How to move your iTunes library to an external hard drive - relocate iTunes

[@clemsonu8888]

12 years later this video is still helping people. I saw video after video of complicated ways to do move your music to another hard drive. Even though iTunes has changed a little, this still works PERFECTLY. I literally copied my iTunes folder to an external drive, shut down iTunes, opened it while holding "Shift" (Windows 11 PC), and changed the library name/path! It was AWESOME!!! Thank you StevesMacFix.

[@reggaeone]

worked for me too

[@GlowToneChannel]

Even though this video is 13 years old, it's still helping today! 😊 It's clear, concise and easy to follow. Thanks Steve! 😊

[@eugeneroban2014]

22 Apr 2021 - finding this video is one of the luckiest moments in my recent life. I have tried at least 10 other KZbin videos to solve this problem and none of them worked. I have a PC running Windows 7 64 bit and iTunes 12.10 and this protocol worked prfectly for me using the SHIFT key instead of the CONTROL key. Even the audio quality in this tutorial was outstanding! Steve is a gifted teacher and I am very grateful for his help.

[@stevesmacfix]

I appreciate that my friend. Thank you for your input!

[@reggaeone]

Thanks Steve! I just successfully completed the transfer. Your video is the one that worked for me. Very simple. My music library has nearly 18,000 music files....so when it came time to Empty Trash and delete...i held my breathe...until I checked everything on the external drive.

[@LM-gc6pk]

Thank you! Simple and straightforward, and still relevant in 2024. 🥰

[@reggaeone]

Great Job...still referring to this video in 2023 as I did the iTunes Library move on another laptop.

[@mijodo2008]

Hello Steve. This video production on iTunes is one of the very best I have seen to date. Very professional, clear and concise. I am setting up external HDDs' to take the load off my internal startup disk. This video has been a great help, thanks mate.

[@murphybrown32216]

What about doing this on windows 10 64 bit, I dont even see prefences?

[@samrodz7354]

Best tutorial I've seen on how to setup your iTunes library to an external hard drive. I ran out of space on my iMac. Thanks for taking the time to make this tutorial.

[@jimsoulman]

You Sir are a life saver! You have no idea how many videos I had to go through to finally manage this. I had to transfer 107gb of music, you could imagine how lost I would have been without it. Thank you :-)

[@jigyko]

Worked great on my PC. PC users, you will want to use the "Shift" key when he says "hold down the "Alt/Option" button which is two keys left of the space bar while clicking on Itunes." Thanks for taking the time putting this tutorial together, great job.

[@thepurpleufo]

Thanks for this great video...the only video on this topic that makes sense...and I hope you will be happy to hear that one hundred years after you created this video, your method still works.

[@seerzion156]

Steve I love your video! You explain the operation with words and visually. You show how to check what you have done answering many questions that usually come up!

[@borealisbiker4209]

New to Mac, but still was able to follow Steve's directions and get this done. Appreciate you help.

[@Jusjudes]

I admit, my skills with computers are very basic. So, when faced with task of transferring my iTunes library from my PC to an external hard drive, I was filled with much anxiety. But thanks to this tutorial and helpful comments from your viewers, I did it! Thank you Steve!!

[@tzaphonmagus9351]

This is the best "Move itunes" tutorial that I have seen yet...and believe me,I've seen plenty of them.

[@tyinthesky6172]

Great Video. One of the first videos I didn't have to repeatedly go back to follow the steps. Extremely clear and very helpful. Thanks Steve

[@Hurtfelder]

Awesome. I watch tutorials and I really really get sick of them not getting to the point or giving me information I don't need. This one is perfect. You are the man. No, wait, you are the man who teaches the man to be the man. Thanks.

[@tom11zz884]

This is best itunes transfer video on KZbin...clear and easy to understand..step by step.

[@Simplistic424]

Thank you so much for this! I went to Best Buy to get assistance from the Geek Squad last week and they couldn't help me with this. This tutorial is more useful than they were.

[@nicobritz5162]

Steve.This was the first tutorial that i saw that made it completely clear to me.Thank you very much.From Nico [South Africa]

[@BronzeRivet]

Still works in iTunes 12.6 on Mac OS Sierra. I so much appreciate the clear and patient instuction you presented in this video. Thank you.

[@tommymoran4901]

im doing this now on sierra aha quick question though, can I then delete my iTunes media off my internal hard drive if I have it saved to my external?

[@tommymoran4901]

jk, kept watching hahaha

[@kayinwonderland4]

You are my hero!!! I've been researching ways to do this! This was the simplest and most effective way! Now I can go back to having a huge selection of music instead of only songs that fit on my computer! Thank you!!

[@genkikitty959]

Thanks for your help with getting iTunes onto an external hard drive. It was very helpful, even for a Mac newbie. The only thing I had problems with was my external hard drive was not formatted to Fat32 and my Mac wouldn't transfer over into E.H.D. After I figured that out your method worked perfectly. Thank you again!

[@constantineUrahara]

Thank you so much for that great and simple tutorial, i ve seen so many wrong ones before i get to this one. Btw for all the people like me that use a pc hold down the shift key while you open iTunes to chose the library location. Cheers!

[@deepakevents78]

bro i really enjoyed the way you explain thanks a lot for solving the problem... keep making amazing videos of info thanks

[@tomhcampbell]

Steve, great job! This made moving my 500gb iTunes library to a My Book Duo a piece of cake. You made it simple and straight forward.

[@stevejacob4375]

Thank you, a very clear and easy to follow tutorial well presented and easy to understand each section.

[@nechialee4624]

Hi Steve, great tutorial really appreciate. This is the same problem I am having with my iTunes library being so full of songs. I am so happy that you shared this video, you helped me a lot. Thanks once again.

[@vidyamoola2532]

Thank you so much for this--you're a god send, Steve! Finally managed to migrate my music to my WD Passport. You're tutorial was extremely easy to follow, and so accurate with no unnecessary information. Thank you, again, and best wishes.

[@klachi7]

2018 and this video is as helpful as it was back in 2011! Great work!

[@liquidmike69]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I've had a 1TB external drive for a while and have never been able to get iTunes (the biggest storage sucker on my mac) running off that external drive until I watched your vid. All the now free space on my mac has it running so much better. Thank you.

[@rick5644]

Now it's my turn to try this.. I want to transfer all my music to a hard drive plus keep my music folder with itunes to stay on my PC as well. I'm just copying to put into my car HDD system. Great video!

[@JamesUmpherson]

You have a great voice, pace, and calming demeanour for teaching. Thanks.

[@joshbolin9323]

Thank you for being the only guy on KZbin that knows how to do stuff!!!!!!!!

[@perishingflames]

Good, easy to follow tutorial steve. Nice to see you back posting videos on youtube!

[@aaasimmons]

i must admit you are very informative and knowledgeable in macs and iTunes, this i greatly appreciate.

[@waeveandfriends]

Thanks, I saw another video like this but they left out key points so I ended up losing everything, thank God I had my music backed up. Thanks for telling everything we need to do. You're a blessing!

[@leemsalter]

I followed these steps on my new mac mini using the latest osx and newest iTunes and this worked perfectly. Great job Steve, greatly appreciated.

[@101ProofRestorations]

Thank you for the easy to follow video I just did what you said and it works! For those using PC hold SHIFT while opening iTunes to get the pop up to choose the library.

[@Fairviewparkchiro]

Worked great! For PC, hold down the shift key when opening iTunes from the start menu to force choose library location.

[@The80sBoy]

Hey Steve thanks for the vid. I'm using Windows 10 and have been struggling to do this especially with some of the 'instructional' vids on here. Your tutorial is clear and to the point. I had no trouble moving my iTunes to another drive. Great job Steve. You have a new friend in the UK!

[@onwa.beauty]

thank you I had 103 gigs of music on my hard drive this opened a ton of space

[@alfonso45901]

This was the first video I ever saw of u I really missed it's kool to have u back X)

[@kevinfairweather3661]

Massive help, really easy to follow and do. Thanks for taking the time to share this with us :)

[@petercrockett100]

thank you it still works for the new iTunes in 2015!

[@amyfleming5681]

just tried and worked like a treat. It took 2 hours to transfer all my music, tv shows and movies on to my 2tb hp external hard drive and i didn't lose a thing.

[@256DJPassion]

Great demo, i did not realize I had 80GB of music within the macbook, I wondered why it said startup disk full! THX!

[@mikeybe2654]

Thank you so much, this was the exact info I needed to not lose 100s of hours of work,

[@Nasauniverse001]

Thanks, I was impressed with your tuition, I did the job and I have my music on my new mac. That is one thing you didn't mention: the reason why you would want to move your itunes from one Mac to an external HD, the fact that I have a new computer. I started back in the day, with a Classic, which we still have, and which still works, and then went to a laptop notebook, then an iMac, then another notebook, and then my super duper 28" screen iMac, and I love it. I have a sort of museum to Macs now. LOL

[@raec.9182]

Janis Dolan how did you move your iTunes back up from the external hard drive to your new Mac computer?

[@manoffaith2501]

Steve, thank you for an excellent video on relocating itune library to external hard drive. Your instructions were very clear and easy to follow. I'm subscribing to your channel now.

[@chris92282]

Worked great!!! I was a little nervous when came to the deleting part, but I checked first and everything was ok!! Thanks again!

[@MrGilbo69]

Steve, great job in explaining it , I have struggled and had music in all kinda folders on my computer and with your tutorial, something click and had a DDOH...!! moment 16K songs now ready to be sync'd and loaded on my Ipod

[@marklaurel6513]

2019 and you just saved my entire music library. Thank you!! Liked and subscribed!

[@knoxxville499]

People need to explain things as simple as this guy does no stupid b roll shots inbetween

[@pjshel-touzinsky9665]

very detailed and thorough as what to do with visuals.!!! less room for error.

[@nikskorpio]

Thanks for this. Just brought a WD Passport yesterday because my iTunes Library is taking over my Mac. This saved me a lot of time trying to figure out how to move everything. Very detailed and easy to follow. :)

[@Alesh22]

cant thank you enough for this video, it has helped me so much! bless your genius abilities and so simple to follow

[@Beatmixology]

Hey Steve. One of the best and easy to understand tutorials! Helped me out big time. thanks for posting!

[@RawFitChris]

Steve you have a gift for efficient fluent enjoyable teaching. Subscribed for sure!

[@Jimbo718Slice]

my buddy drove one in the shop full throttle like this before he replaced the exhaust for a customer. it was nothing short of hilarious when you are popping a drain plug on a duramax and you hear that damn hhr flying into the shop like that 😂😂😂

[@bangulo1993]

ty so much literally made my computer so much faster btw for those of you doing this remember to do a 2nd back up on a diff drive so u dont loose anything if the main itunes drive dies. Thanks again steve

[@drewmensah]

Very useful and easy to understand tutorial…..Thank You Steve

[@Sonster9K]

Not only was this an incredibly informative video but what an incredibly COOL video!!!! Love the effects!!! I just have to ask where did you get those very cool icons for your dock??? Also what is the equivalent key I need to press on a Windows 10 machine in order to select the new library??? Again, thanks for the very cool tutorial!!!

[@carlos53k]

I've been wanting do do this for eeeeeeeeeeeeever even went to the apple store and they couldn't help me.... they were pretty lost they were like yeah do this wait no... go to itunes etc and made no sense... glad ur back... thnx... Ur the ish!!!! lol

[@thebreathingman]

Your instruction worked perfectly, your video was clear and concise thank you very much.

[@Jayanta729]

Thanks Steve! Super easy to follow and I copied 10,000+ songs safely to my external hard drive

[@djkly1]

thanks for reloading this man, this was the best tutorial out there, i almost died when i couldnt find it.

[@anubis13131313]

Hey Steve! GREAT video. Only problem I had was the movies didn't all copy over, so I had to find which ones didn't and then click and copy them to the folder. Why this didn't happen, who knows, but the rest worked fine! Thanks so much for this!

[@phbrinsden]

Fantastic Steve. The clearest explanation yet. I can do this. I have a 300 disc collection of classical music that I really want in an external SSD and this is what I needed. How much space would I need for 300 CDs of Classical music? Look forward to packing the CDs alway.

[@bigpicturesdenver]

Thanks Ssoooooo Much for this tutorial I just finish to clean my Mac and my Music is on....Now I have much more space and my Mac is faster...Thank you again and God give more wisdom....

[@JeffSPerrys]

Only good tutorial on this subject out there. Good job man!!

[@chessdude67]

The man is back! Thank you for coming back, Steve. Tim 

[@Nashrona60]

Thank you for the tutorial Steve. That was so simple, as you explained it so that it wasn't confusing. Have liked and subscribed.

[@RachelLeynes]

you saved my life! thank you! i had to watch three videos previous to yours and their ones didn't work! eugh

[@1320freek]

It took me a little while to get it because the updates may have changed some things but I did get it done. THANKS A BUNCH!! VERY HELPFUL!!!! YOU DA MAN!!!!!!!

[@minicooper93402]

i just discovered your videos ... very easy to understand. thanks so much!

[@RamonDWilliamz]

You are a life saver Steven. LIFE SAVING!!

[@MarkLloydJF]

Ang galing Pare! Salamat. You explained and demo well and clear.

[@vipertwin175]

This video rocks. I did the excate same thing, I just copied the library and put it on another computer. Thanks for the tutorial, 👍👍👍🤘

[@Voltrondefenderoftheuniverse]

thanks a million steve ., for the simplest and easy to follow video

[@heg83co]

Thank you very much!!!! This was the only tutorial that actually made things work for me.

[@MrDaBears21]

Hey Steve! thanks for the re-upload used this on my old computer but forgot how to do it again when I got a new one. Welcome Back!!

[@shalasz]

Thanks for the great video. Just did this with a 64gb USB drive and it worked perfectly.

[@DavincisMind]

Absolutely great video tutorial. Very methodic, short to the point. Urge awesome Steve. Thank you

[@vinceromero3409]

Thank you steve...I am moving my stuff over as we speak and your vid totally helped me out

[@m722magdalene]

Very well done! Thank you for making this video. I WISH I had a Mac. Having you and your videos would be such a security and comfort. I do not have a Mac however, there for I do not have a button labeled Options. Would you be so kind as to direct me to someone to trust for a move involving Windows. I'm very nervous about moving my iTunes to my external.

[@M.C.D.Technologies]

This does work for PC just press the shift key because Windows has no option key. Thanks for the video, I have never done this since I was using a big hdd. I have since upgraded to an SSD and my music library is almost the size of the SSD.

[@1shygirl4og]

Simply awesome, I was about to go to Best Buy because my entire computer is full of music and pictures and now that I have this tutoria, I have started the process myself. My music alone is taking 6 hours to transfer and I have a party in a couple of hours, will this stop me from using Iphoto?

[@caprouge64]

Thanks a lot for your help. You explained everything very clearly and it helped.

[@saugatabanerjee1438]

Well explained and easy to follow. Super useful. Thanks!

[@flavamixx]

Very good and easy to understand. I'm gonna check out your other videos.

[@Carolinimus69]

Thanks so much for this. Couldn't be simpler.

[@adruralo]

Very clear and concise tutorial.

[@brookeruskin]

This is exactly what I needed. Thank you for your clear, informative, video.

[@biker55]

excellent tutorial , simple and to the point . cheers mate

[@billyfreeze1893]

Hi , I recently lost my MacBook Pro , but have a LaCie backup drive with the stuff I want to put on a seagate plus , because all I have know is an iPad Air. Do I borrow a computer and connect the LaCie and the seagate to it ,then drag and drop files into the seagate so I can access them from my iPad? If anyone knows thank you very much , by the way your tutorials are clear and some of the best I've watched , thank you

[@amyfleming5681]

So handy to know thanks a heap! I've just purchased my first mac and will be watching lots of your tutorials.

[@jerrydesmazes2309]

Thanks for your help you did a great job of explaining how to perform the move. I really appreciate your help!!!

[@JTshimmy4]

thanks steve... this will save me $500+ on a SSD

[@DA-dv5uk]

Excellent work!! Very helpful! Best wishes from France!