Library consolidation question

does it move the music from its old location to the itunes folder or copy?

When you consolidate, any songs in the iTunes Library that are not in the iTunes Music Folder are "copied" to the Music Folder and the Library is updated to point to those new files. Files already in the iTunes Music Folder have no changes made to them: Copying all your iTunes files to one location - Mac

Similar Messages

  • ITunes Library Consolidation Help

    Hello there, I am new to the forum. I've been researching a little bit with little luck so I thought I'd try here.
    I am about to finish building a new quad core computer and would like to move my 72 gb library over to my new computer. The only thing is I also want to keep all the song information (especially the date added and such)..but I don't know if it's possible...I just wish I could somehow replicate my library because my library is organized by the dates in which each song was added...
    I've read about Library Consolidation...but I'm not sure if what I have in mind of doing is correct...
    So basically..this is what I have in mind...
    I'm going to buy a small (150 gb) internal hard drive and put it in my old computer. I will press the button that says "keep everything organized" and will change the itunes folder to be assigned within the new internal hard drive. I will then consolidate everything into the new drive.
    Right there I have a question. Is it still okay to consolidate even though the music is all in different places? Barely any of the music is in my iTunes folder (most is in different partitioned drives), and so I am afraid if I try consolidating the files iTunes will freeze or not know what to do.
    Back to what I would do...so then I would take the new hard drive which hopefully has all the music and install it in the new computer. I would then install iTunes on the new computer, and simply insert all the songs from the hard drive? In doing that, wouldn't all the files' information be gone? (Most importantly date added, because the date would now be different?) The only reason I really need date added is because I initially add all of the songs backwards so that they play in order when the songs are sorted by date added. Otherwise, all the songs would be out of order...
    So yeah...I basically was wondering if the process I have in mind is correct, and also if theres any way to keep the file information.
    Lastly, what does export library mean?
    I'm very sorry for the long post, but I have been trying to find out how I would go about doing this with no luck from anywhere...I hope you guys can help me out. I appreciate any help.
    Thanks.

    +Is it still okay to consolidate even though the music is all in different places?+
    Yes, that's exactly what the Consolidate Library command is for.
    +In doing that, wouldn't all the files' information be gone?+
    The ratings, Date Added, etc are store in the itunes library.itl file. That is another important file to copy over.
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
    The XML file can recreate a library but the Date Added will go missing. The ITL is the important one.
    +Lastly, what does export library mean?+
    It exports a list of your library into an XML file, so other application that read XML could use it.

  • Aperture library consolidation - newbie question

    I am pretty new to Aperture. Previously I have been using iPhoto for a long time, so I have quite a big iPhoto library on my internal HDD, most of them with adjustments etc.
    When I installed Aperture a few months ago I imported the iPhoto library without copying the files physically. It means all the "old" photos are still in the iPhoto library and only referenced to in the Aperture library.
    After Aperture installation I do everything differently - I import photos into the Aperture library leaving the originals on a external FW HDD. So I have in the Aperture library now some photos referencing to my internal HDD iPhoto originals and some photos referencing to my external HDD.
    I still use iPhoto but only for slideshows and managing of older online galleries, I published in the past from iPhoto.
    My question: what is the best way to get some order into it and have everything in one place?
    My plan is:
    - first consolidate masters from the iPhoto library into Aperture library with the Copy option checked to bring all referenced masters into the Aperture library
    - then relocate masters from the Aperture library to the external HDD with the Move option checked
    - clean my iPhoto library from within iPhoto
    Is the result of these steps what I am expecting to get? Is there a better way? Am I doing anything wrong?
    Thanks for suggestions.
    Tonden

    You plan seams to be alright.
    1) Consolidate (copy) masters into Aperture library.
    2) Relocate masters to external harddisk.
    You are writing that you "imported your iPhoto library" into Aperture by reference, and here is my question. Did you import both the original (masters) AND adjusted images (versions) into Aperture?
    If you want to use Aperture for all your image adjustment then you should consider to delete all the versions you imported into Aperture (they are now masters in Aperture) and then make adjustments to all the masters you imported from iPhoto.
    All the original masters files you have imported from iPhoto all have the keyword "Original from iPhoto", so they are easy to find.
    Karsten

  • Aperture 2 library / folder question

    When I originally imported some 15k photos from iPhoto into Aperture 1 it appears that I copied folders/ albums but they did NOT go into the Aperture library (I think I may have forgotten to tick the copy to library button). I want to have all masters and all photos in the library. How can I: a) be sure that my originals are in the library and; b) move everything (15K+) of photos from various albums/ folders I have in Aperture 2 into the library?
    When I tried to work on project (new book) I noticed by dragging photos from albums that it was asking if I wanted to move masters. This is when I noticed that I fear my masters are in folders rather than library. Any thoughts much welcome.

    No problem, this is what these boards are made for; questions and answers.
    iPhoto always leave the originals in their location and creates a JPEG- version inside the iPhoto Library. This is not only true for RAW- images but also for importing JPEG's. Then, when you imported the iPhoto Library into Aperture the first time you had to choose if the images should remain in their location (referenced) or managed in the Aperture library. If you told Aperture to import them as referenced, then the masters live in their original location and not inside iPhoto since iPhoto also had these images as referenced.
    If you told Aperture to import the iPhoto library as managed images, then all the (iPhoto referenced) images were imported into the Aperture library.
    As I wrote earlier, Aperture will verify each image when you start to consolidate them. Mind you though, when consolidating the images that came from iPhoto: You will, as usual, get the option to move or copy the images into the Aperture library. If you choose to move them, then Aperture will go to their original location and move them into the library. This will give you a warning in iPhoto telling you that the original is missing when you try to CTRL / Right- click an image or select an image and try to go to the Images menu.
    So, when consolidating images from iPhoto, IMO the better solution is to copy the images into the Aperture library if you would like to work with the images in iPhoto as well. It will make duplicates of your images so this is a choice the individual user have to take.
    Hope this helped you understand the structure and how to work with the two libraries when it comes to importing and consolidating.
    Regards
    Paul K

  • Library consolidation and disc space

    Dear Mac community
    When the latest iPhoto 6 update (6.06) was installed, it didn't contain my active iPhoto library. I realized that it was probably because that library a) wasn't named iPhoto Library, and b)wasn't in the "my pictures" folder. The larger problem was that there are multiple libraries in different locations in my HD, some with imported (copied) photos, others originals.
    Solution was to consolidate all libraries into a new one. Bought and tried to use iPhoto library manager, and started merging 2 libraries. After some time, I got a "startup disc nearing capacity" notice, and realized it was copying all my photos to the new library, not moving them. I cancelled the migration with 165mb left on my HD.
    Questions:
    1) What is the best way to consolidate several photo libraries, with a mix of good and probably corrupted files?
    2) When doing that consolidation, how can I keep within the capacity of my HD
    3) What libraries/folders can I then delete without risk of losing my original images?
    Many thanks!

    Welcome to the Apple Discussions.
    Let’s get the really important stuff out of the way first:
    OS X needs about 10 gigs of hard drive space for normal OS operations - things like virtual memory, temporary files and so on. Without this space your Mac will slow down as the OS hunts for space on the disk, files will be fragmented, also slowing things down, apps will crash and the risk of data corruption - that is damage to your files, photos, music - increases exponentially. Your first priority is to make more space on that HD. Nothing else can be done until you do. Purchase an external HD and move your Photos and Music to it. Both iPhoto and iTunes can run perfectly well with the Library on an external disk.
    When the latest iPhoto 6 update (6.06) was installed, it didn't contain my active iPhoto library
    Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library'
    1) What is the best way to consolidate several photo libraries, with a mix of good and probably corrupted files?
    As you’ve tried, using iPhoto Library Manager.
    2) When doing that consolidation, how can I keep within the capacity of my HD
    The only way to do this is to make space on the HD.
    3) What libraries/folders can I then delete without risk of losing my original images?
    Once you’ve merged two libraries, it depends: dis you merge Library A into Library B? Then you can trash Library A. Did you merge A and B and into a new Library C? Then trash A and B.
    Regards
    TD

  • Library Consolidation help

    Hi all.
    So, I'm a little confused about the 'Consolidation' feature for iTunes. I'm not sure exactly what it does from reading the forum posts.
    Here's my situation:
    I'm quickly running out of space on my computer, so I have been shifting around my music to different hard drives to free up space both for more iTunes downloads and for my C drive on my comp to not be full.
    I understand how the 'iTunes Music Folder Location' function works in the Advanced tab, and I have since changed that to my D drive, which has more space.
    I have manually moved my entire iTunes folder (including Album Artwork, Music, Applications, Libraries, etc) onto the D drive and I was planning on deleting the copies on the C drive so I can free up that space.
    My question is: what exactly does Consolidate Library do? Do I still need to Consolidate if I've already manually moved the files? Will Consolidating be an easy one-step method to have iTunes look for those files in the D drive instead of the C drive (without manually 'searching' for each file as I try to play them? And, does Consolidating also make iTunes read the ITL file from the new location as well?
    I know those are a lot of questions, and I appreciate any feedback I can get.
    Thanks in advance.

    I have manually moved my entire iTunes folder (including Album Artwork, Music, Applications, Libraries, etc) onto the D drive and I was planning on deleting the copies on the C drive so I can free up that space.
    Press and hold SHift and launch iTunes.
    Select *Choose library* and select the _iTunes library.itl_ file in the iTunes folder on the external.
    That is all you need to do.
    Yes, you can delete the iTunes folder in \My Documents\My Music\.
    what exactly does Consolidate Library do?
    It copies everything in iTunes to the iTunes music folder location shown in iTunes prefs -> Advanced.
    Do I still need to Consolidate if I've already manually moved the files?
    Not if you move the entire iTunes folder.
    You consolidate before you move the iTunes folder.
    If you wantot move th eiTUne smusic folder, point iTunes prefs to a new location/drive, then use Consolidate. If you move the iTunes music folder (or if you move/rename ant music files) yourself, iTunes will lose everything.
    Will Consolidating be an easy one-step method to have iTunes look for those files in the D drive instead of the C drive (without manually 'searching' for each file as I try to play them?
    No.
    And, does Consolidating also make iTunes read the ITL file from the new location as well?
    No.

  • Bizarre iTunes Library Consolidation Failure

    This one's got me stumped.
    I have my iTunes media files spread across two large hard drives, and I am rapidly running out of room on the second drive because of all of the video that I am adding.
    I purchased a 2 terabyte MyBook external drive, and did what I've done many time before - I set up a new iTunes music folder on the big drive, and after the iTunes Library file updated, I selected the Consolidate function and let 'er rip.
    Much to my astonishment, the consolidation only transferred the music files that were on one drive, less than half of my podcast files and almost no video files. Since this defeated the point, I recovered the pre-consolidation iTunes Library file via Time Machine, and trashed the new iTunes Music folder in the big drive.
    Has this happened to anyone else? If so, what did you do to overcome the issue?

    I never got an answer to this question, unfortunately. I ended up retrieving a version of my iTunes library from the Time Machine backup, erasing the consolidated drive and leaving my music where it was. I put my movies onto an external drive, and pointed that drive as my "iTunes Library". I still let iTunes organize my music, because I really can't stand doing it myself.
    Here's to hoping that Apple will announce a major upgrade to iTunes at the coming MWE, one that allows users to select different locations for different types of media.

  • Aperture 3 library syncing question

    I want to move to Aperture, but I need some advice first. (I have considered Aperture in the past, but my expectations and demands were unrealistic. Now I am trying to be as realistic as possible about what I want from Aperture.)
    I have learned that Aperture 3 in fact supports syncing libraries between computers. Before I attempt this however I want to find out from you people whether what I want to do will work.
    First let me describe my situation.
    I have Mac Pro which contains the following types of files dating from 1997:
    RAW + JPEG pairs from my DSLR, mirrorless, and compact cameras
    JPEG solo images from DSLR, mirrorless, and compact cameras
    TIFFs, PSDs, and JPEGs from film scans
    TIFFs, PSDs, and JPEGs that are saved, edited versions of the above (edited files have the same filename as the original, plus a few letters added to indicate which changes have been made; s = sharpened, a = converted with ACR, c = cropped, w = web resolution, etc.)
    AVI, MOV, MP4, and MTS (AVCHD) movies shot with various digital cameras
    There are 160,383 files in total, although the number of photographs is probably less than 100,000 due to RAW + JPEG pairs counting as two files. The total space used is ~1.2TB. The files are on an internal 2TB RAID volume, which is constantly backed up to an external Time Machine RAID.
    The files are all organized into folders by year up to 2009, and inside each year's folder are sub-folders that organize the pictures by event. All photos taken after 2009 are organized either by event or by subject matter, depending on which seemed more relevant to the particular shoot. I have been using Adobe Bridge to sort them. After they are sorted, I use a wonderful gem called ChronoSync to sync the JPEGs only (but not the RAWs, TIFFs, PSDs, or movies) to my MacBook Pro. That way I have my photos with me in the field in case I want to make some prints, upload to Flickr/Facebook, etc.
    However, I am feeling many limitations of this workflow -- hence why I am considering Aperture.
    Here are the main things I want to do with Aperture. Please tell me if this will work, and what any gotcha's might be.
    I want to have a "master" Aperture library on the Mac Pro. I will add all my existing files into the master library in a 'referenced' fashion -- they will remain where they are in the current directory structure on the 2TB RAID.
    I want to also maintain a "satellite" Aperture library on the MacBook Pro that contains only the JPEG versions of these files. I would use ChronoSync to copy over all the referenced JPEGs such that they exist in the same places in the directory structure of the laptop as they do on the desktop (i.e. /Users/me/Pictures/etc.), so that hopefully when Aperture looks for them it can find them. (I am guessing that I would create the "satellite" library by simply copying the "master" library to the laptop, rather than creating a fresh library there.)
    I want to use the "satellite" library on the MacBook Pro to perform tagging, adding location data, rating, further organizing, etc. and then sync those changes back to the "master" library on the Mac Pro.
    I know that Aperture 3 has the ability to sync/merge libraries, but my questions are:
    If the "satellite" library has only the JPEGs available on the local drive, then will any metadata changes made in the "satellite" library properly sync back to the JPEG+RAW pairs in the "master" library? I.e. will Aperture still apply changes in metadata to both the RAWs and JPEGs, even though the RAWs were not present on the "satellite"?
    Will Aperture allow me to group other versions of the file besides the RAW and JPEG on the master library? Will metadata to just the JPEG also be applied to these other versions upon syncing, as described above?
    Is it a "two-way sync" -- i.e. will changes made to the master library also sync back to the satellite library? (If not, that's OK with me, because presumably after merging the satellite into the master, I can delete the satellite library, then re-copy the master back to the laptop to make a new satellite library -- I am also going to have copy over any new JPEG files to the laptop as well, so I don't mind copying one extra file [the new satellite library].)
    I'm sure I've forgotton something important here but, my time is limited so I'll leave it at this for now and post any other questions later. Thanks for any tips, I know this is a complicated issue.
    -=DM=-

    I still need to do some experimenting to see if the file references are volume-specific or if they are volume-blind -- i.e. if they just use paths starting with "/[path]" instead of paths starting with "/Volumes/SpecificDriveName/[path]".
    I am not sure I understand you fully - what kind of file referencing are you speaking of?
    If you use managed master image files, the master images are stored inside the Aperture library, and if you move the complete library to a new drive, then thereferences to  files inside the package still work. So obviously Aperture uses relative pathes here.
    If you use referenced master image files - let's for example assume the Aperture library is on Volume A, the referenced master image files are  on Volume B, and you move your Aperture library now from A to Volume C:  If you open the Library on Volume C, it will still find the master image files on Volume B, so the library stores the absolute path for referenced masters. This even works with referenced masters on network volumes, but I really cannot recommend to store the masters on remote volumes; you will have to make sure the volume is mounted, when you launch Aperture.
    Is that what you were asking about? if not, please rephrase your question.
    Regards
    Léonie

  • Library Sharing question

    Hi
    I am not even sure if this is possible
    I have a desktop PC (Vista & iTunes 8) and all my music is on an external 250gb hd.
    I have successfully managed to share this library with my laptop (again Vista & iTunes 8)over my wireless network. None of the music is actually on the hd of the laptop.
    My question is , is it possible to edit the song info on the laptop?
    Regards
    Graeme

    Yes. That itunes sharing feature lets folks in dorms & offices share music.
    So, itunes is not going to let you edit somebody else's library. In this case the other library also belongs to you, but iTunes doesn't know that.
    You have to make the changes on your desktop PC.

  • Library Management question

    Hi, is there a way of ordering the library view by albums which are collapseable, so that I don't have to scroll down endless tracks? Ideally I'd just like to see a nice unclutterd list of my albums by title, which I could then expand individually to see the track names. I don't want to setup playlists for all my albums, and mostly use the library view. Hope this isn't too obvious. thanks

    Thanks for the replies, but I'm really not sure that you understand my question. I know you can display and order by song, album, track. What I want is each album displayed as a single one line title, without all its tracks displayed, making a short neat list of albums. I would then, for example, be able to click a collapse/expand triangle, or on the album name, to see all the tracks on each individual album. I find the default setting where you see all the tracks cluttered and exhausting to scroll down. thanks

  • Library list question

    I just got a new computer, redownloaded iTunes, and imported my music back into it. Somehow I got most, if not all, my songs in my library twice. It is a pain but I can go through and delete them. My question is that some of the songs now have an exclaimation point icon in front of the title of the song. I was unable to find a list of what the icons mean. I am afraid to start deleting the duplicate songs until I know what the exclaimation point means. Anyone know? Sorry if this is already posted out there somewhere. Thanks.

    Hello,
    The exclamation point icon means that the music file was moved from its original location at some point and is no longer there. So the 'duplicate' ones are the old songs, that have the exclamation points, and can be deleted. However, they are not different files. The songs without exclamation points should be the ones that work (if you click on them they should play.) To be safe, I would check to make sure that the songs without exclamation points work and the ones with them don't work before you delete anything. Hope this helps.
    Victoria

  • Library Filter Question

    Within the Metadata Library Filter I often use the 'Treatment' tag to view just colour or just B&W images. I discovered that to give an image the 'Black & White' treatment stamp you needed to use the B&W section in the develop module. However I often use CS5 for my B&W conversion so my question is, is it possible to get this "Black & White' treatment stamp without actually using that aspect of the Develop module?
    Thanks in advance guys

    Unfortunately not.
    Your black and white photos made in Photoshop, will be treated as "Color", even if they were converted to a grayscale "space" in Photoshop. And you cannot even change the treatment to "Black and White", because the treatment control is disabled for grayscale files. This is a little dumb.
    My work around is to apply a "BW" keyword to these files, then use a smart collection with the following rule set:
    Any of the follwofing:
         Treatment is "black and white"
         Keywords contain words "BW"

  • ITunes library transfer question

    Everyone,
    I create a Libary on my MacBook Air it has 2000 songs.  I want to move this to my Mac Book Pro machine and then Sync it with a new purchased iPod Touch.  Can this be done and how.  Do I just copy the iTunes Media folder?
    I tested this and it copied to my Mac Book Pro by coping the iTunes Media folder at the file level to the Music ITunes folder on my Mac Book Pro held down the option key and selected the library.  It opened fine on my Mac Book Pro just fine.  Then I decided to test coping it to a device.  I have a very old iPod I choose some songs and sync it.  Worked fine can listen to the music on the iPod but when I go to iTunes all the music from the iPod is grayed out.  I can play it from iTunes.  WHY?
    Steps that I want to do
    1. I create my iTunes library the way I want it on my MacBook Air.
    2. I copy it (is there a special way) to my MacBook Pro open iTunes holding down the option key choose this library and it should work where I can play music in iTunes.
    My exact question is this.
    If I purchase a 32GB iPod Touch can I plug it into my Macbook Pro and Sync it and it will copy the music over will the music from my library play and work on both in iTunes and on the newly pruchase iPod Touch.
    I am trying to fine this out before purchasing the iPod Touch.
    Are they coming out with new modeled iPod Touches in Oct?  Should I wait is my question.

    click here http://lifehacker.com/242468/geek-to-live--how-to-move-an-itunes-library-from-a- pc-to-mac-and-back
    and here http://www.myfirstmac.com/index.php/mac/articles/how-do-i-move-my-itunes-library -from-pc-to-mac-and-keep-my-settings-intact/
    and here http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2518

  • Iphoto library folder question.

    Don't quite know how to word this one but here goes. If i go to Finder and click on the Pictures icon, i see an iPhoto Library icon. If i highlight that then click on the small wheel cog thing drop down menu above it and go to "Open With" i see several "iPhoto" options. The top one says default but under that there are four more iPhoto icons. Whichever one i click on it seems to open iPhoto correctly but why do i have so many, i only have one iPhoto Library on my mac. I went to the apple store today but they couldn't answer my question,. I did have a look at thier macs scattered about the store and they all seem to have this issue. Some of them had two iPhoto icons, some had three. I was expecting there to be only one?
    What causes there to be so many?
    I'm just a neat freak so these things puzzle me.

    Hi Leonie. Thanks for such a swift reply. As far as i can see i only have one version of iPhoto installed. I've only had the Mac for less than a year and haven't changed any settings.
    As i say, i had a quick play with the Macs in the Apple store and most of them had this same thing. There were one or two that just had the iPhoto showing once.
    When i click on "Open With"...it's listed as follows          iPhoto (default)
                                                                                        iPhoto
                                                                                        iPhoto
                                                                                       iPhoto
                                                                                        Terminal
    Whichever one i click on to it opens iPhoto with no problem. I'm just confused as to why there are four.
    Any further help would be appreciated.
    Thanks

  • User Library displays question mark for icon.

    I've added a folder,called My_Library, which contains a labview llb file consisting of contains controls and VIs to the user.lib\_express folder. When want to select a control from the llb file and access it via the ", some of the control icons contain a large question mark as opposed to the controls icon. Why? Also the control is not selectable, yet if you display the controls name, it is displayed.
    The same applies if I'm in the wiring diagram and I select a VI though the same mechanism.
    Yet if I access the control or VI from the the control or VI is selectable and everything is normal.
    Any help would be appreciated.
    Robert

    This usually happens when you moved file or when the files have been moved for you. Or when a folder name was chanded
    If for exemple you first open a VI from a temporary location, then open you library, the path may be internally changed.
    One fast way to rconnect them is to first open the VIs from the good location, then open the VIs that are calling the first ones, then save the modified VIs
    It would be nice if you take the time to rate this answer
    http://www.machinevision.ch

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