making itunes work on my external drive

[benlangdon]

so i have done this before and thought i knew what i was doing.
i will spare you my whinnying story and tell you what i have now.

a folder with my music.
no data file (that you can load all the names from)

now when i open itunes it does not make a itunes folder with the two data files and the itunes music file and such things in my external hard drive where i said all the files should go to.

instead it will make it on my computer, but it only makes the two data files.
when i move the data files to the external it loads from there
but if i drag music over to it, it just puts it in the file with the two data files, not a sub folder where all the music is.

ya i am just really frustrated because this is a 75+ gb itunes library and i really do not want it to go through it all and then take hours for it to work.
and i just really really want all the names to be the same.
ugh frustrated, venting. help please.

 

[i.shaun]

well that was confusing to read lol

All I did to move it was change it's location in iTunes preferences -- and then did the "consolodate library" thing.

That consolodation doesn't always work though/


Copy the music folder, and the iTunes library file -- move it to the external HDD -- point iTunes to that library. (either by changing it in iTunes prefs, or by Quitting iTunes, then re-launching it while holding the "Option" key. Doing so will prompt for you to either:
A: Create new library (like say you want a seperate Video library), or
B: Choose existing Library (it will ask you to locate file, simply bring it to the iTunes library file on the external HDD)


Hope some of this info helps.

If you're interested in separate movie libraries, I just hit create new library, and pointed it inside the existing iTunes library

example: If I point it to /volumes/external HDD/

It will create a folder in that directory called "iTunes", and the subsequent library files (music, movies, itunes lib file & xml file) inside that folder

So That would be the main music library, I quit, re-launch while holding "option" and create another library, this time pointing to:

/volumes/external HDD/iTunes/other

Now it makes another "iTunes" folder like before, inside the main iTunes library. I created the "other" directory so that I don't confuse any library files -- it's easily on it's own in
/volumes/external HDD/iTunes/other/iTunes asopposed to the main library
/volumes/externalHDD/iTunes/

In order to switch easily, I made aliases for each library file, and placed them in an easily accessible location (in the finder sidebar). Whenever iTunes prompts for a library (by holding "option") I simply point to the one I want.

 

[benlangdon]

o ya i kinda forgot about the option thing.
i used to do that for iphoto until i got aperture.

but one problem that i totally messed up was that i sellected all my songs and deleted them but didn't move them to the trash (because whenever it loaded it would show all my songs)

ok so i was able to make the file.
but when i drag my music into the itunes window, it still just places it with the data files, not in a sub category


thanks, for reading my confusing post, i was getting frustrated.