moving my itunes files to another location

[Numbers1820]

Problem: My default OS X volume, "OS X System" is only 10GB...and my iTunes files are gobbling up nearly 7GB of that and growing.

What I want to do: I want to move the MP3 files to another volume with 55GB free, "65GB Workspace".

What I have done: I found this thread in iTunes help:
Changing where your audio files are stored
You can change where iTunes stores your music and audio files on your hard disk by using the Advanced pane of iTunes preferences.

Which then said:
By default, the songs you import are stored in the iTunes Music folder, inside the Music folder in your home folder. You can store the iTunes Music folder elsewhere as long as you tell iTunes where to find it. The iTunes Music Library file, which keeps track of the songs you have, must remain in the iTunes folder in your Music folder.
To tell iTunes where to find the iTunes Music folder:
To change the location back to the original default location, click Reset.
New songs you import will be stored in the new location.

Soo...I went into iTunes' Preferences/Advanced, and selected this thread:
65GB Workspace/Brad's Home/Music/iTunes to be the iTunes Music folder location. (Old thread: OS X System/Users/Brad[home folder]/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music.)

Then I copied all of my mp3 files from OS X System to 65GB Workspace, and deleted (trashed) all of the original files from OS X System.

When I open up iTunes, all of my Library is there, but when I want to play anything, I get this error: "The song "songname" could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it? Duh, well, yeah! The problem is that by doing that I would have to relocate every single stupid song!

Now, when I recopy the mp3 files back from 65GB Workspace to OS X System, everything works hunky dory, but of course that doesn't solve my storage problem.

Maybe the operative word in that iTunes help dialog was, "NEW songs you import will be stored in the new location."

What do you suggest, ladies and gentlemen? Is there some neat trick out there that I don't know about? Or some stupid little obvious thing I've overlooked? Or do I have to do something massive like reformat my HD (65GB Workspace and OS X System are actually two volumes on the same HD)?

Thanks in advance....

Oh, this is iTunes 3 running on OS X 10.2.2

[bigbadbill]

OK¯

I'm trying to wrap my brain around exactly what your problem is.

You may try this:
Open iTunes and delete your entire library (being careful to choose no if asked if you'd like to also delete the files from your iTunes music folder. You can still do this manually later, lets just be safe).

Then drag your music folder into your library to add the files from their new location.

Keep in mind that this is going to trash your playlists and playcounts.

OR

Just a theory but with your new iTunes music folder selected in iTunes' Prefs and your Mp3's still in the old iTunes music folder, select CONSOLIDATE LIBRARY under the ADVANCED MENU. This should move the Mp3 files for you, keeping all your info intact.

Good luck and be sure to post your findings for future reference.

[Numbers1820]

bigbadbill, you rock! I tried your first suggestion, and it worked beautifully.

Just to make it clear for the "listening audience" out there - I selected "Library" in the iTunes "Source" window. Then I typed Command-A (for select all), then Command-Delete. Since I had already copied my MP3s from the volume I wished to delete them to my target volume, I hit "Yes" when it asked me if I wanted to trash these files. Then I selected all of the MP3-ized albums that I had copied over to my target volume, and dragged them onto the now-empty iTunes Library window. It took a few minutes for all of them to copy over (like I said, I had a largish 7 GB chunk). Then, voila! everything worked perfectly.

I even imported another CD just to make sure it works (it does).

I wish that there would have been a Help topic to suggest this...

I hope that others trying to do the same thing catch this post...

Thanks again! (Amazing how annoyingly easy so much stuff is once you get just the right tip ; )