您(Did)知道可以将 iTunes 资料库移至外置硬盘吗？如果您的空间不足，并且您有很多无法使用 iCloud 存储的媒体，那么一个不错的选择是将所有内容移动到外部USB 驱动器(USB drive)。
我个人不再使用 iTunes，但我认识很多人将所有音乐和电影(music and movies)都存储在计算机上。我个人发现从 iCloud 流式传输内容以及使用 iTunes Match 或 Apple Music(Match or Apple Music)收听我的音乐要容易得多。
但是，如果您使用 iTunes 来管理不在 iTunes 中的音乐或家庭视频(home video)文件等，那么您真的别无选择，只能将内容存储在本地。在本文中，我将向您展示如何轻松地将整个 iTunes 资料库移动到外部驱动器。
先决条件
在我们进行任何数据移动之前，我们首先必须检查以确保所有内容都正确存储在本地。打开 iTunes 并单击iTunes - (iTunes – Preferences)OS X导航栏中(navigation bar)的首选项或Windows左上角的小图标。
现在单击Advanced 选项卡并检查(tab and check)以确保iTunes Media 文件夹位置(iTunes Media folder location)设置为默认路径(default path)，该路径应为Users/Username/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media。
如果位置不同，请记下它，因为这是我们必须移动数据时您需要去的地方。接下来(Next)，在Mac上，单击导航栏中的File ，然后单击(File )Library并选择Organize Library。在Windows中，您必须按CTRL + B或按ALT 键(ALT key)才能看到导航菜单(navigation menu)首先出现。
执行此操作时，它将弹出另一个对话框，您将在其中看到一个用于合并所有媒体文件的复选框。您应该这样做只是为了确保在我们移动之前所有内容都存储在那里。
选中合并文件(Consolidate files)框并单击确定(OK)。现在我们已经完成了这两个任务，我们可以继续移动库的实际过程。
移动 iTunes 资料库
此时继续退出 iTunes 并连接您的外部硬盘驱动器。现在导航到计算机上的 iTunes Music 文件夹(Music folder)。对于Mac用户，打开Finder并单击左侧快捷方式列表中的音乐。(Music)
在Windows中，转到“高级”选项卡(Advanced tab)中列出的位置，该位置应为C:\Users\UserName\Music\。在里面(Inside)，您应该会看到一个名为iTunes的文件夹。继续并通过拖放将此文件夹复制到外部硬盘驱动器的根目录。
根据 iTunes 资料库的大小和网络连接速度(network connection speed)，此过程可能会占用最多的时间。请注意，您应该复制库，而不是移动它。稍后，我们将删除本地副本。复制完成后，我们需要以特殊方式打开 iTunes。
在 Mac 上，按住Option键，然后从 Dock 中单击 iTunes。在Windows上，按住SHIFT键，然后双击打开 iTunes。执行此操作时，您将在 iTunes 加载之前看到一个对话框。
从这两个选项中，您要单击选择库(Choose Library)。现在导航到外部硬盘驱动器并打开 iTunes 文件夹。在那里您会找到一个 iTunes.itl文件，您要选择该文件，然后单击Open。
如果一切顺利，iTunes 应该会加载您的整个图书馆！您应该能够看到所有媒体文件并播放它们。此时，我们可以删除iTunes资料库的本地副本。为此，您应该首先关闭 iTunes，然后弹出外部硬盘驱动器。现在删除存储在您计算机上的整个 iTunes 文件夹。
如果您在未重新连接外部硬盘的情况下打开 iTunes，您将收到一条错误消息(error message)，指出找不到库。
单击确定(OK)，然后单击退出(Quit)。连接驱动器，然后打开 iTunes，您应该一切顺利。总的来说(Overall)，这个过程非常简单，你不应该遇到任何重大问题。我遇到的唯一问题是我使用Synology NAS来存储 iTunes 库，如果我的NAS进入睡眠状态，打开 iTunes 将失败。最终，我不得不更改设置，以便我的NAS一直处于开启状态。
除此之外，一切正常。将新媒体导入我的库时，文件被复制到外部位置，而不是我的本地计算机。如果您确实遇到了一些文件被复制到本地计算机的问题，只需像我上面提到的那样整合文件。如果您有任何问题，请随时发表评论。享受！
How to Setup an iTunes Library On an External Hard Drive or NAS
Did you know it was possible to move yoυr iTunes library over to an external hard drive? If yoυ’re low оn space and you have a lot of media that simply cannot be stored using iCloud, then one great optіon is to moνe everything to an external USB drive.
I personally never use iTunes anymore, but I know a lot of people who keep all their music and movies stored on their computer. I personally find it much easier to stream content from iCloud and to use iTunes Match or Apple Music for listening to my music.
However, if you use iTunes for managing music not in iTunes or home video files, etc., then you really have no choice but to store the content locally. In this article, I’m going to show you how you can easily move your entire iTunes library to an external drive.
Prerequisites
Before we do any moving of data, we first have to check to make sure everything is properly stored locally. 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.
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.
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. Next, on a Mac, click on File from the navigation bar, then Library and choose Organize Library. In Windows, you have to press CTRL + B or press the ALT key to see the navigation menu appear first.
When you do this, it will bring up another dialog where you’ll see a checkbox for consolidating all your media files. You should do this just to make sure everything is stored there before we make the move.
Check the Consolidate files box and click OK. Now that we have completed these two tasks, we can move on to the actual process of moving the library.
Move iTunes Library
Go ahead and quit iTunes at this point and connect your external hard drive. Now navigate to the iTunes Music folder on your computer. For Mac users, open Finder and click on Music in the left-hand list of shortcuts.
In Windows, go to the location listed in the Advanced tab, which should be C:\Users\UserName\Music\. Inside, you should see a folder called iTunes. Go ahead and copy this folder to the root of your external hard drive by dragging and dropping it.
Depending on how large your iTunes library is and your network connection speed, this process will probably take up the most time. Note that you should copy the library over, not move it. At a later point, we will delete the local copy. Once the copy has been completed, we need to open iTunes in a special way.
On a Mac, hold down the Option key and then click on iTunes from the dock. On Windows, hold down the SHIFT key and then double-click to open iTunes. When you do this, you’ll get a dialog before iTunes loads.
From the two options, you want to click on Choose Library. Now navigate to the external hard drive and open the iTunes folder. There you will find an iTunes.itl file, which you want to select and then click Open.
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. At this point, we can remove the local copy of the iTunes library. To do that, you should first close iTunes and then eject the external hard drive. Now delete the entire iTunes folder stored on your computer.
If you open iTunes without reconnecting the external hard, you’ll get an error message stating the library could not be found.
Click OK and then Quit. Connect the drive and then open iTunes and you should be good to go. Overall, the process is pretty straight-forward and you shouldn’t run into any major problems. The only issue I ran into was that I used a Synology NAS to store the iTunes library and if my NAS went to sleep, opening iTunes would fail. Eventually, I had to change the settings so that my NAS was on all the time.
Other than that, everything worked fine. When importing new media into my library, the files were copied to the external location and not to my local computer. If you do run into an issue where some files get copied to your local computer, just consolidate files like I mentioned above. If you have any questions, feel free to comment. Enjoy!
