Transfer iTunes to an external drive

Transfer iTunes to an external drive

There are a few things you need to do to be able to move your iTunes Library to an external hard drive.  You need to combine your iTunes library into one single folder, and then copy that combined folder to your external hard drive.

How to consolidate your iTunes Library:

1. Make sure that all you library items are in one place.  Open iTunes – Click “Edit”, then choose and click on “Preferences”
2. Click on the “Advanced” tab

3. Make sure that the checkbox “Copy files to ITunes Media folder when adding to library” is ticked.

4. The reason for ticking this checkbox is so that when files are added to iTunes, it places copies of all original songs in the iTunes Media folder.  Original song titles are left in their original place on the computer. Original song files can be removed from your computer once they are in the iTunes Media folder. This will free up additional space.

5. Click the “OK” button.

6. Click on “File” – “Library” – “Organize Library” and tick the checkbox “Consolidate Files”

7. Click “OK”

Now you are ready to copy the iTunes folder to the external hard drive. 

1. Close and quit the iTunes application
2. Connect the Hard Drive to your computer
3. Find your external Hard Drive – this is normally found by clicking on “My Computer”
4. Find your iTunes folder – this is normally located in the “Music” folder
5. Click and drag your iTunes folder onto the external hard drive Depending on the size of the folder, this can take a while to copy

6. After the folder has completed transferring, you iTunes Library folder will have been copied onto your hard drive successfully