Comments on: iTunes Tip: Storing Your Media on an External Hard Drive

By: Carrie

Carrie — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 00:32:12 +0000

You only need to alias the top level folder.

If you have iTunes do it for you, it will default back to your internal hard drive any time your external drive is not connected and make a mess of your files.

By: Corliss

Corliss — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 19:30:42 +0000

Also for my instance, I only backed up the ‘Movies’ folder and moved it to my time capsule external drive. But I’m not certain as I move forward and add more movies to my library – where and how do I store them???

Do I move the file to the external and then add the file to my library? Or do I need to make an alias of every new file, copy it over to my internal hard drive and going forward, add the alias files to my library? Or could I add them to iTunes and have iTunes put them on my external for me? That scenario creates a dilemma though because I have iTunes saving all the rest of my media (music, photos, podcasts) to my internal and you can’t designate 2 places. Should I perhaps use two libraries? …questions..questions..you get one thing solved and then there’s so many more questions. If anyone has an answer I’m dying to know.

By: Corliss

Corliss — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 19:13:45 +0000

I enjoyed your post a lot (just got an Apple TV and a Time Capsule and thought this was going to be a lot easier until I read this) but I found I had to add one additional step:

After all is said and done – the files in iTunes still reference the old ones. If you move them to the trash and then look at the ‘get info’ you’ll see they still point to them even in the trash.

So…
LAST STEPS:
1. Make sure you have in your preferences>advanced>’Copy these files to your iTunes library’ option deleselected.
2. Go to file – Add to Library – and choose the new alias file you created: “iTunes Music”.
3. Test it and make sure the new files work. If so, now you can truly delete the duplicates out of your library.

By: Farewell 2009!

Farewell 2009! — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 15:01:19 +0000

[...] iTunes Tip: Storing Your Media on an External Hard Drive [...]

By: Jen

Jen — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 05:13:29 +0000

Carrie,
Thanks for posting the instructions for moving your iTunes library to a hard drive. I was thinking this was exactly what I needed but then I read the comment at the bottom saying that you were sad you couldn’t JUST move your video files and keep your music on your internal hard drive. I’m here to tell you that you CAN do this. I have my computer set up so that my tv video files are located on my external hard drive, but all my music is on my internal hard drive. HOWEVER – I don’t know how they did this. I took my Macbook down to the Genius Bar at the Apple store about 6 months ago and they did it for me. I decided that the process was a bit complicated and that I would come back when I needed the help again. I’ve desperately got to get down there because I’m down to only about 1 G of space left! THIS time I’m going to write down the instructions so I can do it myself in the future. I’d love to email them to you when I get them, if you are interested – or take your computer and external hard drive down to your local Apple Store and they can help you do it. Just thought you might like to know!

By: blackdog

blackdog — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 08:17:42 +0000

This is a great tip. I bought an AppleTV just to listen to music in my living room. The external drive works great because I can jam that thing full of lossless music and rock out in my living room. Much better than any CD player.
.-= blackdog´s last post ..Drunken Bastards Plastered Cast Pilot Episode Podcast–Blue Oyster Cult =-.

By: Sarah Eliza @ devastateboredom

Sarah Eliza @ devastateboredom — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:17:24 +0000

I just emailed you at the contact address at the bottom of the page… Subscribed now! Looking forward to your posts.