redhead_kara

Q: Have iTunes recognize remote drive as local - not stream over internet

I live in a rural area with metered broadband, so usually download purchased movies/TV shows. I have an external WD My Cloud drive on the same wifi network as my MacBook Pro that I wanted to use for iTunes media since I ran low on space on the MacBook drive. I copied all my media files to the WD drive, then followed the process to create a new iTunes Library file on the WD drive and had it look there for media. It looked like this worked fine at first, but after a reboot all the files show up in iTunes with the little cloud and say the files are in iCloud. I rebooted again and made sure to connect to the WD drive before opening iTunes, but no luck - it still shows them as non-local. Since it says iCloud, I'm afraid this means iTunes will try to stream over the internet, rather than playing the local (to my network) version, chewing rapidly through my data cap. I tried one movie and checked my internet data tracker, it did appear to be doing a rapid climb, so pretty sure my fear is realized. Is there a way for me to make this work? If not, is anyone aware of a good program to manage a media library? Thanks!

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch,Early 2015), iOS 10

Posted on Sep 27, 2016 12:33 PM

Close

Q: Have iTunes recognize remote drive as local - not stream over internet

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by Limnos,

    Limnos Limnos Sep 27, 2016 1:57 PM in response to redhead_kara
    Level 9 (54,333 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 27, 2016 1:57 PM in response to redhead_kara

    There isn't really any way to get iTunes to "look there for media".  iTunes knows where media are because you add them to iTunes, it then copies them to the location designated in preferences and makes a note of their location in the iTunes Library.itl file.

     

    There's a dozen options for doing this and some will depend upon your exact preferences.  For most people it is usually a better idea to relocate the entire iTunes library to the external storage device (see below).  There are variants even to the extent of keeping only certain media groups on an external drive but that depends upon how interested you are in learning the nuts and bolts of how iTunes works and how meticulous a housekeeper you are.

     

    Apple's 6 page, exhaustively meticulous step-by-step instructions: How to move your iTunes library to a new computer - https://support.apple.com/HT204318  It is handy if you suspect any of your media are not in the standard location.

     

    My one-sentence summary 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) while starting iTunes, and when requested to select a library select the iTunes Library.itl file in the copied folder (Open a different iTunes Library file or create a new one - https://support.apple.com/HT201596).