Can the path to the iTunes Music folder be locked?

I'm trying to simplify the results of my own occasional user error.
Can the path to the iTunes Music folder be locked?
I have my library stored on an external drive that I keep turned off when not in use. If I accidentally start iTunes with that drive off, it recreates the original iTunes Music folder and directs itself there.
Can that behavior be stopped? It seems like there should be a way for iTunes to send a pop up or something, rather than this automated over ride to manual settings.

Yeah, I know I don't have an end of the world scenario here.
But just remounting the drive doesn't do it. I have to go back into iTunes and reset the folder location. Then wait several minutes as it all reorganizes itself.
I know just leaving the drive on is the easiest answer. It causes too much of a domestic dispute about all the blinking boxes I have running all the time. I have convinced her that the green one on the AEBS has to be on if she wants internet.

Similar Messages

How can I add songs to itunes music folder without them being duplicated within the folder (not on my hard drive)?

I have music files all over the place and want to put them all in itunes with no duplicates and get rid of all the rest. how can I do that? Some of my playlists are missing songs. I would like to move the playlist back to itunes from my ipod without having to put the songs in my media folder yet again! I have wasted so much time fooling with this. Really what I am trying to get at through all of this is to run the songs on the ipod through ivolume so they play equally.
Can anyone make sense of this for me?

It sounds like you have a few different problems.
To find all your music, try using a spotlight search. Type "kind:music" in the spotlight search (the magnifying glass in the far upper-right corner ) then choose "show all in finder". You'll end up with a window that shows all your music files, regardless of where they are on your hard drive. But don't move any files, because that may confuse iTunes (it won't be able to find files that you move, because - d'oh! - you moved them and now they're not where iTunes left them. That's usually how people end up in the kind of situation that you're in.)
If you want to let iTunes organize your music for you, make sure those options are turned on in the iTunes preferences (in the "advanced" section), then go to the "File" menu, choose "Library" and then choose "Organize library". That will put all your music in the iTunes Library folder (but leave copies of the originals wherever they were, all over your hard drive).
To find duplicates in your iTunes Library, choose "display duplicates" (or hold down the option key and it changes to "display exact duplicates" which might help in some cases). You'll still have to manually go through them to delete one of each duplicate.
Now you can start combining those three techniques - if you consolidate your music and let iTunes copy everything into the music folder, you'll know that iTunes safely has a copy of all your music in the iTunes Library folder. So you can do the spotlight search, and delete any duplicate files that are not in your iTunes library folder. Anything that's left over (that is, it's not a duplicate and it's not in the itunes music folder), you'll need to add to iTunes (try using the "automatically add to itunes" folder - spotlight search to find it - anything you drop in there will get added to iTunes without leaving a duplicate file). Then you can use the itunes "duplicates" feature to find the duplicates in iTunes and fix those.

How can I move my iPod iTunes Music Folder from C: drive to a New Drive?

Running out of space on my PC's C: drive, so I tried moving all the folder to my new E: drive ie: (E:\My Music 2\iTunes).
ALSO set iTunes (Edit/Preferences/Advanced/iTunes Music Folder location to E:\My Music 2\iTunes - but nothing seems to help!)
All of the files couldn't find the source files, unless I pointed to them one by one.
Can't move them all back because they are about 7GB+, and I now only have about 5.5 GB on my C: drive.
And when I just went to open iTunes again, all my libraries don't even show.
I'm afraid to plug in my ipod for synching until I get this straight, for fear of messing that up too.
Please advise.
Compaq Presario Windows XP Notebook.
Compaq Presario Windows XP Notebook.

To move your iTunes music to an external drive...
1 Quit iTunes.
2 Move the entire iTunes folder including music to
the external drive.
In point #2 do you mean move the entire Program File folder of iTunes or just the "My Documents" iTunes library folder?
I have a full laptop, a big iPod and an external HD, I am trying to figure out how to store my library on the HD, but access it as if it were on the laptop.
I moved my iTunes library to the HD and then in iTunes I used the "add folder to library" function, but it brought all of the song files back onto the laptop.
How do you iPod gurus configure your setup with comp, HD and iPod? I need some guidance, my methods are not working.
laptop Windows XP

How can I move iTunes music folder to another drive?

I have iTunes version 7.1 running on a notebook with Windows Vista. My iTunes music folder is becoming too large for the C; drive and I am having problems successfully moving it to the D: drive.
I know the folder is in the D: drive because I can see it there. I have followed guidance on how to link it to iTunes: Edit / Preferences / Advanced / General / Change (choosing iTunes music folder on the D: drive) / OK. I have also ticked the "Keep iTunes Music folder organised" box, as well as the "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library" box. Nevertheless, when I open iTunes my music does not appear in the library.
What am I doing wrong?

Firstly there is more than one kind of iTunes Library file:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93732
Secondly you should consolidate your library:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iTunesMac/7.3/en/670x.html
The following link will give you the instructions to move iTunes to an EHD. These instructions need to be followed EXACTLY.
The 2 metadata files within the main iTunes folder must stay on the main drive of your system as that is their "home", they can't be moved.
Now read this:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748

I imported a CD audio book into iTunes 11, searching says its there, but I cannot find it. It does appear in my iTunes music folder.

Using Audiobook builder I imported an audiobook CD into iTunes 11. I can see it in my iTunes music folder on the hard drive, searching in iTunes 11 says its there, but in either the albums or list, it does not appear. I have successfully imported many CDs using Audiobook Builder before, but with this particulary book I have this problem.
Any ideas anyone ?

The missing file thing happens if the file is no longer where iTunes expects to find it. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool has moved, renamed or deleted the file, or that the drive it lives on has had a change of drive letter. It is also possible that iTunes has changed from expecting the files to be in the pre-iTunes 9 layout to post-iTunes 9 layout,or vice-versa, and so is looking in slightly the wrong place.
At guess you've used a different profile name. Files inside the media folder have survied the transfer, but those outside are expected to be on the same absolute file paths, but no longer are.
Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to get info, then cancel when asked to try to locate the track. Look on the summary tab for the location that iTunes thinks the file should be. Now take a look around your hard drive(s). Hopefully you can locate the track in question. If a section of your library has simply been moved, or a drive letter has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions.
Alternatively, as long as you can find a location holding the missing files, then you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes.
tt2

Best practice for iTunes' music folder

i keep my music on an external drive, but want itunes to be able to play the songs.
currently, the itunes music folder is set to its default location. i changed the preference to prevent iTunes from copying music to this location. i added music to iTunes using File | 'Add folder to Library' menu.
my friend, who also has his music on an external drive, set his itunes music folder to the Music folder on his external drive.
what are the differences between these two approaches? what are the issues?
is there a best practice for using iTunes w/ music stored on an external drive?
thanks for your time.
craig

Thanks Paul for helping
I am getting the symbol and can locate the song but it is very time consuming and I can't do whole albums .
I tried dragging the entire music folder into iTunes . Is this it , iTunes Music Library.xml ? These are all the files and folders I found
iTunes 3 Music Library Data file
iTunes 4 Music Library Data File
iTunes 4 Music Library (Old) Data File
iTunes Music folder
iTunes Music Library.xml document
Temp File Document
I unchecked the "Copy files to iTunes Music folder "
before I dragged the xml. doc into the iTunes symbol in the dock .
This seems to have made matters worse . Now I can't find the file at all except through the finder .
Remember this is 10.3.9 with v4.7
Powerbook Mac OS X (10.4.6) Panther eMac

New files in iTunes music folder

Hello...I made a change from a Windows computer to the iMac. I copied all my music files from my Windows computer to my external hard drive, and then copied from the external hard drive to my iTunes music folder. When I compared the info between my iTunes music folder, and the music files on my external hard drive, the iTunes music folder had more files. By looking through the files it looks like two extra files were added to each album folder....a folder.jpg file and a AlbumArtSmall.jpg file was created. I didn't have those files coming from my windows folder, how come they show up now? Are those two files necessary?

I have a few of these also - all from downloaded albums, which would either have been .zip or .rar files when they arrived on my desktop. This ring any mental bells with you? (I never questioned what they are, and I only imported the music files to iTunes).

Restored my Macbook Pro but my iTunes content was saved on a separate partition. When I re-setup iTunes the status bar reports 30gb less content than my iTunes Music folder. How can I find what is 'missing'?

My Macbook Pro software was failing and the Apple Store was able to restore it without removing the partition on my hard drive that contained most of my files including all my iTunes content. Initially when I re-setup my library I simply went to file--> add to library. Shortly after I realized that was essentially copying the library to the other portion of the partition because I forgot to change the location of the library. So I deleted the content already copied & then I re-setup the library, by asking it to be pulled from the previous location using this pages advice: iTunes: How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
It appeared to work & everything I thought was imported. But on closer inspection, it appears that I have 30gbs less appearing on the status bar in the iTunes app than I do when I pull up the info on the iTunes Music folder in my finder. I'm not sure if this means somehow I have 30gbs of duplicates in my finder folder or if (most likely) I somehow didn't fully import the library from that file. Any advice? Is there a way to restore iTunes to factory settings again & set it up correctly this time?
Also I never actually trashed the original content I accidentally transferred to the other drive but when i skimmed those in my trash bin it appears they ARE indeed in iTunes, so I have no clue what didn't actually import. Any ideas?! I'd greatly appreciate it!

You could have all the computers point to the same library but it can't be opened by more than one at any time.
No answer for knowing which library is in use other than selecting it at startup. This question gets asked here occasionally but I don't think it is a high-demand feature since most people have just one library. I guess you could put in an empty playlist with the library name so you have an identifier.

My iTunes music folder is almost 1.5x the size on disc as my iTunes library. How can I get rid of this extra data?

When I look at the iTunes music folder in Windows Explorer, it shows as 28.0 GB. In the iTunes library, it says my music is 18.3 GB. I would like to get my 10 gigs back.
I've tried to add the media folder to my library - it just duplicated maybe 10 songs, didn't add any new ones. This suggests that there isn't any extra music in the folder. So why is it 10 GB larger? How can I get rid of the extra non-music data?

Apparently there are some mp3 files that aren't adding despite importing the folder...
That is actually a very common problem, due to iTunes being strict/finicky/incompetent (pick your own interpretation) about slight variations in MP3 formats. The problem can usually be corrected by treating the files with a 3rd party tag cleanup program, such as MP3 Validator.
i don't know how much of the missing 9.7 GB this will apply to, but definitely worth a try.

Can't copy the mp3 in iTunes Music folder to flashdisk or external harddisk

I have added all of my mp3 files to iTunes library and deleted all the original mp3 files *coz I thought it's been saved in the iTunes Music folder*
But after I tried to copy the files from iTunes Music folder to flashdisk a message appear. Here is the message:
"The finder cannot complete the operation because some data in "NAME.mp3" could not be read or written. (Error code -36)"
Please help me,this is the first time I use Mac...
Thanks before.. ^^

hexonxonx,
Thanks for responding to my question. I'm trying to troubleshoot an audiobook that won't download from the iTunes store. It's part one of a two part audiobook. The second part downloaded properly, along with three other audiobooks.
iTunes support has given me two sets of instructions, neither which I can carry out.
The first set is to empty the Downloads folder and then empty the trash, and the second set to to empty the cache folder. Unfortunately, I can't find either folder. I also cannot find a folder labeled with the name of the audiobook that is hung up. If you have any further advice, I'd appreciate it.
Caoim

I have 100's of CDs that I have downloaded to my itunes library and they are in the library playable but they do not show up in the C drive under the iTunes Music folder under users. Why are they in the libary and not in the itunes music folder. Win 7 OS

I have 100's of CDs that I have downloaded to my itunes library and they are in the library playable but they do not show up in the C drive under the iTunes Music folder under users. Why are they in the libary and not in the itunes music folder. Win 7 OS. When I look in the library under the get info screen it says they are in the folder itunes music, under the c: drive but when I actually go to that folder to look for them they are not there....HELP!

Hello RumDog,
I think this article will help you find the media in your library.
Where are my iTunes files located?
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
Discovering and changing the iTunes Media folder location
Note: You would usually only change the iTunes Media folder location to share music between accounts on the same computer. See this article for specific steps on how to accomplish this. Also, see this article if you want to know how to move your music to a new computer.
Mac OS X: Click the iTunes menu and choose Preferences.
Windows: Click the Edit menu and choose Preferences.
Click the Advanced pane. iTunes displays the location of your iTunes Media folder.
You can then:
Note where your media folder is, such as for backing up your media.
Use the Reset button to reset it's location to the default (which is the iTunes folder).
Click the Change button to select a folder for a new location. Once you change this location:
If you make a new or alternate iTunes library, the new location will be used by that library.
Existing files will not be moved unless you choose File > Library > Organize library and choose the option to "Consolidate files."
From: Where are my iTunes files located?
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
Cheers,
Sterling

Two user accounts one Itunes Music Folder, How do I keep the Libraries sync

Okay let's see if I can explain my dilemma properly. My girlfriend shares my computer with me, so I gave her a seperate account to keep her stuff in. However I keep all our music on an external hard drive in the iTunes music folder. The problem is everytime I upload new music or delete something on my account/ iTunes library, It doesn't update the iTunes library on her account. Therefore I have to sign in to her account to update her library with new music or delete tracks that have been removed from the Music folder. Kinda a minor thing until you upload 5 new CD's and remove like a 100 old tracks/podcasts, then it gets to be very annoying and time consuming. So is there anything I can do to sync our libraries to the music folder when changes are made? Hope I explained that well, and thanks for your help in advance!
powerbook G4 1 Ghz 12.1 inch Mac OS X (10.4.7) iTunes 6.0.1
powerbook G4 1 Ghz 12.1 inch Mac OS X (10.4.7)

open749
As both libraries are the same you're wasting disk space, so have only one library - yours and enable sharing on it.
You need to be looged in and iTunes running, she will enable 'look for shared libraries' in her Preferences... and your library will show up.
Regards
TD

How do i get the mp3 information in my music folder to match the changes i make in itunes?

So basically, I am very OCD about the organization of my Itunes music collection. Every time I add a song I edit the info so that the artist, track name, album art, etc. are correct and follow the format I use. My Itunes music folder, however, is a complete disaster. Songs that I've imported from CDs are impossible to find because the proper artist and track names that I fix in itunes are not altered on the actual mp3 file. Even songs that I've purchased online frustrate me because I have a preferred method of organizing collaborative works that's different from the way the songs are initially labeled. Ultimately, I have a ton of music that would be a nightmare to sort through if I did so outside of Itunes.
I've looked this up quite a few times and honestly haven't been able to find any advice that can solve this problem. Perhaps I haven't been looking up the right question, but I hope what I'm trying to get across now makes sense. I believe what I need is for the id3 tags to be permanently changed when I alter information in Itunes.
I'm running OS X Lion 10.7.5 on a MacBook Pro.
I would be extremely grateful if anyone knows a way I can solve this problem, even if the only data I'm able to alter is the artist and track name, that would still be a significant help.
Thanks in advance !

Unfortunately, that's the only method Keep Media Organized uses. It's not as simple as renaming the file: iTunes may be unable to locate the file if the Filename changes, and you locating each file manually for iTunes is probably not an option.
However, now you have most of your library organized by iTunes, if you could stay on top of manual organization, you can uncheck this option and google one of Doug's scripts (perhaps "Doug's iTunes Script Append Artist to Filename"—you'll want to check version compatibility and whatnot with such scripts, as many of them are rather old). Your new additions to your library will not be organized automatically, though. I personally prefer iTunes organizing my files, as I am liable to procrastinate to an unholy degree when faced with organizational tasks!

Itunes cannot see the itunes music folder on my external hard drive

I recently put all of my music on an external hard drive to free up space on my computer,
However, when I am in itunes and trying to point the library to the music folder, itunes still cannot see it. Instead all it can see is the E drive WD Passport, and folders named autorun, WD Sync Data Wd Windows Tools.
Can anyone tell me how I can see my itunes music folder on my external hard drive while I am in preferences, advanced, library location, change??

I don't know enough about iTunes for Windows to help you with this. But if you post your question in the Using iTunes for Windows forum you will get help from people who know more about this.
(This is the forum for Apple's Mac OS X web browser, Safari.)

I'm retiring my old computer (windows xp) to a new computer (windows 7). How can i easily move my itunes music from the old computer to the new computer? i have my playlists organized in my old computer, i would like it to stay that way in my new computer

i'm retiring my old computer (with windows xp) and bought a new computer (with windows 7). How can i easily move my itunes music from the old computer to the new computer? i have my playlists organized in my old computer, i would like it to stay that way in my new computer. I also have my ipods, iphone sync'd in the old computer so i want to make sure that things won't get messed up (my apps, playlists, etc) when i move over everything to the new computer and sync all my devices with the new computer.
Thanks in advance for the tips.

Make sure the XP box is upgraded to the latest version of itunes. Also make sure it's using the itunes media folder layout as explained here, because that's what the W7 is going to be using.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3847
Install itunes on the new W7 PC.
Get these folders from the XP machine
C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My Music\iTunes
C:\Documents and Settings\(username)\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\
And put them here on the W7 machine
C:\users\username\My Music\iTunes
C:\Users\(username)\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\

Can the path to the iTunes Music folder be locked?

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