I have my iTunes library on one external drive, which is too small, I bought a bigger one, but I want to be sure when I transfer my library, that all of the settings and stuff stay the same (i.e. number of plays etc).
—–
zeebe
MacMost Q&A Forum • View All Forum Questions • Ask a Question
How Do I Move My iTunes Library From One External Drive To Another?
Comments: 6 Responses to “How Do I Move My iTunes Library From One External Drive To Another?”
Comments Closed.
All you need to do is to copy the whole library folder from one drive to the other. Make sure iTunes is not running so there are no conflicts.
Then, disconnect the old drive and leave the new one connected.
Start up iTunes while holding down the option key. You can then choose the location of the new library.
Test to see if everything is working OK. If you have moved your entire library folder (not just the media folder) then it should all be there.
Once you have confirmed that everything is good, you can get rid of the one on the other drive, or simply leave it unplugged for a while as a backup before discarding it.
Hmmm, Apple seems to think it is a little more complicated than that. Just found this:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
That article is about moving the iTunes media folder, not the iTunes library. The media folder is just one part of an iTunes library and it can be stored externally to the library, or inside the library folder.
But if you have your media folder inside of the iTunes library folder, then you can move your entire library by just moving the iTunes library folder.
I moved the library to an external drive, but when I open Itunes, it recreates the itunes media on the mac hard drive before it finds the external drive, and starts downloading to the hard drive. Any way to avoid that?
Are you holding down the Option key when starting iTunes? If so, it shouldn't do anything at all until your choose the iTunes library.
I will give it a try! Thanks for your help! You put the Genius bar to shame!!!