Moving I-Tunes to an External Drive

I recently bought an external hard drive and want to move my entire Music Library to the New Drive. What files/folders need to be moved in order for my I-pod to see them and Sync properly? Do I just move the I-tunes folder or do I need to have some other I-tunes related files in there as well? Once this is doen I intend to delete the original music from my primary C:/ drive (in order to free up space) so I need to get this right the first time. Can anyone help me with the correct way to do this? Thanks in advance.

This is how you move the iTunes Music file (the one that's swallowing all the space on your 'C' drive to an external hard drive : http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364?viewlocale=en_US
Note that it will leave your library files on the 'C' Drive so they will have to be backed up from their separately.
This gets the space hog off your boot drive but by leaving the itl file on 'C'makes updates less likely to cause you problems.

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Is it possible to burn playlists in MP3 format from i tunes to an external drive such as a USB stick. I can only find options to burn to a CD

hi there,
New to these forums and communites and was just trying to get feedback on this question...is it possible to burn playlists in MP3 format from i tunes to an external drive such as a USB stick. I can only find options to burn to a CD.
If anyone can help[ that would be great.

Melofthesea wrote:
hi there,
New to these forums and communites and was just trying to get feedback on this question...is it possible to burn playlists in MP3 format from i tunes to an external drive such as a USB stick. I can only find options to burn to a CD.
If anyone can help[ that would be great.
Mel, Sure, although that is "copying," not "burning." It is easily done, as follows:
Insert the USB stick into your computer, and open it up so it looks like a folder. Highlight the songs you want in iTunes, and drag them into the folder.
If you normally run iTunes in full screen mode, make it smaller so that you can do the drag.

Moving I-tunes library to external hard drive??????

Ran out of memory with all the pics and music on computer. So I bought an external harddrive that connects with USB 2.0. How should I move the library over to the external hard drive and having it work while itunes is installed on the internal hard drive? Any help would be much appreciated.

To move your iTunes music...
Quit iTunes.
Move the entire iTunes folder including music to the external drive.
Click on the iTunes icon to start it, then immediately press an hold the Shift key in Windows, Option key in Mac.
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.
Move the old iTunes folder to the trash but do not empty it.
Restart iTunes normally and verify the songs work. If they do, empty the trash.

Moving my iTunes to an external drive

I would like to free up space in my macbook pro. I have followed the procedure as outlined for moving the iTunes music library to an external drive i.e.. changing the preferences to point to the external drive, copying the iTunes folder to the external drive, consolidating, etc. However, even if I choose the library in the external drive iTunes would not play the songs. (I also have my library synced with iCloud and so when I turn wifi off I am not able to play any tunes so I figured the way it was running was thru the cloud not thru the copied file). Thanks for the help.
The hard drive I am using is a Porsche design Lacie using a USB 3.0 link.

Our iTunes guru Terence Devlin advises the following:
1. Quit iTunes
2. Drag the iTunes folder from your internal hd - located in ~/Music folder - to your external hd (which has to be formatted as HFS Extended (Journaled)). DO NOT delete the original one from your internal hd... yet!
3. When the transfer is complete, press and hold the Option(alt) key and fire up iTunes.
4. A "Choose iTunes Library" window will come up. Click on the "Choose Library" button.
5. Navigate to where the iTunes folder is located in the external hd.
6. Within the iTunes folder, select the iTunes Library file and click Choose...
That's it. iTunes will now display all your playlists, songs, movies, podcasts etc. At this point, should you wish, you can delete the iTunes folder from the internal hd to free up space.
More info:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751
Or if you prefer a more complicated explanation:
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive

I-Tunes and and External Drive...Questions!

Hello, starting my music collection seriously for the 1st time and have some questions.
When you use an external drive how does i-Tunes recognize this?
Will it still allow me to browse through everything ( album artwork etc) as if the music was in the i-Tunes music folder or will it just be a bunch of folders listed on a drive.

OK, I am not sure that I can help you.
Have your tried pugging into a differnt usb port, do you have any other usb devices that you could try unplugging.
I wonder if fiddling with the drive letter qould help as in this Apple artcle about another problem relating to incorrect recognition of drives.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93499
Are you upto date with all your downloads from your computer manufacturers support site?
Is there any support on the drive manufacturers site? This kind of thing does seem to crop up with external drives sometimes Windows doesn't even recognise them.

HT1364 Auto-save i-Tunes purchases to external drive?

I have to use an external drive because my laptop (limited HD/RAM) cannot support my music library (too big). When I purchase i-Tunes, how can I make sure they save to the external drive and not to the laptop? I had it set-up when I first started using the external drive, but lately I've noticed that purchases and playlists are saving to the laptop again. How can I check this and transfer whatever saved, inadvertantly, to the laptop back to the external drive? Then, how do I make sure that my purchases/library is intact on the external drive AND that future purchases go to the external drive?

I'm not sure Windows 2000 & iOS go together.
If you launch iTunes when the external drive isn't ready then the the media folder will revert back to the default path on the internal drive.
To avoid this problem place the entire library on the external drive. See make a split library portable for more information.
tt2

Save library & i-tunes files to external drive?

How can i set up everything from the i-tunes set up files through to the library onto my external drive. I want to do this on my laptop as it's not a new system and soon fills up when I start putting my cd collection into the library to upload onto my ipod. I've tried a couple of times unsuccessfully.
Please help

Just do it like I said. Copy your iTunes folder (the entire upper level folder with the database files inside it and also the iTunes music folder inside it) to your external drive. No need to rename it. Now hold down the SHIFT key and open iTunes. Navigate to the library on the external drive. You should now see everything there just like when you used the internal drive.
Now, until you change the location again, everytime you open iTunes, it should default to the external drive location. To check, go to the iTunes preferences and see if the location of the iTunes Music folder is specified as your external drive location. If so, then you are done and all new stuff added will go on the external drive location.
At this point you can either delete your library from the internal drive completely. Leave the one there as is. Use the internal library but delete a lot of stuff out of it to give you a reduced version for travel, start a new one on the internal, etc.
Patrick

Linking I-tunes library to external drive

I have managed to successfully relocate my i-tunes library onto an external drive, having followed instructions in the i-tunes for Dummies book. (my laptop internal hard drive was full). However, i-tunes has not linked itself to the external i-tunes library file. I understood that this should happen automatically. How do I link them together?

Hey there,
One thing you should check is where your iTunes searches for your iTunes folder. Head to iTunes and then Preferences. When the window pops up, head over to the Advanced tab. Near the top of the tab, you will see where iTunes currently locates your Music folder. Click the Change button and then direct it to where the folder is located on your External drive. See if that helps.
B-rock

HT1449 can i use this process for moving my library to an external drive?

My iMac is dying a slow death and I want to run itunes and iphoto off my external drive as the data may get corrupted if it stays on the computer hard drive.
If I designate a folder on my external drive and then cosolidate will that allow me to run itunes from the external drive?
When My iMac fails will I be able to take the data from that folder for the new iMac?
Thanks,

I'd suggest you just drag the entire iTunes folder (the _entire_ folder, _not_ just the iTunes Music folder) to your desired location. Then hold down the Option key while launching iTunes. You'll be given a dialog box where you can select the iTunes library you want to use. Navigate to and select the iTunes folder in it's new location. Note that this procedure assumes that all of your content is contained in the iTunes Media/Music folder. If things are scattered around your drive, moving them becomes much more complex.
As to moving iPhoto, you may want to confirm the correct procedure for your version of iPhoto in the iPhoto forums.
Your iMac cannot be running Mac OS 9.2.x, by the way. It will help people offer advice if you'll correct that.
Regards.

Moving LR files from one external drive to another

How do I move LR image files from one external drive to another external drive?

Move the photos using your operating system and then re-connect in Lightroom following these instructions: Adobe Lightroom - Find moved or missing files and folders
Do not use this as an opportunity to re-arrange folders or move photos from folder to folder. Just move the entire "tree" of folders.

Moving iTunes library to an external drive that already has music on it?

I want an external drive that contains music to be designated as my iTunes library. How do I do it?
Note: I do not want to move an existing library to the external drive, just start fresh with the library on the drive.
Thanks!

pbay wrote:
I want an external drive that contains music to be designated as my iTunes library. How do I do it?
Note: I do not want to move an existing library to the external drive, just start fresh with the library on the drive.
welcome to the discussion area, pbay !
1) launch iTunes with the option key pressed. choose to create a new library when prompted.
2) in preferences > advanced make sure iTunes is pointed to the external drive and that +keep iTunes media folder organized+ and +copy files to iTunes media folder when adding to library+ are checked.
3) from the iTunes file menu, choose +add to library+ and start populating iTunes with the tunes you want.
when you have added all tunes to your new library, make sure they play fine. right-click on random files and +get info+. look at the summary tab and check if the path leads to the correct location (your external drive).
when satisfied, the original files can be deleted.
happy computing ...

Moving all Video to an external Drive

Was trying to get all of my videos ... some in libraries by themselves, some in iMovie, some in iPhoto into a single library ... whether under iPhoto or iMovie so that I could get that big chunk of data off my hard drive and onto an external drive.
I also have movies on another iMac, that I would like to move off of that computer and move all data onto a separate external hard drive so that I can work on movie projects on either computer just my moving the external HD from one computer to another.
Any help ... appreciated!
Thanks!

Hi
iMovie'08
Do not move or alter any folder named iMovie Projects or iMovie Events on DeskTop/Finder !
If You do - iMovie will be confused and in some cases this might end up as un-repairably.
Moving - Can/Should only be done within iMovie and in iMovie'08 only Events can be
moved. Still this is the important one as it contains all raw material and takes up most space.
In iMovie'09 and 11 - Projects also can be moved to an external hard disk.
THE EXTERNAL HARD DISK - HAS TO and should.
• HAS TO - be Mac OS Extended formatted ! ! - nothing else will work OK with VIDEO
(all mine ext.HDs are journalled - works greatly for me)
• Should be - a FireWire one as it will work much better than USB/USB2
I which that libraries would be handled same way in iPhoto - BUT They are not - For best
info ask in iPhoto forum.
Yours Bengt W

Moving iTunes library to an external drive.

My startup disk is full so I would like to move my iTunes library to an external drive to fee up space. What is the best way to do this?

Our iTunes guru Terence Devlin advises the following:
1. Quit iTunes
2. Drag the iTunes folder from your internal hd - located in ~/Music folder - to your external hd. DO NOT delete the original one from your internal hd... yet!
3. When the transfer is complete, press and hold the Option(alt) key and fire up iTunes.
4. A "Choose iTunes Library" window will come up. Click on the "Choose Library" button.
5. Navigate to where the iTunes folder is located in the external hd.
6. Within the iTunes folder, select the iTunes Library file and click Choose...
That's it. iTunes will now display all your playlists, songs, movies, podcasts etc. At this point, should you wish, you can delete the iTunes folder from the internal hd to free up space.
More info:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751
Or if you prefer a more complicated explanation:
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive

Moving iTunes data to an external drive

My iTunes data is currenly 58gb. I would like to move it to an external drive. What do I need to copy to the external drive and how do I point iTunes to the moved files?

Do NOT copy the files yourself.
iTunes prefs -> Advanced.
Set the iTunes music folder location to the external.
Tick *Copy files to iTunes music folder location when adding to iTunes*.
Tick *Keep iTunes music folder organized*.
Then iTunes menu File -> Library -> Consolidate.
After it finishes, you can delete \Music\iTunes\\iTunes music\ folder. Delete ONLY the iTunes music folder.

Moving my library to an external drive.

It is time to retire my G5 and move everything to my MacBook Pro. I moved my iTunes library to an external drive and can use it on the G5 but I'm not sure I can use it on my MacBook Pro. I'm afraid to try. If I followed the support directions for moving my iTunes music folder should I be OK to try?

It should be Ok, just make sure your library is backed up.

Moving I-Tunes to an External Drive

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