consolidate from external hard drive - AFTER moving?

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consolidate from external hard drive - AFTER moving?

Dear Community,

I've read a lot about this, but found no answer to my question yet. Would be great to know before moving everything and finding out it doesn't work

I have iTunes on my old computer, all of my music is stored on an external drive (not the iTunes media folder, but referenced). For a fresh start, I'd like to let iTunes take control of my files on my new computer, thus, my option is to consolidate to make the move easier. Since I have about 400 GB on a 500 GB external hard drive, and since I want to keep my old computer as is, with the music being stored on the external hard drive, I don't want to consolidate and then simply move the iTunes media folder.

I would like to:

- move the iTunes library to the new computer, still using the references of the external hard drive
AND THEN
consolidate onto C: of the new computer.
Can I still consolidate afterwards? I know how to do the move with iTunes knowing my media is on F:, but can I tell it as soon as I have started the copy of my old library on my new computer to consolidate it to a different spot?

Thank you for your help. 🙂

Posted on Apr 16, 2014 12:47 PM

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Answer 1

Faux-Pas Author

Level 1

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Apr 16, 2014 1:41 PM in response to Faux-Pas

I was actually hoping for a simple YES or NO ... looking at you, turingtest2 😉

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

272,725 points

Apr 16, 2014 2:01 PM in response to Faux-Pas

Use the external drive to make a complete copy of the iTunes folder that is on your current C: drive into the Music folder of your profile on the new computer, and force your new computer to use the same drive letter for the external drive. This will give your new computer a working copy of the library connected to the media on the external drive. You can consolidate this library to ..iTunes\iTunes Media when ready which will leave originals on the external drive for when you move it back to the first computer.

If you want to consolidate the media to a different drive I recommend you choose the path <root>\iTunes\iTunes Media so that it might be easier to move things around at a later date. Moving the library files into <root>\iTunes and accessing the library on that path would make the library "portable" making it easy to move the entire iTunes folder as a unit to any new computer or drive. It is also easier to back up when the library is in this shape.

tt2

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