The ability to use external magnetic fields to influence the microstructure in polycrystalline materials has potential applications in microstructural engineering. To explore this potential and to understand the complex interactions between electromagnetic fields and solid-state matter transport we consider a phase-field-crystal (PFC) model. Together with efficient and scalable numerical algorithms this allows the examination of the role that external magnetic fields play on the evolution of defect structures and grain boundaries, on diffusive time scales. Examples for planar and circular grain boundaries explain the essential atomistic processes and large scale simulations in 2D are used to obtain statistical data on grain growth under the influence of external fields.It is well known that material properties of polycrystalline materials are strongly influenced by the average grain size. For example, in some compounds the magnetic coercivity can increase by orders of magnitude as the grain size changes from nano to micron scales [1][2][3][4]. In metals the yield strength can not only change dramatically with grain size (the so-called Hall-Petch effect [5-10]) but it is also influenced by details of the grain size distribution [11]. Each of the cases highlights the importance of the grain structure and the technological need to understand and control its formation. The use of external magnetic fields offers additional degrees of freedom to synthesize materials and to tailor the grain structure and thus material properties. Although evidence for the interactions between external magnetic fields, diffusion and irreversible deformation mechanisms have been gathered over the years, see the review [12], a global yet detailed understanding of the interactions between magnetic fields and solid-state matter transport is far from being reached. In this Letter we analyze the properties of a theoretical model, which allows the description of the basic physics of magnetocrystalline interactions in a multiscale approach, combining the dynamics of defects, dislocation networks and grain boundaries with experimentally accessible microstructure evolution on diffusive time scales. The basic mechanisms of this interaction can be understood on thermodynamic arguments. In magnetic materials the magnetic moments are aligned with a sufficiently strong external magnetic field. If the magnetic properties of the material are anisotropic, the bulk free energy differs for differently oriented grains and the energy difference can influence grain boundary (GB) movement. Assuming setups of two differently oriented grains in a strong magnetic field, see Fig 1, the total energy of the system reads E = γl + ∆f A 0 + f 1 (A 0 + A 1 ), where l is the length of GB and A i , f i the size and the energy density of the i-th grain, ∆f = f 0 − f 1 and γ the energy of the GB. The dynamics of the GB can be described by Mullins-type models [13] v = −M (γκ − ∆f ) (1) FIG. 1. Two grains with size A0 and A1 separated by a GB with size l, which moves locally w...