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How can I keep my itunes music on an external hard drive?

K

kkamin

macrumors member
Original poster
My friend is a musician and has a large music library. He is running out of space on his laptop's HD and would like to transfer everything to an external HD. What is the easiest way to accomplish this?

Thank you!
-K
 
Copy your iTunes folder (Music->iTunes) onto the external
Then open up iTunes, go to iTunes->Preferences->Advanced, under iTunes Music folder location, change to appropriate spot
 
They can drag the iTunes folder to the external and then set the new location in Preferences>Advanced>iTunes Music Folder Location 🙂
 
thegoldenmackid said:
Copy your iTunes folder (Music->iTunes) onto the external
Then open up iTunes, go to iTunes->Preferences->Advanced, under iTunes Music folder location, change to appropriate spot
Click to expand...

Thanks! So can I copy it over, then delete the "Music" folder from the laptop HD, THEN go to preference->Advanced to set it up again? Will deleting the entire "Music" folder from the laptop HD be okay with itunes?
 
kkamin said:
Thanks! So can I copy it over, then delete the "Music" folder from the laptop HD, THEN go to preference->Advanced to set it up again? Will deleting the entire "Music" folder from the laptop HD be okay with itunes?
Click to expand...

Obviously close iTunes when doing all this moving. You can delete after you follow my steps, just to make sure.
 
thegoldenmackid said:
Obviously close iTunes when doing all this moving. You can delete after you follow my steps, just to make sure.
Click to expand...

Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions. While itunes was closed the folder was moved to the external HD and I deleted the original folder. In the "Advanced" option, I changed the itunes folder location to the external drive, but after I did that, the library isn't being filled with the music. Any ideas?
 
kkamin said:
Thanks for taking the time to answer these questions. While itunes was closed the folder was moved to the external HD and I deleted the original folder. In the "Advanced" option, I changed the itunes folder location to the external drive, but after I did that, the library isn't being filled with the music. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Try closing and reopening...
 
usually i would say you move the folder to your favourite destination, and then start itunes by holding "alt"-key
itunes asks you which library you wann open, or if you want to create a new one.
In your case just fire up itunes with alt-key and select the new location of the lib.
 
Also moving the iTunes folder only works if you lets iTunes manage your music, buy off the iTunes music store, and/or you have consolidated your library (forced iTunes to copy all the music into the same location).
 
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