Splitting Itunes library between internal and external drive

[afultz075]

My music collection is massive to the point where i'm thinking of keeping half of it on my MBP drive and half of it on my external drive. Has anyone done this? What happens if my MBP is not connected to the external but I open up my Itunes..will it even load at all?

 

[gr8tfly]

It'll run fine. When you go to play something that isn't available, it will ask if you want to locate it.

I do this for all my movies and TV shows. I turn off "copy to library" when importing them, so they remain on the external drive.

The library itself stays on the internal drive.

 

[kingslod]

itunes Library

It'll run fine. When you go to play something that isn't available, it will ask if you want to locate it.

I do this for all my movies and TV shows. I turn off "copy to library" when importing them, so they remain on the external drive.

The library itself stays on the internal drive.

How does this work with songs already imported? I want to move my library to an ext. drive as well, but I don't want to lose all of my ratings and playlists. Is there a way to do both?

Thanks!

 

[gr8tfly]

I haven't moved a lot en-masse, but I believe the song info will remain intact.

Try it with a couple, first.

There might be an Automator task or Applescript to move large numbers without going through the "relocate" manually for each one. I'm sure this has been done before.

 

[kingslod]

Did a quick search of the Apple Support Message Boards and found this which sounds like it will work for me:

1) With iTunes Closed, Copy the iTunes folder to the external drive.
2) Hold down the shift key and start iTunes, continuing to hold down the shift key. When asked to choose a library, navigate to the iTunes folder on the external drive and choose iTunes Library.itl.

Then I guess I'll just delete the version on the laptop's HD and get some wiggle-room back!

Cheers...

 

[Bilvox]

yes

This is also a great way to keep multiple libraries or back up your library of music.
I have used this at work keeping a library for all the podcasts and videos I produce and then switch back after updating to listen to my music while I work.

Good Luck
~bv

Did a quick search of the Apple Support Message Boards and found this which sounds like it will work for me:

1) With iTunes Closed, Copy the iTunes folder to the external drive.
2) Hold down the shift key and start iTunes, continuing to hold down the shift key. When asked to choose a library, navigate to the iTunes folder on the external drive and choose iTunes Library.itl.

Then I guess I'll just delete the version on the laptop's HD and get some wiggle-room back!

Cheers...

 

[anirban]

Consolidate Library

Just go to iTunes>Preferences>Advanced.

Select your external harddrive as your default music storage location.

Then go to Advanced>Consolidate Library.

This will copy your entire iTunes library into the external drive that you listed before. Once there, you can delete all the songs off your MBP internal drive and still not miss a thing.


Also, you might get a lot more responses if you post the question in the appropriate forum- in "iPod and iTunes Discussion".