Can I lock my iTunes folder location preference...?

I'm using airport express with an external hard drive acting as my time capsule, iTunes and iPhoto storage.

When my MacBook is on and the express is off, iTunes creates a new folder within /Music on it's drive. This has to be changed manually back to the external hard disk.

The obvious solutions are to be careful not to open iTunes when it's not networked or keep the extreme turned on.. but iPhoto and Time Capsule seem to just look for the folder, then quiz me where it is without automatically creating a new folder...

Is there anyway to stop it creating a new folder?

I'm happy for iTunes to say something like: There is no network detected. Do you wish to open iTunes?
Cheers..

For iTunes and iPhoto, you can hold the "option" key while launching. It will ask you to choose a library.

Thanks... that kinda worked, in a very, very bad way!
I'd been updating the album artwork that was missing for the past two days and while my iTunes has revert back to the old playlists etc of my old iTunes, it's lost the actual music and the album artwork.

The music is actually in the folders and the art work is ascribed to the file thumbnails.

It also didn't recognise the route Hard Disk/Music that works in the preferences, it had to be Hard Disk/Music/iTunes.

I figure I'll need to use Time Machine to get it all back to the existing settings, or can this be fixed properly once and for all?

In the iTunes preferences, you can reset the location. It should revert to what it was.
Personally, I would keep the Express left on. It would seem to solve the problem.

Sorry if I messed things up for you. Was definately not my intention. If I find a separate solution , I'll be sure to post it.

Hi Soulwar...
No not at all!! It's exactly what was looking for!

It has done exactly what I wanted it to do.. thing is, I knew to do that for iPhoto!

Should have waited before opening before making changing!!

Do you think I can revert things back, finish my changes, consolidate library move it onto the hard disk, then option/open?

thanks for the help!

It sounds like a good plan. It should work. Make sure you keep a backup, though..

By the way, thanks for the reassurance!