I need to save some room on my computer and I am think about putting all my music, videos, podcasts, etc. on an external hard drive. Will this mess anything up, or do something to the syncing process?
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Is there a problem with putting iTunes music on an External Hard Drive?
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No it won't mess anything up. If you want your iTunes stats kept then Do Not move the music manually, cause it might (and probably will) mess things up. Follow these steps.
Go to prefs>advanced and choose new iTunes Music location (your external). Close prefs.
Go to Advanced menu>Consolidate library. It will ask to copy your music to new location. Hit yes.
Wait as everything is copied over. And you're done.
Go to prefs>advanced and choose new iTunes Music location (your external). Close prefs.
Go to Advanced menu>Consolidate library. It will ask to copy your music to new location. Hit yes.
Wait as everything is copied over. And you're done.
I moved the folder to the external drive and changed the location in iTunes preferences. The play counts and all my playlists were all ok.
We have a 40GB in our 733mhz Quicksilver. When I had decided to take the iPod plunge a few years ago I knew my 800 CDs ripped at 128 kps AAC were not going to fit on said HD. So I got a LaCie 160 external and after a quick change of some settings that is where I've housed my ever expanding iTunes library for nearly three years. It is absolutely not a problem.
This is a problem...
Now my two iPods died a few months back and I need to replace at least one, but it also means I need to get the latest OS X. Unfortunately Leopard isn't going to be an option as Apple says it won't work on machines with less than 800 mhz processors. Fortunately my wife is a teacher, so we'll get the education discount on the latest incarnation of Tiger, but it's still and extra $69.00 is was hoping not to spend (but at nearly 50% off its a great deal).
But I digress.
External HD good for iTunes management.
This is a problem...
Now my two iPods died a few months back and I need to replace at least one, but it also means I need to get the latest OS X. Unfortunately Leopard isn't going to be an option as Apple says it won't work on machines with less than 800 mhz processors. Fortunately my wife is a teacher, so we'll get the education discount on the latest incarnation of Tiger, but it's still and extra $69.00 is was hoping not to spend (but at nearly 50% off its a great deal).
But I digress.
External HD good for iTunes management.
You hit the 'change' button on the side and find the location you want to save your music.
I've been experimenting with this a bit, and it works -- altho' it isn't perfect.
I'm using an iBook G4 as my 'media server' with a 500GB LaCie external FW drive as my iTunes repository.
The iBook is hooked up to the wireless network, and all other machines use the shared playlists on the iBook
Apart from the spin-up time when first starting up, I've hardly experienced any latency, regardless of media type.
The only problem (not really a problem, more a niggle), is only using the one machine to actually put stuff into iTunes.
When I get round to it, I might experiment with mounting the drive via SMB directly across the network, and see if it is possible to access the data directly, rather than through sharing. Knowing apple, there's probably a bunch of hash tokens in the iTunes xml file that will prevent it.
So, it works, but I wouldn't classify it as It Just Works
I'm using an iBook G4 as my 'media server' with a 500GB LaCie external FW drive as my iTunes repository.
The iBook is hooked up to the wireless network, and all other machines use the shared playlists on the iBook
Apart from the spin-up time when first starting up, I've hardly experienced any latency, regardless of media type.
The only problem (not really a problem, more a niggle), is only using the one machine to actually put stuff into iTunes.
When I get round to it, I might experiment with mounting the drive via SMB directly across the network, and see if it is possible to access the data directly, rather than through sharing. Knowing apple, there's probably a bunch of hash tokens in the iTunes xml file that will prevent it.
So, it works, but I wouldn't classify it as It Just Works
jhande
That isn't a bad method of using iTunes for multiple computers in a house, and I actually do it the reverse way. I stream from my iBook 'work computer' to my media center Mini in the living room. I'm happy with the performance of using FrontRow to access the music from my Media Mini.
That isn't a bad method of using iTunes for multiple computers in a house, and I actually do it the reverse way. I stream from my iBook 'work computer' to my media center Mini in the living room. I'm happy with the performance of using FrontRow to access the music from my Media Mini.
It works great.
I have a 500 Gb Western Digital Drive and back it up to a second 500 Gb drive. When your library gets big, you are arguably crazy if you don't back it up. Think of all the work to re-rip, sort out the album art, etc. for like 1000+ CDs.
For macs, SuperDuper! works really well for backing up.
I have a 500 Gb Western Digital Drive and back it up to a second 500 Gb drive. When your library gets big, you are arguably crazy if you don't back it up. Think of all the work to re-rip, sort out the album art, etc. for like 1000+ CDs.
For macs, SuperDuper! works really well for backing up.
I'd like to do that, but I'm really on the fence wrt getting a mini or the Apple TV. If we get video from iTunes in Scandinavie, no contest, but until then I'm leaning more towards the mini as my 'main' media server.
That's why I have to get another HD myself. I've got everything on one 160 GB HD and if it crashes...
The horror...the horror...
Just get the mini for your media center. I got a used MiniG4 for $400 and it is fantastic. I researched the ATV option a bit, but it is just a dumbed down Mac with hardware options taken out and restrictions applied and too small of a hard drive.
I plugged in an external drive on my Mini and have it bittorrenting 24/7. Always new content available to watch, and if you do get videos through iTunes all the much better those work seamlessly too. FrontRow in Leopard is rumored to be just like the ATV interface anyway (don't quote me on that).
Why is this not working for me?
I am trying to get all my iTunes music and videos on an external hard drive. I changed the location of the iTunes folder in my preferences (which I understand will ensure that all future additions to that folder are placed on the external drive). I then dragged the existing iTunes folder to the external drive. This worked in placing a copy of my entire iTunes folder on the external drive. But the problem is that this did not remove the iTunes folder from my existing, internal hard drive (and thus did not open up the space I need on the internal hard drive). Why is this? What am I doing wrong?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much.
I am trying to get all my iTunes music and videos on an external hard drive. I changed the location of the iTunes folder in my preferences (which I understand will ensure that all future additions to that folder are placed on the external drive). I then dragged the existing iTunes folder to the external drive. This worked in placing a copy of my entire iTunes folder on the external drive. But the problem is that this did not remove the iTunes folder from my existing, internal hard drive (and thus did not open up the space I need on the internal hard drive). Why is this? What am I doing wrong?
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much.
Jersey read post #3 in this thread.
Keep the copy of music on your internal drive and delete the folder you moved to the external. And THEN follow my directions on post #3.
Keep the copy of music on your internal drive and delete the folder you moved to the external. And THEN follow my directions on post #3.
Thanks donmei.
So what if anything is the difference between any ol' Ethernet-connected HD and something like this, which advertises its capabilities as an "iTunes server." I must be missing something obvious ... or it's nothing ...
So what if anything is the difference between any ol' Ethernet-connected HD and something like this, which advertises its capabilities as an "iTunes server." I must be missing something obvious ... or it's nothing ...
Please Help Me!
OK. I did what I thought GimmeSlack12 suggested in response to my problems in moving all my iTunes stuff to an external HD and off my internal HD, though it looks like I might have screwed it up. I deleted the stuff I had already copied to the external HD, emptied my trash since they were still on my internal HD, then did the consolidate library step. Stuff should all be back consolidated on my internal HD (which I set it to since I was trying to start over from where I was before I began the process). The problem is that now I still have all my stuff listed in iTunes, but when I try to play any song, I get a message saying "Song could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" If I say yes and try this step, it seems to locate the mp3, but it still doesn't work (nothing plays).
If I go into the iTunes music folder on my internal HD, I still see all my mp3s there. So they are still on my computer. And I can play any one from there, at which point it shows up as a duplicate copy in iTunes that I now CAN play.
How do I fix this so that all my stuff is in ITunes, without duplicates, and capable of being played (I am hoping the answer isn't that I have to go into the internal HD, play each MP3 so that it shows up as a playable mp3 in iTunes, then eliminating all non-playable duplicate copies - there must be a simpler way). Please help as I am starting to panic that I have completely screwed up my library. Thanks so much.
OK. I did what I thought GimmeSlack12 suggested in response to my problems in moving all my iTunes stuff to an external HD and off my internal HD, though it looks like I might have screwed it up. I deleted the stuff I had already copied to the external HD, emptied my trash since they were still on my internal HD, then did the consolidate library step. Stuff should all be back consolidated on my internal HD (which I set it to since I was trying to start over from where I was before I began the process). The problem is that now I still have all my stuff listed in iTunes, but when I try to play any song, I get a message saying "Song could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" If I say yes and try this step, it seems to locate the mp3, but it still doesn't work (nothing plays).
If I go into the iTunes music folder on my internal HD, I still see all my mp3s there. So they are still on my computer. And I can play any one from there, at which point it shows up as a duplicate copy in iTunes that I now CAN play.
How do I fix this so that all my stuff is in ITunes, without duplicates, and capable of being played (I am hoping the answer isn't that I have to go into the internal HD, play each MP3 so that it shows up as a playable mp3 in iTunes, then eliminating all non-playable duplicate copies - there must be a simpler way). Please help as I am starting to panic that I have completely screwed up my library. Thanks so much.
Uh oh.
I didn't mention to set your iTunes directory back did I. Ugh. Ok, nothing is permanently damaged it is just a bit messy and needs some clean up.
1) Set iTunes directory back to where it was on Internal.
2) Import Library (File>Import) and find the XML file in your iTunes folder in your music folder on internal. (wait for it to do its thing)
3) This should set you back to square one. I recommend quitting and restarting iTunes after the import is done (just for the heck of it).
4) Now. Follow my steps from Post #3.
Thanks. I figured I screwed up some aspect of your instructions. Glad to hear that nothing is permanently damaged.
I will try what you said in your email when I get home tonight, and let you know how it turns out. Hopefully it will fix everything.
Thanks for all your help.
I will try what you said in your email when I get home tonight, and let you know how it turns out. Hopefully it will fix everything.
Thanks for all your help.
Pls forgive me if I sound silly as I'm new to iPods and iTunes. I'm a PC user.
My iTunes library is not on my PC, but on another one shared over a network. I now want to transfer the whole thing to my PC. Will the above method work for that too?
If your iTunes is currently aimed at that shared directory it should work. Although it might take a while having to transfer all the music over the network.