Moving iTunes to external drive

Question

Level 1

15 points

Moving iTunes to external drive

Hi everyone, I seem to have followed the instructions on how to set up my iTunes on an external - it had outgrown my mac -, but still having a problem.

In iTunes preferences, the iTunes media folder is set to the external 3TB drive, however if I control-click any iTunes media item and 'show in finder', it shows that it's on my older 1TB external.

So by my reckoning, this must be something to do with the iTunes library file (or one of the associated text files in there), so how can I keep my playlists, but reference them to the new 3TB drive?

I realie I must have done something basically stupid, so if anyone can hold my hand and guide me gently, it would be much appreciated!

thanks

Trev

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.5), Imac 3.1gHz i5, OSX Lion 10.7.5,

Posted on Apr 11, 2014 1:16 AM

Reply

Answer 1

léonie

Level 10

194,653 points

Apr 11, 2014 5:21 AM in response to trevreav

Hi everyone, I seem to have followed the instructions on how to set up my iTunes on an external - it had outgrown my mac -, but still having a problem.

Which instructions did you follow? Did you do it like this? It looks like you did not move the entire iTunes folder, only the settings for the library location.

See: Re: how to transfer iTunes to external Hard drive

Reply

Answer 2

trevreav Author

Level 1

15 points

Apr 11, 2014 5:52 AM in response to léonie

Hi Leonie, very similar to that. Thanks for your reply.

I copied all of my media across from the other hard drive. The original itl, xml files etc were still on my internal hard drive. I set iTunes preferences to point to the new 3TB external.

Doing this, I lost all of my playlists, so I then copied my iTunes folder across from my HD and pointed iTunes at that, tried the option at open and chose 3TB, preferences still say 3TB but the music is being referenced from the old 1TB still.

Reply

Answer 3

Chris CA

Level 10

82,434 points

Apr 11, 2014 6:00 AM in response to trevreav

trevreav wrote:

Hi Leonie, very similar to that. Thanks for your reply.

I copied all of my media across from the other hard drive.

Pretty sure that nowhere does it tell you to copy the media. iTunes will copy the media.

I copied all of my media across from the other hard drive. The original itl, xml files etc were still on my internal hard drive. I set iTunes preferences to point to the new 3TB external.

😟 After you set the iTunes prefs to the new location, you let iTunes copy the files.

so I then copied my iTunes folder across from my HD and pointed iTunes at that, tried the option at open and chose 3TB, preferences still say 3TB but the music is being referenced from the old 1TB still.

Stop and do this, nothing else.

If it does not work, post back before doing anything else.

Quit iTunes.

Put the media files back into the iTunes folder you now copied to the external.

Start iTunes.

Reply

Answer 4

trevreav Author

Level 1

15 points

Apr 11, 2014 6:54 AM in response to Chris CA

Thanks for that Chris, I'm in the process of doing that now, and as iTunes will be consolidating my library over there, it'll probably be Monday before I report back.

Thanks for the info and have a good weekend.

Trev

Reply

Answer 5

Chris CA

Level 10

82,434 points

Apr 11, 2014 9:07 AM in response to trevreav

trevreav wrote:

Thanks for that Chris, I'm in the process of doing that now, and as iTunes will be consolidating my library over there,

Moving files to a different location on the same drive should only take a few seconds.

The media files the iTunes folder are on the same external drive..

What exactly are you doing?

Reply