Laptop died. Had backup of ITunes Media Folder but now cant restore music to Ipod after ios5 upgrade!

Hi guys. My laptop died a week ago and I managed to get the Itunes Media Folder copied off hard drive before it completely died. Since then, loaded Itunes on my main PC for first time (ios5), authorised it and then pointed iTunes at the Itunes Media Folder. Since trying to sync my Ipod Touch (which effectively had to be overwritten) I've noticed that most of my music on the iPod Touch is Greyed out. Majority of the music was from Amazon and purchased CD's imported to Itunes. All plays OK on iTunes but Ipod wont play 'em.
Any ideas guys? Tried syncing about 8 times now. Real pain in the bum!

I am getting a bit lost on what was done and exactly why you did it that way. It looks to me like you use iTunes with standard preferences settings and you didn't so much move your media folder to the external drive as your whole iTunes library (everything in the top level folder including all the media files). This should have been done simply by copying the iTunes folder from the old drive to the new one, renaming the AllMyiTunesMusic folder if you so desire, then starting iTunes while holding down the option/alt key and selecting that folder as the iTunes library to now start using. Apart from the copy time when you could go away and drink a pot of coffee the actual labor time would be about 2 minutes. I think you must have done something different which has kind of messed up your library and resulted in duplication of files. Some of those folders such as Movies and the neighboring Music folder should be in the media folder, but don't move things about in Finder or iTunes may lose track of them and things will get worse. If you can go back and do things properly then I recommend you do so, otherwise we can see what we can work with here.
What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
More on iTunes library files and what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management
What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html
Where are my iTunes files located? - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
iTunes 9 [and later]: Understanding iTunes Media Organization - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3847 - plus supplemental information about organizing to new structure https://discussions.apple.com/message/26404702#26404702
Image of folder structure and explanation of different iTunes versions (turingtest2 post) - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-7392 and making an iTunes library portable.

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I have tried to consolidate all my music files to my Itunes Media folder but it is still missing quite a few files. How can I fix this?

So I just bought a new computer and want to transfer my itunes library over. I went through the organize library option and consolidated the files to the itunes media folder, but when i checked the folder it was missing many files still. I tried to consolidate again and it didn't do anything. How can I fix this?

Just to clarify ... you still have media files that are linked correctly from iTunes (i.e., right-click > Get Info, File tab shows the correct location), but these have not been moved to the "expected" location - assuming your iTunes folder is in the default place - C:\Users\username\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music\artist_name\album_title - correct?
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Stop with the whining.
Download past purchases from iTunes

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Commway wrote:
Such a simple solution but it works.
Nice when that happens!

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The Macintosh has something called "file aliases" which allow you to move files from their original locations and applications that reference those files will still know how to find them. Windows does not have anything like that. It works off of full path / file names. So, when you moved your music folder and all your music in Windows Explorer, iTunes is still pointing to the old location.
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Back up all data immediately as your boot drive may be failing.
If you have more than one user account, these instructions must be carried out as an administrator. I've tested them only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, they may not work as described.
Triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:
syslog -k Sender kernel -k Message CReq 'Channel t|GPU D|I/O|n Cause: -' | tail | open -ef
Copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C).
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
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tt2

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Hi, im new to itunes and have recently downloaded my cd collection to itunes ( 7000 odd tracks worth)
Ive just realised that i never had the "add files to itunes media folder when adding to library" box ticked.
I would like to know if im am still able to add all my music to the itunes media folder now that they are already downloaded and in my library?
I would like to know this because i would like to use some songs in windows movie maker and when i search for the music using wmm, i can find the itunes media folder but there is no music inside.
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In iTunes parlance a file is consolidated if it is located inside the iTunes Media folder, and by extension unconsolidated if outside the media folder. The option you refer to, if enabled, ensures that all tracks added to the library thereafter are consolidated, though it won't affect tracks that are already part of the library when you make the change.
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tt2

ITunes doesn't play files stored in iTunes media Folder

Hi, have this problem:
I had deleted my files from iTunes media folder, but as luckily I had the same files located in other place I just copied them to the iTunes Media but iTunes rejects to play them (in my iTunes Library). I'm only able to play them if I go through the procedure as followings: Play - "iTunes unable to open this file because the original file not found. Do you want to find it?" (or smith like that) - Find - Open and then it plays, but I have to perform these actions with every file separately and I have quite a lot of them. Oh, and after that first popping-up window the next one appears "Would you like iTunes to find other missing files from the same location as [the file's name]?" But when I click on "Find" it says "iTunes were unable to find other missing files". Why? How do I accomplish the same task but with all my albums at once without necessity to add them one by one? Does there some way exists to tie the tracks from my albums with original files without importing them to my iTunes library?
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Understand how iTunes works. iTunes does not actively look for files. When you add a file to iTunes the location of that file is saved in the iTunes database (library file). When you try to play a track iTunes looks in its database for where the linked file is to be found and tries to play the specific file it has listed in that location. If you deleted the file then it no longer exists. I think even if you replace it with one that is identical, iTunes is still looking for that specific file. You can link the track listing to a new file using the process you have done. In theory iTunes should be able to find others but the files have to have been organized by iTunes in the past because it will be working on the basis of how it thinks they should be arranged. Additionally the files you replaced have to have exactly the same name as the ones you deleted because iTunes will expect them to be named how it would name them when they were first entered into your library

How to split up a large iTunes Media folder onto different drives?

Hi everyone. Not too long ago I committed to digital-only media, which i am very happy with. The problem i am running into now is that my iTunes media folder is now only 100GB or so shy of the 2TB mark, so it will soon outgrow the largest of hard drives available. I have considered getting a RAID card for my Mac Pro to setup a RAID 0 with two 2TB drives, but I don't think i should have to drop $700 just to get my iTunes media organized onto any of the four 2TB drives i already have.
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I have also tried leaving an alias ("Movies" for example) that points to my movies folder on a separate drive, but iTunes doesn't seem to want to follow the alias.
Anyway, i figured this scenario has to have come up before, and there may be some other solutions out there. Any help would be most appreciated.
Message was edited by: acosmichippo54

acosmichippo54 wrote:
ok, after reviewing those tips, these problems still bug me:
Macyourself: +"Any time you want to add a new movie or TV show to your library, move it over to the appropriate folder on your external hard drive, hold Option, and drag it to iTunes.+
i agree this involves a little more +user interaction+ but once you get into a routine, it is really quite simple to manage. for example, i keep all my *Apple Lossless* tunes on an external USB drive. i add newly ripped CD's to that external, then option drag the folder into iTunes and have iTunes convert those tunes to AAC 256 (which are thus kept in the main library).
machintsandtips: +"This does involve a couple of extra steps for movies and TV shows I automatically download from the iTunes store, since I have to move that media to the external drive, and then move it back into iTunes."+
again, splitting your library across various drives does involve more user interaction. your only alternative would be e.g. a 4 gig (or more) Drobo or similar. however, in order to have a backup, you would need another, equally sized, Drobo which you would need to keep +in sync+ with the primary one.
Everything you linked to will definitely resolve the problem for my current library, but as soon as i start adding media, it seems like it will get quickly disorganized.
i humbly disagree. it all depends on what you want: dish out $$$ for bigger sized drives or split your lib across various (already available) drives - whichever path you decide on, you'll be more involved in maintaining your library - i consider that a plus coz it let's me manage things as i want.
however, there are tools that could help you manage your split-lib, one of which being TuneSpan.
best of luck !
JGG

Moving iTunes Media folder to second internal drive fails

The whole story is:
I never really used the iTunes media folder system. All my music is on extrenal drive and I was only importing it into iTunes manually to keep my own folder system, for example once a week Ive created a folder with a date of creating and there I had all the releases from that week (some in their own folder or separately but all in this one folder named by a dat eof creation). So on my ext. drive I have lots of these folders by date. And the names of folder always correspond with the date added to iTunes as well
My ext. drive is full now. so Ive decided to take a next step and put out the dvd-rom and put another internal drive (1TB) into my macbook pro which will be used for music and movie data only (the system stays on the old one).
What I want to do now is somehow move all these music folder to my new internal drive, so they can be accessed from iTunes without reseting all its features.
Ive read that one solution can be creating the new iTunes Media folder on that new drive and Consolidate all music from iTunes to this location. Problem is I cant even try it, because when go to iTunes Preferences to change the location of Media folder a hit Create after selectin the new location (new internal drive) after fee seconds the progress freezes and Activity Monitor says that iTunes are not responding. Ive tried to leave it for about half an hour and no changes, even tho theres not much to copy/move cause the Media folder has no music in it, only playlists etc.
So question number one is - why its freezing?
Question number two - any other way to trasfer all my collection and keep its organiation as it is without loosing the iTunes list and be able to use it after transfer?
Thanks in advance for your help and tips

Not sure about question 1...
What I think you should do is try to copy the existing iTunes library folder from <User's Music>/iTunes to <1Tb Drive>/iTunes then hold down option as you start iTunes. You should be asked to choose or create a library. Click choose and browse to the library file at <1Tb Drive>/iTunes/iTunes Library.itl (BTW if the the .itl extension is missing you should probably add it match the current format, but it will work either way).
The new copy of the library should work just as before, but check a few random things first, you can always revert to the previous library with option-start-iTunes if it doesn't work.
Under iTunes > Library > Orgainze Library if the option is available tick Reorganize files in the folder <Media Folder>. This will make sure the new version of your library is as portable as possible. Next under preferences > Advanced make sure that the media folder is given as <1Tb Drive>/iTunes/iTunes Media. If needed you can change this value. If you change the folder at this point iTunes should offer to copy your existing media into this new location. That ought to work, thought it will take some time. Alternatively you decline the offer and then selectively consolidate the library in batches, e.g. by selecting the tracks of all Artists beginning with A, and consolidating just those tracks, then repeasting with, B, C etc. followed by other types of media. If iTunes didn't prompt, or the folder was already correct, you can decide whether to try in batches or use iTunes > Library > Organize Library > Consolidate files.
tt2

How do I get a new replacement computer to recognize my itunes media folder already installed on a home network drive?

My computer crashed and I have replaced it. But I haven't been able to get itunes on the new computer to recognize the itunes media folder that holds all my music on a home networked drive. How do I link them back together?

Was the library database stored or backed up to the networked drive? If so you can hold down shift as you start iTunes to reconnect to the database, otherwise you'll have to rebuild the library with the content.
See How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one.
For the future see this backup User Tip.
tt2

Laptop died. Had backup of ITunes Media Folder but now cant restore music to Ipod after ios5 upgrade!

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