HOW TO MOVE YOUR ITUNES LIBRARY TO AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE
Read these directions before actually doing anything, just so you can do this right. I've messed things up before, it can get ugly...
That being said, here's what you've gotta do if you're running on a Mac:
- Have all your music on the external hard drive. It should be organized in folders the way iTunes set it up
- The folders should be organized something like this:
iTunes Media (Top folder, everything is inside of this folder)
- Audiobooks
- Automatically Add To iTunes
- Books
- Downloads
- iPod Games
- iTunes U
- Mobile Applications
- Music
- Podcasts
- Ringtones
- TV Shows
- Voice Memos
- Those folders are what I have in my 'iTunes Media' folder on my external hard drive. You don't necessarily need to have all of these folders. (I happen to just have a lot of things in my iTunes.)
- The folders should be organized something like this:
- Finding your iTunes Library Files
- The way iTunes works is there are two parts to make what you see in iTunes work right. There's your media (songs, video, iPod games and Apps, etc) and there are your library files. They tell iTunes what your playlists are, where your 'iTunes Media' folder is located, and a lot of other important things. Here is how to find the iTunes Library files (there will probably be more than one!)
- Look in (yourusername)/Music/iTunes
- There will be a few things in here:
- Album Artwork (It's a folder)
- iTunes Library Extras.itdb
- iTunes Library Genius.itdb
- Itunes Library.itl
- iTunes Media (a folder)
- iTunes Music Library Backup.xml (this file might or might not be here. If there is no file with this name, it's okay.)
- iTunes Music Library.xml
- Some "temp" files (maybe, maybe not -- they are not important for this)
- Anything in the list that is BOLDED needs to be placed in (yourusername)/Music/iTunes
If you copied these files to your external hard drive, you will need to copy them back onto your internal hard drive. These library files do not need to be in the same place as your iTunes Media folder.
- Telling iTunes Where Your Music Is
- Now that your iTunes Media folder is on your external drive, and your Library Files are in place in "(yourusername)/Music/iTunes", we need to open iTunes.
- On the top bar of the screen, go to iTunes>Preferences.
- In preferences, go to the farthest right tab, titled "Advanced" with a picture of a gear.
- The top section says "iTunes Media Folder location" and underneath that you see a filepath ending in the 'iTunes Media" folder.
- This path is probably wrong, not leading you through the external hard drive.
- If it is incorrect:
- Click "change" on the right and then locate the folder in the prompt that shows up. Once the "iTunes Media" folder on your external hard drive is highlighted blue, click "Open" in the bottom right corner of the window.
- Give iTunes a moment or two (depending on the size of your library) to re-locate all of your songs. Voila!
- If it is correct:
Do nothing!
- While you're in the advanced section, let's check to make sure you have a few important 'housekeeping' things checked off:
- "Keep iTunes Media folder organized" (CHECK THIS BOX!)
- "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library" (CHECK THIS BOX!)
- At this point, iTunes should be all ready to go. Before I get into any troubleshooting, note a few things:
- If you ever unplug/disconnect the external hard drive from the computer, you must first make sure that iTunes is NOT running.
- Also, if the hard drive is unplugged and you open up iTunes, all of your songs will have little ⚠ symbols next to them. Until you plug/reconnect the hard drive, the songs will stay like this and will be missing.
- TROUBLESHOOTING:
Not having permission to access the external hard drive:
- In Finder (or on your desktop), right-click the external hard drive (if you don't have right-click, control-click will also work).
- Click on "Get Info"
- A thin, tall window will appear on the screen.
- Part One:
- In the "General" section, make sure that "Locked" is unchecked. If it IS checked, uncheck it.
- Part Two:
- We are now focusing on the very bottom of the window, where it says "Sharing & Permissions"/
- In the bottom right corner of the window there is a small padlock icon. Click it. When asked for an administrator password, type it in, and click "Ok".
- You will now notice that the bottom section of the 'get info' window is not greyed out anymore. Make sure your user name (it says in parentheses "(Me)" so there is no going wrong here) has "Read & Write" privileges.
- If not, click on whichever privilege you currently have, and a drop-down menu will appear. Click on "Read & Write".
- Part One:
If you have any other issues, I will add them to the troubleshooting list to help you out. Hope this was helpful!
iMac (24-inch Mid 2007), Mac OS X (10.7.3)