Syncing iTunes Library on Portable Hard Drive at Home and at Work

I have my iTunes Library (including my music, videos, ringtones, podcasts and audiobooks) stored on a portable drive so that I can play my music at home and at work. Now I have a 3G iPhone and synching is causing me problems.
I have always manually copied and deleted music and videos from my iPods because I like that level of control. But the iPhone isn't as intuitive. I turned off syncing on my iPhone for everything but the Apps (because I cannot drag and drop them onto my iPhone in the Devices list of iTunes). And those I am syncing manually by telling iTunes to sync the Apps when I click the sync button (this is the one located on the Applications screen when I choose my iPhone in the devices list).
But today I am at work and I am being told that I am not authorized to use this iPhone on this computer so I cannot sync my Apps. Well, it's the exact same iTunes library. Why is this an issue? I sometimes need to adjust or copy things on my iPhone in two locations. What's the big deal?
A second problem is my Podcasts. For some reason, I cannot copy my Podcasts to my iPhone easily. I have many Podcasts that I collect in my iTunes library and I occasionally want to copy select ones to my iPhone. With an iPod, I'd just copy it over and it would appear in a list of Podcasts. With my iPhone, I have to copy the file to a playlist on my iPhone, and the Podcast doesn't show up in the list of Podcasts underneath my iPhone device. They don't even show up in the list of Music under my iPhone device. I am not even sure I am really deleting the files once I delete them from the playlist on my iPhone. They disappear, but I don't know if I am getting that space back because they aren't listed anywhere else on my iPhone.
Sync problem three... when I try to sync my Apps, the iPhone tries to back itself up to my computer. I click the little "X" button on the iTunes display and the backup stops and the Apps start to update. But I have already deleted the iPhone from the list of "iPhones and iPods backed up to this computer" underneath the Syncing panel of the iTunes preferences and this keeps happening.
I just need my iPhone to be as easy to use as my iPod when it comes to moving content onto it. And it's not. I am forced into this synching scenario and it's not working to my satisfaction. I am feeling "Microsofted" by Apple here... as in, they seem to think they know what I want to do better than I do, and they're trying to make it "easy" for the average user at the expense of my wish for complete control. (I haven't even gotten to my horror of being forced to use iPhoto to manage my photos... I just haven't had the strength to tackle that mountain of potential issues yet... gotta work all this out first)
As a side note, if it's of any value, I have "Disable syncing for iPods and iPhone" turned ON in my iTunes preferences, "Sync only checked songs and videos" turned OFF on my iPhone splash screen, and "Manually manage music and videos" turned ON on my iPhone splash screen.
Helllllllllp!
Thank you.

christopher rigby1 wrote:
You must maintain the actual library files separately on the Mac and PC as they are different formats, and use different file paths for each song.
That is what I was hoping to avoid. That means I would not be able to sync my iPhone on both machines. It also means I would have to sync my libraries on a regular basis.
My primary goal was to be able to put a movie or two and/or a couple of training videos on the iPhone and when I get through them, be able to update the iPhone with new ones to use on the flight back home.
What about keeping the library files for both machines on the external drive, in addition to the actual library. Would that solve my problem?

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Problems Downloading iTunes Library From Portable Hard Drive

Why does it take so long to transfer iTunes songs from a portable hard drive?
Here are my stats:
Machine Name: iMac
Machine Model: PowerMac4,2
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (2.1)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 800 MHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 100 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.4.1f1
I'm downloading a 9,000 song library from the portable hard drive to an empty iTunes program. I highlighted all of the song files (Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who, etc.) It took at least an hour for all of the songs to "process". Then my computer told me there is not enough room to store them all. I understand this because the list of songs I want to import is 34 gig. What I don't understand is why it has taken since midnight last night (it is now 14 1/2 hours later) and song no.6,450 of 6,800 is loading. Does it normally take this long for such a large amount of songs to transfer. Will there be any way that I can transfer the other 2,200 songs after this is done?
I also want to know if anyone knows if it makes sense for me partition the iTunes library somehow so it won't slow the computer down by being such a large file.
iMAC 1500 Mac OS X (10.4.10)
iMAC 1500 Mac OS X (10.4)
iMAC 1500 Mac OS X (10.4)
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I would think you could access them directly from that drive, but I am not sure if the USB 1.1 bus speed will cause problems or not like stuttering, long pauses, aborts in the middle of songs, etc. You can certain give it a try and let us know if it works ok that way.
Also keep in mind that USB is a shared bus so it may work if the USB bus is doing nothing more than accessing the drive and your keyboard and mouse. If you start scanning in something from a USB scanner, printing to a USB printer, accessing a USB to Wifi device, etc. then you might see more issues with playback as iTunes has to share the USB connection with other things.
Patrick

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?
How would I backup the external hard drive? Would Time Machine (running off a separate hard drive) back up another external hard drive if they were both plugged in?
Can you burn the entire library to data discs anymore? Or do you need to make a playlist of your entire library? If the latter, is there a way to turn off the message about iTunes in the Cloud playlists only accepting songs matched or uploaded? I have some songs that erroneously did not get matched or uploaded. If I try to put them in a playlist and burn it to a data disc for backup, iTunes won't do it.
Please help!

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.
This is all you need to do. Everything will work normally.
You can delete now /Music/iTunes/ folder on the internal.

Hi, I had to re install my itunes library from a hard drive to my new laptop. Now I cant sync my iphone because itunes thinks all songs are new and basically doubling all albums. Should i restore iphone or is there a better way?

hi, i had to re install my itunes library from a hard drive to my new laptop. Now itunes thinks i am trying to add new albums and saying there isnt enoug space. should i restore or is there a better way.

Have you tried exporting a 10 second section of the footage to see if the issue shows up once the seqeunce is actually exported from the timeline. I edit on CS5 with windows 7 pro at work quite often and have no issues so I assure you that isn't the issue. I also edit with AVCHD footage when at home and work quite freqeuntly as well so I'm positive that isn't the issue. It sounds like a GPU driver has been corrupted in the way it interacts with premiere pro. What type of GPU do you have? If it supports MPE's GPU acceleration have you tried turning it off and seeing if that makes any difference?
Anyways though try to export a 10 second test section of your timeline to see if when the clip is exported from premiere it will play normally in windows media player or vlc or w/e media player you want to use. If it exports fine then you can almost be positive it's a corrupted video card driver. If that's the case I'd re-install your GPU's driver and also check your gpu makers website to see if they have a updated driver avaiable.

Can i install itunes on a portable hard drive

Can i install itunes to a portable hard drive? Also can I have more than one itunes library?
I have a very large cd collections and dont want to put all the files on my mac hard drive, would like to install or keepmthe cd on a portable drive

That was timely. I had the same question (new MBP with two drives) and you solved my question. Thank you. It works the same way you change Aperture Libraries, so it makes sense and is easy to remember.

Backup and restoring itunes library from external hard drive?

is there a way to backup and restore my itunes library to external hard drive and not through the internal itunes backup utility cos i have over 20gbs of music and i want to keep my album art and renamed songs etc. because i will be reformating my pc and dont want to go through painful task of manually adding stuff again.

Try this...
*Fast backup for iTunes library (Windows Only)*
Grab SyncToy 2.0, a free tool from MS. Use it to create a backup copy of your iTunes library & any other media folders onto another hard drive or network share. After making the initial backup copy use SyncToy to periodically synchronise the backup copy with your library and only the changed files will be copied saving lots of time.
When the time comes to reformat your PC, do a final sync, then open iTunes & deauthorise the PC, reformat & rebuild Windows, copy the backup folders back to the same location as they were previously, install iTunes and it should all work perfectly.
tt2

I have a new Windows tablet computer with limited hard drive space, and cannot transfer my itunes library to the hard drive. Can I run t media from an external hard drive? If so, how do I transfer my files?

I have a new Windows tablet computer with limited hard drive space (32 GB), and cannot transfer my itunes library to the hard drive. Can I run itunes from an external hard drive? I have tried to follow some of the directions on this site, but am having no success. Thanks.

iTunes will run fine with the media on an external drive.
However, I suggest that a tablet computer with a tiny hard drive is not ideal as the primary computer for managing an iTunes library, even a small one. If you have another machine, perhaps a big, boxy, inexpensive old desktop with a decent amount of storage, that might be a better choice.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364

How do I transfer itunes library to new hard drive running lion os

I have a Mac Pro with 2 hard drives in it.
Hard drive #1 has Leopard OS and my iTunes library on it
Hard drive #2 has Lion 10.7.4 OS and this is where I want to move my iTunes library to from hard drive #1.
How can I due this insuring that all playlists, etc. transfer seamlessly. I will then only be using the new Lion OS
to run iTunes (and this will also communicate with Apple TV, etc.)
Thanks!

Copy the entire /Music/iTunes/ folder from old hard drive to /Music/ on new hard drive.
Start iTunes.
That is all.
You can also leave it where it it, hold Option, launch iTunes.
Slect Choose library... and select the iTunes folder on the Leopard drive.
This will be your iTunes for both OS, whichever you boot into.

Backing up itunes library to a hard drive

I want to back up my entire itunes library to my hard drive but can only find instructons on backing up to cds, i have a very large library and dont want to lose any of my songs, please help
thanks

The instructions you saw are for using iTunes to back up to CD or DVD. You do not need them for backing up to an external hard drive. Just close iTunes. Make sure the hard drive is connected to the computer. Go into Windows Explorer, or "My Computer." Copy your entire "My Music" folder to the hard drive, along with anything else that you wish to back up.

I have just transferred my iTunes library from a hard drive previously connected to a windows laptop to a MacBook Pro and now all my options for editing info are greyed out. I have seen the answers if still using windows but could find a similar situation

I have just transferred my iTunes library from a hard drive previously connected to a windows laptop to a MacBook Pro and now all my options for editing info are greyed out. I have seen the answers if still using windows but could find a similar situation to this one.

Eels290776 wrote:
if my external hard drive is not connected to either of my machines, and I download something onto my iMac and then something different onto my Macbook, where are my machines going to be storing the new downloaded media
when the drive is not connected, +iTunes media folder location+ will default back to <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music/iTunes/iTunes music (or media)
and when I next connect the external hard drive how will I easily get the newly downloaded media onto the external HD
you'd have to point +iTunes media folder location+ back to the external via preferences > advanced > iTunes media folder location, then file > library, organize library > consolidate files
and essentially, to have it easily readable on both machines?
in that case it might be best to copy the entire iTunes folder to the external. then, on each machine, launch iTunes while pressing option on your keyboard. when prompted, click on +choose library+ and navigate to the iTunes folder on the external.
note only one iTunes can access the iTunes library @ a time !
also, make sure the external is mounted on either machine before launching iTunes.
JGG

Moving iTunes library to another hard drive

I followed the directions on the Apple website
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748
to move my iTunes library to another hard drive. the instructions say to delete the original iTunes folder ...
now the library has been moved (the files are in the folder on the new hard drive) but iTunes has completely lost its catalog of my music (the screen is empty when I select library in iTunes) - what happened and how can I get the catalog back without importing everything?

You missed 'Point 14':
After the folder has been copied, locate your original iTunes Music folder, and drag it to the Trash or Recycle Bin. Note: Don't remove the iTunes 4 Music Library files that may be in the same location as the iTunes Music folder.
If you deleted the 'iTunes Library.itl' file from that folder, then you deleted the iTunes database file that keeps track of all your song references, Playlists and some attributes. See:What are the iTunes Library files?
Can you recover this file from the ExHD? Or maybe the Recycle Bin? Place it back into the 'iTunes' folder under the 'My Music' folder.
If not, you'll have to 'Rebuild' your Library from the ExHD's music files. It's a simple 'File=>Add Folder' from within iTunes, but you will lose your Playlists, Ratings, Play Counts and Last Played attributes.

New Hard Drive, No Access to ITunes Library on Old Hard Drive

My hard drive died yesterday, and no data recovery was possible, so I lost my ITunes library, which was made up mostly of songs that I had imported from my extensive CD collection.
I have no backup CD with the library on it.
I had hoped that I'd be able to transfer over the songs from my IPod to the new hard drive that I had installed today. I downloaded ITunes and attached my IPod, and received a message stating that my IPod was synced with a different computer, and only had the option to (1) Transfer songs bought from the ITunes store, or (2) Sync with the new computer and erase everything off of my IPod.
I read a few help articles about using the IPod as a hard drive, but I can't do that as I don't have access to the original ITunes Library folder.
Any ideas?
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There's an answer to your question but first it's time for a little lecture - if it makes a difference, I don't feel any better about this than you do. ; - )
I hope you take this unfortunate state of affairs as an opportunity to learn a very important lesson: Back up your iTunes library as soon as you can after resolving this situation because right now you are only one glitch of your iPod away from losing your music entirely.
Many people come to the Discussions having lost their music in just such situations and, believe me, it's not a happy time for anyone.
If you place any importance on your playlists and the data they depend on, make sure to include the iTunes Library files in your back-up regimen as well.
Anyways, that's the lecture. The answer to your problem should be found in Zevoneer's post .
Good Luck! But once you have the music back on your computer, remember:
Your music is valuable - please back it up!

HT1449 move itunes library to external hard drive : fails with error -50

Following the steps to move my iTunes library to an external drive, everything is strating well, the copy beginns and after 2 hours of copy, I had this message failure with error -50.
My external hard drive is a timecapsule with enough free space.
Please could you tell me what's hapenning ?
Thank you!

I suggest you keep the entire iTunes folder to gether rather than moving only the media.
Quit iTunes.
Copy the entire /Music/iTunes/ foldder to teh external drive.
Launch iTunes and hold Option.
Select Choose library... and select the iTunes folder on the external.
This is all you need to do.

I am having trouble moving itunes library to external hard drive

It is a WD My book essential external hard drive (1 tb) that I just bought. I already have a ton of files I put on from my PC and I want to get my itunes library from my mac. When I try and drag the itunes folder into the hard drive folder it says somthing like "Can not move 'itunes' because 'music' can not be modified'" help please. Not sure about the oporating system I added below.

i'm guessing but could the WD be NTFS formatted ?
if so, your Mac can only read from, but not write to it. you may have to install the NTFS 3G driver for it to work.
to install the driver, you need to be on OS X 10.4.11 !

Send library to portable hard drive

I would like to send my music library, videos, photos, to a portable hard drive for storage, but can't find out how to do it. The drive (WD Passport)is installed on the computer, and that is as far as I can get. It shows up in my computer as drive G. Any help would be appreciated.
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Follow the instructions in this article.
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Syncing iTunes Library on Portable Hard Drive at Home and at Work

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