, it covers both Mac and Windows: How to move your iTunes library to an external drive

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Running library off an external drive?

I was wondering how you can run your Itune library off an external hard drive without using my laptop harddrive space?
is it possible and how?

Have a look at this page, it covers both Mac and Windows: How to move your iTunes library to an external drive

I have just over 100gig of music in my iTunes library plus what ever else I add in the future. Because of the amount I had to save my music library on an external drive as my laptop did not have the memory to hold it all. I want to back up my iTunes libra

I have just over 100gig of music in my iTunes library plus what ever else I add in the future. Because of the amount I had to save my music library on an external drive as my laptop did not have the memory to hold it all. I want to back up my iTunes library and save it on a different external drive, one I store all my back ups on. Is this possible? If so how can I do it?

To import music into your iTunes library on the computer go to iTunes>Help>iTunes Help>Add items to iTunes and follow the instructions
Delete the "songs" that do not play in your iTunes library and reimport them.

Is it common to keep a music library on an external drive now?

I did this about five years ago, when it was relatively new, and stopped because it was sometimes wonky. Given the popularity of the MacBook Air I'm thinking that perhaps the wrinkles might be ironed out? I have a very large music library (200 gig) and would love to move it to our Time Capsule. Does this make sense with a fleet of devices (iPad, iPod Touch, iPod Classic, Nano) and one main computer (MBP) on a very fast WiFi LAN? One more snowflake detail: Our Time Capsule began exhibiting to exhibit the odd "connection has been interrupted" error when I tried my Calibre Library on it. If you recommend going forward I'll just switch back if this becomes an issue. I mention it in case someone reading this knows of a workaround.
I appreciate any help.

Brilliant; thank you! I hadn't heard about locking in the IP but it makes perfect sense. Should be easy to do in Airport Utility, too.
Only the first part of my question remains. Does keeping a music library on an external drive work well now? Are there any pitfalls to avoid? Should I consider breaking up my collection into two libraries: one for audiobooks and the other for music?

How can I burn an audio CD in iTunes with my music library on an external drive?

I keep my entire music library on an external hard drive. I just tried to burn a playlist in iTunes, and iTunes goes through all of the motions (asks for a blank cd, says it's burning) and then it says "Finishing burning" for a while. Then iTunes tells me I have a blank CD in my computer.
I fear the issue is that the music is not on my computer. However, I've added all of the music folders to iTunes, and it plays them off of my external hard drive.
Please help! Thanks.

Great suggestion. I had quickly considered burning a disc outside of iTunes with Burnz only to learn that trial period had ended. So...thanks to your 2x4 blow to my head, I tried a Finder burn and got an error, too: The disc can’t be burned, because the device failed to calibrate the laser power level for this media. Doing a big of research indicates this might be simply a dust problem in my MacBook and can be resolved with some compressed air. Checking my toolbox shortly and I'll report back! Thanks!

HT1751 Why can't iTunes handle a music library on an external drive?

I put all my music files on an external drive and imported them into iTunes. So far so good. The first time you run iTunes while the drive is disconnected - all your songs suddenly have that dreaded exclamation point next to them. Yes, while the drive is connected, I can still go to any song and double-click it to play; but the vast majority of songs stays "exclamated" and greyed-out. Shuffle ignores them. Even if I use some method to re-recognize all my songs, next time I open iTunes without first attaching the drive, it'll all go down the drain again.
Apple - this MacBook air is great but it only comes with 256 GB of built-in storage. I HAVE to use an external drive in order to have my music library. Why can't the MacBook recognize the drive, remember it, and know when it's connected and when it isn't?

If you mistakenly open iTunes with the drive disconnected, close iTunes, connect the drive, open iTunes, then visit iTunes > Preferences > Advanced and reset the media folder to the external drive.
Better yet is to move the iTunes library folder into the root of the external drive as <Device>/iTunes, then connect to it by holding down option as you start iTunes. Once iTunes "knows" your library is on the external drive it will complain of a missing library when you try to start with the drive disconnected. Cancel the warning, connect the drive, start iTunes.
For maximum portability you should set the media folder to <Device>/iTunes/iTunes Media and consolidate the media to that folder. You should then backup the drive to another for security.
tt2

Get new pc and iTunes to populate music library from an external drive

Hey! any help on this would be appreciated. My PC died. Luckily my music was on an external drive. I got a new PC. I downloaded the latest iTunes. I can't get iTunes to populate all the music from my hard disc.
I can get as far as preferences > advanced > change location. But when I point it to the music folder on the external drive it does nothing - instead of magically populating all my music into iTunes.

jimmyfox wrote:
I've tried pointing it to a couple of different folders in preferences > change location.
That only tells iTunes where to put new items in the future.
Turingtest2 who posts in these forums, has written a few scripts for Windows.
Check out FindTracks scripts here
-> http://samsoft.org.uk/iTunes/scripts.asp
FindTracks
A script that attempts to locate missing tracks that have been misplaced within your library, either as a result of a third party program reorganising the media or as a result of attempting to move the library/media to a new location. Enter the location of the media folder the files should be in and the script will try to systematically fix every broken link.

If I move my music library to an external drive, am I going to loose my playlists

Hi,
I need to move my Music Library to an external hard drive. Am I going to loose my playlists?

This User Tip by Terence Devlin describes options how to back up iPhoto libraries,
iPhoto and File Management
The simplest way is to copy the library to an external drive.
And sure, after testing the copy, you can delete selected events from your original library, then would your backup be no longer the backup, but your only copy of the deleted events. In that case you should use two backups, and preferably on different drives.
Also, do you know what to do, if I want to keep backing up newer, more recent photos I take into the same older library?
iPhoto does not support the merging of libraries. You would have to export the photos from th events and import them into your archive library. Or buy iPhoto Library Manager, that supports merging of Libraries.
Another way to keep your backup in sync with the original would be using clones of your disk as backup or TimeMachine.

Can I backup my iTune music library to an external drive and install on a new computer?

Can I backup my iTune library to an external drive and reinstall on a new computer? To use disks I need 29 to do this.

Hi Niel. Can you be move specific for those of us not tech savy? 1 - Can you provide steps to back up the library? 2 - How do you organize the library? 3 - When you move the entire iTunes folder, does it include iTunes paid for music along with downloaded music from CDs? Thanks

IMac won't see my music library on an external drive

I am running Yosemite 10.10.1 on an iMac late 2012 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7 32GB 1600 MHz DDR3 with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX 2048 MB and my music library is on an external disc drive a WD MyBookLive 3TB.
I used to run the external disc drive through a Sonos system but since moving it is now direct to the Netgear router. When I try to view the contents in iTunes it continuously shows that it is "Loading MyBookLive". How do I rectify this?
If I go to Finder and look for shared drives I can see the contents and even play the music from an alphabetical list. However, there is no way of searching for an Artist or Track using this method.

Really a library, or just media? A library is a complete collection of files an folders including the critical iTunes Library.itl file, generally all enclosed in an "iTunes" folder. You do not direct iTunes to open a library with preferences, you do it by holding down the option/alt key while starting iTunes and guiding it to the .itl file you wish it to use.

How can I move my local iTunes music library on an external drive ?

I have imported some of my personnal music CD's on the local drive of my Macbook. But now, how can I move those on an external drive ?

Just those few things or your whole library? Very different processes depening upon details you have not yet provided.

Error message when backing Music Library up to external drive

I am trying to copy my iTunes music folder from my laptop onto a firewire drive to back it up. I keep getting the same message "Sorry, the operation cannot be completed because an unexpected error occurred. (Error code -50)" Copying other files works fine, this only happens with the iTunes folder. How can I fix this?
PowerBook G4 titinium Mac OS X (10.4.3) LaCie external 150 GB drive

Well that probably rules this out:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25532
If you can't copy the folder Music>iTunes for backup then I would try to backup Music>iTunes>iTunes Music>Artists folder one by one to see if it was an individual folder that was causing the problem.
Are you just using Drag and Drop for the copy?
I've found reference to your error message here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106947
but it appears to be for an earlier release of Mac OS X.
Sorry, I'm running out of ideas.
Hope someone else can help with this.
Regards,
Colin R.

HT1449 can i use this process for moving my library to an external drive?

My iMac is dying a slow death and I want to run itunes and iphoto off my external drive as the data may get corrupted if it stays on the computer hard drive.
If I designate a folder on my external drive and then cosolidate will that allow me to run itunes from the external drive?
When My iMac fails will I be able to take the data from that folder for the new iMac?
Thanks,

I'd suggest you just drag the entire iTunes folder (the _entire_ folder, _not_ just the iTunes Music folder) to your desired location. Then hold down the Option key while launching iTunes. You'll be given a dialog box where you can select the iTunes library you want to use. Navigate to and select the iTunes folder in it's new location. Note that this procedure assumes that all of your content is contained in the iTunes Media/Music folder. If things are scattered around your drive, moving them becomes much more complex.
As to moving iPhoto, you may want to confirm the correct procedure for your version of iPhoto in the iPhoto forums.
Your iMac cannot be running Mac OS 9.2.x, by the way. It will help people offer advice if you'll correct that.
Regards.

ITunes keeps creating a new iTunes Library instead of going to my actual iTunes Library on my external drive.

My old computer died.
Luckily, my iTunes library is stored on an external drive.
My new machine is Windows 8 and my old machine was Vista, but I don't think that should cause any problem.
When I run iTunes, it comes up like a fresh install on a new machine... every time. By default, it creates an iTunes folder in my local drive and as such, has no music in and is a 100% blank slate.
When I point it to my external drive, and then import the library, it does it. All my music shows up -- after a long time, but it all shows up.
If I shut down iTunes or reboot, everything goes back to zero again.
The most disturbing thing about this is that I can't back up properly, because -- although in Preferences it's pointed at my external drive -- it's backing up my iPhone 5 to the local drive in Windows.
Any idea what's going on here?
I've gone through this process 5 times already and it's always the same.

There are two main components to the iTunes library. The media folder which you can adjust via Edit > Preferences > Advanced, and the database file iTunes Library.itl which is normally found in <User's Music>\iTunes. You can choose or create a new iTunes library by holding down shift as you launch iTunes.
In some cases third party software can interfere with the way iTunes updates its files meaning that either iTunes forgets the previously chosen location, or that the active database is deleted. AVG anti-virus and Sony VIAO Entertainment Platform typically interfere with the database. McAfee has been implicated in the corruption of iTunesPrefs.plist.
See Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash for more details on how you might recover after the library vanishes.
You may get some improvment by hosting your entire library on the external drive not just the media. E.g. Create a library at X:\iTunes where X: is the drive letter, then move the media into X:\iTunes\iTunes Media before adding it to the library. This will make it easier to backup the library to a second drive and move it between computers when the time comes.
tt2

How do I move my itunes library to an external drive to free up space on a Macbook?

Hi, I'd like to free up some room on my Macbook and was thinking of moving all my music library to an external drive. I hardly ever use my computer to play music, more I download an album and then sync it to my iphone to play from that. I use itunes and back up with time machine, but would like the music folder separate entirely, is this possible?
Thanks in advance.

Drag it from the Music item of the Finder's sidebar to an external drive, launch iTunes with the Option key held down, and point it there.
(59635)

Running your music library off an external drive...

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