itunes to external hard-drive

[admin_exported]

Hi. Please can anyone help me transfering my itune library to my readynas duo - I am after the quickest and easiest way? Also, is there a way of anything I put onto my itunes library going straight to my external hard-drive?

Many thanks

 

[John Duncan]

Yes. First, change your iTunes library location to where you want it to be on the NAS (Edit/Preferences/Advanced/iTunes Media Folder Location). This will mean that any new rips will end up there by default anyway.

To move the rest of your library, do File/Library/Organize Library/Consolidate Files. This will move all the files in your current iTunes Library, from wherever they may be, to the iTunes Library directory you set up above.

Note that the menu navigation above is for the windows version, might be slightly different on Mac.

JD

 

[Andrew Everard]

Same on Mac except Preferences is under Firefox

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for that, they seemed easy enough,

Can i delete itune library now so as to release space on computer?

But still play the music?

 

[John Duncan]

iamthetimberman:
Thanks for that, they seemed easy enough,

Can i delete itune library now so as to release space on computer?

But still play the music?

Once you're happy that all the files have been copied to the new hard drive, yes you can go in and delete the existing files on your local drive. Not that you should do this in explorer (or finder) rather than through iTunes itself, since iTunes is now pointing at the new external drive, and you'd be deleting all the copies you just made...

 

[Anonymous]

Hi again,

Yeh all tunes have gone ok to hdrive

Im sorry but dont understand the deleting process, Anyway of explaining in idiot form please

 

[John Duncan]

Windows or Mac?

 

[Anonymous]

Cheers Windows

 

[John Duncan]

In Windows, go into Windows Explorer and find the location of your old iTunes library - probably My Documents/My Music/iTunes. Delete the contents of that (send to the recycle bin in the first instance). Then check that you can still play music in your iTunes - once you've checked this and it works ok, you can get rid of the stuff from the recycle bin.

 

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much for your help all sorted,

 

[Anonymous]

Hi there, Maybe not so simple for me.

My tracks are on hard drive, Deleted tunes from itunes,As instructed above all went well,

When i play a song (i do this through my hdrive links) Is this the right way? they import back into itunes as an album and so start building new library

Where please am i going wrong,?

I do hope i get my head around this comp music system before i lose all will to live!!!

 

[John Duncan]

I would play them from within iTunes, rather than by right-clicking 'play' in your external hard drive.

I suspect also that you have 'Copy Files to iTunes Media Folder when adding to library' checked in Preferences/Advanced. This means that whenever you play a song from outside iTunes (eg by double-clicking in explorer), it adds it to the library and copies it to your iTunes Media Library (which is on your external hard drive) again, even though you just opened it from there...

 

[Anonymous]

Hi ,

Box is not checked in copy files,

I would rather play from itunes as it simple and i need to put on ipod soon

My itunes is empty as in deleted earlier the only way i see to play the songs are from hdrive

 

[John Duncan]

johnduncan:Not that you should do this in explorer (or finder) rather than through iTunes itself, since iTunes is now pointing at the new external drive, and you'd be deleting all the copies you just made...

Are you saying you deleted the files in iTunes, and not in Explorer as described above? In which case, apologies if the above wasn't clear. If your iTunes is now empty, go File/Add To Library, navigate to the new external hard drive directory where the music is now, and click OK - it will then re-import all your music to iTunes, and you should be done.

 

[Anonymous]

Yep thats brought them back,

But it also states 26gb at bottom, Does this mean it is taking up this space on my pc? Or just letting me know what size it is and it all on ext hd?

I am so sorry for all the q's but i am not worlds best on the pc (as you may have noticed by now)

Thanks for your time

 

[John Duncan]

No problem. That 26gb should now be taken up on your external drive.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi John,

Hope you can help me here. I have a media player with hard drive connected to my home network via CAT 5 cable and i'd like to use media player drive to store rips. I have done as you explained to the OP, changed file location on iTunes. When importing a cd, on the left hand side of my iTunes library an "i" appears and the error message says that file cannot be played coz original could not be found. Am i doing something wrong?

 

[Anonymous]

Me again,

I have copied approx 40gb across with no problems, But now the last 2 times i have done has started to go to itunes in my doc when settings say it shld go to nas,

So i copied across to nas and ended up with 2 copies in itunes of which one does not play as cant find location so i deleted these approx 1hr of tedious time,

These now work but as i said it has done it again so what has happened and why?

and what is easiest way to transfer back without the deleting process

 

[John Duncan]

Sorry, need some time with this, will come back to you tomorrow...

 

[Anonymous]

OK may be able to help abit

I have itunes to go to nas but when transferring takes place it changes to original itunes folder and sometimes error -1303 comes up.

Also some can not be found even tho they in nas library,

Please help??

 

[Anonymous]

Sorry for butting in. Do you have the DLNA activated? I found that by turning this off it would prevent the transfer errors that you get from within iTunes and when transferring regular files over. Its a common Vista problem and might be applicable.

Also, before using iTunes always make sure you can conncet to the ReadyNas. What I mean is that every time I boot up I need to enter a user name and password to access the ReadyNas' files. I have had the same problem as yours and it was basically because I had restarted my computer and forgot to "unlock" the network drive before using iTunes. As iTunes could not locate the library it reverted to its default library location.

Once your problems have started Im not surprised that its saying certain files arent found. It did it for me. So updated the library path name and went through the consolidation process again. Pain in the neck!

Hope it helps!

 

[Anonymous]

Hi there,

No probs more help the better,

I have sorted it ,

I was getting an ip address conflict and when this occurred itunes reverted back to its own location, I check now every time i am about to transfer but it has been fine since,

As for Finding them all again i managed to copy across and do as i was informed earlier by JD when i messed up(thanks for all your help too JD it has been a live saver) so i finally back to transfering , This comp music better be worth all this

Nah im enjoying seeing all the cds i have you forget what you got when they stuck on shelf

Again thanks for your input

 

[motley]

John, I have done the same but have now somehow ended up with two copies of each song on the visible "discstation" drive (DS211j) with no visible way of deleting them even if you right click?