Please help, itunes won't recognize new external hard drive

[Blurz26]

I just got a new external hard drive and have moved all my music over to it but can't get my itunes to recognize it, I have gone to the preferences and when I try and change the location where the music is itunes does not find my external hard drive. I have tried to repopulating the list and it does not find the Hard drive.
Please let me know what I am doing wrong?

 

[Consultant]

Harddrives are not going to show up on the left pane of iTunes, as iTunes don't organize music by drives, folders, nor locations. iTunes does organize music more naturally with Artists, Albums, Genre, etc.

why don't you search: Migrate music itunes external drive

 

[sash]

Please let me know what I am doing wrong?

iTunes -> Preferences -> Advanced -> iTunes Music folder location -> Change (set the new map where you're planning to keep your music).

Then:

iTunes -> Files -> Add to Library (find the directory where file are, click OK).

Files will be added to your library.

sash

 

[bertpalmer]

Do the above then drag and drop the iTunes library file on the itunes logo in the dock.

 

[Blurz26]

iTunes -> Preferences -> Advanced -> iTunes Music folder location -> Change (set the new map where you're planning to keep your music).

Then:

iTunes -> Files -> Add to Library (find the directory where file are, click OK).

Files will be added to your library.

sash

That is my issue, I can't set the map to my external hard drive as itunes won't find it in the list when I click on change location.

 

[sash]

That is my issue, I can't set the map to my external hard drive as itunes won't find it in the list when I click on change location.

Sorry... Does the external drive mount on the desktop? Can you see this drive in Finder?

 

[paulstew]

Missing Playlists

Thanx Blurz26 that totally helped me, do u know how to get the playlists to transfer or am I outta luck on that?
Thx
Paul

 

[Blurz26]

Sorry... Does the external drive mount on the desktop? Can you see this drive in Finder?

Yes it does mount on desktop and I can see it in finder, but still not able to see it in itunes

 

[MacBoobsPro]

Dont bother with iTunes settings etc.

Make sure you copy the iTunes music library in its entirety to wherever you want it. Then hold down 'option/alt' key when launching iTunes. It will ask you if you want to create a new library or open an existing one. Click Choose library and navigate to the new location. It should load everything up and thats it. Everything as it was just in a different location. Same works for iPhoto and I believe iWeb too.

 

[dalvin200]

Dont bother with iTunes settings etc.

Make sure you copy the iTunes music library in its entirety to wherever you want it. Then hold down 'option/alt' key when launching iTunes. It will ask you if you want to create a new library or open an existing one. Click Choose library and navigate to the new location. It should load everything up and thats it. Everything as it was just in a different location. Same works for iPhoto and I believe iWeb too.

I've just bought a new external HDD to store my media on; specifically my iTunes stuff...

Now I have tried the suggestion you said:

1) I copied my itunes folder from my users/music drive to /external-drive/music
2) option clicked on itunes and chose the external-drive/music destination
3) changed the itunes prefs to point to the external-drive/music folder

but itunes says it cannot find the files...just get the exclamation mark against everything

i've even manually find/replaced the paths in the itunes library.xml and itunes music library.xml files but still doesn't make a difference.

I do not want to re-import the music as i will lose all of the date added etc.. data..

How the hell can i get it to see the music on the drive?

I've read x amount of articles and instructions on apples site.. but i don't want to "keep my music organised" etc.. i just want the same structure as it is.. all my music is within the itunes music folder which is inside the itunes folder.. and i want to keep all my playlists and data etc.. too?

please advise, as i just spent the past 2 hours screwing this up!!! bolox!

thanks