Two drives for iTunes?

I have a 1TB hard drive full of movies and TV shows, almost. When it is full, what do I do? Is there a way to set a second drive for movies and TV shows, or do I just have to buy a bigger hard drive?
bob

the following reads may be helpful: one and two.
JGG

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Case Sensitive External Drive for iTunes

My iTunes Library is currently stored on a case sensitive external drive. I am moving it to another drive that I found out is formatted as a non-case sensitive (both areJournaled). When I tried to move my iTunes Library, it would not copy because there are apparently some duplications that are different in case and this causes a problem when duplication to a non-case sensitive drive.
I figure I have two options:
1) Reformat the new drive to be Journaled and Case Sensitive
2) Go through the tedious process of identifying which files in the iTunes Library would be duplicates in a non-case sensitive drive. There could be just a few or hundreds (or even thousands).
What is the disadvantage of using a Case Sensitive drive for iTunes (option #1)? I may also store some other files on this drive.
I noticed that all my other drives, on both my desktops and external are formatted as non-case sensitive.

If you can get to the two metadata files that iTunes keeps on the old PC, then you have several options. See: What are the iTunes Library files?
1) Use the 'iTunes Library.itl' file on the old PC to completely recreate your Library. You will have to place all the music files/folders in the exact same location on the new PC as they were on the old PC. That drive letter and directory path. Then copy the older ITL file over the current one on the new PC. Open iTunes and you'll have a clone of the old PC's Library. As you have been using an ExHD to store the music, this would be my preferred choice. It's easy to remap the drive letter of an ExHD, if needed.
2) The other way is to 'File=>Import' the XML file and recover the Playlists from there. They will not be in any folder structure as they were in the previous iTunes. Also, any playlists that depended on ratings, play counts and last played will be changed, as those attributes have not been carried over using this method.
Post back if you have questions.

Should I create a partition on external drive for iTunes music?

...or will it create it's own space outwith my backup stuff?
(Secondary question: would moving my iTunes music from internal to external drive noticably improve performance of my Mac? I'm using about 135GB of a 250GB drive, 60GB of which is in iTunes Music folder)

Should I create a partition on external drive for iTunes music? or will it create it's own space outwith my backup stuff?
I see no good reason to create a separate partition unless you're backing up with Time Machine. TM prefers to have it's own volume, so in that case partitioning would probably be a good idea.
would moving my iTunes music from internal to external drive noticably improve performance of my Mac? I'm using about 135GB of a 250GB drive, 60GB of which is in iTunes Music folder.
No, probably not. As long as you're not getting the drive too full - opinions vary but about 20GB remaining should be plenty for most uses - you probably won't see any overall change in performance just from moving the iTunes content.
Message was edited by: Dave Sawyer

I have two accounts for iTunes and i got my music transferred to my other account and i have to wait 90 days to get it I'm trying to know how to fix it

can someone help me

Manieri28 wrote:
I have two accounts for iTunes and i got my music transferred to my other account
How did you manage this?

Using portable hard drive for iTunes

I have windows 8 and am having a hard time figuring out how to use my portable hard drive for iTunes. I have all my media on the portable hard drive in a folder named iTunes. When I change it in iTunes to use that folder none of the media I have in there shows up on iTunes. Can someone please help me out?

I dragged the folder to iTunes and Its "adding files now". Isn't that putting all the media on the PC? I don't want any of my iTunes media on the PC. I want iTunes to use the portable hard drive to get my media.

Network drives for iTunes library...

Hi,
At the moment my current iTunes setup consists of 4 external desktop hard-drives storing my library - music, movies and TV shows (4.6TB is the size of my library).
I want to use a network attached storage device that works well with a Mac OS X and iTunes. Preferably I'd like a multi-bay hard-drive enclosure and connect it to either my MacBook Pro or to a Airport Extreme.
I've seen some enclosures that offer 2-4 3.5" hard-drives but there isn't a great deal of information on Mac support.
Does anyone have any advice on this?

I suspect this is possible by unchecking the "consolidate library" feature
Yes. I have my music split between two drives.
but would like to have new music added (which I burn or download occasionally) into the main library rather than scattered around. Any easy solutions here?
I don't know if this is "easy" but I just have two folders for music and whenever I add something to either I also drag it to itunes so for me it is easy by being systematic. Even if you forget to add it to itunes, as long as you keep it in one folder you can just periodically drag that folder to itunes and it will add anything that isn't already in the itunes library to the library. In my experience if something is already in the library it ignores it.

Use same external drive for itunes in mac and windows?

Hi,
I have a Macbook Air that has bootcamp and I use 99% of my time under Windows 7.
All of my music and movies are on an external hard drive and I have a problem using
it for iTunes under Windows and the Mac at the same time.
Is it possible to have both versions point to the same external drive?
I tried almost everything but it fails as the file paths are stored once and for all in
the iTunes library file.
When booting under OS/X and opening iTunes, it loads the .itl file and shows all music
but of course it doesn't see anything since the path under OS/X has nothing to do with
the one under Windows.
My iTunes lib was created under Windows and all files are stored in a variation of:
J:\Private\My Music\iTunes[Rock | Classical | Soundtracks]
Under OS/X of course the path is totally different:
/Volumes/DRIVE_J/Private/My Music/iTunes/[Rock | Classical | Soundtracks]
Now if I reimport everything in iTunes for OS/X it will change all the paths and then
Windows will not be able to fetch the files.
Isn't there a way to have relative paths so both the OS/X and Windows versions
of iTunes work flawlessly without caring at all about which OS is running?
This is driving me nuts.
I'm not talking about Sharing an iTunes library over a network. I want to share the
same physical folder between Windows and OS/X
Thanks for any help.
Steve

Anyone?

External Drive for ITunes and IPhoto

I'm out of space on hard drive and would like to use an external hd for all Itunes and Iphotos. Can someone help me in moving these to the external and to make this external the default drive for all things new to both ITunes and IPhoto? I'm a novice!

You post in a workstation forum, Mac Pro has 4 internal drive bays and easy to expand and upgrade.
But yes you can have any media library and folder on add'l drives.
How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
Transferring iTunes Library
Moving your iTunes Music folder
Transferring your iTunes Library iLounge

I am using external drive for iTunes why does it put art on internal

I have my itunes library on an external drive which works quite well for the most part. However it keeps recreating an itunes folder and subfolders on my internal drive mainly artwork and .itdb, .itl and .xml files in user/music/itunes. this is quite annoying because I am trying to keep as much data as possible off my internal drive for space considerations. I have tried deleting these files but itunes just recreates them. Does anyone have any ideas?

pharmercist wrote:
Solved the problem. When I initially moved itunes to the external drive I copied the entire iTunes folder and seleted the appropriate library drive in preferences
This is not the correct way to do it.
This still uses the iTunes folder on the internal for the iTunes library file, artwork etc.
Holding Option and Choose library... tells iTunes to use everything in the iTunes folder you select.
Holding Option and Choose library... you do not need to change the Tunes prefs > Advance - iTunes media folder location.

Recommended External Drive for iTunes

Can anyone recommend a good 2-3 terabyte external drive to be attached either to Mac Mini or Network and to hold all my current and future iTunes media ??
I have 500gb already and dont want to use up the entire Mac Mini drive
Tha

I have been using a Western Digital 3TB drive for about 3 months now ( upgraded from a 2TB other make ) and have had no issues. It is quiet and reliable and fast enough sending movies to ATV over LAN that I don't notice any delays.
Sometimes it will sleep but wakes upon accessing a movie.... the movie starts playing after a few seconds buffering.
No complaints.

Using Time Capsule as External Drive for iTunes Music Folder in iTunes 9

First, prior to upgrading to Snow Leopard and iTunes 9, I had my 210 GB of music on a 1TB Time Capsule which I accessed wirelessly through my Macbook Black and I set my path to the "iTunes Music (External) Folder" I created on the Time Capsule as the default path for iTunes to access the iTunes Music (External) Folder. My iTunes Library and Album Art reside on the Macbook hard drive. Unless I opened iTunes when the Macbook was disconnected from the Time Capsule (e.g., not at home), it always remembered the drive path the next time it was opened and would play music fine. If I had to reset the drive path, iTunes would remember it (again, unless I was disconnected from my Time Capsule). Now, under iTunes 9.0.1 and Snow Leopard, iTunes always defaults back to the iTunes Media Folder on the Macbook each time I open iTunes even if I set the path to the Time Capsule. The TC is also used as my airport connection to the cable modem and Home Sharing is enabled. Oddly, iTunes seems to play music just fine even though the drive path to the iTunes Music (External) Folder is not being utilized, which it would not do under the old version of iTunes. A screenshot is below. Anyone know what is going on here?
/Users/seanrichardson/Desktop/Screenshot_1.png

Make sure the Time Capsule is ready and mounted before launching iTunes.
You can add it (the Time Capsule) to your Login items in System prefs -> Accounts.

External Drive for iTunes new MacBook Air

I recently upgraded from a MBP (2009) to a new MBA. I have always had my iTunes directory on an external drive. (For the last 3 MacBooks I have had...) so I know how to properly map iTunes to the drive, etc...
When I finished setting up the new MBA - I attempted to access the External Drive hooked up to my new TimeCapsule. However iTunes would not recognize the database. (I set the new location as directed)
I then disconnected the External Drive, and connected directly to the MBA - and attempted the same - with no luck.
The only way I seem to be able to access anything on my iTunes is via iTunes Match.
Does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you in advance..

Choose Go to Folder from the Finder's Go menu, provide ~/Music/ as the folder's path, and drag the entire iTunes library, including the database files, to it.
Alternatively, you can drag the entire library to any location on the internal drive, launch iTunes with the Option key held down, and choose it.
If you only put the songs and not the database files on the external drive, drag it to the internal drive and from there to the library in the open iTunes application window.
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Using external hard drive for itunes from mac to windows

Hello, I have an external hard drive for my itunes music connected to a G4. I just bought a laptop (windows) and would like to connect the external drive to it so it will read my music from the external hard drive. How can i do that?
Thanks,
M

You will lose all data when you reformat so you must copy it elsewhere temporarily, as for the format go to: Applications>Utilities>Disk Utility>Erase, in the format dropdown select MSDOS (FAT) and in the name dropdown, type a name.
Copy your data back to it and it will be accessible to windows and osx

Same external drive for iTunes and Zune?

Hi all,
I have an external drive that holds all of my music, which is for iTunes and my iPods. I used to have Zune players, and recently found them in a box. I tried to set up Zune on my brothers PC, but it doesn't read my external drive. I just saw that my external is formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Is there a format I can use that would work on both a Mac an a PC?
If not, I can format another drive I have so it would work on the PC. I would then like to transfer my music from my Mac OS Extended (Journaled ) to the other drive. Will it work, or will the music files also still be M OE E (Journaled)?
Thanks for any help...

Figured it out. I just formated a seperate external drive to DOS Fat and copied the music from the Mac OS Extened external drive. I was able to put the music on my Zunes and it worked, even as MP4's.

Using External HD as well as local drive for iTunes?

So, I just got my brand spanking new 160GB Classic today. I have an external HD I have never set up but am thinking now is the time so I can load all of the music there and sync the iPod accordingly (as well as have a back up if I need to reset the iPod - I dont relish the idea of redoing 1600+ CDs). But, I also want to be able to use my local drive for when I make CD mixes. Am I going to foul something up setting up this way? IE, can I have the HD be the destination while loading up for the iPod, and then just change my iTunes preferences for when I want to use the local drive?
First thing I did, thanks to the forum, was upload the firmware update. I am hoping to keep moving forward with minimum complication, though I am sure I will have more questions before I am done.
TIA!

I use my iPod classic auto-synching with an iTunes library split between my Macbook Pro and an external HDD, so perhaps I can help.
*First, you should know the limitations of this setup*: When using your computer without the external HDD attached, you will not be able to create new playlists in iTunes using songs that are located on the external drive. As soon as you click a song entry in iTunes, it will put an exclamation mark icon next to the song, and iTunes will refuse to let you do anything with it (such as putting in a playlist, or modifying any song metadata). Once you reattach the external drive, you'll be good to go, and can modify any song metadata or add those songs to new playlists.
The good news comes to use of the iPod. If you add songs to an On-The-Go playlist on your iPod, or change the rating of a song on the iPod, those changes will sync back to iTunes for the song file on your computer +*even if the the song is for a file located on the external HDD, and the external HDD is not currently attached.*+ Play counts will also synchronize back, and Smart Playlists affected by changes will update as well.
In short, from iTunes you can only modify song metadata or add those songs to fixed playlists if the file is currently accessible by iTunes (so the external HDD must be attached). However, if you create an On-The-Go playlist on the iPod using external HDD songs, that playlist will be created in iTunes the next time you synch. Also, song ratings and play counts altered during iPod playback will be updated in iTunes on the next sync even if the song file is on the external HDD, and the external HDD is not currently attached. I hope that makes sense.
*Setting up a split library:*
1. Make sure the files you want stored on the external hard drive aren't currently in your iTunes library. If the files are not yet moved over to the external drive, do that now.
2. Open up iTunes preferences, click on "Advanced," and under the "General" tab, make sure that "Copy Files to iTunes Music Folder" is not checked. Click the "OK" button to save the setting.
3. Time to add the songs on the external hard drive to your iTunes library. Choose File -> Add To Library... (or just press Command+O), navigate to the folder on your external hard drive where your music files are stored, select that folder, then click "Choose". Entries for the songs will appear in your iTunes library, but the song files themselves will remain on the external drive.
4. Keeping your external drive mounted, now is the time to add any songs to playlists that you'd like, or modify song metadata (fix spelling errors in artist names, etc.).
5. Once everything is to how you currently want it, mount your iPod to your computer and let it synchronize (NOTE: your external drive must be mounted during this first sync to your iPod in order to transfer the files from it.)
6. Once the iPod synchronization is complete, you can unmount your external drive. You can also re-enable the "Copy Files to iTunes Music Folder" preference setting at this time, if that's how you normally keep things (the files put on the external drive will not move over to your internal drive unless you use the "Consolidate Library" feature at some point in the future). Obviously, though, if you add files from an external HDD in the future - and want them to stay there - you'll need to temporarily disable this setting again.
At this point, clicking on any song file in iTunes which is stored on the external drive will generate the aforementioned exclamation point icon, but the icon will disappear the next time the external drive is attached and iTunes is launched. Also, any iPod synchronizations in the future will generate a warning in iTunes that the song file could not be found on your computer (if the external HDD isn't attached). However, the file will remain on your iPod, and the placeholder entry in iTunes will remain as well (even if you are using automatic synchronization). If you don't wish to see the "can't find the file warning," there's a box you can check on the warning dialog to hide it in the future (to bring them back, control-click your iPod in the iTunes sidebar, and choose "Reset Warnings" from the menu that appears).
So that's how it works. I've been using the split library system without a hitch for quite some time (with older iPods, and now my iPod classic). This way I'm able to keep massive video files and Apple Lossless files off the internal drive of my Macbook Pro, and yet I'm still able to keep those files on my IPod and do basic synchronization with the computer even when I'm away from the external hard drive. If I ever want to create new Playlists using those external HDD files, I either create On-The-Go playlists on the iPod, or just wait until I can have the external HDD attached to the computer.
It works well for me, and perhaps it might for you, too.

Two drives for iTunes?

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