How to make Windows 11 recognize downloaded movies on an external drive like Windows 10?

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How to make Windows 11 recognize downloaded movies on an external drive like Windows 10?

I recently swapped out my Windows 10 computer for a new Windows 11 computer but now my new Windows 11 computer does not recognize my downloaded movies the same as my Windows 10 computer does.

My movies are located on an external 12TB drive.

When I access with my Windows 10 computer, all my movies are recognized as locally download. But when I access these same movies with my new Windows 11 computer it is showing my movie location as being in the cloud.

My iTunes Advance Preferences for both my Windows 10 and Windows 11 computers are set the same. The only difference is the external drive ID. Windows 10 had the drive ID as F: while Windows 11 assigned it as E:. Adjustments for the change in Drive ID was accounted for in my Advance Preferences with both computers looking at the same external folders.

How do I get my new Windows 11 computer to recognize my downloaded movies?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Windows, Windows 10

Posted on May 25, 2025 09:21 PM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

277,723 points

May 31, 2025 01:18 PM in response to Poco2

Changing the location of your media folder in iTunes preferences doesn't necessarily make iTunes look for content in the new location. The easiest fix at this point in time is to make your new drive use the older drive letter that iTunes is expecting. You can use the Disk Management system utility to alter drive letters.

Longer term life with iTunes is easier if your library is in a portable layout that doesn't break if the drive letter changes. See Make a split library portable - Apple Community for details.

tt2

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

277,723 points

Jun 10, 2025 03:46 AM in response to Poco2

Did you clone the iTunes Library.itl file from the Windows 10 machine to the Windows 11 system? When you sign into a new otherwise empty library all of your unhidden purchases show up in the cloud. Changing the media folder preference to the location where local copies exist doesn't trigger any form of discovery. You can import the local media, which should then suppress the cloud entries, but that loses played counts, ratings, etc. that aren't held in tags. Better to migrate your previous library properly if you can.

See Move your iTunes library to a new computer - Apple Community for more.

tt2

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Answer 3

Poco2 Author

Level 1

18 points

Jun 9, 2025 09:22 PM in response to turingtest2

I apologize for taking so long to reply but I have been out of town traveling for business.

I executed your recommendation and changed the external drive id under Windows 11 to be the same as the drive id under Windows 10. Unfortunately, I am still getting the same result. Under Windows 10, with my preferences pointing to my external drive "F", everything works fine and iTunes is able to recognize my movies as downloaded. But that same configuration under Windows 11, with my preferences pointing to the same external drive "F", does not recognize my movies as downloaded and only shows them in the cloud.

So I am still looking on how to fix this issue.

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Answer 4

Poco2 Author

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18 points

Jun 11, 2025 09:47 PM in response to turingtest2

So that we are on the same page, no files have been moved in this situation.

My iTunes Movie files are sitting on the same external disk drive, with the same disk drive ID as they always have.

All I did was take my Windows 10 CPU with iTunes and physically replaced it with a Windows 11 CPU with iTunes.

That means that any file structure on my external disk drive remained untouched.

So how did I lose access to the original iTunes Library.itl?

I assume by your response that the iTunes Library.itl is not located within my Movie Library structure on my external drive.

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Answer 5

Poco2 Author

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18 points

Jun 12, 2025 06:31 AM in response to Poco2

I located the iTunes Library.itl file and see that it is located with my iTunes application on my default "C" drive.

Is this a simple copy and paste from my Windows 10 computer to my Windows 11 computer or is a special technique required to clone this file over?

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Answer 6

turingtest2

Level 10

277,723 points

Jun 12, 2025 09:03 AM in response to Poco2

No, you simply copy and paste the file to copy it to a new location. You need to hold down shift as you launch iTunes and then use the choose library option to access the .itl file on the new path. Double-clicking the file in Explorer will open iTunes, but not necessarily with the selected file.

tt2

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How to make Windows 11 recognize downloaded movies on an external drive like Windows 10?

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