sturgissos
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Q: transfer my itunes to external

I have an old iMac and have been recorded a lot of records and now it is time to get them off my hard drive and put my records onto an external.

I got a new macbook pro and wanted to carry my external around and use where ever I go.

How do you transfer my playlist and all the recorded records to external and them use that as itunes.ough

Can someone walk me through step by step?

I have tried several time and I get the exclamation point.

Mac OS X (10.7.4)

Posted on Jun 28, 2012 12:08 PM

by turingtest2,Solvedanswer
turingtest2 turingtest2
Level 10 (88,318 points)
Apple TV
A:

Use the menu item File (or is it iTunes?) > Library > Organize Library > Rearrange files in the folder iTunes Media. This will move the files around a bit so that music files end up in:

G-DRIVE slim/iTunes (New)/iTunes Media/Music/<Artist>/<Album>

and is the "current" way an iTunes library is organized.

 

Close iTunes

 

Rename the folder iTunes as iTunes (Old) 

 

Rename the folder iTunes (New) as iTunes and then option-start-iTunes again, opening the library file G-DRIVE slim/iTunes/iTunes Library.itl

 

Your iPod will happily sync with this version of your library as if nothing had changed... As long as you leave iTunes set up like this it will be easy to move the library from one computer to another.

 

Check the summary tab of some sample tracks through your library. You should find that every track is stored somewhere inside G-DRIVE slim/iTunes/iTunes Media. The files inside iTunes (Old) are now redundant copies and the entire folder can be safely deleted

 

tt2

Posted on Jul 3, 2012 7:05 AM

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sturgissos

Q: transfer my itunes to external

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  • by sturgissos,

    sturgissos sturgissos Jun 28, 2012 3:59 PM in response to Limnos
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    Jun 28, 2012 3:59 PM in response to Limnos

    thanks for the help tt2 and you up late!!

    Limmos, you still got a few hours left in ya right?

    If I let my itunes organize as it see fits, I will loose all my playlists that I have enterned in. right?

    I have over 80 recorded albums so far and wanted to keep them organized.

    itunes is not desinged for this use is it?

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 Jun 28, 2012 4:00 PM in response to Limnos
    Level 10 (88,318 points)
    Apple TV
    Jun 28, 2012 4:00 PM in response to Limnos

    I also don't get why, if iTunes thinks the file should be at localhost/Users/<Username>/Music/iTunes/<somepath> then putting it there hasn't fixed things. Has worked for me before... Put sfuff where iTunes tells you it expects to find it, close iTunes, open iTunes, bingo! Every time...

     

    tt2

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 Jun 28, 2012 4:03 PM in response to sturgissos
    Level 10 (88,318 points)
    Apple TV
    Jun 28, 2012 4:03 PM in response to sturgissos

    It's midnight here in the UK, but not yet my bedtime. If you can get it working again on your old system I'll start over.

     

    tt2

  • by Limnos,

    Limnos Limnos Jun 28, 2012 4:05 PM in response to sturgissos
    Level 9 (54,649 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 28, 2012 4:05 PM in response to sturgissos

    No, as long as you let iTunes do the organizing it keeps track of everything that over which it has control.

     

    The main problem I saw with those recorded files is you put them in WAV format which does not retain tags, so they are not labeled internally.

     

    iTunes is going to want to organize your music by artist and album (see tt2's earlier links for folder structure).  If it is absolutely essential that you keep your "recorded music" folder seperate then you're gong to have to do a crash course on manually managing music.

  • by sturgissos,

    sturgissos sturgissos Jun 28, 2012 4:11 PM in response to Limnos
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 28, 2012 4:11 PM in response to Limnos

    I kept things that way for myself so I know what I have recorded from records.

    so do I follow

    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527

    or do I follow tt2?

    and what instructions was that thread on????????

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 Jun 28, 2012 4:42 PM in response to sturgissos
    Level 10 (88,318 points)
    Apple TV
    Jun 28, 2012 4:42 PM in response to sturgissos

    The post I gave you at the outset was  this one.

     

    Your current structure doesn't easily rearramge into a portable format. It can be done, but Apple's support doc won't tell you how.

     

    Once the library is working again on the old system do the following:

    1. Create a folder called iTunes at the root of the external drive.
    2. Create a folder inside that called iTunes Media
    3. Under iTunes > Preferences > Advanced change the iTunes Music folder to <External>\iTunes\iTunes Media
    4. Consolidate the library using File(iTunes?) > Library > Consolidate files
    5. Close iTunes
    6. Copy the file iTunes Library and the folders Album Artwork and Previous iTunes Libraries into <External>/iTunes (iTunes 7 was a loonng time ago but I don't recall any other supplementary files from back then)
    7. Hold down option as you start iTunes choose the library file in <External>/iTunes
    8. Test the library can access different media. All good? Close iTunes.
    9. Eject the drive, connect it to the new computer, option start iTunes and chose the library on the external.

     

    If that works now there are a couple of extra steps that will make it better, but they can wait until the next post.

     

    tt2

  • by sturgissos,

    sturgissos sturgissos Jun 28, 2012 5:33 PM in response to turingtest2
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    Jun 28, 2012 5:33 PM in response to turingtest2

    my itune on my old mac is working....

    everything is working..

    i am confused where to begin???

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 Jun 28, 2012 5:45 PM in response to sturgissos
    Level 10 (88,318 points)
    Apple TV
    Jun 28, 2012 5:45 PM in response to sturgissos

    Item one in the post above...

     

    Actually better this way...

     

    1. Create a folder called iTunes at the root of the external drive.
    2. Create a folder inside that called iTunes Media
    3. Copy the file iTunes Library and the folders Album Artwork and Previous iTunes Libraries into <External>/iTunes (iTunes 7 was a loonng time ago but I don't recall any other supplementary files from back then)
    4. Hold down option as you start iTunes choose the library file in <External>/iTunes
    5. Under iTunes > Preferences > Advanced change the iTunes Music folder to <External>/iTunes/iTunes Media
    6. Consolidate the library using File(iTunes?) > Library > Consolidate files
    7. Close iTunes
    8. Test the library can access different media. All good? Close iTunes.
    9. Eject the drive, connect it to the new computer, option start iTunes and chose the library on the external.

     

    A slight change in the order, this way leaves the original working library file untouched on the internal drive.

     

    tt2

  • by sturgissos,

    sturgissos sturgissos Jun 28, 2012 5:50 PM in response to turingtest2
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    Jun 28, 2012 5:50 PM in response to turingtest2

    i have many itunes library "pages".

    do I drag the folder over, all or do I drag the lastest date?

  • by Limnos,

    Limnos Limnos Jun 28, 2012 5:55 PM in response to sturgissos
    Level 9 (54,649 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 28, 2012 5:55 PM in response to sturgissos

    Many iTunes library pages??

  • by sturgissos,

    sturgissos sturgissos Jun 28, 2012 6:08 PM in response to Limnos
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 28, 2012 6:08 PM in response to Limnos

    this is what I got.

    Picture 3.png

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 Jun 28, 2012 6:11 PM in response to sturgissos
    Level 10 (88,318 points)
    Apple TV
    Jun 28, 2012 6:11 PM in response to sturgissos

    At which step? On which machine?

     

    tt2

  • by sturgissos,

    sturgissos sturgissos Jun 28, 2012 6:13 PM in response to turingtest2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 28, 2012 6:13 PM in response to turingtest2

    this screen shot is from my old imac's itune

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 Jun 28, 2012 6:21 PM in response to sturgissos
    Level 10 (88,318 points)
    Apple TV
    Jun 28, 2012 6:21 PM in response to sturgissos

    Earlier you said:

    my itune on my old mac is working....

    everything is working..

     

    At which step did it stop working again? I've numbered them to help troubleshoot. Did you do all the things the previous steps said to do?

     

    tt2

  • by sturgissos,

    sturgissos sturgissos Jun 28, 2012 6:24 PM in response to turingtest2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 28, 2012 6:24 PM in response to turingtest2

    I got to number three....

    Would it be easier to just start a new libary on an external or is this fixable?

    can you create an itunes on an external?

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