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Music and photos on a separate disk

davidgnomo

davidgnomo

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 16, 2012
597
17
Imola (BO) - Italy
What if I wanted to use a separate disk (connected via a USB 3 port) to store all my music, pictures and videos ? How can I tell iTunes, iPhoto and iMovie to get stuff and store it in the external disk ? Tomorrow I'll get my first iMac and I'd like to give it a start the good way ...
 
HardcoreWally

HardcoreWally

macrumors newbie
Dec 5, 2012
11
0
Perth, Western Australia
For iTunes & iPhoto it's easy. In your Home folder, there is the Pictures & Music folders. iPhoto Library is located in the Pictures folder, move this to where ever you want it. Then start up iPhoto while holding down the Option key. iPhoto will ask where you're library is and there will be a button (amongst others) that says choose or locate (I forget which but you get the idea). From there navigate to where you put the iPhoto Library and select it.
iTunes is the same, inside the music folder will be the iTunes folder, move that to where you'd like it. Open iTunes while holding down the Option key again and do the same.
Make sure you have the external disk mounted before opening these apps.
 
davidgnomo

davidgnomo

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 16, 2012
597
17
Imola (BO) - Italy
HardcoreWally said:
For iTunes & iPhoto it's easy. In your Home folder, there is the Pictures & Music folders. iPhoto Library is located in the Pictures folder, move this to where ever you want it. Then start up iPhoto while holding down the Option key. iPhoto will ask where you're library is and there will be a button (amongst others) that says choose or locate (I forget which but you get the idea). From there navigate to where you put the iPhoto Library and select it.
iTunes is the same, inside the music folder will be the iTunes folder, move that to where you'd like it. Open iTunes while holding down the Option key again and do the same.
Make sure you have the external disk mounted before opening these apps.
Click to expand...

Well, what can I tell you : thanks a lot for the explanation, seems almost a bit complicated but I imagine it's more difficult to explain than to just do it ... now I only need the iMac to arrive to my place !!! I.e. : just 3 or 4 hours more to wait !!!
 
F

flynz4

macrumors 68040
Aug 9, 2009
3,242
126
Portland, OR
For iTunes... you can also just relocate your "iTunes Media" folder... while keeping the rest of iTunes (i.e.: the database) on your primary drive. This might be useful if you have an SSD system and want to keep the database on the SSD.

/Jim
 
davidgnomo

davidgnomo

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 16, 2012
597
17
Imola (BO) - Italy
flynz4 said:
For iTunes... you can also just relocate your "iTunes Media" folder... while keeping the rest of iTunes (i.e.: the database) on your primary drive. This might be useful if you have an SSD system and want to keep the database on the SSD.

/Jim
Click to expand...

It's gonna be a 1 TB Fusion Drive : do I relocate or not ?
 
HardcoreWally

HardcoreWally

macrumors newbie
Dec 5, 2012
11
0
Perth, Western Australia
davidgnomo said:
It's gonna be a 1 TB Fusion Drive : do I relocate or not ?
Click to expand...

Depends how big your iTunes library is & how much other stuff will be on your 1TB. 1TB can be a lot for some users.
You can set it up on the 1TB and move it later, when iTunes is closed no probs. Just do the Option key on starting up iTunes after the move and point it to the place you've moved.

Does sound complicated and a bit hard to explain properly but very easy, especially once you've done it or seen someone else do it in front of you.
 
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