Ultraportable notebook are finally fast enough that we can use them as our main simple machine . But bloody , the SSDs they pack are modest — how are you supposed to fit your intact euphony library on one of these ? You ’re not .
Get that music off your hard drive , bawse . First off , you may get a mass of mileage out of streaming music services ; there ’s no motive to tote all 25 Air Supply albums around with you . But for the relaxation of your musical needs — those Phish bootlegs and Marky Mark freestyle sessions — conceive getting your vocal a second home .
First Things First : Get the Music off Your Old Computer
Say you just picked up one of those shinynew MacBook Airs that everyone loves — or else of just migrating everything over from your onetime machine , be selective . Before you do anything with your new electronic computer , though , you need to get your iTunes medicine library off your sure-enough information processing system . as luck would have it , doing that is very simple . And these statement work for Mac or PC .
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Tell iTunes Where You Want to ditch Your Music
1 ) ensure your old electronic computer is start the late interpretation of iTunes . There should n’t be an government issue with lade a library from an older reading of iTunes to a Modern one , but do it just to be good .
2 ) You ’ll want to make a new location for your nonremittal iTunes Music folder on whichever international drive you contrive to apply . To do this , go to the menu stripe and get through iTunes > Preferences … .
3 ) From there , you want to click the Advanced lozenge . The first particular in the list will be the iTunes Media Folder location .
4 ) snap the button to the right that tell Change , and either select a folder in your external harddrive that you ’ll want to utilize , or create a new booklet . Once you ’ve selected a folder , click OK to drop dead the orientation menu .
Then Dump Your Music
1 ) Once you ’ve selected a new location for your music files , come back to your music subroutine library .
2 ) From there , go back up to the menubar and snap File > Library > organise Library .
3 ) tick off the boxful that says Consolidate Library and hit OK .
This will begin the process of copying all your medicine files into one booklet ( the one you previously designated ) on your external hard ride . Depending on how many strain you have , this could take a while .
simulate Your iTunes Database to an External Drive
You ’ve spent years valuation songs and building play list — don’t give them up ! To check that those musical memories are n’t lost , you ’re gon na desire to copy over your iTunes library database from your sometime computer to your external harddrive .
1 ) Go into your Music folder ( where the iTunes booklet is stored by default ) , or wherever you ’ve decided stack away your iTunes library file .
2 ) There should be a folder simply named iTunes . If there are any euphony files in the folder ( which would be find out in iTunes > iTunes Media > Music ) , delete those files , but nothing else .
3 ) Then , drag / copy that folder to your external HDD in its integrality . Now you ’re ready to move to the new computer .
Now , What Are You going to Do With All That Music ?
Now you know how to offload your total iTunes Library to an external effort , but should it be a NAS or a standard drive ? Or should you upload to a cloud storage storage locker ? There are professional and bunco game to each , depending on how you live your lifespan .
choice 1 : Keep Your Music on a Standard External Drive
If you ’re in lurve with iTunes , have a lot of Apple - DRM’d content , actively make out an army of Io machine , or just spend a lot of time listening to medicine on your computer , importing your honest-to-goodness iTunes database onto your new computer and displume your program library from an outside ride is a great stake . It ’ll see like it ’s all decently there on your simple machine , just like the quondam twenty-four hours . That allege , you have to stop up into said hard drive to get at your stuff .
But if you ’re the kind of cat who plugs into a USB hub or a notebook doc when you ’re at nursing home anyway , this solution is perfect . Especially if you want the ability to sync your iOS twist without formatting it again , and be able to get at all your erstwhile ratings , playlist and playcounts . Here ’s how to do it :
1 ) If you ’ve already installed iTunes , make certain it is n’t run .
2 ) Locate the Music leaflet on your fresh computer . If you ’ve already installed iTunes , there should be a folder name iTunes there . edit it .
3 ) In a newfangled window , locate the booklet named iTunes you re-create to your external HDD .
4 ) Copy that iTunes folder into your reckoner ’s Music folder .
5 ) Now it ’s time to open iTunes . prevail down the option key while launching iTunes .
6 ) iTunes will ask whether you want to create a library or select a library . Select Choose library , then sail to your Music folder , then your iTunes folder on your computing machine and double click iTunes Library.itl .
7 ) If everything went harmonize to plan , your music library should have made swimmingly made the conversion to a unexampled computer and external harddrive .
But countenance ’s say there ’s music you know you ’ll want to listen to when you ’re not relate to your crusade — your oeuvre or study play list , for lesson . you’re able to really coiffe up a separate , smaller depository library , and it wo n’t get mix up with your principal megalibrary , either . It ’s a fiddling sophisticated , but you could handle it :
1 ) keep down choice when opening iTunes .
2 ) When need if you want to Create a Library or Choose a Library , select Create Library .
3 ) Name the program library whatever you want , but something logical like “ Music on Laptop ” probably makes sense .
4 ) Drag any music file you want from your external harddrive into the Music pamphlet of your computer .
5 ) Once they ’ve been re-create over , drag out those files into the iTunes app , where they will appear .
6 ) Now you have a separate program library of euphony store locally . To throw back to the subroutine library with the Sung dynasty stored on your outside drive , renounce iTunes , relaunch iTunes ( while holding down the option key fruit ) , elect to choose which library you require to open , and find the iTunes library in your Music folder you initially copied over to your laptop .
Option 2 : Stream it From a NAS Drive
The 2nd affair you may do is to keep all your medicine on a NAS drive , which means you may access filing cabinet over your local electronic web without having to direct touch base your computer to the parkway .
This is great if you have a lot of DLNA streaming devices like a Sonos organization or Boxee Box . And once you ’ve offloaded your music from your honest-to-god computer ( watch the same steps as above , just take the web - impound drive rather of a USB - link one ) , all you have to do is tell the machine where to face on the drive .
As far as working with iTunes , a NAS drive is n’t perfect for managing and synchronise files to devices ( it ’s sloooow ) , but once you ’ve imported your tracks into the library , it well out pretty well , depending on the velocity of your connection . you may also get a NAS that supports the iTunes waiter feature article , where all your music will show up in your local iTunes subroutine library as a stream playlist .
Option 3 : Stick it in the Cloud
If priority#1for you is having your music approachable ANYWHERE you go , there ’s always the cloud . There are currently only two Service that are worth looking into : Google Music and Amazon Cloud Drive .
Neither is perfect , but they both more or less do what they say they ’ll do , which is make your music available to you anywhere you go . you’re able to stream in a internet browser or an Android machine , and if you require it locally , you’re able to pull files from the cloud . Each service uploads in its own way , but what the two have in common is a fussy disdain for your musical metadata . Playcounts and ratings go out the windowpane of the witching dirigible that ferry your medicine to the vault of heaven .
Also , if you suffer from data cap or sucky bandwidth , the swarm will in all probability rain on your parade . Furthermore , if you have a massive medicine library , stack away prominent chunks of music in the swarm can get dear . Amazon offers up 20 , 50 , 100 , 200 and 500 gigabyte glob of storage at a cost that get out down to a dollar per gig per class ( ie , 50GB=$50 / year ) . Google Music is still in genus Beta and put to work out its pricing .
So now you may roost easier knowing you have three solid housing option for your music library now that ’s it has moved out of your laptop . Which one you clean ultimately comes down to your hearing use , but one affair is clear-cut : a big laptop computer hard drive is no longer a must .
you’re able to keep up with Adrian Covert , the writer of this post , onTwitterorFacebook .
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