itunes on an external hard-drive?

[anonymous8547j7d7b]

Anyone else tried this As we have a reasonably big library (12,500 songs approx - 'bout 55 odd gb I think) we decided to put itunes onto an external k drive. We ended up losing file paths and all sorts when we followed the "official" how-to instructions for moving itunes to a 'K' and then sharing it between multiple users (was only on mrs. Jay's account b4). As we had backed up recently, we reinstalled itunes onto the k-drive and made sure thats where everything related has gone as well. it's just sooo darn slow to import the library again from data cd's, in fact, if you ask it to import an entire cd in one go it gives up and restarts the PC The PC runs XP Home. Any thoughts?

[jazzbassnerd]

I did this recently, though I'm running Mac OSX. I moved the copied the iTunes folder from my laptops HD to the new external (took a bit of time). Then I deleted all the music out of iTunes (after checking a few random things on the new external to make sure that it was there).

After this I went into iTunes preferences and changed the location of the library to it's new location on my external drive.

THEN, I grabbed the whole iTunes folder on the drive and drug it into the (now) empty iTunes and reloaded the whole library.

I'd hope that there's a faster way, but this took less than an hour and I didn't lose a thing, just gain a hellofalotof space on my laptop's HD.

Hope that helps.

(just for a random disclaimer, though I don't think this will happen because that's how I moved it, if you lose your library, please don't blame me....)

[Tbeers]

If I wanted to do this, I would first put all of the music on the external hard drive. Just take the entire directory (inside your My Music folder) entitled "iTunes", and copy it to the external drive. Then go into the copied version of the directory and delete the files entitled "iTunes Library" and "iTunes Music Library". If there is a folder there called "Previous iTunes Libraries", delete that too. So now all you have on the external drive is the music itself and any saved album artwork.

Next uninstall iTunes completely from your computer. Leave the music files on your local HD for the time being, just to be safe. But make sure the library index files (referenced above) are deleted! Perform a fresh install of iTunes -- install it back on your computer just like it was before. I don't think it makes any sense to install the program on the external drive. When you run the new install of iTunes for the first time, don't let it import anything automatically. Go into the preferences --> advanced --> general, and change the default iTunes Music folder. Change it to the "iTunes Music" directory on your external hard drive. For you, the path should look something like "K:\iTunes\iTunes Music". Set the rest of your iTunes preferences however you like.... Then exit the preferences, and go to file --> add folder to library. Select the new iTunes Music folder and press OK. This will probably take a long time. When it's done, you should be all set. Exit iTunes and then reopen it, just to make sure it's created a new library file correctly and it shows all the right tracks. Once this is done you can delete the old music files from your local HD. Then you're done.

As for sharing... I don't see why that should be complicated with only two of you. iTunes allows you to authorize up to 5 users for access to any protected content. If you try to play something and it prompts you for a password, just enter your password and be done with it! The only complicated part is if one of you adds music to the library, the other one will have to add it again, manually. That's actually sort of a PITA. I'm sure you'll work it out. Good luck.

[jazzbassnerd]

I forgot something very important. Consolidate iTunes library!!!

That should put all your tunes in the same place. You should only have to do it once.

[Tbeers]

Originally Posted by jazzbassnerd

I forgot something very important. Consolidate iTunes library!!!

That should put all your tunes in the same place. You should only have to do it once.

I agree, you should definitely consolidate your library. But you may need to do it semi-regularly on a PC. It's always a good idea.

[anonymous8547j7d7b]

Hmm. It was when we moved the library to the K drive and left the application itself on the C drive that things went belly-up. I agree it makes more sense that way 'cos its the music that takes up the space. Tbeers pretty much described what we did (I think) according to itunes help and "itunes for dummies" I wonder if there's maybe an extra step in what you suggested that would have prevented the filepath issues that screwed the library? I'll pass it on to chez-Jay's resident itunes mechanic (ie mrs jay - you set it up, babes, I'll just play it )Funny though, it imported 2 full (4.7 gb)data cd's in a row last night at decent speed without a hitch -then restarted the PC when asked to do a 3rd. Maybe it's getting over a bout of flu I have been told by a local IT pro that "itunes doesn't like to be moved". I'll keep posting if there's any further developments or consternations, cheers guys.