Move iTunes Content From Mac to an External Hard Disk

Music is an important part of our daily life. We listen to music when we are sad, when we are happy, when we travel, when we get up or go to bed etc. Basically, our entire day is circled around music. So, after almost a decade of listening music, we are sure that you have collected quite a lot of music on your Mac’s hard drive. This iTunes playlist must be occupying a large amount of space. Here in this article, we will teach you how to move iTunes content from Mac to an external hard drive.

Prerequisites

1. The original Mac on which your iTunes library is stored.
2. An external hard drive.
3. A USB cable to connect external hard drive to your Mac.

Move your iTunes Content

To move your iTunes Content from Mac to External Hard Disk, follow the below steps:

• All your iTunes Content must be Consolidated at a Single Place so that you can Copy Everything from your Mac to your Hard Drive

To consolidate all your iTunes content at a single place, follow the below steps:-

1. Launch iTunes on Mac.
2. Click file in upper left corner.
3. In the drop-down menu, click on library.
4. Then click on organize the library.
5. Tick the box for consolidate files and click OK.

This will make a copy of all files in the iTunes media folder.

• Move your iTunes Content to An External Hard Drive

1. Close iTunes.
2. Connect external hard drive to Mac using a USB cable.
3. Click on finder and select your Mac’s hard drive.
4. Click and open Music folder and select iTunes and drag it to external hard drive.
5. Click authenticate when a pop-up pops up.
6. Enter your password and click OK.

This process will require 1-2 hours for completion.

• Redirect iTunes to New Location

After you have transferred the iTunes content to external hard drive, you need to change the path of iTunes app by redirecting it to search the external hard drive for content. You can do so by following the below steps:

1. Launch iTunes+option key at same time.
2. Tap on choose library.
3. Select an external hard drive.
4. Click on iTunes and then tap Open.

• Check Everything

Now, you should double-check that the above 3 steps you have performed worked correctly or not. You can do this by following the below steps:

1. Launch iTunes.
2. Select a song.
3. Right-click on it and select get info.
4. Click on file tab and look for the location.

If the location has been changed to external hard drive from local disk drive then the above 3 steps are successful.

• Delete Old iTunes Library

After copying and redirecting iTunes library to external hard disk, you should delete the old iTunes library. You can do this by following the below steps:

1. Close iTunes.
2. Click on finder and choose your Mac’s hard drive.
3. Click on music folder.
4. Select iTunes and drag it to trash.

That’s all! The process is completed. Your iTunes content has been moved from Mac to an External Hard Disk. Feel free to share this article on Google+, Facebook and Twitter.