[rgomez95]

I recently went to an APPLE store hoping to find what I would imagine would be a simple answer to a simple question. Unfortunately I am using a PC and I have all my music on a harddrive. I want to know if it's possible to move all that music to an external harddrive and not have to worry about adding music to the internal harddrive.
Please Help.

[smax013]

If you go to the Preferences... under the Edit menu, you can set the location of the iTunes Music folder under the Advanced tab. I believe this will dictate where new iTunes Store purchases and ripped music will be placed. So, use the Change... button to bring up a dialog box that will then allow you to select a location on the external hard drive.
To get your old songs and stuff to this location, you should be able to use the Consolidate Library... command under the Advanced menu AFTER you have changed the iTunes storage location to the external drive in the Preferences as indicated above.

[mdawson]

The solution is rather simple and does not require any consolidation. Copy you entire iTunes folder over to the external hard drive. It is simpler to just move the entire folder as you will need the Album Artwork folder, iTunes Music folder(all of your music files), iTunes Music.itl and iTunes Music Library.xml. Just as smax013 suggested, you change the default location of your iTunes library by going to iTunes preferences and changing the iTunes music folder location under the General tab of Advanced preferences. By doing so, you will change the permanent location of your iTunes library. As your music files have been moved, there will be no need to consolidate libraries and all new songs will be added to the new location.

[smax013]

Quote:

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The solution is rather simple and does not require any consolidation. Copy you entire iTunes folder over to the external hard drive. It is simpler to just move the entire folder as you will need the Album Artwork folder, iTunes Music folder(all of your music files), iTunes Music.itl and iTunes Music Library.xml. Just as smax013 suggested, you change the default location of your iTunes library by going to iTunes preferences and changing the iTunes music folder location under the General tab of Advanced preferences. By doing so, you will change the permanent location of your iTunes library. As your music files have been moved, there will be no need to consolidate libraries and all new songs will be added to the new location.

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Yep...that is the other way. Both get the same result. The one advantage of the Consolidate method is that you can do it all within iTunes and don't need to know where your current iTunes Folder is located with in the Windoze structure (not that it is all that hard to find...default location is in the Music folder in My Documents).
The other advantage of the Consolidate...if you have you music stored in multiple places (i.e. you added some songs to the iTunes library from another location that were ripped in something else), then it will gather them all up and move them to the new location...you won't have to hunt them down manually...that is assuming I understand the consolidate function correctly.
Regardless...Po-tay-to, Po-tah-to. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[mdawson]

Yup. Consolidation is required for creating a singular library from music files stored in multiple locations. The consolidate function take any files located outside of the iTunes Music folder and place a copy of those files in the iTunes Music folder. I have never had to consolidate a library, but based on how iTunes help reads, it would appear that the function looks to perform the operation with the so named iTunes Music folder.

[rgomez95]

Quote:

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If you go to the Preferences... under the Edit menu, you can set the location of the iTunes Music folder under the Advanced tab. I believe this will dictate where new iTunes Store purchases and ripped music will be placed. So, use the Change... button to bring up a dialog box that will then allow you to select a location on the external hard drive.
To get your old songs and stuff to this location, you should be able to use the Consolidate Library... command under the Advanced menu AFTER you have changed the iTunes storage location to the external drive in the Preferences as indicated above.

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Thank you so much, I can't believe how simple it was to do.

[ssimon]

Hi
I successfully moved all my iTunes files, including playlists to an external hard drive from my Powerbook. But now that Powerbook is the only computer that can access those files from the hard drive. My other Mac laptops can't do so, even though I have followed all the instructions regarding preferences>advanced and told the iTunes apps in these other locations to look for the files in the external hard drive. So, my question is, how can I get separate computers to look for my iTunes library and .xml files on the same external drive?
Thanks
S

[mdawson]

Instead of going to iTunes preferences to establish the location of a permanent library, what you want to do is link to a temporary library. Launch iTunes then immediately hold down the Option key. You should see a dialog box in a few seconds asking you to choose a music library. Select the iTunes Library file on your external drive and you should be good to go. As you are using the external drive on several machines, choosing a library on launch is a better option as the external drive is not really a permanent library; that is unless you have an external drive containing your music library that is permanently attached to your primary computer.