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Q: Moving your iTunes Media folder to airport time capsule

How to move my ITunes librairie to my Airport Time Capsule ?

 

Thanks in advance !

iMac

Posted on Feb 16, 2014 1:41 PM

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Q: Moving your iTunes Media folder to airport time capsule

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  • by sberman,

    sberman sberman Feb 16, 2014 2:10 PM in response to geonsx
    Level 8 (40,847 points)
    Feb 16, 2014 2:10 PM in response to geonsx

    Use Time Machine to back up your iTunes library (and everything else on your machine).

  • by Limnos,

    Limnos Limnos Feb 16, 2014 6:09 PM in response to geonsx
    Level 9 (54,543 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 16, 2014 6:09 PM in response to geonsx

    Uh, sberman's answer, while strictly technically correct, isn't doing what you desire really.  It's just saying that backing up your internal drive to the Time Capsule is placing a copy of your media folder there, but it isn't the copy from which you are working, nor is it getting your files off your internal drive.

     

    First, it isn't a good idea to move your media to the same drive you use for backup.  Someday that Time Capsule will fail, and both your originals and your backup will be gone at the same time.  Don't rely upon being able to download from Apple again, nor will Apple have things such as your playlists or ratings.

     

    Second, don't confuse media files with your library.  Media files are just that, a willy-nilly grouping of media files.  It's your iTunes library files that give it structure and make what you see when you open iTunes, including playlists and ratings.

     

    If you want to move your whole library to another drive and you use iTunes default preferences settings, copy the whole iTunes folder to the other drive.  Start iTunes with the option/alt key held down and select the library.itl file in the moved iTunes folder.

     

    If you want to move just media, change the media folder location in iTunes advanced preferences and select organize.  Note, recently a very few people have had a bad experience doing this, and it isn't such a great idea to move only media unless you have a specific mission to need only media in a different location.

     

    What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660

     

    More on iTunes library files and what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management

     

    What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html

     

    Where are my iTunes files located? - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391