Restoring iTunes files on another device

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Restoring iTunes files on another device

Mac beginner first time post so please be gentle. I had an iMac since 2010 where we had loads of music files stored locally on the hard drive. We also did backups using time machine which were done to an external hard drive (thankfully)!

The iMac died recently - hardware failure and I cant afford to get a new replacement yet. I do however have a MacBook and would really like to access my iTunes files from the backups on the external HDD.

Obviously, disk space is a constraint on the MacBook so really, I would like itunes to only read off the external HDD so that I can access my music and copy to my iphone etc. without the need of firstly copying the files to the MacBook hard drive.

Is this possible?

Posted on Aug 14, 2018 2:52 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 14, 2018 6:50 AM in response to TwinSparx

Hi TwinSparx,

Is it possible to run iTunes on your MacBook, with the music itself stored on an external drive: Yes.

Is it possible to do that with this particular drive, which contains a Time Machine backup of your old computer? I would say no, or at least that it would be forbiddingly complicated.

The way to do this, I believe, is to restore the entire iTunes Folder, previously contained in the [username]/Music folder on your old computer, onto a different drive — which I'm guessing you don't own at present, but maybe your budget would stretch that far? (I bought a 3TB drive from Staples last year for about $80 US.) Then — making sure the new drive is connected, turned on and mounted — open iTunes while holding down the Option key. You'll be prompted to choose a library or create a new one. Point the software to the iTunes folder on the new drive and select "Choose" or "Open" (or whatever means "yes" in the context).

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Restoring iTunes files on another device

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