vincas
Level 1 (40 points)

Q: Can iTunes library be on time capsule connected external hard drive?

Hello,

 

I have a large iTunes library on my iMac with a time capsule used for backups. I am considering selling the iMac and buying a mac book air to replace it, but my iTunes library would not fit on the new laptop's hard drive. Is it possible to have my iTunes library on an external hard drive connected to my time capusle that would be available to al my macs via home sharing (?) ?

 

Thanks for any information!  : )

 

Vincent

3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo; 2 GHz Intel Core Duo MacBook; iPhone 2G, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Aug 23, 2011 10:43 AM

by Zarquon42,Solvedanswer
Zarquon42 Zarquon42
Level 1 (84 points)
Mac OS X
A:

Jolly Giant wrote:

 

vincas wrote:

 

Is it possible to have my iTunes library on an external hard drive connected to my time capusle that would be available to al my macs via home sharing (?) ?

 

yes.

 

but do it properly:

 

copy the entire iTunes folder (not just the iTunes music or media folder) from <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music on your Mac to the external.

 

then, launch iTunes while holding the option (⌥) key, click on choose library when prompted, and select the iTunes folder on the external.

 

when done, be sure the external is mounted on your desktop before launching iTunes.

 

What are the benefits of doing it this way? If you want to use the same library on multiple computers, this seems great. But if each user wants to make his own playlists, etc., then I don't see the point of doing it this way.

Posted on Feb 27, 2012 10:07 AM

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vincas

Q: Can iTunes library be on time capsule connected external hard drive?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by léonie,

    léonie léonie Aug 23, 2011 10:52 AM in response to vincas
    Level 10 (108,869 points)
    iCloud
    Aug 23, 2011 10:52 AM in response to vincas

    It's not recommended to use the Time Capsule for anything else but backups, because Time Machine and iTunes would fight for space. But you could connect an additional hard drive to the Time Capsule and put your Music Library there.

  • by Jolly Giant,

    Jolly Giant Jolly Giant Aug 24, 2011 2:26 AM in response to vincas
    Level 7 (25,450 points)
    Aug 24, 2011 2:26 AM in response to vincas

    vincas wrote:

     

    Is it possible to have my iTunes library on an external hard drive connected to my time capusle that would be available to al my macs via home sharing (?) ?

     

    yes.

     

    but do it properly:

     

    copy the entire iTunes folder (not just the iTunes music or media folder) from <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music on your Mac to the external.

     

    then, launch iTunes while holding the option (⌥) key, click on choose library when prompted, and select the iTunes folder on the external.

     

    when done, be sure the external is mounted on your desktop before launching iTunes.

    leonieDF wrote:

     

    It's not recommended to use the Time Capsule for anything else but backups, because Time Machine and iTunes would fight for space.

     

    you can create a "fixed-size" sparse disk image on the TC's disk for use with other data. time machine will only use up as much space as is left on TC.

  • by thanos206,

    thanos206 thanos206 Dec 20, 2011 8:47 AM in response to vincas
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 20, 2011 8:47 AM in response to vincas

    Create an alias of iTunes and place it on the network drive. Then drag that alias to the dock so when iTunes launches the drive has to mount if it is not already. I find this trick really helpfull and i wanted to share it with you.

  • by Zarquon42,Solvedanswer

    Zarquon42 Zarquon42 Feb 27, 2012 10:07 AM in response to Jolly Giant
    Level 1 (84 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 27, 2012 10:07 AM in response to Jolly Giant

    Jolly Giant wrote:

     

    vincas wrote:

     

    Is it possible to have my iTunes library on an external hard drive connected to my time capusle that would be available to al my macs via home sharing (?) ?

     

    yes.

     

    but do it properly:

     

    copy the entire iTunes folder (not just the iTunes music or media folder) from <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music on your Mac to the external.

     

    then, launch iTunes while holding the option (⌥) key, click on choose library when prompted, and select the iTunes folder on the external.

     

    when done, be sure the external is mounted on your desktop before launching iTunes.

     

    What are the benefits of doing it this way? If you want to use the same library on multiple computers, this seems great. But if each user wants to make his own playlists, etc., then I don't see the point of doing it this way.

  • by jessetest,

    jessetest jessetest Mar 4, 2013 4:11 PM in response to thanos206
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 4, 2013 4:11 PM in response to thanos206

    smart idea thano206 i tried a portable hd and always forgot to turn it on and ended up with multiple itunes libraries frustrating.

  • by KennyLV,

    KennyLV KennyLV May 5, 2013 10:25 PM in response to thanos206
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 5, 2013 10:25 PM in response to thanos206

    A very good tip, Thank you so much. It solved a problem that I had...

     

    I have my iTunes library stored on an external hard drive attached to my TC. When I opened iTunes, all of my songs would have an error symbol (exclamation point ) next to it. I could double-click on the songs and iTunes would play them after several seconds while iTunes attempted to find the song. This would require me to double-click everysong I wanted to listen to one at a time. Very frustrating. This work-around has fixed that issue without fail so far. Obviously, the other set-backs of having your library on an external drive are still present, but the saving of hard drive space on my Macbook Pro is well worth it. My music, movies, and pics come to about 90GBs and I only have the 121GB SSD in my MBP.

     

    I haven't found any down-sides to this work-around, so use it if it will help you. Thanks again for sharing it thanos206.

  • by kaos2069,

    kaos2069 kaos2069 Aug 5, 2014 10:39 AM in response to vincas
    Level 1 (9 points)
    iPhone
    Aug 5, 2014 10:39 AM in response to vincas

    Hi everyone. Please, I need help.

    Im triying to doing it, with apple recomendations, and always fail. I would like to have my iTu8nes media folder in a HD conected to TC, but I cant move the library...

    What I do its:

    1- Change the location

    2- Yes and yes to keep organized and all that

    3- Consolidate the files

     

    And always stuck in some part.. When its copying the files, make me the mistake in the middle of the night..

    I have the HD in FAT32 because I want to acces from Windows and Mac. If I have the HD in MAC OS Extended format, will be windows  available to use the itunes library?

    The Airport utility for windows, its ok for read and write in the TC from a Windows laptop..

     

    I hope that someone could help me. Thank you so much.

  • by NickCtheBudda,

    NickCtheBudda NickCtheBudda May 8, 2015 9:24 AM in response to thanos206
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 8, 2015 9:24 AM in response to thanos206

    I've had this problem forever it seems and this solved my problem with clicking on a song in iTunes and getting the message that iTunes can't locate the song (time capsule). iTunes would always have cloud errors. Here is the fix!!!!

    Here is how I created an Alias on my Mac:

    • Go to /Applications and make an alias of iTunes (right click on iTunes then click on Alias).
    • Drop the newly-created alias on the network drive.
    • Copy the alias from the networked machine back to my dock. (Remove the original iTunes icon from the dock to avoid confusion!)

     

    Note: I had to double click on the ITunes Alias on my time capsule the first time then I created the dock short as indicated above

     

    Wow all my cloud errors are now instantly gone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!