Comments on: Small hard drive? Split your iTunes library across multiple volumes

By: GregH

GregH — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 18:57:44 +0000

In iTunes 10.5 this is no longer required.
Copy the video files (for example the entire ‘TV Shows’ folder to a new disk. Exit iTunes and move the original ‘TV Shows’ folder to the bin. Restart iTunes, select one of the tv shows and iTunes will ask you to locate the missing file, point it to the file on the new disk. iTunes will subsequently ask if you want to fix all of the files…. and automagically it is done.

Just remember not to ‘consolidate’ the iTunes media at some point in the future.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 22:35:48 +0000

HELP! Mine keeps “copying” them back to iTunes library. It starts out with the “processing” and then it starts “copying”. Tried it twice – both times holding down the option key. Why do you think it isn’t working? Thanks!

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 01:36:17 +0000

Fantastic! Thank you so much… one little key has saved me so much time!!!

By: Glenn Sugden

Glenn Sugden — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 06:56:17 +0000

WARNING: This method *will* reset playcounts, ratings, etc.

By: Ruben

Ruben — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 20:30:14 +0000

can I have half my movie collection on my Macbook and half on an external hard drive? Thanks!

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 10:58:22 +0000

What happens when I buy new Movies or TV Shows? Do they go to the external drive too or will I have to copy, delete and move them etc manually?

Also what happens when I close and re.open itunes will it try to re-organise my files?

Many thanks

By: murat yorgancilar

murat yorgancilar — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 15:54:53 +0000

how do i do this (holding down option key) in windows pc?

By: panflex

panflex — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 04:22:10 +0000

Sweeeeeeeeet!! Very simple!!!!!

By: Brad P

Brad P — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 20:08:27 +0000

Hi thanks for the post will this work with two external hard drives? By way of example I have a large TV collection, large movie collection and also a decent size music collection. I would like to keep my music on my Mac hard drive, keep my movies on one external hard drive and then also keep my tv shows on yet another hard drive. Ideally when I purchase or import additional content it would auto sync / be stirred in the appropriate location. How can this be accomplished?
Thanks for your help!

By: Darcy Cox

Darcy Cox — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 18:34:56 +0000

Thank you- this worked like a charm!

By: BJ

BJ — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 18:53:03 +0000

This seems like a good solution. The Option key drag is very good to know.

However in a perfect world you would think that iTunes would come up with a way of doing this through library management of some sort. I think future iTunes releases should break up Movies, TV, and Music and allow you to easily store them locally or externally.

Thanks for the tips!

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:37:04 +0000

Hi,

First, thanks very much for explaining this! I’ve been wanting to do this for some time, and the guides I initially found were all about moving one’s *entire* library over to an external drive, which would be very impractical.

My questions are, first, is there any reason this can’t be done with stuff not actually acquired through iTunes? I have audiobooks from an external vendor, music purchased from Amazon MP3, and a lot of audio files downloaded directly from websites. Do the same rules apply? One particular issue: all of these have separate files of their own, as well as locations within my iTunes folder: I have an “Audiobook” folder, eg, but also folders within “iTunes Music” corresponding to each book — and similarly for “Amazon MP3″ and “Music.” Should I move BOTH versions of these files and/or enclosing folders, or which?

Thanks again!

By: Ant

Ant — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 18:58:27 +0000

Kamil Dembinski,
I believe ratings and play counts are stored in the iTunes library files, not the media files themselves. So deleting and re-adding files will likely reset that information.

By: Kamil Dembinski

Kamil Dembinski — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 06:26:19 +0000

Will this method delete my ratings and play counts for each file that I remove and re-add?

By: Ant

Ant — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:04:52 +0000

Jlocicero,
Yes, DRM-protected files and digital copies of movies will work just fine. They’re still tied to the same iTunes library/account as before – it’s just that the files have been relocated.

By: jlocicero

jlocicero — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:07:21 +0000

Does this work with DRMed files? How about digital copies of movies (you know, the ones that come with DVDs)?

By: Christian Mauceri

Christian Mauceri — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 09:15:19 +0000

Thanks ! It worked like a charm…