Moving iTunes folder to NAS

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Moving iTunes folder to NAS

Hi all,

I've copied my entire iTunes folder to an external NAS. When I got to iTunes preferences and point it to the new folder not a lot seems to happen.

I hoped that my iTunes music would now get re-pointed to that folder. However, when I check the info of songs, it still points to the original location (locally). What should I do next to have my whole iTunes library pointed to my NAS?

Thanks in advance for any help!

OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2), iMac ¦ QNAP turbo 210 NAS

Posted on Oct 17, 2012 7:02 AM

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Answer 1

Oct 17, 2012 7:19 AM in response to --AP--

Don't do it by changing preferences. That just tells iTunes where to store music in the future, not where your library is located. Start iTunes, immediately hold down the option key and guide it to the new location for your library.itl file in the iTunes folder.

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Answer 2

--AP-- Author

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Oct 17, 2012 8:38 AM in response to Limnos

Thank you, by the option key do you mean the apple key?

Many thanks.

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Answer 3

Oct 17, 2012 9:55 AM in response to --AP--

Apple key = command

Option may be labeled as alt

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Answer 4

turingtest2

Level 10

278,351 points

Oct 17, 2012 11:42 AM in response to --AP--

Assuming you get successfully connected to the library files on the NAS, you may well find that performance suffers. To resolve this copy the files iTunes Library.itl, iTunes Library Extras.itdb, iTunes Library Genius.itdb, sentinel (hidden) and the folders Album Artwork and Previous iTunes Libraries, back into <User>\Music\iTunes (delete any temporary empty library that was made there earlier) then use the option-start-iTunes method to connect to that copy of your database.

Any time you want to move the library to a new drive or machine copy those files & folders back out to the iTunes folder on the NAS, then use the option-start-iTunes method to open that copy of the database one time (on the current machine) before the move. This ensures that iTunes will be able to locate the files correctly from any new location. You can then repeat the process of moving the database to an internal or local external drive for performance.

tt2

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