Using an external hard drive to store itunes music.

I have recently put my itunes music library onto an external hard drive instead of storing it on my laptop, to save space. I have also told itunes where the new itunes library is on the external hard drive, using the 'preferences' folder.
Whilst the music was stored on both places, the files would play fine in itunes. However now that i have deleted them from my laptop, the songs cannot find the location of each music file, despite me having changed the location of the itunes library in the 'preferences' folder. Can anyone suggest why this is happening and what I can do to fix this?

Can anyone suggest why this is happening
Because you moved your files incorrecty.
iTunes prefs -> Advanced and point you riTunes music folder where you want youer music to gbe located.
Then iTunes menu File -> Library -> Consolidate.
and what I can do to fix this?
iTunes prefs -> Advanced. Make sure the iTunes music folder location is pointing to the iTunes music folder on the external.
Then File -> Add folder to library and select the music folder on the external.

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Is it possible to use an external hard drive to store my music?

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http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748
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Can I use a network hard drive to store my music

This might be more of an Itunes question, but I would like to know if there is a problem using a network Hard drive to store all my music on? I'll be using 2 computers to access it, 1 computer handles my kids for there Ipods each having there own logins, and the 2nd computer for my Ipod..
Or do I need to have one computer with 3 seperate logins.. I just want to do things the right way without violating anything.
Thanks for your help.

No problem with using network drive. Many do.
Easiest when doing this from the start but can be done at any time. Some things will depends on drive. For me, only one can access drive at a time. create a folder on network drive for the library to be in. For each user on each computer map the folder on the network drive to a drive letter. Set iTunes to use this mapped drive as the library location.
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Can you use a network hard drive to store your music

This might be more of an Itunes question, but I would like to know if there is a problem using a network Hard drive to store all my music on? I'll be using 2 computers to access it, 1 computer handles my kids for there Ipods each having there own logins, and the 2nd computer for my Ipod..
Or do I need to have one computer with 3 seperate logins.. I just want to do things the right way without violating anything.
Thanks for your help.

No problem with using network drive. Many do.
Easiest when doing this from the start but can be done at any time. Some things will depends on drive. For me, only one can access drive at a time. create a folder on network drive for the library to be in. For each user on each computer map the folder on the network drive to a drive letter. Set iTunes to use this mapped drive as the library location.
Notes to be aware of. Each user will have access to all files on network drive. Files added by one user will be accessible to other users but they must manually add them to their own library. If multiple users subscribe to same podcast there will be duplicate files of episodes in folder. If one user deletes a file from device other users will be affected if tracks was in their library.

Using an external hard drive to store music

Hey, i am using an iMac G5 and just installed leopard. i also bought an external hard drive so i can use time machine. I also hoped to put my music files on my external HD so it would take up less HD space on the iMac. My question is, is it possible to have the files solely on the external HD and still be able to keep them in my itunes library and play/manage the files from itunes? Thanks for the help

Follow the instructions in this article.
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Should I use an external hard drive to store the files while editing and how should I do this?

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Well, in my opinion, it all comes down to speed. There are a lot of editors that swear that working with footage on your system drive will do all sorts of horrible things, cause crashes, etc. Really its a bunch a malarkey. The most it will do is slow you down when your system needs access to the drive. Bandwidth is bandwidth is bandwidth - its all the same. If working with video on your system drive caused crashes, so would doing thousands of other things and we would all have dumped apple long ago for Microsoft or linux.
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Firewire 400: 28 - 34 MB/sec. Drive RPM doesn't matter much since FW is limiting factor
Firewire 800: 55 - 60 MB/sec. Drive RPM doesn't matter much since FW is limiting factor
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Blackmagic Disk Speed Test on the app store is a good HD speed tester. Ignore all the video specific stuff at the bottom - its mostly for uncompressed video, which I doubt you're working with.
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Hi
I have read many articles that suggest placing all video projects/events in an external hard drive to save space on my Mac Book or Mac Air.
I just ordered this: http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Passport-Ultra-Portable/dp/B00E055H5O/ref= sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1429627818&sr=1-…
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Good Afternoon,
I purchased a Macbook Air as a hold over until I could get a Macbook Pro. Unfortunately some things have come up and I am going to have to wait a little longer than anticipated before buying the Macbook Pro. Since I initially intended to have this laptop only for a short time I got the bare bones one with the 128 GB SSD.
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I have multiple iTunes libraries on the system now. I have one for my iPhone ( I left that one called iTunes ), I have one for my Nano that I use when I run ( Called iPod Nano ), and I have one called AppleTV that holds my movies. I switch between them regularly, so I understand switching between libraries.
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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.

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I'm having so much trouble locating music from my itunes account that i previously transferred onto an external hard drive. I regularly get messages with each sync i try to do telling me that songs could not be located. Also when i try to play certain songs they have a circled in front of them which prevents me from playing them even on my computer. I've tried everything in my knowledge to rectify this problem but i just cannot find a solution. Please help.

Hello ryanbenson,
With this issue its best to start from scrach.
-Create a folder on your external, call it itunes music.
-Find all of your music on your computer and cut and paste it all into that folder.
-In itunes click music under library on the left and delete all of your music.
From here you want to add everything back into itunes from the itunes music folder on your external.
-At the top of itunes click edit, prefrences, then advanced.
-Make sure keep itunes folder organized is checked.
-Make sure copy files when adding to library is un checked.
-At the top it shows iTunes media folder location, to the right of that you can change the location to the external hard drive, to the itunes music folder. You will have to keep the external connected to play songs in itunes and sync but this is how my itunes is set up.
-Click ok on the bottom right of the prefrences window
After all that,
-Click file at the top, then add FOLDER to library
-Navigate to your external and click the folder that has all the music.
-Click ok or add folder or choose folder
From here all music will start importing back into the library. iTunes will stay organized. You will be able to sync and play your music again.
Hope this helps.
~Julian

Can I use Time Capsule 1TB as an external hard drive tos tore my music library(but with cable connection,not WI-FI)

Can I use my Time Capsule 1TB as an external hard drive to store my music library but with a cable connection(Ethernet or USB) and not Wi-Fi.

Yes, with the following warnings.
1. A 1TB TC is a Gen3 or earlier and can die at a moments notice.. So backup is essential.
2. A Gen1 or 2 is slow.. even over ethernet they were processor bound and so transfer speeds are not great.. a USB2 plugged into the computer will be faster. Gen3 is about 50% better as the processor was upgraded by 50% speed.
3. TC has no built in backup.. TM cannot backup network drives.
4. TC is designed to spin up slowly and spin down quickly.. you will have issues with itunes constantly losing the library.
5. You cannot use USB to the TC.. it is a network drive. If you want to use USB directly on the computer buy a USB drive.. but buy as fast a drive as your Mac supports.. Thunderbolt>USB3>FW800>USB2
USB3 is cheap and very good.. but the port is only from 2012 so check your Mac specs.
Thunderbolt whilst being super fantastic and around since 2011, has a bank account clearing price although there are Thunderbolt to esata converters.. for around $160. esata falls between usb3 and fw800.
FW800 from WD is no better than USB2 but other brands it can be twice the speed of usb2.
USB2 is the worst. But still faster than a TC.

Using an external hard drive to store itunes music.

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