Consolidate Library Fails

I want to consolidate my children's library so I can move only her files to an external HD and put it on a new computer. They are currently scattered across 4 accounts on 2 computers. When I try to do this I get the message:
"Copying failed: the file name was invalid or too long"
What are the rules? If file is missing will this cause the process to crash?
Seems to me that a user friendly package would tell you which file it was trying to copy when it failed.!!!!

... am I going to have to go dig through my music file by file until I find something suspicious looking?
You may have to, pantfoo.
But a good place to start is with the path to the folder you're consolidating your music to, i.e. the location you've selected for your iTunes Music folder on the iTunes Edit menu > Preferences > Advanced tab > General sub-tab. Does that look suspiciously long?

Similar Messages

HT1449 Help! This all runs quite smoothly until i get to 'consolidate library'. Then, tracks start copying, then stop followed by a pop up saying 'Copying files failed. The disc could not be read from or written to.' Any suggestions? Thank you!

Help! This all runs quite smoothly until I get to 'consolidate library'. Then, tracks start copying, then stop followed by a pop up saying 'Copying files failed. The disc could not be read from or written to.' Any suggestions? Thank you!

I had similar problems, it was a nightmare and on a 3 month ipod too!. I use a Powerbook G4 at home and a G5 at work - both were returning the same problems. so I sent it off to apple, they quickly sent it back saying there was nothing wrong with and it didn't need to be repaired. I tried it again and the same problems occurred "disc cannot be written to or read from." I could copy 20 songs onto it at the very most. A couple of guys at my work suggested updating it on a PC, then adding tunes via my mac as normal - guess what!? it works a treat!?. How ridiculous is that!? an Apple product works best on a PC. these generations of ipods are obviously designed to work best on Intel based Macs. What is wrong Apple? are you abandoning the G-generation!? still, atleast my ipod works for now - it will prove a problem when I have to update the iPod's software since I don't own a PC or an intel-based Mac.

Consolidate Library Error

Hi,
I'm looking to migrate my iTunes library to another hard disk on my laptop. I have followed steps on Apple's website where I reset the library location to the new drive and am now using the consolidate library function.
I'll highlight 20GB of files and select consolidate library however it trucks along for a while until it seemingly finds a file it doesn't like and iTunes hangs for 20 minutes then gives me an error message "Copying files failed. The disk could not be read from or written to.". While it's hung the copying progress bar shows the file it was supposed to be copying so I can identify the problematic song and skip that artist however I then find it hits same issue with another file along the way.
I've got about 170GB of media so it's not really practical to go through this process of bypassing files it doesn't like so I wondered if anyone has any idea why these files are causing problems for iTunes?
I have run chkdsk on both the source and destination drives and no errors came back and I don't think it's an issue with the drives as I copied a load of other stuff to the new drive without issue. The source drive is my Windows drive and I don't see any errors there.
So, I have my original library files on C: and some copied files on D:, which is now set as the library location. Can I potentially have my 'old' library as is on C: and have any new files running from D: concurrently so I've got it in two locations simulataneously? This way I can 'consolidate' what iTunes will let me copy to D: and leave anything else on C: and have any new files imported into D:, would this work?
Any help would be much appreciated.

I assume you ran chkdsk with the "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors" option? One failure would be annoying to transfer would be annoying. Repeated failures suggest there may be an underlying problem with one of the disks. I'd be keen to get another drive and start backing up to it.
iTunes will work OK with the files in the split locations, but you have to manually check what can be safely deleted from drive C. Normally I'd recommend that you move the entire iTunes folder as a unit and then hold down shift as you launch iTunes to choose the library in the new location. Given that you are part way through consolidating this isn't so simple now, but see my post make a split library portable for more information.
tt2

I Get an Error When Trying to Consolidate Library

I am trying to consolidate my music library with Itunes, but when I choose "Consolidate Library" I get the message "Copying music failed. The file name was invalid or too long" Does anyone know how to fix this? I'm really getting fed up with Itunes and can't seem to get any support. Please help.

Hi, globe9.
This can be a tricky problem to figure out since iTunes doesn't specify what file name - nor is there any documentation saying what determines when a file name - is "invalid or too long".
We had one user report that he was able to use his/her keen eyesight to note the last file that appeared before the error message appeared and it turned out that file was the cause of his/her trouble.
If your eyesight isn't that keen, I'd suggest concentrating on the file name being too long possibility.
The entire directory path leading to the file is considered part of the file name so, as an example, iTunes' default settings might place a particular file at C:\Documents and Settings\user name\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\artist folder\album folder\whatever.m4a.
Is the directory path leading to your consolidated location much longer than that?
polydorus has suggested a way to look over your file names: Assuming your music is currently in the default location, make your way there with Windows Explorer and select List in the View menu menu and see if anything stands out as being unusual.

Cannot consolidate library

When I try to consolidate my library on I get the following error message:
¨ Copying music failed. An unknown error occurred (-50). ¨

You don't use "Consolidate Library" to get songs in the library. When you use "Consolidate Library" what that does is COPIES all the files listed in iTUnes to the "iTUnes Music" folder.
To add songs to iTUnes you need to hit file>add folder (or file) to Library OR drag and drop the file/folder to iTUnes

"Unable to Consolidate Library, not enough disk space on C:\"

This is a very annoying bug and i'm certain it is a software bug and nothing that I can fix on my end without an iTunes update. The goods news, is that it should be very easy to change (I say this as a programmer myself.)
The problem: I do not keep all my mp3's on my internal hard drive. This would be impossible since I have a 60gb ipod and my laptop only has a 60gb drive to begin with -- i'd never be able to hold my library on my laptop without using an external for storage. So in iTunes, I have my preferences setup to store music files on this external drive. It is working great. The actual database file is still stored on C:\ (internal) and this is fine since it is rather small. However, when I choose consolidate library, iTunes thinks for a few minutes and then claims that it is unable to perform the action because there is not enough disk space available on C:\. This is silly for several reasons: 1) iTunes should not be coded such that it copies all files to C:\temp (or wherever it does its temp work for that matter) before copying the files to thier final destination. This is just one extra disk read/write that is unneeded. 2) If, for whatever reason, using the internal drive as a temporary buffer is required, then just copy one song at a time. As long as I have enough free space to copy the largest song that needs to be moved, consilidation should be possible. There is no reason to copy all 60gb of music to the temp, then copy all 60gb to my external drive. Instead, it is much smarter to copy one song at a time (and deleting the copy in the temp folder after you are done with it.) 3) An example: My internal drive has 10gb of free space, my external has 55gb of music and 45gb of free space. My library contains 5gb of music that is located on my internal drive. Even if iTunes were to copy all 5gb to the temp space on c:\ before the final copy operation, this should be able to consolidate without a problem. However, it doesn't. For some reason, iTunes thinks that it has to copy all 60gb of music (including 55gb of music that is not going to move anywhere.)
Recently I started storing all my music on a samba server. Simply changed the itunes preferences once again to point to //ipaddress/sharename and it works great. I can even sync my ipod on my laptop with the songs stored on my samba server without any trouble. However, consilidate library still fails for the same reason.

Assuming there are enough space available on the filestore folder? Did you check system log during failure? If possible enable CMS trace, that may help you for further investaigation.

A required application library failed to load and the product cannot continue

Seems like I go through this problem time and again with Photoshop + Acrobat CS2 and still have yet to resolve a way of fixing it short of completely wiping my drive and re-installing Windows (XP Pro) The error is "application library failed to load and the product cannot continue"
If there is anyone out there that has figured out a way to fix this issue please fill me in.
This time I went as far as a complete and though removal of all Adobe products from the system and the registry and then completely reinstalled the product.
I have forgone purchasing CS3 because of this issue as I am 99% sure that it has still not been resolved.
Basically Photoshop and Acrobat are useless at this point and I am using an old version of Picture Publisher and Macromedia Fireworks to complete my work. This I assume is good advertising for Adobe :)
Anyone have any ideas????
See this post in the forum "could not complete your request because of a program error", PDF format, cs2, xp" as this is an ongoing Adobe issue that they have completely blown off!
I am working on
Adobe Photoshop Version: 9.0.2 (9.0.2x296)
Operating System: Windows XP
Version: 5.1 Service Pack 2
System architecture: Intel CPU Family:15, Model:2, Stepping:9 with MMX, SSE Integer, SSE FP, SSE2, HyperThreading
Physical processor count: 1
Processor speed: 2798 MHz
Built-in memory: 2559 MB
Free memory: 1812 MB
Memory available to Photoshop: 1758 MB
Memory used by Photoshop: 55 %
Image cache levels: 6
Serial number: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (I have a legal copy)
Application folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS2\
Temporary file path: C:\DOCUME~1\JIMSHE~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\
Photoshop scratch has async I/O enabled
Scratch volume(s):
Startup, 128.0G, 65.5G free
Primary Plug-ins folder: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS2\Plug-Ins\
Additional Plug-ins folder: not set
Installed plug-ins:
ADM 3.10x21
ASDStrm 1.03x2
Accented Edges 9.0
Angled Strokes 9.0
Average 9.0 (9.0x196)
BMP 9.0 (9.0x196)
Bas Relief 9.0
Camera Raw 3.7
Chalk & Charcoal 9.0
Charcoal 9.0
Chrome 9.0
Cineon 9.0 (9.0x196)
Clouds 9.0 (9.0x196)
Color Halftone 9.0 (9.0x196)
Colored Pencil 9.0
CompuServe GIF 9.0 (9.0x196)
Conditional Mode Change 9.0 (9.0x196)
Contact Sheet II 9.0 (9.0x196)
Conté Crayon 9.0
Craquelure 9.0
Crop and Straighten Photos 9.0 (9.0x196)
Crop and Straighten Photos Filter 9.0 (9.0x196)
Crosshatch 9.0
Crystallize 9.0 (9.0x196)
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Difference Clouds 9.0 (9.0x196)
Diffuse Glow 9.0
Displace 9.0 (9.0x196)
Dry Brush 9.0
Embed Watermark 1.70.19
Export Transparent Image 9.0 (9.0x196)
Extract 9.0 (9.0x196)
Extrude 9.0 (9.0x196)
FastCore Routines 9.0 (9.0x196)
Fibers 9.0 (9.0x196)
Film Grain 9.0
Filmstrip 9.0 (9.0x196)
Filter Gallery 9.0
Fit Image 9.0 (9.0x196)
Fresco 9.0
Generic EPS 9.0
Glass 9.0
Glowing Edges 9.0
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Graphic Pen 9.0
HDRMergeAlign 9.0x001
HDRMergeUI 9.0x001
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Ink Outlines 9.0
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Lighting Effects 9.0 (9.0x196)
Liquify 9.0
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Mosaic Tiles 9.0
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Picture

John,
foud your message very helpfull. I experience the same problem when strating a CS2 program (Photoshop, Indesign,...) over a terminal server connection.
It's weird because starting more than one instance is possible (despite what's written in the article ) as long as the users have administrative rights. I've encountererd this problem because my daughter of 11 wants to use Photoshop now. I have a terminal server set up so the kids may experiment with their own desktops whithout the risk to screw it up and because I can access all my programs from wherever I want.
But as I found out now I must buy volume licensing instead of retail (even if it's for just one instance...)
Want to know if possible how "difficult" it was to change your retail to a volume licensed version? Did you have to pay the full amount again? Hope an upgrade exist from Creative Suite CS2 - retail to Creative suite CS3 - volume licensed for the same price as from retail to retail... Or am I hoping to much?
Kind regards and thanks for your info,
Patrick

How to Consolidate library + Keep Playlists

Hi
I've unsuccessfully searched for a solution to my problem and could find it in this forum. Would really appreciate any help!
I've collected a large amount of MP3s (over 300 Gigs) from different sources and got spread out in different hard drives and folders...My itunes library was linked to all these separate folders and then I bought this new hard drive to consolidate all of them into one place. When doing that I made a stupid mistake and renamed an older hard drive... therefore thousands of Itunes tracks got unlinked to their original files (the annoying ! sign).
I'd like to be able to do a "mass relink" to the all the files now consolidated into a single hard drive, but I'd like to keep all my library and playlists intact (since I worked on them for years). Any ideas on how to do that easily? Obviously I won't manually relink song by song, that would take an eternity... so if any of you know the solution to this you'll be my life savior!
Thanks to all in advance, an help will be greatly appreciated!

It has been moved, Som2k7.
In iTunes 8, go to the iTunes File menu > Library > Consolidate Library.

How to consolidate library in new iTunes

Since the new iTunes with the Genius, I don't know where the option to consolidate the library is. It's really annoying, anyone know?

It has been moved, Som2k7.
In iTunes 8, go to the iTunes File menu > Library > Consolidate Library.

Consolidate Library, Not enough Space, itl files, genuius, external drive,

In the interest of putting something back, thought I would post this
Objective
To have a single iTunes Library, on a Server PC, (Windows Home Server) so that if a change is made while on PC (a) or PC (b) we see the change.
Setup
PC (a) living room
PC (b) kitchen
Windows home server, on 24 x 7
In doing this I made a number of errors, and hope you learn from this, and also found a couple of 'features' that made life harder.
Standard approach
1) in iTune preferences, alter the position where you want to store your data, so this could be
//Server/Music/iTunes/Alison/Library
You need the subdirectory as the Library is where your itunes will reside, and your internal itunes file one directory up.
This process will change pointers in te internal itunes files, but still references the music in the various locations it is stored.
2) Now go to the File Menu/ Library / Consolidate Library
This will move all your music to teh location you specified above.
At this point I ran into my first problem, despite having adequate space on the Windows Home Server (WHS) I would get the error 'not enough space to copy files'
I believe the reason I was getting this error message was that some of the files paths were over 256 chat in length. There is also a limitation in WHS on this, but I believe the issue in this case was with iTunes, not WHS.
To get around this issue, I changed the location of where I was going to consolidate all the files to, to an internal disk on the PC where my itunes library was. so Instead of;
//Server/Music/iTunes/Alison/Library
I used m:/iTunes/Alison/Library
This worked, so I had all my data (now duplicated effectively, but consolidated) on the same PC.
The reason people say use consolidate is that it makes the move easy and changes all the internal files, but as I couldn't consolidate to the location I required due to the error, I now have to move all the rest of the data manually.
3) Copy the Library file on the local PC drive to the WHS Library Directory;
Copy m:/iTunes/Alison/Library => //Server/Music/iTunes/Alison/Library
4) I then edited the internal itunes files, so that it pointed to the WHS server location. I edited the itunes internal file;
Settings\Alison\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music Library.xml
I did this in notepad, with a find and replace command,
Find 'm:/'
Replace '/Server/Music/
The above bit does require some thought and if you have made it this far, have a look at the xml file structure, and you will be able to figure out how to alter the path.
This has the effect of pointing the iTunes file at where the music is now stored, you can confirm this by starting iTunes and getting it to show the track it is playing in Explorer. If it is pointing at your new location you are good to go.
Remember I only had to do this, as I was unable to consolidate to the location I really wanted to go to, due to the space error.
Also note that I had 2gb memory on the machine I did the find and replace on, as Notepad is not memory friendly.
5) Apple has some other internal files that need to be corrected as well;
iTunes Library.itl
iTunes Library Genius.itdb (if running genius)
iTunes Library Extras.itdb (believe is genius related)
sentinel (no idea, but saw this file !)
To get these all corrected to the new WHS (or external drive) I created a iTunes Library.itl file with zero bytes in the directory Settings\Alison\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\, did this in notepad. I then started iTunes, and it created all of the above files with the new file locations. You can't edit the above files, apple encrypts them
6) you now move all of the corrected internal files to the WHS home server location;
//Server/Music/iTunes/Alison
iTunes Library.itl
iTunes Music Library.xml
iTunes Library Genius.itdb
iTunes Library Extras.itdb
sentinel
7) Now you repoint the itunes to the new location for the internal files, specifically the correct itunes library, there are a number of references on the net to do this that you press the shift key(PC) or the option key (Mac)
I am running a PC, and pressing the shift key while clicking on the itunes icon on the desktop does not work. You have to hold the shift key while starting itunes from the Start Menu, Programs, Itunes. This will then give you an option of which library to look at, and look at the library on the WHS drive (or external drive)
Thats it
Hope this helps someone who has to battle with iTunes like I did. Due to the variosu errors, size of the library (200gb) and other issues, whole process took 2 days, if doing this again would have taken a couple of hours.
DGW

Hiya, that's sweet to post what you went through!
I have a question, though - are you able to have both PCs running itunes at the same time?
When I try this, I get an error message that the ITL file is locked on the 2nd instance I try to open. I'm using an exHD, not a server.
Also - all that editng of the XML file doesn't save ratings, date added, and some other metadata. If you'd just moved the ITL file, that metadata would be intact.

Exporting iTunes library to external hd. No 'consolidate library' option?

I'm trying to move my music to an external hard drive and I'm a the step where I'm supposed to go to File - Library - Consolidate Library and I don't have a consolidate library option. All I have is: Back Up to Disk, Organize Library, and Export Library. I'm using iTunes 9. Is Export the same?

"I'm a the step where I'm supposed to go to File - Library - Consolidate Library and I don't have a consolidate library option"
It doesn't say that.
This article -> http://support.apple.com/kb/hT1751
says,
"5 Choose File > Library > Organize Library.
6 Select the option to "Consolidate files." Note: If you recently updated to iTunes 9, you might want to consider selecting the option to "Upgrade to iTunes Media organization." This updates the file organization of your iTunes Media folder."

Can't consolidate library (it disappeared in iTunes 8)

I recently download iTunes 8 and I am completely satisfied with Genius.
Thing is, now I can't consolidate my library to my external hard drive.
Anybody know what happened?
I would usually go to the top taskbar and use the consolidate library option in iTunes 7, but now, no more of that.

It's been moved to a slightly different location: File menu > Library > Consolidate Library.

Consolidate Library command doesn't work--how can I import my library?

I've transferred my music from a back-up disk and want to import it into iTunes on my new machine, but the Consolidate Library command does nothing. Import Folder only works one folder at a time and I have hundreds of folders (40+gb of music). Anybody have any ideas how I can import it all into iTunes without having to spend a weekend tediously importing one folder at a time? Thanks in advance!

Consolidate only works on music already in your library.
What it does is to copy any music in the library database but not in the iTunes Music folder into the iTunes Music folder.
It cannot be used to add music to your library.
File>>Add folder to library ought to be able to add a music folder containing multiple folders in one go.

Consolidate library?!?!?

what does this do, when I click it I cannot get it to import any files into i-Tunes is this what is this function for? is it not for consolidating all of my music on my computer into i-Tunes? I have no music in my itunes right now but like 2500 songs stored as mp3.Please help I really don't understand this program. I am useing a dell by the way

'Consolidate Library' only applies to tracks that are already in your iTunes library. It simply moves all of your iTunes content into one specific folder.
If you want to add new content to your iTunes library, you need to use the 'Add to Library' function in the 'File' menu. When you select that function, then you'll just browse to the folder where your MP3 files are located and choose that folder.

Consolidate Library - why is this bad?

Article 1751 says to consolidate library, to back up library to an ext hard drive. Why is this step bad? I see that it copies to another file and in the future new music goes to the new file. So what? When i click on library will it go to that new file?
Thanks for the clarification.

It's always advisable to keep a back of of your songs and library files before you make any irreversible change to iTunes. Consolidating cannot be undone which is why Apple advise you to back everything up in case you need to manually revert.
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: Consolidating your library - Windows
Once you have consolidated your library, if you want to make sure anything you add to your library is always copied to your iTunes Music folder in future the go to Edit>Preferences>Advanced and check the box "Copy files to Tunes Music folder when adding to library.

Consolidate Library Fails

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