Copy iTunes from one external drive to another external drive

Question

Copy iTunes from one external drive to another external drive

Hello -- There are many posts on topics similar to mine, but not quite the same. I have a MacBook Air M1 2020 Ventura 13.5. Due to memory constraints, I have had my iTunes (only music media, nothing else) on an external drive for a long time. This was a very long time ago and although it is a little creaky it works. I would like to put the same iTunes on another, smaller external drive which is more portable. I have tried the "option-Music" route, and I think I made a new music library, but I cannot seem to get it to recognize the iTunes folder on the new external drive, which I have copied and pasted from the old external drive. It seems that the "Media" path, for lack of a better word, is hard coded to look for the old external drive.

Any suggestions would be most welcome.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 13.5

Posted on Jan 1, 2025 2:08 PM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

276,759 points

Jan 1, 2025 2:43 PM in response to jeffrey_platinum

See Managing your Mac media libraries - Apple Community for general background.

You may currently have the .musiclibrary database on the internal drive, while the media is on your external. To make the library properly portable on the drive you'd ideally copy the database into, say, <SmallExt>/Music, option-start-Music to access the library at <SmallExt>/Music/Music Library.musiclibrary, use Music > Settings > Files tab to reset the media folder to <SmallExt>/Music/Media and then use File > Library > Organize Library > Consolidate Files to copy in the files from their current locations to the new media folder on this drive.

tt2

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Answer 2

Jan 13, 2025 10:16 AM in response to turingtest2

Hello, I am sorry it has taken me a while to thank you for this. It has taken some effort to get this to work, because for some reason Music kept creating additional "Music" and/or "Media" subfolders when it was organizing files. But after manually copying them to "<SmallExt>/Music/Media/Music", it worked. Thank you very much.

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

276,759 points

Jan 13, 2025 1:03 PM in response to jeffrey_platinum

See the section in my user tip about iTunes Media Organization for an explanation of the additional Music folder inside the designated media folder, and how to eliminate that if you wish.

tt2

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