- #Where is itunes music stored windows how to
- #Where is itunes music stored windows for mac
- #Where is itunes music stored windows manual
- #Where is itunes music stored windows password
If all went well, iTunes should load with your entire library enact! You should be able to see all your media files and play them. There you will find an l file, which you want to select and then click Open. Now navigate to the external hard drive and open the iTunes folder. When you do this, you’ll get a dialog before iTunes loads.įrom the two options, you want to click on Choose Library. On Windows, hold down the SHIFT key and then double-click to open iTunes. On a Mac, hold down the Option key and then click on iTunes from the dock. Once the copy has been completed, we need to open iTunes in a special way. At a later point, we will delete the local copy. Note that you should copy the library over, not move it. Go ahead and copy this folder to the root of your external hard drive by dragging and dropping it.ĭepending on how large your iTunes library is and your network connection speed, this process will probably take up the most time. Inside, you should see a folder called iTunes. In Windows, go to the location listed in the Advanced tab, which should be C:\Users\UserName\Music\.
#Where is itunes music stored windows for mac
For Mac users, open Finder and click on Music in the left-hand list of shortcuts. Now navigate to the iTunes Music folder on your computer. Go ahead and quit iTunes at this point and connect your external hard drive. Now that we have completed these two tasks, we can move on to the actual process of moving the library. You should do this just to make sure everything is stored there before we make the move.Ĭheck the Consolidate files box and click OK. When you do this, it will bring up another dialog where you’ll see a checkbox for consolidating all your media files. In Windows, you have to press CTRL + B or press the ALT key to see the navigation menu appear first. Next, on a Mac, click on File from the navigation bar, then Library and choose Organize Library. If the location is different, make a note of it because that is where you will need to go when we have to move the data. Now click on the Advanced tab and check to make sure that the iTunes Media folder location is set to the default path, which should be Users/Username/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media. Open iTunes and click on iTunes – Preferences in the navigation bar in OS X or on the small icon at the top left in Windows.
This is, by no means, a solid backup plan, but it can be useful in a pinch.
If you are about to do something wild with your Music or iTunes library and don't have a way to back it up on an external hard drive or online backup service, you can make a temporary backup that you store right on your Mac by duplicating your library. Desperate times call for desperate measures So, sit back, relax, watch a movie, or whatever you do to pass the time. This could take a very long time, depending on how big your Music/iTunes library is.
#Where is itunes music stored windows password
#Where is itunes music stored windows manual
To ensure that all of your iTunes files are in the same place when you make a manual backup, you should first consolidate your iTunes library.
#Where is itunes music stored windows how to
If you're not employing a Mac-wide backup service (really, though, you should get on that), or if you want to manually back up your iTunes library separately, here's how to go about doing that: Consolidate your library How to manually back up your iTunes library We also recommend having an offsite backup plan for your Mac as well, just in case something like a fire happens, and you lose your external hard drive. The restore functionality lets you jump back in Time Machine's history to retrieve it.īut Time Machine may not be enough. With this feature enabled, you can automatically back up and restore your Mac with Time Machine and any of the best USB-C external hard drives. One of the easiest ways to make sure that your iTunes or Music Library is always backed up is to use Time Machine, which is already built-in to your Mac. Getting started with Time Machine (Image credit: iMore)