One thing to be clear on, MC calls its internal database the Library. You're referring, I'm sure, to the more generic concept of your media files on disk.
But, just to be sure you get that concept:
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/LibraryOk... That point cleared up, then onto your actual question. Before you start anything, make a
Library Backup. This will back up MC's Settings and Library to a ZIP file so you can undo changes there (though not to the media files on disk) if needed. Just make one. It is way better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
Once you've made your backup, there are a number of choices here:
1. Move the files yourself via the Finder, and then fix MC's Library afterwards.
2. Move the files yourself via the Finder, and then let Auto-Import and Fix Broken Links fix it for you.
3. Move the files yourself via the Finder, remove all of the files from your MC Library, and re-import them.
4. Move the files within MC using the
Rename, Move, and Copy Files tool.
5. Move the files within MC using
Drives & Devices under the
Tree.
The "best" option, if you want to ensure that the MC Library remains fully intact is to move the files using MC itself rather than externally (Option #4 or #5). The
Rename, Move, and Copy Files tool is quite powerful and can be used to do exactly what you want. When moving an existing file/folder structure from one disk to another, the easiest way is usually using it in Find & Replace mode (just search for the existing volume name, and replace it with the new volume name, and it'll move the whole directory structure over).
To use this tool, select the files you'd like to move, and do:
Right-click/Control-click > Library Tools > Rename, Move, & Copy FilesThe tool can also move files to new folders and create new filename structures based on the metadata in MC. As I said, though, to move an existing structure, you might want to use
Find & Replace instead.
The one downside to this approach is that it will not move any files MC doesn't "know about". It does move some MC-created auxiliary files over (subtitle sidecar files, album art, and things like that), but it doesn't move everything from the source folders. It only moves the assets you select in MC (and those few, specific, matching sidecar files).
You can still move the files within MC and avoid this problem if you use Option #5 above. However, this only allows you to move a single folder at a time. This will probably work fine if you keep all of your media files in one "top-level" folder currently, and you just want to move that whole "top-level" folder over to another disk. If so, then this option should work and will make sure that
everything in the source directories gets moved, while also making sure MC's Library is kept up-to-date for files that have been imported into MC.
But, if you have a lot of auxiliary files that weren't created or managed by MC in "with" your media files on disk, you want to ensure these move too, and Option #5 is too troublesome to use, then Option 1 might be better.
Luckily, if you're careful, the
Rename, Move, and Copy Files tool can do this too. In this case, move the files first yourself. But, make sure to do so while preserving the existing filename and folder "structure" on disk (move them as they are, don't re-organize things as you move them). Then, you can go into MC and select all of the "broken" files and still use the Rename, Move, and Copy files tool, in the
Update Database to Point to New Location mode, instead of Rename or Copy.
Option 3 above is pretty much a sledgehammer. It is easy. That's about all I can say about that.
Lastly, in some cases, the
Fix Broken Links feature of
Auto-Import can just fix these kinds of problems pretty seamlessly. If you set up Auto-Import to monitor the new location after moving the files yourself, it should go through and fix all of the broken links. One caution, though: This does count as "re-importing" the files, as far as the [Date Imported] timestamp is concerned. If you use the [Date Imported] in any of your views or smartlists to track newly acquired content, then that will get all filled with all of your media files as it "fixes" the Library. This might not be a big deal to you, though, if you don't use smartlists in this way.
