Importing music from external hard drive to ITunes Library?

Alright:

First, the 'dot' files (.trashes, .library, etc) are just files that Mac OS X puts on the drive. They're invisible in OS X. Similarly, Windows puts files (System Volume Information and Recycling Information) onto its drives, also invisble when running XP, but visible on OS X.

Maybe I wasn't clear:

We're trying to get it so that the music all runs off of the external drive. So right now, there should be no music on the Dell, everything should be on the external.

From here on out, every time I refer to iTunes on the Dell, I mean the program, not the folder. Forget Windows Explorer.

Go to edit\prefs\advanced, and uncheck 'keep iTunes folder organizes' and 'copy to iTunes folder when adding to library'.

Now, change the folder listed in the box (use the Browse option) to the external's Music folder. This will ensure that all future music added via iTunes (CDs and the Music Store) goes to that folder.

Now, go back to the external drive, and drag the music into the iTunes library, within the iTunes application.

If all of your settings are right, it should just add references to the music to the library, with all of the files still sitting on the external where we want them.

Please let me know if it works and/or if there are any more questions.

Hudgie

OK: Try this:

File>Add Folder to Library. Browse to the external, add.

Hmmm... I can't confirm any dialogs for you right now; My Windows computer is down.

I know this sounds stupid, but can you confirm all of the mp3s are on the external, so that they should be corectly importing?

No, that makes no sense.

I'm going to go over this thread, see if I missed something.

Are there any interesting configurations you might have on your computer preventing any sort of operation?

As far as I can tell, here's where we are:

All of the music is on the external. As far as the Mac is concerned, everything is fine. It's the PC that's giving you issues.

On Windows, the iTunes library is empty.
The external hard drive is being read, albeit slowly, because you're limited to USB 1. (btw, if you have a desktop, you can get a card for really cheap. I got one for my PC for 8 bucks.)
When attempting to add the library to the PC, nothing happens.

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Two things:

*If you truly are limited to USB 1, regardless of the reason we're getting stuck here, running your library off of the external will be inconvenient anytime you decide to do soemthing that requires access to more than one song (like burning a CD, transfering to an iPod).
*Can you try adding one song from the external to the iTunes library?

I noticed this person did not respond to your reply, but I am having a similar problem. I have recorded all of my music on an external drive and I want to load this into my library and run off the external. My initial attempt caused the majority of my songs on the hard drive to duplicate (sometimes triples). I had approximately 10,000 songs that are now 25,000 with all the copies.

Is there an easy way to remove the copies without going thru every folder/file and deleting them manually? I spent 3 hours doing it manually and I am only 10% thru.

What is the proper way to import from the external to the library? Can I import all songs at once? I am running Windows XP. Thank you in advance for your help.

Would you like the music to run off of the external
drive, or copy onto the internal?

Well, it's a major PITA. The best and easiest way is to just clear the library and reimport the library.

In edit\prefs\advanced, make sure both 'copy files to library folder' and 'keep library folder organized' are unchecked, then just import the data from the external. Nothing should be duplicated, and everything should work just fine.

Hudgie

Thank you for the help on the importing. I changed the preference and it worked. I appreciate your help.

I still have the problem with the duplicate songs. I guess I will have to just take the time and delete them individuals.

Tom

There may be a way around that.

First, shut iTunes.

Then go to My Music\iTunes.

Move the .itl and .xml files to the desktop.

Now, in the iTunes Music folder within the iTunes folder, check the contents. Presumably, that's where everything was copied to.

Again, assuming you have all of the music on the external, and that's where you're going to run the music off of, you can clear the entire folder.

Then restart iTunes, and the library will be clear.

Then confirm the setting changes from before.

Then import again, and you should have exactly what you have now, minus all of the old copies.

Hudgie

Thank you for the help. The import went well but I still have duplicate songs.

I understand how to delete from the library but the duplcates do not also delete from my hard drive. any idea why it is only removing from the library but not the duplcates on the hard drive?

Thanks
Tom

Well, the above directions made the assumption that all of the dupes were in the one folder I told you to delete. If they're in other folders, you'll need to delte from there as well.

A file search (Start>Search>*.mp3) may help.