iPod touch Itunes-Last Straw

[SweetH3X]

So I consolidated my libraries and moved them into an external hdd, worked great for a while, then i upgraded itunes and wow all my file locations went away. SOOOO i re-did everything once more (this took hours) only to have itunes magically forget the locations of my files again a few weeks later!!!!!

Is there a way to avoid this when running itunes off an external drive?! I would like to continue using itunes to manage my ipod/iphone but I cant re-do my library every other month- takes too darned long!

If its impossible to have itunes do this - is there an Itunes alternative out there recommended by anyone?

Thanks guys!

 

[Sdashiki]

No idea why it doesnt work for you.

Ive always had my music on my external FireWire drive...which I turn off, remove, swap to another computer, bring back...quit/open itunes dozens of times a day...never a hiccup.

 

[TraceyS/FL]

The only problem i have is it will NOT keep the Apps on the external drive. It sees them on the external, all is well, then i DL an update or new app - and bam, those go in the iTunes folders on my internal drive (home folder on my mac). I tried to fix this for a week.....

Sounds like your drive might be slightly flakey?!

 

[BaldiMac]

I'm not sure what the problem is. Why would it take hours to "re-do"? Maybe you should describe exactly what you are doing in more detail.

 

[Creative One]

Fyi, if it forgets your locations, make sure your path is right in go File>Update Library.

Sometimes external harddrives get a bit hunky.

 

[bruinsrme]

I have had issues with itunes loosing associations with usb external harddrives.
One problem I have is that when you re-associate the locations it adds another file listing in the library. Luckily I have only 15 songs from itunes if I ever lose the songs I am not out a bunch of money.
In response to this Ihave moved the majority of my music to a designated computer on the network. I have lost locations yet, knock on wood.

 

[Sayer]

With removable drives you can sometimes get a "ghost" drive left in the OS even tho you ejected and removed it physically. Then when you plugin the same-named drive again, Mac OS X helpfully creates a new volume with a name that is the same, but with a number added to the end.

So volume "Tron" in /Volumes would be remounted as "Tron 1" into /Volumes like this:

/Volumes/Tron 1/ <-- actual mounted drive
/Volumes/Tron/ <--original, unmounted but not ejected from system

POW! The paths previously set are now broken as the name of your drive was changed, without your knowledge, even tho in the Finder it appears to be the same as before.

Restarting should clear out any unmounted ghost drives left in /Volumes

You can also do it via command line, but its harder than just restarting. You may also try opening Disk Utility to see if there are multiple drives that can be ejected.

 

[johnnyhow]

Certainly sounds more like an iTunes probelm than a problem with your HDD. Annoying things like these often happen with apples constant software updates- they fix one thing, only to break another.

My suggestion is to downgrade your iTunes to the previous version- if possible and I hope for you sake it is.