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Moving media files from one external drive to another

I have an Macbook Pro with multiple external (USB) hard drivers. I store all of my music files on one external drive.


What I wish to accomplish is to move all of my songs to another external drive (the current/old one is dying..). Copying the files over to the new drive was the easy part.


How to I get my Music App to "point" to the new location? It current still uses the songs on the old drive...

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jun 4, 2020 3:49 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 6, 2020 3:30 AM

Glad you got it working. 🙂


After changing the media folder as the first part of step (1) iTunes would normally have asked if you wanted to consolidate the media into your new media folder. I've assumed Music does the same, but perhaps not.


The result in (2) is typical in macOS/OS X where content is moved or renamed within the same volume.


With (3) you got lucky. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't. Another more reliable approach is to swap the volume labels so the original paths are still used, but now refer to your new volume rather than the older one.


tt2

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5 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 6, 2020 3:30 AM in response to omdumond

Glad you got it working. 🙂


After changing the media folder as the first part of step (1) iTunes would normally have asked if you wanted to consolidate the media into your new media folder. I've assumed Music does the same, but perhaps not.


The result in (2) is typical in macOS/OS X where content is moved or renamed within the same volume.


With (3) you got lucky. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't. Another more reliable approach is to swap the volume labels so the original paths are still used, but now refer to your new volume rather than the older one.


tt2

Jun 5, 2020 11:09 AM in response to omdumond

What you should have done was declare the new media folder (Music > Preferences > Files) that you wanted to be used in future, and then allowed Music to consolidate to that new path. It would have copied the files and updated the stored path in the library as part of the process. This may still be the best way to proceed, although you should move or delete the copies you've already made if you're going to consolidate to the same location. I would recommend using <External>/Music/Media as your new media folder path so that you can make the library portable in future if needed by copying the library files into <External>/Music. See Make a split library portable - Apple Community for details.


tt2

Jun 5, 2020 11:47 PM in response to turingtest2

I discovered something new today.


Starting condition: all songs in the folder <ext1>/Music/Media

What I did:

I created a new folder on <ext2> with the name /Music

I then copied all of the songs from <ext1>/Music/Meida to <ext2>/Music

I found the following:

(1)

  • I went into the preference and changed "music media folder location" to <ext2>/Music.
  • "keep Music Media folder organised" is un-checked
  • "Copy files to music media folder when adding to library" is checked.
  • Result: No behaviour was changed. Music still plays the songs from the original location <ext1>/Music/Media. I thought this is because this setting is for future exports.

(2)

  • I then exited the Music app,
  • renamed the original folder from <ext1>/Music/Media to <ext1/Music/Media_del.
  • started the Music app.
  • result: No change. Music still plays songs located in that folder on <ext1>

(3)

  • I exited Music app,
  • unmounted <ext1>.
  • started the Music app,
  • Result: Music app decided to play music from the new folder <ext2>/Music

(4)

  • I mounted <ext1>
  • Result: Music app still played from the new folder <ext2>/Music

(5)

  • With both <ext1> and <ext2> mounted
  • I exited the Music App
  • I started the Music App
  • Result: Music app still played from the new folder <ext2>/Music


Everything seems to be working as expected now.

Moving media files from one external drive to another

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