Danielhaim
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: Moving iTunes Library to External Hard Drive & Finding iTunes Media Location

Hi guys,

 

I've followed several tutorials on how to get this done, as it seems so simple but it's not working on my end. I've moved the iTunes folder from the /music/ to an external hard drive. I'm opening iTunes, going to Preferences, Advanced, and replacing the iTunes Media folder location to the correct one /Volumes/Volume E/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media

 

I'm checking Keep iTunes Media folder organized & Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library, clicking on the "OK" button, and nothing happens.

 

Funny enough, Spotify finds it in seconds and I can play my music from that player instead.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Apr 27, 2012 8:43 AM

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Danielhaim

Q: Moving iTunes Library to External Hard Drive & Finding iTunes Media Location

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  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 Apr 23, 2013 3:21 PM in response to Ho_agapetos
    Level 10 (86,362 points)
    Apple TV
    Apr 23, 2013 3:21 PM in response to Ho_agapetos

    Easy method 1:

    Move or Copy entire working library from current location to the root of your external drive. Press & hold down shift as you click the icon to start iTunes. Click Choose when prompted, then browse to ..\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl on the external. If you copied the library across then test your new library works properly after renaming the original folder, before deleting the original folder to recover space.

     

    Easy method 2:

    If you haven't really started to build your library. Press & hold down shift as you click the icon to start iTunes. Click Create. Browse to the root of the external drive. Drag your media into ..\iTunes\iTunes Media\Automatically Add to iTunes.

     

    Complex method:

    Required if you've already tried other things and now have media & library scattered around. See the post make a split library portable.

     

    tt2

  • by custodiodj,

    custodiodj custodiodj Apr 24, 2013 4:09 AM in response to Ho_agapetos
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 24, 2013 4:09 AM in response to Ho_agapetos

    I moved my iTunes library from my laptop hard drive to an external hard drive.  I have a Mac system, so I'm not sure of the key sequence on Windows, but here's what I did.

     

    1.  Locate your iTunes library on your machine.  In the Apple world, I think it's in your documents folder, but I'm not sure.  Once you find it, go up one level from the directory where the iTunes library is (think it's the music directory), copy the whole directory structure to the external hard drive - you can always prune out what you don't want later.

     

    2.  When you go to open iTunes on a Mac, if you press the Open Apple (command) key when you click on the iTunes icon, it will prompt you to tell where the iTunes library is that you want to connect to.  Pick the location on your external hard drive and then it will always be pointed there.

     

    This worked for me when I moved it off the iMac I had to the hard drive and then when i bought a new computer and connected iTunes to that computer.

  • by Ho_agapetos,

    Ho_agapetos Ho_agapetos Apr 24, 2013 7:48 AM in response to turingtest2
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 24, 2013 7:48 AM in response to turingtest2

    Slight problem, folks, I'm using a PC running vista... Sorry, should have mentioned that... would that change any advice?

  • by Chris CA,

    Chris CA Chris CA Apr 24, 2013 8:16 AM in response to Ho_agapetos
    Level 9 (79,577 points)
    iPhone
    Apr 24, 2013 8:16 AM in response to Ho_agapetos

    Ho_agapetos wrote:

     

    Slight problem, folks, I'm using a PC running vista... Sorry, should have mentioned that... would that change any advice?

     

    No.

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 Apr 24, 2013 8:43 AM in response to Ho_agapetos
    Level 10 (86,362 points)
    Apple TV
    Apr 24, 2013 8:43 AM in response to Ho_agapetos

    What Chris said.

     

    tt2

  • by york026,

    york026 york026 Apr 23, 2015 8:30 AM in response to Limnos
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Apr 23, 2015 8:30 AM in response to Limnos

    "Start iTunes with the option key held down and guide it to the new location of the library."

     

    Thanks! This helped me to finally get my full library visible (inclusive all metadata) in iTunes on my freshly installed SSD, while keeping the actual files stored on my old HDD. Exactly what i needed

  • by andywhitmore,

    andywhitmore andywhitmore Jan 11, 2016 1:33 PM in response to Limnos
    Level 1 (1 points)
    Jan 11, 2016 1:33 PM in response to Limnos

    Pico Mitchel - you are a genius - it took me 5 seconds to update my new Mac with the old library which was on an external Hard Drive!!! - Well Done

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