move Logic content to external drive using Symbolic Link

I am trying to do something that should be easy but Apple has made terribly difficult to do. I want to remove all of the Logic content including Apple Loops, to an external hard drive. I have tried making Aliases but each and every time I reopen Logic, it says that I need to download essential content ... plus I have seen many post on the web stating that this does not work Everyone talks about using symbolic links. SO - that is what I tried next. I downloaded a free app, Symlink, ad tried to do it the way it was explained but so far, no luck. Is there a simple, step by step method out there with instructions that anyone (and I do mean ANYONE) can follow? Once we get into Terminal I get a bit nervous ...

Apple - you need to change this. Everyone is switching to small and fast SSD drives that cannot hold a ton of content. We have no room for all of these samples. Every other sample library makes it easy to put their samples on external hard drives - yours does not. Why???

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks.


rosindabow

Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), 48 GB 1333 MHz DDR23 FB

Posted on Jan 27, 2016 3:22 PM

Reply
24 replies

Jan 29, 2018 11:49 AM in response to blujohn

Look at the post from @artofsound on page one - that explains how the symbolic link works. I was just pointing out that you shouldn't cut and paste the command - if you do you'll have a symlink in your home directory that doesn't work!


But essentially the first reference is where the files are now located, and the second is where they should be for Garageband (or Logic, or whatever)

eg sudo ln -s "I/ve/moved/the/files/here" "/This/is/where/the/program/expects/them"

Jan 26, 2018 7:50 PM in response to The Art Of Sound

After going through the Symbolic link process tick the Menu Bar and –> Download All Available Content. Several screens may appear and Skip All to have other content be downloaded. Eventually all Logic Pro X content will be downloaded to your external hard drive.


Figure it out if there are glitches. This procedure is doable.


User uploaded file


Thank you very much, The Art of Sound, for this post.

Jan 19, 2018 12:00 PM in response to The Art Of Sound

I am having a problem with Logic Pro. I moved all the Logic, Apple Loop and Garage Band files to the external using SymLink. Everything moved fine, by when I go into About and look at my system my Music Creation still has 10 gigs being used and when I examine it, it says it’s Instrument Library. When I go back to Library/Application Support I only have the Linked Logic File. So where is this Instrument Library file hiding.

Jan 26, 2018 3:22 PM in response to Skizzil

To find any files on your computer or hard drives I suggest reading this article to familiarize yourself with what's available. Not to come across as cute; I was taken aback years ago when I first came across and realized such software existed for a novice at computers like meself 😎 Made me want to think of my own cool, novel software someday; make a million dollars, 'ya know?


http://osxdaily.com/2016/04/29/best-disk-storage-analyzers-mac/

Jan 26, 2018 4:02 PM in response to The Art Of Sound

I want to tip my hat and commend the engineers involved with Logic Pro X. I don't believe anyone has an unkind word or thought towards these guys in regards to their involvement through the years to cause LPX to be what it is today: a quality piece of software. Were they to somehow realize these type of little guy situations? and resolve this one stupid task of symbolic links to enable the large file folders to be placed on an external hard drive by enabling a software trick to do the same, I'd be appreciative, to say the least.


Just one more thing: I personally find it difficult to re-transform the thoughts and emotions I have at any given moment into a ditty with LPX. Fiddle this, tweak that, adjuxt this over here, and what I conjured and thought cool a moment ago is gone, or dissolved into something else. Can't get it back now. And it happens all the time. With a guitar or a piano, I could see myself playing around and fine tuning the chord or the notes, and I realize what I'm doing with the frets or the black and white keys; intuitively I play along and maybe something comes up. Maybe not, but with LPX there is nothing similar to frets on the guitar or those symbolic black and white keys on the keyboard to suggest intuitively how or what or where to fiddle to achieve or create the sense I'm attempting to create with sound. It's like I'm working with zero's and one's in assembly language with LPX when composing and there needs to be one more layer to strip that LPX mechanistic space away. The last part of the movie, Amadeus, Mozart in bed pulling the thoughts from mind to actual notes as easy as snapping his fingers. Logic Pro X would do well with an interface that could do the same.


I gotta go do something else now … .

Jan 26, 2018 5:52 PM in response to rosindabow

When on You Tube once, a guy was showing you how to could get the latest upgrade of Logic Pro onto his Mavericks OS without upgrading the system (Apple wants yo to upgrade the whole OS).

But he didn't want to upgrade to the later version of the OS (whatever it was back then); he thought Mavericks was more stable.

He got himself an external hard-drive and after downloading the OS upgrade, he upgraded the system BUT he upgraded the external hard drive instead of his HD. The Wizard ad asked him which physical drive should be upgraded.

After the upgrade was complete the Wizard then asked him if he wanted to migrate any programs over to the new OS so of course he had Logic (and just about everything else I think) leaving his Mavericks-HD relatively empty.



I have yet to try this myself but I am now thinking upon the same lines as you.

The HD on my SSD is 1TB which back in the day sounded great news but not so these days.

I now have an external HD and I will be trying this in the near future. But it would be great to hear if anyone else has done this.

I noticed that the new iMac Pro can be configured up to 4GB of SSD but that's a future purchase. I need something for now.

Jan 26, 2018 11:14 PM in response to Kurt Hanson

HI all - thanks for the answers. I might wade into this once more. I think that I have portions of libraries on both the internal drive and maybe even a few of my external drives. I just don't understand why Apple won't take the time to fix this. I own Sample Libraries from a ton of other companies and every one of them - EVERY one of them allows you to put the library wherever you want to. And it is incredibly simple to do. Apple - you manufacture the hardware AND the software ... take the 5 minutes and make it easy on us.

Once again, thanks to the postings - much appreciated.

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move Logic content to external drive using Symbolic Link

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