Itunes keeps copying my files from my external hard drive?

Sas · Sas #1 (**permalink**)

04-10-2011, 08:00 PM

Hi there, I think I'm in the correct place to ask this question, however tell me if I'm not!

Anyway the reason I'm here is because I have quite a small internal hard drive in my Mac Mini (50gb) so I purchased an external hard drive to store all of my media items on. However, after moving all of my music from my internal hard drive to the external hard drive, I tried to import all the music directly into iTunes and it then copied my entire music collection back onto the internal hard drive!

I know that iTunes has always seemed to do this and I can understand it's safer because it backs up data but I keep getting warnings about how little space I have left on my internal hard drive so I'd just like to know if there is a way to stop iTunes from copying all the music from my external hard drive and just have it stored directly in there so I can then play it in iTunes.

I know this can easily be done in Windows and seems like a simple enough thing for iTunes to enable. I hope you have understood what I have explained and I hope somebody can help!

Thanks a lot, Sas.

Kevriano · Kevriano #2 (**permalink**)

04-11-2011, 06:40 AM

You need to relocate the actual iTunes library folder, and then it will work. Follow this guide and you will be fine.

iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder

Kevriano #2 (permalink)
Member Since: Jul 02, 2006 Location: Crawley, England Posts: 4,560 Mac Specs: 20" Intel iMac 2.4 Ghz/3G Ram/320HD, Snow Leopard. PBook G4, 1.5Ghz/1.5 Ram/250 HD, Leopard 10.5.6.	04-11-2011, 06:40 AM You need to relocate the actual iTunes library folder, and then it will work. Follow this guide and you will be fine. iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder Try my custom Mac Forums Search Engine: Mac Forums Google Search Please use the reputation system if you consider any help given useful (it's the little ✓/✘ on the left <---)
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Itunes keeps copying my files from my external hard drive?

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Sas #1 (permalink)
Member Since: Apr 10, 2011 Posts: 1	04-10-2011, 08:00 PM Hi there, I think I'm in the correct place to ask this question, however tell me if I'm not! Anyway the reason I'm here is because I have quite a small internal hard drive in my Mac Mini (50gb) so I purchased an external hard drive to store all of my media items on. However, after moving all of my music from my internal hard drive to the external hard drive, I tried to import all the music directly into iTunes and it then copied my entire music collection back onto the internal hard drive! I know that iTunes has always seemed to do this and I can understand it's safer because it backs up data but I keep getting warnings about how little space I have left on my internal hard drive so I'd just like to know if there is a way to stop iTunes from copying all the music from my external hard drive and just have it stored directly in there so I can then play it in iTunes. I know this can easily be done in Windows and seems like a simple enough thing for iTunes to enable. I hope you have understood what I have explained and I hope somebody can help! Thanks a lot, Sas.
	QUOTE Thanks

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