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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Western Digital warned its users about its OWN software couple months ago.
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How to use external hard drive as itunes library

Just bought a new external hard drive (passport) for mac and would like to know how to use it as my itunes library? thanks

Drag it there from the Music item of the Finder's sidebar, launch iTunes with the Option key held down, click on Choose Library, and navigate to that instance of the library.
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Using an external hard drive with iTunes r

Hi there.
I just bought a new mac book pro and would like to link my itunes to an external hard drive that I have consolidated all my mp3's onto so that I don't use all the memory space on my computer.
I tried holding down the alt key when starting itunes and linking it that way but it said that it didnt recognise the folder as an itunes library.
Could anyone help me please? Many thanks.

Hi... Thanks, your idea sounds good. I've seen the other places where you've shared this tip. I still have a couple questions to make sure I understand.
You say: "One way (and in some the best) is to copy the whole iTunes folder in your user Music folder to the external drive. Then the alt/option key thing will work.
Another is to move just media to the external drive. The external will always have to be up and fully mounted before starting iTunes."
If I use your way and copy the whole folder I will also have to have the external always on, correct? The whole folder will be on the external, right?
Then when I want to upload a new CD to my iTunes it will all go automatically to the new folder on my external? iTunes won't try to put anything on my laptop hard drive anymore, right?
I'm copying my iTunes folder to my external then I will point my laptop's iTunes to the new folder. And that will be it. Right? Then I can delete my bloated iTunes folder on my laptop.
You also say "if you use the default preferences." Actually, I'm doing this for my teenage son. I don't know what prefs he uses. Are you saying that if we've changed any defaults that this method won't work?
Well, thanks for further explanation. I've always had difficulty with i-Products. I don't regularly use or rely on any myself, due to the synchronization issues. It seems that something like iPhoto wants to take over my photos and things start going wrong and multiplying when I use it. So I don't.

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Message was edited by: Mr. Macintosh693

Hi,
I have something like that working at the moment. My setup is based on a Mac Mini Core Duo [ OS 10.5.6 ] connected to a Time Capsule. I have configured iTunes to store all archived music on the Time Capsule. I use the Apple Lossless format for my CDs and approx 420 titles have taken approx 130Gb from my 1Tb Capsule. In general this setup works well [ especially the optical out of the Mac ] but be aware of the following potential pitfalls:-
1. The Time Capsule is a little on the noisy side and depending on the quality of your playback equipment, your choice of music, ambient noise and your values of "satisfactory" you may want to put your Capsule or HDD in another room. This seems OK for generic playback, but in my experience wireless is not a good way to go for streaming content.
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My 1Tb Time Capsule runs hot, too. Not dangerously so, but hot to the touch. There are no cooling fans, but you might want to think about placement; it needs plenty of fresh air circulating around it.
For what it's worth [ and I appreciate this is going beyond your question ] I also wanted my setup to be able to store and retrieve recorded TV. I have Elgato EyeTV and a USB Freeview decoder. I quickly learned that despite claims to the contrary the performance of the wireless connection just isn't up to streaming video content. So I went out and purchased a pair of Ethernet-over-mains adapters from Zyxel that are absolutely perfect for the job.
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Beware the timeout disconnections and the silently re-configuring iTunes thought...

Using an external hard drive with iTunes...

My library has gotten so large that it really no longer fits on my computer. I'd like to move my music to an external hard drive. Unfortunately, I didnt realize the whole, "your music can only be moved 5 times before its frozen" deal until recently, on my fifth move, so does anybody know how iTunes will react to being moved to an external hard drive? I just need to make sure that everything will still be accessable and work with my iPod and all.....

As far as moving your music to an external drive is concerned, have a look at this article in the Apple Knowledge Base.
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Using an external hard drive for iTunes

My laptop is running out of space. I have an external hard drive that I've loaded a bunch of my CD's into but I'm not sure how to get those into my iPod without having them take up more space on my laptop hard drive. Any thoughts? thanks

just add them to your library. Change the setting in preferences so that iTunes does not make a copy of the file on your laptop.
Note that if you do not have your XHD attached you will get an ! next to teh songs in the libary.

How do I transfer my music from external hard drive to itunes library?

Hello everyone!
How do I transfer my .mp3 files from my external hard drive to my itunes library?

Drag them into the open iTunes application window. You may need to copy them to the internal drive first or organize the iTunes library afterwards.
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Using old external hard drive as iTunes library on new macbook pro

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