I have a new USB Flash Drive 32 DB/Go and I want to put all my music in my iTunes onto it. I've looked up instructions on apple but they don't make sense. Please help. Thanks.
iPod shuffle (4th generation late 2012), I don't know what operating system
Hello again... That depends on the reason for doing that. Are you using then USB flash drive as the iTunes storage location for its iTunes Media folder, because you are running out of space on the internal drive? Or maybe you are doing it to use the USB flash drive with a car audio system?
From the previous topic, I think you said you use a Mac (not a Windows PC) to run iTunes, is that correct?
Hi Kenichi, I bought more music from iTunes and yes, you got it right, I want to use the USB flash to download to my car audio system. I have a MAC computer.
I may have managed to do it correctly, even though the instructions on iTunes help were not good. I went to iTunes Advanced Preferences and ticked Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to Library, and ticked Share iTunes Library SML with other application, as per the iTunes instructions.
I followed the next instructions:
To copy all the items in your iTunes library to your external drive:
4. If the iTunes folder is not in the default location listed above, find the iTunes folder by following these steps:
AFTER ABOUT 1 1/2 HOURS, IT SEEMS TO HAVE FINISHED DOWNLOADING AND I REMEMBERED TO CLICK EJECT BEFORE I TOOK THE USB FLASH DRIVE OUT OF THE COMPUTER.
SO I MAY HAVE SOLVED MY OWN PROBLEM USING INSTINCT, WHICH WAS 1 1/2 HOURS AFTER I POSTED THE QUESTION.
DOES ALL THIS SOUND OK TO YOU? THANKS SO MUCH FOR TAKING YOUR TIME TO HELP ME. KATHY
Those instructions are for changing the location of your iTunes Media folder to an external drive. Some people do this because they don't have enough storage space on their internal drive to hold all of their iTunes media files. I have it set up this way. But most users should leave it set using the default settings.
What you want to do is MUCH simpler. You just want to copy song files to the flash drive.
First, you should set iTunes back to the way it was before. I'm not sure exactly what you changed. In iTune preferences Advanced pane, there is a Reset button. That should change it back to default location. The iTunes Media folder location (shown there) should go back to
/Users/54willow/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media
The three checkboxes below that can be checked. The two top ones should be checked. The third one about "XML files" can be checked, but probably does not matter for day-to-day use. Then, use iTunes as you normally do for a bit, to make sure you can access your songs and other content, and nothing else is weird.
To do what you actually want, in the iTunes window, show your iTunes Music library (click Music button on horizontal bar). On the horizontal bar, at the right end, use the control to view your music library as Songs. This shows your your music library as a plain list. You can change how this list is sorted, by clicking on the heading of each column. For example, if you want to sort by artist, click the heading for the Artist column.
Connect the flash drive, and double-click its icon on Desktop to open it in a Finder window (or click it in the sidebar of a Finder window). Put that Finder window next to the iTunes window (resize as need to show both). Drag the songs you want on the flash drive from iTunes window to Finder window. This copies the song file to flash drive. You can select more than one song at a time when you do this. If you want to select all songs at once, you can Select All (select any song on list, and press Cmd-A on keyboard OR from menu bar Edit -> Select All). Drag selected songs from iTunes window to Finder window showing flash drive.
Hi Kenichi, Thanks so much. I did make a mistake then. OK, I have now clicked Reset and it says Users/54willow/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media. I did go to the Music button (on my iTunes it is called My Music) and clicked on it and I clicked and got the Songs list.
Now, should I put the flash drive back into the computer, and will it record over what I might have put on there before?? Also, this is a new flash drive (or it was until I possibly put music on it before getting your first reply) so am I supposed to format it or anything.??
If I can just put the flash drive back into the computer, then I will continue following your instructions (ie. double-clicking on its icon). Do I find the iTunes window inside iTunes Media (as before)? I would want to do Select All songs. Thanks.
Again, I'm not sure exactly what you changed in how iTunes operates. So, you may see all of your songs in iTunes, but try playing a sampling of songs (and other stuff like movies if you have any) to make sure they play. Do this with that flash drive NOT connected. If you see a bunch of exclamation points next to song names, that means iTunes can no longer find the song's file. If iTunes is now trying to access its song files from your flash drive, you don't want to erase that flash drive until iTunes back to the way to was before.
If iTunes works fine with the flash drive disconnected, you can erase the flash drive. If you see files or folders on it (in a Finder window), you don't need to reformat it. You can drag those files and folder so the Trash, and Empty the Trash. However, to use with your car audio system, it may need to be formatted a specific way (that is different from its current disk format). You should consult the audio system's user guide, to find out specific requirements for connecting a USB flash drive with song files on it. For example, there may be a capacity limit. It may only play songs in certain audio file formats. It may treat folders on the flash drive as playlists (so you can organize the song files into folders).
Do I find the iTunes window inside iTunes Media (as before)
Not sure what you mean by that... The iTunes window is what you see when you run iTunes. You need to show your iTunes Music library in the iTunes window (like when you want to play songs using iTunes). Then, from a song list (in the iTunes window), you can drag songs outside the iTunes window to a Finder window, and that action copies the song's file to wherever you dragged it.
Hi Kenichi, I've played a few tunes in my iTunes just now and they play okay, but I don't have time now to verify my movies. I don't see any exclamation points next to any of the song names, I scrolled down through the entire list. I will check movies etc. tomorrow. For my car, last time all I did was plug in the USB flash, however when I added more songs to the flash drive, I first had to remove all the songs from my car and re-download from the beginning. What I meant by iTunes media inside the iTunes was that I found a folder called iTunes media inside the iTunes folder which was inside Music which was inside 54willow. I dragged the folder iTunes media to the flash drive and it downloaded that way, before, i.e. before I got your good information on what to do. When I open iTunes itself, the "window"?? I get is a page or box whatever called iTunes with music they have for sale (if I'm in iTunes Store) or my albums etc. if I'm in My Music. I don't know how I drag that box to the flash drive, since the box contains so much. I don't know if I put my mouse on the title iTunes at the top of the page/box and drag from there?? Thanks so much. I'll check movies etc tomorrow.
If your songs are playing fine (and NO exclamation points), your movies will probably be fine too.
I dragged the folder iTunes media to the flash drive and it downloaded that way, before, i.e. before I got your good information on what to do.
That would copy the song files to the flash drive. But the iTunes Media folder also contains all the other iTunes media types, such a movies, podcasts, and TV shows. So you probably don't want that other stuff taking up space on the flash drive. However, if you open the iTunes Media folder in Finder, you will see sub-folders names as the iTunes media types. One of them is Music (not to be confused with the higher level folder called Music). So the one at
/Users/54willow/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/
That folder only has your songs files. So you could copy it to the flash drive as the way to put your song files on the flash drive (if flash drive is large enough for all of your songs).
For the rest of what you wrote, I think you are making it more complicated than it is. Run iTunes. The "iTunes window" is the window that opens, showing iTunes. You see a horizontal bar that goes across iTunes window. At the left end of this bar, click the button for Music (not My Music); it has music notes on it, and it says "Music" when you roll your mouse pointer over it. That is the button to show your iTunes Music, in the main part of iTunes window. At the middle of the horizontal bar, if it's not already selected, click My Music. At the right end of horizontal bar, there is a control for changing the "view" of your music library. Click that control and set it to show Songs. This gives you a simple list of songs, instead of albums or artists.
From this song list (or any song list), try dragging a song off the iTunes window, and dropping it on your Mac's Desktop. The song's file appears on the Desktop where you dropped the song. This is what you do with the flash drive, except you drag the song file from the iTunes window to a Finder window showing the flash drive. This action copies the song's file to wherever you dropped the song.
Hi Kenichi, I checked one of my movies and it started playing OK on my computer. Yes, you are right - I hadn't thought about the fact that the iTunes Media folder contains movies. So what I did just now was I erased the flash drive by opening it and taking the iTunes Media folder and putting it in the Trash. There was a small document in there titled QuickStart Guide SanDisk and another document titled Download for Mac_SanDisk. I left those on the flash drive because I didn't know if I should put them in the Trash or not. I then went to /Users/54willow/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/ (which is not under Users, it is under Finder > Go > Home > 54willow > Music > iTunes > iTunesMedia > Music). I have dragged the folder Music to the SanDisk flash drive and it is now downloading. It says Copying 1,225 items to SanDisk, with a total of 6.77 GB. The SanDisk package says 32 GB. So I assume it is big enough for my songs. I had in error dragged iTunes Media to the SanDisk and it said there was not enough capacity but that was because the Media folder contains my movies also. So I followed your instruction to just drag the Music folder.
From what I was doing yesterday with the SanDisk, all of a sudden icons have appeared on my desktop for Time Machine (my backup hard drive), for SuperDuper (my second backup hard drive), Mini 750GB (my computer) and MacintoshHD (the original hard drive inside my Mac Mini. When I click on these, there is no Put in Trash. So how do I get these icons off my desktop. I wasn't sure if I just dragged them to the Trash, would I seriously muck up those items that are now working fine, and which I need.?? Thanks so much.
I then went to /Users/54willow/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/ (which is not under Users, it is under Finder > Go > Home > 54willow > Music > iTunes > iTunesMedia > Music).
It is in Users. 54willow is the name of your user account home folder, which is located in Users. The Finder window is just showing you a short-cut to "Home."
Those icons on the Desktop are links to your connected storage. It's useful to have them on the Desktop, but you can set Finder to NOT show them. Open Finder's preferences (select Preferences under Finder in menu bar). Click on the General tab. Where is says Show these items on the desktop, uncheck the things you don't want to see on your Mac's desktop.
Hi Kenichi, Re. Users - thanks so much. I used to have a section under GO called Users but I guess somewhere along the line it was changed to 54willow. Re. icons for connected storage - why is it useful to have them on the desktop? Thanks so much for the instructions on getting the icons not to show. I realize what happened now - part of the iTunes instruction sheet I was following said to check Hard Disks and External Disks so I did. That is why they suddenly appeared after I did my first download onto the SanDisk (they were not on the desktop before). Thank you SO SO much for helping me and for your time in doing so. I live in a small town and no one else has an Apple computer or Apple accessories or software. Again, thank you so much.
It's useful because if I want to open a Finder window showing the disk's content (or just want to open a Finder window), I can just double-click its icon on the Desktop. It may be an "old school" thing. Before OS X, the "classic" Mac OS had the connected storage disks on the desktop, lined up along the right edge of screen. This is turned off by default in OS X, and the Finder window (if one is open), provides the same access points (and more) in its sidebar.
Hi Kenichi, I don't quite understand what you mean - this is because I am not anywhere near as advanced as you are in knowing how my computer works. To me, Finder windows are the documents and folders on my desktop. I have an external hard drive, partitioned into two, and I know that it backs up the built-in hard drive that came inside my computer. I never look at the hard drives or what is inside them, except to make sure they are working. Another question just came into my head - has nothing to do with hard drives. My computer seems to have a lot of trouble with online videos - the kind that are available on subject-oriented pages, like a firefighter's page, a horse lover's page, etc. Not all of the time, but very often, instead of the video flowing in smoothly and without stop, it will stop every few seconds and I get the spinning ball. I understand that the video has to download, so this doesn't bother me too much. When it stops every three words that a person in the video is speaking, that is very very irritating. Would this be because my computer is not big enough to handle videos (I really doubt this), or is it due to a problem with my high speed internet, or is it for another reason? And how can I solve this please?
When the Mac was created back in the 1980's, Apple created a graphically interface for it using a "desktop" metaphor. The disk (storage volume like on a hard drive) is the "filing cabinet." In the disk are "folders." They are technically called directories, but "folder" fits the metaphor (so the icon looks like a folder). In the folders are documents of various types. The metaphor is not perfect; on the Mac, you can put folders inside folders inside folder... Out in the real world, most people do not put a folder inside a folder. But the purpose was to make users feel more comfortable with using computers for the first time, back in the "early days" of Mac. So the screen is a desktop, with storage units that have folders inside for storing documents.
A Finder window is a view into what you have stored. Open a Finder window, and click something like Documents in the sidebar. From the menu bar, under View, select Show Path Bar. On the Finder window, at the bottom, the "path" to the Documents folder appears. For you, it should say something like
Macintosh HD > Users > 54willow > Documents
That is the path to your Documents folder. Each level on the path is a folder. You can click on other "shortcuts" in the Finder window's sidebar, like Music. This shows your Music folder, which has its own path. Your files are organized into levels of folders (directories). Finder is the built-in application for navigating this structure, so you can "find" your stuff.
but very often, instead of the video flowing in smoothly and without stop, it will stop every few seconds and I get the spinning ball.
There are several factors. One is your connection speed to the Internet. Another is the connection speed of the video's host to the Internet. And the size of the video makes a big difference. If the video is lower resolution, it is smaller in size. If the video is "HD," it is much larger. Streaming (downloading and playing at the same time) larger videos smoothly takes more connection speed (at both ends). The "traffic" on the Internet is also a factor; the video may play better late at night. If your computer is really old and lacks performance to view the video smoothly, that can be a factor. But that will not be an issue with any recent computer; even cheap mobile phones can smoothly stream HD videos these days...
If you experience the "spinning ball" with a particular video, one thing you can do is wait until it downloads completely. Then the video's data is on your Mac, and it will play smoothly. Your Mac is just playing the video, not streaming it.
Hi Kenichi, Thanks so much for the analogy re. folders. You are right, in the real world, people don't put folders inside folders, but on the computer we do this all the time. Thank you so much for the Show Path Bar. I have selected this, and it shows exactly what you wrote re users > 54willow etc. I am going to leave it selected because this will be very helpful. My doctor is the only other person I know with a Mac computer and he told me once to go to each heading, click on it, read the drop down menu and just select things and "play around" to learn what things do. I had started doing this, but then had something backfire - things didn't act the way I thought they would - and I had to pay someone to put it back the way it was, so I became very nervous about just "playing around" with things on the computer. If someone shows me or tells me what something does, I'm not afraid to try it because it has been recommended by someone who knows, i.e. like trying the Show Path Bar after receiving your instructions.
In your latest message, there is a jump in continuity where you write "Finder is the built-in application for navigating this structure so you can "find" your stuff. then it says "but (in small letters) very often, instead of the video flowing in smoothly etc", and I'm wondering if you wrote something in front of the word "but" that had something to do with the subject of video downloading?? Am I missing part of the sentence? Re. streaming videos, I bought this computer (replacing my old one) in 2012, it is OS X version 10.9.5, and it has 2.0GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 processor, with memory 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x4GB and 750GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm + 256GB Solid State Drive and somewhere in it is a Tetrabyte storage. Yes, I guess I can just let a video stream in completely before watching it, but if the video is, say, 10 minutes, that is a long time to be staring at nothing. I don't know what my connection speed is to the internet but I can find out.
In your latest message, there is a jump in continuity...
I was quoting what you wrote in your previous post. In this forum, that grayish offset area with text is a "quote." Like I did above. It means, regarding what you wrote (quoted), I have something to say (after the quote). You did not miss anything...
Your Mac is newer than mine. 🙂
I guess I can just let a video stream in completely before watching it, but if the video is, say, 10 minutes, that is a long time to be staring at nothing.
A video that lasts 10 minutes (when played) does not mean it takes 10 minutes to download. It may take 1 minute to download, or it may take 1 hour. It depends on the file size of video, and your connection speed for that download.
FYI - You can test the actual current connection speed using a web site like this
https://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/
If the speed you get ("download speed" is the important number) is regularly below what you are promised by your Internet service provider, you can complain to their customer support.
Kenichi Watanabe How do I put my music from iTunes into an external USB Flash Drive please?
