Need iTunes tech help (laptop, hard drive, screen, Windows)

[grimes8]

This is a random question, but here goes...

I recently bought an external hard drive with the intention of putting iTunes and all of my music on the external and ONLY the external...not my laptop. Every time I download iTunes it puts it on both, even though the destination folder clearly has my G: drive selected. I don't want anything on my laptop, just the external.

Any help?

[Sayantsi]

So, in iTunes, when you go to Preferences, under the Advanced tab you should see the path to where you want your music library to be. Is this the correct external drive?

Under that you should see a checkbox to keep iTunes Media folder organized - is that selected?

Under that, is the "copy files" checkbox also selected?

[grimes8]

Thanks, I changed the settings to have the library on my external and clicked those boxes, but its still putting things in the "My Music" folder on my C: drive when I import anything, and when I delete that folder in My Music, it deletes all of the songs on my iTunes.

Ugh.

[Sayantsi]

Start by unselecting the third checkbox - you do not want the copy files option selected, which is one reason you are seeing the files in multiple places.

[grimes8]

Yeah its still doing it. When I go in to My Music and delete the iTunes folder on my C: drive it wipes the iTunes on my G: drive clean. I don't get it. I'm usually pretty good with computers, leave it to Apple to screw me up.

[Marleys Mum]

Originally Posted by grimes8

This is a random question, but here goes...

I recently bought an external hard drive with the intention of putting iTunes and all of my music on the external and ONLY the external...not my laptop. Every time I download iTunes it puts it on both, even though the destination folder clearly has my G: drive selected. I don't want anything on my laptop, just the external. Any help?

I just stumbled accross this post, what a great idea having an external hardrive for Itunes! I would like to do this myself, do you mind me asking how big the external hardrive has to be to accommodate Itunes?

thanks!

[TurcoLoco]

Originally Posted by grimes8

Yeah its still doing it. When I go in to My Music and delete the iTunes folder on my C: drive it wipes the iTunes on my G: drive clean. I don't get it. I'm usually pretty good with computers, leave it to Apple to screw me up.

Can you trick it by changing your "My Music" folder location in the registry?

Before you follow the proceeding steps, especially if you are a novice user, I strongly recommend you backup your registry just in case:
1. Click Start
2. Click Run
3. Type regedit (not case sensitive)
4. Click OK
5. Browse to this location my expanding the corresponding keys on the left side of the registry editor: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer
6. Right-click on Explorer key on the left and select Export.
7. Type in a name for this backup file and also select a location that would be easy to locate, then click Save to complete the process.




To modify the path for My Music folder location within 2 Shell Folder keys:
1. Click Start
2. Click Run
3. Type regedit
4. Click OK
5. Browse to this location my expanding the corresponding keys on the left side of the registry editor: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders
6. After you click on Shell Folders key on the left hand side, you will see a bunch of entries appear on the right.
7. Look for "My Music" value, double-click on it to edit its data (path).

8. Type in the path [G:], it would be best to have a folder name instead of just a drive letter though.
9. You should also do the steps 6-8 for the User Shell Folders key which is only a little further down on the list on the left hand pane (see screen shot above).

I believe you will have to at least log off for changes to take affect or you could simply restart your computer.