Synch removes songs when using external drive?

I use an external drive as my iTunes library. I have a bit more than 5,000 songs in the library. If I sync (to charge, get photos from the phone, or sync on a podcast) without the external drive plugged in iTunes removes about a thousand songs from the phone, as far as I can tell it is the same group of songs each time. Then when I sync WITH the drive in place, it replaces those songs. Why are those songs different from the others which stay in place? Is it a setting, some peculiarity about the file types? What can I change to keep all songs synced?

Your iPhone is attempting to sync with your iTunes Library every time you plug it in and iTunes cannot find the songs on the external drive when it is unplugged, so it assumes they have been deleted. You should be able to select "Manually Manage Music" and make it so that your iPhone does not automatically sync music every time. By doing this, however, you will need to manually drag songs to your iPhone when you want to add new ones.

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Apple TV sync problems when using external drive in iTunes

I have my iTunes library on an external drive in order to save HD space. Unfortunately the external driver some times get disconnected and I need to mount it again.
Since iTunes can not find the songs when the drive get disconnected, all songs are marked with an exclamation mark . So far no problem as the song will play immediatelly when i click on it.
The problem is now with the Apple TV. It seems that as soon as a song get an exclamation mark it get removed (!!!) from the Apple TV playlists. I would expect that the song is still available in Apple TV although in iTunes is marked with an exclamation mark, as this is only a temporary non availability.
The consequence is that one song in Apple TV may or may not be available for playing in dependency of the availability of the original song and its external drive in iTunes.
may be "its a feature", but a very annoying one..
Alex

I believe you created this problem at the very beginning by not letting iTune to manage your iTune folder. When this occurs iTune can only play songs when your external HD is connected.
You mentioned you want to save HD space. The better solution will be to put the most played songs in your HD and let iTune manage the folder and backup all the other songs to your external HD. Best way to find out is to check out the most played from your list and backup the least played to your external HD. Better yet, backup all songs.

Time Machine Stops when using External Drive

I recently purchased Seagate GoFlex Desk 3TB external drive. It is connected in USB port for MacPro. Unfortunately, Time Machine starts backup, but it is discontinued after several minutes with message "cannot create backup folder." The backup seems to stall before it gives message, since the file count on the backup seems to stop. Any suggestions as to why this external drive will not work with Time Machine? Any suggestions on how to resolve the problem?

The external Seagate GoFlex Desk 2.0/3.0 usb drive starts and runs the backup for awhile, and then after 40-50 gb of backup quits, and I get a message that backup failed. When I restart the Time Machine backup, the prior backup seems to be on the disk, but it will only run for a period of twenty minutes or so, and then it will stop the backup. I thought that there might be a problem with the 2.0 usb capacity as too slow, but I haven't seen anything to indicate that the speed would be the problem. I also have seen that the GoFlex Desk drive has a problem with Lion OS, but the Seagate site seems to say it is compatible. Any suggestions are appreciated.

Pixillation on picture when using external drive

Hi, I have been editing with Final Cut Pro 5.0 on my Mac Book OS 10.4.8 2GHZ !GB 667 MHz, capturing directly to my hard drive, until I recently ran out of space. I bought a My Book (Western Digital) 500 GB Premium (7200RPM firewire) drive to move all the video footage to, but after moving it, the picture in the sequence is pixillated and crappy (it worked fine when the media files were on the internal drive). Can someone help me-- is it the drive or the limitations of the computer? Or is there a way to fix this problem?
Any answers would be appreciated.
Thanks

So as I look at it this morning, it looks that the video (as Quick time files) plays fine directly from the external drive. No pixillation in just playing the Quick time files. The pixillation is evident in FCP only, mostly on the high motion material. And just to repeat, the pixillation was not there when playing from the internal hard drive. I did indeed format the drive for the Intel-based Mac.

Mac Pro freezes when using external drives

I have a 2009 imac 27 and a macbook pro. I do a lot of design work so I have started saving all my work to a time capusle with both computers linked up to it. This has been fine for all software used, final cut, adobe cs5 master collection, cinema 4d etc.
My problem started when I got a mac pro. If I try to save directly to the time capsule I get the coloured "wheel of wait" and the software, eg illustrator shows 100% cpu usage and never drops back down. Eventually I can't do a thing.
I installed cs6 onto the macbook pro and got the same thing.
But, I also have the same problem if I try to put files on a usb stick from the mac pro, Finder goes to 100% cpu and stops responding or transfer stops about 8mb in and doesn't go any further and I cant stop the transferto try again. It's there until I reboot. Sometimes it locks up the whole system.

The Time Capsule is a horrible place to routinely save your files. Its drive is pathetic -- suitable only for backups, and the connection to it using USB2 is horribly slow.
You have a Mac Pro now. Put another "real" drive in a bay there, and enable File Sharing. Save your files there. (Gigabit Ethernet with Jumbo frames recommended.)
As long as you have an Apple Base Station hosting your network, you can even allow the Mac Pro to sleep and use "Wake on Demand" to wake it for Sharing.

HT201250 how do I disable time machine? I want to use my external drive as additional storage. But it mirrors everything I edit. If I remove a document, it removes it from the external drive as well.

how do I disable time machine? I want to use my external drive as additional storage. But it mirrors everything I edit. If I remove a document, it removes it from the external drive as well.
I purchased a 1 TB WD passport drive, formatted for Mac. I set it up originally (mistakenly) to backup time machine. I went back and set it to "do not backup" It still backs up evey document I edit. If I add a document when the drive is disconnected, it automatically adds it to the external drive the next time connect to the passport drive. If I remove a document the same thing happens.
I need additional storage to free up space on my laptop hard drive. This is not working the way I want it to. Help!

Do not backup your startup volume to another partition on the same drive. If the drive fails you have nothing. Always backup to another drive or volume on another drive.
The I/O error usually means there's a problem with the drive. Clone ASAP, then repartition and reformat the main drive. Then restore the clone. Here's the basic process:
You will have to backup your OS X partition to an external drive, boot from the external drive, use Disk Utility to repartition and reformat your hard drive back to a single volume, then restore your backup to the internal hard drive.
Get an empty external hard drive and clone your internal drive to the external one.
Boot from the external hard drive.
Erase the internal hard drive.
Restore the external clone to the internal hard drive.
Clone the internal drive to the external drive
Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the external backup drive. Source means the internal startup drive.
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears. Select the icon for the external drive and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
After startup do the following:
Erase internal hard drive
Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
After DU loads select your internal hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed. Do not quit Disk Utility.
Restore the clone to the internal hard drive
Select the destination volume from the left side list.
Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
Check the box labeled Erase destination.
Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the internal hard drive. Source means the external startup drive.
Note that the Source and Destination drives are swapped for this last procedure.

When I backed up files on my external drive, I inadvertently dragged my itunes library there. Now I can only play songs on my laptop when my external drive is plugged in. How do I get the library back to my computer

When I was backing up files from my computer to my external drive, I inadvertently dragged my itunes library to the external drive. Now I can only play my library when my external drive is plugged into my computer. How do I get the library location changed back to my computer?

Your drive was used with a PC and formatted NTFS which is proprietary Microsoft format.
You need to install a third party program that will read the NTFS format.
There is various software from PARAGON, Tuxera and NTFS-3G
When you get the data off and have verified it to be good, reformat the drive either HFS+ for Mac use only, or for Mac and PC use then MSDOS (FAT32) for under 4GB files (best) or exFAT (for larger than 4GB files) is proprietary and Microsoft is appling for a patent, which would likely mean OS X won't be allowed to read it anymore without a licensing fee and you'l have to pay another third party software company to read the format, just like NTFS is.
The less you have to rely upon third party sources to read your drives the better, this way if you have a issue and need to read the drive on another machine you don't need the software, and a internet connection and a credit card and...and...and...

Updated to Mavericks OS X but can't use my external drive by WD My Passport. The Mac reads it but I can't add/remove files to the external drive. Help?!

Updated to Mavericks OS X but can't use my external drive by WD My Passport. The Mac reads it but I can't add/remove files to the external drive. Help?!
The WD My Passport, I purchased back in early December 2013 & I just used it the other day after I updated my Macbook... & of course it says in the online manual it works for Mac Lion, Mountain Lion, Snow Leopard but not this new Maverick update. Is there anything I can do?

I like the free demo of SuperDuper to make clones. It's free, Tiger and Leopard ready and is easy to use. If you buy the full version you can do incremental backups.
You should use Disk Utility to do a Disk Repair, as shown in this link, booted up on your install disk, before you make a clone of it.
I then partition my external disk, in Disk Utility, with a partition that is the same size , actually a tad bigger, as my system disk. I then use SuperDuper to clone my system disk over to that partition.
With a clone on an external FireWire drive (USB drives are not bootable on some Macs) you can bootup on it to do your repairs or just run your Mac anytime you have trouble with your main drive. Be careful, there are a few external FireWire drives out there that are not bootable on Macs. Check the drive's manual to be sure.
 DALE

Migration Assistant problem? : New iMac's iTunes doesn't see the catalog or playlist of my old Mac's songs on an external drive

So I just migrated from a 10.7.5 iMac 27" from 2009 to 10.9.4 on a 2013 27" iMac with Fusion Drive.
I don't use Time Machine. There are no backups involved here.
Used Ethernet. Only took 20 hours... (BTW, it stayed on "less than 1 minute left" for like 12 hours but luckily I was away and just left it going in hopes it would work... and it did!)
Anyway, back on my OLD iMac, I kept all of my songs on an external drive because my internal drive was too small. So iTunes looked at that drive for the music it was playing. I turned that drive off, even disconnected it, during the migration process because I thought it was confusing it during the first attempt which took 10 hours and nothing happened.
So now it worked, finally. On my new iMac, running Mavericks, I now have two user accounts... the one that was set up when I started the computer the first time, and the new one that transferred over via Migration Assistant. No problem. I can live with that. The only thing is, I would still think the old XML files and library stuff would migrate over... but iTunes doesn't see it. When I open up iTunes, in *either* account, iTunes behaves as if it's brand new. Repeat: the old and new account on the new iMac, both, do not see an old iTunes library which IS on the old iMac. Only the music is on the external drive from what I understand.
I've done this before so I know it's possible. I remember upgrading a long time ago and got iTunes to see my old library... even though some of the music was no longer there. It just puts "!" marks wherever there is no link. I was hoping that that's what I would find when I launched iTunes, but no luck. Even connecting the old hard drive to the new Mac (via USB) doesn't make iTunes all of a sudden "see" the old library. That data doesn't seem to be there. It didn't transfer over. Did it not transfer over because the songs weren't on the internal volume? Should I have left my external hard drive on?
So.... now that I've spent almost 3 days total trying to get this to work, and everything is running... I don't want to have to start over in order to get iTunes to work. Is there a way I can just drag over some XML files or something from the old computer? I don't want to lose all of the ratings and personal notes and everything.
I should add also that I have like only four songs I've ever actually bought through iTunes. I'm still a bit old fashioned and buy CDs and rip them to Apple Lossless. So I hope it's not an authorization / reauthorization issue because I have like 1400 albums ripped.
Thanks in advance for any help.
--Jeff

iTunes does not use the .xml it uses the .itl
If you are sure your old library file migrated across (does the file size and modification dates suggest it has?) start iTunes while holding down the option/alt key and guide it to the .itl file to get it to use that one.

Transfered all songs to an external drive and now cant access them

I thought I could move my songs to an external drive and still access them the same way I did when they were on my PC. I have the external drive plugged in Itunes gives a message "the song could not be used because the orriginal file could not be found. Would you like to locate it." I can then search and find it on the external drive one song at a time. I wnat the Itunes to work as if the song were in their orriginal location. Can this be done with out mooving them one by one back to an almost full hard drive?

Yes you could move everything back to your computer start over with a new a new library if you wish. Just so long as you aren't concerned about things like ratings or playlists or the number of times something was played etc. If the songs are all in one folder you could add that folder to your new library and it would bring all the songs with it just go to Edit>Add Folder to Library. To create or access a second (or more) library, hold down the Shift key in Windows when launching iTunes. In the resulting dialogue you will get the option to create a new library or open an existing one: Using multiple iTunes libraries -Windows

When using external speakers, they won't unmute

I am using a U530 Touch with Realtek HD Audio driver version 6.0.1.7535 and Windows 10 build 10240. When using external speakers, everything works fine, except when I mute speakers they will not unmute without unplugging the 3.5 mm speaker jack and plugging it back in to the unit. Using the laptop's internal speakers does not produce the same proplem (mute/unmute works fine). I have looked at every setting and find nothing, nor have I seen this problem reported in the forums. HELP!!!

Rattle Snake wrote:
Firstly how do I know if this is a 1st or 2nd generation shuffle? Bought in May at Palo Alto Store but there doesn't seem to be anything on the packaging to tell me.
1st Gen shuffle was white, plastic, and shaped like a chewing gum package.
2nd Gen shuffle is aluminum, with a spring clip on the back and comes in silve and assorted colors...
When the shuffle is connected to the external speakers(bought at the same
time) it only plays about 5 songs and then stops.
Does it play through the earphones after this happens? Does it still have power or is the battery depleted after it stops playing?
What Brand & model are the speakers?

Can't switch iPhoto Libraries to use external drive

I'm using iPhoto 4.0.3 on an old iBook G3, and I keep my photos on an external drive, but right now I can't access it, because my computer seems to have created its own imaginary version of the external drive, which I can't access. (I'll explain it better below.)
In other words, if I open iPhoto, there are photos there (165 of them, all fairly recent), but if I try to find an iPhoto Library on my hard drive, or any record of the photos in it, I come up empty. I must have accidentally imported photos when my external drive wasn't connected, but now I can't figure out where my computer actually put those photos, so that I can delete that iPhoto Library and go back to using the iPhoto Library on my external drive.
Here's what I've found so far:
If I open Finder and search for iPhoto, there is no iPhoto Library.
If I search for the name of one of the photos that's displayed in iPhoto, I get 0 results.
If I search for all files with the .jpg extension, none of the photos that's showing in iPhoto shows up.
If I create an album and put some photos in it, and then search for that album name, I get 0 results.
BUT, if I try to EXPORT a photo from iPhoto, I get some clue to where these photos are hiding - the default location to export photos to is XXX's Computer/Macintosh HD/Volumes/FANTOM/Pictures/iPhoto Library. That's the location of the iPhoto Library on my external drive.
Also, based on an answer to another forum question, I opened Libraries/Preferences/com.apple.iPhoto.plist in Text Edit and searched for key>RootDirectory, and the directory it gives there is /Volumes/FANTOM/Pictures/iPhoto Library. The only problem is, I've disconnected my external drive and restarted my computer, and iPhoto is still displaying 165 pictures in my photo library.
So it seems like my computer THINKS it's looking on my external drive, but actually it's looking at some 'volume' that's on the hard drive - and even when the external drive is connected, the only photos it shows are the ones in this volume, not the ones in my actual iPhoto Library. I want to be able to switch to my normal photo library, but the only way I can do that is if I figure out where this mystery photo library is located, and rename it. Does anybody know how to do this?
Thanks for your help.
iBook G3 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

You don't say whether you've restricted your search, or where you are searching. If you haven't renamed your iPhoto Library folder and it doesn't show up in a search, then it isn't there.
I'm not clear on what you mean by "imaginary version of external drive". Disconnect the drive, and there should be very little left to it's imagination. If iPhoto launches, then it's not looking for the iPhoto Library folder on the external drive -- nothing imaginary.
The destination to which a photo is exported has nothing to do with where iPhoto might have its library (real, or imagined). An "exported" photo is, by definition, not a part of your iPhoto library -- all you're doing is drawing conclusions from unrelated information.
Quit iPhoto if it's running, disconnect your external drive, and delete the "com.apple.iPhoto.plist" file from your user's Library >Preferences folder. If iPhoto starts without any unusual prompts, then it is (and likely, has been all along) using the iPhoto Library folder from your start-up drive's Pictures folder.

Moving songs to an external drive

Hi,
I know this may sound like a stupid question, but I'm not an iTunes user, my husband is... My hard drive is completely full because he has downloaded too many songs. We have a huge external drive. How do I physically move the songs to my external drive so that they can play in iTunes?
Also, can I delete the songs after they are exported? HOw will I know they were moved successfully? How do I open the songs from the external drive in iTUnes?
Thanks in advance to whomever answers my questions! Happy July 4th!

The simplest way to move itunes on to an external drive is:
Close iTunes
copy your iTunes folder onto the external drive. (That's My Music\iTunes)
Start iTunes with the shift key held down and when asked to choose a library navigate to the itunes folder on the external drive and choose iTunes Library.itl.
If everything works OK, rename the iTunes folder on the internal drive and make sure everything still works.
Once you are ABSOLUTELY certain everything works OK you can delete the old iTunes folder, which you renamed.
Most peope's recycle bin is not big enough to hold all the music so don't delete things until your are sure everything is working OK on the external drive.
It is also a good idea to have a separate backup of your music.
Note that this procedure only works if you have a standard set up with all your music in iTunes\iTunes Music.

How to download all songs from my external drive into my itunes library

I have enough Gbytes to not use an external drive for my music.
How do I proceed to download all songs from the external drive on my internal drive?

Hello there, Laetidela.
The following Knowledge Base article offers up some great steps on how to move your iTunes library from an external hard drive to your computer:
iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4527
External drive
This option requires more work than Home Sharing, but it creates a backup of your iTunes library on the external drive in addition to moving your content.
Notes before you start:
You can use most iPods as an external drive.
Windows operating systems don't recognize Mac OS-formatted disks (HFS or HFS Plus formats). Because of this, you can't use a Mac-formatted iPod or external drive to move your music to a Windows PC. See iPod: How to determine iPod's hard disk format if you're not sure how your iPod is formatted.
Mac OS X can read Windows-formatted iPods and drives. This means there are many ways to migrate your information from your old Windows-based PC to your new Mac.
Mac OS X: To be sure external drives appear on your desktop, choose Preferences from the Finder menu. Be sure the options for "External disks" and "Hard disks" are enabled.
Part 1: Locating and consolidating the iTunes Media folder
Part 2: Copy iTunes folder from the old computer:
Part 3: Get iTunes ready on your new computer
Part 4: Back up any music that's already on your new computer
Part 5: Copy music to your new computer
Part 6: Add preexisting music that was on the new computer back into the library
Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Pedro.

Itunes can't locate songs stored in external drive

i had created playlists and added songs to the playlists in itunes 7.02. these songs are stored on an external drive. i did not sync my ipod immediately but tried it a few days later. despite the external drive being connected to my laptop, when i tried to sync the ipod with itunes, for 90% of the songs there was an exclamation mark next to the song & i had to manually double click on a song name in itunes, and locate it in the external drive, in order for itunes to be able to sync it.
i can't do that for 3000+ songs. why can't itunes recognise and locate these songs when they have been stored in the itunes library from the external drive? isn't there a way to tell itunes to locate songs in the external drive? especially when they had been added from there in the first place?

Hi there,
I'm having the same problem, I'll list it in case I'm somehow different from the other case but unfortunately directing iTunes to that folder doesn't seem to do the trick...?
Have bought a Seagate 320GB external drive, copied my iTunes library (that was located in my /Users/Shared folder) to a new location on my external drive and redirected iTunes to the new location. It said it was updating the folder which took a while and I assumed was a good sign due to my 8948 songs but alas the dreaded exclamation mark has appeared next to every track. If I redirect one to the new location it works fine but f*ed if I'm gonna do that for the other 8947. If I quit iTunes and reopen it, it's still directed to the same correct place and the previously located still works but the rest don't. Is there a) some reason this may not be working correctly; or b) a quick way to redirect every song to their location? Thanks so much for your help.

Synch removes songs when using external drive?

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