how do I move my itunes music library to a new location?
By default, itunes put my music library in C:/My Documents/My Music. I ripped about 75 CDs before I realized this. I want to change the location of my music library to the D: drive. I created a folder in D: called "itunes library" and in the Preferences tab, I pointed itunes to look at this folder for my library.
My question is: for the music I already imported into itunes (on the C: drive), how do I get this music to the D: drive and how do I make itunes recognize it as being there? I tried copy/pasting my entire C: music library folder to the D: location, but when I right click on a song and look at its location, it shows it on C: and not D:. I tried deleting a song from the C: folder and then tried to play it. itunes says the song couldn't be found but it would try to locate it (which it did in D: ) There has to be an easier way to do this, because I do not have the patience to do each song separately.
Help!!!
# 1 Re: how do I move my itunes music library to a new location?
Try "Consolidate Library" in iTunes - that should put all of your music into the folder you've nominated in Preferences.
# 2 Re: how do I move my itunes music library to a new location?
Do note however, that there will forever be the iTunes database files located in your My Music folder (in a folder called iTunes). Unfortunately, when you move the loation of the music to your D:\ drive, iTunes doesn't move the iTunes database files as well.
I Reported it as a bug, maybe we'll see it fixed in future versions.
Adam
# 3 Re: how do I move my itunes music library to a new location?
1) Open iTunes and delete all the tracks in your music library.
From memory, you can press Control + A to select all tracks, then press the Delete button on your keyboard to delete them.
Ensure that you don't check the box that says something like "Also delete files from hard drive"
2) Close iTunes
3) Physically move your audio files from your C drive to your D drive. You can do this before step 1 if you wish.
4) Re-start iTunes and re-build your library.
pru2k at 2007-11-15 16:48:13 >
# 4 Re: how do I move my itunes music library to a new location?
pru2k is right - but that method will mean the loss of any playcounts and ratings data you've accumulated.
# 5 Re: how do I move my itunes music library to a new location?
If you don?t care about the playcount and rating, do what pru2k says, thats the best way, if not you will be stock to itunesfor ever.
# 6 Re: how do I move my itunes music library to a new location?
The "consolidate library" feature worked perfectly. Then all I had to do was delete the old C: itunes folder. I then clicked "add folder to library", selected the D: itunes folder and it added all of my music on D: into the itunes directory. I'm not that concerened with rating or playcount info at this time so it is fine.
Thanks for your help, guys!
# 7 Re: how do I move my itunes music library to a new location?
Another way of moving your music files without losing the ratings you have set is as follows:
Select File > Export to export your library to an XML file.
Then, open the XML file in wordpad and for each track you will see a XML line for the track location, eg:
<key>Location</key><string>file://localhost/C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/nick/My%20Documents/My%20Music/iTunes/iTunes%20Music/Broadcast/The%20Noise%20Made%20by%20People/Broadcasting%20-%20Track%2002.mp3/</string>
Then use EDIT > REPLACE in wordpad to do a global find/replace on the part of the path you want to change (eg, file://localhost/C: > file://localhost/D:) to move files from C: to D:
Then save the file, clear your whole playlist, and import the saved XML file. This will now set your new file location and also import your ratings with each song (for some reason, even though the play count is in the XML file, it doesn't seem to get imported)
Hope this helps...
# 8 Re: how do I move my itunes music library to a new location?
Question: does the Consolidate feature update playlists as well?
I'd like to consolidate my music files, howqever, I have a great number of playlists that point to songs in various locations.
If I were to Consolidate, then delete the music in the original locations outside of the iTunes music folder, would my playlists be empty?
Appreciate the help!
# 9 Re: how do I move my itunes music library to a new location?
Playlist files are simply text files that point to location of the song.
A typical playlist entry might look like
C:/MusicFiles/MP3/Nora Jones/sunrise.mpg
So if you move the location of this song to a new folder, the playlist entry will be wrong and Itunes won't be able to find it.
Also keep in mind that if you use a program like Tag & Rename that re-tags, renames, or moves your MP3 files, that any playlists that refer to those files will no longer be valid. Music Match also has a function that will retag MP3's so the file names match the tags. Be advised that you may have to rebuild playlists after using this function.
Fred H.
# 10 Re: how do I move my itunes music library to a new location?
After succesfully moving the location of my itunes music library to a new hard drive, I find that all my playlists no longer work. When I click on a song in a playlist, the exclamation point appears next to the song and itunes says that it can't be located. It then gives me the option to locate the song manually.
I understand that playlists are just text files that contain a list of songs and their location, but is it possible to update the location of all the songs in a playlist without having to manually locate each song? Rebuilding each playlist from scratch would be easier than this, but is still more of a hassle than if it could be done automatically.
Any ideas?
# 11 Re: how do I move my itunes music library to a new location?
In the old days of MusicMatch, the playlists were saved as simple text .m3u files, and you could edit them with notepad. If you moved your files from:
C:/data/music
to
C:/MP3
you could simply do a global search and replace on "data/music" and replace it with "MP3". This would automatically fix every file location in that playlist.
But unfortunatly, the playlist files in iTunes are not saved in .m3u format anymore, and are no longer simple text files. You can IMPORT .m3u files into iTunes, but you can't save an existing playlist in iTunes as a .m3u text file. As a result, I know of no easy shortcuts you can use to fix your playlists.
This is why I suggest that once you migrate to iTunes, you leave the location of your music alone. If you start moving libraries and files around, you will get into problems.
One easy solution I have run into is this. I select all the songs in a playlist, and then edit the tags for all those files, and in either the composer or comment field, I put the name of the playlist. This way, the playlist name is stored as part of the mp3 file, in it's tag. Then, if I ever lose the playlist file, or move my music, I can simply sort on the Composer field and select all the songs that have the playlist name in the composer field that I want, and drag them into a new playlist.
Hope this helps,
Fred H.
# 12 Re: how do I move my itunes music library to a new location?
Originally posted by ashawley
Do note however, that there will forever be the iTunes database files located in your My Music folder (in a folder called iTunes). Unfortunately, when you move the loation of the music to your D:\ drive, iTunes doesn't move the iTunes database files as well.
I Reported it as a bug, maybe we'll see it fixed in future versions.
Adam
The database files are associated with the Windows OS definition of 'My Music'. I believe the intent is to allow multiple users on the same computer each have their own ratings and playlists while using the same MP3 files located in a common area.
Microsoft's tweakui utility will let you change the system wide definition of 'My Music'
# 13 Re: how do I move my itunes music library to a new location?
Here's what I did, and everything worked perfectly (use this approach if you don't mind letting iTunes manage your files):
1) Under Preferences --> Advanced, change the location of your iTunes Music Folder (you can create a new folder through the dialog box wherever you'd like). For simplicity, I kept my new folder named "iTunes Music." Also, I left the "Keep iTunes Music folder organized" and "Copy files to iTunes music folder when adding to library" options checked, though I'm not sure they're required for this process.
2) Under the Advanced menu, choose "Consolidate Library." iTunes will now copy all of your music files from your library into your new music folder.
3) Delete the iTunes Music folder from My Music > iTunes, but be sure to leave the iTunes Music library files (ending in .itl and .xml)in place.
You will now have all of your song files in a new location, and all of your playlists, purchased songs, ratings and play data will be intact.
