Help me move to a bigger Media HD without messing anything up
September 14, 2022 12:29 PM Subscribe
I have a 2TB Media HD that houses my iTunes/Apple Music media library, Lightroom photo library, and lots of other files, all neatly organized. I'm replacing it with a new 4TB drive. Can you confirm that my process is correct?
Is the process as simple as this?:
Quit Apple Music (since I'll be making changes that affect it).
Format the new drive and name it "New Media HD"
Copy everything from Media HD to New Media HD (I'll use SuperDuper).
Rename "Media HD" to something else (and, for good measure, un-mount it)
Rename "New Media HD" to "Media HD"
If I follow these steps exactly, when I launch Apple Music, will it find my library, as if nothing has changed? Or, is this the wrong way to do this? I'd rather not go into Apple Music prefs and change the location of my library because my Media HD has tons of other media that I'll have to move too (photos, movies, etc).
Any advice is appreciated!
Is the process as simple as this?:
Quit Apple Music (since I'll be making changes that affect it).
Format the new drive and name it "New Media HD"
Copy everything from Media HD to New Media HD (I'll use SuperDuper).
Rename "Media HD" to something else (and, for good measure, un-mount it)
Rename "New Media HD" to "Media HD"
If I follow these steps exactly, when I launch Apple Music, will it find my library, as if nothing has changed? Or, is this the wrong way to do this? I'd rather not go into Apple Music prefs and change the location of my library because my Media HD has tons of other media that I'll have to move too (photos, movies, etc).
Any advice is appreciated!
Best answer: That should work. If it doesn't work then that's likely because Music stores not just the name/path of the Library, but also the UUID of the device it's stored on, which will have changed because it's unique to a physical disk. But no harm done if that happens. Music will prompt you to locate the Music Library, which you will of course be able to do.
In the interests of completeness, the other option is to let Music handle the transfer. To do this, attach both disks. Update where your music is stored in preferences to a path on the new disk. And then choose File > Library > Organize Library and (this is the important bit) select "Consolidate files". That will cause Music to copy (or possibly move?) all your music files to the new disk. You will still have the job of moving all the other stuff. I would go with your original plan.
posted by caek at 12:36 PM on September 14, 2022
In the interests of completeness, the other option is to let Music handle the transfer. To do this, attach both disks. Update where your music is stored in preferences to a path on the new disk. And then choose File > Library > Organize Library and (this is the important bit) select "Consolidate files". That will cause Music to copy (or possibly move?) all your music files to the new disk. You will still have the job of moving all the other stuff. I would go with your original plan.
posted by caek at 12:36 PM on September 14, 2022
Response by poster: Many hours later... it sure looks like it's been a success!
> That should work.
It did! Apple Music sees the library on the new drive, as if it's the old drive. Lightroom looks like it works too, as if nothing changed. Yay!
> If it doesn't work then that's likely because Music stores not just the name/path of the Library, but also the UUID of the device it's stored on, which will have changed because it's unique to a physical disk.
Yeah, that was my fear, but it looks like there's no problem at all. Whew... I don't even remember how many years it's been since I moved my iTunes library, but I definitely remember the fear of screwing it up. I didn't want to let iTunes/Apple Music handle the transfer, just in case. I feel much more comfortable cloning the drive to move everything. I'm so glad it worked.
posted by 2oh1 at 11:48 PM on September 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
> That should work.
It did! Apple Music sees the library on the new drive, as if it's the old drive. Lightroom looks like it works too, as if nothing changed. Yay!
> If it doesn't work then that's likely because Music stores not just the name/path of the Library, but also the UUID of the device it's stored on, which will have changed because it's unique to a physical disk.
Yeah, that was my fear, but it looks like there's no problem at all. Whew... I don't even remember how many years it's been since I moved my iTunes library, but I definitely remember the fear of screwing it up. I didn't want to let iTunes/Apple Music handle the transfer, just in case. I feel much more comfortable cloning the drive to move everything. I'm so glad it worked.
posted by 2oh1 at 11:48 PM on September 14, 2022 [1 favorite]
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Hard drives are cheap these days, so I have a daily backup HD, a weekly backup HD, and a Time Machine backup. Years ago, I lived in a building that got hit by lightning. That made me a true believer in the power of backups!
posted by 2oh1 at 12:33 PM on September 14, 2022