Managing your iTunes Library on an External Hard Drive | iLounge Article

02 Jan 10

Big Bear

Kathleen Mc

iTunes

29 Dec 09

Frank D.

how to itunes

“iTunes Library.itl”
index
21 more annotations...
- iTunes Library Database
- lives in your Windows “My Music” folder or your Mac “Music” folder under a sub-folder named “iTunes.”
- iTunes Media Folder
- actual media content
- “iTunes Media” and stored as a sub-folder under the iTunes Library Database folder,
- storage settings under your iTunes Advanced preferences,
- The first option, “iTunes Media folder location” indicates where your iTunes media content is stored by default. Remember that this only includes the media content and not the library database itself. Whether all of your content is located in this folder is going to depend upon the next two settings found on this screen:
- Keep iTunes Media folder organized determines whether tracks in your iTunes Media folder are automatically organized based on the track information found within each file
- Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library determines whether files that you add to your library are automatically copied into the music folder, or left in their original location.
- this setting only affects existing files from your computer that are added to the iTunes library using the File, Add to Library option or by dragging-and-dropping them into iTunes from another folder.
- In a default configuration where all of your media files live within the iTunes Media folder location (“Managed” files), and have been organized by iTunes, the process of moving your library may be considerably smoother than for a user who has a bunch of “referenced” tracks living in various locations and possibly even on different drives.
- With iTunes 9, non-music content is no longer treated as a second-class citizen in your iTunes library, and media content is now organized in a more balanced fashion. The old terminology of “iTunes Music folder” has been more appropriately replaced with “iTunes Media folder” and when you start a new library iTunes 9 will organize your media content into appropriate top-level folders by media type.
- Fortunately, you can easily update to the new iTunes 9 Media Folder layout right from within iTunes itself. To do this, simply select File, Library, Organize Library from the iTunes menu, and you’ll be presented with a dialog box with the option to either Consolidate your files or upgrade to the new iTunes Media organization.
- if you have your iTunes Media folder set to D:Music then you must copy it to D:Music on the new computer—remember that iTunes stores the full path to each music file in your library, so your music files must be in the same place on the new computer in order for iTunes to find them.
- What the Consolidate files option actually does it to gather all of the files listed in your iTunes library into the iTunes Media folder. It does this by copying any referenced files into the iTunes Media folder, renaming them with the proper track name, and organizing them into its standard file and folder structure. This option is at least partly intended to allow you to bring “referenced” files into the iTunes Media folder from various other locations in the event that you may have added them to your library with the “Copy Files” option disabled.
- To actually perform the move, start by going into your iTunes Advanced preferences, and changing the iTunes Media folder path to whatever new location you want your iTunes media files to be stored in. This will usually be an external hard drive, but it can be any valid path, including a secondary hard drive or even a network share:
  
  Once you have updated the iTunes Media folder location, simply select File, Library, Organize Library… (in iTunes 8, this option was “Consolidate Library” and in iTunes 7 and prior, it was located on the “Advanced” menu):
- he other important note is that this will reorganize your entire library file system into iTunes’ default way of laying it out (ie, ARTISTALBUMTRACK.MP3 in the case of music files).
- Once this process has completed, you should be able to confirm that the files have been copied to the new location and that iTunes is referencing them properly from there simply by selecting a track and choosing File, Get Info. The “Summary” tab for the file properties will indicate the physical location of that track, which should reflect the new iTunes Media folder path.
  
  Since iTunes copies the media content rather than moving it, you will probably also want to delete your iTunes media files from their original locations.
- That having been said, if you do want to move the library database to another location, this is certainly possible as well as long as you’re using iTunes 7 or later. This must be done separately from the process of moving the content described above, and you’re best to run the “Consolidate” operation and move the content first, and then relocate the library database once you’ve confirmed that everything is still working properly.
- Once you have copied the “iTunes” folder, including the “iTunes Library.itl” and any related support files and folders, simply restart iTunes while holding down the SHIFT key (Windows) or OPT key (Mac) and it will prompt you to either create a new library or choose a location for an existing library:
- Another option of course is to simply start a new iTunes library from your existing media content. In this case, you would start up iTunes with a new database and re-import your media content. Of course, this will not retain any playlists, ratings, play counts or other library metadata—you will in essence be starting over from scratch. You will also need to reload the content onto any iPod, iPhone or Apple TV devices you may be syncing, since these will also see the new library and require you to perform an “Erase and Sync” operation.

17 Dec 09

Taek Joo Kim

13 Dec 09

grabb0

09 Dec 09

Ken Greene

itunes purchases

28 Nov 09

Neklan Brozensky

Itunes subtleties

itunes

17 Nov 09

miguel bejar

Apple

18 Oct 09

zanygoat

apple technology

12 Oct 09

Philipp Grunwald

itunes item

25 Sep 09

Tami Brass

itunes music ipod

22 Sep 09

Sam Elphick

A comprehensive article by MacWorld explaining how to move an iTunes library from one machine to another.

macworld itunes mac osx audio music howto tutorial

21 Sep 09

bitzbyte363

itunes music library howto reference

13 Sep 09

rachel fletcher

04 Sep 09

Cheryl v

iTune tutorial filesystem

01 Sep 09

Jochen Burkhard

For most users, iTunes does a great job of handling all of the details of managing your media library for you, allowing you to manage your content through iTunes itself and not having to worry too much about the underlying files and folders that make up your iTunes library.

itunes ipod howto music library mac reference

12 Aug 09

henriksievers

itunes

30 Jul 09

Reid Beckett

Bookmarks Bar LINKS

10 Jul 09

Deven Black

iTunes Mac Tags

26 Jun 09

Alexis Molina

Very detailed article on iTunes library migration.

itunes migrating

12 Jun 09

Sean Widmer

itunes howto

09 Jun 09

superlumina

For most users, iTunes does a great job of handling all of the details of managing your media library for you, allowing you to manage your content through iTunes itself and not having to worry too much about the underlying files and folders that make up your iTunes library.

Unfortunately, this user-friendly approach has one serious limitation: When it comes time to move your iTunes library, it can often be a bit of a challenge to figure out exactly what pieces make up your iTunes library.

Many iTunes users start out with a basic iTunes library and use the default settings to store all of their media content on their primary internal hard drive. However, as you add new content over time, particularly with the additional video content now supported by iTunes, your library may eventually threaten to take over your computer.

Another common scenario many users find themselves in is what to do when they upgrade to a new computer. Your iTunes library has been working just fine on your old computer, but your left with the question of how to get it over to the new machine so that everything works the way it’s supposed to.

Neither of these situations are at all uncommon, and fortunately it’s really not all that difficult to relocate your iTunes library to another hard drive or move it to a whole new computer once you understand the basics of how iTunes manages your media content and the options available to you.

This tutorial is intended for both the average and slightly advanced iTunes user and will provide the necessary information that you need to know about transferring your iTunes library onto an external hard drive, a secondary internal hard drive, or a whole new computer.

itunes ipod howto

04 May 09