External hard drive help

iTunes works best if you keep the entire iTunes library folder together on a single drive large enough to hold it all. Although you can, with a bit of effort, get content stored in different places it becomes harder to backup and migrate to your next system.

You might be better off moving the library to your external drive. If you want to take this approach then usually all you have to do is move the iTunes folder to the external drive, then hold down shift as you start iTunes and choose the library in the new location.

If, however, you still want to move selected files only to a new storage path then my script ConsolidateByMoving would do the trick.

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This is the normal approach I take to restructuring libraries...

Make a split library portable

Here are the typical layouts for the iTunes folders:

In the layout above, with the media folder (everything in the red box) inside the library folder, the library is considered to be portable. A portable library can be moved from one path to another without breaking the links between the library and the media and being self-contained is much easier to backup (You do backup, don't you?).

You can rearrange things to make a split library portable by taking a number of small steps which don't break the library.

Before you start any media files that are outside of the media folder will need to be consolidated. If the library is in the old style layout then it should ideally be be upgraded to iTunes Media Organization (Library > Organize Library > Rearrange files in the folder <Media Folder>) to ensure that iPod Games, Mobile Applications etc. are brought inside the media folder.

The basic non-fatal manipulations are:

1. You can connect to an alternate set of library files by holding down Shift (Win) or Option (Mac) when starting iTunes.
2. You can move the library files to a new location as long as the media stays put.
3. You can move the library files and the media together if the media folder is a direct subfolder of the library folder.
4. If you have already moved/copied the media content from a subfolder of the library folder to a different location then you only need to copy the library files for it to appear as if you have moved the entire library in the way allowed above. I.e. just copy the library files into the parent folder of the media folder.
5. You can rename the media folder to iTunes Media (if it isn't already) if the media folder is inside the library folder.
6. iTunes uses the name of the folder holding the library files as the window title. Having made a library "portable" you may need to take a final step of renaming the library folder to iTunes or, if the library files have ended up at the root of a drive, moving all of the library files and content folders into a new folder called iTunes.

After each change you need to open, test and close the relevant library before attempting another change. If a change broke the library, undo it or revert to using the previous set of library files.

In essence all you need to do to make your library portable is copy the library files into the parent folder of the media folder on the external/secondary drive and use the hold-down-shift/option-when-starting-iTunes method to connect to it. Other manipulations may be required to normalize the library so that the library and media folders have standard names.

If the external drive has the room for a complete copy of your library you should be able to copy the existing library files out to X:\iTunes (where X: is your external drive) use shift-start iTunes to connect to it, set the media folder to X:\iTunes\iTunes Media and consolidate everything to the new location. Alternatively the ConsolidateByMoving script can shuffle things around without creating the copies that the normal consolidate function does.

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