How to move your Mac's iTunes Library onto an external drive

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  • Reply 21 of 32
    512ke512ke Posts: 782member

    New MBA. Love it! Except my older MBP had 1 TB of 7200 rpm internal storage. Missing that a LOT.

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  • Reply 22 of 32
    Dear editors - I would very much appreciate the same article only for Photos/iCloud photos once the new Photos app comes out.

    Thanks.
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  • Reply 23 of 32
    rob53rob53 Posts: 3,380member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SolipsismY View Post





    I appreciate AI posting links on decent deals — who cares if they make a few pennies if you use the link — but I don't understand the part about them being Mac Formatted. Could someone explain how that is relevant or necessary?

    It isn't because many drives from MacSales/OWC come formatted for PCs, mainly because PC users can't easily figure out how to even mount a Mac formatted disk while Mac users can. Simply reformatting them properly works fine and doesn't take very long. 

     

    When you get to RAID setups, it's a little different. I'd always get a RAID pre formatted for Macs because anything other than RAID 0 or 1 will take a long time for the initial formatting. 

     

    As for promoting other retailers, I look at the B&H prices because I've bought photographic equipment from them before and still get their catalog. I've never used Adorama and really dislike buying any disks off of Amazon because I don't really know where they get them. At least I can talk directly with OWC to handle any problems.

     

    I have my OWC dual 3TB RAID with USB3 ready for using as backup once I finally buy a new iMac. I'll get the iMac with 512GB flash storage and move both my iTunes and iPhoto libraries onto a Thunderbolt-connected RAID. This gives me the greatest speed while using USB3 for backup, which I run early mornings.

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  • Reply 24 of 32
    boltsfan17boltsfan17 Posts: 2,294member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by pmz View Post

     



    I purchased 2 identical 3 TB LaCie drives, 1 is the actual storage drive for the iTunes library, iPhoto library, etc. The other is a Time Machine backup, that includes backing up the other LaCie.

     

    Pretty good overall solution, short of a RAID setup.


    I'm doing the same thing, but I'm using 2 Thunderbolt drives. One for my iTunes library/Photos and one for Time Machine. I bought the 2 Thunderbolt drives recently. It sure did make a huge difference in speed when accessing my iTunes library from my other Apple devices. The only device that is still slow is my iPhone. It takes forever to connect to my shared iTunes library. 

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  • Reply 25 of 32
    pazuzupazuzu Posts: 1,728member
    Will a thunderbolt external hard drive make it any faster to acceess? Article fails to mention the laaaaaaag when opening files after this export especially movies. I have 3T G drive USB3- I thought it would be fast. But not really. I think it's bloated iTunes.
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  • Reply 26 of 32
    pazuzupazuzu Posts: 1,728member
    I miss J &R- they had the best hard drive deals in NYC.
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  • Reply 27 of 32
    pazuzupazuzu Posts: 1,728member
    mike1 wrote: »
    Why on earth would I want all my music and videos exclusively on the cloud? So, I lose internet for a while and have no music or TV or photos? I would never trust the cloud to be anything more than a secondary backup.

    Agreed. Not to mention it's none of Apple's or anyone else's business to know what I own or listen to. They would have to pay me for that privilege not the other way around.
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  • Reply 28 of 32
    maestro64maestro64 Posts: 5,043member
    solipsismy wrote: »
    Yes and no.

    Two separate accounts need two seperate iTunes Library databases, but after you set on up, on one or more of them you can choose to not copy the items into the iTunes Media folder. You could create a script that will look for changes or differences in those other accounts and ask if they want to add them, too. Honestly, I haven't discovered any non-sloppy way to do it, but I really wish Apple would create a viable iTunes Server that will work via AirPort Extreme or a proper ? Home Server.

    Okay I use goodsync which looks at the library database xml file and such and if anything changes it sync the two user account, yes sloppy but it work. It sounds like this method allowd a single database file i just was not sure and though Apple change something in itune which I missed previously.

    I also install a ReadyNAS which has built in Itune server, it works petty well, the only issue you can not add new songs and such like you would do in itunes, they will not automatically copy to the NAS it copies to the default itune location. I put entire copy of all my content on the readyNAS since it 8TB and minor on two drives I have my content now in 3 locations if something really bad happens. What is nice about this is anyone in the house can access the NAS itunes library as if it was on thier device including ATV.
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  • Reply 29 of 32
    Timespan from the Mac App Store is fantastic, it moves the library and keeps all the location data in tact. Been using it for a year now with thousands of songs and hundreds of movies and tv programs.
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  • Reply 30 of 32
    smalmsmalm Posts: 677member
    Move the 'iTunes' folder from /Users/your_user/Music to where ever you want.
    Put a symbolic link to that new location named 'iTunes' in the /Users/your_user/Music folder.
    Done, hassle-free iTunes.
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  • Reply 31 of 32
    petriwpetriw Posts: 2member


    I actually also using other method to backup my mac instead of just using time machine. This way, I feel more secure to get my backup more ready in case I need to restore them.

     

    alternative without software:

    Open Finder, choose Macintosh HD in the sidebar, go to Edit > Select All and drag it to your external disk. If you don't see this volume, open Finder > Preferences > Sidebar and tick Hard disks

     

    or with free software Cloudbacko

    It could backup files to free cloud storage. This helps you to get your files back anytime anywhere



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  • Reply 32 of 32
    None of this worked. When i copy the ITL file from my mac's hard drive, directly onto the hard drive, the info in that ITL file still thinks that the music is located on my mac HD after transferring to my portable HD. Kind of thought this would happen, so give the benefit of the doubt to the article and tried it anyway. Lo and behold, i was right. option+clicking and choosing the ITL which has been copied directly to the portable HD from the mac HD does not work.
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