Why can't iTunes find the music from an external hard drive?

I moved my music to an external hard drive to free up space on my old laptop.  Since I moved to a new laptop, iTunes never seems to find the music.  I have to go through and manually select a song for it to find it one and then it says should it use this to find the rest of the songs.  Then it crashes.  I have reinstalled iTunes tonight with no real improvement.  I want to be able to create a playlist to upload to my new iPad as well as updating music on my iPod but I can't do any of it.  Please, any advice!

angelafromlanchester wrote:
I moved my music to an external hard drive to free up space on my old laptop.  Since I moved to a new laptop, iTunes never seems to find the music. 
Has the new laptop given the external drive a different drive letter?
The "missing file" error happens if the file is no longer where iTunes expects to find it. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool has moved, renamed or deleted the file, one of its parent folders, or the drive it lives on has had a change of drive letter. It is also possible that iTunes has changed from expecting the files to be in the pre-iTunes 9 layout to post-iTunes 9 layout, or vice-versa, and so is looking in slightly the wrong place.
Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to Get Info, then click No when asked to try to locate the track. (Due to a bug in iTunes 12 you currently have to say No twice!) Look on the summary tab for the location that iTunes thinks the file should be. Now take a look around your hard drive(s). Hopefully you can locate the track in question. If a section of your library has simply been moved, a folder renamed, or a drive letter has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions. If the difference between the two paths is an additional Music folder in one path then this is a layout issue. I can explain further if that is the case.
In some cases iTunes may be able to repair itself if you go through the same steps with Get Info but this time click Locate and browse to the lost track. It may then offer to attempt to automatically fix other broken links.
If another application like Windows Media Player has moved/renamed the files then the chances are that subtle differences in naming strategies will make it hard to restore the media to the precise path that iTunes is expecting. In such cases, as long as the missing files can be found somewhere, you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes. See this post for an explanation of how it works.
tt2

Similar Messages

  • Why can't I simply drag music from my external hard drive to my ipod classic?

    Why can't I simply drag music from my external hard drive to my ipod classic using my mac?

    downpat wrote:
    So after I get my music put on my computer, then moved to my ipod, do I have to delete music from itunes  to free up space?
    Not a good idea.
    What you could do, is have the Library content on the external hard drive and simply tell your iTunes programme to look on the hard drive for your music etc.. However, once you set that up, that hard drive needs to be connected and ready to read, before you start the iTunes programme. If it isn't ready, iTunes will simply go back to the default location for the music, find nothing and then you'll be back here saying that you've lost your Library.

  • Can i show and play music from my external hard drive in iTunes without adding it to my Mac hard drive?

    I have more music than I can keep on my Macbook hard drive by over 200GB. I'm hoping to be able to show and play all music from my external hard drive in iTunes without having to add any of it to my Macbook Hard Drive

    Hello B3NN13,
    If you would like to add the music from your external hard drive to iTunes without copying it to the iTunes Library on your internal hard drive, you may find the following article helpful:
    Add files to your library without adding them to your iTunes folder
    When you add an item already on your computer to your iTunes library, iTunes places a copy of the file in your iTunes folder. The original file remains in its current location.
    You can change this setting so that files are added to your iTunes library without being added to the iTunes folder. You might want to do this, for example, if you prefer to store video files on an external disk but still want to view them in iTunes.
    Choose iTunes > Preferences, and click Advanced.
    Deselect the checkbox next to “Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library.”
    From now on, when you drag a file to your library or choose File > Add to Library, the item appears in iTunes, but the actual file isn’t copied or moved.
    Tip: You can temporarily reverse this setting by holding down the Option key while you drag files to the iTunes window.
    iTunes 12 for Mac: Change where your iTunes files are stored
    Sincerely,
    - Brenden

  • Why won't itunes find my library on my external hard drive? All that shows up are the purchased songs in the cloud?

    Why won't itunes find my library on my external hard drive? All it shows are my purchased songs in the cloud.

    See also this migrate iTunes library post or Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
    tt2

  • HT1660 Can I play movies and music from my external hard drive or do I have to re-instll them on my computer?

    Can I play my movies and music from my external hard drive or do I have to reinstall it on my computer?

    Hello B3NN13,
    If you would like to add the music from your external hard drive to iTunes without copying it to the iTunes Library on your internal hard drive, you may find the following article helpful:
    Add files to your library without adding them to your iTunes folder
    When you add an item already on your computer to your iTunes library, iTunes places a copy of the file in your iTunes folder. The original file remains in its current location.
    You can change this setting so that files are added to your iTunes library without being added to the iTunes folder. You might want to do this, for example, if you prefer to store video files on an external disk but still want to view them in iTunes.
    Choose iTunes > Preferences, and click Advanced.
    Deselect the checkbox next to “Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library.”
    From now on, when you drag a file to your library or choose File > Add to Library, the item appears in iTunes, but the actual file isn’t copied or moved.
    Tip: You can temporarily reverse this setting by holding down the Option key while you drag files to the iTunes window.
    iTunes 12 for Mac: Change where your iTunes files are stored
    Sincerely,
    - Brenden

  • My itunes can't find the music on my external hard drive.

    My itunes was working fine using my external hard drive. Then I played a song that was not part of that music folder. Now itunes says it can't find any of the songs that are listed. The little evil exclamation point pops up. How can I reconnect to the hard drive without having to start all over?

    Thanks for the clarification of check vs click. I guess once I saw the word "double" I stopped reading. I ended up "reloading" the drive to itunes. The interesting thing is that itunes isn't setting the location for the external drive. It is set for a folder under "my music" The actual songs aren't there, but the folders are there. When i put my external drive music to a new itunes library, i did so without copying the songs. So about 100 gig of music is in a folder that is really only about 300mb. I noticed before i restarted that the location was this folder. When i opened it, it was empty. After redoing everthing all of the songs are on the folder. I probably should have just changed it to go to the external drive like you suggested. Just for fun i changed the location to the external and bypassed that small folder. It worked great. It only took about 2 minutes to update, and it works great. I thought i had to use that stupid little folder. Thanks for all of your help!!

  • I'm having issues syncing my ipod to my external hardrive's library. How do I sync and get the music from my external hard drive?

    I recently moved the music from my old computer in itunes to my external hardrive (changed the media file location and consolidated library). I connected my external hardrive to my new computer (windows 7) and changed my itunes media file to my external hardrive and consolidated my new computer's library to my external hardrive. When I connect my iPod, it is only grabbing the music from my new computer and not my external hardrive. How do I get the music from my external hardrive onto my iPod?

    Did you move the entire /Music/iTunes/ folder?
    File > Add folder to library and select the folder with music on the external.

  • Why can't I import video files from an external hard drive?

    I am using Adobe Premiere Elements 12 on Mac OSX 10.7.5 trying to import video files from a Lacie Rugged External Hard Drive using both firewire and usb, neither with any luck. The error message I receive is:
    "You're trying to import a file from a DVD or a Removable Media.  Please use Video Importer for importing Videos and Image Importer for importing images. "
    We can't import through the video importer either because the hard drive doesn't show up. We can, however, drag the videos to the desktop and do it that way but we'd like to avoid doing that if possible.
    Thanks
    By the way, the external hard drive is formatted FAT32 if that matters

    Tacomedia
    http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-set-up-an-external-hard-drive-for-use-with-os-x/
    Please check out the above with regard to your external hard drive FAT32 and Mac computer question
    By the way, the external hard drive is formatted FAT32 if that matters
    SG has already commented on this in his initial reply to you. I thought that the above might blend in to supplement what he has said.
    I will watch for further developments in your troubleshooting with SG.
    ATR

  • Why can't I read or write from my external hard drive?

    Hey there, I recently borrowed my brother's laptop to use as a media station for listening to music from, and watching movies, in order to free up some space on my main macbook.  In trying to migrate some files over, I discovered that my hard drive, a 320 GB WD Elements drive, is having some problems which I've never encountered before.  It has always worked fine in the past, but now I can't transfer any files to or from it, from either computer.  In all of my troubleshooting, I've gotten various errors, (-36, -50), and various messages saying how the device can't be read or written from, or how some files contian unreadable data, etc.
    Disk Utility found an unused node when verifying the disk, and notified me that the disk needed to be repaired.  I then used Disk Utility, which said it was able to successfully repair it, but the same problem remains, and after verifying the disk, it still says it needs to be repaired.  I've tried to find any files that may be causing the problem, and was finally able to delete a seemingly troublesome file that was stuck in my trash bin from the external drive after trying various apps, (ie Trash It, Cocktail, What's Keeping Me?).  This didn't end up solving anything...I've used terminal to eliminate some other potentially problematic files, with no luck still, and I'm not too confident with Terminal so I don't want to be messing around too much without more guidance.
    Most recently, I've used Disk Warrior to try to solve the problem, but still with no success.  When I use the app to Check All Files and Folders, it does so for only a few seconds, then reports that "An unexpected error ocurred while attempting to perform file operations" for several files, and that several files' "Property list is damaged and cannot be repaired".  When using Disk Warrior to REBUILD the drive, the app pauses for about 15 seconds, then says that it can't be rebuilt because it is in use.  Again, I've used the What's Keeping Me? app to kill any activity with the drive, and the same error occurs.
    I've spent a lot of time trying to sort this out...It's very frustrating, and I have a lot of files that mean a lot to me on my drive, so any help would be greatly appreciated!
    Thanks a lot!
    Ryan

    I have this problem too with my Western Digital 1TB My Passport for Mac.
    Downloaded Card Data Recovery - did not work. The software self terminated itself when the problematic WD is connected. Starts up fine when the WD is not connected by USB.
    Then I downloaded Remo Recovery. Starts up fine, scans fine and appears to save the files but ALL the files 'saved' are unreadable.
    Finally, downloaded Stellar Phoenix in a last ditch attempt to recover my precious video files. Starts fine, saves fine BUT it cannot save files above 200MB because the WD stops working every 10 minutes.So, did not solve my problem totally because I have so many files above 200MB.
    And yes, I PAID for all the software above. And the first two software are reluctant to refund me my money until their development team can ascertain whether it's a software bug, over online web conference. And because of the time differences, I can never get online with them. So, all my money gone.
    Until one day I opened Activity Monitor and noticed this 'fsck_hfs' starting up everytime I connected the problematic WD My Passport for Mac.
    So, tried to Force Quit 'fsck_hfs' and VOILA!
    A dialogue box popped up and says that the Passport for Mac cannot be repaired and that I can move and copy files from it but not save to it.
    PHEW!!
    At least I can access the files and save them to my Seagate 1TB although now I am having a problem opening FCP X project files rescued from the WD.

  • My old computer has broken and I had not backed up my Itunes. I now have the hard drive from my old computer but cannot transfer the music. How can I transfer the music from my old hard drive to the new laptop?

    My old computer has broken and I had not backed up my Itunes. I now have the hard drive from my old computer (windows 7) but cannot transfer the music. How can I transfer the music from my old hard drive to the new laptop (windows 8)?

    Copy the entire iTunes folder from \Users\<User>\Music on the old drive into your music folder on the new computer.
    Or see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
    tt2

  • I recently reset my computer and copy my music from an external hard drive to my itunes library.  When I click on a song to play i get an error message that says " the song could not be used because the original file could not be found".  need help

    I recently reset my computer and copy my music from an external hard drive to my itunes library.  When I click on a song to play i get an error message that says " the song could not be used because the original file could not be found".  But when I have my external hard drive plug in the song will play with no problem.  What do I need to do to play my music without having the external harddrive plug in ????????  Please help

    Because the location for each song in your library is on your hard drive.  If the hard drive isn't there, how can iTunes play it?
    You'll have to move/copy the music from your hard drive to your computer's hard drive.
    Basically, EASIEST way to do all this, if you don't care about your play counts, etc...
    -Delete EVERYTHING from iTunes, so that your library is now empty.
    -Go to "Advanced" inside of the "Preferences" window, found in the "Edit" drop-down.  You can also access Preferences by pressing Ctrl+, (Press Ctrl and the comma key)
    -Change your iTunes Media Folder Location to something simple, but on your computer. I use C:/iTunes.  Make sure "Keep iTunes Media Folder Organized" and "Copy files to...." are both checked.  You can close Preferences now.
    -Now, drag and drop your music from your hard drive into your iTunes library.  iTunes will automatically add the music to your library, as you would expect, and also creates a copy of each file to place into that iTunes Media Folder you just created.
    Shouldn't have any more problems...

  • HT2518 How do I transfer music from an external hard drive to my itunes on my mac? I have put the files into the itunes media, but they are not showing up in iTunes!

    How do I transfer music from an external hard drive to my itunes on my mac? I have put the files into the itunes media, but they are not showing up in iTunes!

    Hi, did you try iTunes>File>Import?

  • How do i transfer music from an external hard drive to itunes on my macbook pro?

    how do i transfer music from an external hard drive to itunes on my macbook pro?

    easy just open iTunes and Finder together and drag the songs into iTunes
    George Karakadas, hope this helped u. if it helped u PLZ RATE MY AANSWER AS: "CORRECT ANSWRER" thnx

  • How to import music from an external hard drive to my itunes on my computer?

    how can import music from an external hard drive that i saved my itunes music to. i dragged the music from my hard drive to the itunes on my computer but the music does not play from my itunes. it does however play on my ipod. it gives me an error that the original can not be found and do i wish to locate it. i am thinking that i did not drag the right file or all of the files necessary .thanks. kevin

    To import music into your iTunes library on the computer go to iTunes>Help>iTunes Help>Add items to iTunes and follow the instructions

  • How can I play the music on my  external hard drive with my laptop?

    Look before everyone points out that this has been asked lots of times before, I wanted to state that in this particular case it might be a little bit more complicated. You see I think I've been an idiot.
    I backed up all my physical music onto my external hard drive, but only the physical music. So now I have my nice new laptop and haven't got a clue how to play the music off my external hard drive, since I don't have an itunes library on my external hard drive.
    Anyway any help would be much appreciated.
    Thanks

    Am I being a plonker, but it doesn't seem as simple as that. If I try and import via itunes it seems to want me to select the individual music file not the folder which holds all the music.
    Also if I simply import it, won't my mac copy the files from my external hard drive back on to my laptop? Which makes me think I change the location where all the music is stored in itunes...?
    Thanks for the help!

Maybe you are looking for