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May 16, 2009 8:00 AM PDT

How to move an iTunes library to an external drive

by Donald Bell
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If you're an iTunes user (download for Windows|Mac) whose appetite for music, movies, and podcasts is outstripping the capacity of your computer, it might be a good time to think about offloading that library to an external hard drive or a separate internal drive. If you do it right, the process is relatively simple, although the transfer time could take an hour or more, depending on the size of your media library.

To walk you through it, here's a step-by-step video and slide show tutorial on how to move your iTunes library to an external hard drive.

Move your iTunes library to an external hard drive

Donald Bell is CNET Reviews' senior editor for MP3 players and portable audio, and one half of the MP3 Insider blog and weekly podcast. He also likes getting his hands dirty with digital audio tools for musicians and DJs.
Topics:

Digital music,

How to

Tags:

iTunes,

Apple,

iPod,

Hard Drive,

Storage,

How-To

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by jjayguy23 May 17, 2009 10:50 AM PDT
Thanks guys. I was just thinking of doing this to my iTunes library today. This will also be a good way to add data redundancy so that if your main drives goes down, then you at least don't lose all your music too. Hey, you can't have everything. Keep up the good work guys.
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by jriley1762 May 17, 2009 12:51 PM PDT
I have always had good luck by just dragging my iTunes folder over to a new drive. The trick is to hold down the option key (Mac only) as you open iTunes, then choose the library file located in the iTunes folder. In fact, I keep more than one iTunes library, the music library is stored on the external drive and then I keep an extra one for podcasts stored on my internal drive. I can toggle between them by holding down the option key and choosing the appropriate library file. If I down hold down the option key then iTunes will remember the last library opened. This is also a great way to share that external drive with more than one computer.
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by Rick Cavaretti May 18, 2009 8:07 AM PDT
While this may eventually become an issue with iTunes on my computer (her doing), my wife has seen to it that around 8000 high resolution pictures are cluttering the hard drive by way of iPhoto (why does anyone need that many pictures???). Eventually, these will have to be off-loaded or deleted (my vote). Thanks for the tip.
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by Assais May 18, 2009 11:08 AM PDT
Good article Donald. By the way you look better with the goatee on
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by WebsterUser May 18, 2009 1:51 PM PDT
What about maintaining a *backup* of the sound data? I have a 750+ CD collection all imported into iTunes. I have an external disk. How do I make backups of the music without involving discs?
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by jjayguy23 May 18, 2009 7:48 PM PDT
Hmmm. I'm not exactly sure what you mean. Assuming by "sound" you mean, the music. You could buy another drive so that you can create a copy. This is taking into account the massive space a 750+ CD collection must consume. I see no other way to store such massive data without discs, preferably blu-ray.
by savedR May 19, 2009 5:50 PM PDT
Actually, one good way may be online backup. At 192kbps, 750 CDs is only around 36GB, you might double check. You can get 100gb of automatic, cross-platform online backup with SpiderOak for $10 a month, which is cheaper and better than a removable drive! So like, I'd look for stuff in that vein. I actually use Sugarsync right now for online sync and backup, and you wouldn't believe how convenient it is to only have to download anything once. :)
by n25philly May 19, 2009 11:19 AM PDT
there are still people out there dumb enough to be using itunes?
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by T-10 May 27, 2009 8:23 AM PDT
Rather than just dropping a bald statement, why not share your info? I have tried several so-called alternatives to ITunes, but since I use Apple's MP3 player, I have found that Itunes is the only one that reliably works. I'd sure like to hear about a viable, non-proprietary music program!
by wolverine1333 May 19, 2009 1:16 PM PDT
The problem I have is that my external hard drive is connected to my wireless network and itunes is very slow to connect to the music on the hard drive. Hoping the next itunes picks up the speed on connecting to music on a wireless network.
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by maccolar May 21, 2009 2:42 AM PDT
Nice guide, it works pretty well for me. I also found a step by step guide about how to transfer iTunes library, share it here
http://www.reviewstown.com/how-to-transfer-itunes-library-to-another-computer.html
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by Bluesman2010 May 21, 2009 3:20 AM PDT
I find it's a great idea to have iTunes 'back-upped' and on an external disk. I have another situation though, where I could use any advice that might be offered. Actually it's more of a question - does anyone know if there is a maximum number of 'tunes' that iTunes can handle - on an external (or even) internal. I'm a musician, producer that has had the good fortune over the years of receiving tons of promo cds - now numbering in the 'five figures'. Was iTunes written to be able to handle so many tunes and would it be reasonable to hope to use iTunes with a external hard didk with so many tunes? Or would it potentially take a hour for iTunes to even open? (The last question is meant as a joke, but not telling......Thanks in advance for any info or tips.
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by May 30, 2009 11:05 AM PDT
This is a great video, I always think about doing this. thanks.
is there any way to do this on Aperture, and iPhoto? please make a tutorial on it.
thanks again
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by wrenyen June 22, 2009 8:55 AM PDT
This video is great. I wish I'd seen it earlier. I transferred my music to external hard drive and then found out that my iTunes library is empty. Is there a way to fix this so I can get all my stuff and settings back into my iTunes library? btw, I already tried changing the location in Preferences and Consolidating. I also tried moving my podcast library back over to computer but it doesn't show up in iTunes. Any help?
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by lazysamare November 1, 2009 5:04 AM PST
I also had a similar mishap while trying to transfer the music from my hard drive onto an external drive. I use windows vista and most of my music was in the my music folder in several subfolders(including the itunes folder), so I simply cut and pasted the entire my music folder onto the external drive. I then discovered windows apparently creates a kind of shortcut to the folder in the hard drive where the my music folder would be so I thought everything would be fine and itunes library would be the same as before. But when I opened itunes i found that while the music files that had been in the itunes subfolder were fine, the files that had been in the other subfolders had an exclamation mark next to them and itunes said it couldn't open them because the original file could not be found and would I like to relocate them? This, I discovered, was a helluva lot of work. Could someone please please help me out because I really can't figure out what in the world to do.
by wlangrehr December 19, 2009 7:36 AM PST
Gentlemen, I moved my iTunes to the hard drive about 3 months ago and it has worked well since. However, I cannot do an updates to iTunes because the Bonjour files cannot be found on my C drive. I know the transfer instructions in the video, when followed, do not automatically move Bonjour with the music files (and since, I have found that it apears the iTines 9 will do so). But, I cannot get updated to 9 because the Bonjour file is not working. Any ideas?
Thanks, WL
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by haylen8 December 28, 2009 2:24 AM PST
I did the same, losing my itunes library, then after following the videos instructionns went to library; then to import file; and chose the location i'd just sent it to. worked fine. took a while to get it all back but it's there again.
H
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MP3 Insider is a blog and weekly podcast created by CNET's MP3 technology experts, Donald Bell and Jasmine France. Each week, Jasmine and Donald discuss the latest digital music (and video) news, hardware, software, and media services, and address reader calls and e-mail. Send us e-mail at mp3insider@cnet.com or call us at 1-800-720-CNET (2638) and be a part of the show.

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Donald Bell Donald Bell is an electronic musician, a veteran record store employee, and a fearless hardware hacker. He's also CNET's Senior Editor for MP3 and digital audio.
Jasmine France Jasmine France is CNET's resident digital audio doyenne, writing and editing product reviews, crave blogs, and feature stories on all things MP3. And if you need advice on headphones, she's your girl.

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