Q: How do I link my external iTunes media folder, yes I searched.
My situation is that I have my iTunes media folder on an external hard drive. It was being used with my 24" 2008 iMac. I just upgraded to a new 27" 5K iMac, and intended to do a new setup rather than use migration assistant. I thought that it would be a simple matter to point the new iTunes app to the old media folder on my external drive, but I'm finding out it is not so. So I went to iTunes/preferences/advanced and set the iTunes media location to my external drive volume, and opened the iTunes media folder there. Then following some other recommendations, I went to organize Library, and clicked Consolidate files. But iTunes still doesn't recognize my drive and folder, what am I missing?
Posted on Dec 8, 2015 9:47 PM
This is because your new iMac has a new (different) iTunes library. It does not know about any of the media on the external drive. Pointing iTunes preferences Advanced tab at the iTunes Media folder on the external drive is for new media going forward. It does not put your old media files that are already there into the new iMac's new iTunes library. The Consolidate command is also for media that the iTunes library knows about; for example, if you have iTunes media files stored in several different locations (that the iTunes library knows about), the Consolidate command puts them all into the designated iTunes Media folder. But the problem here is that the new iTunes library on the new Mac does not know about your existing media.
Hopefully, you still have access to your old Mac, with its iTunes library intact. What you should do is transfer your entire iTunes library from the old Mac to the new Mac. Because your iTunes Media folder is on an external drive, it is much easier. Find your iTunes folder, in your user account Music folder (on the old Mac). This is the location of your iTunes library database file. The iTunes Media folder is also located there by default, but you put it on an external drive. Leave it alone. I do this too, and it will save you time. Copy that iTunes folder to a USB flash drive, or other external drive. Since your iTunes Media folder is not in the iTunes folder, it should be fairly small. Disconnect it from old Mac and connect to new Mac.
On the new Mac, find its (blank) iTunes folder (at the same location in your user account Music folder). iTunes should NOT be running at this point. Move that iTunes folder somewhere else, like to the Desktop. Copy the iTunes folder from the OLD Mac to the NEW Mac to replace its iTunes folder. So, put it in the user account Music folder. Connect the external drive that has your iTunes Media folder. Make sure it has the exact same name it had on your old Mac. Now, launch iTunes. It finds your iTunes library from the old Mac and uses it; iTunes looks like iTunes running on your old Mac with all content and supporting data (such as playlists, play count, ratings, etc.). And the iTunes library finds its media files where it expects to find them, on the external drive with the iTunes Media folder.
The iTunes folder you moved to the Desktop can be deleted, unless there are items there that are not in your old (now current) iTunes library. If there are such items, manually add them to your iTunes library.
This document (below) describes this complete procedure in full detail
How to move your iTunes library to a new computer - Apple Support
but again, your situation is different (easier) because your iTunes Media folder is already on an external drive, so there is no time-consuming step to copy it off the old iMac's internal drive.
Posted on Dec 9, 2015 8:37 AM