Q: Move iTunes library to external hard drive?

You can safely move the iTunes Media Folder to an external drive to free up space.

Instructions > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449

Follow them to the letter is my only suggestion.

Hope that helps

There's a difference between moving your iTunes media to a different drive (reference in another post) and moving your whole iTunes library.  It's up to you but some prefer to keep it all intact versus media on one drive and library files on another.

iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music [library] to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527 - a somewhat bewildering and not always easily understandable set of options.

Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings:  Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive.  Open iTunes and immediately hold down the Option (alt) key (shift on Windows), then guide it to the new location of the iTunes Library.itl file in the moved iTunes folder.
 
For the record there's this reference for iTunes 11 but it really doesn't strike me as having the specifics you need. iTunes 11 for Mac: Move your library to another computer - http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12168

Ding ding ding! We have a winner. Sheesh, wish I woulda read @Limnos answer 30 minutes ago. It's complicated so I won't explain how I ended up as I did, but basically I had my home dir on one drive (iMac), and my 250GB iTunes library on an external drive. None of this business about re-organizing libraries and the like did anything.

All it takes is as Limnos said - hold the Option key down, start iTunes, and point it to the existing "iTunes Media" folder. Voila! Thanks for sharing.

I guess by moving it off your apple procDuct to a separate drive you lose the ability to access it on Apple TV via ICloud? 

Or once it's purchased it stays in the cloud.

Just looking I to my options as my HD is full because if media content

Many thanks - this worked brilliantly on my PC.

This worked wonderfully.

Thanks!

Thanks Limnos! Worked perfectly (Quick answer...)

Hi Limnos, works like a charm within 2 seconds. You're the man! Thanks!

To be clear, on a PC you press the SHIFT key while starting iTunes. Not sure what the reference to alt is all about.

The reference to "Alt" was for Mac OS X. The quote was:

   "Open iTunes and immediately hold down the Option (alt) key (shift on Windows)"

On many current Apple keyboards, the Option key only has an Option symbol, but no "Option" word printed. Instead, the word "Alt" appears.

On Windows, use the Shift key, as the quote suggested.

similar dilema:  got Mac Mini 500GB to load CD collection in AIFF for best qual.  Probably gonna go over 500GB I'm about 1/4 way thru and at 90GB.  I wanna keep my collection intact on this mini for convienence sake.  I do have a 1TB and a 2TB external. 

Question:  Should I fill up the mini then switch over to external?  Or should I change my iTunes destination to an external now, move whats on the mini and keep filling up the mini then when its full go over to one of the externals, have part of library on the mini then the rest on an external?

Do I risk scattering/fragmenting my library by moving it?  Should I just do it now since it's early in the process?  Thanks for any input

this might sound stupid but that is only copying files to external drive right ? do i then delete the files from my computer to free up the space ?

Just tried @Limnos' suggestion and it worked beautifully on my Windows machine. Thank you!!!

I have more or less the same question. I have a HD connected to my airport extreme and i have my iTunes folder there. The problem is that every time i reset the Mac i have to go to iTunes preferences and set it up again.

I would like not having to do that every single time but it keeps happening.

Any idea?