Suggestions for a VERY large iTunes library?

My iTunes library is far too large to be practical to keep on my MacBook Pro's internal hard drive. I bought a nice, big external hard drive with the thought that I would put my iTunes library on that drive, attach the drive to my old flat-panel G4 iMac, and use that library over the network from my MacBook Pro.
That's not working very well -- it's just WAY too slow. I get the spinning beach ball every time I try to navigate the library, go to the beginning of a track or skip a track, and so on, and so I'm looking either for ways to speed up the network (which is an AirPort Extreme network with two AirPort Express routers and the iMac hooked up via an Ethernet hub to one of them) or do something else with my music library.
For those with similarly large music libraries, what do you do?

Just drag-copy the entire iTunes folder to the external drive.

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Looking to publish my VERY LARGE iTunes library on the web

Can someone recommend a way of publishing a large iTunes library (currently 62,373 tracks and growing quickly) to the web? There doesn't seem to be an easy way to do this. I have printed my library to .PDF, but I can't convert the .PDF to MS Excel as the file contains more than the 65K line limit in Excel. Exporting my list to .XML won't open in Excel for the same reason, too many lines.
My ultimate goal is to make my iTunes library searchable on the web for people to browse and select tracks for their events. I don't need them linked to iTunes for purchase, nor do I want the music on the web. I only want to create a database for web searching the Albums, Artists, Song Title, Genre, and Song length. I would also like the iTunes artwork to be included.
Thanks,
Al

Copy the entire _iTunes folder_ , not just the iTunes music folder.
When you have everything ready on teh new internal, you can do 2 things.
1 - Copy the entire iTunes folder back to the internal.
2 - Leave it on the external, start iTunes holding the Option key and select *Choose existing library*. Select the *iTune library* file in the iTunes folder on the external.
iTunes will simply now use this for everything.

Importing very large itunes library from Leopard to 10.8.5

My Power Mac G5 tower of 12 years, died. RIP O'le buddy, you served me well.
I extracted all the drives as well as the external drives, and all the data is intact.
On my old Leopard System I was running the latest version of iTunes for Leopard, and I had my iTunes Library on a seperate 1TB volume called Media Library, which is 100% intact, and also backed up.
Upon the death of my G5, I have a new Mac Mini running 10.8.5.
I tried configuring the new iTunes to point to the old iTunes folder on the media drive, but it does not see any of the old Leopard content.
What am I doing wrong? How do I get the New iTunes to read & convert the old Leopard iTunes library.
Any help is appreciated.
Thank you
Jeff CMKRNL

1K Thanks, McBlob,
All of my content was imported.
One small problem did occur. Many of my TV show episodes showed up as seperate individual movies.
It will take me a bit of time to get them sorted out again, but most of the work has been done.
Thanks Again.
Jeff CMKRNL

Optimal arrangement for maintaining a very large iTunes Library

My wife buys tons of television shows on iTunes, watches them on business trips on her iPhone and then moves on. So far our system has been this.
- Mac computer stationary at the office desk with iTunes for syncing phones and downloading apps, etc.
- Periodically rsync library to a Linux box and backup the Mac with Time Machine
Recently my wife decided she wanted to swap the Mac Mini that was there for a MacBook Pro that she could take to the couch. This way she could surf for TV shows and movies, make playlists, dock it, sync it up and go on.
There's one problem to this, though. If she buys a ton of TV shows and goes on long business trips (as she has recently), she can fill the entire MacBook Pro hard drive, thus rendering syncing impossible. We thought about each maintaining our own libraries, syncing these with each other using Home Sharing and backing them both up to the Linux box. This could work except we'd like to share playlists and those don't sync over Home Sharing.
Long story short we're trying to come up with a setup where she can still easily manipulate the machine that we'll sync with while also somehow giving that machine some breathing room. I haven't yet come up with an arrangement I'm happy with. Am I missing something?
Also, I have definitely considered taking the aforementioned Linux box and putting Windows on it, adding some RAM and using that as the main iTunes box. My experience with iTunes on Windows, however, is that it's very slow.

Just drag-copy the entire iTunes folder to the external drive.

Question for users of large iTunes library on external hard drive

I currently have about 350GB of iTunes music files from over 900 CDs on a Western Digital external hard drive. All is ripped in Apple Lossless. I operate the system with a Dell Inspiron 600m with 2GB of RAM and running Windows XP. So far, so good. The library loads quickly and there is little lag in accessing the files through iTunes.
The price of hard drives have dropped to the point that I can now rip all of my remaining 1,000 plus CDs with Apple Lossless. I anticipate the entire collection with take up about 1TB of storage space. Will iTunes and my system be able to handle this without lenghty lags in loading and access time?

My library (music, video, podcast) is hovering at about 850 gigs on an external 1 TB drive. iTunes does take a minute or so to load (but I'm old and it still seems pretty fast to me). iTunes itself runs fine. My experience is that processor power makes a huge difference as the library gets larger. I had a large library on an external and a Powerbook G4. Lots of spinning beach ball. Same library on an Intel Macbook worked just fine.

Suggestions for large iTunes library?

I have a very large iTunes library (110G) on an external drive, which I use only occasionally. The rest of the time, I use a smaller on on my MacBook.
When I want to use the large one, which I usually do via Airport, it can take hours to update itself. The "Genius" for example, can take hours just by itself... Then it does something for "gapless playback" or something...
Why does it need to do all of this stuff, and why does it take so long? Is all of this updating done on the external drive so it won't have to be updated again from another computer? (so, for example, if my wife opens that library from her computer.)
Or does anyone have tips for managing a large iTunes library that is only used infrequently?
Thanks,
Mark

"One more question, if you do have a second library you option into, are the library documents on the external drive or in your music/iTunes folder?" So they have all been on the external drive. I called Apple Support about dead tracks issue, and the 1st guy told me I SHOULD split them up, but that caused issues and I called back and the 2nd guy told me NOT to do that, so I've left them all on the external drive. The 2nd guy seemed more knowledgeable than the 1st guy.
I was hoping you weren't going to say that. My thought was that the library needed to be on the machine with the music so that multiple libraries on different machines weren't trying to manage the same music. So much for that theory.
This being the case, it would be interesting to see how it behaves if the library lives on your macbook.
This experiment would be easy and risk free:
Option into "create a new library" and create this new library in your music folder on your macbook.
While in this blank library go to the advanced preference tab and deselect "Copy files to the itunes media folder.....)
Then, from the itunes file menu browse to the music folder on the external drive and select it.
This will build a library that lives on your machine while the music files continue to live on the external.
This experiment is only worthwhile if you are sure that the library database for the music on the external drive lives on that external drive.
The risk with having the library live on your machine is that another library on another machine might also try to manage this music (your wife's machine for example) potentially causing a mismatch between your library and the music folder.
I hope that makes sense.

How to limit the music downloaded from a large iTunes library loading on iPad to minimize space usage?

I'm having trouble with my iPad 2 iTunes Match loading all of the music from my very large iTunes library off my Pc to my iPad. I really only want a few playlists. Do I have to delete all of the music off my iPad that I don't want? Will it remove those songs from my main library if I'm connected to iCloud and music match? Help!

Move the itunes Library.itl file to your exHD.
Then to get itunes to start using it from that new location, press *and hold* the shift key while starting itunes. Choose "use existing library" and browse out to the ITL file that is now on the exHD.
Future app downloads will go to the Mobile Applications folder created there. It will also start downloading the itunes store artwork to the exHD.
You can try downloading a free app to test it.

Moving large iTunes Library -Help

Hello, I have 18,000 songs and videos filling up by 200GB hard drive. So I purchased a 500GB time capsule and followed the steps Apple advised to move your music folder. After I press consolidate, it seems to be working (very slowly), however, it continued for about 24 hours and only moved 10% of my iTunes library. then I got an error, and had to start again. Surely, there are others out there who have had to move a large iTunes Library...this method seems like it is not designed for large libraries like mine? Any suggestions?

None of these suggestions are complete solutions to the problem, I'm afraid.
The latter is basically the same as the first one, as iTunes will still use the old location to look for music files that are already in the library. In my case, I'm moving from a USB HD to a NAS over WLAN...this way I can still reach my entire lib from anywhere in the house; without being hooked up to the USB HD.
So I have the same problem, and experience that the consolidation process crashes.
I have also tried re-importing the entire mp3 collection into iTunes from its new location, but this also lingers for several hours before finally freezing (I had to force-quit iTunes).
What we really need, is a way to regenerate the library file without moving tons of data.
The library is described in a plain-text XML file, and that stupid, stupid binary file, which is the actual database that iTunes uses (the XML is primarily for convenience of other apps)
I already copied my data using Finder, so if iTunes Music Library.xml wasthe only file that mattered here,
all we needed was a plaintext search and replace...
Example:
I moved all my mp3 files from
1) *My Book:mp3*
to
2) *Public:Shared Music:mp3*
Since the file structure of all my mp3 lib is intact;
substring 1) in the existing iTunes lib needs to be changed to substring 2); for all mp3 files and lib root paths, and voilá...
BUT this is not the case; the binary file is the actual database used by iTunes.
So until someone comes up with a way to regenerate the iTunes database file, for example from the XML file, we're stuck.
Just my $.02 worth of rambling.
Cheers;
Eivind

Share a large iTunes library with multiple computers

I have a very big itunes library that I share with several computers at my home from a mac mini and lion server. This solution works well in that all my home computers can access the itunes library on the server and play music through the "Shared" feature. The downside of this solution is that if I (or my wife, or my daughter, or my son) want to put some music on our iphones, we have to sync the iphone with the mac mini so that the itunes library is local.
I would like to figure out a way, where all of our music would be availble on all of our macbooks so we could create our own playlists, and sync our iphones.
I have considered iCloud, but I'm not sure how well (or how expensive) it might be to share 250 GB of music on iCloud. Does anyone have suggestions?
Thanks in advance.

I'm sort of in the same boat. We've got an iMac with separate User Accounts set up and are currently sharing the same iTunes and iPhoto libraries along with streaming them to our Apple TV.
Right now I'm the only one with an iPod, however she'll be getting one in a couple of weeks.
We also just picked up a MacBook yesterday and I'd like to be able to sync certain libraries like iTunes and iPhoto so that no content gets duplicated on either the iMac or MacBook and so that we both have access to the current libraries for each program on our iPods and AppleTV.
I have an external hard drive that I back up the iMac on and I assume I could manually keep things current with that but there's got to be an easier way...that's why these are Macs right?
Bill

Trying to relocate a LARGE iTunes library to external HD - it's NOT working

I have a large iTunes library (160+ GB ... about 30,000 songs) that I store on an external USB 2.0 hard drive. I'm trying to move/copy/relocate the entire library to another USB 2.0 external hard drive. I have tried copying the entire iTunes library ... only to return hours later to find "not everything was copied to your folder" message - after a decent 24 GB had been transferred. I also tried making a playlist of my entire library and transferring it to another user on my computer - to no avail - that stopped, too.
What is THE BEST way to copy a huge iTunes library? One external hard drive is filling up and I need to transfer everything. So far, I have been hooking up both external hard drives to my MacBook Pro - should I invest in one of those USB-USB connectors to connect the hard drives to each other directly? Should I try it without allowing my computer sleep?
I want to transfer my HUGE library without running into snafus - everyone just says "copy the music folder" - but it's so big, the thing inevitably crashes!
Any advice?

Warren Willows wrote:
When you ask about the "entire" library what are you referring to?
Warren,
i asked about the entire iTunes folder
your iTunes library consists of your media files (music, movies, apps, etc.) and the, shall we call them, +support files+ (iTunes library file, iTunes library.xml file etc.)
a typical iTunes folder looks like this
if you keep your library files locally and just have the media files on the external, you should follow the steps provided by Chris.
if your entire iTunes folder is on the external, you can do what i suggested.
btw, a 160 gig library is not LARGE
mine weighs in @ 1.6 TB and lives on a 2 TB firewire 800 external. i recently cloned this drive to an identical 2 TB drive for backup purposes using CCC. it took in excess of 20 hours to finish the cloning process !
so, you need to approach the moving operation with patience ...
good luck !
JGG

How to prevent iTunes for Windows from "Updating iTunes Library"? (Library is on a NAS and managed by iTunes for Mac. Now getting update wars between Mac and Windows versions of the player.

How to prevent iTunes for Windows from "Updating iTunes Library"?
My library is on a NAS and managed by iTunes on a Mac. I can connect from wife's Windows laptop using iTunes for Windows but every time I do, it Updates iTunes Library. Next time I log in from my Mac it Updates iTunes Library in return. It appears I'm experiencing "Update Wars" between the Mac and Windows versions of iTunes. I would like to allow my wife to stream iTunes songs to her new laptop but I don't want any updates from this source... prefer to manage the library from my Mac and not allow Windows to do any thing other than listen to existing playlists.
Thanks for any help/suggestions.

Connect the PC to the library on the NAS. Wait while "updated".
Under Edit > Preferences > Advanced make sure the media folder is correctly pointed at the media folder on the NAS. If not correct, close iTunes, wait a few moments, then open iTunes again.
Close iTunes on the PC. Do not open iTunes on the Mac.
Copy the library files, iTunes Library.itl, iTunes Library Extras.itdb, iTunes Library Genius.itdb, sentinel and the folder Album Artwork into an empty iTunes folder on the PC, for example C:\iTunes.
Click the icon to start iTunes and immediately press and hold down SHIFT. Keep holding until prompted to choose or create a library. Click choose and browse to the copied .itl file, e.g. C:\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl
The library should now work properly on the PC, however check the setting for the media folder. If needs be correct, close iTunes and reopen.
Open iTunes on the Mac. It will update again, but that should be last time.
tt2

I have an older ipod with a large itunes library and a new ipa 2. the both have the same email but different passwords.Can i sink th old ipod's library ith the new ipad's library?

I have an older ipod with a large itunes library. I have a new ipad2. Both have the same email address but different passwords. Can I merge both itunes libraries?

Not sure if this helps:-
The music files, were they bought from your iTunes account or did someone gift them to you after buying from the iTunes account? If they are yours you can download them again if you clear or de-authorise the ipod, it has to be done by whoever gave you the ipod to do this (the registered owner). If they were bought for you on another itunes account I don't think Apple let you use them as they are copyrighted and they don't belong to you, they belong to the person who bought them. If the music files where ripped from music cd's then click and drag them to a new folder on your desktop and have the person who gave you the ipod to de-authorise and unregister it. Then you re register it and put your files back from your desktop folder in your iTunes folder and synch. Hopefully that would work. Any files which you did not buy, I would not know how get around this, best bet is to take it to you nearest Apple Store and explain that they were gifted to you and ask how you can use them. The best way to gift music files is to buy the gift tokens and give these. Hope above helps.

Large Itunes Library Crashes Apple TV

So, loading up my large itunes library (~150 MB) as a source causes the Apple TV to crash. It just sits at the "Loading so-and-so's Library" screen for a few minutes with the spinning wheel and then reboots itself. It goes all the way back to where you have to choose the language and resolution. The host computer's itunes continues to work fine. I've tried every fix under the sun, including restarting to factory settings. Apple, get this fixed please!

actually, no it hasn't been solved. It worked for about a day, but now it's back to the same issue. I suppose if i recreated the library it might work again, but with the size of my library, that's an overnight process. I ended up just creating a separate library for the movies, and that works fine. I don't have any definite proof, but I'm almost positive it's a library size issue. There isn't any reason other macs can read the shared library but not the Apple TV.
And to respond to an earlier post, No, the files are stored on 3 local 1tb drives in a macpro. As for returning, I would, but I'm almost positive this is a software issue. Here's to the youtube update fixing it, as itunes 7.2 didn't.

For some reason my itunes library says it's a previous library, how do I get it back to the regular library?

For some reason my itunes library says it's a previous library, how do I change it back to the regular library?

''(sorry, seem to have pasted the wrong reply message)''

HT1473 I have a large external collection and would like to import a select folder to itunes to create a playlist. Is there a way to import the folder without mixing the contents with my large itunes library?

I have a large external collection and would like to import a select folder to itunes to create a playlist. Is there a way to import the folder without mixing the contents with my large itunes library?
I'm trying to avoid having to fish through the thousands of songs already in my itunes library to create a playlist from the songs in the windows file that I've already selected.

You're welcome.
tt2

Suggestions for a VERY large iTunes library?

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