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Move Your iTunes Library to a New Location

Give your music collection a new home without hogging disk space

By Tom Nelson Tom Nelson Writer Tom Nelson is an engineer, programmer, network manager, and computer network and systems designer who has written for Other World Computing,and others. Tom is also president of Coyote Moon, Inc., a Macintosh and Windows consulting firm. lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on April 29, 2021 Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email Apple Macs iPad The iTunes library doesn't have a practical size limit. As long as you have space on your drive, you can keep adding media files. That's not entirely a good thing. If you're not paying attention, your iTunes library can quickly take up more than its fair share of drive space. Moving your iTunes library from its original location to another internal or external drive can free up some room. It can also give you more space to grow your collection. These instructions apply to iTunes on Macs with macOS Mojave (10.14) or earlier. Apple removed iTunes and replaced it with the Music app on Macs with the release of macOS Catalina (10.15).

How to Move Your iTunes Library to a New Location

This process retains all your iTunes settings, including playlists, ratings, and all media files. However, for iTunes to retain everything, you must let it organize the music folder. If you don't want iTunes to be in charge, the process of moving your media folder will still work, but metadata items, such as playlists and ratings, won't carry over. Before you begin, make a current backup of your Mac, or at the least, a current backup of iTunes. The process of moving your iTunes library includes deleting the original source library. If something should go wrong and you don't have a backup, you could lose all your music files. Launch iTunes. From the iTunes menu, select Preferences. Click the Advanced tab. Click the box next to Keep iTunes Media folder organized to add a check mark to it. Early versions of iTunes may call this item "Keep iTunes Music folder organized." Click OK. If you're moving your library to an external drive, make sure it's plugged into your Mac and turned on. Return to the Advanced preferences in iTunes and click the Change button next to iTunes Media folder location. In the Finder window that opens, navigate to the location where you want to create the new iTunes Media folder. Click the New Folder button. Enter a name for the new folder and click the Create button. Click Open to choose the folder you just created. In the Advanced preferences window, your new folder will appear under the iTunes Media folder location heading. Click OK to save your changes. iTunes asks if you want to move and rename the files in your new iTunes Media folder to match the Keep iTunes Media folder organized preference. Click Yes. iTunes can move the original library media files for you. Letting iTunes perform this task keeps all the playlists and ratings intact. To begin, select File > Library > Organize Library in iTunes. Older versions of iTunes call this setting "Consolidate Library." In the Organize Library window that opens, place a check mark next to Consolidate Files and click OK. iTunes copies all your media files from the old library location to the new one you created. After iTunes finishes copying your library to its new location, delete the original folder by going to Users > [your account] > Music > iTunes and moving the iTunes Media folder to the trash. Don't delete the original iTunes folder or any files or folders it contains, other than the iTunes Media or iTunes Music folder. If you delete anything else in the iTunes folder, you may lose your history, ratings, or playlists. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Subscribe Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit More from Lifewire How to Move Your iTunes Library to a New Location How to Manually Add Music to Your iPhone Can You Install iTunes on a Mac? How to Copy Music From Your iPod to a Mac How to Copy a Music CD to iTunes How to Transfer Music from Computer to iPhone How to Downgrade From iTunes 12 to iTunes 11 How to Burn Music to CDs in iTunes Syncing Part of Your iTunes Library How to Make a Song Your Ringtone On iPhone Downloading Music to Your iPad is Easy How to Play iTunes Songs in Winamp Winamp FAQ: Converting Audio File Formats How to Move Your Apple Mail to a New Mac How to Set Up and Use Home Sharing in iTunes How to Fix the "Original File Could Not Be Found" Error in iTunes Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. Cookies Settings Accept All Cookies