iTunes music folder symbolic link?

Luke, If you just want to keep your existing music files on your PB but have new files added to the external hard disk drive, it's a simple matter. In iTunes Preferences (Advanced:General), just change the iTunes Music Folder Location to a folder on your new HDD. Any new music you add to your library will be placed there; your existing music stays where it is. iTunes will not get confused. You can add a new CD by an artist whose previous CDs you already have on your PB--no problem. You could even have some tracks from a particular CD on your PB and other tracks from that CD on the external HDD. iTunes doesn't care. The location of each individual track is listed in the iTunes Library file. The iTunes application pulls all this information together to show you your music neatly organized by album, artist, genre, etc., but the song files themselves theoretically could be scattered all over the place.

Let iTunes do the work. No need for symbolic links or anything of the sort. If you have something additional in mind that might call for altering the location of files you currently have on your PB, give us a specific description of what you'd like to achieve.


iMac G4 17; iBook G4 1.33 Mhz 14; iPod 3G 20GB Mac OS X (10.3.9)

What do you suggest I do? Turn off "copy files into
library" and then add my ext. library into iTunes and
it will keep them linked but not copy the files back
over? Is that the best way?

Yes, it sounds like you understand what to do (although it's "copy files into iTunes music folder" that you want off). But let's make sure I understand your current situation. You still have part of your music collection on your PB HDD, and you have the entire music collection on your ext HDD. Your iTunes music library only contains the songs that still are on your PB HDD.

In that case, yes, you've got it right. Only add the folders (of CDs or artists) that you don't already have in your music library, because, with "copy files" turned off, if you add files that are copies of songs already in the library, those songs will be listed in the library twice.

As an aside, hopefully, you found your new HDD to be fairly inexpensive compared to the functionality it gives you, because as you start to fill it up. it would be a good idea to purchase another one to store a complete backup of your music collection to protect your substantial investment of time.

Best regards.



iMac G4 17; iBook G4 1.33 Mhz 14; iPod 3G 20GB Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Yes, you can turn it back off. The "Copy" setting only affects new "add to library" actions. Existing files will stay put in their current locations.

BTW, you can accomplish the Add to Library command by dragging music files from the Finder onto the Library in the Source panel of iTunes. Holding down the Option key will toggle the "copy to iTunes music folder" function on and off (if On, you'll see a little "+" sign).

If I turn off Copy music to iTunes music folder
when adding to library while I add my ext. HDD's
library into iTunes, can I then turn it back
on after so I can continue to keep my new music
additions on my internal library and in my music
folder?

Thanks for the help.

Glad to help. In case it isn't clear, when ripping new CDs to your computer using iTunes, the new song files are created in the folder that's designated by the iTunes music folder location setting. The Copy music to iTunes music folder setting only affects what happens when you add song files that already are on your hard drive to your library.