Problems Moving iTunes Library to External Drive

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Level 1

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Problems Moving iTunes Library to External Drive

I moved my iTunes library to an external drive to free up space on my iMac, following the instructions http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449.

When iTunes completed copying the files, I shutdown iTunes, and copied the previous iTunes library folder to the trash, as directed in the guide.

The problem is, when I re-started iTunes, I got the message "The folder containing "iTunes Library" cannot be found,...".

Step #15 of the guide suggests files needed to be brought back from the trash, so I copied the entire iTunes library folder structure back to the original location, which made iTunes happy.

But I need help to find out which file(s) from the original iTunes folder structure are required, since my goal is to free up space used by the iTunes library.

The files in the iTunes library folder I moved include the following:

iTunes Library.xml (Microsoft Excel Workbook)

iTunes Library (document)

iTunes Library Extras.itdb (document)

iTunes Media (folder)

Album Artwork (folder)

Previous iTunes Libraries (folder)

iTunes Library Genius.itdb (document)

Please help me understand which files are needed, so I can remove the rest.

I am running iTunes 10 on 10.6.8

iTunes-OTHER

Posted on Sep 23, 2012 6:47 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Chris CA

Level 10

82,434 points

Sep 23, 2012 8:22 AM in response to weskat

You are doing something incorrectly.

The link you posted moves your iTunes media folder, not your iTunes library.

Step #14 satates, "locate your original iTunes Media folder, and drag it to the Trash", which is exactly what you are not doing.

Please help me understand which files are needed,

All the files are required.

Do this.

Quit iTunes.
Drag the entire /iTunes/ folder back to /Music/.
Delete the iTunes files you copied to the external.
Copy the entire /Music/iTunes/ folder to the external.
After it finishes copying...
Hold Option and launch iTunes.
Select Choose library... and select the iTunes folder on the external.

This is all you need to do.

FYI: An .xml file is not MS Excel. It is Exensible Markup Language

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