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One way to migrate an iTunes collection to another drive
Authored by: jackster on Jun 18, '08 12:56:55PM

Maybe I am missing something here but the simple solution is as basically above.

Simple
1. Drag and drop your "entire" iTunes folder on new drive.
2. Hold down down the Option key while launching iTunes. It will give a dialogue to choose any "existing library" or to even create a new one. Choose existing.

Once set up in the external drive go to Preferences>General Tab and make sure the folder location is set properly to the new drive.

Done

I frequently move my entire library (over 230GB) to new external drives and it resides in a sparse image no less. I have never had any issues with album art, lists, ratings... This method also allows me to keep a separate smaller library on my MBP while traveling.

I hope that helps, but perhaps I missed something.



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One way to migrate an iTunes collection to another drive
Authored by: robleach on Jun 18, '08 01:27:50PM

I would have done the above unix mojo solution, but I didn't know about the option-key iTunes start-up trick! I need to move my library to an external disk, so I'll be using that one soon! Cool. Thanks. Is there a way to duplicate a subset of your library in another location, like say I want everything on an external drive, but keep a copy of all the songs of a particular playlist or star-rating to all be on my internal drive as well. Is there a way to do that easily so that it stays up to date dynamically? I.e., if I add songs to either library, they sync up when the external disk is connected?

Rob



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One way to migrate an iTunes collection to another drive
Authored by: jackster on Jun 18, '08 06:17:42PM

Great question Rob. Unfortunately, I don't know the answer.



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One way to migrate an iTunes collection to another drive
Authored by: schneb on Jun 23, '08 12:14:36PM
"Maybe I am missing something here..."

I do not let iTunes organize my music or videos, they are kept in separate folders. In doing it this way, I ran into link trouble unless I named the new drive exactly the same as the old one. Then I had inode problems, that being, if I ever moved or renamed a folder, the link would be broken--iTunes would not be able to track it. There are more issues that required a complete reimport from the new drive. Hence the hint.

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