Options for iTunes library - quickly growing with mp4 videos

nbar wrote:

Here is my dilemma. I cannot, to my knowledge, run a partially referenced iTunes library- where Music is automatically copied to the iTunes Media folder, but Videos are not (but rather referenced on the external hard drive).

Actually, yes you can. To accomplish this you will need to unselect the "automatically copy to iTunes folder" option in the preferences and leave it unselected. Once you copy all the videos to the external HDD add them back to the iTunes library.

When ever you add new music from a source other than the iTunes Store or CD just drag-n-drop the files into the "Automatically Add to iTunes" folder. This will both add the tracks to the iTunes library and place them in the location of the default iTunes library that is specified in the iTunes preferences.

1) Is there any way around this besides unchecking "automatically copy to iTunes folder" everytime I add a Video to my iTunes Library

No, not automatically, not with how iTunes presently works.

2) Would I be better off creating two seperate iTunes libraries? One for the referenced video files on the EHD and one for my music, which I want to remain on my internal drive.

No. I used to think it would but at least with my old iTunes version any libraries made in my user account share the same single user preferences. Unless you disable the "automatically copy to" feature I am pretty sure either library will put the items in the same media folder because they both use the one set of preferences settings. You can check this by making a second test library but don't add anything to it. Then check advanced preferences from yur main library and this test library and see if they point to the same media folder.

3) Any other plausible solutions?

Do it the way Michael Allbritton outlines, or leave it set to organize automatically but put the movies on the external drive, then add them back while holding down the option key. This overrides the copy-to function.

Note, splitting media storage this way will work but has disadvantages. If links break for any reason, iTunes will not automatically search for ones that are not part of its media folder organization. If you need to move files to a different drive in the future it will be somewhat tricky as you are likely to end up with a lot of broken links. There may be ways to avoid this but it won't be automatic.

Just for reference, items which are already in your library can be copied to a new location using the consolidate feature. But instead of consolidating your entire library, you can selectively choose the items to consolidate to the external drive.

Just like moving your entire library, you first change the location of your iTunes Media Folder location in iTunes preferences. But then instead of using the normal Consolidate command, select just the items you want transferred to this new location and then Opt-click and select Consolidate Files ... iTunes will then copy the selected items to the new Media Folder location, and when done you can change the folder location back to what it was (assuming you want new items to be added to the original location).

Of course, you still have to manually go back and delete the original files after the consolidation completes, but this method preserves your library information about the items you're moving (play history, ratings, etc.)

Dragging files to an iTunes window?

I would have to quite iTunes, create a new library and add somethign to it to check but: 1) I am using an older iTunes so it would not be a definitive test, 2) I am 99% certain this is correct even with newer iTunes versions because I see it mentioned here several times a week. You are using the option key, not the command key?