Your library will transfer automatically to the new Apple Music app, Apple TV, and Apple Podcasts. And you’ll still have access to your favorite iTunes features, including your previous iTunes Store purchases, rentals, and imports and the ability to easily manage your library. Sep 19, 2006  This should be just about everything you need to cut the chord on your iTunes library if you're looking to save space on your Mac, or if you're simply a nut for using external hard drives.

  • iPhone to Mac
  • iPhone to PC
  • iPhone to iPhone/iPad

“My iTunes is too large and I plan moving iTunes library to an external drive to free up space on computer. Any suggestions or warnings for this?”

iTunes is an useful tool for iPhone users to manage media files like music, playlist, videos and ringtones. Every time you connect your device to computer, it will automatically scan and backup your data, all the media items will be saved in iTunes library. However, sometimes you may need to transfer iTunes library from PC to external hard drive when your computer meets hardware failure or you just want to free up storage space. This article will offer you 2 ways to copy iTunes library to external disk easily.

Part 1: Transfer iTunes Library to USB Stick from iTunes Media Folder

Normally you can move iTunes library to another drive on Windows 10/8/7 and Mac directly, here are the detailed steps:

Step 1: Open iTunes and click Edit -> Preference. Then choose “Advanced” on the upper right corner. Now you can see three options, check “Keep iTunes Media folder organized” and “Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library”.

Access Itunes Library Playlist To External Drive Mac

Step 2: Click File -> Library -> Organize Library and then check 'Consolidate files”, press OK to copy all iTunes library into iTunes Media folder.

Step 3: Now open computer, click Music and find iTunes folder. Choose the folder named “iTunes Media and open it, all your iTunes songs and other files are saved here. Connect an USB disk to computer and export entire iTunes library to external hard drive.

Access Itunes Library Playlist To External Drive Mac Download

Part 2: Copy Music from iTunes to Flash Drive with Free Tenorshare iCareFone

An alternative way for copying iTunes music and videos to an USB flash drive is to use Tenorshare iCareFone-the professional data transferring software and an iPhone/iPad/iPod. Free download this program and follow the steps below:

Step 1: Connect iPhone to computer and run the software. Choose “Files Manager” on the interface and then select data type, take music for an example.

Step 2: Click “Add” and find iTunes music from C:UserMusiciTunes Music, choose all the songs and press “Open” to add them to your phone.

Step 3: Connect USB drive to computer and then choose all the music and click “Export to”, a pop-up window will ask you to choose a location to save the data, find your external disc on computer and click “Choose” to move all the files into it.

Part 3: Tips for Moving Data from iTunes Library to Hard Drive

  • Your library might not fit onto a flash drive if you have a large collection of music or apps, which could cause an error during copying process. Create a subfolder in iTunes Media folder and move individual items one by one.
  • Many people will notice a 'Export Library” on iTunes when trying to transfer iTunes library to another disk, actually it’s just a list of your music and metadata other than the audio files.
  • If you’re planning to put iTunes data to a new computer, we can tell you it’s definitely not that necessary. Just log in your iTunes Store to download them again on your new computer.
  • Using the Consolidate Files option creates new copies in your iTunes library; remember to delete the duplicated ones to reclaim the storage space.
FonePaw - Solution - Transfer - Move iTunes Library to External Hard Drive

Updated on Thursday, June 27, 2019.

If you have hundreds upon hundreds of songs in your iTunes library, plus videos, podcasts, movies, and TV shows you've downloaded to iTunes, you can run out of the storage space on your computer. To regain some room to breath, you may decide to move (or just back up) iTunes library to an external hard drive. But how can you do that?

There are two different intentions for people who ask to move iTunes Library to external drive. Some of them want to move the intact iTunes Library to external drive in order to free up space on computer or make a backup, while others just want to move some iTunes media files (music and movies for example) to an external hard drive so that they can connect the drive to another computer to enjoy the songs or movies.

Whatever your intention is, you can find the suitable way on this article.



Don't Miss:How to Transfer iTunes Library to New Computer

How to Move/Backup whole iTunes Library to External Drive

Step 1. Connect the external storage device to your PC or Mac.

Connect the external drive to your PC and give it time to load up before it shows up on your computer.


Step 2. Find iTunes Library Folder

To locate the iTunes folder on your Mac, choose Go > Home > Music > iTunes in the Finder menu.

To locate the iTunes folder on Windows, go here:

• Windows XP: Documents and SettingsusernameMy DocumentsMy Music

• Windows Vista: UsersusernameMy Music

• Windows 10/8/7: UsersusernameMusic


Step 3. Go to iTunes Advanced Settings

Open iTunes > Preferences (Mac) or Edit > Preferences (Windows). Then, select the 'Advanced' tab in the iTunes Preferences window. Next, check the 'Keep iTunes Media folder organized' and 'Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library' boxes. Then, click 'OK' and close the Preferences window.

Each app makes certain assumptions (with your guidance) as to what should be called a “duplicate.” You can make those assumptions strict, or loosen them to catch images that are extremely similar. Exercise Extreme CautionBefore going any further in this How-To, read this carefully:Be very careful (yes, that’s bold, underline, and italics all at the same time) before deleting any of your “duplicate” photos, particularly in bulk. One of these libraries may be the only record you have of precious memories, and making the choice to just dump a giant collection of images can be calamitous. Photo library mac corrupt. That’s why lost photo recovery tools are almost as popular as duplicate removers.Exercising caution when using duplicate photo tools can be challenging.


Step 4. Consolidate your iTunes Library

You're recommended to consolidate your library before moving the iTunes folder to external storage because consolidation ensures everything in your library is stored in one place.

To consolidate your media:

1.Open iTunes and choose File > Library > Organize Library in the menus

2.Select 'Consolidate files.'


Step 5. Move/Backup iTunes Library to External Hard Drive

1.Quit iTunes and open the iTunes Folder on your computer.

2.Drag the iTunes folder from your computer (Mac or Windows) and drop it on the external drive. All files in iTunes Folder will be copied to the external drive. The process could take a while depending on how large your collection is.

3.Now that your collection is safely stored in the external hard drive (or another location that you chose), you can delete (some of) the files at the old location to free up some space in your hard drive.


Access Itunes Library Playlist To External Drive Mac Pro

Note:

An important thing to note here is that you’ll need to connect the external media every time you open iTunes for if not, the media files aren't going to show up. If you open iTunes without your external hard drive connected, iTunes will give you an error message saying the 'Library cannot be found.' Quit iTunes, connect the external hard drive and reopen iTunes to fix.

Jan 05, 2020  ☁️ 💕 iCloud Photo Library How to set up iCloud Photo Library on your Mac If you're interested in using the iCloud Photo Library on your Mac, here's how. Mar 26, 2020  Apple's iCloud Photo Library service works seamlessly to sync and back up your images and video across all of your Apple devices to iCloud — but if you're serious about keeping your irreplaceable photos and video safe, you'll want a redundant. Apple photos backup. Back up the library in Photos on Mac. Even if you use iCloud Photos, it’s important that you always back up your library locally using one of the following methods. Use Time Machine: After you set up Time Machine, it automatically backs up the files on your Mac. If you ever lose the files in your Photos library, you can restore them from the Time Machine backup.

Tips: How to Move iTunes Music/Movies to External Hard Drive for Playback

Access Itunes Library Playlist To External Drive Mac Computer

To selectively move music, playlists, movies, ringtones, and more from the iTunes Library to an external hard drive, we need the tool called FonePaw iOS Transfer. As an iOS file manager, this tool can easily export all media files, including songs, movies, TV shows, ringtones, podcasts, etc. from the iTunes Library on PC and Mac to an external hard drive. Conversely, it can restore iTunes library by transferring music, movies, playlists and more from iPhone to iTunes.

Let's see how to move the media files from iTunes library to external drive. Please download the program on your computer first.

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Step 1. Connect your iOS Device and External Hard Drive to PC

After running the program on your computer, connect your iPhone/iPad/iPod and the external drive to the computer.


Step 2. Transfer iTunes Library to External Drive

When your device is detected, you have two steps to copy iTunes music to the external HD.

Access Itunes Library Playlist To External Drive Mac Free

Step 1: Click 'iTunes Library' in the bottom of the program. The program will load Music, Movies, Music Videos, Ringtones, Voice Memos, etc. on your device. Sync all these files to your device. When it finished, you can move the items from device to PC.


Step 2: If you want to move specific music or movie to external drive, you can click certain category, like 'Music' or 'Videos' in left panel. Here, you can see Music, Movie, Ringtones, TV Shows, Podcast and more. No matter which item you want to move to the flash drive and play it on any computer, just choose the item and click 'Export to PC' and select the external HD as the destination folder.


Have this article helped you transfer iTunes library files to external hard drive? If you have any problem, just leave your comments below.

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iOS Transfer is customized to transfer data among your iPhone/iPad/iPod, computer and iTunes in a simple but effective way.
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