Now, in that same Advanced preferences pane, click the Change button and a Change Media Folder Location window will appear. This is where you pick the new home for your iTunes media folder. To do that, click the final destination on your new storage space (Figure 10-7). Then, if you want to store other stuff alongside your iTunes library (this step is purely optional), click the New Folder button to create a new folder called something like “iTunes Media,” and then click the Create button. Finally, click Open to confirm your new iTunes library location, and then click OK to dismiss the preferences dialog box. When you click OK, you’ll see a dialog box asking if you want iTunes to move and rename the files in your iTunes Media folder to the new location you just specified. This step is a doozy, because it tells iTunes to copy all your media from the increasingly cramped confines of its current studio apartment to the six-bedroom open pastures of the new one. Click Yes and prepare to wait. This step may take some time—anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours, depending on how much of an iTunes-a-holic you are...I mean, how large your library is—so be patient. As long as you have somewhat of a recent Mac, feel free to do other work while iTunes toils away. Just don’t restart your Mac or, of course, quit iTunes. When you’ve done all your stretches and think you’re ready, head to iTunes and choose File→Library→Organize Library. In the dialog box that appears (Figure 10-8), check “Consolidate files,” and then click OK to get the iTunes library migration party started. When iTunes is done, its progress window will simply disappear, and you should be all set, but don’t quit iTunes yet. Open a Finder window, go to your library’s old location (which is probably in your Home folder/Music/iTunes), and drag that folder to the desktop or the Trash—anywhere except its old or new location. Then, quit iTunes, start it back up, and test a song, movie, or TV show to make sure the move worked. Once you’re rocking out with your new library location, feel free to actually trash your old media folder and bask in the glory of getting all that free space back.
254
MAC HACKS