HELP ME!!!!! I’m totally pants at computers and stuff! I decided that it would be a good idea to transfer all my i-tunes music files (or in windows "my documents") over to an external HD.
I checked it had worked, then deleted the files from my PC’s Hard drive….

Now, when I try to play a track from i-tunes, it says it can’t locate the file. There doesn’t seem to be a way of setting it up so it looks for it on the external drive.

Do I have to transfer it all back onto the pc and suffer with it’s chronic slowness??

you need to remove it all from the i tunes library. then re add it, use ‘add folder to library’ iirc. and just point it to the external drive. should be simple enough. HTH

If you copied the itunes folder to the external hard drive your .itl itunes libary file is there too.

Start up itunes with the shift key pressed and it’ll ask for the location of thew itunes libray, just browse to the .itl file in the itunes folder on the external drive and you’re good to go.

If you end up with two copies of each song with one copy being an "orphan" download the itunes sdk from apple, in there is a script for removing orphan entries from the library, just unpack and double click it to run it…..I take no responsibility for the use of this etc….

im in the process of doing this..

Its easier if you have a ‘music’ – then ‘itunes music’ folder to work with..

Go into itunes – edit – preferences…advanced. tick the two boxes, ‘copy music automatically’ & ‘keep music folder organized’

Choose the new location of your music – this is the ‘itunes music’. It will take 20 secs or so. Then you must go file – library – consolidate library. This basically takes all the files and puts them where you want them. Depending on the size of library this can take so time..

At the end of that, you must fiind the "Album Artwork" folder, as well as the iTunes Library.itl and iTunes Library.xml files and copy them to the ‘music folder’.

now itunes will be able to play the tunes.

does that help?

I did this and lost all my music, as when i put on my external it wouldn;t let me then put them back onto comp. Most annoying day ever! 🙄

download ITLU.

what’s ITLU???

i suspect you’ve lost all your tunes and you’ll have to rebuild your library. you cant just move library from one drive to another.

download ipodrip and build a new library from your ipod

except my i-pod is not being recognised by any pc I plug it into…is it f**ked too???

Handbrake – stop panicking and do what Scotia advises; the others haven’t read your original post properly.

One thing to bear in mind is that if you run iTunes without the hard drive attached (eg to download a song) it will automatically reset the preferences.

Handbrake, please do as i say. It works. Dont listen to anything else with downloads of this and that.. I have just spent from 9am till 1pm today doing our library to a new external disk. You have all of the files still as you copied them over (if i have understood correctly).

Calm down, its a computer. They are stupid really – and need human input. You can fix this, just take time. If u need help, give me a shout.

Thanks Scotia, you’ve saved my life!!!!!!

i have just bought a buffalo portable hard drive really for the sole purpose of transferring my sons vast itunes library from my laptop. i’m not very computer minded. scotia, i followed your instructions, now nearly every song in the portable hard drive has its own folder and when i try to open a folder, the original itunes on my pc opens. what have i done wrong ????????

noeleen – please tell me what you have done, starting from the start.. what clicks you clicked when etc etc..otherwise it could be many things.. if you can please email me at: a_gunstone at yahoo dot com