Hi Bill, Nick, and Others, To move your iTunes library contents to another hard drive, the best way of handling this is by using the "Organize library…" option under the "Library" submenu in the "File" menu on the iTunes menu bar. This step is taken after you designate the new location for your iTunes library using the Advanced pane of iTunes preferences, as Nic outlined.
The most complete discussion of this process, including all the most common wrong ways that people use to do this, is given in the iLounge tutorial guide on "Transferring your iTunes Library" from November 2011. It also explains the differences between dealing with the database files and the data content in iTunes: <http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/mobile/articles/moving-your-itunes- library-to-a-new-hard-drive/> In case that long link breaks, here's a shortened link to the same page: <http://bit.ly/yhmVQk> This question was recently asked on the mac-access list, and I've excerpted this information from my reply in the Mail Archive post for that list, linked below: • Re: iTunes Media Folder (September 12, 2012) http://www.mail-archive.com/mac-access%40mac-access.net/msg12950.html That post links to an earlier post to the mac-access list that goes into considerably more detail explaining the sections of the article that apply specifically to moving an existing library to an external hard drive: • Moving iTunes library to an external drive [was Re: Itunes question] (February 6, 2012) http://www.mail-archive.com/mac-access%40mac-access.net/msg07714.html HTH. I tried looking for a similar post in the macvisionaries archives, but I couldn't find any explanations that were as complete or up to date. However, in general you can find tutorials on various subjects relating to iTunes at the iLounge site: http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/tutorials/ When you read the individual links, remember to use Safari reader (Command-Shift-R) after activating the link for each article. Cheers, Esther On Sep 16, 12:53 pm, Nicholas Parsons <[email protected]> wrote: > I'm not entirely sure, but you could try the following: > > 1. Delete your entire current library of music and movies, but do not send > the files to the trash. > > 2. In preferences, in the advanced pane, select the new location you'd like > to use for your iTunes Media library (e.g. an external disc). > > 3. Either > (a) Copy the Music and Movies folders from your iTunes Media Library folder > to the Automatically Add to iTunes folder in the new iTunes Media folder on > your external HD; > or > (b) Ensure the "copy music files to iTunes Media folder when adding to > library" option in the advanced pane of iTunes preferences is checked, and > then go to file > add to library, and add your old Music and Movies folders > to your iTunes library. > > 4. Once you've re-added all your music and movies to iTunes by one of the > methods in point 3 you could delete the Music and Movies folders from your > old iTunes Media folder and then empty trash to free up space. > > You should probably create a back up duplicate of your Mac before trying this > in case it works out badly. > > All the best and hope some of this helped. > > Nic -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
