Want to point to music on External Hard Drive

I recently had to replace the hard drive on my PC. I have a full backup (including all my music and playlists) of the old hard drive on a WD external hard drive. Is there a way to point the new iTunes installation on my PC to the existing library on the external hard drive (and see the existing playlists as well)?
Preferrably I would like to keep all music on the external hard drive and from now on have new ripped music be placed on it instead of the PC hard drive.
Is this possible? If so, what steps need to be taken?
Thank you.

Please chekc this article. this is exactly what you want to do:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~smulleke/2004/06/10/index.html#post200406101029
Consolidating your itunes music library will reorganized your music library and if you have it a certain way, it will change that.
The recommendation from this guy also keeps your ratings, playcount and last played information, which may also be important.

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ITunes can not find my music on external hard drive

Had to redo my hard drive; had all music on external hard drive; copied iTunes folder onto external hard drive. Now that my desktop hard drive is clean, and new iTunes downloaded, it can not find my music on the external drive which I have always used. Is there some setting I am missing, do I have to copy music onto CPU?

Hold the SHIFT key while launching iTunes. You will get the option to navigate to the iTunes folder on your external drive. In the iTunes folder point it to the iTunes Library.itl file.

Old laptop died, got latest itunes on new laptop and recovered all music from external hard drive but ipad not recognised as device when plugged in? Do i reset my ipad2!!!

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Sync Your iOS Device with a New Computer Without Losing Data
http://www.howtogeek.com/104298/sync-your-ios-device-with-a-new-computer-without -losing-data/
iPad not appearing in iTunes
http://www.apple.com/support/ipad/assistant/itunes/
iOS: Device not recognized in iTunes for Mac OS X
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1591
iOS: Device not recognized in iTunes for Windows
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1538
IOS: Syncing with iTunes
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1386
Apple - Support - iPad - Syncing
http://www.apple.com/support/ipad/syncing/
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I want to purchase a two terabyte external hard drive to utilise Time Machine on my new iMac....but which one? Western Digital, Time Capsule, Seagate? Any advice would be most welcome please.

I want to purchase a two terabyte external hard drive to utilise Time Machine on my new iMac....but which one? Western Digital, Time Capsule, Seagate? Any advice would be most welcome please. Thanks Phil

If you are looking for high quality drives and enclosures I'd recommend these 3:
http://g-technology.com/products/g-drive.cfm
http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?id=10330
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB
I use the LaCie's, I've got three connected to my system and a 4th acting as my TM drive on my MacBook Air. Any of the above would be welcome on my desk though.

I have just bought an iMac, and when I had my PC I had all my mp3 music on external hard drive and used to stream using software called ps3 server and tveristy which used to pick up on my Roberts radio via network wi fi hiw do I get iMac to do it

I have just bought an iMac, and when I had my PC I had all my mp3 music on external hard drive and used to stream using software called ps3 server and tveristy which used to pick up on my Roberts radio via network wi fii and on my iPad via AirPlay. How can I do the same with iMac as this software isn't compatible

To install apps from developers Apple doesn't recognize go to Security and Privacy in the System Preferences and change Allow apps downloaded from anywhere

From a Imac i made a home movie and want to get it onto a external hard drive?

From a Imac I made a home movie and want to get it onto a external hard drive, how do I do this?

Do you mean you want to continue editing it with the media transferred to an external drive? Which version of iMovie are you using?
With iMovie 10 see: http://help.apple.com/imovie/mac/10.0/#mov3fa25bae7
Geoff.

All music on external hard drive - ITunes 'sees it' but can't find it

a while back i moved all of my music to an external hard drive - i was unaware of all the steps that had to be taken to preserve the ITunes library. Now I've gotten back on ITunes and there's an "!" next to every single song i burned from all of my CDs. Can somebody, please, please tell me 'simply' how to fix this and not refer me to articles. i thought i was computer literate - but I'm just getting fed up now! thanks for your help!

You have several options:
#1 Find all the files one-by-one by clicking on them and saying yes, you want to find the file, and browsing to it.
Plus: All metadata is retained.
Minus: Takes freaking forever and requires patience that can soon wear thin.
#2 Edit the iTunesLibrary.XML file using WordPad to point to the new paths, and then use the XML file to recreate the ITL.
Plus: Is a LOT faster than option #1.
Minus: Requires careful editing and loses the Date Added metadata.
#3 Something I tried and it worked, but you could seriously hork things up even worse if you answer hteitunes questions wrong, so I hesitate to mention it - change the itunes folder back to the original place and answer NO you don't want to move the library to the new settings. THen change it back to the exHD location and say yes,but don't have copy file turned on or you'll get duplicates.
Plus: On a 160GB library, it takes about 1 hour to fix all the links
Minus: Potential to mess things up even worse
#4 Start with a blank library and drag everything back in.
Plus: All your music can be played by itunes.
Minus: Lose all metatdata.
Best of luck, whatever you go with.

ITunes not finding music on external hard drive! Help!

My music is on my external hard drive and for quite some time now, whenever I want to sync my iPod, I've had to manually tell iTunes where each and every song is--this gets annoying very quickly. I have the preferences set so iTunes should know where my music is, but each time I open the program up, I have to tell it where the songs are... I turn on the hard drive and THEN open iTunes. I'm not sure what else to try.

I was going to ask that, but I won't Small point though, not only must it be plugged in but the drive must be "ready" as well. If it's still running up the hard drive to full speed, it isn't ready.
In addition, the external drive must have the same drive letter allocated to it as before. If, for any reason, your laptop gives the external drive the drive letter E the first time, but drive letter D on the subsequent occasion, then once again, iTunes will fail to find the Library as it's "on a different drive" (letter).
Various things can transpire to cause the drive letter to be different; other deivces such as cameras, scanners, printers, or even memory card readers are all assigned a drive letter when plugged in, usually on a first come, first served basis. Perhaps your laptop has some quirk that means it decides on a different drive letter.
As a test, make a note of which drive letter has been used before you power off. Then check the next time iTunes fails to find the Library whether the drive has been given the same letter as before.

Playing music from external hard drive, iTunes

Hello all,
After years of wanting to own a MacBook Pro, I finally have one. This is the first Mac computer that I have owned so I am still new to everything. One issue that I am having is an issue that I have had over the years on Windows, that always took me hours to get straight. I am going to explain how my iTunes has been setup on all of my previous computers so that hopefully you guys can make sense of what I am trying to accomplish as I could not find a solution on here.
The way iTunes is set up on my Windows PC's was that all of my music was on my external hard drive. Whenever I would want to use my music through iTunes, I would have to plug in my external hard drive and once it boots I can now play music. Without the hard drive plugged in I can only see all the information about my music on iTunes but I cannot play it since the hard drive is disconnected. I am trying to do this same setup with my macbook but I am having difficulty accomplishing that. I honestly do not remember how I did it on my Windows PC other than it took forever. I kept getting duplicates but after trying multiple times, I got it to where there were no duplicates and everything was fine.
What steps do I go about in order to be able to see all my music information on iTunes but having the actual music file on my external? I like it this way as it saves my internal hard drive storage and I don't mind having to plug in my external when needed. I have only attempted once so far to do this procedure on my new MacBook, I failed. It transferred all of the music and worked just how I wanted it to work. However, it created a duplicate of every song, which there is thousands of, so I deleted everything and now iTunes doesn't have anything. Any help is appreciated, sorry for the long post.

So after messing around for awhile I finally figured it out and got everything working how I want it and had it on my Windows machine. It took me forever to find the iTunes library file as it was not in its default location on my Windows machine. I finally figured out what needs to be done and it is really easy like you explained. I discovered that my issue is: 1. The default location of these common iTunes files is not in its default location likely due to me moving it the last time I did this from my prior Windows machine and 2. My external hard drive needs to be cleaned up, at least my music section.
What I am going to do in the future is purchase a new external hard drive specifically for my Mac backups and music. I will have to take a day and transfer my huge library to the new drive so that I ensure everything is organized and kept clean and not make this process more difficult than it should in the future. I am however missing some of my tracks (noted with the !) I do believe that this is due to me accidentally changing the file paths on my external at some point in the past and left certain files on my Windows internal drive. This issue is solved though, hopefully. I appreciate your help.
BTW: I am loving my 15" rMBP, I wish the price didn't hold me back as long as it did.

Splitting music between external hard-drive and laptop?

I've just bought an external hard-drive for my ageing Powerbook, and am wanting to split my iTunes collection so I have all of my music on the external drive, and a selection (30Gb or so) on my laptop, for when I'm on the move or disconnected.
There are several posts on this topic, but they all seem confusing and contradictory. Most people seemed to suggest using the Multiple Libraries function in iTunes, so this is what I did. I set up a small library file for the music on my laptop, and a larger one for the music stored on the external drive, which I can switch between by using the Option/Alt key when loading iTunes.
The problem is, iTunes doesn't seem to allow you to have different Music Folders for each of these libraries. So if I change the destination for my Large Library so that music is sent to/stored on my external hard-drive, it also changes it for my Small Library - and vice versa. So iTunes is constantly loading up with the wrong default settings, and if I try to correct it, it starts laboriously re-labelling my entire library. It's now telling me half the music I know is on my laptop can only be found on my external.
I realise I could just unselect the "Keep iTunes folder organised" and "Copy to iTunes Music folder" options, but this would mean having a mass of music labelled on my laptop that's not actually there when I don't have my hard-drive plugged in, with the Missing Excalamation Point Of Death taking over my screen. I do not want this.
Is there no simple way to have music separated into two places, and my computer show me what's actually there? It ain't rocket science, is it?
All assistance gratefully recieved.

There is a KB doc from Apple: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304447. The KB doc shows how to add a second (or third, etc) to your iTunes app. This is what I've done so I now have a library that uses my external drive for normal usage at home and syncing my iPod and iPhone. The second library is used for just music when I'm on the road. Hope this helps.

Can't play music from external hard drive through iTunes on Windows 8?

I recenty bought a new laptop running Windows 8 with a small internal hard drive, so I don't want to store all my music on it. I backed up my iTunes library onto an external hard drive, but when I plug this into my new laptop I can't play my music no matter what I do.
I have tried:
- selecting the newly created iTunes library by pressing Shift when opening iTunes and playing a song directly through the iTunes player. It selects the song, comes up with the speaker icon next to it to indicate it is playing, but the time doesn't count down and no music plays
- I have gone into Advanced Preferences and specified the iTunes media folder location, still no songs play
- coped a single song onto my new laptop desktop and tried to play this through iTunes, Media Player and the Music app. Media player says "Windows Media Player encountered a problem while playing the file". The Music app says it can't find any music on the computer, so when I select the music folder from my hard drive, it says "Can't Play. Make sure your computer's sound and video cards are working and have the latest drivers, then try again".
I know my laptop can play sound and video as I can watch YouTube videos with no problems. I went to Windows Update, and there are no available updates, I already have every available update.
I have also plugged in a different external hard drive, with different music files on it, and have encountered the exact same problems. It seems I can't play any music at all on this laptop. I know the files are not corrupted, as I can plug both hard drives into a different laptop that runs on Windows 7 and play the music on them with no troubles. Could it be a problem with the files compatibility with Windows 8?
I can also access my iPhone backup through this iTunes library on the new computer, so I know there is no problem with my backup.

I am experiencing a similar problem in Windows 7 64bit. Since my laptop has a 128gb SSD, I have loaded my iTunes library on to an external drive. I can sync my iPhones and iPads from this library, and the songs play fine from those devices. However, when I select a song from my library, and click the play button, nothing happens. iTunes does nothing. I have also tried right-clicking mp3s in my library and selecting "Play", with no results. I do not receive an error message of any kind.
I have also noticed that some of my mp3's within iTunes denote the Time as 00:00. The same mp3's will play and register properly using other mp3 players on my computer, and they also play normally on my iPhones and iPads.
I am running Windows 7 x64 on a Lenovo T530, in iTunes 11.1.3. Everything else in iTunes appears to function normally. I can listen to internet radio stations without an issue, through iTunes, and they play as they should. I have tried three different external drives, with different drive formats, and they all have the same issue. If I copy my iTunes library back to my internal drive, iTunes will play my mp3s.
I did not have this issue with iTunes 10, so I am assuming it is something that has occured within the last few updates.
Has anyone found a fix for this? Unfortunately, I am forced to use iTunes 11 because of my iOS devices, otherwise I would revert to iTunes 10.

Moving library from one computer to another, music on external hard drive

Purchased 60GB iPod and imported approx. 50 GB of music into the library/iPod on Laptop 1. The music sits on an external hard drive (100mb). Laptop 1 only has 20gb drive. Everything was working fine, was able to import CD's listen to music everything that an iPod owner can do.
Laptop 1 no longer recongnizes the music in the folders on the external hard drive. It sees the music folders (titles) but when you click on the folder it is empty- no songs inside the folder.
Laptop 2 - hook up the external hard drive to it. Can see the music/songs within the folders. So laptop 1 can't see the music, yet laptop 2 can.
The iTunes music library is sitting on laptop 1 - how do I get the library over to laptop 2? I can not use the iPod as a hard drive, since the iPod will try to go to the music folder (external)and get the music so it can "transfer" to laptop 2. When I put the iPod into "hard drive" mode it goes to the external hard drive and can't find the music/songs. It does not see the music within the folders.
Both laptop 1 and 2 have 20gb hard drives. The external hard drive is 80gb, with only 23gb still available. I just upgraded laptop 1 from iTunes 5.0 to 7.0. I could use the new functionality to back up onto CD/DVD IF it could see the music/songs on the external hard drive.
All the documentation I've read would work for me IF laptop 1 recognized the music/songs on the external drive. Since it does not does anyone have some ideas to help me get the iPod library from laptop 1 to laptop 2, not using the iPod as the hard drive?
Thank you for any input.

I've got the same type question. Is it possible to transfer my purchased songs from a computer at work via a flash drive? The firewall at work will not allow me to share files with my home computer, however, the computers at work download the songs I buy in about 15 seconds, my slow a** dial up at home takes over 15 minutes per song. I think this is still considered stealing, but I'm not sharing the songs with anyone, I just want to download them at work, then transfer them to my main home computer iTunes library.

How to keep music on external hard drive, but play on iMac?

So, I have nearly 500GB of music on an external hard drive. I don't want to move them into my iMac, because it'd obviously eat up all my free space. My question is, how can I keep them on the external hard drive, but still access and play them while I'm on my Mac?
How would I do so using itunes? Would it be simpler to use a different program? If so, which one? Cost?
Could some please tell me how to do this step-by-step? I am at a loss for how to do this! Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance.
(Also, on a slightly unrelated topic, does anyone know a good software to create album cover? I like to make them for mix cds I make. Name cost, preferably something cheap).
Thanks again!

How would I do so using itunes?
Open the Advanced section of the iTunes preferences and set it not to copy content to the iTunes Music folder when it's added to the library. Alternatively, drag them onto the QuickTime Player in the Dock.
(48130)

Transfering Music from external hard drive

Thought I copied music files from external hard drive to new computer sucessfully, but when I try to play music on computer I get an error message telling me that the original file can't be found and do I want to locate it. Looks like everything is there, artwork, playlists, but can't play. Help. Thanks!!!

Hi,
These Links may be just what you are Looking for...
iTunes on External Drive
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751
Moving your iTunes Media Folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364
Cheers,

I want to move pictures to a external hard drive. How do I do that?

My 150 GB MacBook hard drive is nearly full. I want to move pictures off my hard drive to an external hard drive to access them later. I bought a 1 TB external hard drive and have time machine set up on my computer. I am beginning to think that the Time Machine might be over kill as I just want more space on the HD and to have a copy of my files if my MacBook should die suddenly.
I know how to do this on a PC. It is quite simple. This mac is a different story. I can't move pictures from iphoto I can only delete them. Do I need to go in and copy/paste all of them onto the external HD?

Get a second external drive, use the Disk Utility in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder to reformat it as Mac OS Extended(a few drives are preformatted this way), drag the iPhoto library onto it in the Finder, launch iPhoto with the Option key held down, point it there, and then set Time Machine to back that drive up.
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Want to point to music on External Hard Drive

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