changing a download location: terminal experience/system knowledge required I think

I am also looking to change the download location and have the movies download to and run from my seagate drive to save space my MacBook Pro drive. To make them run from the drive I need to redirect the Vudu App as well, I think. I have my iTunes movies running from the external drive because at present I have almost 2TB of movies and tv shows.

I am relatively new to OS X and MacBook. Use to build Windows computers but the MacBook stumps me for some reason. So any help would be appreciated.

etresoft did a great job giving the direction. These commands will work, but there were some small typos/application changes from your original post that caused problems (maybe you have overcome these). But in case you haven't or others want to know, here it goes.

I will also try to combine both the use of Terminal (which can be intimidating) and normal OS functions to make this work for a broad audience AND I will explain a little about what the Terminal commands are doing to help illustrate where others might be having problems. So, don't be shocked if this isn't all accomplished in one or two slick Terminal commands, because for most people that can be too much and again I want this to apply to as many people as possible - I will only use Terminal where it makes sense.

Objective: You want to change the download location for Vudu-to-Go (V2G) files on your Mac from the default location on the local HD to somewhere else like an external drive. Good news is you can make this change.

Default V2G download location: \Users\UserName\Library\Preferences\com.vudu.air.Downloader\Local Store\

Overview: NOTE: Any updates to the application may result in this no longer working and you will need to find another solution.

1. You will need to create the new download location where you want the new files to be downloaded
2. You will need to move/delete the existing download location because you will create a 'symbolic link' that will point the V2G application at the new destination location, and if the old directory is still in place the symbolic link will not work correctly. This link works like an alias or Windows shortcut and in this instance it will make the V2G application see one location when it is actually targeting something else.
3. You will then create the symbolic link from the old to the new download location and you are done.

Details:

1. In the Finder, open the drive (internal, external, network) or directory where you want the V2G files to be downloaded. For this post, and based on your information, I address external drives in the example but I will not use Transcend rather I will use VolumeName.
2. Still in the Finder, create the new download location directory in that drive.
   • As you have done, I would use the directory/folder name Vudu
   • Inside the Vudu directory you should create another directory called Local Store, this is your new download location
   • The path to this location is now "/Volumes/VolumeName/Vudu/Local Store" where VolumeName is the name of your drive and the quotes are required. Like etresoft said: if ANY name in the path has a space in it, like Local Store or the VolumeName, the entire path must be placed into quotes.
3. Now open Terminal from the Utilities folder. etresoft has a great recommendation to just move the existing directory to your User Temporary (Tmp) directory. But a small typo/application update in your post might have given you issues. Use this command instead. Copy and paste the command below.

   mv "~/Library/Preferences/com.vudu.air.Downloader/Local Store" /tmp

   • The issue in your command was .../com.vudair.Downloader...
   • The Terminal command is saying Move (mv) ThisDirectory (path in quotes) to ThisDirectory (/tmp)
   • The tilda ~ character is shorthand to tell the computer to use the home directory of the current user. So a full path would be "/Users/UserName/Library/Preferences/com.vudu.air.Downloader/Local Store"
4. Now in Terminal, create the symbolic link in the original location to the new download location that you created in the second step. Copy and paste the command below.
   • ln -s "/Volumes/VolumeName/Vudu" "~/Library/Preferences/com.vudu.air.Downloader/Local Store"
   • Even if your VolumeName doesn't have a space the quotes won't hurt
   • The Terminal command is saying Create a Symbolic Link (ln -s) to ThisDirectory (path from step 2) in ThisDirectory (path from step 3) with the name "Local Store"
   • Now when V2G tells a file to download in the "Local Store" is will actually be directed to VolumeName created in step 2. But, for this to work, the new download location has to have the Local Store directory already present. Otherwise the symbolic link doesn't point anywhere.

That should be it. When you launch V2G now it should start to download files in the new location.

If you launch V2G now and it does nothing... then you have not followed steps 1 & 2 correctly. If you have an external volume called "External HD" for instance the then in Step 4 make certain you use the path in quotes, per the note in step 2.

Hello zaclane42,

First of all, there is no guarantee this will work. A symbolic link is usually as good as a regular file or directory, but not always.

For spaces in paths on the command line, you can use \ to escape the space or just put the whole thing in quotes. I suggest the following:

First you will need to remove (or move aside) the existing directory with:

mv "~/Library/Preferences/com.vudair.Downloader/Local Store" /tmp

Then you can create the symbolic link:

ln -s /Volumes/Transcend/Vudu "~/Library/Preferences/com.vudair.Downloader/Local Store"

Hello Zac,

You will have to copy and paste exactly what you attempted. The command line is very pecise. You can improvise as you attempted. One wrong character, and your hard drive is toast.

Hello again zaclane42,

I only copies what you wrote originally. Maybe you should review those path and directory names.

Etresoft, I am also having this situation. I tried to copy what you have in there, and it tells me no file or directory. Could you help me out.

I want the movies to download to

/Volumes/Itunes

But they are current downloading to

Macintosh HD/Users/ericdavis/library/prefrences/com.vudu.air.Downloader/local Store

I'm fairly new when it comes to OS X and Terminal usually kicks my butt.

mv “users/ericdavis/Library/Preferences/com.vud.air.Downloader/Local Store" /tmp

> In -s /Volumes/Itunes/Vudu “users/ericdavis/Library/Preferences/com.vud.air.Downloader/Local Store" /tmp

mv: rename “users/ericdavis/Library/Preferences/com.vud.air.Downloader/Local to /tmp/Local: No such file or directory

mv: rename Store /tmp

In -s /Volumes/Itunes/Vudu “users/ericdavis/Library/Preferences/com.vud.air.Downloader/Local Store to /tmp/Local Store: No such file or directory

If you are not familiar and comfortable with the Terminal, then do NOT attempt to use it.

I'm still learning the code, and I am comfortable with having to re-install OS X if I screw something up that bad, I already have that plan in mind, because I believe I will be there at some point by doing something incorrectly.

Hello again Fist810,

Well, the first thing you are going to have to accomplish is prove to me that any of those paths actually exist on your system. Type the following commands and then reply with the results

ls /Volumes

ls ~/Library/Preferences/com.vud.air.Downloader

The softlink sequence is backwards, and administrator permissions are needed to write into /Volumes. These locations need to exist beforehand, as you observed.

sudo ln -s ~/Library/Preferences/com.vudair.Downloader/Local\ Store /Volumes/Transcend/Vudu

And I see an issue in the post... but rather than deconstructing that thing. It still works, just add .../Vudu/Local Store" to step 4.