Music Library keeps defaulting to iTunes folder on Hard Drive

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Music Library keeps defaulting to iTunes folder on Hard Drive

I have gone into advanced preferences and changed my iTunes folder to a folder on an external hard drive connected to my Airport. It works fine until there is n interruption in the connection. Then, the iTunes folder always defaults back to the original iTunes folder under Music on the hard drive. Because I have a very large music collection, it takes a good ten minutes to change back to the external folder. Also, because of the size of my collection, storing he music on my Mac is not an option.

This happens frequently because my airport connection frequently disconnects for a couple seconds and, then, automatically reconnects.

I have even attempted to trash the original iTunes folder but the computer just creates a new empty one to default to.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

MacBook 13", Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on May 29, 2009 9:30 AM

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Answer 1

May 29, 2009 9:57 AM in response to zadnor1

Yes, this is normal behaviour, for two reasons :

1. iTunes must have a music folder to work from; if the connection to your eHD breaks then iTunes will revert to its default (~user/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music)

2. iTunes is able to work with Music folders on both your HD and your eHD at once - so if it loses track of one it will revert to the default

If you intend to travel with your Mac and lose the connection to the eHD, I'd suggest you create a new Library on the Mac (launch iTunes with the Option key pressed down, then Create Library..), and keep a smaller subset of your music there, then you can switch between the two, e.g. when the eHD isn't connected.

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Answer 2

May 29, 2009 11:38 AM in response to zadnor1

I have my iTunes Music Library on an external hard drive connected to of the three Macs on my home LAN. If the machine with external HD is not on and I launch iTunes on one of the other machines, the folder location reverts to the default location as you described. When I boot the host machine and then reestablish all the LAN connections, I simply relaunch iTunes on the other machines and they all happily find the correct Music Folder locations. A relaunch of iTunes is all that is required.

If you are playing iTunes and a relaunch is not possible, you need to look strengthening the Airport signal to avoid an interruption. I don't use any wireless setup so I'm not familiar with that procedure.

Tracy

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