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[LDF]

Currently my main music library is managed by Media Center 27 on my Win10 desktop which has an SSD C drive and a 2TB internal hard drive.  I want to move the music files and (I think) the library database onto a 4TB external USB 3.0 harddrive.  I would like to do this so I could eject the ext HD from my desktop and use the music library on my Win10 laptop when I travel.  Can someone tell me the safest way to do that so I don't screw up my 525GB library?  Thanks in advance.

[MikeO3]

Clone your library to the target drive.
File>Library>Library Manager and Add your cloned library
As a test, select a number of albums and do F6 to Move the selected albums to your target drive

Read the Wiki here to learn more about Move options.

[LDF]

Was not exactly clear on your directions.  So I clone from the original PC library onto the external HD.  Does that also copy the files or just move the database?  If it only moves the database... then I (move or) copy the music files onto the external drive? Does that "copy" update the database on the external drive?  Please be a bit more wordy in your response.  And thank you.

[MikeO3]

Clone creates a copy to the target location of the existing library database. It is a copy of the original database so the media files remain intact at the current source. You need to use the Move function to relocate your media files to the new target. I suggested that you only move a few media files to test and make sure it will do what you need.

Library information here and the Move function is documented in the previous link I posted. Please read the Wiki articles as I will not post in detail processes which are documented already.

On your second Windows machine ensure that when you plug-in the drive it is set at the same drive letter using the Windows Storage Manager. Open your cloned library with JRiver and you should be all set.

[wer]

Mike's advice is good, but he left something noteworthy out.

Using the Clone Library will create an exact duplicate of your current library. That means that library will think all the files are at their current location.  So you need this extra step:

After you clone the library, load that new library into MC.  Then use RMCF ( https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Rename,_Move,_and_Copy_Files )  to update the file locations in that library.  The option you want is "Copy and update database to point to new location".  Use this to copy the files to your external drive as you wanted. After you do that, switch back to your original library on the PC.

When that is done, your new library will be pointing at the NEW copies of the files you just made in the above step.

Now, when you open that library on a different PC, it will see the files at their correct location on the portable drive.

When all this is done, if you're happy with the results, you can delete the original media files and library if you don't need them any more.  If you're not happy with the results, your files are still at the old location and your old library will still work.

Good luck...

[LDF]

Thanks for all your advice. I think I have consolidated both sets of comments from above, and have included it below.  However I have encountered an issue when trying the Rename, Move and Copy Files function.  I don’t see how to preserve my directory hierarchy which is artist\album\song without doing this action individually for each album.  I sure hope I don’t have to do that one at a time since I have more than 1,000 albums to move
In the dialog box for “rename, Move & Copy files” … I selected “Copy and update database to point to new location”, selected Directories base path “D:\Rip Music FLAC\A Nod to Bob\” and Find and replace…. With find “d:\Rip Music FLAC\” and with replace  “E:\FLACext\”. That is the only way I could see that the Preview pane has the correct New file pathname for the files. Any ideas on how I can do this without having to do it separately by album? (Note that this is a weird case.... normally it would be "d:\Rip Music FLAC\Bob Dylan\At Budokan (Disc 1)\*" to "E:\FLACext\Bob Dylan\At Budokan (Disc 1)\*" but this album is actually a compilation so I didn't put it with albums by Bob. 

Just to double check, here is what I understood as the consolidated steps.
1.   Make a backup before you start. (both PCs)  https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Library_Backup
2.   disable auto-import. (both PCs) https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Auto-Import#Background_Scanning
3.   CLONE. Clone creates a copy to the target location of the existing library database. It is a copy of the original database so the media files remain intact at the current source.  (This does not move music files.) (File->Library>Library Manager then select your Main Library in the left hand frame.  Under tools, select Clone Library.)
4.   LOAD CLONED LIBRARY. File>Library>Library Manager and Load your cloned library (Which is still pointing to the files on your internal drive.)
5.   UPDATE FILE LOCATIONS IN NEW CLONED LIB. use RMCF ( https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Rename,_Move,_and_Copy_Files )  to update the file locations in that library.  The option you want is "Copy and update database to point to new location".  The wiki indicates this will both copy the selected files and update the library database.  Just try this with a few files at first to make sure you know what it is doing.
6.   REPEAT STEP 5 FOR THE REST OF THE MUSIC FILES. At this point the new library will be pointing at the copies of the files on the external drive. (The old library will still be pointing to the files on the internal drive.)
7.   One the first machine you can switch between the libraries because now you have the old library (on the internal HD) and the new library (on the external HD).  After verifying that the external library is working as desired, you may want to delete the old library to free up space…..
8.   This completes the work on the 1st machine.
9.   On the 2nd machine, ensure the drive is the same drive letter as it was on the first machine.
10.   On the 2nd machine, add the cloned library. (File->Library->Library Manager->Add Library).

[wer]

You don't need to turn on the directories option at all.  You can uncheck that, and the filename option, and just use find and replace.

You absolutely do NOT have to do it Album by Album.  If at any point you think you do, you're still confused, so look at the RMCF wiki again. If you want ALL albums to be affected by RMCF, select ALL albums before entering the tool.

If you need more specific instructions, describe your desired move/path scheme more explicitly. But from what you said so far, a find & replace from
D:\Rip Music FLAC\
to
E:\FLACext\
would sound sufficient to preserve your existing structure. 

If you want to copy the files and also restructure the directories and rename all the files, the tool can do that to.

[LDF]

Great! I did exactly what you suggested and yes the directory hierarchy is preserved... I guess simply using the find & Replace and selecting multiple albums works perfectly.
 
However I have moved a few albums and now am seeing a lot of unexpected files  ending with .jmd in the top directory of the new location.  For example files named "browser (theater view).jmd", "field (album artist).jmd", etc. I exited out of Media Center to see if they were just temp files... but nope.  they are still there.  110 spurious files and all I have copied are albums of artists starting with A and B. What did I do wrong?  thanks again.

[LDF]

Oh.  I searched for JRiver media center jmd files and now see they are part of the library database.  I guess I goofed when I specified the location for the library to be E:\FLACext\ and not a subdirectory below the FLACext directory. What is the best way to fix this?  I have stopped copying anything else for the moment.....  I am going to try and "clone" the new library into another directory and see if it moves all those files while keeping the links to the media I have already moved.... Guess I didn't think to put the library someplace else other than with the media....

[wer]

Yes, that was a goof.  Put the database somewhere in a folder by itself. Do NOT put it under the E:\FLACext folder. At some point in the future you might want to import that whole FlacExt tree, so don't muddy it up with extra junk.

I recommend you start over.  Delete the new library and all the copied media files. Start from scratch, put the new database somewhere good, then redo your file copy. Do it right this time and you should get a nice clean result.  If you try and "fix" it, you'll spend a lot of time trying to be sure you got all the little bits of debris left from the first time.

If you adhered to my advice earlier, you didn't actually make any changes to your original library, so everything will be as you left it and you can have a clean start.

[LDF]

Thanks again.  Actually it was pretty simple.
 
At the point I figured out what all those extra files were I simply did another clone of the "new" library and put this newest lib into a new directory separate from the music hierarchy.  That created a copy of all those library files in the new, separate directory. So I then just cut/pasted the files that were in the "wrong" place into a "ToDel" folder .. in case I screwed it up. 

I renamed the "bad" library and when I checked it contained no music. (yay!) And when I checked the last cloned library contained the music I expected.   (yay!). I moved the rest of the music using Copy and update database.... then I copied all the other non-music files (.jpgs, .txt, .info) into the new structure on E.

Finally I remembered to check the File Locations I had previously specified under Options... so that when I rip files they go to the new external drive and backups also go into a separate directory on the external drive.

All that is left to do is to eject the drive, take it to the laptop and add the new library. 

And really, thanks a whole bunch.... I think I understand this a lot better now. And I have taken notes in case I have to do something like this again....But actually if I have to move to a larger external drive in the future all I think I have to do is copy all the files (library and music) onto a new drive then rename the new drive to be the same drive letter as the old drive.... and I imagine MC won't see the difference. Hopefully that won't be necessary for a while now!

[wer]

I'm glad you got everything sorted out. Good job.