Advanced option in Preferences is stuck on iTunes Music Folder location

I recently had my drive with iTunes on it fail mechanically and data was restored on another drive by professionals. When I got my new drive back I had to tell iTunes where my iTunes data was and after I did so the top choice under advanced preferences was not how to import cds but is stuck with iTunes music folder location change or reset. I can't seem to change my import preference.

I don't know if this will help, because I simply SHARE a library (via wireless) from my main XP computer to my new Vista laptop. But I have discovered that everything needs to be fresh for Vista to load the library. By that I mean--you have to close down all open iTunes applications. Then re-open them on each machine--or in this case your server. Then try to get your Vista machine to load the library.
If I don't close and re-open everything, Vista tries for a few minutes to load the shared library and then it simply reverts back to nothing! It doesn't even see the shared library at this point--so further trouble-shooting is not possible.
I apologize if this isn't applicable to a server-shared library.

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ITunes music folder location

Hello everyone. I already posted this question one year ago, without to receive a satisfactory reply: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=899085 .
In my Music folder, near to the iTunes folder, I have other 25 folders, one for Artist.
I only add music importing from my original music discs, or buying in iTunes Store, and I only use iTunes to listen to music.
All this extra 25 folders are also in Music:iTunes:iTunes Music: where I have about 400 folders.
This is the path defined in my iTunes preferences as "iTunes Music folder location". Never changed.
So the questions: why does this folders also exists outside the iTunes Music folder location?
After doing the menu option "Advanced > Consolidate library", can I remove them safely?

It's hard to determine why the folders are there, without any of us having been the one sitting in front of your system and using it since the day before those folders appeared.
However, to determine if they can be safely deleted, this is what I would do:
Go into the iTunes application, and locate one of the files in the library that are contained within the folders you are looking to delete. Right-click on the file, and click Get Info. On the Summary tab, towards the bottom, you'll see "Where" followed by a filepath. If this filepath leads you to \My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\Artist Name\ then yes, you can safely delete those folders. If the filepath leads you to the folder that you are seeking to delete, I wouldn't delete those folders (at least not yet) as it will cause iTunes to render the files unusable, saying that it can't find the original location.
CG

Multiple itunes music folder locations

Guys,
Does anyone know if it is possible to have multiple itunes music folder locations for itunes?
I am quickly running out of space on my macbook pro and would like to move my less used music and movies to a separate external drive whilst leaving my most popular stuff on the macbook pro.
Cheers
Kegan

I have these exact same questions as the user above, but for a different reason. I want to have two different locations for my iTunes Music folder. One on my laptop for recent music (so I have it when I travel) and another "archive library" on the Time Capsule for the remainder of my music (accessible only over my wireless LAN when at home).
I have gone through the "hold the option key" process to create a second "library" on the Time Capsule, but it still references the same iTunes folder location. Of course, I could relocate the entire iTunes Music folder to the Time Capsule and re-reference it in Preferences->Advanced, but then I wouldn't have access to my recent songs when traveling.
Then, there's the whole question of how to transfer songs between folders (when my "recent" folder gets to large and I need to archive), but maybe I'm getting ahead of myself.
Thanks,
John Mac

Working with iTunes Music Folder locations on a network drive in Vista

I am having challenges assigning the "iTunes music folder location" to a network drive in Vista (using iTunes v.7.3). When I go to Edit/Preferences/Advanced/General, and choose change to assign the path, the Networks folder comes up, but does not display any network drives or expand out when I select it. Right clicking does let me explore the drives and see them so the ntwork is good. I did have the same problem in Windows XP, but since Windows XP created those automatic shortcuts to drives, I could assign them and that worked.
A quick solution is to map a network drive and then select that drive, but since my computer is a notebook and off my home LAN frequently, the mapped drive really slows the boot process.
Can't seem to find anything to change in the registry.
Has anyone else experienced this problem and is there anyone who can offer any suggestion to smooth this issue for me?
Thanks
Andre

Thanks for the feedback, but with the iPhone (I use the calendar feature a lot), synchronising just became a very common event, and perpetual re-connecting will drive me insane.
I guess I will just live with what we have until the folks at Apple figure it out;

ITunes Music Folder Location changed, but iTunes still uses old location

Okay - I'm getting a bit frustrated here. Because I had no room on c:, I moved all my iTunes preferences -- applications I downloaded for the iPod Touch, file settings, and all that stuff -- to my D:\ drive. Then I went to Preferences > Advanced and changed the iTunes Music Folder location to my D: drive.
Everything SEEMED to have looked good. Or so I hoped.
The 40+ applications I bought are no longer listed on the Applications purchased list. Further, all my files are STILL saving to the c: drive.
How do I FORCE iTunes to acknowledge that the D:\ drive is storing my iTunes preferences and files?!

OK, now I get what you're trying to do. I think!
I run my ITL file off my exHD, so all my Artwork & Applications are stored there. I think if you try running your ITL file from the D: drive it will do what you want.
Try this
1) close itunes & wait for the library ITL file to save ( I assume it's still on C: hence that's why artwork/apps are DLing there)
2) copy that ITL file over to the D: drive
3) press and hold the shift key while starting itunes and choose the ITL file on D:
Now all your future artwork/apps shoudl download to D:, try it by getting a free app.

Unable to change iTunes Music Folder location

When I go to Edit > Preferences > Advanced > General, the iTunes Music folder location shows as C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music but I want to change the location. When I click on the change button, the Browse for Folder dialog opens but no folders or directory tree structure appears in the dialog window and the "Make New Folder" button doesn't function.
Anyone else seen this and/or know how to fix it???
Windows XP iTunes 6.0.5.20

I found the following windows xp registry fix for this issue.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEYCLASSESROOT\CLSID\{43A8F463-4222-11d2-B641-006097DF5BD4}]
@="Shell Name Space ListView"
[HKEYCLASSESROOT\CLSID\{43A8F463-4222-11d2-B641-006097DF5BD4}\InProcServer32]
@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\
00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,73,00,68,00,\
64,00,6f,00,63,00,76,00,77,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,00,00
"ThreadingModel"="Apartment"
[-HKEYCURRENTUSER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CopyMoveTo]

ITunes Music Folder Location Default

So for a long time I have kept all my music on an external hard drive and iTunes and the library on my Macbook laptop. I have my "iTunes Music folder location" set as "200GBHD:Music:" and so when my firewire drive is plugged in iTunes would store all new music there, consolidate to there, etc, and when it was not hooked up then iTunes would default to the Macbook internal hard drive.
So in other words, it was smart and knew to use the internal drive when no external hard drive was attached and to use the external drive when it was attached. Great!
However, suddenly iTunes no longer does this. Every time I plug my firewire drive up it no longer defaults back to the external. Anyone know why or how to get it back to working like it did before?

(afaik) The path is only set back to internal default if itunes is launched without the mentioned ext drive connected

ITunes is changing my iTunes Music folder location, why?

I keep my iTunes library on an external hard drive. Every so often, iTunes resets my iTunes Music folder location back to the C drive on my computer and messes everything up, including my current downloads. Does anyone know why this is happening and what I can do to stop it?

If you launch iTunes when the external drive is not mounted, iTunes will set back to the default location on the boot drive. That's expected behavior (though it would be nice if iTunes would bring up a dialog that it can't find the selected library). The cure for that is to make sure you don't launch iTunes until the volume where you keep your iTunes library is completely and clearly mounted.
If iTunes is dropping the location even though your external drive is mounted, that's clearly unexpected behavior. Post back and I'm sure folks here will be able to help further.
Regards.

ITunes Music Folder Location - PLEEEEASE HELP

All my music on iTunes is saved to an external hard drive. Every few months or so, iTunes will automatically change the location for the iTunes Music Folder to the wrong destination. When I change it back to the actual source of the music on my external hard drive, iTunes will not recognize the songs without me manually inputting the song locations one song at a time (10,000+ songs).
The only thing I can think of is to remove all music from iTunes and readd it, but this is DEVASTATING as I have about 30 playlists which are not easy to recreate whatsoever.
So, I either need to know how I can get iTunes to recognize the songs, without losing all my playlists...
Or I want to know why iTunes changes the Music Folder Location, so I can stop this from happening in the future.
This has happened to me twice before, and it's been absolutely DEVASTATING each time. I posted twice previously and no one helped me. I am desperate to stop this madness. Please help!

I don't know whether I have a solid answer for you or not, but thought I will share my thought with you. Of course this assumes that you know where we designate the path to store the iTunes Music Files.
Could the "folder path changing" problem be due to the fact that you have it in an EXTERNAL drive? I have my Original CDs copied into the external drive but I maintain the iTunes Music folder on my internal hard drive and let iTunes manage that. Time to time, i copy that to my external drive for safe keeping.
Now in your case, it is the external drive. The question becomes the full path name with which iTunes finds this location. Being an external drive, the Drive Letter assigned to it could chnage depending on what otherd evices you may have connected to your PC at the time - one time it could be F, and another time it could be G and so on. Could this be causing you the random problem?
It is an idea!

ITunes isn't using the iTunes music folder location listed in Preferences

I recently moved my music folder from an old computer to a newer one. the newer machine is authorized by the iTunes store. But iTunes is not accessing any of the music in the folder. How do I fix this?

Hello ksr3571
Have you tried the more advanced cleanup article below? This gets into a more in depth cleaning of iTunes applications and also provides a Microsoft program to help uninstall programs that will not uninstall correctly from Add/Remove
Trouble installing iTunes or QuickTime for Windows
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1926?viewlocale=en_US

HELP! - iTunes 7 Multiple Libraries - iTunes Music Folder Location

I've created two libraries with the new multiple libraries feature on iTunes 7, but it appears that there is no way to choose separate folder locations for each of the libraries. I tried to do this and ended up with all of my songs in one folder, which is what I don't want. I would like to have would like to have two libraries, one for regular music and one for Christmas music, and I would like to choose a separate location/folder for each library. I keep all of my music on an external hard drive - I don't have enough room on my internal hard drive. Does anyone know if there is a way to do this?

Shift key thing is cool. But I agree, why not let us switch while in program. Itunes Library manager seems to be a better bet still and keeps hard drive clean.
http://www.dougscripts.com/itunes/itinfo/ituneslibrarymanager.php
I use this to keep sound effects and music in two libraries and it works great.

ITunes Music Folder Issue: Won't Read External Folder?

Hi There. Just bought a new Mac Mini and installed a time machine backup on to it to mirror it with my latest laptop settings. So far, everything has been breezy, except for iTunes. I have an external drive with about 200GB of music/movies that I want to use with the Mini. When in advanced iTunes preferences, I change the iTunes Music Folder location to that of the external drive and click "Change".
I get no errors or anything, then iTunes tells me it is updating the library, but it is still the same old (internal) library. For the life of me, I cannot get it to change it to see my external. Any advice? I thought it might be an XML issue, so I moved the XML file but it didn't change anything. Is the "Add to Library" option my next best bet? I'm ok with that as long as it doesn't actually add the files to my internal hard drive and keeps all of the items sorted correctly. Is the last case scenario to reset iTunes? How would one do that? Any advice appreciated!

When in advanced iTunes preferences, I change the iTunes Music Folder location to that of the external drive and click "Change".
Okay. iTunes will use that folder for everything in the future. Anything added to iTunes will put into that folder if you have *Copy to iTunes music folder when adding to library* ticked.
If there is any previous items in iTunes, it will continue to look for them where they were.
I thought it might be an XML issue, so I moved the XML file but it didn't change anything.
The .xml is generated by iTunes simply for other applications. iTunes does not use it at all.
Is the "Add to Library" option my next best bet?
It's the only option since this is how you add files to iTunes (along with Import when RIPping from CD).
If you want to have the items in the new location in iTunes, you need to File -> Add to library and select the location on the external.
I'm ok with that as long as it doesn't actually add the files to my internal hard drive
See 1st comment in this response.
and keeps all of the items sorted correctly
Depends.
The sort in iTunes is whaichever column you are selected on.
If you are talking about the "sort" in the Finder/on the HD, then iTunes sorts by Artist/Album/Song name. If you do not want this, you need to to uncheck *Copy files to iTunes music folder when adding to library* and uncheck *Keep iTunes music folder organized*.

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

ITunes music folder keeps reverting back to default

If anyone can help, I'd appreciate it: I just moved my music library to a new hard drive, following the Apple instructions on "moving the iTunes music folder" (i.e. changing the iTunes music folder location on the advanced tab in preferences, setting it up to copy files, and then consolidating the library). The move worked, but for some reason, whenever I exit iTunes and come back in, the iTunes music folder reverts back to the default (C:\Documents and Settings\default\My Documents\My Music). It doesn't announce it or anything, but when I go to add new music, it sends it there instead of the new drive. What am I missing on the transfer?
Windows XP SP2

"booting up"= turned on.
I have noticed that you have posted on a thread that is 2 months old. This is really a bad idea as your issue can be easily overlooked. It's always much better to "start your own topic" by click on this link on the forum main page.

Moved iTunes music folder to new HD and it won't play

I recently moved my iTunes music files to a larger external hard drive (for the third time) and now iTunes can't find any of the songs. It has worked in the past on 2 other HD's but not this time. I've selected the correct iTunes Music Folder location under <EDIT> <PREFERENCES> <ADVANCED>, have selected "Keep music folder organized", and have even "consolidated my music", but the files won't play. The files are in-tact; I can right-click on a song, click "get info", and manually locate the file to play it, but I don't want to do this for 70GB worth of music!!! Someone suggested dragging the music files into the iTunes library, but I have the library on my laptop and the actual music files on the external HD and I want to keep the library on my laptop so I don't think this will work for me. please help.
Message was edited by: brookap

I have a very similar problem. Hope I don't confuse people trying to help us since the solutions may be different.
I had my iTunes path directed to a 2nd internal hard drive. Everything was working fine - except I found that purchased Apps were still being downloaded to the Mobile Applications folder on my main hard drive instead of the 2nd internal drive. I decided to retry directing the iTunes path to my 2nd internal drive, hoping that might get iTunes to save my Apps there. Big Mistake. Suddenly, there were no Apps showing in my iTunes Library Apps window at all. I verified the downloaded apps are still in my main hard drive's Mobile Applications folder, but I cannot get iTunes to display them in my Apps Library window anymore.
I decided to try downloading a new app and, sure enough, iTunes once again downloaded it into the very same Mobile Applications folder on my main hard drive, where all my (now orphaned) original apps are, but the only one iTunes will only display in my Apps window is the new one. I read you can redownload purchased apps, but my apps are not missing. iTunes just won't display them in the Apps window anymore.

Advanced option in Preferences is stuck on iTunes Music Folder location

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