iTunes / iPod

Liking the sound of that. Do you need to then delete it off your laptop/computer?

Nice one Alastair.

I'd follow some kind of video guide just to make sure although Alastair has got it spot on.

You not only need to move the tracks over to an external drive but you also need to make sure you move the library file off your PC as well.

If you were a really clever b***ard you could attach a network hard drive to your router as well.

I've got one of those little My Passport jobbies.  They are ideal as they don't need a separate power cable and you can take them with you on laptops on sh*t.

Plus you can always use your library on other people's computers by clicking Ctrl when you open iTunes and navigating to your own library.  Doesn't interfere with somebody's else's library.

Right, been downloading a few family guy episodes
And....its only let me have 4 on my itunes
The total time, is an hour so i wonder if that has anything to do with it?
Help?

Right. I've just been reading all about how to put all my iTunes library onto an external hard drive. I'm still a bit frightened though, but I want it all on an external drive as I reckon I might need a new laptop very shortly. Just read all about 'consolidating' the files and changing the path to the external drive, letting it copy them all over and then clearing out the original media folder. Has anyone done this and is it normally hassle free? I saw a comment saying that all the artwork vanished for someone's stuff they'd purchased from iTunes store. Anyone know if this is true?

Also, if I do this can I then download a newer iTunes (the download kept failing on mine so I'm still on version 7) and change the default path name to where my external is?

Gow, are you looking to transfer all your songs to a new computer?

If so I can tell you how to do it easily - I did it just the other day.

No external hardrive required - just your iPod and a USB cable...

I want to get rid of all the music on my laptop onto an external drive so I can delete it from my laptop (it's about 15GB). Trouble is, in my preferences, I didn't have 'Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library' ticked, so I'm thinking that certain things (ie all the things just in my Music folder on the the C drive but not in the iTunes folder within there) will be in the iTunes folder AND the normal music folder duplicated. So if I consolidate the files will that cause a clash and ruin any tags I've created to name tracks? And will it result in me ending up duplicating stuff on my iPod? Don't think it should, as I don't do automatic syncing on it.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean mate.

How come you want to delete the music from your laptop? Do you sync using your laptop? If so, you need the music to still be there otherwise you will lose it all.

Are you looking to move the files to a new computer or not?

I do the manual thing for syncing. ie It doesn't do it automatically, I do t manually by draggin and dropping the newer stuff after I rip it. But importing it into the iTunes library doesn't automatically put it in the iTunes folder unless you have what I mentioned above ticked, but I'm nervy about losing stuff and I've bought a fair amount of stuff and ripped a fair amount of my CD's (about 10GB on my Pod).

You can't get rid of the files for the music on the computer that you want to sync off.

Last week I managed to get all of my music files onto my laptop however when before I used to sync off the home PC.

Do you want me to tell you how to move all of your music into a new computer, or am I completely misunderstanding you.

Ross mate, I want to have it on an external hard drive and redirect my iTunes to look there for it so it can be deleted from my C drive. Kapeesh?

Ah, understood!!

Well I might be wrong but I think you may just have to copy and paste all of the files onto your hard drive and then delete them from your C drive. Then re-add all the files again to your library and re-sync your iPod. You shouldn't lose any artwork etc.

Like I said last week I copied all of the music from my iPod onto my new laptop and I haven't lost anything bar the star ratings.

Actually.

You might be best doing it the way I did.

If you plug in your iPod to your laptop, then:

"Navigate over to the iPod in My Computer and make sure you set the folder options to show hidden files. Find the hidden folder called iPod Control and even though it's filled with many files with nonsensical names this is in fact the music library on the iPod. Copy that folder to anywhere on the PC which will take a while if you have a lot of songs. When this copy is complete open iTunes and in the Files menu tell iTunes to Add a Folder and select the iPod Control folder you just copied over."

Thanks Ross. Sounds totally different to the method I read about (above). Anyone else want to help too?

Right, downloaded my videos onto itunes now
And i've plugged my ipod in, and it charges but nothing comes up on itunes :/
By the way there is a problem with my laptop (no desktop shows up, or no start bar, just the 'documents box) BUT it worked yesterday :/

Help

Thanks Ross. Sounds totally different to the method I read about (above). Anyone else want to help too?

I don't think there's a way of directly changing it so that its source is your external hard drive to be honest - you definately won't be able to play any music through your laptop when the hard drive isn't connected anyway.

I'm currently on an iPod importing frenzy.  Throwing all my CD's in to iTunes.

To be fair iTunes is doing a cracking job with all the track names and everything - I'm surprised by how good it is.

I also bought a program called TuneUp which finds all missing artwork and even finds song names for any unlabelled stuff you have and it works quite well.

Up to 8620 songs, though iTunes reckons I have about 1000 duplicates of songs on more than one album.  Reckon this 250Gb external drive is going to need to be replaced soon.

Anybody else got loads of dupes?

I'm currently on an iPod importing frenzy.  Throwing all my CD's in to iTunes.

To be fair iTunes is doing a cracking job with all the track names and everything - I'm surprised by how good it is.

I also bought a program called TuneUp which finds all missing artwork and even finds song names for any unlabelled stuff you have and it works quite well.

Up to 8620 songs, though iTunes reckons I have about 1000 duplicates of songs on more than one album.  Reckon this 250Gb external drive is going to need to be replaced soon.

Anybody else got loads of dupes?

I'm doing the exact same thing at the moment!

Practically everything in the house on iTunes ready to go on my iPod.

Currently cleaning everything up and adding artwork etc. Gonna be superb when done.

Just a hint, any duplicates you think you have, click on file>show duplicates and you can delete the copies there.

Just a hint, any duplicates you think you have, click on file>show duplicates and you can delete the copies there.

How did you think I knew how many duplicates I had?

I almost feel like I can't delete them because although they are the same song they are on different albums.  I don't want albums with holes in.

Been wondering about a way of finding artwork for albums. Might give that TuneUp a go.

Im in the process of trying to remember songs that i know i like but don't have. Lost a lot of music when i transferred stuff onto my laptop from the computer back home in Australia for some reason.

How did you think I knew how many duplicates I had?

I thought that Tune Up thing you have told you how many duplicates you have.

Right I'm thinking of backing up my songs
As I'm also thinking of having my laptop wiped due to 'infection'
Do i just copy over my songs saved in my documents onto a memory stick?