Cleaning up hidden files after deleting iTunes media library
Recently I have been struggling with an almost full hard drive. Daisy Disk Utility revealed that a major culprit was a bulging iTunes - 90 GB!
In order to free up space, I have just copied iTunes media library to an external hard drive, successfully changed my iTunes preferences to point to the hard drive...that all worked.
I then moved my iTunes media library to Trash.
Most of it has now been deleted (there are still a few recalcitrant items I am trying to work out how to get rid of).
I now have about 20 GB more free space on my hard drive....much less than I had hoped to gain.
Daisy Disk Utility tells me that I now have around 68 GB in hidden files.
What can I do to finish the process of creating more space on my hard disk?
Yes. The following files and folders are in the Mac iTunes folder:
Album Artwork
iTunes Music
Mobile Applications
iTunes Previous Libraries
iTunes 4 Music Library.itl,
iTunes Library Extras.itdb,
iTunes Library Genius.itdb,
iTunes Library.itl,
iTunes Music Library.xml
iTunes Library.xml **this file not in PC iTunes folder**
.DS_Store and sentinel (icon for both is a blank sheet) are in the PC iTunes folder, but did not copy to iTunes folder on hard drive.
The day before you responded to my question, I read a support document (in Home Sharing section) that had instructions to import the playlist by copying iTunes Library.xml to external drive and importing it to iTunes. I imported it by going to iTunes, File, Library, import playlist. It worked, but again, no playcounts ratings.
I thought iTunes Library.xml file was simultaneously removed when I removed the iTunes Folder in the Mac music folder, but somehow, I did something to get it back in or didn't properly remove it. The .xml that's on my PC and in the ITunes folder on my external hard drive is iTunes Music Library.xml. iTunes Library.xml is also on the external drive as a separate file but not in the iTunes folder that's on hard drive. I did nothing to alter file names.
Similar Messages
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How to automatically add new files to external iTunes Media Library
I have an external hard drive that I store all of my music on and have set as my iTunes media file location. When I connect it, I open iTunes and can play all of my songs off of the hard drive with no problem. But many times I do not have my external hard drive plugged in when I purchase and add new files onto iTunes. Because of this, even though I have my preferences set to automatically add new iTunes files to the external media folder, when I connect my hard drive, the files will not be on the hard drive's media folder and they will not immediately transfer over to the hard drive, and I will then have to add them manually. Is there a setting that I can use that will set all new or recently added files on my iTunes to be transferred over to my external hard drive once it is connected? Or maybe a command that compares my iTunes with my external media file folder and transfers all new media over to my external folder? Any help would be appreciated.
Well I actually found something that was fairly close to what I was looking for. If you right click a file or selection of files then click the option 'consolidate files' you can copy them to the media library. I guess I'll just have to filter my recently added playlist by the right amount of time then use the consolidate option. I still think that making a feature that automatically copys newly added files to the external media folder once it is connected would be a very worthwile investment in Apple's time
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Deleted iTunes Media off the Mac, Can i now get it to read from my Hard Drive ?
I started looking into this as my Mac was using Roughly 500 of 750 gig on Music. But I've only recently noticed that this is due to duplicates in My Music folder and iTunes Media. Ive done Some reading up and can't seem to find a definitive answer to what to do.
Ive Backed up My Music and iTunes media on a External Hard-drive, My Music folders are all neat and organised and would like it to stay that way, But I've noticed iTunes media folder was a mess, This is My fault as i had the make a copy to iTunes media ticked in preferences. And the other one De-selected ( Keep Music Organised )
So to free up space on the Mac I'm going to delete iTunes media as this is no use to me the way it is, I can't find anything in there and it looks a mess. The Problem with this is iTunes reads from iTunes media and i would rather it read form my organised Music files on the internal Hard-drive so i can keep ontop of it.
All my Playlists are built within iTunes as i use them in Serato for DJ Purposes , So i would like to keep these playlists and just let iTunes read from the hard drive instead Is there a way once iTunes media is deleted i can highlight a 2014 playlist for example with 250 songs in and change where iTunes looks for them so i don't have to reload all the music? with iTunes media deleted there coming up saying can't Locate File , but i will have to manually show iTunes 25000 where they are manually , Can this be done per Playlist in one big Hit?
Thank you and hope it all made senseUnfortunately it is not making enough sense for me to try to make real suggestions.
If you are going to disable iTunes media preferences then you have to be 100% organized and know how iTunes works because from that point on iTunes will stop helping you maintain your files in any way.
Yes, it may look a mess but the whole thing is designed so you should never need to look in your iTunes folder yourself, just at the iTunes application window. Maybe you need to do this to use your Serrato thingy but that's because you're doing something special.
If you add a file to iTunes and have the "copy to" preference set then it will place a copy of what you add in the correct folder inside iTunes Media folder. The only way you should have media files actually directly in other folders is if you put them there yourself or you have residual structure from pre-iTunes version 9 before media was split into folders of different kinds.
If you disable iTunes media preferences then iTunes is absolutely terrible at following media moved to other drives. Moving to a different drive is not really moving, it is copying and then deleting the original, and that means iTunes sees the file as being gone.
I really get lost on your fourth paragraph.
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 -
Import iTunes Media Library, some files were not found problem
Hi guys,
I am trying to restore my music library info via importing from iTunes Media Library xml file I backed up. During import, iTunes gave me error message box saying that some files were not found and therefore won't get imported. After it's done, I checked the iTune and I noticed many of the music files did not get imported at all, even their locations are correct. Is it because iTunes stopped importing at the first entry that it found its location not existed and therefore skipped the rest all along? Even later ones might be valid. Is this the case?
Is there an easy way to find out what those entries are? So perhaps I could go and edit them directly in the xml file. The message box did not give much information
Any help would be really appreciated,
Thanks alot
Windows XP Pro
Windows XP ProHi Chris
I have now experimented a little more and discovered that although Time Capsule (TC) is showing in Finder as a Shared Drive at laptop startup (and showing a status of a connected user, me) it is not actually 'mounted' in the true sense of the word i.e. the unmount/eject symbol is not showing next to it nor either of the drives connected to the TC. By clicking on either of the 2 drives (i.e. the TC 'Data' disk or the TC USB-connected drive) the status changes to show the dismount symbol on both the selected drive and the TC in the Finder side bar. Launching iTunes after this intervention works every time as per your advice. Not the Apple 'it just works' that I have come to expect and appreciate but at least I now understand how to make it work reliably..........many thanks and I hope Apple just makes it work sometine in the future -
How do I transfer music from an external hard drive to my itunes on my mac? I have put the files into the itunes media, but they are not showing up in iTunes!
Hi, did you try iTunes>File>Import?
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I have imported a number of Café del Mar CD's to iTunes, and iTunes keeps scattering the tunes into several different folders in iTunes Media. It also has trouble finding album information, unless it has been downloaded from iTunes Store. Previous versions of iTunes I have tried didn't have this problem.
I've tried to tidy the files manually in iTunes Media, but that usually results in duplicates, so I stopped messing with it. I actually wouldn't mind iTunes blowing up my albums into a nightmare file structure of hyper categorization in iTunes Media (Album, Album Artist, Artist, etc.) if only it recognised its own mess when I transfer the library from one iTunes library into another.
An example: I downloaded Cafe del Mar - Essential Elements featuring 13 tunes, two of these can be found in the files Cafe del Mar/Cafe del Mar Essential Elements, iTunes also created the folder Cafe del Mar/Cafe del_Mar Essential Elements containing 0 tunes!?! and the rest of the tunes are found under Rue de Soleil in the root folder, indicating ONE of the artists as the criteria for creating a folder of tunes!?!
I am trying with every fiber NOT to hate this program, and would appreciate it if someone could explain to me how I can move an iTunes Media library of aprox 54 gb from my desktop via an external harddisk onto my laptop. I have tried 4 times, and everytime the result varies. Sometime I transfer 3000 files, other times 4000. Which files follow and don't is random. I lose files tranferring to the external harddisk and lose even more files from the external disk to the new library on my Lap. Do I have to transfer song for song or can this genius program actually transfer a larger amount of files without losing half the files and duplicating the rest?
Is there a limit of size or amount of files?Backup with this User Tip, restore the library to the new computer using the same tool, keep the backup up-to-date in future. Deauthorize the old computer if you no longer need to access protected content on it.
As to your issues with compilations albums select all the tracks, set the Album Artist to Various Artists and on the options tab set Part of a compilation to Yes. See Grouping tracks into albums for details.
tt2 -
I have files in my iTunes media folder that somehow are not in my library. How do I get iTunes to scan my media folder and add missing files to my library without making a copy of each file in the same location? If I use add file / folder to library, it scans the folder and then makes a copy of any file that is not in my library in the exact same location; I recal in older versions of iTunes being able to just drag my media folder into my library and it would update missing links.
Only the songs that are connected to iTunes will be copied when you consolidate to a new folder.
Splitting the media folder away from the usual location makes it harder to move iTunes in the future.
Are you go move everything back once you've tidied up or are you going to leave it that way? Either way I'd recommend you create an iTunes folder at the new location, an iTunes Media folder inside that, and consolidate to this new iTunes Media folder. You should also use the option File > LIbrary > Organize Library > Rearrange files in the folder "<Media Folder"> if you have not already done so.
tt2 -
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?
There are a couple of other scenarios in which iTunes may not be able to complete the consolidation process:
Some folders in the iTunes Media hierarchy might be set to read-only - to fix this, right-click on your iTunes Media folder in Windows Explorer and select Properties. On the General tab there's a check box labeled "Read-only" - click the box so that the flag is unchecked and the box is white. Click OK, and then OK again when the "Apply changes to this folder, subfolders and files" option selected.
Windows permissions issues are preventing iTunes from moving your media files (there's some anecdotal evidence of a change in this behavior in iTunes 12). See turingtest2's notes on Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows for advice on fixing this.
Then try the consolidation process again ... if it still doesn't work as expected we'll need to dive further into details of how your media is currently organized and how the non-moving items appear in iTunes. -
How to reduce the size of file after delete some datas?
The size of the database file isn't smaller than ago after delete some data from database.
How to reduce the size of file after delete some datas?Hi,
What BDB release are you using? If it's one of the latest releases, then what you are looking for is the DB->compact() method:
http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E17076_01/html/api_reference/C/dbcompact.html
The DB->compact() method compacts Btree, Hash, and Recno access method databases, and optionally returns unused Btree, Hash or Recno database pages to the underlying filesystem. Please let me know if it helps.
Bogdan Coman -
due to lack of memory space i moved my itunes media library,only now i think i have lost most of my library as the i tunes page comes up empty,no playlists,no music, no music videos,no tv shows. can anyone help?
Hong Kong,
I don't think it is lost. I think it is on the other hard drive where you put it.
There are better and worse ways to move a library. If possible, put it back the way it was, and then move it by following this guide: iTunes for Windows: Moving your iTunes Media folder -
How To: Change iTunes media library location/folder
*PLEASE READ THIS ENTIRE POST BEFORE ATTEMPTING THIS PROCESS. IT’S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE, BUT IT IS FAIRLY INVOLVED AND ENTAILS SOME RISK. THERE ARE SOME WARNINGS AT THE END.*
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REQUIREMENT
Move iTunes media (music, videos, podcasts) to another folder and update the iTunes library to reference all the media from that new folder.
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Example cases: Move iTunes media from C:\ drive to D:\ drive; Change iTunes folder name from Music to Media.
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Note:
Special action is only necessary if the +Keep iTunes Media folder organized+ option is not selected. If this option is selected, iTunes will move media to the new location when the +iTunes Media folder location+ is changed. More info can be found here: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449
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PROBLEM
When the location of iTunes media files changes (files are moved, folder name/drive letter changes), iTunes cannot automatically locate these files. iTunes entries can be updated to point to the new location one at a time or by deleting all entries and re-adding all files. Updating one at a time is time consuming, and deleting and re-adding causes a large amount of metadata (play count, date added, rating, etc) to be lost.
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SOLUTION
The iTunes library can be exported to an XML file, modified, and re-imported.
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Process:
- *Backup the iTunes library data:* Make sure iTunes is closed, and then backup the folder containing all the iTunes library data. This can normally be found in +<user-folder>\My Music\iTunes+ for Windows, or in /Users/<username>/Music/iTunes for Mac. The +iTunes Media+ and +Mobile Applications+ folders can be excluded from the backup since they will not be affected by this process. If this process does not work for some reason and you need to restore the previous state of your iTunes library, you’ll need to use this backup as the source for restoring.
- *Move iTunes media files to new location:* This may be changing which drive is used to store iTunes media files, renaming a folder, or whatever. This can be done for the whole library or for only part of it.
- *Export the iTunes library:* In iTunes, select File -> Library -> Export Library... and save the file somewhere for editing (Desktop is a good location).
- *Open Library.xml in a decent text editor:* Notepad is not recommended, since Library.xml can be very large. Some free options include PSPad, Notepad++, Smultron, and Text Wrangler.
- *Update Library.xml:* Locate the files that have changed location and update their path accordingly. The XML file has the metadata for each file labeled with XML tags. The file location is denoted by <key>Location</key>. If the whole library is being moved, a find/replace on the whole file is recommended. Once a file is located in Library.xml that needs to be updated, copy the part of the string that has changed starting with <key>Location</key>. Use that as the find parameter, and enter the replace parameter in the same format. Include as much of the string as possible to prevent unintentional replaces. Save and close the file when done.
- - - Example: Find: <key>Location</key><string>file://localhost/C:/Data/iTunes/
Replace: <key>Location</key><string>file://localhost/D:/Data/iTunes/
- - - Note 1: This step may require adjustment to match your situation. You may want to count how many files need to be updated and make sure that the find/replace only changes that many or edit them by hand if the location of all files have not been changed. It shouldn’t be difficult, but it may require some thought.
- - - Note 2: Music, TV Shows, Movies, and Podcasts are stored in this file, so make sure to account for all media types. If the location of all types didn’t change, the find/replace strings will need to take that into account.
- *Remove all modified media entries from iTunes:* For any of the files that are being moved, the associated metadata must be removed from iTunes to avoid having duplicates in iTunes. This can be done by selecting all entries in iTunes that will be modified, right-clicking the entries, and choosing “Delete”. After confirming that you want to remove the selected item from your iTunes library, make sure to choose to keep the file in the iTunes Media folder if prompted.
- *Import Library.xml:* Import the modified Library.xml by selecting File -> Library -> Import Playlist... and selecting the modified Library.xml in the file open dialog that appears. Depending on the size of the iTunes Library, this could take a while (10 minutes or more).
- *Test results:* Locate a file in iTunes that has been moved, right-click on the file, and choose “Get Info”. The “Location:” field should indicate the new location of the file. Close the Info dialog and try to play the file. If the file plays, the process was successful.
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_*DISCLAIMERS/ADDITIONAL NOTES*_
- I tried this out a couple of times, and it worked fine for me. I can’t guarantee it will work for everyone, but I thought I’d share since I couldn’t find instructions for this situation anywhere else.
- If the process fails, you SHOULD be able move the iTunes media files back to their old location and restore the backed up iTunes library data to the iTunes folder to restore your previous configuration.
- I wouldn’t recommend attempting this if you don’t feel comfortable with backing up your iTunes library data and editing the XML file.
- I don’t know if this process will preserve whether videos and podcasts have been played or if it will preserve the play position where items were last paused.
- If you are moving all of your iTunes media files, you’ll want to update the “iTunes Media folder location” under the “Advanced” tab in preferences. This appears to be the folder that iTunes will use for some of its basic operations, such as storing synced audio notes, Podcasts, and the “Automatically Add to iTunes” folder.
- This process duplicates playlists, probably because you are importing your entire library again. I just deleted the duplicates when I was done.If all the media is on one drive and you're not letting iTunes manage it then you can achieve the "portable" status simply by moving the library files high enough up the tree, i.e. the root of the drive if necessary, letting iTunes know where the nominal iTunes media folder is and then moving the library to the new drive keeping the relative paths from the library files to each distinct set of media folders unchanged. Personally I don't like iTunes cutting my file & folder names short, but the advantages of a portable library mean that I'm quite happy to organise my media inside the iTunes Media folder, albeit largly on my own terms. Indeed all my non-iTunes multimedia is now also organised in the same folders. The only media files iTunes organises, temporarlily, are rips & downloads apart from active Podcasts whose folder names I leave unchanged. Everything else gets sorted just the way I want it - full length filenames, different character replacements, folder art etc. I used to do it by hand, deleting, tweaking & reimporting, but these days I use a custom script which does it all automatically - renaming files just as I want and reconnecting iTunes to the newly moved file so that no iTunes-only metadata is lost.
There are similar XML-editing how-tos elsewhere on the web, I just wanted to make the point that there may still sometimes be a way to achieve the desired result which isn't quite as complicated but nevertheless leaves the user fully in control of their file structure.
Anyway, at least you took the trouble to find a method that works for you first. There are sadly too many tales of woe on these boards from people who've moved all their files around first only to discover that they've broken their libraries and can't work out how to undo the damage.
tt2 -
I moved my itunes media library to an external drive to free up 40gigs. How do I recoup my 40gigs?
I moved my iTunes media library to an external drive to free up 40gigs on my hard drive. When I checked in about this Mac to see if the space was gained it now seems to be replaced by a category "backups". How do I recoup my 40gigs?
When you moved the iTunes data to the external HDD, I assume you deleted it from your MBP. Backup are not to worry about. Read this:
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14329
They will be deleted when disk space is required.
Ciao.
In addition, read this Apple support article:
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT4878 -
Bought an iPod Classic. First iPod, had a Zen for years, I want to transfer my music library, approximately 15,000 songs without creating an iTunes Media library. All of the music is currently in WMA format. As you can imagine, 15,000 songs takes up a lot of space and I do not wnat it duplicated on my harddrive in an iTunes Media Library. What are my options?-Shawn
Change your mind, or change your device.
You can't put wma files on an iPod classic. You can't put files onto an iPod without adding them to a media library first.
tt2 -
HT1364 My iTunes media library...
My iTunes media library resides on a WD "My eBook", I connected it to a new PC running Windows 7 and iTunes 10 and I need to get my iTunes library here instead, how do I do this? Thanks!!!
Do you also have the iTunes Library.itl file that normally resides at <User's Music>\iTunes\iTunes Library.itl?
If you do then having installed iTunes on the new computer, close iTunes, then click the icon to lauch it and immediately press and hold down the shift key. Keep holding until asked to choose or create a library. Click choose and browse to the library file.
Otherwise use the same shift-start iTunes process to create a new library at X:\iTunes where X: is the letter of your drive. Once the library has been created merge your current media folder with X:\iTunes\iTunes Media then use File > Add folder to Library to import the folder X:\iTunes\iTunes Media.
If you have any Apple devices see also Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
tt2 -
Transferring iTunes Media Library
Not sure id this is a dilema or not but here what I want to do.
I have my iTunes media library backed up by Time Machine for my MBP Pro 2010 and I want to transfer the Library from the TM backup to my MBP Pro 2007.
Is this possible?Connect your Mac's with a FireWire cable. Hold the T key while booting the 2010 MBP (Target Disk Mode). On the 2007 MBP you will see the 2010 MBP as a Disk on the Desktop. Open and navigater to Users->Your Name->Music
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