Is it possible to have individual libraries for Music and TV on separate external hard drives?

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BigDek1968 Author

Level 1

8 points

Is it possible to have individual libraries for Music and TV on separate external hard drives?

As the tag line says. I feel it can be done theoretically as long as the correct media folders / files are copied to the relevant hard drive. It's been suggested I'd need another Apple ID for this to work.

My understanding is, the Apple TV is the one that streams the content to it's apps (computers and Apple TV+) from my Mac Mini via Home Sharing, and the Music and TV+ apps on the Mini point directly to the relevant library on the external hard drive. Is this correct or too simple?

If correct, 2 hard drives with relevant media files connected to the Mac mini, and "re-pointing" the Music and TV+ apps to their individual hard drives and contained library should work? Is this too simple?

If this is also correct how would it affect the Home Sharing streams to my Apple TV?

Thanks. Yours very confused...

Posted on Nov 19, 2019 2:25 PM

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Answer 1

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turingtest2

Level 10

274,318 points

Nov 21, 2019 7:13 AM in response to BigDek1968

Yes, you can place your Music and TV libraries on separate drives. Typically if you have upgraded to Catalina from Mojave or earlier you will have libraries in ~/Music/Music and ~/Movies/TV respectively, each of which are connected to media files in ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media. Rather than moving the media by hand you should copy the libraries to their respective drives, e.g. as //Volumes/<Vol1>/Music and //Volumes/<Vol2>/TV, then use the press & hold down option at launch method to choose the Music Library.musiclibrary and TV Library.tvlibrary files in their folders on the their external drives. Use Music > Preferences > Files and TV > Preferences > Files to reset the respective media folders which become //Volumes/<Vol1>/Music/Media and //Volumes/<Vol2>/TV/Media respectively. Finally use File > Library > Consolidate Files in each app to copy in the media files from the old paths.

tt2

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Answer 2

BigDek1968 Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 21, 2019 10:26 AM in response to turingtest2

Thanks a lot mate, it's just as I theorized. However, I am wondering whether there would be any conflicts when I attempt to stream to my devices (more notable Apple TV (Gen4) ), again, would this not be pertinent as it's the device not the app that connects to home sharing?

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

274,318 points

Nov 21, 2019 10:31 AM in response to BigDek1968

Home Sharing in Catalina should work with the currently active library in each app. Unlike iTunes the app doesn't need to be running to share the library, but those with multiple libraries can have trouble switching if they try to switch when a library is shared or a device that could be synced is connected.

tt2

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Answer 4

BigDek1968 Author

Level 1

8 points

Nov 21, 2019 10:52 AM in response to turingtest2

Again thanks for the quick response, I'm in the process of sorting and reassigning my library contents to their relevant hard drives. I just couldn't see any reason for the apple online help to suggest I needed an extra iTunes account (one for each app presumably) for this to work, made no sense to me, hence a cry for help to the community.

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Answer 5

turingtest2

Level 10

274,318 points

Nov 21, 2019 10:55 AM in response to BigDek1968

You're welcome. 🙂

tt2

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Is it possible to have individual libraries for Music and TV on separate external hard drives?

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