# iTunes + music + external HD ??



## SonicBlue82 (Apr 6, 2005)

Hi all,

Well I'm on my new MacBook Pro (awesome, btw). So here's the deal. I have a Mac Mini and my MBP, and I'm trying to figure out a way to have my music with me at all times. Currently my music is on the Mac Mini and I share my iTunes library so I can play the music on my MBP. But that only works when I'm at home. How can I have my music when I'm at school??

I have an 80 gig external hard drive (2.5") ... I was thinking it would be nice to transfer my music to the external HD ... but how can I get iTunes to recognize it? You know how iTunes recognizes a shared iTunes folder from another computer running iTunes? Is there a way you can do that with an external hard drive? I'm guessing not ... but any suggestions to get around this would be appreciated!


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## macguy.nielsen (Sep 18, 2004)

Change the location of your itunes music folder in the preferences -> advanced panel.  Voila - iTunes music is now running off your external HD.


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## SonicBlue82 (Apr 6, 2005)

So I suppose if I was to set the iTunes music folder in the preferences on both the Mac Mini and the MBP to the external hard drive, I could access the music when its plugged in (on which ever computer it's plugged in to). And when I'm home, the other computer (that the external hard drive is not connected to) would still be able to access the music through the shared library ... does that make sense?


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## 20DDan (May 2, 2005)

*Voala!*

Bingo you've got it! I do that with my 550Mhz PB... It's worked like that for months now! 250GB Firewire HD is nice:lmao: I only wish my PB wouldnt constantly crash! It's okay... getting rid of it and getting an Intel iMac 2Ghz. Freaking excited... 2 weeks! YES!:love2:


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## Thom (May 10, 2005)

Followup question.... obviously all iTunes music must then be moved to the ext HD. Is there a simple way of doing that? Which folders should be copied over?


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## 20DDan (May 2, 2005)

*OMG... iMac 2Ghz Intel on the way...*

You need to copy the whole iTunes folder because it has some data files there, not just the music. These data files hold your playlists, rating's and other information needed to link your library to the program. Just dont forget to change the path in your iTunes app after to get it linked to the new folder location.


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## Derrick (Dec 22, 2004)

Thom said:


> Followup question.... obviously all iTunes music must then be moved to the ext HD. Is there a simple way of doing that? Which folders should be copied over?


I have my music library on an external HD ... works great!!!

The 'iTunes Music' folder and contents should reside on the external HD.

The 'iTunes' folder (and it's associated files) needs to stay in the Music folder (the 'iTunes Music' folder within this folder will be empty).


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## 20DDan (May 2, 2005)

My bad. Thanks for clarifying that...


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## SonicBlue82 (Apr 6, 2005)

Hi guys ... thanks for your replies ... I'm glad to hear other people have the same set up. I have copied my music over to my external HD, and changed the path in the iTunes preferences, yet iTunes still does not see my library. I'm sure it's something simple that I have missed. Any suggestions?

On the root of my external HD, I have a folder called iTunes. Inside iTunes is the iTunes Library file, the iTunes Music folder that contains all of my music and the iTunes Music Library.xml file. When I launch iTunes, I go to the Preferences and change the path to: Media:iTunes:iTunes Music. (Media is the name of the HD). Shouldn't be any reason why it wouldn't find my music....


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## SonicBlue82 (Apr 6, 2005)

Derrick said:


> The 'iTunes' folder (and it's associated files) needs to stay in the Music folder (the 'iTunes Music' folder within this folder will be empty).


Thanks Derrick, that did the trick! I just had to made sure the appropriate files from the iTunes folder remain on the main hard drive (not the external). Everything works well now


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## j3tang (Dec 18, 2005)

sorry for digging up an old thread, but i didn't want to make a new topic for something done before that's fairly similar.

My situation is as follows:

I have my collection of music in my "Music" folder on my mac, but i'd like to move all the music to an external drive. The folder on the external is "External/Music". So far nothing different from above. So now that i've transferred all my music over to the external drive, i go into iTunes and point the location of music collection to the new folder on the external drive (Preferences >> Advanced >> Change button)

I try to play some songs in iTunes and they're all broken links :s

Here are the settings in the advanced tab
i don't have "keep itunes music folder organized" checked,
i don't have " copy files to iTunes music folder when ..... " checked either.

I suspect the problem is because iTunes doesnt organize the music for me, and i refuse to let it do so. I've got a certain way that i organize my music, which is not the same as how iTunes does it. For this reason, the music is not actually in the "Music/iTunes/iTunes Music" folder but just in "Music". I'd like to keep the music organized the same way i have it now on the External; not let iTunes organize it for me.

Has anyone run into this problem before and know how to get around it?


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