Using an external DAC with my iTunes library

There are a lot of links on the web to people incorporating external DAC's in using their iTunes music library as a jutebox for your home stereo and I wanted to share my experience as I think it may help some of you in the decision making process. I spent several months researching different products and decided on April Music's Stello DA 100. The sound quality was a big part but so was the fact that they have two digital optical inputs, one coax input, and a USB input. Making it substantially more versatile than more expensive options without comprimising the sound quality. They have a U.S. based distributor/hub in Chicago which has provided me excellent service (help in using iTunes as my digital jutebox player). If you are currently connecting your computer or ipod directly to your stereo, you really should consider placing a DAC in the loop. It will make a big difference.

I noticed this is getting views so, I'm posting answers to myself if case it's helping someone else.
I turned the external drive off and started iTunes on purpose to see what it's reaction would be.
It does redirect itself to the original location, remake the iTunes Music folder on my internal drive, and start to download Podcasts.
Is it possible to stop this? Can the path to the iTunes Music folder be locked? I'd actually rather iTunes crashed than reset itself this way.

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How Do I use my External Drive for my iTunes Library without adding anything to my Mac's HD?

I have a new MBP and have transferred all of my music off my old pc (250+ gigs) to a Lacie 1TB thunderbolt external drive. How do I use the external as my primary itunes library with out using any of my Mac's HD? I'm new to mac so I have a few more questions...
1. The initial question above
2. will this work or will there be extra steps every time I disconnect and connect the external (other than ejecting)?
3. Will I be able to access it remotely / home sharing?
4. Would this work with itunes match?
Thanks All !!!

DevonC wrote:
I haven't set up Time Machine yet because it wants me to completely format my external hard drive, and it seems to want to use it for TM backups exclusively?
However, I would also like to use it to store stuff that I don't want to keep on my computer, eg tons of photos, videos, stuff from my sister's computer, etc.
Is there a way to do Time Machine but also use the external hard drive for storage? I don't mind temporarily copying the photos etc that are on there to my computer while I format, so that's not the issue. I just don't want my EHD rendered completely useless to everything else.
Thanks!!!
There are several ways to do exactly this.
If you partition the external drive, you can use one partition for TM and the other for anything else.
Even if you do not partition the drive, you can safely store other data in folders on the drive. Just to not use the folder that TM creates for anything. And it's best not to put files directly on the drive, in my opinion, but use folders for storage.
Just remember that whatever you put on the drive takes up room from TM and when the drive gets nearly full, TM will start automatically deleting older files from it's own folder.
I have my Tiger clone on my external TM drive in a separate partition and everything works fine.

I have an iMac and I am running out of disc space. I am considering an external drive to house my iTunes library. If I buy a second drive to operate as a back up will time machine back up the disc on the IMac and the external drive with the iTunes library

I have an iMac and I am running out of disc space. I am considering an external drive to house my iTunes library. If I buy a second drive to operate as a back up will time machine back up the disc on the IMac and the external drive with the iTunes library?

If you have a considerable photograph and/or movie collection you may want to consider off loading those to the EHD too. Here are Apple's article showing how handle iTunes & iPhoto libraries.
iTunes: library on EHD
iPhoto: How to move the Library to EHD
Roger

Using an external DAC with Apple TV

How is the sound quality using the Apple TV connected to a home audio system? Is anyone using an external DAC with the Apple TV to up-sample the audio?

The onboard AppleTV DAC will only be used to output analogue audio via the stereo jacks - HDMI or optical out will use the DACs in the TV/processor/receiver anuyway.
Stereo audio files are converted to a PCM bitstream (which will not use a DAC) for output via optical.
Personally I think even lossy MP3/AAC sounds great via optical from AppleTV. My Yamaha DSP won't upsample the PCM bitstream, but frankly upsampling audio isn't going to bring huge sonic benefits as it's only interpolating what isn't there isn't the first place. Granted opinions differ on whether upsampling makes things sound better or not, but you can't reproduce perfectly information you don't have , the interpolation will only be guesswork.
You may want to look at the 2 links here, which are along the lines of using AppleTV and Airport Express in hi-fi setups:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7330045&#7330045

Details needed for using two hard drives with one iTunes library

I posted this under the iTunes section but now that I think of it, it's more of an Apple TV question since I'm only concerned about how it affects my 2 ATVs.
I have a MacMini(G4) that acts as a media server for our 2 ATVs. I use one library on the Mini which has been using an external 750GB drive. However, I'm at nearly 95% capacity now and want to invest in another external drive and use both. So the question I posted on the iTunes section was...
"With far too much content in iTunes (mostly for the Apple TVs) and after reading numerous posts about using external hard drives with iTunes I'm convinced that using two external drives is my best solution.
However, I did want to understand a bit more about the details of how iTunes will manage or at least keep track of, the media. Specifically, I'm thinking of the case were I add a movie to iTunes library (of course it will not copy the file into the iTunes folder).
What will occur if I later change any of the tags for the movie (e.g., name, genre, year, etc.). Will iTunes update this information and then update the Apple TVs once they resync with the iTunes library?"
So for the very knowledgeable folks here on the ATV section, what exactly does iTunes do in this case? Will my genres be updated correctly if I change something even though the content is not copied to the iTunes folder?

If you want to use two external drives to store your itunes content, there are a couple of ways you could go about it.
You could choose to have just movies (for example) on one HDD and everything else on the other. You could further choose to have your itunes music folder on one HDD and have all content copied to it by default. When it comes to movies (in this example) you can place these on your second HDD and add them to itunes by using OPT-drag, which will temporarily disable itunes from copying the file to your itunes library.
You could also entirely disable disable itunes copying files to your itunes music folder from the itunes preferences and manually manage all your content.
Personally I'd just buy a 2 TB (for example) drive and ebay your old drive once you have moved everything from it to your new one.

What are the steps to using an external HD to save itunes library for ipod?

I just got the new ipod(30GB) that plays videos,etc. I have the itunes/ipod installed to my IBM thinkpad, but I dont want to use all my internal space for downloading music. Is there a way to use an external hard drive that will recognize my ipod and allow me to update music(library) and save my space on my internal drive. I first tried to install the itunes software to my external HD and moved my library there, but then when I plug in my ipod, my computer wouldnt recognize the usb connection? What steps do I need to follow. Right now, Im back to my old way of downloading music to my internal hard drive. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

For waht purposce?
For purchases go to Settings>iTunes and App Store and tap athe signed in ID and sign out and sign in with other ID
Note:
- Apps are locked to the account that purchased them.
- To update apps you have to sign into the account that purchased the apps. If you have apps that need updating purchased from more than one account you have to update them one at a time until the remaining apps were purchased from one account.
The ID is also used for
Settings>Messages>Send and Receive
Settings>FaceTime
Settings>GameCenter
and Settings>iCloud

Using old external hard drive as iTunes library on new macbook pro

Recently purchased new macbook pro with 256 GB of memory. I have an older external Passport for Mac hardrive with close to 1 TB of music. I would like to use this external hard drive as my itunes folder. I opened itunes on new computer, went to preferences - advanced and chose new location /Volumes/JP KAF/Itunes Media/Music and select OK but no music is available. How do I connect my external hard drive and direct my new computer to use it as my music library. I tried the starting itunes and holding Left shift key but that does not open an option of creating a library - Again, this is the newest macbook pro with retina screen. Please help.

No not do it changing preferences. That does as it says; it just relocates media, not the whole library which is more than media.
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 iTunes Library.itl file in the moved iTunes folder.

Using an external drive for my iTunes Library

One post, many questions.
Sometimes I inadvertently open iTunes with my external drive turned off. It holds my library contents.
iTunes however, with no warning or message, just reverts the library location to my internal drive and throws whatever it wants to download there (usually a few podcasts).
My bad, I know. I leave the drive turned off because I often don't need it for up to a week at a time. My iPod charges in the car as I drive around.
I end up with my library split, all but a tiny bit of content over on the external drive hooked to my airport extreme, and that drive removed as the library location in iTunes.
So I change the location, let iTunes reorganize my library, and go on my merry way. I'd like to make it not happen. No, leaving the drive on is not an option. The answer to the question "Do all your little light up boxes REALLY need to be on all the time?" is no. It's easier to turn some off, believe me.
I moved the contents of "user"/music/iTunes/iTunes Music to the external drive. Downloads, Podcasts, and TV Shows folders live in there amongst the content. It works great unless I drop my iPod in the dock or otherwise start iTunes with that drive switched off.
Is it safe to go into the original location and delete enough of the file structure to make iTunes at least say "hey! where's the library" rather than changing my set preferences and filing things where I don't want them?
If I delete user/ Music/iTunes/*iTunes Music* from my internal drive will iTunes a. work? b. not see it, so just make a new iTunes Music folder and keep doing what it has been? or c. ask for a library location? (prompting me to turn the drive on)
Should I recreate that naming structure to/on the external drive? Right now the path to the content is shared/airport extreme/OWC Media Storage, with the content then on the dedicated drive. When I send iTunes down this path what shows up as the library location is just OWC Media Storage: . The default iTunes loves so much does show the whole path Travelstar 200GB/user/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music. Is part of the problem my just throwing the content on a drive I gave a non iTunes specific name?

I noticed this is getting views so, I'm posting answers to myself if case it's helping someone else.
I turned the external drive off and started iTunes on purpose to see what it's reaction would be.
It does redirect itself to the original location, remake the iTunes Music folder on my internal drive, and start to download Podcasts.
Is it possible to stop this? Can the path to the iTunes Music folder be locked? I'd actually rather iTunes crashed than reset itself this way.

HT204053 Can I use two apple ids with 1 iTunes library ??

Both myself and my partner have apple products phones iPads Apple TV ... Can we both have separate apple ids and still share the same library and photo stream??

Yes, you can mingle content from multiple IDs in the same iTunes content library. You just need to authorize the computer to use content from each ID.

I'm having a problem with using an external drive for my iTunes media

I recently switched to using an external drive for my iTunes library and I was able to switch everything fine. I was able to get iTunes to download and new TV shows, videos, and music that I purchased from the iTunes store to the iTunes folder on my external drive but I can't get it to do the same for applications. All my applications are still being used through the iTunes folder on my internal drive and new ones that I download get put in that folder too. How can I set it to get iTunes to put new applications and use the existing application files from my external drive?

There is a Windows based utility that will allow one to change the location of the 'My Music' folder, but you appear to be running a Mac.
You may find more appropriate help in the iTunes for Mac Discussions.
If you are running Windows, post back and some info can be provided.
Best of Luck

Can I use two Macs with one iTunes library?

I currently have an iMac with my iTunes library stored on an external drive, and a shiny new MacBook Pro waiting for me at the Apple Store. If I transfer my entire library from the external drive to a new MacBook, can I still access my library seemlessly on my old iMac [possibly using Home Sharing]? I would like to use both computers to access the same content, in an office and then mobile setting.
Also, if I continue to make purchases on my old iMac from Amazon or eMusic, is there a way to automatically store/transfer those on the new MacBook, the same way they are automatically stored on the external drive now?
I do have the capability and plan on connecting my external drive to my AirPort Extreme after the transfer, if that makes any difference.

See I wouldn't want to necessarily make a copy, but rather copy the library itself; so it is no longer stored on the external drive, and it's new home would be the MacBook Pro. I was wondering if I could access the MacBook library from my iMac the same way I access the external drive on my iMac. Or if I'm overthinking the Home Sharing service and really have nothing to worry about.
I do have my entire library in the iCloud, and am a Match subscriber, but it is important that I have the songs actually stored on my MacBook so I can access them when I am without an internet connection.

HT4527 Can I continue to use two Macs with one iTunes library?

I currently have an iMac with my iTunes library stored on an external drive, and a shiny new MacBook Pro waiting for me at the Apple Store. If I transfer my entire library from the external drive to a new MacBook, can I still access my library seemlessly on my old iMac [possibly using Home Sharing]? I would like to use both computers to access the same content, in an office and then mobile setting.
Also, if I continue to make purchases on my old iMac from Amazon or eMusic, is there a way to automatically store/transfer those on the new MacBook, the same way they are automatically stored on the external drive now?
I do have the capability and plan on connecting my external drive to my AirPort Extreme after the transfer, if that makes any difference.

See I wouldn't want to necessarily make a copy, but rather copy the library itself; so it is no longer stored on the external drive, and it's new home would be the MacBook Pro. I was wondering if I could access the MacBook library from my iMac the same way I access the external drive on my iMac. Or if I'm overthinking the Home Sharing service and really have nothing to worry about.
I do have my entire library in the iCloud, and am a Match subscriber, but it is important that I have the songs actually stored on my MacBook so I can access them when I am without an internet connection.

I have all my music on an external hard drive. I just transferred all my files to a new hard drive . How do I sync all my files with my itunes library without losing all my playlists etc and keep everything intact?

I have all my music on an external hard drive. I just transferred all my files to a new hard drive . How do I sync all my files with my itunes library without losing all my playlists etc and keep everything intact?

Launch iTunes with the Option key held down, click on Choose Library, and specify it. If the external drive doesn't contain the iTunes database files, create a new library there and import that music.
If the library contains any rented movies, they won't play on a different computer.
(109334)

I bought a new laptop and used Windows Easy Transfer cable and moved all files from one computer to another. I installed iTunes and found my iTunes music Library. However, when I plug in my iPod it says it is already synced with another iTunes Library.

I bought a new laptop and used Windows Easy Transfer cable and moved all files from one computer to another. I installed iTunes and found my iTunes music Library. However, when I plug in my iPod it says it is already synced with another iTunes Library.
I don't see anything in Help that shows when you already have transfered all the files over. Why would it want to erase and sync when I already have all the music folder copied over? I didn't have an issue when I had another technician copy from one laptop to another. Home sharing is also on but not being recognized.

I suspect you only migrated the media folder instead of the complete working library. Either review the transfer process and copy over the entire iTunes folder from your old profile's music folder or see Recovering your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
tt2

How do I combine an iTunes library on an external hard drive (laptop) with an iTunes library on an external hard drive on my PC?

How can I combine the iTunes library on an external hard drive (hooked to laptop) with the iTunes library on an external hard drive (hooked to PC) so that both external HD's and both laptop and PC have all the music on each one?

no need to create a secondary library - too troublesome, IMHO. you can spread your library over as many drives you can connect to your Mac (wired or wirelessly):
iTunes > preferences > advanced.
point iTunes media folder location to the external
on the same tab, ensure the copy files ... when adding option is checkmarked
okay out of preferences
highlight the content to be moved in iTunes and right-click
select consolidate files from the pop-up menu
wait for the process to finish
when done, you may delete the original files from your boot drive.
alternatively, you could move the whole shabang to the external HD:
copy the entire iTunes folder (not just the iTunes music or media folder) from <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music to the external, launch iTunes while holding the option(⌥) key, click on choose library when prompted, and select the iTunes folder you copied to the external.
when done, be sure to point iTunes media folder location to the external so that new additions to your library will be put there. also, you need to make sure the external is mounted on your desktop before you fire up iTunes.

Using an external DAC with my iTunes library

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