Move your iTunes library to an external hard drive

May 26th, 2009 by Donald Bell Tagged with: itunes

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. Our step-by-step slideshow tutorial will walk you through the process.

Image 1 - Move your iTunes library to an external hard drive

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8 Responses to “Move your iTunes library to an external hard drive”

external hard drive
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:53pm

I am definitely going to backup my database.

Magnus H
November 9th, 2009 at 11:31am

thanks ALLOT for this. I do have a question though: Im what they call a "Digital-DJ" playing at clubs etc using a laptop which is connected to turntables. the laptop part lets me choose what song that "is on the vinyl" at any time during the night, anyway; for this I use a program that displays all playlists and songs from my itunes library and does this this in the dj-interface of the software i use (serato) necessary for work etc. My questions are as follows: Would it be possible to use the external harddrive on two different mac´s? I would really like to use my iMac for organizing music on iTunes then remove the External drive, go to work and plug it into my MacBook which i use for Djing. Also, could i make 2 of these external harddrives and just have one of them connected to my TimeCapsule so i can stream from there when im at home and just want to listen to music from my appleTV? Will i also be able to organize folders on my MacBook and then move the harddrive over to my iMac and continiue organizing? Would be really helpfull to know this.

Teeth Whitening Products
December 18th, 2009 at 9:04pm

If you move your library to an external drive, you'll need to power up and connect the drive before starting iTunes. teeth whitening products

Magnus H
December 26th, 2009 at 1:34am

thanks, Did anyone try to connect the external hdd to a different mac and then edit/add to the library? Im curious to know if i can use the same library on two computers but only have one "hard-copy" i can bring with me and use on whatever mac i bring for gigs...

Alli
January 2nd, 2010 at 3:44am

Okay, so. I moved my iTunes files and they're on my hardrive now. But when I went to the folder on the computer, they aren't there, and my computer still has the excess memory taken up from the library. Where else could the library be?

DebraL
April 27th, 2010 at 3:02am

I moved files to a hard drive and iTunes is not finding it. I see a comment now that says to power up the hard drive before iTunes, but I didn't do that. I just restarted my computer to see if that would help but it didn't. I don't know how to get iTunes to find my songs now.

xtreker15
July 17th, 2010 at 12:49am

Try having a main library and then deleting the other. When you plug it in to your computer with no library import all.

Joe
August 14th, 2010 at 4:50pm

Thank you so much, this worked perfectly! If you follow the instructions precisely, I can guarantee that this will work for you.