Running iTunes from external harddrive.

Yes. First copy the iTunes file on to the external hard drive. Then open iTunes. In the top left corner, select iTunes, preferences, then select the advanced tab. Here you will change the iTunes music folder location to the new file on your extennal hard drive. Good Luck.

See:

iTunes: Moving Your iTunes Music Folder

IMPORTANT: do not delete the iTunes folder or the preference files it contains from your boot hard drive; delete ONLY the tracks themselves (i.e. the contents of the old iTunes Music folder).

You can also just drag the entire iTunes folder (the entire folder, not just the iTunes Music folder) to your desired location. Then hold down the Option key while launching iTunes. You'll be given a dialog box where you can select the iTunes library you want to use. Navigate to and select the iTunes folder in it's new location. Note that this procedure assumes that all of your tracks are contained in the iTunes Music folder. If they're scattered around your volumes, moving them becomes much more complex.

In either case, don't delete the tracks from the old location until you've confirmed that they're working correctly from the external drive.

First copy the iTunes file on to the external hard drive. Then open iTunes. In the top left corner, select iTunes, preferences, then select the advanced tab. Here you will change the iTunes music folder location to the new file on your extennal hard drive. Good Luck.


Sorry, but that procedure will not work; manually moving the iTunes Music folder will just break iTunes' links to the tracks, which changing the preference afterwards will not fix (the preference only affects where future purchases and imports will be kept).

Dave,

Will all of my playlists and other preferences stay in tact. Once I am certain of proper operation can the entire itunes be deleted from the c drive and run only from the external location. I have to have my c drive formatted and prior to I want to save all my itunes music, playlists and preferences and operate the from the external HD only. Will I be able to plug & play itunes between my laptop & desktop without any problems? hope you can help me.

Thank you!