My boot disk is almost full and I want to transplant my 17gb iTunes Library to another disk to make room on the boot disk (I can't do anything any more - iDVD alone needs 4gb free just to make a disc, and there seems to be no changing scratch disks with iDVD). Can I just move the folder and point iTunes to it? Or will that cause me problems and make me lose my playlists and everything? What the best way to do this without resorting to redoing everything?
Go to iTunes > Preferences and click the Advanced tab. Click the Change button, navigate to your Library's new location, and click the Choose button. I don't think you'll have problems. That's the recommended procedure according to MacAddict.
Might not be that easy. I have most of my library located in an external FW drive. Doing the above didn't work at first. What you should do is first create a new iTunes Library folder in another location and leave it empty. In iTunes prefs, select the new location as Hubert mentioned above. Then, click on Advanced > Consolidate Library. that should move all the music into the new location. Let us know if it works. Good luck.
Thanks o great guru. I knew that if anyone would know the answer to this it would be you. I'll give it a try. I'm just afraid for my playlists - I lost them last month and had to recreate them (still not the same) and don't feel like doing that again soon. I'll give it a shot tonight. Thanks. [Edited on 3-20-2005 by Adel]
oo nga, pls let us know if it works... i've been thinking about moving my library na rin to an external drive for quite sometime now, just didn't (don't) have the guts to do it (yet)
Grasshopper, save the files iTunes 4 Music Library and iTunes Music Library.xml, and you will be secure from any mistakes you may commit. There's no undo in this path...
sorry if this may seem to be a stupid question, but where to you save these 2 files? (in your current hard drive? or to the external drive you want to transfer the files to? or it doesen't matter) before you move "consolidate it" to the external harde drive? kasi if i save it in my current HD, won't it eat up double the space?
Sorry, I meant, back them up. In case you make a mistake and lose all your playlists, these are the files that will bring them back.
I just did what Elbert advised and was able to transfer my entire iTunes library from my PowerBook and iBook to an external G-Raid hard drive without a hitch. The transfer (consolidation) was flawless, and in the process, I was able to free up some 30 GB space. Also, I tried adding music, and the freshly added albums ended up in the G-Raid external drive. This is a great tip!
http://www.apple.com.au/support/ipod/tutorial/t10b.html The beauty of this setup is that if you have a multiple users in 1 mac, they can share the same library without worrying much on "ownership & permission" issue. Luc
congrats adel! 1 last question, before i turn to the dark side.... if i move my library to an external drive (firewire 400), wouldn't i be able to sync it with my ipod, since my ipod only connects via the firewire (400) AND MY PB ONLY HAS ONE FW 400 PORT?; therefore, i SHOULD, only transfer my library to an external hard drive that connects via FW 800? or would USB 2.0 be no problem? (again sorry if this is a stupid question) i just want feedbacks from people who have this kind of set-up, how do you manage, syncing and library (itunes) management thanks for the inputs guys!arty:
I use a Cutie FW enclosure which has two FW ports. I just plug the iPod into the second port. If your external FW drive has only one port, you could just plug the iPod into your computer's USB port. Conversely, you could plug the HD into a USB port and the iPod into the FW. Dark side? I don't see how doing this would make you turn to the dark side. [Edited on 9-5-2005 by elbertc]
thanks! i thought about that, just wanted to know how other people tackle this "issue" regarding "the dark side" comment, i'm just playing, (excited too, about the upcoming SW III movie) too bad that's the last one again, thanks elbert, baka lang some people encountered problems with options you suggested ( or use), can't be to careful with our preciouse music, hope you understand (btw, i heard you are a BIG pat meth fan! same here)
Help! Moving iTunes Folder Hey Guys! I just bought myself a new external USB hard drive to hold all of my iTunes songs. I already searched Philmug for a solution but I could not find one. Anyway I dragged my iTunes music folder to my external hard drive then I redirected iTunes to point to the external hard drive as the new iTunes folder. However, when I restarted iTunes, my playlists were all there but when I click on the songs it says that iTunes cannot find the song file. What else must I do? I need to get rid of my files in my hard drive because i only have 1GB left. Hope you guys can help!
you have to select-all then delete all the songs in your iTunes. then, goto File add to library. iTunes will update info for each songs. takes time though about 15-25minutes for about 4k songs in my case. [Edited on 9-5-2005 by jha]
the proper way to move it would be to go to itunes>preferences>advanced>change your itunes music folder location; and then go to advanced>consolidate library. this would copy all your tunes from your current folder to your new folder. you can then delete the songs in your old itunes music folder. be careful not to delete the itunes library file. i seem to recall there was a thread about this here. you can do another search, or you can go to ilounge. [edit: oops, elbert already posted the link while i was composing my reply.] [Edited on 9-5-2005 by quicksilver]
