I need to move my iTunes Music folder from one external drive to another. Just drag and drop (135 GB)?

If your entire iTunes folder is on the drive, including the iTunes Library.itl file, copy to the other drive. Start iTunes while holding down the option/alt key and select the file on the other drive.

If only your media are on the external drive moving is more involved. Post back if this is the case.

Yes, you can do this. I've done it multiple times.

First, make certain that your new external drive has the exact same name as your current one. Then, copy everything over, start iTunes and it will find your media files.

If you want to change the name of the volume, you can. Just copy everything over, launch iTunes and open Preferences, click Advanced and then point iTunes to the folder with your media content. It will rebuild your Library but then everything should be fine.

Aside, I've done this with terabytes of data multiple times, like I said. Just recently, actually, as I accidentally copied over the existing media folder with the iTunes Library folder and had to restore everything from a backup.

Hi Gary,

As Limnos said, the key thing is that your iTunes folder on the external drive contains both the database file (iTunes Library.itl) and the media files themselves — and from what you've written, that's true here. So go ahead with Limnos's instructions and all will be well.

This is one of the reasons I don't keep my iTunes folder with the .itl Library file on my external drive...

Since you have restarted iTunes and selected that Library file as the one you want to load, it has rewritten itself and there is no way to recover the old Library file unless you still have a previous library folder in your iTunes folder. That might solve your problem.

But, you need to go to Preferences: Advanced and tell iTunes where your media is now. Chances are, the path is still for the old drive. Another reason I said to make certain that the external drives had the same name. iTunes is just lost and doesn't know where to look for your files without proper direction.

But, if you have rewritten your Library file, there is nothing you can do other than try to see if you have an old Library file.

Preferences > Advanced will not tell iTunes where you media are located. It only tells iTunes where you want to start storing new media from that point on.

Removing playlists from a library but leaving media locations would have to be done very deliberately. We are getting to a stage of detail now where you would have to recount every single move you did with iTunes for us to figure out why you are seeing this. Or perhaps you are not and it simply needs to be better described. 🙂

The basic working of iTunes is not very complicated but obviously something has gone wrong for you which means you likely had something non-standard in your set up. Because of this you need to understand a bit about how iTunes works so you can troubleshoot what is going wrong, otherwise you are going to have to explain things in great detail.. iTunes does not work with media files directly. Just about everything you see in a library window open in iTunes is the result of the iTunes Library.itl file. This has the playlists, and it also has the location information for each track you have entered. So when you decide to play track XYZ in iTunes, the application goes to the .itl file and plays the file in the location for that entry. This is why if you move the files to a different place iTunes will show a broken link, particularly if you move them to a different drive. If you move everything as a package (the whole iTunes folder), iTunes will use a local folder structure reference ("the file in this location on the same drive as this library") and keep track of it.

About iTunes library files - https://support.apple.com/HT201610 - Does not mention that a complete working library also includes other files and folders also in the iTunes folder.

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

iTunes 9 [and later]: Understanding iTunes Media Organization - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3847 - plus supplemental information about organizing to new structure https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6477809?answerId=26404702022#26404702022

You can look into using Time Machine. I do not have it on my computer and can only post a link: 06/2014 ChrisCA post: Restore iTunes library from Time Machine backup - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6374283?answerId=26104480022#26104480022 Useful tips where restoring to a new drive: http://pondini.org/TM/B6.html and https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6811322?answerId=27599985022#27599985022 Make sure you go back far enough for the version you want. If Time Machine just backed up the "latest" version may be one you do not want.

Gary, don't give up yet. I think you may be able to recover your playlists, or most of them, from one of the documents in Previous iTunes Libraries. We'll see what Limnos has to say.

I have never used Sonos. I have seen it mentioned here before but I don't remember people saying it has to be with a FAT drive. The only reason to use FAT is if you need to use a drive with a PC. Maybe Sonos does need it but others have not specifically mentioned it. I don't know but I would check.

The aforementioned Previous iTunes Libraries has copies of your library files which are archived every time you update iTunes. If you went to iTunes 12.3 recently there should be one from the last two weeks or so. You can use one of those to replace the main .itl. Make a duplicate of the most recent one (for safekeeping), remove the date part of the file name so it reads "iTunes Library.itl" and put it in place of the .itl you have been trying to use so far. If you have added new media since then the media files will, of course, still be in the media folder but will need to be re-added to the library in iTunes since the .itl does not know about those.

Just another thought. I do not have time to check with my iTunes right now (too much open and set up, plus I am busy cleaning windows before temperatures plummet Friday) but I am pretty sure if you try to open a new library where one exist it simply opens it, it does not create a new library file overwriting the one there.