Hi,I hope that someone can help me. I need to transfer all my music from iTunes on my Windows Laptop to my ios device to create more space. Once ive gone thru this process, can I delete the music from my Laptop (to create the extra space)? Thanks
iPhone 6 Plus, iOS 8.3
If your device is the only thing holding your content and it is lost, stolen, damaged, or needs to be restored, then you've lost it all. If your laptop doesn't have room for your library get an external drive for it. If you don't already have an external drive acting as backup get a second. See Make a split library portable for advice on moving the library around (it is probably portable already) and Backup your iTunes for Windows library with SyncToy for backup advice.
tt2
Thanks TT2, this worked perfectly for me.
One last question......once I delete the music folder on my laptop, but still want to use iTunes to synchronise my IOS devices etc, how do I point iTunes to the music folder on my external hard-drive?
Thanks again for your advice........
Hold down shift as you start iTunes, keep holding until asked to choose or create a library, click choose.
See iTunes: How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one - Apple Support.
Best to rename the existing library folder and prove the one on the external is all working properly (and ideally backed up too) before deleting the old one.
tt2
Thanks again tt2, this seems to be working.
I did notice that whilst copying the iTunes folder to my harddrive, there were 8240 items with a total size of 53.2Gb, unyet , when i go into my iTunes page (music), it says there 3401 items with a size of 28.98Gb, does that make sense?
iTunes creates an artwork cache that many includes many files and folders. If Windows Media Player has ever scanned the library there may also be multiple hidden artwork images and desktop.ini files in each album folder. And if your library contains anything other than music that too will add to the number of files and the size taken. I suspect the numbers make sense unless you've previously created duplicates in your library in some fashion and cleaned up the library somehow while leaving the duplicate files in your media folder.
tt2
Transferring my music library from a Windows laptop to my iPhone 6+
