iTunes cannot locate songs after moving library to external drive
I did a very dumb thing and even though I've tried to research the remedy, I'm just not understanding how to proceed.
My 32 GB iTunes library is eating up too much space on my 80 GB hard drive. So I thought the simple fix would be to copy the "My Music" folder to the new external drive. I then deleted the "My Music" file from my internal hard drive, thinking that everything was fine in using the external drive. When launching the iTunes program I would simply hold down the shift key and choose the library on the external drive. It all looked fine at first but I then discovered that I cannot play any of my songs on my computer--iTunes tells me it cannot locate the file. I gather than I've broken the file path. I understand that this was s pretty dumb move on my part, but judging from the number of postings online, I gather a lot of us do it.
While iTunes will still sync the library with my ipod it won't play any tunes on the computer itself--I get an error message saying that it cannot locate the songs. I've tried: 1) consolidating the library (won't work--says it can't locate the songs); 2) copying & pasting the "My Music" folder back on to my internal hard drive (the program still can't locate the songs).
What is the fix? How do I re-establish the file path for all 7,364 items now in my iTunes library? While I used iTunes mostly to store my library and sync with my ipods I do like to play directly from the computer sometimes...will this every be possible again? Again, I would ideally like to have the library housed in the external drive, rather than the hard drive.
Help! Any guidance would be appreciated.
Thanks very much,
jjochem@aol.com
My 32 GB iTunes library is eating up too much space on my 80 GB hard drive. So I thought the simple fix would be to copy the "My Music" folder to the new external drive. I then deleted the "My Music" file from my internal hard drive, thinking that everything was fine in using the external drive. When launching the iTunes program I would simply hold down the shift key and choose the library on the external drive. It all looked fine at first but I then discovered that I cannot play any of my songs on my computer--iTunes tells me it cannot locate the file. I gather than I've broken the file path. I understand that this was s pretty dumb move on my part, but judging from the number of postings online, I gather a lot of us do it.
While iTunes will still sync the library with my ipod it won't play any tunes on the computer itself--I get an error message saying that it cannot locate the songs. I've tried: 1) consolidating the library (won't work--says it can't locate the songs); 2) copying & pasting the "My Music" folder back on to my internal hard drive (the program still can't locate the songs).
What is the fix? How do I re-establish the file path for all 7,364 items now in my iTunes library? While I used iTunes mostly to store my library and sync with my ipods I do like to play directly from the computer sometimes...will this every be possible again? Again, I would ideally like to have the library housed in the external drive, rather than the hard drive.
Help! Any guidance would be appreciated.
Thanks very much,
jjochem@aol.com
Windows XP
