problem moving itunes and external hard drive

Question

problem moving itunes and external hard drive

Due to running out of space on my PowerBook G4, version 10.4.11, I decided to move my iTunes completely to an external hard drive and access iTunes exclusively through that drive. I was instructed by the Apple store to drag and drop my iTunes files onto the ehd, and then delete the music files from my internal drive. I did this. Here is the problem: When I access iTunes from the external hard drive, it is empty. So I go to File, Add to Library and add the music from the exd. I did not know how else to get the music to show up in the iTunes interface. This went well.....except that it copied everything to my internal hard drive...defeating the whole purpose of using an ehd in the first place. I have spent hours trying to figure this out to no avail. Please give me advice!!! Thank you

Powerbook G4, Mac OS X (10.4.2)

Posted on Jul 12, 2012 5:46 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 12, 2012 6:20 PM in response to Elizabeth Ploog

It sounds like you were misinformed or misunderstood. You should have moved the whole itunes folder to the external drive. iTunes isn't just media files or a library file, it is a combination of them all.

If by chance you still have to whole intact collection in the itunes drive on teh internal you can instead just copy the whole thing to the external, then use the option key trick (see below) to select that as the library to use.

If you have already deleted the library files from the internal you now you have a bunch of media files on the external and will have to rebuild your library file.

Start iTunes with the option key held down. When it asks you to create a library go to where you want to put it on the external. It will create a blank library there. now add files. Warning, this will copy them, not move them, so make sure you have enough room to do this or do it in stages where you can delete the originals after it has copied to make room for the next bunch.

In future always make sure the external is on before you start iTunes. if it is not, and you have deleted the iTunes folder on the internal drive, iTunes will ask you to locate the library (on the external) again.

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Answer 2

Jul 12, 2012 6:26 PM in response to Limnos

I'm sorry, I did not make myself clear. I did drop the entire iTunes folder into the ehd. How does that change your advise? thanks

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Answer 3

Jul 12, 2012 6:31 PM in response to Elizabeth Ploog

Start iTunes while holding down the option key. Guide it to the iTunes folder on the external drive. It will start using the library in the iTunes folder there.

For general information:

What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660

More on iTunes library files and what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management

What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html

iTunes 9 [and later]: Understanding iTunes Media Organization - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3847

Image of iTunes folder structure Dec. 2011 - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3547807?answerId=16923545022#16923545022
see also:
Image of folder structure and explanation of different iTunes versions (turingtest2 post) - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2741246?answerId=13025536022#13025536022 and https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3700206?answerId=17457605022#17457605022

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Answer 4

Jul 12, 2012 6:41 PM in response to Limnos

Holy cow, thank you!!! That took care of it. You would not believe what I have gone through with this-first I had ehd issues which took over a day to figure out. Anyway, problem solved and I'm back in business with my music. thank you so much,

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