Moving itunes

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pfladuke Author

Level 1

4 points

Moving itunes

I have 2 external hard drives

1 is already set with time machine to do my backups

I want to use the other to place my itunes library (115gb) on it

How do I do this? I wish to house my library on it but not use it for my time machine back up.

If I move the library how is new music and apps treated by this set up, are these automatically placed on the HD and will all apps update to the HD

Also how do I then back up my itunes library as I've taken it from my MBP to the hard disk but what backs up the hard disk, can I use my 1st HD to do this.

Do partitions need to be set up?

Ideally I want 1 HD for backups and the other to keep my itunes library on it thus freeing up space on my MBP!

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Dec 9, 2013 3:59 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 9, 2013 4:41 PM in response to pfladuke

iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music [library] to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527 - a somewhat bewildering and not always easily understandable set of options.

Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Open iTunes and immediately hold down the Option (alt) key (shift on Windows), then guide it to the new location of the iTunes Library.itl file in the moved iTunes folder.

For the record there's this reference for iTunes 11 but it really doesn't strike me as having the specifics you need. iTunes 11 for Mac: Move your library to another computer - http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12168

Nothing special need be done to the drive in advance. Since the library is completely on the external everything downloaded will go there too.

I have never used Time Machine. I guess it can back up external drives too.

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