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Is there a problem with putting iTunes music on an External Hard Drive?

Still didn't work

GimmeSlack12:

I did what you said - set the iTunes directory to Internal (it was actually already set there), imported the XML file from the iTunes music folder, and restarted my computer. It only took a couple minutes but all it seemed to do was add another duplicate listing for each of my playlists. I still get the same "song could not be used because the original file could not be found" message when I try to play any song.

What am I doing wrong or what else can I do? Thanks again.
 
Oh boy...
This isn't getting any easier for me to describe as the problems continue to mount for you Jersey. Not that you are doing anything wrong, but the fact that I have to think on my feet regarding these issues and from a remote stanpoint, that isn't easy to do.

Maybe try importing the actual library file and not the XML (I sometimes mix the two up). Sorry this isn't working out as easy as I had initially described.

Regardless, you're music is still safe. And that is whats important.
 
The Status

OK, it took me a while to get to everything, but here is the current status. It took several attempts before I was finally able to get all my stuff back the way it was before I started this whole process (with everything on the internal HD, nothing on an external HD and everything playable). The steps you suggested weren't working, but I was finally able to do it by other means (I don't remember exactly, but I think it involved using the "add to library" tool and then selecting the stuff that needed to be added).

I then proceeded (last night) to follow your suggestions in post 3 (changing the location of the iTunes music folder to the external HD, then consolidating library). This successfully resulted in my entire iTunes library being on the external HD (it took hours). The one confusing aspect of this is that my iTunes library was only a little over 10GB but somehow there is now 18GB of stuff on my external HD (no big deal as there is plenty of space, but why is this?)

The one issue I still have is that there is still a copy of all my iTunes stuff on my internal HD as well. So no space has opened up on my internal HD (which, of course, is the whole purpose of this exercise). The help menu in iTunes suggests that I need to now drag the iTunes folder from my internal HD to the trash and then empty the trash. Is this correct? And, it talks about moving the iTunes folder from the internal HD to the trash - if you go into my internal HD though, it doesn't seem to list one iTunes folder anymore, instead there seem to be separate folders for each band for which I have music in iTunes. Do these folders need to each be moved to the trash and then empty the trash? Or is there something else I should do?

I think I'm almost there, but any additional help you can give to figure out this last step would be appreciated. Thanks!
 
Ok Jersey that is good to hear things have finally gotten transferred. Yes, you have only copied your music to the external, it was not moved (moved means the music would not be on the internal anymore).

Just to be sure I would put your iTunes music (Internal) into the trash DO NOT EMPTY. Then open iTunes and make sure that your music is still playing fine, this confirms that everything is routed to the external drive and that it will finally be safe to Empty the Trash and regain the internal HD space.

As for the extra 8gigs of music, I would imagine there are either duplicates to blame, or you had some music that was moved that you somehow haven't accounted for up to now.

See how easy and fun Macs are!
 
Worked perfectly. All my iTunes stuff is now on the external hard drive only. Thanks again for all your help!

Now for a somewhat related question - after doing all this, it now looks like I will be upgrading to a newer iMac in the next couple weeks and giving my old one to a friend. What is the best way of transferring everything (not merely iTunes) from my existing eMac to my new iMac? There seem to be several options discussed on the Apple website, but I'm not sure which approach is best. And, in doing this transfer, how do I deal with the fact that the iTunes stuff is now only on an external hard drive?

Thanks.
 
jersey10 said:
Worked perfectly. All my iTunes stuff is now on the external hard drive only. Thanks again for all your help!

Now for a somewhat related question - after doing all this, it now looks like I will be upgrading to a newer iMac in the next couple weeks and giving my old one to a friend. What is the best way of transferring everything (not merely iTunes) from my existing eMac to my new iMac? There seem to be several options discussed on the Apple website, but I'm not sure which approach is best. And, in doing this transfer, how do I deal with the fact that the iTunes stuff is now only on an external hard drive?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Migration Assistant via a firewire cable. Hands down the easiest way. I guess I shouldn't speak too soon huh?
 
mild confusion

Hello! This is my first post, I have been an avid reader of MacRumors for over a year now. I own a 1st gen nano and 16GB touch. I want a mb pro as soon as I can afford it. :)

Ok so I am a little confused. I am running Windows Vista Home Premium (unfortunately hehe) with the latest iTunes. So from what I understand, once I have the external hard drive and hook it up, in iTunes, I go to Edit>preferenced>advanced and change the folder location to the external hard drive. Then I don't know what to do. Do I consolidate library, export library? I'm unsure.

Thank You

~John
 
FRUSTRATED AND LOST WITH iTUNES AND EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE!

My music library, along with the music I create, are two of very few things that I take pride in. Recently, in order to expand the space I have in which to further my progress of each (and since I ran out of memory on my comptuer), I bought a Western Digital 320GB External to store all of my music.

I run a MacBookPro, and since I have an iPod, I didnt feel the need to have all of my music taking up all my memory! I copied all the music over, but must made some key errors; I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I lost a lot of the music that I had downloaded. It made me sad :( but I got over it. MOST of my music was now on the harddrive, and I was happy to have free space on my laptop :)

At this point, my iTunes Music Source Location is my external harddrive, where all the music is. But every time I click on a song to play through iTunes, it says it can't locate the file, and I have to manually locate it! What a pain! And if I play the songs directly from my harddrive, then it copies then back to my computer!

ON TOP of this mishap, my iPod is dying! It completely froze on me, started making clicking sounds, and now chooses to be temperamental. So i restored it, which erased ALL of the music on it, because I thought I could simply plug it back into my MacBook to have iTunes update it once again, but there is no music to copy over because it can't find it!

PLEASE PLEASE someone help me! My heart is breaking more each day that I have to suffer without my iPod to give me company, and I need a reliable system for music!

Thanks!
 
SoundsProcured said:
But every time I click on a song to play through iTunes, it says it can't locate the file, and I have to manually locate it! What a pain!
Click to expand...

Did you change the iTunes Music folder location in the iTunes Preferences? Direct it to the folder on the external drive.
 

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SoundsProcured said:
At this point, my iTunes Music Source Location is my external harddrive, where all the music is. But every time I click on a song to play through iTunes, it says it can't locate the file, and I have to manually locate it! What a pain! And if I play the songs directly from my harddrive, then it copies then back to my computer!
Click to expand...

Try removing all the music from your library (BUT HIT "KEEP FILES" WHEN PROMPTED!!). This should give you a blank library, so you can then go File>Add to Library ( or "Add Folder To Library" for PC) and select your iTunes Music Folder location on the external drive. This should corectly locate all of your music.

Note: make sure that your entire library is in that location, or you could end up hunting around for missing songs.
 
triggerfish said:
Try removing all the music from your library (BUT HIT "KEEP FILES" WHEN PROMPTED!!). This should give you a blank library, so you can then go File>Add to Library ( or "Add Folder To Library" for PC) and select your iTunes Music Folder location on the external drive. This should corectly locate all of your music.

Note: make sure that your entire library is in that location, or you could end up hunting around for missing songs.
Click to expand...

Ok, this is a method that will work but in the practice of it you will lose all stats (play count, ratings, etc.). But if you have none to begin with then there is nothing to worry about.

This is not very hard to do. The steps are simple (as I've stated several times in this thread already).
1) Make sure Copy Music to iTunes folder is checked (see Cinematographer's graphic in post #35, I think).
2) Choose a location for where you want your library in the advanced preferences.
3) Hit Ok, and go to Consolidate library under the Advanced Menu. It will ask to move all your music to the chosen location.
4) Wait patiently for music to transfer, this could take a while depending on the size of your library.

5) Ask Gimmeslack12 for help if you screwed up. IM: taintedchameleon at night, if I can I will VNC to your computer and help that way.
 
GimmeSlack12 said:
Ok, this is a method that will work but in the practice of it you will lose all stats (play count, ratings, etc.). But if you have none to begin with then there is nothing to worry about.

This is not very hard to do. The steps are simple (as I've stated several times in this thread already).
1) Make sure Copy Music to iTunes folder is checked (see Cinematographer's graphic in post #35, I think).
2) Choose a location for where you want your library in the advanced preferences.
3) Hit Ok, and go to Consolidate library under the Advanced Menu. It will ask to move all your music to the chosen location.
4) Wait patiently for music to transfer, this could take a while depending on the size of your library.

5) Ask Gimmeslack12 for help if you screwed up. IM: taintedchameleon at night, if I can I will VNC to your computer and help that way.
Click to expand...

I'm in the process of moving my library to an external as well. I've followed all of the steps and I'm still getting those dang exclamation points. Any ideas why? I have changed the music folder to my external under iTunes' Prefs and I have also used the consolidate library option.
 
Omg Thank You!

It worked! I deleted all the files from my library (but clicked "keep files"), then I added to library all the songs from the external harddrive. and they are all here! no damn exclamation points!

THank you so much!!!!!!

My only last question, is that now a lot of the songs are duplicated. Can I delete all those duplicates, and not click "keep files" when i do?
 
SoundsProcured said:
It worked! I deleted all the files from my library (but clicked "keep files"), then I added to library all the songs from the external harddrive. and they are all here! no damn exclamation points!

THank you so much!!!!!!

My only last question, is that now a lot of the songs are duplicated. Can I delete all those duplicates, and not click "keep files" when i do?
Click to expand...

Glad you got it sorted :D

Yes, you choose the "delete files" option when you remove songs from the library. Be careful though, as (depending on the model and configuration of your external drive) you may not be able to restore the files.
 
2A Batterie said:
I'm in the process of moving my library to an external as well. I've followed all of the steps and I'm still getting those dang exclamation points. Any ideas why? I have changed the music folder to my external under iTunes' Prefs and I have also used the consolidate library option.
Click to expand...

If you had the (!) to begin with then nothing will change regardless of where you aim iTunes to look for music. I can't really give a solution because you're problem is fairly vague. Start by telling me where the music is, and where you want it to go. You might have to go so far as to import your Library file and then try again.
 
Multiple Libraries

Hi, I've just read through this whole thread and I am in the process of moving all of music to an external hard drive. However I wanted to know if it was possible to keep some of my music on my computer, inside the "old Itunes Library", say just a cut down version of my current library and still have my whole library on the external hard drive yet still have them both show up in Itunes as seperate libraries? kind of like how Limewire has it's own shared library. If it is done automatically does anyone know how to do it? Thanks
 
cjsuperstar said:
Hi, I've just read through this whole thread and I am in the process of moving all of music to an external hard drive. However I wanted to know if it was possible to keep some of my music on my computer, inside the "old Itunes Library", say just a cut down version of my current library and still have my whole library on the external hard drive yet still have them both show up in Itunes as seperate libraries? kind of like how Limewire has it's own shared library. If it is done automatically does anyone know how to do it? Thanks
Click to expand...

After you move all your files onto your external, just create a second library and call it something like "Travel iTunes". Then import the songs from your external drive's files.
 
GimmeSlack12 said:
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.
Click to expand...

Thanks so much for this info!;)
 
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