My wife's hard drive is full so I am moving large files to an external drive, including iTunes. Apple HELP says, "You can change where your iTunes media files are stored.
Important: For best results, don’t change the location of the iTunes folder or the folders inside it."
But it's the Media Folder that is large. Is there a danger in my moving the media folder to an external drive and removing it from Home/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media?
Yes. Might be best to copy rather than move, then option-start-iTunes and connect to the copy on the external drive. Confirm it works properly and is referencing the media on the external drive. Backup to another drive for security, then delete the original copy of the iTunes folder on your internal drive once you're happy.
tt2
Yes. Might be best to copy rather than move, then option-start-iTunes and connect to the copy on the external drive. Confirm it works properly and is referencing the media on the external drive. Backup to another drive for security, then delete the original copy of the iTunes folder on your internal drive once you're happy.
tt2
You can try. Sometimes people get it to work, sometimes not, but even if it works your library is then spread over two locations making it harder to backup and move in the future. Changing the media folder in iTunes preferences doesn't tell iTunes where to look for media that you've moved. Whether it is able to repair broken links after such a move can be hit & miss. I've suggesting you moved the entire iTunes folder to the external drive, then hold down option as you launch iTunes and connect to <External>/iTunes/lTunes Library.itl. This approach should be more reliable.
tt2
Hmm. I thought it worked, but I was wrong.
Now, when I option/open iTunes and direct it to the iTunes file on the external drive it can't locate the song file. When I direct it to an individual file on the external drive it gives me the option to locate other files automatically, but it can't.
What did I do wrong?
Check the path to the media folder in preferences. Thinking back to your screenshot above I see the media folder is given as iTunes Music. This is the old name for it. Assuming the library is still working correctly when you use it on the system drive try closing iTunes, renaming the media folder as iTunes Media, launching iTunes, checking everything works then closing once more. If that went well rename iTunes Music to iTunes Media on the external drive and copy over the updated iTunes Library.itl file from the internal drive to the external, then try accessing the library on the external drive with the option-start-iTunes method.
It might also be worth comparing the real location of a track with the path shown on the Song Info > File tab for the same track in the library. If one path has an extra /Music folder in it then there is usually a one character file edit that will fix it.
tt2
Earlier:
Strange: the screenshot I posted was from my own MB Pro running OS 10.14.6 and iTunes 12.9.5.5 so I assumed it would be the same as my wife's MB Air running the same software, but the file marked "iTunes Music" on my computer (which is running iTunes correctly) is named "iTunes Media" on my wife's (which isn't).
Now:
So, I checked preferences on my wife's MB Air to show linkage between iTunes and the iTunes Media file on the external drive, and that looks correct.
I tried creating a new iTunes library on her computer and dragged an album from the external drive back into it and it played fine. I checked the file structure and names to be sure that I hadn't messed up something within the iTunes folder that I had copied to the external drive. They look identical.
But the problem remains. When I OPTION/OPEN iTunes and choose the library on the external drive, the albums appear but the linkage is broken.
Finally... it looks like it's working, and here's what I did:
I created a new iTunes library on the MB Air (my wife's computer) and then compared—on the Finder level—that file structure with what I had on the external drive and found some things out of place. I can't now remember which, but clearly something important. Then I OPTION/OPENED the external library and it worked.
Thanks for getting me through the whole process. I really feared I was going to have to rebuild the whole library from scratch.
Thanks, but I'm still confused.
Can't I simply copy my "iTunes Music" from user/music/iTunes, remove it from the computer's drive and then redirect the iTunes app to the external hard drive?
Thanks. Very helpful.
But before I do it, you're saying to move the iTunes folder from within the Music folder?
Perfect. Thanks again.
You're welcome. 🙂
tt2
You're welcome. 🙂
tt2
Move iTunes media to external drive
