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silverhand31

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 29, 2011
32
0
Hi everyone, my iTunes library is getting bigger and bigger due to my imported tvshows. So I decided to move my library to my external drive.
I read some tutorials about moving to new external drive but they isn't satisfied my needs.
Here my problem.

1. I want my music stay in my hard disk so I can't move around and listen to my music without bringing my ex.
2. My movies (tvshows) stay in external disks. But still appeared in iTunes.
3. Everytime I input new files to "automatically import to iTunes" folder, it keep file like 1 and 2.

Is there any way to archive 3 of them? Or just 1 and 2 is still fine.
Thanks for reading my topic :D
 

jav6454

macrumors Core
Nov 14, 2007
22,303
6,257
1 Geostationary Tower Plaza
Hi everyone, my iTunes library is getting bigger and bigger due to my imported tvshows. So I decided to move my library to my external drive.
I read some tutorials about moving to new external drive but they isn't satisfied my needs.
Here my problem.

1. I want my music stay in my hard disk so I can't move around and listen to my music without bringing my ex.
2. My movies (tvshows) stay in external disks. But still appeared in iTunes.
3. Everytime I input new files to "automatically import to iTunes" folder, it keep file like 1 and 2.

Is there any way to archive 3 of them? Or just 1 and 2 is still fine.
Thanks for reading my topic :D

1. Try networked storage (NAS) and use iTunes with that. You can get wireless access with correct Apple router (or any other router with this type of support).

2. I think this has to do more with the cache of images and names iTunes keeps than the physical file being present or not (have you checked elsewhere in your Mac/PC?).

3. This one I have no idea.
 

Designed4Mac

macrumors 6502
Jan 6, 2013
252
0
I Wish I Knew
As far as i know (and someone please correct me if i'm mistaken) you can create as many iTunes folders as you want.

You can have your movies/tv shows in one, music in another, apps in another and so on but cannot view them all at the same time. You can only select one iTunes folder at a time by pressing ALT when opening iTunes and selecting which folder you want to open.
 

Macman45

macrumors G5
Jul 29, 2011
13,197
135
Somewhere Back In The Long Ago
As far as i know (and someone please correct me if i'm mistaken) you can create as many iTunes folders as you want.

You can have your movies/tv shows in one, music in another, apps in another and so on but cannot view them all at the same time. You can only select one iTunes folder at a time by pressing ALT when opening iTunes and selecting which folder you want to open.

Correct. We have a large media server which runs windows ( my fiancée games a lot) it has many many folders, organised by genre, show name, season number etc. etc. you may have as many folders as you need.
 

silverhand31

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 29, 2011
32
0
1. Try networked storage (NAS) and use iTunes with that. You can get wireless access with correct Apple router (or any other router with this type of support).

2. I think this has to do more with the cache of images and names iTunes keeps than the physical file being present or not (have you checked elsewhere in your Mac/PC?).

3. This one I have no idea.

Hi, I just have an external drive so I don't think I could do NAS.
sorry about 3, what I mean is when you drop files to that folder and open iTunes, iTunes will auto input those files to iTunes library. So if i drop music files to that folder, it will put music files to right place, and also the same way for the movie files





Thanks for the link but, it just move all my library, in my case, I want some files stay in my mac, and some files in the external drive :p

As far as i know (and someone please correct me if i'm mistaken) you can create as many iTunes folders as you want.

You can have your movies/tv shows in one, music in another, apps in another and so on but cannot view them all at the same time. You can only select one iTunes folder at a time by pressing ALT when opening iTunes and selecting which folder you want to open.

I'll try, but select between folders is not a delegate way :D

I founde the Tunespan software, look promising. Report you back later.
Thank again for fast replies :*
 

flynz4

macrumors 68040
Aug 9, 2009
3,242
126
Portland, OR
Hi everyone, my iTunes library is getting bigger and bigger due to my imported tvshows. So I decided to move my library to my external drive.
I read some tutorials about moving to new external drive but they isn't satisfied my needs.
Here my problem.

1. I want my music stay in my hard disk so I can't move around and listen to my music without bringing my ex.
2. My movies (tvshows) stay in external disks. But still appeared in iTunes.
3. Everytime I input new files to "automatically import to iTunes" folder, it keep file like 1 and 2.

Is there any way to archive 3 of them? Or just 1 and 2 is still fine.
Thanks for reading my topic :D

Your issue is that you want your media library to be split (music one place, video in a 2nd place) and that is not natively supported by iTunes.

The suggestion to use a NAS further complicates the situation (IMHO)... because it adds complexity of having your music locally all the time).

I think you have two good solutions:

  1. Use a 3rd party program to extend the functionality of iTunes, to use a split database. Tunespan seems to be one such solution. The biggest problem with such an approach is these types of programs often become abandon ware... or sometimes Apple changes their core operation which can make such programs lose compatibility. I generally tend to avoid such programs... but they can also be great solutions. Just go in with your eyes open.
  2. You can choose to keep your video in a different database from iTunes. Plex is very common and seems to be preferred by the community. Hence... you would keep iTunes for music on your laptop... and keep Plex with its database on your external. This may be a problem if you choose to acquire your video media from Apple... but I really do not know how Plex works.

A third (and maybe best) solution would be to keep a media server in your house. It could be any old Mac that you have... or a Mac Mini. You could run iTunes on that machine, and us it to hold your video... and also a copy of your music if you prefer.

/Jim
 

gooch3265

macrumors member
Sep 14, 2011
50
8
Victoria, Australia
I agree with Jim above regarding Tunespan. It solved the problems I had in trying to find a way of putting all of my movies on my NAS/external drive, but also keeping my songs from the same library on my internal SSD. For now it is still a working solution.
 

silverhand31

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 29, 2011
32
0
Tried plex. Seem its not fit to me.
Maybe I stick with Tunespan for a while.
Anyway, I move movies to external drive and then drag them directly to itunes, in that case, the movies is inputted directly without move files to iTunes library, I'm doing that for some of my movies, is that a good solution too? Or somedays, things happen :D
 
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