Moving iTunes Libary AND associated playlist

delerium

I was hoping to get some help or get pointed to a site that can explain how to transfer my entire iTunes music library to a new 160gb Firewire drive, AND most importantly, the playlist that is associated with it. I've seen some info from here as well as Apple's Support section regarding the moving of the iTunes folder...but the playlist retention doesn't seem addressed.



Any help from the forum would be appreciated!

neurokid

Quote:

Originally posted by delerium

I was hoping to get some help or get pointed to a site that can explain how to transfer my entire iTunes music library to a new 160gb Firewire drive, AND most importantly, the playlist that is associated with it. I've seen some info from here as well as Apple's Support section regarding the moving of the iTunes folder...but the playlist retention doesn't seem addressed.



Any help from the forum would be appreciated!

Just copy your entire Music folder. I've done this several times and it works. If you ever need to reinstall iTunes, just copy the Music folder back over and you're in business, playlists and all!

torifile

Quote:

Originally posted by neurokid

Just copy your entire Music folder. I've done this several times and it works. If you ever need to reinstall iTunes, just copy the Music folder back over and you're in business, playlists and all!

To add to what you said, move the folder to the new HD and delete the old one. Then, make an alias to that folder on the new drive and move the alias to your Music folder. Delete the "alias" at the end of the file name and you're all set.



So, to recap, here's what you do:



1) copy the iTunes Music Folder from ~/Music (~/ means it's in your user account folder)

2) delete the old iTunes Music Folder (the one in your user account Music folder)

3) make an alias of the new iTunes Music Folder (the one on the external HD - select the folder and press cmd+l). This should create an alias called "iTunes Music Folder alias"

4) copy that alias to the ~/Music folder

5) remove the word alias from the alias that you just copied

6) delete the alias that was created on the external drive



That's it. All music you import, playlists you update, etc. will be changed from within iTunes now without a problem.

delerium

Thanks for the help. I remember doing this once before, and the playlist lost their links. I sure didn't want to mess up this time and go through relinking them! Talk about a time waister.



Thanks!