Splitting up iTunes library

OK, here's the situation. My daughter and I have been keeping separate iTunes libraries on the same computer for several years. Although we have several songs in common, most are either hers or mine. All of the songs live on an external HD.
Now she has her own computer, and I want to copy all her songs and library onto her computer. Meanwhile, I stay on the old computer and continue using the external HD. (It's actually fine if a copy of "her" songs stay on the HD.)
What's the best way of doing this? I know how to move the whole library, but I'm unsure of how to do the split-up I want to do. Have poked around a little bit, and seems like options would include (a) consolidating her library to an external HD, then moving that folder onto the new computer or (b) backing up her library (again to an HD), then moving to the new computer (along with her itl and xml files, of course).
Both good options? Neither? Or is there a better way to do this using Home Sharing? The old machine is XP3, her new computer is Win7. Input appreciated, thanx!

I'd be happy to help you with this, but the main points I need to make sure of before proceeding with any answer, are these:
~1 Do you understand the concept of itunes library database (ITL file) vs itunes content (actual music/video/podcast etc files)?
~2 Is her database under her own windows userID on the current PC?
~3 Whether you understand those first 2 questions or need more explanation to provide the correct answer

Similar Messages

Can I split my iTunes library between two HD's?

I am planning on converting my movie library and putting it on a large external HD, so that I can play movies on my TV via AppleTV. The only problem is, I think I may need at least 6 TB to do this. If I go with an external unit with two HD's (2 x 3 TB or larger), can I split the iTunes library onto the 2 drives, and still have access to all of my movies all of the time? If I go for more drives in one unit (4 x 2 TB), is it also feasible? Also, would I require something like a Thunderbolt connection, or would FW800 or USB3 work okay?

jc_hering wrote:
that works for anything he purchases after he creates the new account. What about his current music that currently resides in my itunes library? How can I get his current music out of my library into his new account/library?? Thanks..
Copy it to his computer into his iTunes library and authorize his computer with the iTunes account used to purchase them..
You cannot tranfser items from one iTunes account to another. Purchased items remain part of the iTunes account is was purchased with.
iTunes account - used to purchase items
iTunes library - where purchases (and CD RIPs) go on the computer

Can I split my iTunes library across two hard drives?

I am busy ripping my huge movie collection into an iTunes library, so I can play through my new Apple TV to my HDTV. Trouble is, it looks like I'll probably need at least 4TB's of HD space before I'm all finished. What I would like to do is to buy an external HD unit with two 3TB drives, and split my iTunes library across them, while still being able to view all of the movies on both drives all of the time, and give me lots of extra room for future expansion.
Is this possible? If not, does anyone know of an aftermarket Thunderbolt 4TB external HD? I found a 4TB drive, but not with Thunderbolt.
Thanks.

I have the same question.
I would like to be able to do the same thing with all my media. I'm a DJ and certain aspects of Mac Os X Lion or iCloud, and iTunes Match, don't favor folks with tons of media, storage wise. I'm not happy that there's a limit on how much space iCloud will give you. Yet, I feel forced to upgrade to Lion within the next 4 days. I've been hesitant to rip my collection or even upload all those digital copies because where will I put all those files. I agree with needing like 4-8T just to store, but how? I don't have Thunderbolt, only Firewire on late '08 iMac 20" and USB on 08 MacBook 13" Aluminum. Bleh!
If you can use Time Capsule to back up your entire network with more than one computer, it would seem likely that you should be able to piggy back 2 xTime Capsules. I believe they come with 2-3Ts now and you can get them refurbished? I'm gonna look at Time Capsule Support to find out for myself, I'll let you know what I find, also. One thing I did noticed was that I had uploaded a bunch of Digital Copies from movies I had bought from Blu-Ray Combo Packs like 2 years ago and deleted them from MacBook for more space, only to recently find that they had been saved as purchased items from the iTunes Store. So now I can grab them from iTunes and watch them anytime off my Apple TV.
Good Luck,
Jenn

HT1751 I have always shared my apple ID & iTunes library with my daughter but now she is old enough to have her own. Is there a way to split my iTunes library with hers if she now has her own apple ID/library?

I have always shared my apple ID & iTunes library with my daughter but now she is old enough to have her own. Is there a way to split my iTunes library with hers if she now has her own apple ID/library?

settings->store
there you change appleID
multiusing ios devices don't really works very well

How can i split my itunes library between two different accounts?

For years my son has always been a part of our itunes library. now that he is off at college, I would like to split his music off from our library to a library of his own with his own account info. Is this possible?

jc_hering wrote:
that works for anything he purchases after he creates the new account. What about his current music that currently resides in my itunes library? How can I get his current music out of my library into his new account/library?? Thanks..
Copy it to his computer into his iTunes library and authorize his computer with the iTunes account used to purchase them..
You cannot tranfser items from one iTunes account to another. Purchased items remain part of the iTunes account is was purchased with.
iTunes account - used to purchase items
iTunes library - where purchases (and CD RIPs) go on the computer

Can I split my iTunes library between 2 hard drives?

Can iTunes library be split between to hard drives?
Hi,
My laptop has 2 x 250GB internal hard drives. I wish there was 1 x 500 GB one.
1 of them is nearly full with music only 2GB remaining and the other one has over 100GB remaining.
I'm wondering is it possible to split the location of the library between the 2 drives without too much trouble or is it messy or even possible?!
In other words when I open iTunes the music that is on the nearly full hard drive will remain there and any music I import going forward will be re-directed to the other hard drive but still appear in iTunes along with the music from the other drive.
Thanks...

I have the same question.
I would like to be able to do the same thing with all my media. I'm a DJ and certain aspects of Mac Os X Lion or iCloud, and iTunes Match, don't favor folks with tons of media, storage wise. I'm not happy that there's a limit on how much space iCloud will give you. Yet, I feel forced to upgrade to Lion within the next 4 days. I've been hesitant to rip my collection or even upload all those digital copies because where will I put all those files. I agree with needing like 4-8T just to store, but how? I don't have Thunderbolt, only Firewire on late '08 iMac 20" and USB on 08 MacBook 13" Aluminum. Bleh!
If you can use Time Capsule to back up your entire network with more than one computer, it would seem likely that you should be able to piggy back 2 xTime Capsules. I believe they come with 2-3Ts now and you can get them refurbished? I'm gonna look at Time Capsule Support to find out for myself, I'll let you know what I find, also. One thing I did noticed was that I had uploaded a bunch of Digital Copies from movies I had bought from Blu-Ray Combo Packs like 2 years ago and deleted them from MacBook for more space, only to recently find that they had been saved as purchased items from the iTunes Store. So now I can grab them from iTunes and watch them anytime off my Apple TV.
Good Luck,
Jenn

Can I split my iTunes library to a new iTunes account?

We have a family itunes and want to split to give my daughter her own account (with her music). How do I do it and separate the icloud accounts.

Type "move itunes library" into the google search bar.
Copy the entire itunes folder from one computer to the other.
Use migration assistant.

Splitting the iTunes Library using aliases or symbolic links

I imagine—but have not tried it in fear of loosing valued metadata—that I can replace the ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music Library/TV Shows/ directory with an alias (or I would possibly need to use a symbolic link) that points to a /Volumes/ExternalDrive/TV Shows/. This way, I imagine that iTunes would copy new content to the external drive, and load content from that drive too. When the drive is not connected, I would just get an error message claiming the resource/file is not available.
Coming from a Linux background, the above scenario would most certainly work. I am—however—not very familiar with either iTunes nor the HFSP file system.
Can anyone who have tried implementing a similar scenario—or who is not afraid to experiment with their iTunes Library—please test and see whether this actually works? or explain why it does not work, and what would be required to make it work. Thanks in advance!

aliases will most certainly not work. symbolic links might although I had a bad experience using them with itunes. when I symlinked a folder for a particular album to an external itunes played those songs fine but when I bought a new song from that album iTunes created a new folder on the main drive instead of using the existing symlinked one. this doesn't happen with regular itunes album folders - I double checked. I don't know why that is.
I'm afraid you'll run into the same issue with the TV Shows folder but you can try and see if it works.

Split an itunes library to 2 harddisks

Itunes is the best program for music and movie-files.
Only one problem, My HD is too small.
I have an external HD.
BUT
I can't manage my library into 2 library's
And I can't find any plug-in
help!, maybe people can make one, even limewire shares music in iTunes from other places!

Any luck? I've been looking around for something,
since I am using a powerbook with an 80gig drive and
43 gig are currently Itunes. I keep on having to
scrabble and delete stuff in order to keep my music
which is stupid. Add to that my wife is running on
her laptop with the same library - different ratings,
but the same underlying tunes.
I'ld love to move a goodly chunk of our library to a
server I have running on my network - keeping my Ipod
loaded for bear and my laptop running on a "lite"
collection when I am on the road... Of course I
haven't found a good way to do it yet.
If you don't consolidate your library it might be
workable...
What we really need is for Apple to allow us to setup
multiple locations for music storage and tool for
sorting out the tracks to the storage sites...
Yes, I'd hope Apple will hear this!!!

Split iTunes Library between hard disks

Can I split my iTunes library between my hard drive and an attached hard drive but view it as one and have it update on my iPod together? I've run out of space and have some space on an attached secondary hard drive.

Hi, Multiple folder paths for Music folder location is not supported.

How do I move just my movies folder (not the entire iTunes library) to an external hard drive and still be able to watch movies?

My movies library is getting frighteningly large, and I want to move it (not the entire library) to an external HD, and still be able to watch the movies (when the HD is connectec). How would I do that?

It's not a feature of iTunes but can be done using various work-arounds.
Small hard drive? Split your iTunes library across multiple volumes - http://www.macyourself.com/2009/04/24/small-hard-drive-split-your-itunes-library -across-multiple-volumes/ - copying media folders to external, then deleting from internal, then adding again.
Splitting & Managing Your iTunes Library - http://machintsandtips.com/i-j-k/itunes/splitting-managing-your-itunes-library/ - using option+drag to override iTunes from copying file to your default media folder.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/10160819#10160819 - Change location of media folder to start putting files on second drive. Note later follow-up post about leaving 'organize media' and 'copy to drive' checked.
TuneSpan: (OS X app) A utility that allows you to distribute the media files in your iTunes Library across multiple drives. - http://tunespan.com/ - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tunespan/id528459889?mt=12 - Requirements: OS X 10.6.6 or later, 64-bit processor

Is there a Maximum number of songs you can have in iTunes library?

I have reached what I believe to be the Maximum number of songs that iTunes will allow. That number is 37,562 songs. Since reaching this plateau I have since split my iTunes library into two seperate libraries using the program Libra but am wondering what happened to all the songs I either downloaded off my own CDs or purchased from the iTunes store after I reached that maximum number. It's not a matter of hard drive space as I was originally told by several Apple Employees...I have a Terabyte drive that I have my libraries going to that has over 700GB still free. I'm concerned that songs may have been deleted and wonder how I found out which ones were deleted or what happened to songs as I reached the 37,562 level and continued to add songs until I finally realized that the song count wasn't going any higher. I am on a Mac, using a G4 desktop under MacOSX 10.4.8. Any help would be appreciated...Tks

popeyetsm
If there is a limit, you've got a long way to go. Check out these guys:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=812614&tstart=0
So whatever your problems, that ain't the cause.
Regards
TD

I need help with moving my iTunes library to a new disk...

I'm soon gonna get a new SSD which is half the size of my HDD. So i guess i wont be able to restore with time machine or use disk utility to clone the drive. I'll have to start with a fresh copy of moutain lion.
What I'll want to do is that keep all my music on my ssd and let all the podcast and itunes u be on an external hdd.
can someone outline the steps to...
create a library on the ssd on which os x is installed.
move music, playlists and apps.
let the podcast and itunes u be on an external hdd and yet be accessible from itunes, like being referenced.
in the past i did this by moving the entire library to the internal drive and then while itunes was running, move the videos from the library folder to the external drive. it autoMAGICALLY was able to find the videos on the external drive while my music and apps were stored in the internal.
now my library size is so big with all the videos that i cannot do the above steps as i want be able to copy the entire library to the internal ssd.
any help is appreciated.
thanks in addvace.
Neerav

Sometimes we sleep. We have even been known to be away from the keybord to bathe (but usually not for longer than 2 minutes once a week ).
I don't know how you automagically did it last time - your details are lacking. iTunes is normally terrible at following you moving things, especially from drive to drive. You either have to let iTunes do the moving (by consolidating to a new location) or you have to disable iTunes managing your media in which case it will follow moving inside a drive but still not between drives.
Despite the new version, iTunes still does not make it easy to split your library between drives. Probably since you only buy your items from iTunes and are never away from a high speed Internet connection it doesn't matter since you can always stream or download items you need from your Match subscription, right?
Small hard drive? Split your iTunes library across multiple volumes - http://www.macyourself.com/2009/04/24/small-hard-drive-split-your-itunes-library -across-multiple-volumes/ - copying media folders to external, then deleting from internal, then adding again.
Splitting & Managing Your iTunes Library - http://machintsandtips.com/i-j-k/itunes/splitting-managing-your-itunes-library/ - using option+drag to override iTunes from copying file to your default media folder.
Dougscripts: Relocates selected files to a folder of your choice - http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=relocateselected - replaces "Move Files To Folder"
https://discussions.apple.com/message/10160819#10160819 - Change location of media folder to start putting files on second drive. Note later follow-up post about leaving 'organize media' and 'copy to drive' checked.
TuneSpan: (OS X app) A utility that allows you to distribute the media files in your iTunes Library across multiple drives. - http://tunespan.com/ - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tunespan/id528459889?mt=12 - Requirements: OS X 10.6.6 or later, 64-bit processor

How To Turn 1 iTunes Library into 2 / Split movies/tv shows from music?

I am trying to find answer how to split iTunes library. I want to move the music,podcasts (and all meta data) from my iMac to my new Macbook Air, but want to leave the Movies & Tv Shows (and all meta data) on the iMac.
Any suggestions or links to previous posts?

Jorge Costa wrote:
Hello,
I would like to move my huge iTunes library music from external HD 1 to a bigger external HD 2. I would like to make HD 2 as my only reference and after delete any iTunes files on the HD 1. Already chosen the new media location and checked "keep media folder organized".
Then should I Consolidate files or Reorganize under Organize library?
Should I use export library?
Can you please give a clue what steps should I take?
These are questions you should ask before you do anything.
Follow Niel's instructions.

Can I split my itunes music library between and internal and external hard drive?

Is it possible to have music on the two different drives and still be able to make playlists from both drives to put on my ipod? Here's my situation: I'm using a Dell 32 bit computer running Vista Home Premium SP2 which I share with other users. I have a large itunes library (40g+ of music only) that's starting to hog the hard disk space from other users. If possible, I would like to split off part of my itunes library to an external hard drive while still having access to the entire library for my ipod. Ideally I would like to have all my downloaded songs on both the internal and external drives so I'll have backups in case a drive fails, while putting all the music I have hard copies of solely on the external drive. Any help on how this can be done would be appreciated.

If you manually manage your itues library, you can store parts of it on an external drive, or on an internal drive. Just keep in mind that in iTunes that you must set a default location for iTunes to manage it's files, and that will be the default location for iTunes to store anything it downloads. You would need to manuay manage moving things from there if tht is not where you want them stored.
Perhaps a "better" solution would be for you to invest a little mone into 2 external drives. One to hold your entire iTunes library, and the second to be your off-line backup of the first. This is the method I have gone with and I like how it works for me. My entire iTunes library is on an external (portable) 320GB drive. Then, when iTunes is not running, I will clone my external drive onto a second drive I happen to have, this way if I have any failure of my primary drive, I lose at most about a weeks worth of content. For me, I purchase little content during a week, but I do move a fairly large volume of podcasts. With the entire library being on the external drive, if I ever have to swap to using my backup drive iTunes wil just think that it hasn't run and downloaded anything for a week, and all the "lost" content will be re-downloaded automatically. This won't work for apps or purchased content, but for subscribed podcasts, it is great.

Splitting up iTunes library

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for