I have just purchased my 1st mac and want to start my iTunes fresh. I have all my music on an external hard drive and want iTunes stored on it. How do i do this

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I have just purchased my 1st mac and want to start my iTunes fresh. I have all my music on an external hard drive and want iTunes stored on it. How do i do this

I have just purchased my 1st Mac Mini,

I haven't imported any music yet except from purchased music.

I have 100gb of music on an external hard drive (already formatted to Mac OS Journaled.

I want my iTunes to be store on the External Hard drive, and to update my External Hard drive with new music I add to iTunes.

I also want to know the best way of adding my music on the Ext Hard drive e.g.: "add folder to library" or "import"

I plan on buying a Macbook Pro soon, and want to be able to use the same iTunes library.

Posted on Jul 11, 2014 3:43 PM

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Answer 1

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Niel

Level 10

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Jul 11, 2014 3:46 PM in response to sherrynewmac

Launch iTunes with the Option key held down, click on Choose Library, and specify it. If the external drive doesn't contain the iTunes database files, create a new library there and import that music.

If the library contains any rented movies, they won't play on a different computer.

(109334)

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Answer 2

sherrynewmac Author

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Jul 11, 2014 4:00 PM in response to Niel

Ok, so should I trash the original iTunes file location in Music on my mac then change the preferences to show the new location?

Sorry if I sound a bit dumb, but I want to start my iTunes library correctly, and not have any issues.

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Answer 3

Niel

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Jul 11, 2014 4:01 PM in response to sherrynewmac

You can if you want, but it won't make any difference.

(109336)

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Answer 4

sherrynewmac Author

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Jul 11, 2014 4:08 PM in response to Niel

Will I have to keep doing the Option key to choose a different library every time i open iTunes to select that new library?

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Answer 5

Niel

Level 10

726,869 points

Jul 11, 2014 4:15 PM in response to sherrynewmac

No. The setting will be remembered unless it's manually changed or that iTunes library becomes unavailable.

(109338)

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Answer 6

sherrynewmac Author

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Jul 11, 2014 4:17 PM in response to Niel

thanks for your help, i'll give it a go.

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