Moving itunes downloads to external drive pc

If you're an iTunes user whose appetite for music, movies, and podcasts is outstripping the capacity of your computer, it might be a good time to think about offloading that library to an external hard drive or a separate internal drive. If you do it right, the process is relatively simple, although the transfer time could take an hour or more, depending on the size of your collection. To walk you through it, here's a step-by-step guide on how to move your iTunes library to an external hard drive.

This tutorial is also available as a step-by-step video. Connect the hard drive that will serve as the new home for your iTunes library. Make sure the drive is recognized by your computer and has enough room to hold your collection. To gauge the size of your media library, open iTunes, select one of your libraries music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, audiobooks, and so on from the left pane, and take a look at the numbers written at the bottom-center of the iTunes window.

You should see the number of files in that particular library, along with the size of the library, measured in gigabytes. Moving your iTunes library means moving all of your media audio and video , so be sure to check the size of each of these libraries to get an accurate picture of how much space you'll need. While you're going through your collection, it's not a bad idea to do some spring cleaning while you're at it. Deleting old podcasts and TV shows you never plan on watching again can shave whole gigabytes from your library and hours from your transfer time.

After you change your preferences, iTunes may or may not prompt you on whether you'd like to have your library organized and moved to the new location. If the prompt comes up, hit yes. You're not done yet, though. When you're ready to make the transfer, click on the iTunes File menu, then go to Library, and select Organize Library. You'll see a window with options for consolidating and organizing your library. Check them both if you can, but the critical one is the first option: "Consolidate files.

About iTunes folder Apps and media you purchase, along with any files imported to iTunes and all your interactions are kept in a special folder on your computer.

If deleted, it cannot be easily recreated from scratch. Should you accidentally delete this file, iTunes will recreate it on next launch. Album Artwork folder —This folder is where iTunes saves album artwork that was downloaded automatically from the iTunes Store or added manually. It also holds a cache of album artwork that iTunes needs for the Cover Flow feature and regular album displays.

Automatically Add to iTunes —Throw one or more files in this folder and iTunes will automatically import supported media into your library. Downloads —Temporary stores any unfinished downloads. Movies —Imported or purchased movies go here. Music —Your imported or purchased songs and albums. It may have music files, TV shows, podcasts, audiobooks, and more. Backing up data is very important nowadays. In a snap of a finger, your precious content may be lost.

For instance, your computer may be corrupted by malware. In this case, you need to make a backup of your files regularly. That includes implementing how to move iTunes library to external hard drive. Here, we will discuss how to move iTunes library to external hard drive.

This can be done on both Windows 10 or on a Mac. So, how do I move my iTunes library to another hard drive? Check out our comprehensive article below. In this case, we will learn the answer to the question, how do I move my iTunes Library to another hard drive. Here are the steps on how to move iTunes Library to external hard drive using iTunes:. Now, it may take some time, depending on your iTunes Library size. However, this is another way on how to backup iTunes to external hard drive.

Now, we will move on to the next part. We will teach you the best way on how to move iTunes Library to external hard drive. This section will teach you the best way on how to move iTunes Library to external hard drive. What is this tool? Once you have grabbed your tracks, you can keep a copy of them forever. TunesFun Apple Music Converter enables you to grab tracks while keeping its original quality.

Plus, ID3 tags and metadata are kept as well, making your entire library organized. You'll be able to store and access your massive iTunes libraries easily and affordably. To store and use your iTunes library on an external hard drive, do the following:. Find and purchase an external hard drive that's in your price range and is substantially bigger than your current iTunes library.

You'll want a lot of room to grow into before you need to replace it. Connect your new external hard drive to the computer with your iTunes library on it and backup your iTunes library to the external hard drive. Hold down that key until a window pops up asking you to Choose iTunes Library. Click Choose Library. Navigate through your computer to find the external hard drive.

On the external hard drive, navigate to the location where you backed up your iTunes library. When you find that folder on a Mac or a file called iTunes library. Assuming you followed all the steps in the backup process most importantly consolidating and organizing your library , you'll be able to use your iTunes library on the external hard drive just like it was on your main hard drive.

At this point, you can delete the iTunes library on your main hard drive, if you want. However, before you do that, make sure that everything from your iTunes library transferred to your external drive , or that you have a second backup, just in case. Remember, when you delete things, they're gone forever at least without redownloading purchases from iCloud or hiring a drive-recovery company , so make absolutely sure you've got everything you need before you delete.

While using your iTunes library on an external hard drive can be very convenient in terms of freeing up disk space, it also has some drawbacks.