New MacBook Air, the iTunes shuffle!

[lparsons21]

I just bought a new MacBook Air to switch to all portable. At home I'll have it connected to a monitor when I need to do things a 13" screen aren't quite good on. But the big problem is with iTunes. The library is too big to fit on the Air and other than at home that isn't a big deal as I don't need iTunes on a trip.

So how do I get my user migrated, move the library to either a networked drive or external USB drive? Do I do that before the migration or after. I'm really confused!!

Thanks.

 

[klang]

I think you would want to move the iTunes folder before migrating. Instructions here: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449

 

[lparsons21]

Thanks for the link. Turns out it doesn't matter whether you do it before or after migration. Especially if you don't let Migration Assistant do the applications. I had used MA before with apps and found that there were just too many apps that don't like that process and will oft times just hang the migration and never get done. And there were issues with serialized software that had to have 'net authorization.

I got the migration of the user done, so I have all the data minus the iTunes library. I'm putting that library on my Time Capsule with an external 2TB drive. That way it is always accessible in my house and iTunes will find it. That's not done yet as it takes some time to get that copying done. I'll finish that out tomorrow, as well as getting the applications put on this Air.

I'm quite impressed with the Air, it is so fast! I looked at the MacBook Pro w/Retina display but it was about $250 more and I couldn't justify the extra expense for the little I thought that machine brought to the table for my use. I got the 256Gb version of the Air.

 

[lparsons21]

For those that haven't done a shuffle of iTunes library, it is actually pretty easy if all you want to do is have the library itself moved to a different disk.

The hang up is when you are doing it to a new machine. The instructions Apple give stop just short of making the move to a new machine work. You get that data moved, but not the supporting files that tell iTunes where and how to look at that data.

Inside the Music directory is one called iTunes and the files in the root of that folder are the ones that need to be manually copied to the new location in the same structure. Then start iTunes while holding down the 'option' key and pointing to that folder.

Here's a link I found invaluable in making the shift : http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to-a-new-hard-drive/