"streaming" itunes located on external hard drive on mac mini from my mbp?

Hi! This may sound really confusing so bear with me.
We have a mac mini and a macbook pro in our house. We have connected to the mac mini a 1T external hard drive that stores all of our music and movies.
We want to be able to use the external hard drive connected to the mac mini as a "server" for our music and movies and "stream" music and movies from the mac mini itunes located on the external hard drive to my laptop so we can listen and watch itunes movies from my laptop.
However, when I tried to "point" my laptop itunes library to the itunes library on the external hard drive, I get the dreaded error that it can't locate the song.
Is there any way around this? are we expecting too much?

NEW QUESTION AS I CANT FIND WHERE TO POST MY OWN PROBLEM,, SO HERE IT IS!
Can anyone help me please, ive got a network hd which stores my mp3's & videos
my itunes on my laptop manages this drive, but for some reason i cant play videos stored on this drive thru itunes, they work fine with windows media player so is this a problem with itunes or am i doing something completly wrong??!
Please help!!

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ITunes won't locate iTunes folder on external hard drive....

My iMac crashed last week, and I picked it up this afternoon.
Prior to the crash, I had transferred my entire iTunes to an external hard drive. When I tried to connect the newly configured iMac, I opened iTunes, and followed the instructions as Apple recommended - at least I think that I did, but nothing happened.
Creating a new folder doesn't seem to be the way to go since all of my music is already on the external hard drive. I know that I'm missing a vital step; I'll appreciate some help.
Thanks.

Hi Ramón:
You wrote:
Creating a new folder doesn't seem to be the way to go since all of my music is already on the external hard drive.
Did you follow these steps: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748 They can be a little involved, but it should work. Try them again. Keep in mind that you're not really "creating" a new folder, so much as telling you iMac where to find the folder you've already created so it can locate your external drive and the music you have on it. And remember, as it says in the Kbase article: _Note: If you move your music library to an external hard drive, you will need to have that drive connected to access your files._
If you need a more detailed account of how best to proceed, take a look at this non Apple-produced article: http://www.tuaw.com/2006/09/19/how-to-keep-your-itunes-library-on-an-external-ha rd-drive/ A not very tech-savvy friend of mine used it to mover her itunes library to an external drive a few weeks back and said it helped her a lot. (Between you and me, the Apple ones worked did just fine for me, but whatever works, you know?)
If after following the linked instructions you still encounter problems, please post back and give us a better sense of what you did and what you mean by "nothing happened." ;- 0
Good luck!
JDee

I am trying to backup my Itunes onto my external hard drive. I am at the step where I on Itunes, click on File - Library - Organize library. I am suppose to check mark both boxes there, It won't allow me to check mark the second box, why? How to fix this.

I am trying to backup my Itunes onto my external hard drive. I am at the step where I on Itunes, click on File ->Library ->Organize library. I am suppose to check mark both boxes there, the first being "Consolidate Files" & the second being "Reorganize files in the folder 'Itunes Media'. I am able to checkmark the first box but It won't allow me to check mark the second box, why? How can i fix this? Please help!

Well you must have made a mistake somewhere. The last instruction of step four reads:
When you've found your iTunes library folder, drag that folder to your external hard drive. This will begin the iTunes backup. The amount of time the backup will take depends on the size of your library. When the transfer is done, your backup is complete and your external hard drive can be disconnected.
Normally dragging content from to a new location on a different drive will result in a copy action which is what you were supposed to do. At a guess you somehow managed to move the iTunes folder. Then when you started iTunes it created a new blank library for you assuming it had just been installed rather that raising a warning.
Close iTunes. Rename the iTunes folder on the internal drive as iTunes (Empty) then copy the iTunes folder from the external back into the User's Music folder. Start iTunes. All should be well.
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tt2

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How do I back up my entire itunes to an external hard drive and restore from same if necessary.
Thanks

This is where iTunes stores backups for different operating systems: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4946
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ITunes Library to External Hard Drive...and iTunes Match???

So, my iTunes library is getting too large for my computer's storage capacity. I'm thinking of moving some of my library to an external, USB hard drive. However, I've never done iTunes through an external hard drive before and I have some questions.
Can I copy new discs (import) straight onto the external hard drive? Or do they need to go onto my computer first then get transferred to the hard drive?
Can I still use iTunes Match and pull songs from the library on my hard drive and from the main computer?
To partition a library between a computer and an external hard drive, do I need to activate sharing or anything special? Or will the computer/main iTunes library just consider the external drive to be a different location for some of the tracks?
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I recommend you keep everything inside the iTunes folder.
Quit iTunes.
Copy the entire /Music/iTunes/ folder from internal to external.
Hold Option and launch iTunes.
Select Choose library... and select the iTunes folder you copied to the external.
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Yeah, that's my question too... My Linkstation LAN disk holds all of my iTunes collection, but whenever my computer goes to sleep and wakes up again, the mount to the LAN disk is broken temporarily, causing iTunes to constantly be reverting to it's default file location on the Macintosh HD (internal). This is horribly irritating. Every day, sometimes several times a day, I have to keep going back into the settings, changing it back, then manually copying all the file it accidentally put onto the internal drive back to the LAN disk, then going in and resetting the pointers on each individual file in iTunes to the external location. If I try using the consolidate library, for some reason it starts re-copying my entire 500+GB library from the beginning. Arghh. I want iTunes to stop defaulting back to the internal drive without asking me. Is there a way to set that?

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When I plug in my ipad it automatically tires to back up and download all the contents to the C drive - the PC is too full and I have iTunes on an external hard drive, how do I tell the system to do the backup to the hard drive please?

You can open a command prompt by hitting the start button and typing CMD<Enter> in the search box that opens up.
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Just want to backup iTunes on an external hard drive

Greetings,
I've been working on this for days without success. All I want to do is back up my iTunes on an external hard drive.
Using iTunes 7.6 on an iMac G4; Music resides on an external hard drive. I want to back up to a different external hard drive.
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LaCie
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1 - iTunes puts music in \iTunes\iTunes music folder by Artist\Album\song.
2 - Dunno why it's there unless you created a new library and selected that location.
3
When selecting the location under iTunes preferences... does one select a folder or the actual database file inside a folder?
You are not selecting a library. You are selecting a location for the iTunes music folder.
Do I allow iTunes to "organize" after making the adjustment?
I would. This makes iTunes oprganize the songs by Artist\Album\Song based on those fields in the ID3 tags.
4 - ???
The default for iTunes is...
Album artwork folder
iTunes music folder
iTunes library file
iTunes library.xml file
Maybe a Previous libraries folder.
If you choose to have the music folder located elswhere, it won't be in the iTunes folder.
Just a note: To make it easier to understand, don't mix up terms.
*iTunes music folder* is just that. It's where the music is. It is not the library.
*iTunes library* is what you see when you open iTunes. This info is contained in the *iTunes library.itl* file.
*iTunes library.itl* file is the database used by iTunes for all the info about your library - Songs, movies, podcasts, playlists, ratings, etc.
*iTunes library.xml* is created by iTunes for other apps to access th eiTUnes library. iTunes istelf does not use it.

Itunes library both on external hard drive and mac.

Hello.
I wish you could help me. I transfered my itunes library to an external hard drive. However, there are times that I would forget to put it back on. Now, there are some files that itunes can't locate.
How do I back up the new files i have on my itunes to the external hard drive.
Thank you very much.
Patty

update to the question above -- I went into Time Machine and restored my iTunes library, so it is showing what music I have again in there. FYI in advanced settings, I kept the setting that the music is stored in the Seagate HD.
BUT when I click on any music, it still cannot locate the file (all the music media files are still stored on the Seagate ext. HD)
So -- how can I get the iTunes library to re-connect with what is in the Seagate HD?
Thank you!

How can i update the itunes in my external hard drive?

When i try to update the itunes on my external hard drive, it creates a new application in my computers hard drive. How can i update the one on my external hard drive?

there's no advantage to having the application on your external drive, you should leave it in your applications folder on your internal drive. if you insist on changing the app's location, you'll always have to then copy the app by hand to the external drive

I transfered my itunes to an external hard drive and seemed to have lost my apps. Any ideas?

I thought I could just drag and drop my iTunes library to an external hard drive. After doing this and finding out that it would not work I took my itunes folder and moved it from my music folder on my hard drive to my desktop. After doing that I realized what I needed to do to get my itunes on the external hard drive. I got the itunes on the hard drive alright, lost my playlists which is OK, I will just re-do those, but I also lost my apps for my iPad. I still have all my original files though on my desk top. Does anyone have any suggestions?

davidfrombillings wrote:
I thought I could just drag and drop my iTunes library to an external hard drive.
it'll work ... if done properly ☞
copy the entire iTunes folder (not just the iTunes music or media folder) from <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music on your Mac to the external, then launch iTunes while holding the option (⌥) key, click on choose library when prompted, and select the iTunes folder on the external.
if I already have my iTunes going to the incorrect files how is it going to find the correct files again.
you could try if this script helps:
iTunes Track CPR v1.3
This script attempts to locate the files of so-called "dead tracks"--iTunes tracks designated with (!)--that you assume are not actually missing but are still located in the iTunes Music folder in their "iTunes File Order" (Music -> Artist -> Album -> file.xxx)."
Eric Ross wrote:
When you moved the file back did you go back into iTunes in your preferences and select the advance tab and then selected the location again or where your files are
the iTunes media folder location in preferences > advanced tells iTunes where to put new additions to your library, not where your content currently is.

How do i transfer music from itunes to an external hard drive

I'm Trying to transfer music from my iTunes library to an external hard drive. how do I go about it.

If you have set iTunes to organize your library (under Edit > Preferences > Advanced) then all you need to do is:
with iTunes not running, copy your entire iTunes library (by default, C:\Users\user_name\Music\iTunes) to your external hard drive - if the latter is drive X, you end up with X:\iTunes containing:
Album Artwork (folder)
iTunes Media (folder) containing (the exact list of folders varies with the types of content in your library):
Audiobooks (folder)
Automatically Add to iTunes (folder)
Music (folder - this will contain one subfolder per artist, each containing one subfolder per album)
Podcasts (folder)
TV Shows (folder)
iTunes Preferences.plist (file)
Previous iTunes Libraries (folder)
iTunes Library Extras.itdb (file)
iTunes Library Genius.itdb (file)
iTunes Library.itl (file - this is the iTunes database)
iTunes Library.xml (file)
sentinel (hidden file)
When everything has been copied, hold down SHIFT while starting iTunes. You'll see this prompt:
Select Choose Library ... and browse to the iTunes folder on your external drive. Select the iTunes Library.itl file and click Open.
iTunes is now running with the complete library (database, media and supporting files) on the external drive.
If you haven't been allowing iTunes to organize your library (which means that some media may be stored in other locations, i.e., not all under C:\Users\user_name\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media) then you need to do the following prior to the steps described above.
In iTunes, go to Edit > Preferences > Advanced and check the Keep iTunes Media folder organized and Copy files to iTunes Media folder ...
Then select File > Library > Organize Library ... In the next dialog check the Consolidate files option and (if not grayed-out) Reorganize files ..., then click OK.
iTunes will then reorganize your media so that you can follow the procedure to copy the complete library to your external HDD.
Last point: once you've done this I strongly recommend that you get a second external drive and use this to take a regular backup of your library,

I moved itunes file to external hard drive and want to move the file on my pc to recycle bin. When I move i get an error message that it cannot delete ituneshelper.dll access is denied. Can I move that file to the recycle bin?

I am trying to free up space on my pc and moving itunes files to external hard drive. I have followed instructions and believe I have file copied to new drive, but I am having trouble moving file to recycle bin as the instructions say. I am getting the following error message: cannot delete ituneshelper.dll:access denied, make sure disk is not full or write protected and file not in use. I know the file is not in use when trying to move. Any help would be most appreciated. I am on Windows XP.

Yes. And you should not have moved that folder. Put it back. To move your iTunes library move the folder from User's Music.
tt2

How can i save my individual playlist on itunes on my external hard drive because i want to buy a laptop and install itunes and move all my music and playlist thats on my desktop to my laptop and almost all my music is from a bunch of cd's i own

how can i save my individual playlist on itunes on my external hard drive because i want to buy a laptop and install itunes and move all my music and playlist thats on my desktop to my laptop and almost all of my music is from a bunch of cds i own

Hello ryane84
The easiest and most efficient way to copy your music is to follow the steps under the External drive section. Make sure that you have organized the iTunes library first before you copy it over. Then put the copied iTunes folder in the same Music folder on your computer.
iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4527
Regards,
-Norm G.

"streaming" itunes located on external hard drive on mac mini from my mbp?

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