iTunes

[tsmckenney]

NEED HELP with my iTunes: :0
I have an iPod and A LOT of music (15K+songs). Here is the situation. My iTunes is installed on my laptop, my music files and i-Tunes Library are on an extrnal 500G HD. Every once in awhile I'm looking at my i-Tunes library and a few songs here and a few songs there and MORE the next day have the little ! in a circle icon = original file cannot be found. this was a pain when I first discovered it because there were 500 songs the first day then another 1K the next, so I just deleted the entire i-Tunes Library & started over, 3 times already!!! now :angry: I'm approaching my 4th. What the H-E-Double Hockey Sticks can I do. I've searched & searched, even went to Barnes & Nobel to read off the shelf = BUBKUS!!!
HELP!!!!!

If you've made any changes to a song's location, your iPod won't be able to locate it. Example, you shift a song from your Heavy Metal folder to your newly created Death Metal M'fer!!! folder. That will change the song's directory and it's lost to the iPod.

Just a thought.

 

[Rebel Herfer]

Mick - my music stays in the same spot - the external HD. It'sa drivin'a me acrazy!
Would it help to install i-Tunes on my HD? and how would I do that? I tried before but it ends up auto matically puttin part of it on my laptop.

 

[mysterea]

As an aside, if you plan on buying an external harddrive get a 'harddrive shell' and a regular old internal harddrive, it'll save you money and you gain upgradability.
For example:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16817198004
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...;Tpk=WD6400AAKS

You can save a few bucks going for a regular external drive if you shoot for good rebates but the upgradability (and ability to just buy / use another harddrive whenever you want (for data recovery purposes etc) is gold.

~R

 

[Special K]

Mick - my music stays in the same spot - the external HD. It'sa drivin'a me acrazy!
Would it help to install i-Tunes on my HD? and how would I do that? I tried before but it ends up auto matically puttin part of it on my laptop.

Quick question: Do you have your external HD plugged in when you open iTunes? If your iTunes library is on your external drive, and you open iTunes without the drive plugged in and try to play a song...well...then obviously the song won't play and you'll get that little "!" icon next to your music.

 

[Rebel Herfer]

Mick - my music stays in the same spot - the external HD. It'sa drivin'a me acrazy!
Would it help to install i-Tunes on my HD? and how would I do that? I tried before but it ends up auto matically puttin part of it on my laptop.

Quick question: Do you have your external HD plugged in when you open iTunes? If your iTunes library is on your external drive, and you open iTunes without the drive plugged in and try to play a song...well...then obviously the song won't play and you'll get that little "!" icon next to your music.

I try to make sure it is always plugged in & with power. I don't really play directly from i-Tunes. Is there any way to prevent this or fix it automatically?

 

[DECEPTiON21]

When i got my new PC, i networked it with the other computer and used myTunes, a third party app, to "steal" the music from my original PC.

When i got my Macbook, i used iPodRip, third party app again, to get the music directly off my iPod.

 

[Special K]

Mick - my music stays in the same spot - the external HD. It'sa drivin'a me acrazy!
Would it help to install i-Tunes on my HD? and how would I do that? I tried before but it ends up auto matically puttin part of it on my laptop.

Quick question: Do you have your external HD plugged in when you open iTunes? If your iTunes library is on your external drive, and you open iTunes without the drive plugged in and try to play a song...well...then obviously the song won't play and you'll get that little "!" icon next to your music.

I try to make sure it is always plugged in & with power. I don't really play directly from i-Tunes. Is there any way to prevent this or fix it automatically?

I'm sure there is some sort of automated way, but unless you navigate to your external and pick a song to play, you may run into the same problem regardless. If you don't play directly from iTunes, what do you use?

I had the same issue you're having when I had all my music on an external drive. I'd get the little "!" icon next to songs when i opened iTunes if i accidentally didn't have external on or plugged in. Eventually I got annoyed and just copied it all to my laptop HD. I'll periodically back it up to my external, but not super worried cause my iPod has an up to date backup anyways.

 

[PuroEsq]

I really appreciate all of the responses. When I get around to making the transfer for her I will be sure to use the advice and cautions mentioned here.

Thanks to everyone.

- Jason

 

[Rebel Herfer]

Mick - my music stays in the same spot - the external HD. It'sa drivin'a me acrazy!
Would it help to install i-Tunes on my HD? and how would I do that? I tried before but it ends up auto matically puttin part of it on my laptop.

Quick question: Do you have your external HD plugged in when you open iTunes? If your iTunes library is on your external drive, and you open iTunes without the drive plugged in and try to play a song...well...then obviously the song won't play and you'll get that little "!" icon next to your music.

I try to make sure it is always plugged in & with power. I don't really play directly from i-Tunes. Is there any way to prevent this or fix it automatically?

I'm sure there is some sort of automated way, but unless you navigate to your external and pick a song to play, you may run into the same problem regardless. If you don't play directly from iTunes, what do you use?

I had the same issue you're having when I had all my music on an external drive. I'd get the little "!" icon next to songs when i opened iTunes if i accidentally didn't have external on or plugged in. Eventually I got annoyed and just copied it all to my laptop HD. I'll periodically back it up to my external, but not super worried cause my iPod has an up to date backup anyways.

I play directy off my i-Pod with my earplugs or the Bose Speaker Box.
I wish I could put the tunes directly on my laptop but we're talking nearly 85 gigs of tunes!
Can I force i-Tunes to reside only on my external? Right now the program launches from my laptop HD.

 

[Special K]

Mick - my music stays in the same spot - the external HD. It'sa drivin'a me acrazy!
Would it help to install i-Tunes on my HD? and how would I do that? I tried before but it ends up auto matically puttin part of it on my laptop.

Quick question: Do you have your external HD plugged in when you open iTunes? If your iTunes library is on your external drive, and you open iTunes without the drive plugged in and try to play a song...well...then obviously the song won't play and you'll get that little "!" icon next to your music.

I try to make sure it is always plugged in & with power. I don't really play directly from i-Tunes. Is there any way to prevent this or fix it automatically?

I'm sure there is some sort of automated way, but unless you navigate to your external and pick a song to play, you may run into the same problem regardless. If you don't play directly from iTunes, what do you use?

I had the same issue you're having when I had all my music on an external drive. I'd get the little "!" icon next to songs when i opened iTunes if i accidentally didn't have external on or plugged in. Eventually I got annoyed and just copied it all to my laptop HD. I'll periodically back it up to my external, but not super worried cause my iPod has an up to date backup anyways.

I play directy off my i-Pod with my earplugs or the Bose Speaker Box.
I wish I could put the tunes directly on my laptop but we're talking nearly 85 gigs of tunes!
Can I force i-Tunes to reside only on my external? Right now the program launches from my laptop HD.

Sorry for the insanely late response! Finals time has kicked in and I kind of disappear!

So really you're only using iTunes to load songs onto your iPod. Not too big of a deal then, just make sure you have the external on and working before you open iTunes. Might be a pain, but for the most part you should be ok. As long as iTunes can locate the external and the folder on it you shouldn't have an issue.

As for having it launch from your external, wish I could help you. I'll try installing on my external and see if I can get it to work. Letcha know if it works out for me, but I havn't ever tried it.