Moving my entire library to an external drive

What is the best way to move my enite itunes library to an external drive? I want to keep all my album covers/artwork and not lose anything. Thanks in advance

You might find these articles useful:
iLounge - Managing your iTunes Library on an External Hard Drive
iTunes for Windows - Moving your iTunes Music Folder

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Moving the iTunes library to an external drive

I followed the Apple article and successfully moved my iTunes library to an external drive. BUT, is the Album Artwork supposed to stay in the original location (internal drive)? Mine did, and I had to redownload album artwork again. HOWEVER, I don't have all my artwork since the transfer and since the redownloading of it.
Is it safe to drag the album artwork folder to the external? I don't want to mess anything up.
Thanks.

I followed the Apple article and successfully moved my iTunes library to an external drive.
which article (post a link) did you follow and what exactly did you move to the external ?

Moved my iphoto library to an external drive and now I can't import photos from my camera or iPhone - will only import previously impoted photos - why?

Anyone else had this problem? Anyone know how to fix it?
I haven't deleted my photos of my computer's hard drive yet so can go back to using that if it will fix my problem
Thanks

No that is not a problem and no one has reported it here
to change the library depress the option key and launch iPhoto and use the select library command - see if the behavior is the same on both frives
How did you move the iPhoto library to the external drive?
What format is the external drive?
LN

Moving iTunes 6 Library to an external drive

All I wanted to do is reroute the iTunes Library from my Macs INTERNAL DRIVE, to an EXTERNAL DRIVE (that has more space) AND keep all my hard earned playlists & downloaded album covers intact. Unfortunetly I followd the directions for an earlier versions of iTunes. Final result; I was able to change the location, BUT all the playlists & album cover downloads were lost (hard work down the drain!). Does anybody know if there are any updated instructions for doing this available for iTunes 6?
Thanks to anybody who can help with this.
Dan

Dan,
in this case for whatever reason something went really wrong: The 2 library files "iTunes Music Library.xml" as well as "iTunes Library" must not be moved.
All playcounts, ratings etc. are stored in the last one mentioned.
If this files isn't in your iTunes folder, iTunes creates a blank one: All metadata will get lost.
If the original files still exist: Close itunes and move back "iTunes Music Library.xml" as well as "iTunes Library" into "iTunes" and relaunch the application.

Moving an exs library to an external drive

wanna move my own bulky exs library from my mac hard drive to an external drive, could some kind bod on this board explain how this is done?
thankz in advance

i've taken your advice and moved my whole 'akai samples' folder (full of conversions from cd roms) to an exterior drive, successfully freeing up 30 gig on my mac hard drive. now, in the original user/library/app support/logic folder an alias points to the 'akai samples' folder on the external drive. everything loads up fine in exs so that's all good
but what i truly want to achieve is to copy back onto the mac hard drive just the samples for a 'my own faves' folder which contains a coupla hundred instruments sieved out and selected from my general library. for a number of reasons i'd like to have this stuff on my hard drive.
this is where my problem begins.
i can't find those samples in the 'akai samples' folder, i mean, sure, they're there if i root around like crazy and search folder after folder, but the names of the subfolders in the 'akai samples' folder don't correlate at all to the names of my subfolders in the instrument folder, and this is what puzzles mw
hey beej, if this is incomprehensible because you can't see the architecture of my library, no worries and thankz for yr advice so far
anyone else faced this particular stone wall?

Why can't I find my movies, books, and anything other than music after I've moved my iTunes library to an external drive?

After moving everything, correctly, I thought, to an external drive for iTunes, my movies and audiobooks cannot be found. What the heck happened?

Lara-Mom wrote:
I have a MacBook that I maintain my Itunes library on but had run out of memory so I attempted to move my library to a Lacie external drive.
How & what exactly did you movie?
It appeared to work following steps in a discussion thread
Which discussion thread?

Switching Entire Library to separate external drive?

I just got a new external hard drive and I want to put all my music on that but I want to make sure I don't lose any of my playlists or tagging on my files. What is the safest way to go about doing this? Thanks in advance for any help.

You might find these articles useful:
iLounge - Managing your iTunes Library on an External Hard Drive
iTunes for Mac - Moving your 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.

ITunes keeps creating a new iTunes Library instead of going to my actual iTunes Library on my external drive.

My old computer died.
Luckily, my iTunes library is stored on an external drive.
My new machine is Windows 8 and my old machine was Vista, but I don't think that should cause any problem.
When I run iTunes, it comes up like a fresh install on a new machine... every time. By default, it creates an iTunes folder in my local drive and as such, has no music in and is a 100% blank slate.
When I point it to my external drive, and then import the library, it does it. All my music shows up -- after a long time, but it all shows up.
If I shut down iTunes or reboot, everything goes back to zero again.
The most disturbing thing about this is that I can't back up properly, because -- although in Preferences it's pointed at my external drive -- it's backing up my iPhone 5 to the local drive in Windows.
Any idea what's going on here?
I've gone through this process 5 times already and it's always the same.

There are two main components to the iTunes library. The media folder which you can adjust via Edit > Preferences > Advanced, and the database file iTunes Library.itl which is normally found in <User's Music>\iTunes. You can choose or create a new iTunes library by holding down shift as you launch iTunes.
In some cases third party software can interfere with the way iTunes updates its files meaning that either iTunes forgets the previously chosen location, or that the active database is deleted. AVG anti-virus and Sony VIAO Entertainment Platform typically interfere with the database. McAfee has been implicated in the corruption of iTunesPrefs.plist.
See Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash for more details on how you might recover after the library vanishes.
You may get some improvment by hosting your entire library on the external drive not just the media. E.g. Create a library at X:\iTunes where X: is the drive letter, then move the media into X:\iTunes\iTunes Media before adding it to the library. This will make it easier to backup the library to a second drive and move it between computers when the time comes.
tt2

Why can't I access my itunes library on an external drive?

Hi -- I successfully moved my itunes library to an external drive a few months ago, and all was going well - I added content to it several times. For some reason now I can't access it, and when I tried to burn a CD into itunes, it created a new library that is on my hard drive. I have done the thing where I go into preferences and select the external drive as the library, but I still can't get to the external drive.
This is particularly urgent because I have a 2-week old baby and I am trying to burn one of those awful "soothing sounds" CDs so I can play it on my ipod while he is sleeping. Thank you!

If the iTunes Library.itl file is also on the external drive, try launching iTunes while holding down the Shift key, and when the dialog window opens that allows you to create a new library or open an existing one, choose to open an existing one, navigate to the folder that contains that library file and select it.
If that works, note for the future that if you launch iTunes when that external drive isn't mounted, iTunes will default back to the normal location on the internal drive and you'll have to repeat the Shift-launch process.
Hope this helps.

Moving iTunes Library to an external drive. My itunes cant connect to the library

I have tried to move my iTunes Library to an external drive. When I open the iTunes app i can not get the app to read the library on the external drive. I have gone into iTunes preferences and redirected the app to read the external file and I still look as though I have a "New iTunes program" with no music, apps, videos etc.
Thanks all!

If you moved the entire /Music/iTunes/ folder, hold "Option" and launch iTunes.
Select "Choose library" then select the iTunes folder you moved.
You do not need to change the iTunes media folder location in iTunes prefs > Advanced.

Moving iTunes library to an external drive converting to different format

I want to move entire iTunes library to an external drive. I've found several Mac 101's to help but those helps makes no sense. I should be able to move music to another drive and give iTunes the path to find it but that does not work.
All files are iTunes Plus including everything from Amazon but I want to convert everything to a mp3 or other format so all files are independent of iTunes. Lots of old music from CDs I imported and lots from iTunes as well as Amazon. I guess i could sit and burn everything to a physical cd but that would take months and hundreds and hundreds of cds. Can someone advise how I can convert these files and then move to an external drive?
I'm running mountain lion and version 10.7 of iTunes. Two external drives and 145 gigs of music. Any guidance will be most appreciated.
Thanks.

HI Limnos,
Thanks for the reply. Something I forgot (age) to mention, this quest to move the library is precipitated by the Mac drive is running out of space. While I still have about 50 gigs of room left, I was thinking I should just plan on opening up the space by moving the iTunes library.
The other reason is, I read an article about how upon ones death one can not bequeath ones digital music or book files to loved ones. IE; If all of the music was on LP's, tapes, cd's then this physical format can be left in ones final will. But according to what I read and trying to read the user policy by Apple, Amazon etc when one downloads music or a book or whatever that use policy says we don't own the material we only can read it or listen to it. When we die it dies with us. Several people in the article as well as myself believe this is crap. At one time I was purchasing content and then burning it. I stopped because I thought how silly to burn it, I have back ups on an external drive. Man was I wrong. If I have to I'll sit here in my last days and burn hundreds of cd's.
So realizing this, I want to take all my music files and save them to another drive as though this drive was hundreds of cd's. That way all those files in some other format can be played independent of iTunes or transfered to one of my kids PC's or a Mac if they get with the program. If the conversion process destroys the integrity of the file then I have no choice but to burn cd's.
In my estimation, I'm doing nothing wrong. I bought downloadable music just as if I'd bought cd's. I should be able to throw it away or give to my kids upon my death. The kids can decide what they want to do with it once I'm gone. I now no longer buy any music or books in a digital download. All content is purchased with a physical copy. That said, more content providers are moving towards downloads only or like Amazon and Apple towards the cloud and streaming. I realize all this gets into the fair use act but I think most people are unaware of this issue.

So, I have just about had it. For nine days now, I have valiantly tried to move my library to an external drive. At first, I attempted to move it to my 2TB Time capsule, iTunes didn't like its new home though and moved home without telling me.

So, I have just about had it. For nine days now, I have valiantly tried to move my library to an external drive. At first, I attempted to move it to my 2TB Time capsule. iTunes didn't like its new home though and moved home without telling me. So then there were two libraries. I meshed them back together reluctantly and iTunes in a silent revolt, absolutely refused to use its own 'Keep Library Organized' criteria and may as well have thrown my music against the wall. Seriously, my 5 year old nephew has his computer files better managed. Then I bought a 3TB Time Capsule and you may ask yourself why??? Well, iTunes doubled in size- although when I ran apps that are designed to find duplicate iTunes files, it deleted the music I actually bought from iTunes. So then I watched as iTunes got it back. How you ask; I run a MacBook Air, iMac and Mac mini in my house - as soon as one powered up it hit the net like a sailor on leave and re-downloaded it all without abandon. I tried to keep the libraries separate, no success there. I tried to keep them unified; iTunes response was to ask me if I wanted to join iTunes Match every time I logged on to my computer and on any computer - my iTunes match song number has been as high as 24,367 and as low as 11,112. And I can't simply refuse iTunes. No one refuses iTunes. Refusal to allow iTunes Match to run through all 24000 songs again was to revoke my rights to the songs that were once part of my library. If I took a long time to decide or was visibly impatient while iTunes did its little 3 hour scan it would arbitrarily decide that music I bought from iTunes was ineligible for iTunes Match. How could that possibly be??? I am missing music, or at least iTunes tells me so by showing me that lovely exclamation point. I have tried backing up my computer to do a full system restore and start all over. Time Capsule claims I have 979 GB of data and takes its sweet time to even back up one gig (about 18 minutes) even though I can transfer files to my Time Capsule at about 1 GB every 40 seconds. I guess though performing back-ups are somewhat like government jobs; it will get done, when it gets done. The back up requirement of 979 GB is surprising though, my Mac claims that I currently occupy just about 25% of my 2TB drive. The discrepancy, who knows, but I think the solution lies somewhere in iTunes. But maybe iPhoto. But that is for another time.

After admittedly only a quick read the one thing you don't say is how you are trying to make this move. Most people with moving library issues do it the wrong way. Plenty of web sites tell you how to do it the wrong way.
If the iTunes application is started before the drive with the library is fully mounted and awake iTunes will revert back to the internal drive.

I moved my iTunes library to an external hard drive. It re installed itself on the PC and there is now no more room. I cannot sync with the external version. My wife has is a user on the same computer and we have the same iTunes account. Can I uninstall

I moved my iTunes library to an external hard drive due to lack of space on the PC. I uninstalled it from the PC at the time to increase space. My wife is a user on the computer and shares the same apple account. I discovered that iTunes was back on the PC hard drive when I tried to sync my iphone and it would not for lack of space on the PC. If I uninstall I tunes from the PC where I am the user will it affect my wife's itune account which is still on the PC?

Close iTunes. Click the icon to start it, then press and hold down the left shift key. Keep holding until asked to choose or create a library. Choose the iTunes folder on your external drive. That should bring back all your playlists, ratings, play counts etc. You may have to settle for removing and reloading the media onto the device again. That's not too bad, but what you don't want to have happen is your apps being removed and reloaded as then you can lose settings and data. If that looks likely backup and then restore the device rather than sync it.
If for some reason rebuilding the library the way you did has moved files around then the restored library may have trouble finding things. If so post back and I'll explain what to do...
tt2

I moved my itunes library to an external hard drive and now when I try to sync my ipad it says it is already synced to another library.

I moved my itunes library to an external hard drive and then I tried to sync my ipad. I got a message that says my ipad is synced to another library and it will erase my ipad, which I don't want to do. I'm not sure how to fix this problem, any ideas?

Ok. progress...
So is your media folder called iTunes Music or iTunes Media? And does it have a folder called Music inside it?
Before going any further you should first attempt to use File > Library > Organize Library > Rearrange files in the folder "<Media Folder>" (ignore if grayed out). This will make sure that any iPod Games or Mobile Applications get placed inside the iTunes Media folder which is needed for portability.
If your iTunes Media folder is called iTunes Music, close iTunes, rename the folder as iTunes Media and start iTunes again. iTunes will automatically adjust. Close iTunes again.
On your external drive rearrange the folders that you have already copied there so that they match the layout in your active library. You should end up with a folder called X:\iTunes where X: is the external drive letter, and the media folder is X:\iTunes\iTunes Media. If the library layout was upgraded then you will need to create a Music folder inside this and move all the artist folders and Compilations into Music. You will also need to copy iPod Games and Mobile Applications from your internal drive into the new media folder. Next copy the files iTunes Library.itl, iTunes Library Extras.itdb, iTunes Library Genius.itdb, sentinel and the folder Album Artwork from the internal drive into X:\iTunes. The preceding manipulations should make the internal and external copies of your library match without you having to copy all of the media over again.
Now hold shift as you start iTunes. Click choose, browse to and open X:\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl.
Finally use File > Library > Organize Library > Consolidate files. This will ensure that any stray files that might have been added from outside your original media folder will be copied into the new one.
You can now reclaim the space used by your library on the internal drive, however before you do so I would advise you to obtain another external drive and make use of this backup tip.
tt2

Moving my entire library to an external drive

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