Moving iTunes Library

I'm having the exact same problem. I moved my library from one external drive to another (larger) one. If I go in and manually point to the music file, then others appear with the ! randomly, when they were fine minutes before.

Folks

Here's how to move the iTunes Music

Moving iTunes Music

Regards

TD

Hi Terence,

About that moving method, beside keeping my rating and playlists, can you tell me if the field "date added" will be left untouched or resetted to the day I do the move?

I need that "date added" field intact for remembering song from a period of time...

If not, any solutions?

I have come across this issue too, when traveling to a secondary residence I have in CA with my backup external hard drive.

The trick is you need to change the order of your steps. Keep both ext. drives connected and copy the Music Folder to the new one. Then, BEFORE disconnecting the old one, go into iTunes Prefs and specify the new folder. The trick is to open iTunes while the folder it still thinks is the Music Folder (the old one) is still available, otherwise it will "panic" and see that you opened it up and it can't find the Music Folder it needs.

I also read it is helpful to create the new folder within iTunes Prefs instead of dragging to copy in the Finder. When you navigate in Prefs to the new folder, you just choose the New Folder button in the navigation pane, and it will do all the copying.

EIther way, somehow I think it is about letting iTunes "in on" the change first hand, not after the fact.

[Someone else suggested holding down the SHIFT key while launching iTunes then choosing the new music folder upon startup, but I haven't tried that yet.]

PowerMac G4/500 MHz (1 GB); iBook G4/1.33 GHz (1.5 GB) Mac OS X (10.4.9) (still using 10.3.9 Panther on PowerMac)

Why don't they simply put a button called "moving your music somewhere else in one-step!"

Thanks for the info, SWL!
The only thing is that my original drive is inside the Mac...Can't power it off easily!

I've tried so many ways without success up to now!


OK, Apple instructions step #12:

From the Advanced menu, choose Consolidate Library.

Nobody has this button!! Neither in french or english!

Somebody must know how to this for real...without guessing!?

What version of iTunes are you using? I have iTunes 7 and the Consolidate Library choice is there - I believe it was there on earlier versions of iTunes as well. Are you looking at the "Advanced" pulldown menu from across the top of the screen? It's the 5th one down on my version.

Why don't they simply put a button called "moving
your music somewhere else in one-step!"

This has got to be the most intelligent question and logical solution i have seen posted in apple discussions in ages!

ARE YOU LISTENING APPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

make a simple way for people to move their libraries to a new location... i've seen over ten thousand posts on this question alone!

Mac OS X (10.4.6)

To move your iTunes music...

1 Quit iTunes.
2 Move the entire iTunes folder including music to the external drive.
3 Restart iTunes holding the Shift key in Windows, Option key in Mac.
4 iTunes will ask to Create new library or Choose existing library. Select Choose existing library and select the library in the folder you just moved.
5 Move the old iTunes folder to the trash but do not empty it.
6 Restart iTunes normally and verify the songs work. If they do, empty the trash.

Correction... It is the OPTION key on a Mac, not the SHIFT key. Someone mistakenly wrote that somewhere and I repeated it incorrectly above. Don't want the error to perpetuate.

Also, Michael D. above, you don't have to "turn off" a drive. Any drive (internal or external) may be unmounted/ejected as long as it is not the startup System volume.

PowerMac G4/500 MHz (1 GB); iBook G4/1.33 GHz (1.5 GB) Mac OS X (10.4.9) (still using 10.3.9 Panther on PowerMac)

To move your iTunes music...

1 Quit iTunes.
2 Move the entire iTunes folder including music to
the external drive.

That is correct Chris, except in some cases (like mine) the large iTunes Music folder is being moved to a large or larger hard drive that does not have OS X installed. Therefore, you can still keep the home>Music>iTunes folder where it is in your home folder on the drive of the system you are using. I instead put an alias of the Music folder inside this folder, whereas the original is the one that was moved and now exists on the larger drive.

My whole point is your "iTunes" folder can stay on your OS drive where it needs to be while the "Music" folder with all your song files exists elsewhere else.

PowerMac G4/500 MHz (1 GB); iBook G4/1.33 GHz (1.5 GB) Mac OS X (10.4.9) (still using 10.3.9 Panther on PowerMac)

except in some cases (like mine) the large iTunes Music folder is being moved to a large or larger hard drive that does not have OS X installed.
Thi makes no difference.

Therefore, you can still keep the home>Music>iTunes folder where it is in your home folder on the drive of the system you are using.
You can but there's no need to.

your "iTunes" folder can stay on your OS drive where it needs to be
It doesn't "need" to be on the OS drive. It can be anywhere.

It was my understanding the iTunes library file needs to be in the iTunes folder which it looks for in home folder, the only way it can display the correct library info for the user logged in. I never heard of a home folder being on a drive w/no system installed.

Where have you seen otherwise?

With iTunes 7, the iTunes folder can be anywhere. Doesn't need to be in the home folder.

The iTunes folder doesn't need to go into the home folder. It defaults there though.

If you move it to an external drive (like the procedure I described above), and the external is not online, it will go back to the internal.
In this case, simply get the external online and hold the Option key when starting iTunes and Choose the library on the external and all is well.

the only way it can display the correct library info for the user logged in
You can have multiple iTunes libraries.
Hold Option to Create or Choose a new library.

Oh okay...

I was thinking holding Option upon launching iTunes was for locating a new Music folder, as you can do in Preferences>Advanced. So you are saying if there is an iTunes library (file) in your home and you want to use that one you can select it, but while logged in as the same user you can still relaunch iTunes using Option key and choose any other library file anywhere else on the drive or drives? In this respect, both (or all) library files could point to the same Music folder, but each may portray the information differently (like the included songs, folders, columns, playlists and general organization of iTunes)? I think I see what you mean now.

Part of the confusion with many could be that there are 3 different factors that determine how iTunes appears and runs: iTunes prefs file, iTunes library file and iTunes music folder location, any of which can be swapped or mixed & matched at any time with different results.

PowerMac G4/500 MHz (1 GB); iBook G4/1.33 GHz (1.5 GB) Mac OS X (10.4.9) (still using 10.3.9 Panther on PowerMac)

Yes.