How do I keep iTunes music stored on external HD?

[punkmac]

Ok, I wanted to free up some HD space on my iMac, so I moved my iTunes folder to the external drive then deleted the folder on the iMac.

Now my iTunes library is empty.

How can I make this work? Or is it not possible?

Thanks.

 

[Laslo Panaflex]

Ok, I wanted to free up some HD space on my iMac, so I moved my iTunes folder to the external drive then deleted the folder on the iMac.

Now my iTunes library is empty.

How can I make this work? Or is it not possible?

Thanks.

You have to go to the itunes preferences and go to the advance tab. There you can tell itunes where the itunes music folder is or you can make a new one on your external hard drive and put the music there.

good luck.

 

[Westside guy]

I assume you "moved" it by specifying a different location in the iTunes preferences (advanced section), right?

When you say you deleted it from your local folder; did you delete the whole Music folder? Even if you have your iTunes music files somewhere else, you still need the data files that are inside the Music folder (actually in ~/Music/iTunes/)

You may just need to re-import all those files - in their new location - into your library. I've got my library in a non-standard location (not on an external drive though) and it works fine.

 

[punkmac]

iTunes on ext. HD

I assume you "moved" it by specifying a different location in the iTunes preferences (advanced section), right?

When you say you deleted it from your local folder; did you delete the whole Music folder? Even if you have your iTunes music files somewhere else, you still need the data files that are inside the Music folder (actually in ~/Music/iTunes/)

You may just need to re-import all those files - in their new location - into your library. I've got my library in a non-standard location (not on an external drive though) and it works fine.

I just dragged and dropped the whole iTunes folder to the external, so all the library folders are there.

I then went into Pref. and changed the location, BUT it has not updated yet!

I just went to File>Add to Library and it did the job!

THanks alot for the fast response!

I.

 

[jeremy.king]

If you need to do this without re-adding, you can move your iTunes folder to a new location, then create an alias to that new location called "iTunes" and place that back where the folder originally lived (~/Music/). Set your preference in iTunes to point at the new location as well, and voila! No need to re-add. Comes in handy with big libraries and when sharing the same music library between accounts.

 

[Westside guy]

If you need to do this without re-adding, you can move your iTunes folder to a new location, then create an alias to that new location called "iTunes" and place that back where the folder originally lived (~/Music/). Set your preference in iTunes to point at the new location as well, and voila! No need to re-add. Comes in handy with big libraries and when sharing the same music library between accounts.

That's a good idea - I hadn't thought of that (although my library isn't that big in comparison to some out there).

There are probably a lot of reasons to move the library out of your home directory. For me, it was so I could more easily back up my home directory onto my 20GB iPod. There was no point in "backing up" the 4-5 gigs of tunes I have, since they're already stored on the iPod beforehand.

 

[JFreak]

create an alias to that new location

keep in mind that aliases don't work when there are conflicts with permissions - you cannot for example make an alias that points to some other user's home folder, or make one universal library file that every user could use.

original file permissions override aliases. that kind of sucks, but what can you do - it's called data security

the reason i said this when you obviously are just putting files to some external drive is the scenario which i believe many have thought: what if one could share the library among every user in your computer? the solution is half easy - just put your music files to /Users/shared/Music (or whatever) and point every user's libraries there. everyone can import whatever albums they like in their libraries, but that's the another half that is not easy: libraries. how can you make a library file set that can be used for everyone and updated by everyone? one could think it's easy to make an alias from ~/Music/ library files to /Users/Shared/Music library files and therefore share them, but then comes the unix-security-thing: it only works for the person that created the library files and nobody else. if permissions don't allow, no luck for aliases.

while it could be made working (has anybody had luck?) with some tweaking, i'd wish iTunes 5 had global library (that every user in computer can see) in addition to personal library (that only you can see) that is being used now. in other words: multiple libraries, and by default there should be these two i just described.

 

[jeremy.king]

while it could be made working (has anybody had luck?) with some tweaking, i'd wish iTunes 5 had global library (that every user in computer can see) in addition to personal library (that only you can see) that is being used now. in other words: multiple libraries, and by default there should be these two i just described.

Don't overcomplicate it...its actually quite simple. Although,you are right about permissions so they must be set accordingly, but the method I explain above will share the library file as well - as this file is usually contained in the iTunes folder. In my case, I made sure both user accounts belong to the same group and then set the group permissions on all files with read/write access. I have the music library on a second hard disk that we both have full access to. I have this setup on my powermac. Both my wife and I share the same music and library xml file. This means that her or myself, from our respective accounts, can add music and the other will see it from their account.

On a side note, I saw there is a setting in the Get Info window that will allow the OS to ignore permissions for a non-system (ie No Mac OS installed) drive. Has anyone tried this? It would really ease the pain with permission for those who aren't comfortable with them.

Also, there seems to be a hack that will allow iTunes to be open between accounts. I just found it at http://www.captnswing.net/howto/itunes/#sharing and may just try it tonight.

 

[slowtreme]

just put your music files to /Users/shared/Music

This is what I did on my iBook. Seems to work fine. All users can view and play music, including iTMS songs (using the same store login)

 

[jxyama]

just for the orig. question...

can't you just "move" the library while iTunes it up? you can definitely move any songs and/or artist folders around and iTunes will keep track.

i am not sure if this will apply to moving to external device, though, as it will be copying instead of moving...

 

[punkmac]

I already have it working...

just for the orig. question...

can't you just "move" the library while iTunes it up? you can definitely move any songs and/or artist folders around and iTunes will keep track.

i am not sure if this will apply to moving to external device, though, as it will be copying instead of moving...

Guys, as I posted in my last message I was able to do it no problem!

Thanx for the comments and help!

I.

 

[Grimace]

what if you put all your music on a server and pointed iTunes to it as with an external HD. Would everyone accessing the server be able to jam?