how do use itunes on external hard drive to a new computer

much appreciated - i will give it a go

Ok. I read through as many pages as I could stand and don't think this has been addressed. Sorry if it has.

I have a brand new Windows 7 64 laptop and a brand new external drive.

I want to install iTunes on the external drive, so that all data will be stored on the external drive and iTunes takes up as little space as possible on my main drive (preferably none).

I realize i will be unable to use iTunes when the drive is not plugged in (the drive is in a caddy in place of the optical drive so it is always with the laptop anyway).

Can anyone help me to figure out how to set this up. Itunes has not yet been installed on this computer at all, and again, there is nothing on the external drive.

Thanks so much.

No existing library to worry about, correct?

Install iTunes. Do not run when the installer completes. Press and hold down shift as (or immediately after) you double-click the iTunes icon on the desktop. Keep holding until prompted to choose or create a library. Click Create Library... Browse to the root of your external drive so the library becomes X:\iTunes where X: is the drive letter.

If you have any iOS devices see Re: How can I determine where my back up is stored? and you'll probably want Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device as well.

tt2

Great! Thanks so much that worked. I did notice that when i tried to move the change the ios backup location, i got an error saying the file could not be created because it already existed.... but that's no biggie - i can deal with it on the main hd.

I have one final quick question I'm hoping you can help with:

I am trying to add a bunch of music (my whole collection) that is on another external drive.

It is organized in folders by artist and then album. So I have hundreds to thousands of individual folders of mp3s to add.

But iTunes only seems to allow 1 folder at a time. This will take forever.

Would you happen to know an easy way to add a bunch of these folders at a time?

Thanks so much again @turingtest2 , your rapid help was and is genuinely appreciated!

Enable the menu bar with Ctrl+B

Use File > Add Folder to Library.

Select the top level folder that contains what you want to add.

To avoid duplication you may want to move the media inside the media folder, e.g. X:\iTunes\iTunes Media, before adding to the library.

tt2

Ok , so the drive is not organized in one folder, it is X:\Artist\Album. I've included a screenshot.

I have noticed that selecting multiple artists (or even one artist with enough albums) will freeze iTunes while it is copying. Then I cannot reopen iTunes without restarting the computer.

1. If i were to move the media to the iTunes Media folder, would i drag and drop the artist folder with all the album folders inside?

2. This will prevent duplication? What risk is there of duplication if I do not move the media to the iTunes Media Folder first (I've already added a bunch of artists)?

3. Would I do this with iTunes open or closed?

4. Would i uncheck "copy files to iTunes media folder when adding to library"?

Thanks again

Normally iTunes will start with the options under advanced preferences to Keep the media folder organized & Copy files to media folder when adding to library selected. This usually works best unless you are really particular about the way that your media should be organized. When the Copy files option is active any files stored outside of the media folder that are added to the library will have fresh copies of them made inside the media folder. This is OK when you have a few files stored on a memory stick, for example, that you want to leave on it, but add to your library. Not so good if you want one collection of well organized media, and don't want to run the risk of accidentally adding the same content more than once.

You can move all your X:\<Artist> folders down into X:\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music using Windows Explorer, before importing and then no copies will be made. You could turn off the copy files option, in which case iTunes will connect to the files where the are, but that prevents the library being portable. For example if you connected the drive to another computer and it was given the drive letter Y: iTunes would no longer be able to locate the media. Keeping all media inside the media folder makes the library portable.

1. Yes.

2. Risks above. Delete what you've added so far and start over. Just make sure that you can see both originals and the copies that have been made so far.

3. Doesn't matter if iTunes is open or not. The only folder it actively scans is <Media Folder>\Automatically Add to iTunes.

4. I'd leave it set for future memory stick scenarios.

tt2

on my old computer, Windows XP, the sentinel and .ITunesPreferences.plist files shows up in the directory but when I drop it onto the new computer (after consolidating the library, telling iTunes where to find the .itl file prior to opening, etc.) which uses Windows 10 (the root folders are as stated above) all the other files show up but those two files do not. I can't see the the sentinel and .ITunesPreferences.plist files on the new computer but when I check the external drive on my old computer it's there...weird. Again, it leads me to wonder if the new version of Windows may not be compatible or something.

Am I the only one fighting with moving a library from an XP computer to a Windows 10 new computer?

Those two files are normally hidden. Check the library is in the right shape with Make a split library portable, and use the shift-start-iTunes method to access the library on the external drive. See Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows if iTunes complains about a locked library.

tt2

When I hold shift down and then select the .itl library no music shows up in iTunes. I copied the music from my old computer to external drive (consolidated it first as directed) and but no music, playlist or counts show up. Should I dump them all in the Automatically Add to iTunes? But the counts, playlist are a no show. The folders on my new computer are as follows:

See Open a different iTunes Library file or create a new one - Apple Support. You must press and hold shift as you launch iTunes and keep holding until prompted to choose or create a library, click choose and then browse to the correct .itl file.

If you've done that and the library still opens up with no content then see Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash.

There should only be one Automatically Add to iTunes folder. It should be inside the iTunes Media folder. The media folder in preferences should be set to the iTunes Media folder also, not the iTunes folder above where the library files are.

When transferring a library there should be no need to use File > Add Folder to Library or the Automatically Add to iTunes folder to add content to the library. Connect to the right database and it will work.

tt2

well this is unbelievable, there's no other past library stored! i know it was previously there a week ago but now no dice....good lord...i guess the only alternative is to dump the music/media into the automatically add to iTunes folder and then recreate the playlist? 😟

Are you sure you looked everywhere? There is a hint from your posts that things are not quite in the standard layout. Have you got more than one Previous iTunes Libraries folder? If you have to start over take a look at Make a split library portable and make sure you set things out properly. If you have any device look at Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device, you may be able to recover ratings, play counts, and playlists.

tt2

Praise the lord I found the previous iTunes files! Now that I have the music the only issue now is I have all these exclamation points next to all my music. Why?

The "missing file" error happens if the file is no longer where iTunes expects to find it. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool has moved, renamed or deleted the file, one of its parent folders, or the drive it lives on has had a change of drive letter. It is also possible that iTunes has changed from expecting the files to be in the pre-iTunes 9 layout to post-iTunes 9 layout, or vice-versa, and so is looking in slightly the wrong place.

Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to Get Info, then click No when asked to try to locate the track. (Due to a bug in iTunes 12 you currently have to say No twice!) Look on the summary tab for the location that iTunes thinks the file should be. Now take a look around your hard drive(s). Hopefully you can locate the track in question. If a section of your library has simply been moved, a folder renamed, or a drive letter has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions. If the difference between the two paths is an additional Music folder in one path then this is a layout issue. I can explain further if that is the case.

In some cases iTunes may be able to repair itself if you go through the same steps with Get Info but this time click Locate and browse to the lost track. It may then offer to attempt to automatically fix other broken links. Although it says something like "use the same location" it expects to find the tracks in the same artist & album layout that it generates, not all in one big folder.

If another application like Windows Media Player has moved/renamed the files then the chances are that subtle differences in naming strategies will make it hard to restore the media to the precise path that iTunes is expecting. In such cases, as long as the missing files can be found somewhere, you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes. See this post for an explanation of how it works.

If you want me to try to provide specific advice please post back the following details:

1. The location of the media folder under Edit > Preferences > Advanced
2. The location of a sample missing track shown under Get Info > File > Location that begins file://localhost/
3. The true path to the file whose details you gave in 2.

tt2