Most people who use Logic Pro initially download the sound library to their computer’s internal storage, but over the long term, you’re likely to run out of space on your Mac. Moving the library to an external drive can save you a huge amount of space on your computer and improve performance speeds.
So long as you have a USB-C port to spare during your sessions, keeping the Logic sound library on an external drive has few downsides.
Choosing an External Hard Drive
An external hard drive (HD) with around 70GB of free space should be more than enough to hold the entire Logic sound library. The library sits at around 73GB, but things like Apple Loops, impulse responses, and software instrument presets remain on the computer.
If you’re in the market for a new hard drive, SSDs (solid-state drives) are widely available at a reasonable cost and offer the best durability and write speeds when compared to older HDDs (hard disk drives).
As most newer Mac computers use USB-C ports, it’s worth purchasing an external HD that also uses this type of connection, or you will end up needing a converter.
There are a few extrafactors you need to consider when buying an external HD for a Macand a decent read and write speed is among the most important of these. This will help keep your Logic session running smoothly.
Finally, don’t discount HDDs if you have one lying around. Especially if they were originally of a high quality. you may test how the drive performs with your laptop and if you find it’s too slow then you can shop around for something better.
If you want to take a quick glance at some good options, see our roundup of thebest hard drives you can buy for Mac.
How to Move the Logic Sound Library to an External HD
Relocating the Logic sound library is a fairly straightforward process and doing so has the added benefit ofimproving the performance of Logic Pro on your computer. There are, however, a few caveats.
One thing to bear in mind is that the library must be downloaded to your computer first, before attempting to relocate it. Added to that, you cannot relocate the library to a drive previously used for Time Machine backups.
With those important notes covered, here’s what you need to do:
When using Logic Pro in the future, connect the external HD to your computer. Logic will recognize the sound library automatically.
How to Move the Logic Sound Library Back to Your Computer
Moving the library back to your computer follows the same process. You will need to do this if you plan on renaming the external HD where your Logic library is located, otherwise, you may encounter problems.
First, move the library back to your computer following the steps below, then rename your external HD. After that, you may relocate the library back to the external drive with the new name.
Here are the steps:
Troubleshooting Logic’s Sound Library Not Working
While relocating the Logic sound library is fairly easy, you’re able to still run into some frustrating problems. Generally, the issue comes down to accidentally changing the name of the external HD or folders within the file path.
We’ve got a few troubleshooting steps you can take below if you encounter these problems.
The Sound Library Directory Could Not Be Found
Disconnecting the external HD where the sound library is located will result in a message saying the sound library can’t be found.
First, double-check that your HD is connected properly. If that isn’t the problem, it might be because the HD name has been altered. It may also be a problem caused by downloading the sound library directly to the HD, instead of first downloading it to your computer and then relocating it.
In either case, you will need to reset the sound library:
Logic Sound Library Menu Grayed Out
You may encounter a problem where the sound library menu is grayed out in the settings menu. This can be caused by the name of the external HD being changed or similarly, altering the name of the folders containing the sound library.
In this case, try the following:
The menu should no longer be grayed out, giving you the option to relocate the sound library and access the sound library manager.
If you can’t remember the original name of your external HD, follow these steps:
Relocate Logic’s Sound Library and Free Up Space
Moving Logic’s sound library to an external HD can free up a huge amount of space on your computer while having the added benefit of improving the performance speed of Logic. If you have a spare HD lying around you may test it out, otherwise, grab yourself a reliable SSD to do the job.
