Using an external hard drive to house my iTunes library

I have a Western Digital external hard drive plugged into my black macbook and had it set up to have my itunes default library to be on the hard drive. I select it when it is plugged in and have had to transfer all of my music over to it and went through the process of keeping the files organized as iTunes prompts, however I am working on a laptop and unplug the external to go to class or take it somewhere that I wont be needing music. I plugged it back in after and added music to it as I would buy a cd and rip it and unknown to me it hadn't been adding it to the hard drive's iTunes library but it recreated the iTunes folder on my computer that I had trashed when I moved everything over. And when I plugged the external in, it made me redo everything and said a bunch of the files couldn't be found.
Is this even a possibility? Or do I need to keep it plugged in constantly for something like this to work :/

From here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449
If you move your library to an external drive, you'll need to power up and connect the drive *before starting iTunes*. If you don't, iTunes will prompt you to either locate the library or to create a new library (which will result in an empty library).

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How do I use an external hard drive as my primary itunes library?

I am trying to move my primary itunes folder to an external hard drive to free up space on my C drive. I moved all applicable folders and made the appropriate changes so that all the music and movies would play from their new location. But, when I shut down and then restart itunes, it recreates the folders on the C drive and makes me reestablish the links all over again. Can't I make it start up using the external drive folder as its primary location?

The most effective way to do this is to copy the entire iTunes folder from the <User's Music> on the C: drive to the root of your external drive, without making any changes to the iTunes Media folder. You would then press and hold down shift while launching iTunes so that you get a prompt to choose or create a library. You click choose and browse to the new copy of the library on the external drive.
If you have ny iOS devices their backup still get stored within your profile folder on the C: drive.
You should also consider backing up the library to another drive.
tt2

I just had to reformat the external hard drive that houses my iPhoto library, then restore it from a backup. Now Time Machine is telling me my backup hard drive suddenly does not have the space to complete a backup. I also noticed when I go in to Time Mac

I just had to reformat the external hard drive that houses my iPhoto library, then restore it from a backup. Now Time Machine is telling me my backup hard drive suddenly does not have the space to complete a backup. I also noticed when I go in to Time Machine, there are only about 5 backups recorded on the ext. hard drive. There were many more before. Any idea what happened and if I have to buy a new back up hard drive?

Hallo Kieth ,
I am not quite ready to restore the full iphoto library , as I have days of work re - imputting titles,descriptions and enhancement . I hope that your suggestion works , as I use my Macbook basically to work with digital photography. Through time , I will need to delete my library to recover more disc space and I would hate to have to spend more time re - imputting titles and descriptions all over again .
Thanks for your interest and advice.
regards - Alan

How do i use an external hard drive for all my itunes music?

how do i use an external hard drive for all my itunes music?

Hi valleydave,
Here are two good links for you to check out:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1751
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449
The first one goes over, in-depth, what you're looking for in regards to "off site" iTunes.

Using External Hard Drive as storage for iTunes Library - Problems

I currently use an external hard drive to store my iTunes music, does anyone know why when I copy folders to iTunes library, duplicates appear - sometimes 2 or 3 copies of same song, same artist, album everything. A trud copy. Also, when you are setting up your music folder on the External Hard drive, would you copy from C: the entire iTunes tree - ie. iTunes/iTunes music/iTunes library or just have one folder called iTunes library? Also, when specifying location for finding music in preferences, again would you use entire tree of just iTunes music library.

See Dave Sawyer's post here - it's the easiest way
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1866272&tstart=0
Also, make sure Windows assigns a drive letter that won't change
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307844

Can I create a "new" iTunes library on an external hard drive and transfer my iTune library to save space on my laptop

Can I create a "new" iTunes library on an external hard drive and transfer my iTune library to save space on my laptop hard drive

Yes. Just copy all your music to a folder on your external. Then delete the music on your computers hard drive.
It is not quite that simple. If you do that you will end up with many broken links and will have to re-create your library from scratch . iTunes does not like it when you move or rename files or folders and doing so between drives is guaranteed to result in exclamation marks indicating you have broken the links to all your media files.
If you are content with moving the whole library to an external drive (usually the best thing for most people), try:
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.

I dropped my external hard drive which contained my iTunes library and it is no longer readable. I attempted to upload my library from iPod and while all the songs appear to be in iTunes I get a message telling me that the original file can't be located.

I dropped my external hard drive that contained my iTues library and the disk is no longer readable. I figured I would simply transfer my music back from my iPod to my MacBook Pro and it loks like it worked. All the songs are there, but I receive a message that the original file can't be found when I try to play anything. ANy help would be greatly appreciated.

A Couple of questions..
Is the location shown under preferences/Advanced/General still showing the correct location?
Is the check boxes under this checked or unchecked?

External hard drives, media folders and iTunes Library folder

Hello All,
I have an external hard drive with all of my iTunes media files and am wondering if I should also have the iTunes Library folder and related iTunes files on this same drive. Is this the preferred arrangement? It seems that backups would be greatly simplified.
If it is a preferred solution that all these files reside on one drive location, how do I set these files to the external drive?
Thanks in advance for any assistance?
Warren

Warren Willows wrote:
you specifically back up the "iTunes Library" to your thumb drive on an hourly basis
no, i back up my iTunes folder (which is devoid of media content as my music files etc. are on the external).
the +apple of my eye+ is the +*iTunes library file+*
which is the heart (database) of the iTunes library (which is the whole thing: media files, support files, artwork folder)
while your media files are on an external drive which you mirror to a second drive.
exactly.
Do you use Chronosync to mirror your externals?
yes.
Have you consider a NAS?
well, i have a test library on an external USB drive hanging off my TC. it's not a NAS exactly but pretty similar.
i found that a firewire 800 external HD @ 7200 rpm provides superior speed to any networked library which is important (to me) if you e.g. stream HD movies to an TV and don't want to experience a lot of buffering.
JGG

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 hard drive for music

Hi. I'm quite sure the answer to this question is obvious--I just don't know a lot about external hard drives.
I have a MBP, but I'm running low on memory. The majority is being used on my huge music collection. If I were to purchase an external hard drive and put all my music files on it, would I still be able to access them in the same way?
In other words, as long as the external hard drive is hooked up to my computer, will I be able to play them in iTunes?
I just want to remove all the music from my computer's hard drive, and place them on an external hard drive. But, I'm not quite sure if this is possible.
Thanks!

I use an external firewire drive to store my iTunes library on. One thing to be aware of...
You need to go into your iTunes preferences, then to "Advanced", then select the location where you want to store your iTunes Music folder. In my case it is in a folder titled "Music" on my external firewire drive. The iTunes "Library" file is stored on your internal hard drive.
The thing that can cause you problems it that....if you forget to turn on the external drive before you boot up your Mac, the iTunes library file will look for your music folder and won't be able to find it. So a new iTunes Music folder will be created on your internal hard drive, with nothing in it. You'll see all of your songs listed in your iTunes program...but if you try to double click on any of the songs to play them, you'll get an exclamation mark saying "cannot find file".
If this happens, you need to delete the new iTunes Music folder on your internal drive (but not the iTunes Library file!), then quit iTunes, turn on the external drive, then relaunch iTunes....and it will find the original music folder.
It's a hassle that I have had to go though many times, I keep forgetting to turn on that drive before launching iTunes.
Oh, one other thing....about the way you worded your post. You aren't running short on "memory", you are running short on "storage"....they are two different things. Hard drives are storage, RAM chips are "memory" that run your programs.

External hard drive as storage for itunes??

I wish to use my external hard drive as storage for itunes as the main computer I have has limited space. Can this be done and if so how???? Thanks for reading this and I look forward to any replies. Ian

I followed the instructions from the link you offered. All my files/music,games etc. showed up on my new external hard drive, however there is no iTunes itself, just the files. Can you offer more assistance? Thanks.

I would like to know if you have to back up a macbook hard drive, can I use a external hard drive that has been previously used to back up several pc 's, or is it best to have a separate external drive for the Mac?

I would like to know if you have to back up a macbook hard drive, can I use a external hard drive that has been previously used to back up several pc 's, or is it best to have a separate external drive for the Mac?

In the Mac side of things, backups usually come in two flavors: clones or incrementals.
A bootable clone is a bit-for-bit copy of all essential files in the startup volume. If using the Lions, clones can be made using CarbonCopyCloner or just plain old Disk Utility. These backups represent the safest protection of your info, but take the longest to do. Recovery is an inverse process: you copy the clone back into the internal drive.
Incremental backups start with a complete backup of the startup volume and only copy whatever changed from the previous run. OS X includes the fully integrated Time Machine backup utility to do this. It is extremely easy to do and takes the least amount of time. Recovery is another matter altogether since you have to start with a freshly installed instance of the OS and have to apply all intervening backups to bring the result to the latest saved version.
As for where the backup takes place, the recommended media is an external dedicated drive or drives connected via the fastest interface available on your Mac: Thunderbolt, USB3, Firewire, or USB2. Network-based backups, wired or wireless, are attractive but may not offer the same performance and hence take longer. Also important to note that the entire drive need not be completely dedicated to a single backup. The Mac's EFI firmware infrastructure allows for an unlimited number of partitions on a hard drive and each can be used for either type of backups.
Holler if you need specifics on how to do each. This was just an executive summary.

Restoring using an external hard drive help

Ok so.. ive recnelty received my mac back from apple, after javing the hd replaced. To prevent the loss of all of my stuff i bought an external hd and used this as my time machine backup, so now its all on my external hard drive. The problem ive got is that ive got no idea how to restore my mac using the extermal hard drive so its like it was before it was sent off. ive been told one option is to launch my mac in recovery mode and choose to restore using. my external hard drive there. however i cant access recovery mode because i have a wireless keyboard, and the only wired keyboard i have is a windows one. also, to make matters worse, i cant use any discs because my optical drive is broken, so until i receive my extermal one, discs are also out. of the option.
any other ways to do it?
thanks!

RomeoVersace wrote:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4889?viewlocale=en_US
Try this, your going to be using a program called Migration Assistant to restore data from a different computer's Time Machine. Your computer is a different computer now because of the new Hard Drive, so instead of entirely recovering the Operating System, this will save time and data by allowing you to choose individually what you want to restore and what you don't want to.
Do not use Migration Assistant, instead you will use Setup Assistant (which starts automatically when you first start your Mac) if you already started you Mac and added a user then you will have to use MA, but you will need to remove a user afterwards.

Will using an external hard drive cause me to have duplicate files on my itunes library?

I put all my ITUNES MEDIA folder on my external hard drive from my older computer.. I recently bought a new computer and installed Itunes. I synced some of my Itunes purchased songs back on by using my Ipod.. however the songs I ripped from my cds are still not reinstalled in my library.. I will have to use my external hard drive or re rip those.. and there are a lot of them.. since I have already replaced some of the ones I purchased back on using my Ipod will it duplicate them if I use the prefrences method and return them all from my external hard drive? If i delete my files that I have already returned on my new computer before using my external will Itunes remember which are Itunes purchased music and which arent as well>??? also how exactly do you move music from an external? just plug it in and click the prefrences box about syncing files and keeping Itunes library organized?? any other thing to click?

An iTunes library consists of both the media and the database that knows which files are in the library and hold details of ratings, playcounts, playlist membership and other details not stored in each file's metadata.
Depending on how you have moved content to your external drive you may find you are only moved the media, but not the database. If you import this media into a new library it will work, but your library will be seen as "new" with respect to any devices that you have and iTunes will want to erase and reload them, losing you current selections, settings and data on the device.
These are two possible approaches that will normally work to move an existing library to a new computer.
Method 1
Backup the library with this User Tip.
Deauthorize the old computer if you no longer want to access protected content on it.
Restore the backup to your new computer using the same tool used to back it up.
Keep your backup up-to-date in future.
Method 2
Connect the two computers to the same network. Share your <User's Music> folder from the old computer and copy the entire iTunes library folder into the <User's Music> folder on the new one. Again, deauthorize the old computer if no longer required.
Both methods should give the new computer a working clone of the library that was on the old one. As far as iTunes is concerned this is still the "home" library for your devices so you shouldn't have any issues with iTunes wanting to erase and reload.
I'd recommend method 1 since it establishes an ongoing backup for your library.
If you have an iOS device that syncs with contact & calendar data on your computer you should migrate this information too. If that isn't possible create a dummy entry of each type in your new profile and iTunes should offer to merge the existing data from the device into the computer, otherwise the danger is that it will wipe the information from the device.
If your media folder has been split out from the main iTunes folder you may need to do some preparatory work to make it easier to move. See make a split library portable. Alternatively you could copy over the iTunes folder and make sure your external drive has the same drive letter on the new system as the old, however moving the library into a portable form will make every subsequent move that much easier.
Should you be in the unfortunate position where you are no longer able to access your original library, or a backup of it, then see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device for advice on how to set up your devices with a new library with the maximum preservation of data.
tt2

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

Using an external hard drive to house my iTunes library

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