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Entire iTunes Library onto external hard drive

Please can someone help - I think I've managed to do half a job but have obviously gone wrong along the lines somewhere


My iMac memory got to breaking point to I know have an external hard drive where I want to hold an operate my entire iTunes library from, tones, apps, music, movies etc the whole lot.


I've looked at a few posts and trie dot follow there instructions - all my music and the media files are stored on my external hard drive under the relevant heading - music, tv shows, movies etc - I consolidated library, changed the location under preferences but for some reason it was still showing all of my old content (I added some other files from my macbook and other external hard drive too). I deleted all of the files that were on my desktop and I now have the extra space again.


I looked at some more threads and thought maybe iTunes was not pointing at the correct Library, so I changed that to the library on my external hard drive (I had to create a new one and then moved all of the media files into that) but now I have no movies no TV shows and about 5 random albums.


Clearly I've messed up along the way but no clue - can someone please help


Thanks in advance

Carly

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.1)

Posted on Jan 21, 2015 2:18 PM

Reply
8 replies

Jan 21, 2015 2:39 PM in response to charleyanne3k

Oh boy, unscrambling a library is a long task and all the steps you did sound like it got scrambled. Consolidating/organizing should have produced a functioning library where all the media would be on the external drive but your library files would still be on the computer's drive.


Should have worked if you did it this way--> iTunes 12 for Mac: Change where your iTunes files are stored - http://support.apple.com/kb/PH19507 - a good example post by CellarDwellr in https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6789435


Any chance you still have all the files on a backup somewhere, or still intact on the original drive? If so you can do a move of the full library the easy way:


Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its sub-folders and files) intact to the other drive. Hold down the option (alt) key (shift on Windows) and open iTunes. At the prompt to create or choose a library choose the copied iTunes folder.


If not we'll have to start unscrambling eggs.


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


Where are my iTunes files located? - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391

Jan 22, 2015 1:16 AM in response to Limnos

Thanks Limnos


Ok so I've had a relic again this morning. I have created a new Library on my external Hardrive which now is iTunes/iTunes Media/Music in this folder is all of my music and then it has sub folders for TV Shows, Movies, Tones etc.


So iTunes is now pointing at this Library yet when I load iTunes it only brings up the music I have purchased - not all of my music that I've imported along with movies, TV shows etc.


All the music, movie, Tv show files are under the Music folder - so how do I get all of these to show in iTunes?

Jan 23, 2015 6:45 AM in response to charleyanne3k

I really don't have enough information to follow exactly where you are right now. If you read the earlier links you will see iTunes works with a specific structure. As you can see the path you mention is not normal to this structure and I don't know how it was created. Additionally iTunes works exclusively through a library database file (iTunes Library.itl). When you add a track to iTunes it usually puts the file in a very specific folder structure and then makes a note of that file's location in its database. After adding a file iTunes does not again directly look for files in its folder structure, it relies upon the information in the database being correct which is why if you move files around yourself it will break the database. Usually this results in dead links with a ! indicating iTunes cannot find the file in its expected location. If you are not seeing entries at all it means you are no longer using the original database file and will have to rebuild your library from scratch. You did so many steps and did not specify exactly what was done and in what order so it is hard for me to track where things are right now without having detailed views of your computer.


iTunes: How to re-create your iTunes library and playlists - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1451


By the way, a folder full of files and folders is not a "library", it is part of a library. What generates the view you see in iTunes is the .itl file which points to files and folders tht should exist when it created them while adding the media.


Another note, you do not "point" to a library in preferences. Preferences only tells iTunes where to store any new media.

Feb 24, 2015 7:32 AM in response to charleyanne3k

This may seem rather simplistic but...I recently switched computers. All of my music is on an external hard drive. I made sure to change preferences to store music on the external hard drive but I also added the "new" folder so that iTunes scanned the entire folder (and all of the sub folders) to add all of the music to my new installation of iTunes.

Perhaps this has already been done and, as a relative newbie to iTunes and iOS, I'm suggesting the extremely obvious.

Feb 24, 2015 7:44 AM in response to mommadealio

mommadealio wrote:


This may seem rather simplistic but...I recently switched computers. All of my music is on an external hard drive. I made sure to change preferences to store music on the external hard drive but I also added the "new" folder so that iTunes scanned the entire folder (and all of the sub folders) to add all of the music to my new installation of iTunes.

Perhaps this has already been done and, as a relative newbie to iTunes and iOS, I'm suggesting the extremely obvious.


Preferences only tell iTunes where to store any new additions to the library. It does not get iTunes to re-map current listings to a new location.


The extent to which this works for you really depends upon the details of your setup. Where you keep your media files and where you keep the rest of your library files including the critical iTunes Library.itl file which is the one that has all the information about where your media files are actually located. The two big mistakes people make are thinking preferences tells iTunes where old media have been relocated and that a "library" is media instead of everything in the iTunes folder working together as one package.

Feb 24, 2015 6:31 PM in response to Limnos

I understand how preferences work. What I was trying to say was that as soon as I went to file>add new folder... It scanned through and my new install of iTunes found all my music. Not just the stuff "in the cloud". I only commented and mentioned this because I've known numerous people to overlook a simple answer to such an issue. I've done it. Figured if my saying something helped someone at some point...it was worth saying.

Feb 24, 2015 6:57 PM in response to mommadealio

You do not provide sufficient background of your setup at the time to analyze what happened.


If you add a file already in iTunes' library in the location it already has iTunes will pretty much ignore it. If you add a file that is already in the library but in a different location to that in iTunes' database it will add it as a new and likely duplicate entry. If the old link is bad you end up with duplicates, one bad one to the old entry, one good one to the new entry. iTunes will not re-link the broken link to the file in the new location. iTunes will only do that if as part of trying to play the old link you then guide iTunes to the new location of the file.

Mar 29, 2015 11:50 PM in response to charleyanne3k

Ok for future reference here's the easiest way to do this if you have an external hard drive that you've already copied your files across to. This also works if you have an external hard drive with your library and you get a new Mac, need to rebuild your current Mac or suffer from the library being corrupted. This method requires no additional space on the external drive, many of the other methods require you to have double the size of your current library so the files can be copied.


Open iTunes and then the preferences menu, then Advanced.


Change the location of your iTunes Media Folder location:

- If you're setting up a new Mac, use the directory where your files are otherwise select a directory to store the new library in.

- Make sure Keep iTunes Media folder organised and Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library are checked.

- Click OK


Open the external drive in finder and navigate to the folder location selected above. You should see a folder called Automatically Add to iTunes. Move (do not copy) all your old library files into this folder iTunes will then automatically copy the files to the appropriate location and rebuild your library. This may take some time with a large library. Check the Not Added directory to see if any files have been skipped. At the end of this your library will be completely rebuilt. The one downside is that you loose the played statistics, so all you files will appear as New/Unplayed.

Entire iTunes Library onto external hard drive

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