Transfering I tunes Library to external hard drive?

Hi,
The other day to free up space on my hard drive I transferred my Itunes Folder to an external hard drive. When I updated to 5.0 and went into preferences to point to the new location for the library I tunes does not recognize the library.
I have not synced up my ipod which has all my bought songs which of course are not backed up. So my question is can the library be on a external hard drive? And if not can I sync up my ipod so that the songs from the ipod will fill the new 5.0 and not lose my songs?
Thanks
Erik

Welcome to Apple Discussions.
Check this: MacMuse, "Move iTunes music/Library to new drive", 12:34pm Oct 12, 2004 CDT

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Transferring i tunes library to external hard drive

to be honest, i am not mac savvy, so i am obviously doing something wrong. i am trying to transfer my i tunes library to my external hard drive. i have made multiple attempts, including consolidating, but it doesn't seem to work. i go thru the process and check the external hard drives and the songs are not there. any suggestions on how to take care of this issue are appreciated.

welcome to Apple discussions !
click here for tips/instructions on how to move your library properly.
JGG

Problems backing up I-tunes library to external hard drive.

Help - I'm having problems backing up I-tunes library to external hard drive. The drive appears on the desktop but when I try to drag in my i-tunes music folder I just get the circle with a line through it symbol. I can drag items from my mac to a different 4 gig memory stick with no problems. I put some music onto the hard drive from a windows p.c. and that dragged into my i-tunes fine. Any help would be much appreciated.

i'm guessing the external HD is NTFS formatted, which your Mac cannot write to (read only).
you will either have to reformat it (FAT32 or, better yet, for Mac) or install the _*NTFS 3G*_ driver.
JGG

Problems Moving I-Tunes Library to External Hard Drive

I've ran out of disk space on my internal hard drive so have bought an external hard drive and want to move my iTubes database and music to the new drive and free up my internal hard drive. I have music that has been ripped from my CDs in iTunes, plus I have loaded into iTunes other music I had lying around elsewhere on my internal hard drive. I changed the location of the iTunes database to the new drive and then selected Consolidate Library. It then starts copying the files elsewhere on my internal hard drive and then errors before it gets around to copying the rest of the files in the iTunes library ie. none of the music that I have imported directly into iTunes has copied across to the external hard drive, only a large number of the other music files I had on the drive before I installed iTunes. Any ideas how I either (a) find the offending file(s) and remove them, or (b) get around this problem and continue copying everything I possibly can without erroring out.
thanks in advance
Andy

Ick, that message usually shows up while trying to sync an iPod. Well, iTunes thinks one of the files is corrupt and doesn't tell you which one, lovely, isn't it?
The only thing I can think of is what I had to do when I got an error message from the consolidate command. I kept watching the folder it was consolidating to using Windows Explorer, look at the column Date Modified or Date Added. The last file in there is the last file iTunes was able to copy with success.
Now, you need to go hunt for the next file, the file that made it error in iTunes. The consolidate command copies files in the order they were added to your library.
iTunes menu > View Options > Date Added must be checked off.
Now click twice on the Date Added column so iTunes will sort by Date Added, oldest files at the top. Find the file AFTER the last successful song. Either delete it from the iTunes libary list (not your hard drive), or rename it (which is waht I did - I had to rename a whoel album it was freaking on).
Hope that makes sense. It took me hours to consolidate my 200G+ library.
Some people just give up and create a new library with no playcounts or ratings, but I persevered; perhaps you will, too.

Moving I-tunes library to external hard drive??????

Ran out of memory with all the pics and music on computer. So I bought an external harddrive that connects with USB 2.0. How should I move the library over to the external hard drive and having it work while itunes is installed on the internal hard drive? Any help would be much appreciated.

To move your iTunes music...
Quit iTunes.
Move the entire iTunes folder including music to the external drive.
Click on the iTunes icon to start it, then immediately press an hold the Shift key in Windows, Option key in Mac.
iTunes will ask to Create new library or Choose existing library. Select Choose existing library and select the library in the folder you just moved.
Move the old iTunes folder to the trash but do not empty it.
Restart iTunes normally and verify the songs work. If they do, empty the trash.

How do I transfering my iTunes library to external hard drive?

My iTunes library is getting rather large and I only have a 60GHZ internal harddrive and two 100 GHz harddrives attached and I want to transfer all of my files to one of the external harddrives so I can continue to grow my library. Can I do this seemlessly without having to reload my 60 GHz ipod? Does the music have to remain in the MY MUSIC folder on C:\ or can I create a MY Music folder on my external drive and copy the files over?
HP Windows XP Pro 2.4 GHz, 1 Gig memory, 60 GHz HD, 56KBPS modem/DLS N/A, 2-200 GHz external HD

Give these steps a try.

Can some please provide instructions on how to import an iPhoto library from an old Mac to a new Mac without getting a bunch of duplicates? I tried transferring my pictures using an external hard drive and then copying it to the Pictures folder on my Mac

Can someone please provide instructions on how to import an iPhoto library from an old Mac to a new Mac without getting a bunch of duplicates? I tried transferring my pictures using an external hard drive and then copying it to the Pictures folder on my new Mac. I ended up getting a bunch of duplicates. My old Mac has an older version of iPhoto while the new Mac has iPhoto '11. Is that the cause of the problem? Please advise. Thanks.

Simply copy the iPhoto Library from the Pictures Folder on the old Machine to the Pictures Folder on the new Machine.
Then launch iPhoto. That's it.
This moves photos, events, albums, books, keywords, slideshows and everything else.
Regards
TD

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

Iphoto library on external hard drive now does not show all the photos when i access it from macbook

i backed up iphoto library to an external hard drive. Deleted photo library on the macbook. After transferring some new photos to macbook from a camera, when i access the iphoto library on external hard drive only the new photos show up. Originals are still in files, but don't appear when opening iphoto library on external hard drive.

Make a temporary, backup copy of your library if you don't already have one (Control-click on the library and select Duplicate from the contextual menu) and apply the two fixes below in order as needed:
Fix #1
Launch iPhoto with the Command+Option keys held down and rebuild the library.
Select the options identified in the screenshot.
Fix #2
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
Click on the Add Library button, navigate to your Home/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the File ➙ Rebuild Library menu option
In the next window name the new library and select the location you want it to be placed.
Click on the Create button.
Note: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments but not books, calendars or slideshows. The original library will be left untouched for further attempts at fixing the problem or in case the rebuilt library is not satisfactory.
OT

HELP.....I just transferred my itunes from an external hard drive and all the songs appear twice

After transferring my songs from an external hard drive, every song appears twice in my library. Both songs will play until I delete one of them and then I get a message saying the file can't be located. I can restore the song from my recycle bin and the remaining file will then work but it doesn't shopw up but once in my library. I have over 1600 songs and don't want to go thru this process for every song.......PLEASE HELP

No.
tt2

Trying to copy iPhoto Library to external hard drive for backup. Error message: The Finder can't complete the operation because some data in "iPhoto Library" can't be read or written (Error code -36).

Trying to copy iPhoto Library to external hard drive for backup. Error message: The Finder can't complete the operation because some data in "iPhoto Library" can't be read or written (Error code -36).

That code is
-36
ioErr
I/O error (bummers)
Make sure the EHD is formatted OS X Extended (journaled) and run Disk Utilty on the EHD and repair the disk. If that fails to help I'd try the following:
Using iPhoto Library Manager to Rebuild Your iPhoto Library
Download iPhoto Library Manager and launch.
Click on the Add Library button,
navigate to your Home/Pictures folder and select your iPhoto Library folder.
Now that the library is listed in the left hand pane of iPLM, click on your library and go to the Library ➙ Rebuild Library menu option
In the next window name the new library and select the external HD as the location of the newly rebild library.
Click on the Create button.
Note 1: This creates a new library based on the LIbraryData.xml file in the library and will recover Events, Albums, keywords, titles and comments. However, books, calendars, cards and slideshows will be lost.
Note 2: Your current library will be left untouched for further attempts at a fix if so desired.
OT

ITunes won't show library on external hard drive

I have just bought a MacBook Pro but I don't know how to get library on external hard drive to show in iTunes... Any suggestions please?

This is relevant portion of the support document with a bit of editing for clarity.
If iTunes is running, quit iTunes.
Using a Mac click the icon to open iTunes and immediately press and continue to hold down the Option key.
You should see the following screen:
If iTunes opens normally, close it and try again.
Once you've got that dialog you have two options. If your previous iTunes library database is stored on the external drive use Choose Library to browse to it and open it. If you only have the media folder on the drive then use the Create Library option to create a new iTunes library at /iTunes on the external, move the media folder to /iTunes/iTunes Media and then add it to your new empty library.
tt2

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

Need help using music library on external hard drive

Here is my scenario. I am hoping some one can help me as I have been having a heck of time trying to figure this out. I am what you would call newbie to Mac(I just purchased macBook) so bear with me).
I have a iTunes library on an external hard drive that was created using Windows PC machine. I now would like to use the same library on my Mac. How can I get the Mac to connect to the iTunes Music on the external hard drive?
This is what I have done so far. I have been able to network the Mac with my current network so it does see the external hard drive.
BTW, I would like to achieve this without having iTunes open on Windows machine. I know about the sharing option in iTunes but I have discovered that it only works if I have iTunes open on the Windows machine. This may not always be the case so this is why i am hoping their is an alternative to get the mac to connect to the library on the external hard drive.
I look forward to help on this one.
...Bruce

Maybe I did not explain myself clearly. All I want to do is be able to listen to the music in my itunes library on external hard drive on my new MacBook. I am thinking all I will have to do is create the itunes database file on my Mac using the music in my library(on external HD).

I need help to transfer my movies from I tunes to an external hard drive please

I need help to transfer my movies from I tunes to an external hard drive please

Teach a man to fish, feed them for life.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16276201#16276201

Transfering I tunes Library to external hard drive?

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