Tried to move iTunes library to external HD--confusion ensued

Needing to create space on my iBook (yes, iBook), running the most recent Leopard, I followed the standard instructions to move my iTunes by changing the advanced preferences in iTunes. Now iTunes thinks I have two copies of each song. One will not play because it cannot be found and has an in front, the other copy, which is the real one, plays fine.
I have well over 3,000 songs. Is there any way to straighten out this mess short of deleting the bad files from the iTunes window one at a time?
Help appreciated!!!!!!!

Solved. I dismounted my external, deleted iTunes and everything related to iTunes from the computer, reinstalled iTunes, told it not to organize my library for me, remounted the external HD, and added the songs to iTunes from within iTunes. Now I have one copy of everything and the iTunes library is on the external HD.

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Trying to move iTunes library to new external hard drive

I'm trying to move my iTunes library to a new, second, external hard drive and I'm not having much luck. I have two G-Tech 500 GB external drives. One is my Time Capsule and the other one I plan to use to house my iTunes and iPhoto libraries -- I want to free up space on my internal drive.
The iPhoto library moved over to the new disk with no problems. iTunes, on the other hand, keeps hanging up, with the "beach ball of death" and a lot of file error messages. I began moving my iTunes library onto the external drive by following these steps:
• Open iTunes
• Go to Itunes Preferences
• Click the Advanced Tab
• Note where the Music Library's located under iTunes Media folder location
• Navigate to the folder and drag the library onto the external HD.
The plan was to then go back over to iTunes and input the folder location in the iTunes Preferences so iTunes can find the library again. However, the simple drag-and-drop just isn't working. My iTunes library is about 10,000 songs and videos; if I have to do this album by album (which seems to be working, but I'm still having the occasional hang-up and freeze) it will take weeks! Has anyone had this problem before, and if so, did you find a fix?
Any advice is greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance for taking the time to look -- Tom

the support article Dennis pointed you to would consolidate your media files to the external but keep the iTunes folder on your startup disk.
another approach would be to copy the entire iTunes folder to the external and run your library from there (this assumes that all your media files are currently in <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music/iTunes/iTunes music).
so, if you're willing, start over yet again. before you proceed, erase the external using disk utility and make sure it is formatted for Mac (make sure the partition map scheme of the drive is GUID and the volume is Mac OS extended (journaled)).
now copy the entire iTunes folder (not just the iTunes music folder) to the external using the finder. when the copying has finished, launch iTunes while holding the option key, click on +choose library+ when prompted, and select the iTunes folder on the external.
once you're satisfied everything worked as expected, you can delete the contents of your local iTunes music folder.
JGG

Tried to move iTunes library, now files cannot be found

I just bought an external hard drive. I first copied my entire inter hard drive to the external hard drive. Next, I began to move my iTunes library to the external hard drive by changing the location in the advanced tab in iTunes preferences and then by consolidating the library, but then I stopped it after it began because I though that it was unnecessary to recopy the files if they had already been moved when I originally copied the entire internal hard dirve. So I simply went to the advanced tab in the preferences again and moved the location to the 'same' folder that it had been set to on the internal hard drive, but it was now on the copy of the internal hard drive on the external hard drive. I thought that iTunes would just realize that the music had changed its location, but it did not.
What I had first tried was correct, but now that I have already stopped that, and continued to delete the iTunes folder on my internal hard drive, iTunes is somewhat confused and cannot find a large number of songs. After I deleted the iTunes folder on the internal hard drive, I thought that because I had make a copy of the entire internal hard drive to the external dirve that I could just replace the iTunes folder I deleted with the copy of it from the external hard drive. This only allowed iTunes to find some of the songs, but not all of them.
Any ideas on how I can get iTunes to 'see' that all of the songs are back in their original locations?
Should I just try to move the library the correct way as I had originally tried and stopped, even though some of the songs are 'lost'?
iMac G4 1Ghz Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Fixed my problem!

Can't update iphone as not enough memeory on computer. Have tried to move itunes to an external hardrive and I thinm it has moved and clicked on the Itunes folder from the external but still says not enough memory..help

Our computer is REALLY low on memory...we will get a new one at some point but can't at the moment.
Upgraded to the new iphone 4s and bought an external hardrive so I could move my Itunes library to that, so I could update iphone/itunes (isn't enough memeory on PC to do this)
I read that I need to consolidate my itunes first but again when I tried to do this it said not enough computer memory.
Anyway I tried to move the itunes folder over to hardrive and then it looked like it had worked. Clicked on itunes via the external and it opened ituens up..brilliant I thought!Backed my old iphone up and then clicked update...then a m,essage came up saying not enough memeory on comouter to update.
Is this because i need to delete itunes off the computer?
Am worried in case it isn't on the hard drive correctly and will lose everything!

You would be better off to go through and uninstall programs you no longer need or use and move your data over to the external drive, at least temporarily. The iOS update file will be somewhere around 700MB. If your system has less than 20% free disk space, you're pushing the limits even without trying to download something that large and back up your phone so the update can process. If you're running less than 10% disk space you've entered dangerous waters no matter what you're doing.
This really isn't iPhone related and we can't advise you as to what data and applications you can move or delete. You will have to make that determination yourself or get a friend or family member to help.
If you do not have a current backup of your computer system, you need to make one. NOW!

How do I move ITunes Library to External with only 5GB of space on Internal Drive without getting Space issue message when Consolidate library option is executed?

Details:
250 GB Internal Hard Drive
50 GB iTunes Library
1 TB External Drive w/ 153 GB of Open Space that is Partioned
Steps followed:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449
I get Stuck on Step 11 Consolidate Files to new external drive location with Error message: Not enough space to move files.
This makes no sense Apple. The purpose in doing this is to free up space on my internal drive?
Any help would be much appreciated as I'm stuck and can't seem to resolve or find any suggestions to resolve...

Don't use that method. It does move the whole library, it just moves the media. The whole library is best left intact.
iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Open iTunes and immediately hold down the Option (alt) key (shift on Windows), then guide it to the new location of the library.

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.

Error when trying to move iTunes Media to external hard drive

I want to free up space on my laptop so I read this support file:
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449
I am following the directions for "Moving your iTunes Media folder" set-by-step. When I get to the step "choose Library and then Organize Library" I get an error that there is not enough room on the hard drive to copy the media files. I purchased a new Iomega eGo 250 GB for this. (My media files are only 20 GB and I only have 100 GB hard drive.) I also tried my Time Machine 500 GB drive with 300 GB free on it and got the same error. (I can copy the iTunes folders over to both drives manually but then iTunes does not see the files.)
Any thoughts? Thanks!

I can copy the iTunes folders over to both drives manually but then iTunes does not see the files.) Hold Option, launch iTunes, select *Choose library* then select the iTunes library folder you coped to the external.

Want to Move iTunes library to external drive & access from home & work

I want to move my Windows iTunes library to my new external drive and be able to access my music library from my work computer and my home computer. I have read some discussions here about move libraries and I have some concerns:
1. What is the best solution to the problems people reported about iTunes Helper changing the drive letter back to C: if they booted the computer without the external drive connected?
2. Can I buy music and make playlists from both computers and not run into problems?
3. Any other advice to avoid gotchas?
Thanks,
Mark

If the drive is formatted NTFS, the Mc will not write to it. You need a driver installed to write to NTFS.
Or refomrat the drive to FAT32/MSDOS and it'll work fine.
If you have the entire iTunes folder on the external, connect it to your Mac, hold Option, launch iTunes and select Choose library... and select the iTunes folder on the external.
Note that the iTunes versions need to be the same between computers.

Need to move iTunes library from external hard drive to Mac desktop.

I moved my iTunes library from my Mac desktop to an external hard drive. I needed to do this so the Apple Store could do maintenance work on my computer and I didn't want to lose my files. How do I move the iTunes library back to my Mac desktop?

Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Open iTunes and immediately hold down the option (alt) key (shift on Windows) so you get a prompt to select a library, then guide it to the 'iTunes Library.itl' file in the moved iTunes folder.
If you put the copied iTunes folder in the default location of Macintosh HD > Users > *User Name* > Music then you don't even need to start with the option key held down, iTunes will automatically look for it there. (Make sure there isn't anything already in the iTunes folder there that you want to keep since you will be replacing it with the one you are moving.)

Move iTunes library from external disk to internal disk

Hello,
I am currently using a Mac Mini with an external disk to store my iTunes library as well as all the media files, apps, etc. The library is managed (consolidated) by iTunes and is also organized by iTunes.
I am about to buy the new Macbook Pro and with a 1 TB drive, I wanted to move the iTunes stuff (library, media, playlists, play counts, ratings, everything) to the internal drive of the new MBP.
My questions are:
Can I do this migration (from external disk to internal disk of new Mac) as part of the Migration Assistant?
In case I can't do the above, what is the best way to do this after the new Mac has been set up?
How do I ensure that play counts, playlists, ratings, album art are preserved as I have spent considerable time setting those up?
I have 3-4 IOS devices syncing to this library. How do I ensure that when I sync them to the new computer/library, they will continue to work?
Thanks in advance.

Hi,
1. See if this support answers your query http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4889 and http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
3. Make sure complete intune folder is copied over. The Itunes Library.itl file contains all meta data.
4. Maybe someone else can make a definitive comment on this. I used migration assistant and was able to sync my ipad and ipod classic without doing anything special. I presume that it worked because both were syncing to the same library albeit on a different computer.
Jim

Move iTunes library on external HD from one Mac to another,

I have 2 MacBook Pro's both running Lion, one (17") has my iTunes library through an external hard drive. I would like to move the iTunes library on the external hard drive to the other Mac, 13" also running Lion. Can anyone help?

Export it as a QuickTime movie.
If you want to move it in an Editable format then you'll need to copy the Library that contains it over to the other machine.
Regards
TD

Can't move iTunes library onto external drive?

I am trying to clear some space of my MacBook Pro's internal hard drive by moving my iTunes library onto an Mac-formatted external drive. I have followed to the letter the instructions of the Apple document (setting external HD as location of new iTunes library, then selecting Advanced/Consolidate Library).
The process continued for a bit before it crashed and said, "Copying Music failed. The disk could not be read from or written to."
I had noticed that the error occurred when trying to copy a file that had the "#" symbol in its name. Typically, that character is only a problem with Windows, and I both disks are Mac OS. Nevertheless, I found that the song file in question was a duplicate, so I deleted it and tried again. This time, I got the error message right away!
I have installed all updates, repaired permissions, and can see no reason for this to happen. I have Googled the error message and found a lot of references to this happening when copying to an iPod, but I am moving my library to an external HD.
Please help! My internal HD is running out of space!

That was it! Thanks! During the straight-up copy of the iTunes Music folder, the operation crashed because "some data could not be read or written." Had the iTunes error message been similar, I would have known that was the case.
Currently, I am running an additional copy of the library using the ditto terminal commmand, so I can see a list of all the corrupt song files. So far about 15.
Thanks again!!!!

HT1660 move iTunes library from external drive to internal drive

I had to move my iTunes library from my internal hard disk to an external one so that they could replace the recalled hard drive on my iMac. Is moving the library back to the internal drive as easy as dragging it into the Music/iTunes folder?

iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music [library] to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527 - a somewhat bewildering and not always easily understandable set of options.
Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Open iTunes and immediately hold down the Option (alt) key (shift on Windows), then guide it to the new location of the library.itl file in the moved iTunes folder.

Got new iPhone, tried to move iTunes library to different iMac, no luck?

OK, so this is a complicated situation. My wife and I went out to get ourselves new iPhone 5s today. When we got home, we discovered that our laptops, which we had been using as our backups on iTunes, was considered out of date. We already traded in our old iPhone 4's at the store to get discounts.
So we looked around and learned that we could use an external hard drive to transfer the entire iTunes library to our desktop iMac, which is much newer and less than 2 years old, with Mountain Lion installed. I copied my wife's iTunes folder as instructed, and moved it to the iTunes folder on her personal account on the iMac. No problem.
My wife then went ahead and plugged her iPhone 5 into the iMac. We ran into some troubles such as authorizing the iMac to accept the purchases and so forth, but while we were doing this, we noticed that the last update had been 2010, when my wife had her 3GS. I thought that wouldn't be a problem, and even made sure that the correct iTunes library was selected by pressing option key while opening iTunes.
So my wife syncs her iPhone. Alas, iTunes went to the 2010 backup. However, when I press on "Apps" on the iTunes store, it shows all of her current apps from her iPhone 4. It also shows some of the books in iBooks that she saved. We have NO music files at all since we are deaf. Her contacts list is not showing on the iTunes, though.
Did we make a major goof here? Our laptops still has all the iPhone 4 info - how do we get that from the laptop's iTunes to the iMac iTunes, and then from iMac iTunes to the new iPhone 5? We thought doing the external hard drive way would be OK - it does seem to have transferred all the info but iTunes on iMac is acting like the last update was 2010.
HELP!

http://osxdaily.com/2009/09/11/iphone-backup-location/ - "in Mac OS X your iPhone files are backed up at the following location: ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/"
in OS X:
~(your home directoy)/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/

Move iTunes Library to External Drive

Hi,
I've read quite a few posts on this and tried a couple of ways, but it's not working. I come up with either an empty folder on my LaCie Hard Drive or duplicate folders that I have to import songs one by one on to the drive. I want to free up space on my iMac hard drive. There's one method that says on "step 11- choose *Consolidate Library*",under the Advanced menu in iTunes Preferences. That option is not even listed on my system (*OSX 10.3.9*).
Another method I tried was the Option button down at iTunes start up. After hitting "Choose Library" I wind up with an empty iTunes Library on the LaCie hard drive that I then have to import songs 1 by 1. (No way that's happenin')
Can someone make this a little easier for me? Any suggestions appreciated.
Thank you,
Randy

Thanks again for the information. My iTunes library is now on mt LaCie EHD,and I've freed up a about 12GB of disc space.
Now I'm curious about the whole gamut of iLife applications, iPhoto in particular.
For now this bridge is crossed, so I'll leave it at that.
These discussion boards are amazing.
Randy Allen
Applehead

Tried to move iTunes library to external HD--confusion ensued

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