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.

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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.

ITunes library consolidation error: "Copying files failed. An unknown error occurred (-50)."

My iTunes library has outgrown the HDD on my iMac, so I've started to migrate it over to a Synology NAS. The iTunes Media folder is set to the NAS, but when I attempt to consolidate the library the operation fails each time with the error: "Copying files failed. An unknown error occurred (-50).
I have found this references to this error in the communities from Windows users, but I only use Macs.

Just trying to give this topic a poke as I am having a similar issue.
I am rebuilding my library that was on an external drive. I had a backup of much of the files, but not a direct backup of the iTunes media folder, as well I am now moving it to a new iTunes Media directory on a Synology 1813+ NAS running DSM 4.3 vs. a USB attached drive.
I have followed all of the correct procedures to move the media directory by using the tools within iTunes, and that all worked perfectly.
So far iTunes has been able to locate most of the music files through its own processes. Once it completed that process I then initiated "Consolidate files" to move the found files to the new iTunes Media directory on the new NAS.
I am led to believe that the issue is with a specific file that causes the copy process to stop, but I don't know how to capture what file it might be.
I am not seeing anything relevent in the console log.
Hoping someone can throw me some ideas...
iTunes 11.1.2 (32) - iMac 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 4GB RAM - OS X 10.8.5

ITunes Library Consolidation Issue

I am trying to consolidate my iTunes library to an external drive, but every time I try to run the "Consolidate Library" function iTunes freezes up. I have already migrated the media files over to the external drive, but need iTunes to recognize that they are located at that location as opposed to where they originally were. Does anyone know a way that this can be done piece-meal or if there's an alternative way to relocate an entire iTunes library?
Thanks in advance.

ed2345, I misspoke. I should have said I have already placed a duplicate copy of the files on the external drive (the original files are still in place) and repointed my media files location to the external drive. what I'm trying to do is basically re-point my current itunes library to the files on the external drive as opposed to the files on the internal drive. When I try to organize my library, itunes freezes. When I try to consolidate my library (which is what I thought was supposed to help accomplish this) itunes freezes.
I'm working with about 45 GB of music files, and I don't know if the size is what is causing iTunes to crash, or if it is something else. Sorry for the confusion.

ITunes library consolidation problem

Hi,
I'm stuck on this one. I used to have a large iTunes library that I stored on a pocket drive external to my laptop. I've recently cut it down from 150Gb to about 113Gb, which I figure I can copy back on to my laptop (130Gb free space). However iTunes is insisting that there isn't enough space on my drive, even though there should be a spare 17Gb. Are there any settings that might be making iTunes think the library is bigger than it is?
Thanks,
Sam

It turns out my hard drive has some corruption errors and needs repairing. The finder > info on the drive was registering a different size to that calculated by a finder window and Disk Utility.
Off for a restart and repair (touch wood).
Sam

ITunes library consolidation

hello,
i have consolidated my library hundreds of times. i do it after everytime i add a song. today, however, after i added a bunch more, i clicked <consolidate library>, and the response was "there is not enough room on "C:\" to copy all of the requested files." this made no sence, i checked my C drive properties to confirm my suspisions, and as i though i have 25 gigs left of free space.
if anyone knows how to fix or get around this i would really appreciate it.
thanks, gnomegnugz

I am new but when I consolidated, everything now is not recognised.I deleted I-tunes& reloaded, reset i-pod nano 2 gen, now i have a new useless hunk of frustrating crap on my desk !!!!! I have wasted more time tyring to figure this out that I am going to attempt to return it.

Moving an iTunes library from one computer to another that isn't consolidated

My iTunes library is made up of music from a variety of sources. This is due to the files being stored on a server and organised in folders in a particular way already.
I want to transfer my iTunes library to a brand new computer, but am aware it may have trouble remembering where the files are if they aren't consolidated. Any clues as the best way to do this?
The files are all stored on the server, but as said previously in various folders so the new computer will have access to all of them.
I have the 'copy files to itunes media folder when adding to library' setting switched OFF.
Thanks to anyone who can help.

Actually I would rather use my iPod, because this shouldn't be that hard. We'll just say, I have everything on my iPod from my former itunes library on my other computer...but every time it tells me to drag out the itunes folder from this computer and put it on the desktop, it just goes right back into the My Music folder before I can put the itunes folder from my ipod into the music folder. And even when I do, it asks if i would like to merge the folders...so what does that entail if i do?
This is between my new computer with vista and my old computer which has xp...so yeah.

ITunes Consolidation: Will it create duplicates of media files if they already exist in the new itunes destination folder but arent being referenced by the itunes library?

I have a macbook pro from fall 2010. I have been using my external HD as my primary itunes folder for the past 7 yrs ( i.e it is organized by itunes default categorization, etc). However, there is some overlap between my external HD itunes folder and my comps original itunes folder (probably 20-30% of my current library's media files were already duplicated there from when i first bought the HD and transferred files to the external, however they are mostly referenced from the external now). Also there are files in the comp's itunes folder that are not on my external (probably due to organizational mishaps and podcast downloads when not connected to the external, etc). I do not know how many files this is the case for.
Recently, i decided that i wanted to consolidate all of my itunes music into one concise folder on my macbook's HD to avoid these issues going forward. I also just bought a new external which i will use to back up my comp's itunes folder once i consolidate everything to the comp. But i plan on using the itunes folder on the comp going forward or at least using the consolidate fcn to avoid these issues.
Here is my dilemma. Prior to learning of the consolidate feature today, I changed the default itunes folder in settings to the original itunes folder on the macbook and then manually dragged all of the media files from my external itunes folder to the macbook's itunes folder. There were a ton of duplicates or overlapping folders with similar artist names, so i opted to have them merge all folders where possible. After doing this, i realized the itunes library still references these files that i dragged and dropped from the external since that is where my default itunes folder used to be. At that point i then read and learned of the consolidate itunes feature which seems like the best way to do this. But i am afraid that if i consolidate my library to my macbook's itunes folder now, will it create duplicates of the 4000 + media files i just dragged to the macbook's itunes folder which are already in the itunes library but being referenced from the old external??
Question: Is there a way that i can make these files i just dragged to the macbook's itunes folder become the ones referenced by the itunes library through the consolidate feature without creating duplicates of these 4000+ files? I want to avoid having three copies of these files (two duplicates in the itunes and the originals on the external). Furthermore, is there a best way to find out which files in the macbook's itunes folder are not being included in the library after consolidating everything to the computer's HD? Then after that, what is the best way to start backing this all up to my new external, so that this overlapping issue doesnt happen again? Im assuming i just need to make sure to consolidate first when changing itunes folders going forward. Thank you. I know that was a lot to read but hopefully someone can help with this issue.

In general:
- The best way to check if files are in a library is to drag the whole media folder to the library. If something was missed it will be added. If it is in the library is won't be added a second time.
- If you have a second copy of a file and iTunes does not currently list that specific file in its database then even if it is identical to one already in the database it will add it a second time. So if you have file xyz on the internal drive and the external drive and add them to iTunes you will end up with two entries for the same thing in iTunes because you really do have to copies of the files. While this can happen with two copies on a single drive, it will almost definitely be the case when you have a copy of a file on two drives because iTunes really sees them as two different things.
-Unless you know how iTunes works, avoid moving files yourself. Let the consolidate feature do all the file moving. Manually moving files can really mess up iTunes unless you know what you are doing and have iTunes set to not try to do it itself.
- There's no clean and easy way to delete duplicates. The best thing is to change practice so you don't create them. Here are references:
How to find and remove duplicate items in your iTunes library - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2905
http://dougscripts.com/itunes/itinfo/dupin.php (commercial)
Posts by turingtest2 about different types of duplicates and techniques- https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3555601 and https://discussions.apple.com/message/16042406 (Note: The DeDuper script is for Windows)
http://www.hardcoded.net/dupeguru_me/

HT1751 Consolidating ITunes Library Failed - message received: "Copying files failed. The file name was invalid or too long" . Please help - how to i fix this issue?

I consulted your website for details on how to back up my ITunes Library on my PC-found the article very helpful-I reached step 7 - clicked ok and the following message came up: "Copying files failed. The file name was invalid or too long." Please can you help and advise what I should do or how to fix this issue. My pc operating system is Windows 7 Home Basic

You can select a group of tracks and consolidate from the right-click context menu. You coud try consolidating in batches, say all songs by artists beginning with A, then B, etc, then the other media types, until you can isolate a problem track and then try moving that by hand and fixing the broken link.
I also have two scripts that could help you, Unconsolidated and ConsolidateByMoving. The first can make a playlist of all unconsolidated tracks, the second can consolidate a selection of tracks by moving them instead of copying.
tt2

Hard Drive Failure, so I've lost ITunes Library. Ipod more up-to-date how do I transfer music from IPod to library?

Hi,
I had a hard drive failure on my old PC and I couldn't retrieve anything. I have purchased a new PC and downloaded itunes (Version I'm not use to which isn't helping) and signed in however it only has my purchased songs on the cloud which I need to download into my library from cloud. However I have thousands of songs that I imported into my old library from CD's etc which is no lost apart from all the data held on my ipod.
So my Ipod is more up-to-date then my library now. When I look to sync my ipod it says everything will be removed and will be replaced with content from the library. I've had a look around and I can't see a way to get my music from my ipod to my library.
Is there anything I can do, please help?
Thanks

See:
Syncing to a "New" Computer or replacing a "crashed" Hard Drive: Apple Support Communities
or
Recovering your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device: Apple Support Communities

HT1589 I have moved (consolidated) my iTunes Library to my external drive. Can I now erase the Library that resides in my Mac hardrive? It is occupying valuable space.

I have a new external drive that I moved my iTunes Library into. Can I now delete that Library in my computer (Mac) drive? How do I do this. I need more space in my computer.

Yes, assuming you've confirmed that consolidation has been successful. Might be a good idea to rename the old iTunes Media or iTunes Music folder on your internal drive as Old Media and test a few things before finally deleting it.
Note that splitting up your library like this will make it harder to transfer to a new/restored system in future. Before you get to that point you might want to review my post on making a split library portable. You should also invest in a second external drive so that you can make a secondary backup copy of your library.
tt2

Consolidated iTunes library to different drive, but some files left behind?

I had been storing my iTunes library on an external HD. Now I have a new laptop and enough memory to move the library back onto the laptop's hard drive. I attempted to do so by reversing how I moved it in the first place -- I consolidated the library (using Preferences->Advanced to set the iTunes Media Folder Location to the standard folder on the internal HD). It took a while and the files were duplicated one by one on the internal HD. Except not all of them. Roughly 100+ songs, scattered throughout the library, are still stored only on the external HD. They show up in the library with an exclamation point, and I can listen to them if the external HD is hooked up, but obviously I can't if it isn't.
Is there an easy fix, and failing that, what's the painstaking manual fix I could go through?

The files that didn't transfer don't have any obvious differences from the files that did (they all have the same extension, as far as I can tell: m4p). Out of an album of songs from a particular artist, say, 11 songs will have transferred and one will have been randomly(?) left behind.
These are the basic instructions I followed re moving the Media folder and then consolidating:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449
Thanks for any ideas!

Re-consolidated iTunes Library.

Okay, I'll try this again. Once I have consolidated my iTunes library to my external HD can I re-consolidate it back to my MBP's HD should I so choose? I only ask this because when you consolidate your library it says that you can't undo the action.

Once I have consolidated my iTunes library to my external HD can I re-consolidate it back to my MBP's HD should I so choose
Yes.
I only ask this because when you consolidate your library it says that you can't undo the action.
When you consolidate, it copies all files in iTunes to the iTunes music folder an uses those files. You will not be able to undo that action and have iTunes point to the music in the original location.

Restoring iTunes Library after hard drive failure.

So a few days ago I had to re partition my hard drive (erase all the data) because I received an unfixable problem from Finder error 10810. The problem created overlapping files on my hard drive which was able to be solved by doing a repair disk from Disk Utility. So I made sure I had a backup of all my information on my iMac, and erased the hard drive and re-installed Snow Leopard. After the installation was complete I began restoring all the files I had from Time Machine, but when I got to my iTunes library I received the error message saying that "You cannot access the iTunes folder because you are not authorized". So if anyone can help me out with this that would be great, I tried calling Apple but i'm not willing to pay the ridiculous $50 fee to speak to a human being.

I'm trying it file by file, because I don't need everything back on my hard drive but things like my iTunes Library I want. And I did use a different username when doing the setup assistant, but I thought about that and went back and re-named my current account and then went into my backup files and set all the sharing permissions to Read and Write for all accounts.

HD failure. Want to restore iTunes library from backup

The hard drive containing my music died. Fortunately, I have a (manual) backup of all the songs/artists on another hard drive. I also have a backup of the iTunes Music Library.xml and iTunes Library files.
I moved the xml and library files to my Music folder. I attached the backup hard drive and changed the location of my library in iTunes preferences to look for my songs there. I hit Consolidate. All the songs show up in the library, but a load of them have the dreaded exclamation point and have no link.
I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. Thanks so much for any help!

That setting in Prefs tells iTunes where to put music when you import...not where to find your library. Try launching iTunes while holding down the option key, then tell it where to find the library.

Bizarre iTunes Library Consolidation Failure

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