iTunes on External Hard Drive

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Level 1

19 points

iTunes on External Hard Drive

I moved my iTunes to an external hard drive connected to my Airport Extreme for a couple of reasons, one so that I can free up space on my iMac and so my wife can access my music via Home Sharing.

I should be able to delete the music/videos, etc from the iMac correct?

The internal hard drive is a 320+ GB drive (319.73 formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
Current capacity is 319.73GB
Available: 113.99GB.
Used: 205.73GB

My iTunes accounts for 52.20GB of what has been used.
The only other large amount of space would be Aperture (I do not know how to find out how much space is being used).

I want to free up space.

Thanks!

iMac (20"), Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on Mar 10, 2011 12:21 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 10, 2011 12:27 PM in response to thebark4

Yep you can. Just make sure the external is on when you open iTunes otherwise it will reset the paths to default and you'll have to set it up again.

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Answer 2

thebark4 Author

Level 1

19 points

Mar 10, 2011 12:37 PM in response to theuserenjoys

Excellent!

Thanks "theuserenjoys"

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Answer 3

thebark4 Author

Level 1

19 points

Mar 11, 2011 10:57 AM in response to thebark4

I deleted all music from the iTunes residing on my iMac (copied it to an external hard drive as a back-up first). I have my music, apps, etc on another external and set iTunes to look there for it when I open up the application. Now, iTunes is empty (on my mac). It is not looking for the external that it had been looking for.
I put the music on the external (which is connected to an Airport Extreme) to share with other on my network and to free up space on my mac.
HELP!

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Answer 4

thebark4 Author

Level 1

19 points

Mar 11, 2011 10:58 AM in response to theuserenjoys

Music deleted from iTunes on my mac. Backed it up to an external drive for security. Not the same drive I have already been using for iTunes. Now iTunes (on the mac) is empty. HELP!

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Answer 5

turingtest2

Level 10

272,725 points

Mar 11, 2011 12:51 PM in response to thebark4

The best way to move an iTunes Library to an external drive is to copy the entire iTunes folder out to the root of the external, then hold down Option when starting iTunes to connect to the copied library. Having proved it works you then go on to rename the original folder and test the library again before deleting the old data just to make sure. Do you still have the library files or have you removed them in your haste to free up space?

tt2

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Answer 6

thebark4 Author

Level 1

19 points

Mar 11, 2011 12:54 PM in response to turingtest2

I still have the files. I am now transferring everything back and will start again.

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Answer 7

Mar 23, 2011 3:47 AM in response to thebark4

Is there a way to move all the songs to an external drive, erase all the songs on the MacBook internal drive (I need space) and not loose Ratings and Playlist?

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Answer 8

Mar 23, 2011 8:09 AM in response to frankalbert

Copy your entire iTunes folder to the external HD -- don't delete from your MacBook yet. Then, relaunch iTunes while holding down the Option key. This will allow you to select the iTunes folder on your external HD. Double check that you are playing from the external HD. Then, back up your external HD before you trash the iTunes folder on your MacBook.

I have multiple libraries that I periodically choose from by using the Option key. I have one that is all Apple Lossless for home listening, and another with same music in AAC for my iPhone & iPod. Friends sometimes give me their library, but most is low res and not of interest. So I'll access this to thin out before merging with my own libraries, or I just keep it separate and select using Option key when needed.

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