Moving iTunes music folder/library to external HD

Hi all, and happy new year: Yeah, I know I should know how to do this, but ... I want to move all my music to an external HD and delete it from my MBP HD. I would like someone to steer me to the best resource for a primer on how to do this. Thanks in advance!

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.
Once you've confirmed that it's working, then you can delete the tracks from the internal drive.

Similar Messages

  • Error message when moving iTunes music folder to External Hard Drive

    I have followed the instructions in Apple support to move my iTunes music folder to an external hard drive. During the consolidate library step, only half of my music is transferred before I get the error message "Copying music failed. The disk could not be read from or written to."
    Has anyone gotten the same message, and what was your experience correcting the issue?
    15" Powerbook G4   Mac OS X (10.4.8)  

    In Windows, you go through File >> Library >> Organize Library. here you can choose to consolidate your library. this should do the job.. alternatively you could take a look at this blog..
    http://www.tuaw.com/2006/09/19/how-to-keep-your-itunes-library-on-an-external-ha rd-drive/
    Even though its step by step on mac you should be able to figure it out from there.
    Message was edited by: MuldVarp3N

  • Problem in moving iTunes Music Folder

    I feel sooo stupid! I am using the document "iTunes: Moving your iTunes Music folder." I was going along OK until I came to number 5 in the second part:
    "In the Change Music Folder Location window that appears, navigate to the location where you would like your new Music folder to be created. Note: By default, your iTunes Music folder is a folder named "iTunes Music" in ~/Music/iTunes/where the tilde "~" represents your home directory.
    What does it mean, "....navigate to the location where you would like your new Music folder to be created." ???
    I'm trying to free up internal hard drive space by moving my iTunes Music folder to my external hard drive.
    Will it also take the movies, podcasts, etc??
    Thanks in advance for any help. I'm dead in the water until I get this solved.

    Open iTunes and at the bottom of the main window it will tell you how large in Gigs your library is - if that is larger than the space available on your ext HD then you will need a bigger ext HD - or remove some stuff from the ext HD to make space.
    MJ

  • Missing files after moving itunes music folder

    i moved my itunes music folder to my external hard drive using the directions posted here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748 to the letter. a lot of things transfered but now when i look in my itunes music folder and compare to my itunes library, i see that a lot of things are missing. i really don't want to have to go through every single artist folder and check every song. shouldn't consolidating my library have taken care of this?

    I just had a very similar issue, I moved my iTunes library from a 120Gb Drive to a 500Gb and the library was a bit corrupted because the main drive was full b/c of an error, but that's besides the fact.
    SOLUTION To missing files, that aren't really missing because they exist and were all copied no problems.
    go to the iTunes folder in your Home folder, and move the iTunes Music Library.xml file to your desktop (with itunes closed of course)
    Then re-open itunes and the library file that's not an xml doc, will re-search your files and all should be well.
    You should be able to safely delete the xml doc now, because iTunes made a new one.
    Cheers
    PowerMac G4 Dual 1Gz   Mac OS X (10.4.9)  

  • Error Code -36 When Copying iTunes Music folder to an External Drive

    _*"The finder cannot complete the operation because some data in "NAME.mp3" could not be read or written. (Error code -36)_"*
    This is the error message I get when trying to copy my iTunes music folder to an external drive. I am following Apple's knowledge base article, so yes, I have consolidated my library, have closed iTunes and there is plenty of room on the external drive. For what it's worth, I am also getting this error when trying to do the same thing with my iPhoto library.
    Would be grateful for some insight,
    With oodles of appreciation in advance,
    Joe

    I was getting the same "-36" error while trying to backup to a Lacie firewire external drive.
    I had a lot of people telling me to re-format, erase, reinstall, run utility programs ... yada, yada, yada.
    First off, test to see if it is the connection type (firewire). I reconnected the offending external drive via USB, restarted the drive and ... BINGO! ... all transfers went perfectly.
    Once i knew it was the firewire connection and not the drive itself i simply unplugged my iSight camera (the only other firewire device connected to my machine), reconnected my external drive via firewire and the problem is now corrected.
    Firewire buses seem to be very finicky things ... i would suggest eliminating all firewire devices from the machine (except, of course, the external drive you're trying to transfer to) and see if the problem goes away.
    Like i said, i simply unplugged my iSight camera and the transfer to my external drive went perfect and my transfer rates went from an average of 4MB/sec to over 19MB/sec.
    P.S. BTW - prior to the error and after i corrected the error by unplugging the iSight camera, my internal and external drives all checked out 100% on Disk Utility, Disk Warrior and TechTool Pro.

  • Itunes cannot see the itunes music folder on my external hard drive

    I recently put all of my music on an external hard drive to free up space on my computer,
    However, when I am in itunes and trying to point the library to the music folder, itunes still cannot see it. Instead all it can see is the E drive WD Passport, and folders named autorun, WD Sync Data Wd Windows Tools.
    Can anyone tell me how I can see my itunes music folder on my external hard drive while I am in preferences, advanced, library location, change??

    I don't know enough about iTunes for Windows to help you with this. But if you post your question in the Using iTunes for Windows forum you will get help from people who know more about this.
    (This is the forum for Apple's Mac OS X web browser, Safari.)

  • ITunes Music Folder Missing on external hard drive after changing iTunes Media Folder Location from MacBook Hard Drive.  Not deleted...just missing?

    I store my iTunes media folder on my external hard drive and can no longer find it there.  It seemed to becomd lost after I re-designated the default iTunes media location.  I had downloaded some things from iTunes without my external hard drive plugged in and when they downloaded they downloaded to the default location on my Macbook Pro.  In recognizing that, I wanted to move those files from the hard drive on my MacBook Pro to the external hard drive.  When I re-selected the location as the external hard drive a copy process began.  I cancelled the copy process fearing the small number of files from my Macbook Pro would over-write all of the files on my external hard drive so I quit the copy process.  Now I do not see my "iTunes Music" folder on my external hard drive.  I fear that I have somehow lost the path but I believe the content is still on my external hard drive although I no longer see the "iTunes Music" folder on my external hard drive.  I know I didn't delete it, but it isn't there.  Is there a way to make it re-appear?  I would really appreciate any guideance anyone has.
    Thank you.
    Best,
    Matt

    When you change the location in preferences it tells iTunes to start, from this point on, storing new media files in the new location.  It then presents you with the option to move any old files in their current locations to the new location.  It doesn't move the library files which are not media files.  Read the links below to understand how iTunes works because you are the one with the computer in front of you and are in the better position to understand how it stands as regards to iTunes files.
    What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
    More on iTunes library files and what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management
    What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html
    Where are my iTunes files located? - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
    Now, did you keep the whole library on the external drive, or did you keep just media?  From your description of the situation it sounds as if you kept the whole library there and when the external was not attached it returned to default location on the internal drive.  What you should have done then was plug in the external drive, hold down the option key, and guide iTunes to the library file on the external.  At this stage you could have dealt with the mislocated new files on an individual basis. 
    I guess the key question is, did your trying to move the couple of new media files to the external drive overwrite the iTunes folder there, which because you then canceled may have also just resulted in it being deleted.  I am not going to test the theory on my system.
    How big was your library on the external?  If it was 40GB do you now suddenly have 40 GB free?
    Look for any iTunes folders on the external drive.  In view options turn on "calculate all folders sizes" and see if there are any big ones.

  • Since I moved ITunes media folder to an external bkp unit upload of my home shared videos on Apple TV is very slow. Is there anything I can do?

    Since I moved ITunes media folder to an external bkp unit, Apple Tv uploads my shared videos very slowly. Is there anything I can do?

    USB 3 should be more than enough for what you want.
    I don't know anything about Pinnacle but iMovie (assuming you are going default) does produce movies with a datarate of around 10 Mbps, which is quite high in comparison to iTunes movies from the iTunes Store. I don't know if you might want to try custom exports.
    Although saying that I have plenty of movies at around 10 Mbps on my eSATA external which doesn't have any problems.

  • ITunes Music Folder Missing on external hard drive after changing iTunes Media Folder Location from MacBook Hard Drive

    The store my iTunes media folder on my external hard drive and can no longer find it there.  It seemed to becomd lost after I re-designated the default iTunes media location.  I had downloaded some things from iTunes without my external hard drive plugged in and when they downloaded they downloaded to the default location on my Macbook Pro.  In recognizing that, I wanted to move those files from the hard drive on my MacBook Pro to the external hard drive.  When I re-selected the location as the external hard drive a copy process began.  I cancelled the copy process fearing the small number of files from my Macbook Pro would over-write all of the files on my external hard drive so I quit the copy process.  Now I do not see my "iTunes Music" folder on my external hard drive.  I fear that I have somehow lost the path but I believe the content is still on my external hard drive although I no longer see the "iTunes Music" folder on my external hard drive.  I know I didn't delete it, but it isn't there.  Is there a way to make it re-appear?  I would really appreciate any guideance anyone has.
    Thank you.
    Best,
    Matt

    Any ideas?  Anyone?

  • Ooops...I manually moved iTunes music folder to my new external hard drive

    So I thought I was smart and manually moved my iTunes music folder to my new external hard drive. I've changed the location in Preferences but can't locate my music through iTunes. What do I do now? My library is on my external hard drive, but I read I should have done this through iTunes. Any advice?

    Is it still possible for you to temporarily return the iTunes Music folder to its original location?
    If so you should be able to see your music in iTunes again and then follow the instructions in this article in the Apple Knowledge Base.

  • Moved iTunes music folder to new HD and it won't play

    I recently moved my iTunes music files to a larger external hard drive (for the third time) and now iTunes can't find any of the songs. It has worked in the past on 2 other HD's but not this time. I've selected the correct iTunes Music Folder location under <EDIT> <PREFERENCES> <ADVANCED>, have selected "Keep music folder organized", and have even "consolidated my music", but the files won't play. The files are in-tact; I can right-click on a song, click "get info", and manually locate the file to play it, but I don't want to do this for 70GB worth of music!!! Someone suggested dragging the music files into the iTunes library, but I have the library on my laptop and the actual music files on the external HD and I want to keep the library on my laptop so I don't think this will work for me. please help.
    Message was edited by: brookap

    I have a very similar problem. Hope I don't confuse people trying to help us since the solutions may be different.
    I had my iTunes path directed to a 2nd internal hard drive. Everything was working fine - except I found that purchased Apps were still being downloaded to the Mobile Applications folder on my main hard drive instead of the 2nd internal drive. I decided to retry directing the iTunes path to my 2nd internal drive, hoping that might get iTunes to save my Apps there. Big Mistake. Suddenly, there were no Apps showing in my iTunes Library Apps window at all. I verified the downloaded apps are still in my main hard drive's Mobile Applications folder, but I cannot get iTunes to display them in my Apps Library window anymore.
    I decided to try downloading a new app and, sure enough, iTunes once again downloaded it into the very same Mobile Applications folder on my main hard drive, where all my (now orphaned) original apps are, but the only one iTunes will only display in my Apps window is the new one. I read you can redownload purchased apps, but my apps are not missing. iTunes just won't display them in the Apps window anymore.

  • Moved iTunes music folder to HDD, Now iTunes Can't Find it--Help :-)

    I finally was able to get an HDD that actually mounted and now I have moved my iTunes music folder based on the instructions here: iTunes: Moving your iTunes Music folder. I printed them out and followed them step-by-step.
    Before moving the folder iTunes Music from my internal HD (~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music) to the trash, I played random tracks with no problem. So I moved the folder to the trashcan, then emptied the trash as instructed. Went back to iTunes to play some music, and now all of my tracks have the dreaded exclamation point in the first column. When I click on a track to play it, I get the message "The song 'blah blah blah' could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?"
    Of course, I can select 'Yes' and go through the steps and locate the files on my HDD. This, however, is not an optimal process with over 2400 songs. Does anyone know what went wrong with my relocation?
    Melissa
    PowerBook G4 PowerPC   Mac OS X (10.4.8)   iPod 30G, MyBook 250GB HDD, iTunes 7.1.1

    I've used that method to transfer music from one drive to another literally dozens of times and never seen it fail in the way you experienced. I'm at a loss to explain how you could have followed the instructions, successfully transfer the music to the new drive, and yet have the iTunes database still think the music should be on the original drive.
    What I can suggest are two solutions: One for it you don't care about keeping your playlists, rankings, and playcounts intact. The other for if you do care.
    Fast fix but loses the meta data: Quit iTunes. Open your home directory, find the music folder and open it. Trash everything you see in your music folder and restart iTunes. All your music and playlists will be gone. Open your new drive on the desktop, find the folder with your music, and drag it into your iTunes window. Your music will be imported into a new iTunes catalog and then you can create your playlists.
    Keeping the metadata: After quitting iTunes, move the music back to its original location by dragging the music folder(s). Unmount the new drive and play some music. Remember the songs you clicked on and showed iTunes how to find? Do those songs all over again and once you've verified the iTunes library now points to all the songs properly, delete the songs from the new drive and repeat the steps to move them again.

  • Can I copy music iTunes Music Folder from my external Hard drive to new PC?

    not sure if this is possible but I copied my folders (documents/music/itunes/itunes music folder) from my local hard drive from laptop to my external (for backing up purposes) and now i have a new computer. can i just simply copy/paste this folder to my new computer and open itunes and it will be there. i know it's probably too easy but was hoping someone could help me out???? thanks.

    You can by dragging them from itunes to your external drive this will copy them to it. Then do the opposite for from you drive to the new computer. Just make sure if you don't intend to keep the drive connected to your new computer. That you put copies of the songs in a folder on it before putting them on itunes or you have problems playing your songs.

  • Moving iTunes music folder from hard drive to external drive

    I see a couple of topics related to iTunes folder locations and losing track of where the file are. What's the right way to migrate from having the iTunes music files on my hard drive (C:) to using an external drive...without having to re-map everything manually? I'm running out of space on the C: drive!

    There's actually hundreds of those topics. It gets asked daily.
    Did you still have a specific question after reading several of them?
    Here is a very thorough and wordy article on it
    http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive

  • Question about moving iTunes Media folder/library

    Hello,
    I'm responding to the article listed here: iTunes for Windows: Moving your iTunes Media folder - Apple Support that describes moving your iTunes media folder. I have a massive music library/playlists (over 350 gigs and growing). I'm planning to relocate my media folder to Dropbox because I have ample space there and it will allow me to run my library off of multiple computers (though not at the same time). My question is this: if I follow the steps and consolidate and relocate my library to the new Dropbox folder, will all my new uploads and downloads/purchases/imports also start automatically going to this newly specified location? I want to make sure that it would.
    Thanks

    Well the way that Dropbox works for me (just documents and data, not iTunes) is that I have a complete copy of the files in my Dropbox folder on my computer at home, and at work, and in the cloud on Dropbox's servers. Each time I update one of the files it is uploaded to Dropbox and then downloaded to the other client machine. When using another computer I can access my files from the Dropbox web interface, or use the Dropbox app on my iPad. It sounds like you are hoping that you can have all of your files in the cloud, and only in the cloud. I don't think it works that way.
    For 350Gb and growing I think that realistically you need to stick with local storage. I clone my library to a 1Tb portable drive which I physically take to and from work, At each location I use SyncToy to synchronize the local and portable copies of the libraries effectively giving me three parallel clones of the library at all times.
    tt2

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