Does anyone know how to move itunes music library from your computers hard drive to an external hard drive?

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Here's how to do it First off, there's an official way of doing it here:docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=... for your purposes, the steps below should work better:Change your settings. First, in iTunes' Preferences panel, in the Advanced section, make sure "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library" is checked, as well as "Keep iTunes Music folder organized. " Then, in the "iTunes Music folder location" area, click on the Change... button, and enter the folder on your external drive you want to move your library to.

Nt: Store your music in a subdirectory of the destination. Like, if your new spot is D:\iTunes\Gina\, set your music folder to D:\iTunes\Gina\Library\. Move your music.

Now that you've set the music location to the destination folder, it's time to relocate the actual media files. ITunes can do it for you. From the Advanced menu in iTunes, choose "Consolidate Library."

You'll get a prompt that looks like this:Consolidating your library will copy all of your music into the iTunes Music FolderThat is exactly what you want, so hit the Consolidate button. Depending on how large your library is, this process may take some time to complete. Move the internal iTunes files.

Now that your music is moved to the new location, you're almost there. While the actual media files themselves are now in the destination, a few other internal iTunes database files and album artwork images have been left behind. This move you must make manually.So, quit iTunes, and browse to your original library location.

Select the "Album Artwork" folder, as well as the iTunes Library. Itl and iTunes Library. Xml files and copy them to the clipboard.

Browse to your new library location and drop 'em in. Nt: here's where that music sub-directory you created comes in handy. If your music lives in D:\iTunes\Gina\Library\, drop these files and folder into D:\iTunes\Gina\.

Point iTunes to the new library database file. Now you've got two copies of your library, one in the source (internal drive) and one in the destination (external drive). To point iTunes to the new location, hold down the Shift key (Option on the Mac) when you launch iTunes.

When it asks what library to use, click the "Choose Library..." button and browse to the iTunes Library. Itl file on the external drive. From there, iTunes will use the new library location and you can delete your old library folder and free up all that space on your hard drive it hogged up.

Bonus: It's portable! Using this method, you can plug in your external hard drive to another computer (PC if you've got iTunes on Windows, or another Mac if on the Mac) and as long as it gets assigned the same drive letter, you can access your full library, with play counts, playlists and other metadata intact from anywhere. I hope that helps!

Sources: http://lifehacker.com/software/itunes/ultranewb--how-to-move-your-itunes-library-to-an-external-drive-238296.php .

ITunes 7 or higher makes this painless, by incorporating the necessary commands in the GUI. ITunes 7 or higher makes this painless, by incorporating the necessary commands in the GUI. Now that you've been going to town adding music and movies to your iTunes library, your hard drive's pretty crowded - and all those space-hogging media files might have a better home on that empty external hard drive you've got set up.

ITunes has a (deservedly) bad reputation for taking total control of your music and videos, including where they live on your computer. It wasn't always easy to move your library in past versions of the software, but happily iTunes 7 makes relocating an existing media library pretty painless - that is, with a little know-how. Here's how to get it done.

WARNING! Before you do this, back up your iTunes library files. This method isn't the official one published by Apple - theirs still keeps iTunes' internal database files in the default location - so make sure you've got a full backup before you begin in order to avert possible iTunes disaster.

Thank you. Change your settings. First, in iTunes' Preferences panel, in the Advanced section, make sure "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library" is checked, as well as "Keep iTunes Music folder organized."

Then, in the "iTunes Music folder location" area, click on the Change... button, and enter the folder on your external drive you want to move your library to. Nt: Store your music in a subdirectory of the destination. Like, if your new spot is D:\iTunes\Gina\, set your music folder to D:\iTunes\Gina\Library\.

Move your music. Now that you've set the music location to the destination folder, it's time to relocate the actual media files. ITunes can do it for you.

From the Advanced menu in iTunes, choose "Consolidate Library. " You'll get a prompt that says:Consolidating your library will copy all of your music into the iTunes Music folder. This cannot be undone.

Cancel/ConsolidateThat is exactly what you want, so hit the Consolidate button. Depending on how large your library is, this process may take some time to complete. Move the internal iTunes files.

Now that your music is moved to the new location, you're almost there. While the actual media files themselves are now in the destination, a few other internal iTunes database files and album artwork images have been left behind. This move you must make manually.So, quit iTunes, and browse to your original library location.

Select the "Album Artwork" folder, as well as the iTunes Library. Itl and iTunes Library. Xml files and copy them to the clipboard.

Browse to your new library location and drop 'em in. Nt: here's where that music sub-directory you created comes in handy. If your music lives in D:\iTunes\Gina\Library\, drop these files and folder into D:\iTunes\Gina\.

Point iTunes to the new library database file. Now you've got two copies of your library, one in the source (internal drive) and one in the destination (external drive). To point iTunes to the new location, hold down the Shift key (Option on the Mac) when you launch iTunes.

When it asks what library to use, click the "Choose Library..." button and browse to the iTunes Library. Itl file on the external drive. From there, iTunes will use the new library location and you can delete your old library folder and free up all that space on your hard drive it hogged up.

Bonus: It's portable! Using this method, you can plug in your external hard drive to another computer (PC if you've got iTunes on Windows, or another Mac if on the Mac) and as long as it gets assigned the same drive letter, you can access your full library, with play counts, playlists and other metadata intact from anywhere. Booyah!

Sources: http://lifehacker.com/software/itunes/ultranewb--how-to-move-your-itunes-library-to-an-external-drive-238296.php .

Here's how to move your library The SetupThis isn't very difficult, but for those who aren't familiar with looking under iTunes' hood, I figured I'd lay this out and start from square one to make sure everyone can play along. The one initial catch with running your iTunes library from an external drive is that you'll need a FireWire or USB2 drive for best performance; I have no idea how well this setup would perform on older machines with USB1, or if it would even work at all. Now, if you're like most iTunes users, your library of music and movies (and now games) is stored locally on your Mac in ~/Music/iTunes/ (where ~ is your Home folder).

With the latest iTunes 7 update, there are now (typically) two folders and two files in here (pictured above):Album Artwork folder (new with iTunes 7; missing from iTunes 6 and previous versions) iTunes Library (a database file iTunes needs) iTunes Music folder (this is where all your actual media like songs, podcasts, movies, and games live) iTunes Music Library (an XML library file iTunes also needs) Now I'm sure that, as with many tricks like this, there are a number of ways to accomplish the task. I'm simply going to lay out the easiest and most hassle-free method I know of, as it worked mighty fine for me, and there are really only two steps: if iTunes is running, quit it The only part of your iTunes folder you actually should move to the external hard drive is the iTunes Music folder (the one that holds all your media) itself; leave the Album Arwork folder, as well as the iTunes Library and iTunes Music Library files in place, locally on your Mac. Of course, if you want to back up your iTunes library for safe keeping (which I highly recommend, and again: Scott's iTunes 7 backup walkthrough is a great way to do it), including all your metadata, song ratings, song comments, etc., you should back up these local files in addition to your media That's it - you've moved your library - you just need to let iTunes know where you moved all its stuff.

The ConfigurationFortunately, telling iTunes where its library now lives is a one-step process. Go into iTunes' Preferences > Advanced pane, and click on the General tab.At the top of this tab is a record of where your library - your actual media - resides and, as you might guess, you can click the 'Change...' button to tell iTunes it's hopped the pond to external hard drive pastures. You simply need to browse through the Finder dialog and select your media library, wherever you put it, and click OK.

That's it - iTunes writes the necessary changes to those aforementioned local database and XML library files, and you don't have to do any more heavy lifting.As long as your drive is still mounted and running, you can start playing your media just like before. Unfortunately though, now that you're enjoying external iTunes library bliss, it's time to burst your bubble with a few gotchas to look out for. It's certainly possible to keep on trucking with this kind of setup (otherwise this would be a pretty useless post), but there are definitely some constraints to consider when going down this road.

The GotchasThe most significant catch is, of course, the fact that if you ever disconnect your drive - perhaps you're a mobile notebook user like myself - you obviously can't play any of your media in iTunes. Unless you own an iPod and enable the setting to manage its music yourself, you're pretty much out of luck here. As you might expect, this also means that managing an iPod with this setup can get quirky too.

If you sync your iPod with iTunes, and you connect it while your library is unplugged, iTunes will freak out and, after a few moments, warn you that it can't update your iPod because none of your media is present. However: this doesn't remove any music from your iPod, and your iTunes media will be playable once you connect your drive again. A lot of those 'file not found' exclamation points will appear next to your songs in the iTunes media list after a scenario like this, but don't panic: once you reconnect your drive (and/or restart iTunes; that one's up to you), all your media will play and sync just fine again.

I've tested this with both a 5G iPod and a nano. If you want to be able to plug in your iPod and exchange files and folders without iTunes automatically starting (and potentially bringing up the aforementioned quirks), uncheck the 'start iTunes automatically when this iPod is connected' option. This way iTunes only starts when you're good and ready to interact with your media and/or your iPod.

These might not be easy habits to develop if you're used to iTunes running the show for you, but they're most likely necessary if you've read this far into the post and you're still interested in living the external library lifestyle. But what happens if I import media, download podcasts or buy something from the iTunes Store? This is one of the many areas where I must tip my hat to Apple's engineers, for they really knocked one out of the park when it comes to this situation.

Ever wonder what the Advanced > Consolidate Library menu option does? Well, it was made for just such a setup as your new external iTunes library. If your drive isn't connected when you start iTunes and, for example, import a CD or download a subscribed podcast, iTunes needs to put it somewhere, and it defaults to placing that media in your local ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/ folder."But TUAW, this is going to turn my library into a mess!

" you exclaim from atop your desk chair. Fear not, intrepid reader, for the Advanced > Consolidate Library command is to the rescue! This ingenious command tells iTunes to copy any media it's imported to the local default media folder over to your recently customized external folder - once it's reconnected, of course.

This is beautiful, because it's a two-click process to move all that new media over with the rest of your library and organize it properly, defusing a potentially complicated library mess. However, a fortunate perk of iTunes' ability to have a split library personality is its ability to update an iPod with a new podcast or recently imported album while you're out 'n about, sans-external library drive. This has the potential to get confusing though, so for the sake of your organizational sanity, I hope you don't need your new podcast episode fix too often while you're on the go.

Finally, as far as reuniting your libraries is concerned, it seems that iTunes copies your new media files over to the drive when consolidating, instead of moving them. Every so often after you run this option, it might be a good idea to dig into your local iTunes Music folder and trash all those files, as they're just dead weight after a consolidation.Be one with your external iTunes Library, young PadawanThis should be just about everything you need to cut the chord on your iTunes library if you're looking to save space on your Mac, or if you're simply a nut for using external hard drives. I've been poking around at this setup for about a month now, and I've been pretty happy with it.

Aside from the catches I mentioned to watch out for, I was able to save almost 35GB of space on my MacBook Pro and make way for other projects, with room to spare.As always with feature posts like this, I'll try to answer any questions you may have in the comments. Enjoy! Sources: http://www.tuaw.com/2006/09/19/how-to-keep-your-itunes-library-on-an-external-hard-drive/ .

Then all you need to do is click and drag the iTunes folder with Windows Explorer from your C drive to whatever the drive letter is of your external drive.

2 Thanks... that sounds easy enough... I'll give er a try! .

Thanks... that sounds easy enough... I'll give er a try!

" "If I change my itunes library to an external drive, will it duplicate or move existing tracks to said drive?" "I want to move some itunes files (videos) to an external hard drive, when I do, the paths to the files are lost. Help? " "How do you save itunes to an external hard drive?" "how do you put itunes on external hard drive?

" "how large of a flash drive do I need to buy in order to transfer my itunes music library to my new computer" "How can I save my iTunes library to my external HD? " "how do I transfer my itunes files to maxtor external hard drive?" "Once I have saved my itunes library to a thumb drive, what do I do next to ensure my music is saved for my new computer?

I want to move some itunes files (videos) to an external hard drive, when I do, the paths to the files are lost. Help?

How large of a flash drive do I need to buy in order to transfer my itunes music library to my new computer.

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