Saving music on external drive

I had been saving all of my music onto an external drive which became full, so I got a bigger one and copied the music folder to it and wanted to save everything to it, but today I notice all new music I have downloaded in going into the "music" file on my main computer drive instead of the external. I told I tunes prefs to put the l tunes library on the new drive, why isn't the music (albums) going there and how do I fix it? I have over 3,000 albums/playlists and I want it all together as I have dowloaded and archived all CDs. Michael

does anyone have any thoughts on this? mfruin

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Is it possible to have your music and videos saved on different external drives and use the same iTunes library?

Is it possible to have your music and videos saved on different external drives and use the same iTunes library?
I am running out of space on my external hard drive and would like to split the movies and music between two external drives while using the same iTunes library is this possible.
My library is stored on the external drive all of my music etc is stored.

Yes.

I moved all my music from c: drive(because it was full) to an external harddrive and now itunes can't find any of my music. Is there a way to get Itunes to find music on external drive without having to place all the music back onto the c: drive? Thanks

I moved all my music from c: drive(because it was full) to an external harddrive and now itunes can't find any of my music. Is there a way to get Itunes to find music on external drive without having to place all the music back onto the c: drive? Thanks

Hopefully you moved the entire iTunes Media (or iTunes Music) folder to a new path on your external drive. Copy your iTunes library folder out to the root of the external drive, e.g. X:\iTunes (where X: is your external drive), then move the media folder inside it. Hold down shift as you start iTUnes and keep holding untila asked to choose or create a library. Choose the library at X:\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl. Should all be good.
Failing that, download and run my FindTracks script and point it at the new location of your media folder.
tt2

The backup files for my devices are saved to my internal hard drive. I have a small internal hard drive and would like them to be saved to an external drive. How can I change where iTunes automatically backs up to?

The backup files for my devices are saved to my internal hard drive. I have a small internal hard drive and would like them to be saved to an external drive. How can I change where iTunes automatically backs up to?

This has nothing to do with iTunes as iTunes provides no way to move or relocate the backup files.
A search of google or the fourms would reveal ways to create a folder link to relocate the physical location where the files are stored.

I am trying to export photos and keep receiving an error message. I tried relocating my catalog to see if that would help since I am saving to an external drive, but now I can't find my catalog at all either.

I am trying to export photos and keep receiving an error message. I tried relocating my catalog to see if that would help since I am saving to an external drive, but now I can't find my catalog at all either. I am a newbie at this and don't know what I'm doing wrong or if I can even use an external drive for my photos and catalogs (I did enable smart previews so I do know how to do that part). Help!

You can use an external drive with LR but I recommend only using it for
image file storage while keeping your catalog on your internal HD for
performance. If you moved files outside of LR (Finder or Explorer) you will
have to clue LR in on where they are now. Use the left-hand folder panel in
Library mode to navigate to the location on your external drive and use the
find photo option get LR to reconnect them. If you moved the catalog and
now LR can't find it you should get a window allowing you to select a new
one where you can navigate to the new location and select it. You can also
just start LR by clicking on the Lightroom 5 catalog.lrcat file to open it
and start LR.

How do l play music from external drive using itune.

Does anyone know how to use itune to play music from external drive without upload sounds to the itune libray.

You don't. Use the QuickTime Player instead.
(61573)

How do I change the settings so my itunes does not save to my c drive? I don't have enough storage there and want it all saved on an external drive.

My library of music and movies is on an external drive, but for some reason all the album covers and backups get stored somewhere on my c drive? I dont want any of it on my c drive as there is nott enough space, is this possible to change? (using PC - Windows Vista)

You can't do that within the browser. Open the browser you want as you default browser and make it the default. That makes sense I hope because if you had Firefox as the default then you removed it as default browser you would have no default browser.
Setting any browser as the default is pretty much like you do it in Firefox, if you can't find it then simply search on "default browser" in the browser's help.

Music on external drive but want to use itunes when drive is not connected. How?

I used to be able to do this, but can't remember how it was set up. I have my music on an external drive, but I don't want to have to plug it in everytime I want to access iTunes to use the store or look for apps.

I have already turned on iCloud Photo Library and it works just fine for my iPhone. BUT, what I want is for it work on my main machine, the macBook Air. I do NOT have an iMac or other to store the "system" Photos library. I do Not have room on my internal drive for the macBook Air ("system" library is located on an external drive). I don't want to have to lug that 3 TB drive with me. It also will not let me move the library file. The library file is close to 40 Gbytes and I have less than 20 left on my internal drive (and I don't dare let it get much smaller than this)....
Any ideas as to how to do this?
For my iTunes library, I ran into a similar issue, but I simply started a new library and dragged the files (on my external drive) into iTunes. This told iTunes where they were without copying them to the internal drive.
I would think something similar should work with Photos, but I don't know how to do it.

How do I share music on external drive with 2 laptops

We have 2 laptops in our household, my macbook and my partners iBook. Is there a way of keeping all of our music in one folder on the external drive and have it accessible to both computers, each with their own itunes library? Or does each computer need to have it's own iTunes music folder? As we share some but not all of the same taste in music it seems a waste of space to duplicate music files on the same drive.

The sync options relate to the iPod connected, not the library itself, so you can use different iPods with different sync options with the same library.
The problem with sharing your library over the network is that the computer which "owns" the library on the external drive always has to be near (and powered on) when the other computer wants to access it.
But you can have one library (.XML) file per computer, and still store your music on the external drive: just go to iTunes menu > Preferences > Advanced > General and uncheck "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library". Now you still have to import the files on the external drive once per computer, but they will not be duplicated.

Itunes music on external drive help

WHY? When I set the Adv prefs in iTunes and point it to my music which resides on an external drive (Time Capsule) ~ that (upon launch) if it can't see the drive on the network it decides to create the default "mac hd/users/itunes" folder!!!
Of course it remembers the "keep folders organized" and create mayhem .... MAYHEM!
If I put the HD alias in Startup Items, will it at least TRY to mount the disc, and then subsequently be connected at the time of iTunes launch???
This is a nuisance. It has caused my wife to import CDs multiple times. Redundantcy?! Bah!!!
iTunes: OH NO!!!
Me: Interrupted? A quick network ping or search brings it right back into use!
iTunes: "Oh no! I've lost the song (that is currently PLAYING)!!! What do I do??? I know! Make the DEFAULT User folder!!!
Me: Aaaaaahhhhhh!!!!

Thanks for your post! I used my wife's iMac to post the above rant...
Basically you've re-explained exactly what is happening. I have always pointed to external media, so I set up the iMac the same way.
Media and Library to me are the same things, but iTunes "Library" (.itl) file includes the prefs. (Which point to the external media collection of that .itl "user"... or they should, yes??)
When the drive sleeps, or isnt mounted, an iTunes launch is just being silly be jettisoning the prefs and going back to the ol' user/music/itunes folder nonsense, etc. It should pop up a dialog letting you know that the library is residing on a drive which cannot be found. (hundreds of in iTunes??? great!!!)
It also happens upon waking from a sleep, etc.
I'm just wishing it were a bit more robust and not so easily fussed up. Having someone remember to hold OPT key before launch each time ain't gonna be hapnin'...
Friends dont let friends post drumnk...
Now everything will be in "The Cloud" so... I'm not quite sure when the Cloud rains or if it's a sunny blue-sky day (ew... too Microsofty) that what the app will decide to do to your new CD that you bought at the concert last night and you're flying it into your library or media or cloud or whatever...

Itunes music on external drive - how to get it back onto mac.

hi - some time ago I transferred my growing itunes library to an external hard drive. The database remained on the mac. My mac was an old powerpc imac. So far no problem. Things moved on and I have just bought a new imac i3 etc. I would now like to transfer my itunes content to the new mac as it has loads of space. Alternatively I would be happy to keep the music on the external drive. I transferred the contents of the old mac to the new mac without any difficulty. The database on itunes arrived seemlessly on the new mac. I plugged in the external hard drive and nothing worked. I had forgotten that the old mac was power pc and the new mac was of course intel.
My question is now, how do I get the library on the external drive back onto my old mac so that I can transfer it to the new mac? Any ideas. I am sure it is simple, but am not the best on computers. I can follow instructions.

mdockrell wrote:
will make sure both machine are running the same version and try again
again, the version shouldn't matter - the worst that could happen is that the newer version would need to update the library (which may take a while).
if you still have access the the PPC, try copying its iTunes folder once more to the intel. you can use a thumb drive or connect the two Macs with a firewire cable, boot the source Mac in _*Target Disk Mode*_, and copy the entire iTunes folder from <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music on the source to <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music on the target (overwriting the iTunes folder in place there).
connect the external to the intel and wait for it to mount, then launch iTunes.
what happens ?

My Library has disappeared. iTunes doesn't see my music on external drive

I use a work computer so I have been using an external drive to store my iTunes Library. It's been working fine for the last couple of months, but for some reason this evening when I launched iTunes, my library was empty and an iTunes pop-up window appeared that said:
The iPod “my iPod” is synced with another iTunes library. An iPod can be
synced with only one iTunes library at a time. What would you like to do?
“Erase and Sync” replaces the contents of this iPod with the contents of
this iTunes library.
“Transfer Purchases” copies iTunes Store purchases this computer is
authorized to play from this iPod to this iTunes library.
The pop up window had three buttons that read: "Cancel", "Erase and Sync", and "Transfer Purchases."
There haven't been any changes to the configuration of my computer that I'm aware of, and when I search for my external drive using "My Computer" I don't have a problem locating my external drive and seeing the music files.
How can I fix this problem without making it worse? I don't want to "Transfer Purchases," because I'm pretty sure this will simply create a second Library and make matters worse. Can anyone help me?

Did you save a copy of the itunes database ITL file? that is what itunes uses to find the paths to your music.
Also, you don't need to move one folder at a time. You can drag the top-level folder into itunes, or use add > Folder.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660

Lack of space - How to transfer music to external drive ?

Hi, I just purchased an external drive so I could free some space on my PC. could someone tell me step by step how to transfer my music in iTunes to my new external drive and still be able to play all my songs by opening itunes. the external drive will be connected to my PC at all times.
thanks in advance and sorry if this topic has been explained before, I am new here..

Hi viviane
This might be of some help for you:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364?viewlocale=en_US

Moving music from external drive to new computer, not showing music

Hello,
I was running iTunes 7 or 8 on Windows XP on a laptop. I ran out of room on the laptop and followed Apple's doc to move library to external drive and point iTunes to the new location. It's been working that way for over a year.
Old laptop crashed and I purchased a new laptop running Windows 7. The external drive is fine, and I was able to restore info and pics backed up to that drive on my new laptop. I installed iTunes 9 on the new laptop and tried several things to get it to see the music folder on the external drive, but it doesn't see the music at all. I even copied everything to the iTunes Media folder on the new laptop, but nothing shows up at all. I assume it has to do with what library files are available and where they're located. There are no library files on external drive, only a My New Music Folder. The old laptop can be on for about 10 minutes before it crashes, so I could try to retrieve the old library files if I knew what I needed and where to find them, but I hope I can do it without having to turn on old laptop. Any help is much appreciated. Are my playlists gone? Help!

If everything on the external drive is in WMA format then that method would work, otherwise you are likely to get duplicates, which is why I suggested you work with the Not Added folder.
Different audio formats have different ways of compressing and storing the information from the original source. Most software and hardware will only work with a limited range of formats. iTunes cannot play WMA directly, but can convert it to one of the formats it will play. Given this is a clean install of iTunes that format is likely to be AAC if you haven't changed it. MP3 may be a better choice if you might want to put the media on some non-Apple device in future, otherwise ACC is supposedly slight more efficient, i.e. a smaller file for the same quality.
The main factor affecting file size is bit rate. The more original data that is kept, the larger the file and the more closely the reproduced music will match the original source. WMA is a lossy format typical bit rates are 128kbs and 256kbs. Conveting a 128kbs file to, for example, a 256k AAC file results in a file larger than the original, but no better quality.
If you put Windows Explorer in details view you should be able to enable a bitrate column and scan through to see what the current values are. You can adjust your import settings as given. You may want to import in more than one batch if there is a mix of bitrates.
tt2

Have iTunes music on external drive. How do I access it with new computer?

Hello. On my old laptop (which died) I had my iTunes music and videos stored on an external drive (changed it under Preferences). Now that I have a new computer and installed iTunes, how do I get it to use my external drive with all my music and videos? I changed it in preferences but it doesn't show up.
Thanks for your help.

I did an add file to library with the entire music library and after all day of processing it is now showing up and did not duplicate the setup. I had changed the save location to the music folder under preferances first. Thanks for the help. I guess it is time to figure out playlists next. Then go buy the iPod.
Doug

Saving music on external drive

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