Oct 29, 2010 This video will show you how to migrate your iTunes library from a Mac to a PC. Your playlists, ratings, and play count will remain in tact. For this video I used: -A MacBook running OSX 10.6.4. Jan 04, 2020 How to Move Your iTunes Library. You can move your iTunes library to a different folder, computer, or drive. Here's how to do it, even in macOS Catalina, which ditches iTunes for the Music app.
After decades of digital music, it's not unlikely if you've amassed quite the collection of music on your computer's hard drive. If your iTunes library is taking up too much space, you can move it off of your local drive and onto an external hard drive without breaking your music collection.
You can also transfer your entire iTunes library from one computer to another if you are migrating to a new Mac.
Before you start: Back up your Mac
Before making major changes to your computer, it's always a good idea to back up your data: The best way to back up your Mac is with a Time Machine routine in place, but you can choose an alternate backup option that's right for you.
What you will need
You will, of course, need the computer your iTunes library is currently on. You will also need the following:
- An external hard drive (and power source, if applicable)
- A USB cable to connect the hard drive to your original Mac
- A power source for your original Mac
- If you're moving to a new computer, your new Mac (and its power cable)
Step 1: Consolidate your library
Over time, it's easy for your music, movies, apps, and other iTunes content to end up stored in various places throughout your computer's hard drive. To ensure that you copy everything from iTunes over to an external hard drive, you should first consolidate your library. Even if you think your library has all your information consolidated already, it can't hurt to do a manual check before moving any data.
- Launch iTunes on your Mac.
- Click File in the upper left corner of your Mac's screen.
- Hover your cursor over Library in the dropdown menu.
- Select Organize Library from the secondary menu.
- Tick the box for Consolidate Files in the window that appears.
- Click OK.
This process makes a copy of all files in the iTunes media folder, and leaves the original files in their current location.
Step 2: Move your iTunes Library to an external hard drive
- Quit iTunes.
- Connect your external hard drive to your computer using a USB cable.
- Click on Finder to open a Finder window.
- Select your Mac's hard drive.
- Click on the Music folder.
- Select iTunes and drag it to the external hard drive.
- Click Authenticate when prompted to give permission to move the iTunes folder.
- Enter your administrator password.
- Click OK.
This process could take upwards of an hour or two, depending on how much data stored in your iTunes library.
Step 3: Redirect iTunes to the new location
Once you've transferred a copy of your iTunes library onto an external hard drive, you will need to set a new path for the iTunes app by redirecting it to search the external hard drive for content, rather than your local drive.
- Launch iTunes and hold down the Option Keyat the same time.
- Click on Choose Library when the window appears.
- Select your external hard drive under Devices in the Finder sidebar.
- Click on iTunes.
- Click Open.
Note: Until you delete the iTunes file on your local hard drive, you can switch which libraries iTunes uses by launching the app and holding down the Option key at the same time.
Step 4: Make sure it worked
If you performed the first three steps correctly, when you open iTunes, it should look the same as it did before. You can double-check to make sure the migration worked by checking the info of any content.
- Launch iTunes.
- Select a song, podcast, movie, app, or other content.
- Right-click or Control-click on the song.
- Select Get info from the drop down menu.
- Click on the File tab in the info window.
- Look under Location to ensure that the content is now being stored under /Volumes/external hard drive name/.. instead of Users/local hard drive name/..
Step 5: Delete the old iTunes library
Once you have transferred a copy of your iTunes library onto an external hard drive and redirected iTunes to the new location, you can delete the iTunes folder on your local hard drive, freeing up space on your Mac.
Note: If you are making a copy to transfer to a new computer, you don't need to perform step 5 unless you want to remove your iTunes library from the old computer.
- Quit iTunes.
- Click on Finder to open a Finder window.
- Select your Mac's hard drive.
- Click on the Music folder.
- Select iTunes and drag it to the trash.
Make sure your external hard drive is connected to your Mac when you launch iTunes from now on. Otherwise, iTunes won't be able to find the files. If that happens, quit iTunes, connect your external hard drive to your computer, and reopen iTunes.
Step 6 [optional]: Move your iTunes library to a new Mac
Once you have your iTunes library on an external hard drive, you can relocate it to a new Mac.
- Quit iTunes on your new Mac.
- Connect your external hard drive to your new Mac using a USB cable.
- Open the external hard drive once it appears on your new Mac's screen.
- Click on Finder on your new Mac to open a Finder window.
- Select your new Mac's hard drive.
- Click on the Music folder.
- Drag the iTunes folder from your external hard drive into the Music folder on your new Mac.
- Launch iTunes and hold down the Option Keyat the same time.
- Click on Choose Library when the window appears.
- Select your local hard drive under Devices in the Finder sidebar.
- Click on the Music folder.
- Click on iTunes.
- Click Open.
Any questions?
Do you have any questions or issues with moving your iTunes library onto an external hard drive or onto a new Mac? Let us know in the comments and we'll help you out.
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FonePaw - Solution - Transfer - Move iTunes Library to External Hard Drive
Updated on Thursday, June 27, 2019.
If you have hundreds upon hundreds of songs in your iTunes library, plus videos, podcasts, movies, and TV shows you've downloaded to iTunes, you can run out of the storage space on your computer. To regain some room to breath, you may decide to move (or just back up) iTunes library to an external hard drive. But how can you do that?
There are two different intentions for people who ask to move iTunes Library to external drive. Some of them want to move the intact iTunes Library to external drive in order to free up space on computer or make a backup, while others just want to move some iTunes media files (music and movies for example) to an external hard drive so that they can connect the drive to another computer to enjoy the songs or movies.
Whatever your intention is, you can find the suitable way on this article.
Don't Miss:How to Transfer iTunes Library to New Computer
How to Move/Backup whole iTunes Library to External Drive
Step 1. Connect the external storage device to your PC or Mac.
Connect the external drive to your PC and give it time to load up before it shows up on your computer.
Step 2. Find iTunes Library Folder
To locate the iTunes folder on your Mac, choose Go > Home > Music > iTunes in the Finder menu.
To locate the iTunes folder on Windows, go here:
https://addictnew887.weebly.com/blog/how-to-transfer-itunes-library-from-windows-pc-to-mac. • Windows XP: Documents and SettingsusernameMy DocumentsMy Music
Export Itunes Library To New Pc
• Windows Vista: UsersusernameMy Music
• Windows 10/8/7: UsersusernameMusic
Step 3. Go to iTunes Advanced Settings
Open iTunes > Preferences (Mac) or Edit > Preferences (Windows). https://addictnew887.weebly.com/itunes-library-mac-new-library.html. Then, select the 'Advanced' tab in the iTunes Preferences window. Next, check the 'Keep iTunes Media folder organized' and 'Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library' boxes. Then, click 'OK' and close the Preferences window.
Step 4. Consolidate your iTunes Library
You're recommended to consolidate your library before moving the iTunes folder to external storage because consolidation ensures everything in your library is stored in one place.
To consolidate your media:
1.Open iTunes and choose File > Library > Organize Library in the menus
2.Select 'Consolidate files.'
Step 5. Move/Backup iTunes Library to External Hard Drive
1.Quit iTunes and open the iTunes Folder on your computer.
How to navigate to library on mac on terminal. 2.Drag the iTunes folder from your computer (Mac or Windows) and drop it on the external drive. All files in iTunes Folder will be copied to the external drive. The process could take a while depending on how large your collection is.
3.Now that your collection is safely stored in the external hard drive (or another location that you chose), you can delete (some of) the files at the old location to free up some space in your hard drive.
Importing Itunes Library To New Macbook
Note:
An important thing to note here is that you’ll need to connect the external media every time you open iTunes for if not, the media files aren't going to show up. If you open iTunes without your external hard drive connected, iTunes will give you an error message saying the 'Library cannot be found.' Quit iTunes, connect the external hard drive and reopen iTunes to fix.
Tips: How to Move iTunes Music/Movies to External Hard Drive for Playback
To selectively move music, playlists, movies, ringtones, and more from the iTunes Library to an external hard drive, we need the tool called FonePaw iOS Transfer. As an iOS file manager, this tool can easily export all media files, including songs, movies, TV shows, ringtones, podcasts, etc. from the iTunes Library on PC and Mac to an external hard drive. Conversely, it can restore iTunes library by transferring music, movies, playlists and more from iPhone to iTunes.
Let's see how to move the media files from iTunes library to external drive. Please download the program on your computer first.
DownloadDownload
Step 1. Connect your iOS Device and External Hard Drive to PC
After running the program on your computer, connect your iPhone/iPad/iPod and the external drive to the computer.
Step 2. Transfer iTunes Library to External Drive
When your device is detected, you have two steps to copy iTunes music to the external HD.
Step 1: Click 'iTunes Library' in the bottom of the program. The program will load Music, Movies, Music Videos, Ringtones, Voice Memos, etc. on your device. Sync all these files to your device. When it finished, you can move the items from device to PC.
Step 2: If you want to move specific music or movie to external drive, you can click certain category, like 'Music' or 'Videos' in left panel. Here, you can see Music, Movie, Ringtones, TV Shows, Podcast and more. No matter which item you want to move to the flash drive and play it on any computer, just choose the item and click 'Export to PC' and select the external HD as the destination folder.
Have this article helped you transfer iTunes library files to external hard drive? If you have any problem, just leave your comments below.
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Rating: 4.2 / 5 (Based on 58 ratings)Thanks for your rating.
iOS Transfer is customized to transfer data among your iPhone/iPad/iPod, computer and iTunes in a simple but effective way.
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