Moving iTunes music to an external Hard drive

By Chuck Winstead, 11 January, 2017

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps

hello Apple Vis,
I had a question. I am wanting to move my iTunes library off of my computer, but I'd like to have all of my songs in a large list. Rather than the list of artists and albums etc.
Is there a way to go about this aside from going to the iTunes folder then to iTunes media, then to music?
Thanks in advanced
Chuck

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By DPinWI on Sunday, January 15, 2017 - 23:25

You could search for files ending in MP3, or whatever your file format of choice is, and then select them all and copy them to an external drive. That would get you a big old pile of songs in one flat listing. No folders.

If you currently have your files in iTunes, and you allow iTunes to manage them, the file names will be a problem. By default, iTunes names files with the track number, and then the song title. The artist is not in the name.

Your music would be sorted by track number, then song title, with no indication of album or artist.

By Chuck Winstead on Sunday, January 15, 2017 - 23:25

Hi, May you give the instruction n how to find them and move them. as for the not showing artists. That I am aware of. I just like having them on a drive as opposed to my computer. My Mac has a small drive. So I need the space i can get. I am not sure if my machine is upgradable or not. I have a 2011 Mac Book air.

By DPinWI on Sunday, January 15, 2017 - 23:25

First, I am not a Mac user, so I cannot provide you with specific instructions.

If you want to have your files on an external drive, and still use them in iTunes, you can do this. In iTunes, you can set the location of your music library. I think this is in the preferences section. You can point to your external drive. Then, you can tell iTunes to consolidate your files. iTunes will move the files to the new location of your library.

This will still have the Artist, Album and then tracks structure iTunes likes, but it will have placed copies of the files on your external drive. You can then delete the originals, once you are sure you have the library moved, from your internal drive.

Someone with Mac knowledge will have to chime in with detailed instructions should you need more exact steps.