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I have all my music loaded onto an external hard drive but can't seem to point music to it. Can someone explain to me how to do that? Google searched tell me to find the "itunes library.itl" and copy that to the external but I cannot find that file in Big Sur 11.1. Can anyone assist here?
iMac, OS X 10.11
Check under under Music > Preferences > Files that your media folder is given as <External>/Music/Media. This is where new additions to your library will be placed. Sticking your existing content inside this folder before you add it avoids duplication. You will normally want both Keep... and Copy... ticked so that content you add from other locations ends up in your media folder, and the folder is arranged to reflect metadata.
tt2
Check under under Music > Preferences > Files that your media folder is given as <External>/Music/Media. This is where new additions to your library will be placed. Sticking your existing content inside this folder before you add it avoids duplication. You will normally want both Keep... and Copy... ticked so that content you add from other locations ends up in your media folder, and the folder is arranged to reflect metadata.
tt2
Option-start-Music and use the create library option to make a new Music library at <External>/Music. Move your music inside <External>/Music/Media. Use File > Add to Library... and select the folder <External>/Music/Media to import what is inside.
tt2
Thank you, Ed, but I still must be missing a step somewhere. The music files are all stored on the external. I've gone to the Music preferences (opening Music while holding down Option) and pointed Music to the files but I'm still not seeing them when I open up Music. I would like to see all the (mp3, mp4's, etc) files on the external but I'm not seeing them. The Google searches told me that I had to copy the itunes library file over to the external but I can't find that file. Feeling pretty dense but there's a step somewhere along the line that I'm obviously missing...
Weaser,
I can't quite tell what state it is in. If you set a new media folder in preferences and then ran consolidate, iTunes/Music would not lose any files. If you move them independently, they can get lost. Is there a way to put it back the way it was and follow the procedure? Or, if you are not worried about losing play counts, etc., you can just leave the files where they are and add them back into the library.
Still a bit confused here, Ed, but I do appreciate your assistance. I did set the folder in preferences to the external. Now my thought is that when I open up Music, I should see the music files on the external but I do not. Do I have to individually add them into the library somehow? Play counts do not matter to me.
Thank you, tt2. Much appreciated. I did import a folder over and I do see that now in my library. One last question if I may. Once I import them, they do not copy to my local drive, is that correct? The goal here is obviously to store all the music files on the external drive and not bog down my local. So, if I import all of the music on the external into the library they will remain on the external and not copy over. Do I have that right?
How do I point Music to an external hard drive?
