Songs on external hard drive

So I am trying to put all my songs on to an external hard drive because I have too many songs and it slows down my computer. My goal is to have all 25,000+ songs on a external drive as well as keep a couple albums on my internal drive just for when I want to play something from my computer (but these couple albums will also be on the external drive, to make it easier to sync the ipod when plugged in). I am struggling in doing this. Several people from the boards have tried to help me out. First someone suggested this website (http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=relocateselected) but in order to do this I need iTunes 10, which for some reason I can not update to (I have tried to but it keeps saying my iTunes is up to date and no downloads are needed). Then I found this tutorial
(http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive/) and have tried to follow it to transfer the songs over, including consolidating the files, etc. but I can't get that to work. Next someone suggested following these steps:
Quit iTunes.
Copy the entire /Music/iTunes/ folder to the external.
Hold Option and launch iTunes.
Select Choose library... and select the iTunes folder on the external.
Which worked in copying songs over and getting my iTunes to choose only the external drive folder but now I can't open iTunes without my external drive connected. As I mentioned my goal is to be able to plug in my iPod and external hard drive in at the same time, and sync the ipod that way, while having just a couple albums in iTunes to be able to play without having the external hard drive plugged in all the time. I hope this all makes sense. Is this possible and if so, can someone please help me, I have been trying to accomplish this for weeks.
Thanks!

If you have itunes preferences set to "copy files to itunes music folder when adding to library" that is what it will do. Uncheck the item and it will leave the music wherever you have it located. However, simply playing it with iTunes will add it to the itunes library and if you don't want it to do that then you will have to play it with Quicktime. Furthermore, unchecking the box will leave the file on the external drive but if the external is disconnected when you start itunes the track will have an ! next to it.

Similar Messages

Laptop no longer recognizing songs in external hard drive. Only ones in internal hd. Says file cannot be found and exclamation pt. to left of song.

My laptop no longer recognizes my songs in the external hard drive. It still plays the ones stored on my internal hd fine. It's just started doing this.
The song's names still appear in the music library, but when I try to play the song, anexclamation pt. comes up to the left of the title, and it says the file cannot be located.
OS is Windows 7 Home Premium
Thanks.

PhilinGood wrote:
Thank you Tal, sounds like a nice resolution of the username difference problem, i will try this as soon as i get home, but are you sure this will not duplicate all the exhisting songs in my library? Most of my songs were renamed/rated and have a "number of times played" number, which does matter in most of my smart-playlists...
Thank you in advance.
When I tried my suggestion, I had around 3 three separate folders on my computer which had music in them. The music in these folders was dragged and dropped into iTunes when I was adding it onto my iPhone.
I had foolishly moved some of the music from the other folders and into the music/iTunes folder iTunes then showed the exclamation mark beside these tracks and showed the not found or words to that affect window/popup. I then placed the folders (that contain the music) back to their location which there were at when I originally dragged and dropped them into iTunes, after this the exclamation mark and the not found window naturally did not appear anymore.
I then done the following:
iTunes 9:
Choose File > Library > Organize Library.
A message will pop up.
Place a check next to "Consolidate files" and click OK.
After I had done this, all the folders that contained the music that were in the 3 separate folders, were then placed in one folder, which in my case was,
C:\Users\MY USERNAME\Music\iTunes\My iPhone\iTunes Media\Music
Sometimes (depending on the device) it can be (your username)/music/iTunes/iTunes music

Backing up new songs on External hard Drive

Every time I download a new song, do I have to save the entire i-Tunes' software folder to my external hard drive?
Is there a way just to save the new songs to my external hard drive?
Thanks

Now when I back up the entire itunes folder, I'm sure it will also back up the date files and all the other files I mentioned in the above window, right?
When you set your backup to run, it will backup everything initially.
After that, it will backup only anything and everything that has changed.
I will manually back up the itunes folder ONLY when I purchase new songs.
Again, why?
If you have Backup run automatically, you will never have to do anything since it will be taken care of by the computer.
there is a feature in itunes when you open the "file" menu called, "Export Library." Will this do the job and replace all the music files in my external hard drive
This doesn't do anything with the music files. It export the info in the iTunes library file to a text file.
If you want to do it all manually, simply drag the entire iTunes folder to the external and copy over the old folder on the external. This way all your data files will get updated also.

Backing Up Songs on External Hard Drive

I saved my iTunes music out to an external hard drive. However, when I go to My Computer/Documents and Settings/Owner/My Documents/My Music/iTunes Folder I notice that all of my music (iTunes Purchased and CD loads) is not saved and listed. My iTune Purchased songs are backed up, and SOME of the songs that I loaded into iTunes from CD aren't. All the songs that I purchased or loaded from CD are appropriately listed under the Music label on the iTunes Main Page, but they certainly aren't all backed up on the external hard drive. I'm puzzled. Any ideas on what the problem is?

See: Managing your iTunes Library on an External Hard Drive
Best of Luck

Backing up songs to External Hard Drive

When i first bought my external hard drive, I slid my entire itunes folder into the external hard drive to save all my songs.
My question is, what is the best way to save ONLY the new songs onto your external hard drive?
I don't think it would be necessary to slide the entire music folder AGAIN into my external hard drive, just for two new songs that I added.
Thanks.
HP Windows XP

Empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash
Hopefully it's not been too long since you last upgraded iTunes, in fact if you get an empty/incomplete library immediately after upgrading then with the following steps you shouldn't normally lose a thing or need to do any further housekeeping. Note that in iTunes 11 an "empty" library may show your past purchases with links to stream or download them.
In the Previous iTunes Libraries folder should be a number of dated iTunes Library files. Take the most recent of these and copy it into the iTunes folder. Rename iTunes Library.itl as iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl and then rename the restored file as iTunes Library.itl. Start iTunes. Should all be good, bar any recent additions to or deletions from your library.
Alternatively, depending on exactly when and why the library went missing, there may be a more recent .tmp file in the main iTunes folder that can be renamed as iTunes Library.itl to restore the library to a recent state.
See iTunes Folder Watch for a tool to catch up with any changes since the backup file was created.
When you get it all working make a backup!
Should you be in the unfortunate position where you are no longer able to access your original library, or a backup of it, then see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
Would you mind telling me which anti-virus package you use? It may be that it is disturbing iTunes when it tries to write out the fresh database, as it does after almost any activity with your library. I'm noticing more of this type of problem than usual and trying to see if there is any pattern. It may help to prevent a repeat of the problem if you look at the advanced options for your AV package and see if you can find a way to exclude the main iTunes library folder (and subfolders if possible) from any real-time scanning process.
tt2

Exclamation Point for Songs on External Hard Drive

This should be pretty straight-forward, but I've been searching for the past two hours and haven't found anything to solve this issue.
I have my entire music library (35,000+ songs/320 GB) on an external hard drive. I plugged my iPod into my PC to charge it and didn't have the external hard drive connected and the message *"Some of the items in the iTunes library, including [song name], were not copied to the iPod [ipod name] because they could not be found"* and every song that was in my playlist shows the dreaded "!" exclamation point next to it.
I've disconnected the iPod, connected the external hard drive, and reconnected the iPod only to get the same results.
How do I get iTunes to remap all the exclamation point songs without:
1. Consolidating my entire library to my PCs hard drive (which doesn't have enough storage)?
2. Manually re-mapping hundreds/thousands of songs?
3. Deleting and re-adding every song in my library (takes 4-6 hours)?
Some additional details (just in case):
Windows XP
iTunes 9.1.1.12
3rd Generation 4GB Nano
There has to be a simple way to address this. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the replies and the detailed information. I appreciate the assistance but remapping the drive letter won't help. My iTunes library is still completely visible and per the XML file, the library location (not the physical music file location) is on the C: drive, which is correct. For whatever reason, when iTunes couldn't find the hundreds/thousands of songs that were on my playlist it changed the file path of just those files to file://localhost/E: from the original file path (which was F:/music/...). The external HD is still mapped to F:.
Any file that wasn't on my playlist is fine. What I need to know is how to get iTunes to find those hundreds/thousands of songs that were on my playlist and get rid of the exclamation point. This should be a pretty cut and dried case:
1. iTunes recognizes all the file paths of all the songs on the external HD
2. I plug in my iPod without the hard drive plugged in
3. All the songs on my playlist (and only the songs on my playlist) are now flagged with an exclamation point and won't open unless I physically browse for them.
4. All other songs not on my playlist still play/synch without issue.
This is a simple situation...does anybody have a simple solution? I can't be the only person out there that is encountering this.
Thanks in advance!

HELP, RAN OUT OF SPACE! TRANSFER SONGS TO EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE (xhd)

I spent forever filling my iPod video with digitized songs from my CD collection and have many songs left that didn't fit. I bought a Lacie XHD as a library so that I can move all the songs back and forth from my iPod to the External Hard Drive on an as needed basis.
I still have the ORIGINAL songs saved on 3 different PCs all with an authorized copy of iTunes. I now have ran out of space on 3 computers and 1 iPod Video and promised my wife that I would get rid of all the CDs months ago.
The problem is that I have tried different fixes, programs that were recommended but the tags, iTunes reading of the xhd, etc. get screwed up along the way.
What is the best way to simplify this swap?
Any help is most appreciated!
Thanks.....
Dell Windows XP

I am afraid you question is not very clear.
I understand you correctly you have iTunes installed on three different computers each with their own libraries of music.
Is there any duplication of files between the computers or are they all different? I am going to assume there is no duplication.
You want to transfer all the music files to an external drive.
Do you mind losing play counts, ratings and playlists? I am not sure that it is possible to retain all the information from all the separate library databases, but you could retain one. Let’s call that computer A.
So here is one way of doing it.
You need to have all your music in the iTunes Music folder on computer A, and if it isn’t you need to consolidate.
With iTunes closed, copy the iTunes folder from My Music on computer A onto the external drive. Now start iTunes with the shift key held down. When asked to choose a library navigate to the iTunes folder on the external drive and choose iTunes Library.itl.
You should now have a duplicate iTunes running on the external drive.
Now go to Edit>Preferences>Advanced>General
Make sure that “Keep iTunes Music folder organised” and “Copy to iTunes Music folder when adding to library” are checked.
Now close iTunes and eject the external drive and plug it into the second PC. Start iTunes with the shift key held down and choose iTunes library.itl on the external drive. Now use add folder to library to add the iTunes Music folder on the internal drive to iTunes. If you have music files in other folder add those too.
Now repeat the process on the third PC.
You should now be able to use the amalgamated library on any of the three PCs by plugging the external drive.
Does that sound as though it is what you want to do?

The cause of duplicate songs with external hard drive??

I would love to eliminate this annoying problem... I keep my itunes music library on an external hard drive, so when my old g4 died and I got a Macbook I added the old song library to my new library. Almost all of the songs added in duplicates, triplets, and more. I tried to rectify the problem... but it's just gotten worse. And it does the same thing again each time I add something new. I have no idea why this is happening... does iTunes think I have two libraries? In which case, why do I have multiple libraries? There are so many songs that there is no way I could go through and delete multiples. Help please?

My music has done the same thing. Moving my music library to an external firwire Lacie hard drive has made duplicates. I'm sorry it has happened to you but am happy to know it wasn't just me.
Still haven't figured out why.........

Moving songs from external hard drive to Itunes library

I have a bunch of songs on an external hard drive, but my itunes library is on my pc.....I tried to add some of these songs to my library (i played the songs and they were automatically added to the library)....but when i inplugged the external hard drive from my pc and tried to play the songs from the library, it would not let me play them.....an error message came up that stated that the library could not find the device from which the songs came from....why is this?....is there another way to add these songs from the hard drive????

why is this?
The Windows version of iTunes doesn't copy content to the iTunes Music folder when importing from another hard disk by default. Connect the drive and choose Consolidate Library from th Library section of the File menu.
(36713)

Streaming songs from external hard drive to Mac.

Is there an external hard drive that I could use to store all my music onto and then stream to my iTunes on my Mac? I don't want to have to keep all my music on my Mac taking up my hard drive as I have a lot of songs. Just wondering if there's anyway to stream it over wireless to my iTunes instead?

You can't add playable songs to an iPod except through iTunes. Dragging songs from Finder to the iPod simply adds the audio files as it would to an ordinary flash drive, it'll store them but not play them.

Copying songs onto external hard drive

So I am trying to put all my songs on to an external hard drive because I have too many songs and it slows down my computer. My goal is to have all 25,000+ songs on a external drive as well as keep a couple albums on my internal drive just for when I want to play something from my computer (but these couple albums will also be on the external drive, to make it easier to sync the ipod when plugged in). I am struggling in doing this. Several people from the boards have tried to help me out. First someone suggested this website (http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=relocateselected) but in order to do this I need iTunes 10, which for some reason I can not update to (I have tried to but it keeps saying my iTunes is up to date and no downloads are needed). Then I found this tutorial
(http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive/) and have tried to follow it to transfer the songs over, including consolidating the files, etc. but I can't get that to work. Next someone suggested following these steps:
Quit iTunes.
Copy the entire /Music/iTunes/ folder to the external.
Hold Option and launch iTunes.
Select Choose library... and select the iTunes folder on the external.
Which worked in copying songs over and getting my iTunes to choose only the external drive folder but now I can't open iTunes without my external drive connected. As I mentioned my goal is to be able to plug in my iPod and external hard drive in at the same time, and sync the ipod that way, while having just a couple albums in iTunes to be able to play without having the external hard drive plugged in all the time. I hope this all makes sense. Is this possible and if so, can someone please help me, I have been trying to accomplish this for weeks.
Thanks!

You may find these Links of Interest...
Moving iTunes Media Folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449
http://macmost.com/moving-your-itunes-media-to-an-external-drive.html

How do I copy GB songs to external hard drive?

Why can´t I drag GB documents to either desktop or to external hard drive? I remember succeding in deleting songs before, so I must have been able to drag and drop documents at some point, but now I don´t seem to find the right method. Please help!

Organize the library from within iTunes, right-click any song, locate it in the Windows Explorer, navigate up to the iTunes folder, and drag it to the external drive.
(99533)

Can't access songs on external hard drive

I've transferred itunes from one PC to an external hard drive and connected to the new PC and selected the iTunes folder but I can't see the music, apps etc. Can anyone help??

What steps did you follow from where? Do you have a copy of the entire iTunes folder on the external drive, including most importantly a file called iTunes Library.itl or do you just have the media folder? Do you still have the working library on the original computer in case you need to execute the transfer again?
My suggested transfer process can be found here.
tt2

Transferred songs to external hard drive, now iTunes can not locate files??

I transferred all my song files using various tutorials on the site, I consolidated my library, etc. The external harddrive was referred to as "F:" when I did this.
Later when I downloaded a few podcasts with my external HD disconnected, they were stored on my c: harddrive. At that point I had iTunes files on both my C: drive and F: drive (with the F: drive being disconnected at the time).
Now my external harddrive when connected is referred to as "G:" by my pc, and iTunes could not find any of my songs previously transferred to F:. I went to preferences/advanced again and selected G:/iTunes as my new folder location, and now only SOME of my songs are located by iTunes, not all. I'm completely confused.
Any advice? Thanks.
Completely frustrated,
Andy
Windows XP

Just a refining comment: iTunes recognizes some, but not all, songs that were transferred to the new hard drive, following iTune's instructions to change the directory then consolidate the library.
I am baffled why iTunes recognizes some songs, but not others, within the same folder....
The easy solution would be to use "import folder" and re-import the entire iTunes files on my harddrive, and then delete the duplicates, which would include the ones non-findable by iTunes. But then my playlists would be affected. I guess I'd have to re-build my playlists manually, using the new imported files in place of the files that iTunes can't recognize, prior to deleting all the duplicate non-findable files.
Argh, I hate pc's...thru & thru...any suggestions before I spend a few hours re-building my playlists and deleting the non-findable song files??
Thanks...

Can't access my songs on external hard drive

I recently replaced my HP Pavillion with a Dell. I stored all of my songs on an external drive. I installed iTunes on the new computer and set the appropriate path for where the songs are located. However, the songs will not show up on the libary. I downloaded two songs to see where they were located and they are in the same library.
I am afraid to connect my iPod for fear of losing the songs once it syncs.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Gonzo

iTunes doesn't scan for media automatcially. If you change the location of media files then iTunes will produce an error when you try to access them. If your library is empty, then that suggests your new installion is connected to a new empty library rather than the old library files. Depending on how your old computer was set up your iTunes library files may well have been in the default location, of My Documents\My Music\iTunes for the current user, even if you subsequently moved your media out to the external drive. If you still have access to the HP box you want to copy the iTunes folder from it into the equivalent location on the current machine (renaming/backing up anything it would replace) & then get iTunes to load the libray from that location. Otherwise you will need to get iTunes to rebuild the library by scanning the folders where your media now lives. Because iTunes stores some of it's organising info. in it's library rather than the media tags you will find that rebuilding your library won't rebuild your playlists, podcasts/audiobooks can end up in in the general music library and much of your album art will be missing.
tt2

Songs on external hard drive

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