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Move (not copy) iTunes to Google Drive folder

C

carl201167

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 31, 2005
135
1
London, UK
I have a reasonably large (120GB) iTunes library on an iMac with only 35GB free space. I've recently bought the 1TB Google Drive option, so would like to move my music library there. i.e. it's still on my mac, but also sync'd to the cloud.

All the options for moving iTunes seem to involve copying the music folder during a consolidate step. I 'just' want to drag the folder from one part of my mac to another and then tell iTunes it needs to look there from now on.

Sounds easy enough but is it? I don't want to lose all my playlists etc. if I can avoid it
 
Thanks, but that's still about *copying* files rather than moving them - and is also about an external HDD

I do not have enough space to temporarily have two copies and the whole move is to another folder on the same disk
 
I use the excellent Tunespan app to span all of my iTunes music to an external HD. However, you should also be able to choose your Google Drive folder as a span location. The content would not be copied, but rather spanned to the new location seamlessly. iTunes will continue to function normally and you will also have the content in the cloud.
 
carl201167 said:
Thanks, but that's still about *copying* files rather than moving them - and is also about an external HDD.
Click to expand...

Substitute your Google Drive for the external hard drive, and delete the originals after you've copied them. Problem solved.
 
Hmmm.... it's got to be easier than buying third party software.

All I'm looking to do is move my music from folder A to folder B on the same mac. Is it genuinely difficult to do this :confused:

----------

@chabig the problem is I don't have enough space to temporarily copy them, that's why I need to move them
 
carl201167 said:
Hmmm.... it's got to be easier than buying third party software.
Click to expand...

You don't need Tunespan to accomplish what you want to do, but its advantage is it would make the job a whole lot easier and totally seamless. I was only suggesting it as an alternative. :)

There are some things that Tunespan can do that one can't do on their own, like span to multiple different locations simultaneously. I think the dev is pricing it too high at $14.99 though. I bought it last June for $2 in a Two Dollar Tuesday promotion. It's a great app though.
 
carl201167 said:
[/COLOR]@chabig the problem is I don't have enough space to temporarily copy them, that's why I need to move them
Click to expand...

Oh I see. Just drag the files over like Jessica Lares said. It'll just move the files without requiring any additional space.
 
Thanks. That appears to have worked. Now let's see how happy Google Drive is at syncing 100GB+ of files in one go... :eek:
 
Thanks for asking. At first it kept crashing every 20 files or so, but I found a tip to uncheck the box about "show file sync status" and that worked a treat. A day or so later I've got all my music happily on google drive
 
Have you tried using this to load your library on another computer? I'm tempted to give this a shot. If you haven't used it on another computer, how has it worked on a single computer and having everything backed up/available in the cloud?
 
carl201167 said:
Thanks for asking. At first it kept crashing every 20 files or so, but I found a tip to uncheck the box about "show file sync status" and that worked a treat. A day or so later I've got all my music happily on google drive
Click to expand...

Let us know if you have any problems with the iTunes database files being synced with Google Drive.
 
Not tried having Google Drive sync the music with another computer - I mainly want it for backup.

All seems fine for me - it's just a regular folder as far as iTunes is concerned
 
Just checking in on this. I want to copy my iTunes library to Google Drive as well.

Was the use of the iTunes library on other computers successful? Were there issues with the database files?
 
bwals said:
Just checking in on this. I want to copy my iTunes library to Google Drive as well.

Was the use of the iTunes library on other computers successful? Were there issues with the database files?
Click to expand...

I do this with my home and work computers, and there are issues with the database files. You have to be careful to only have one copy of iTunes open at a time. Otherwise you get duplicate library files. This means that if you add a song to one computer, the other may not see it, and overwrite the library files, which makes the initial computer not see the music you already added as well. It takes a bit of regular "cleaning up" to work.

I'd rather use something else, but Google Drive is the only storage service that isn't blocked at work.
 
tobefirst said:
I do this with my home and work computers, and there are issues with the database files. You have to be careful to only have one copy of iTunes open at a time. Otherwise you get duplicate library files. This means that if you add a song to one computer, the other may not see it, and overwrite the library files, which makes the initial computer not see the music you already added as well. It takes a bit of regular "cleaning up" to work.

I'd rather use something else, but Google Drive is the only storage service that isn't blocked at work.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up. I will have to play around with syncing involving the database files and see how this process works.

Do you have any other cloud recommendations besides, Google Drive, that may support iTunes file syncing at work and at home?
 
What I have done is move not the entire iTunes folder but just the iTunes Music which resides inside that folder to my Google Drive. And then I created an alias of it at the original position. Music is playing just fine, all my music is now located on the cloud too.
Next step: I am currently downloading the iTunes Music folder to another mac's Google Drive folder. And then I am going to make an alias of it inside the other Mac's iTunes folder and see if it works. Fingers crossed.
 
Annivas, did this ever work for you (accessing it from two computers)?

annivas said:
What I have done is move not the entire iTunes folder but just the iTunes Music which resides inside that folder to my Google Drive. And then I created an alias of it at the original position. Music is playing just fine, all my music is now located on the cloud too.
Next step: I am currently downloading the iTunes Music folder to another mac's Google Drive folder. And then I am going to make an alias of it inside the other Mac's iTunes folder and see if it works. Fingers crossed.
Click to expand...
 
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