Consolidate to external drive?

Hi all,
I did a quick search for this but didn't find exactly what I needed.
Here's what I'd like to do:
I have most of my library on an external NAS but some songs 10GB or so ended up on my external firewire. Is there a way to move/copy the songs on the firewire to the NAS without losing anything and not having to go tell where all the ! songs went. I've been deleting the songs in itunes, copying them to NAS and then re-adding, but was wondering if I could copy the library itunes points to over to the NAS, reselect the library, an be done?
thx
shaun

kneedragger101 wrote:
Note this is an iTunes Library that was on a PC
you might want to read these articles: one and two.
why not move your media files using _*Home Sharing*_ ?

Similar Messages

How do I consolidate backed up music from an external drive into itunes?

I had to replace my ipod and am trying to consolidate my old music from an external drive with the itunes library on our home computer. My gf has music there already. I have tried consolidate library, edit/prefereces/change, copied my music in itunes folder BUT nothing works. iTunes just will NOT pick up/recognize my music. Any ideas will be much appreciated. cheers

Consolidate takes what is in the iTunes library (what you see when you open iTunes) & copies it into the iTunes music folder as shown in iTunes prefs - > Advanced.
If you cannot see the songs when you open iTunes, you need to File -> Add folder to library and select the folder with your music.

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.

External drive ejected during "consolidate library" attempt

I have a recent mac mini running mountain lion with a 1 tb g drive connected via firewire 800 and a 2 tb seagate connected via usb. The original itunes files are on the gdrive. I want to consolidate and back up the music files to the Seagate but in the middle of the consolidation, the g drive spontaneously ejects and I get an error message saying i have ejected it improperly. I had settings on so computer would not go to sleep so its not that. I have run disk utility on both external drives, no errors. I had this happen twice while trying to consolidate library and twice while trying a simple drag and drop of the itunes folder. What's the deal? Can anyone help? Has anyone had this problem?
rabbit

I have something similar on a brand new iMac 27" i7 top of the line model. I bought a USB 3 enclosure from OCW for a 120 gig SSD. I was using it as the cache drive for Photoshop CS6. It began to display the same issues you are describing. I brushed it off and blamed the cheap enclosure I purchased. This all occurred 1 week ago on 1-22-2013.
On Saturday 1-26-2013 I was backing up a sweet sixteen shoot via time machine connected to the USB3 port and the drive ejected mid way of a 70 gig back up. I found that strange because I've never had a problem with that drive or the enclosure it's in. (By the way this is a USB2 enclosure) I tried it 3 more times and the same issue occurred. I figured it was the cable and switched it with another USB cable and this time it worked.
Not thinking much about I assumed the problem was the cable. The next morning I realized I still had one 8 gig compact flash card in my camera and I needed to back that one up. This time I used my USB 3 RAW STEEL UDMA card reader to ingest the work. There were only 20 images on the card. During import the compact flash drive froze on the third image. I had to force quit and redo the import again. It took 3 times before I had no issues importing the images. I could not figure out what the **** was going on until it hit me.
During my trouble shooting I realized the 3 drives were, when they ejected themsleves, connected to the same port in the back of my iMac. The second one closest to the SD card reader port in the back. That was the free port I kept switching to use these different peripherals.
I need to do a little more testing but I'm almost certain something is wrong the the USB3 ports in the back of the new computers. Never had these issues with my late 2009 iMac.
The last thing I want to is haul this machine into Apple after it took me 4 days to get it set up the way I use it for my Photography business.
Disappointed big time!

What is the best way to consolidate Aperture and iPhoto libraries onto an external drive? I am just starting out and not used to Aperture filing system.

I would like to use the drive as storage/aperture backup rather than use it to back up my whole Macbook. Would like to keep the majority of the photo files on the ext. drive and be able to add files there directly. BUT, when workng in aperture would like to be able to select some from the ext. drive and work them on the laptop directly without having to have the ext drive attached.
So do i, have the aperture library path mapped to the ext drive, and then import the iphoto library? and then how do i add additional from the camera? Or, do i move everything together (imported iphotos and new from camera) in Aperture on the Macbook first, and then transfer that library to the ext drive?
For the life of me I can't figure out how to do this in a way that seems logical. Vaults? Masters on ext drive, versions on the macbook? Consolidating libraries? The endless possible answers are baffling me.
Thanks for any help!

Kirby Krieger wrote:
Hi Shane. Not much in the way of thoughts - - but fwiw:
How is the drive attached?
Can you open large files on the drive with other programs?
Are you running any drive compression or acceleration programs (some drives arrive with these installed)?
Can you reformat the drive and try again?
Hi Kirby,
I attached the UltraMax Plus with a USB cable. The UltraMax powers the cable so power is not an issue. I can open other files. Also, there is 500GB of files on the drive so I cannot re-format it. Although, I noted I could import the entire Aperture Library. However, I do not want to create a duplicate on my machine because that would be defeating the purpose of the external drive.
Thanks,
Shane

I have multiple libraries on an external drive. Somehow all the iTunes library files i.e. iTunes Library.itl, xml, itdb, Media folder, etc disappeared! Only the music files remain. Now when I start iTunes w/option it can't find any of the old libraries!

Help! I 'm using an old G4 powerbook, Mac OSX 10.5.8, iTunes ver 10. I have multiple iTunes libraries on an external drive. Everything was fine for a while, then all of the iTunes library files, i.e. iTunes Library.itl, xml, itdb, artwork folder, Media folder, etc mysteriously disappeared! Only the music files remain (thank god) So now when I start iTunes w/option key to choose a library, I can't choose any of them because iTunes won't recognize them. Because all the library stuff is missing. So can I re-create the library files? (I don't care if I lose my ratings)
Or should I create a new empty library on the external drive, then manually move all the music files to the Media folder in the new library?
I tried some stupid ideas like creating a new library just to start iTunes, then going into prefs and advanced, then under iTunes Media folder location, selecting the location of the old library on the external, to see if iTunes would then find all the music which is still there, but no workee.
I'm out of ideas, and I searched the archives.
Help! anyone?
Scott

I don't know if this is me adding files to iTunes when the external wasn't connected
it is.
is it OK to just keep deleting that library on the Air?
i wouldn't - at least not until i
mount the external
point iTunes media folder location back to the external via preferences > advanced
consolidate my library via file > library > organize library
The ntfs hasn't seem to be causing any problems, but I've always wanted to know.
in order for your Mac to write to NTFS drives, it needs some help by installing e.g. the NTFS 3G driver. apparently that or something similar is installed on your Mac already. preferably, it would be formatted for Mac but then windows machines would need to have e.g. MacDrive installed to recognize the drive.

How do I get iTunes to read from my external drive?

Ok, before you post this link http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748 please read this. That link only seems to give advice if you have your music on your computer's hard drive and you want to transfer it all to another drive. My problem is that all of my music is currently on an external drive. There is nothing to transfer or consolidate from my computer. I've gone into the preferences and set the iTunes music folder to the location on my external drive. The part about consolidating doesn't seem applicable in my case. So now that I've set the location of my iTunes music folder why isn't anything showing up in my iTunes library? Why can't I play any music?

So have any of this "external" music ever been added to iTunes? If not, go to File>Add to Library. Then navigate to the external hard-drive folder that contains the music.

How to Move iTunes Library on an External Drive to Another Computer

How do you move your iTunes library (including all your playlists) if your iTunes media files—movies, TV shows, music, etc.—are housed on an external drive, rather than the local drive on your computer?
The usual advice concerns copying media files from one computer to the next, e.g.:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
But if your media is on an external device, you don’t want to copy it, just access it from a new device. You could plug the drive into your new computer and drag the media into iTunes, but then you would lose your playlists and other information.
Fortunately, you can transfer an entire iTunes Library using the Export/Import function. The essential information is found in an Apple support document, “iTunes: How to re-create your iTunes library and playlists”:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1451
Using this information, we can create a procedure for transferring both the media files that are on an external drive and the iTunes Library that goes with it.
Here is the procedure:
1. On the old computer, Export the playlist, using File > Library > Export Library. Transfer the resulting file to the new computer.
2. You might want to note the number of music files, TV shows, etc. you have on the old system. Select View > Show Status Bar, then choose the “List” view, and this information will be shown at the bottom of the iTunes window. Also disable sharing, etc.; you may want to deauthorize the computer as well.
3. Close iTunes on the old computer, dismount and disconnect the external drive(s). (Yes, this will work with media on multiple drives).
4. On the new computer, close iTunes and delete “iTunes Library.itl” in the iTunes folder.
5. On the new computer, Connect and mount the external drive(s).
6. Open iTunes on the new computer. Choose Preferences > Advanced. Deselect (uncheck) both “Keep iTunes Media Organized” (because it’s already organized on your external drive, right?) and “Copy files to iTunes Media folder” (because the files are on the external drive). Then set your iTunes Media folder location to your media folder on the external drive and click on “OK”. (Note: don’t close iTunes after this step, because it will automatically reset your media folder to your local machine rather than the external drive).
7. Choose File > Library > Import Playlist and choose the file you exported from the old computer. This will import all the media you had on the old system into iTunes (no need to manually move anything from the external drive). The import will probably take some time. (If you see that iTunes is copying files, you probably messed up Step 6; you can stop it and go back to Step 4 without harm).
8. After the import, you can check the numbers you noted in Step 2; if there is a discrepancy that bothers you, check out the scripts “Music Folder Files Not Added” “List MIAs” and at http://dougscripts.com/itunes/.
9. When everything is satisfactory, you can recheck “Keep iTunes Media Organized” and “Copy files to iTunes Media folder” in Preferences.
10. You may now want to enable sharing, sync iOS devices, etc. Also be sure to set up your backup strategies on the new machine (you *do* have backups of your external drive(s), right?). If you already had some media on your new computer and you want to incorporate it into the external drive, choose File > Library > Consolidate.
11. Oddities:
* iTunes Extras must be manually imported.
* Some of my movies & TV shows imported as “Home Video”.
* Mobile applications did not import (presumably because no iOS device was synced).
* Books that were once handled by iTunes are now handled by iBooks and will not import (to let iTunes see them again, you’ll need to add them manually to iBooks, then choose File > Move Books from iTunes). Audiobooks import okay, but you may have to authorize your Audible account.

Or:
Copy the iTunes folder from the old computer to the same location in your user area on the new one. Attach the external drive and start iTunes. If you have put it in your Home > Music folder the application will automatically know to look for it there and becausse you are using the same library it will be configured to look for media on the external drive.

How do I move an iTunes library from one external drive to another?

I need to move my iTunes library from one external disk to another, because the original disk is about to fail. So, I went into iTunes Perferences --> Advanced, and set the library to a new, empty folder on the new drive.
Nothing changed. I expected all my music to vanish from iTunes, so that I would have to re-import it. However, all the music remained, still on the old disk. At this point, if I were to recreate the library on the new disk, I would have all of my music twice.
Is it possible to move an iTunes library from one external drive to another, or am I stuck with my original choice until I buy a new machine? If I can move it, can one of you clever folks explain how it could be done?

Paul Seymour1 wrote:
However, those are all dealing with old versions of iTunes that still contained the Advanced --> Consolidate Library command which is no longer part of the app. (I'm on iTunes 10.6.1.)
Consolidate is still part of iTunes.
It is in iTunes menu File > Library > Manage library > Consolidate.
The article you linked to is old and it is (and was) a hacky way of doing it.
Just copy the entire /Music/iTunes/ folder to new location, hold Option (Mac) or Shift (Windows) when launching iTunes.

How to have three Windows laptops share one iTunes library stored on a networked external drive?

We just replaced our one desktop PC with three laptops. Each laptop wants to access the same iTunes library, which now resides on an external drive connected to the network via our router. How can this be done, and if one laptop adds a file to the library, will the other two see it?

Tom DePrenda wrote:
I used the consolidate library feature and it moved all the music to the appropriate iTunes folder on the Share.
Good!
I have the Vista laptop pointing to the Share for the iTunes Media folder location.
Good!
The question is how do I add the files to her library?
Go to your File menu and use the command Add Folder to Library. When the dialog comes up, point it to the Music folder in the Share area. But read on first...
Also do I keep the boxes checked "Keep iTunes Media folder organized"
You must turn off the "Keep..." option. Otherwise, when one of you changes a tag, iTunes will re-"organize" and the other person's iTunes will lose the link.
The "Copy..." option should also be turned off. As you add new music, put it where you want it. Then you must "Add File to Library" from each iTunes.

I can not store all my Music on my internal Macbook pro hard drive so I am storing it on a large external drive connected to my airport extrem. How do I get Itunes to search for the music here with out trying to copy it to my laptops hard drive??

I can not store all my Music on my internal Macbook pro hard drive so I am storing it on a large external drive connected to my airport extreme (2 TB drive plugged into the USB port). I see the drive on my laptop and I can add and delete files no problem. How do I get Itunes to search for the music here with out trying to copy it to my laptop's hard drive? I don't have enough space to do that.

How did you move the music to the external drive? What exactly is on the drive? The entire iTunes folder or only music? If it is the entire iTunes folder you can do the option+start suggestion earlier. If you copied only music and did so by dragging it there then you need to delete it again and consolidate/organize it there instead so iTunes tracks the move. iTunes 12 for Mac: Change where your iTunes files are stored - http://support.apple.com/kb/PH19507

How to move an iMovie project to an external drive ?

Hi I need to move my iMovie project to an external drive, to free some space, please help. if it's possible.....

To make sure that all required media is in the library contain the project you need to "Consolidate media" see: http://help.apple.com/imovie/mac/10.0/#mov882dee351
You can then copy the library to your laptop with the Finder and open it with the same version of iMovie. The last phrase is important since Apple has made changes in the project format several times even between minor updates of iMovie 10. Earlier versions may not be able to read the library and later versions (not possible in this case) may cause the project to be updated so that it is no longer readable by the desktop version. iMovie on the laptop will not at first find the copied library - you will have either to double click on it or File - Open library - Other and navigate to its location.
Geoff.

Using External Drive with a Macbook

My iTunes library is on my desktop ( iMac G5 ) but I want to listen to it on my Macbook. So I have copied my complete iTunes folder ( including the iTunes Music Library ) to an external drive and attached it to my Macbook. There is no music on my Macbook iTunes so I thought it would be easy to get the Macbook to 'see' the iTunes library on the external drive. I followed the Apple support article and checked the Keep Folders Organised and Copy Music files boxes in Preferences. Then I changed the location of my iTunes library in Preferences to the location on the external drive. Then I pressed OK, expecting to see my library in iTunes but...nothing.
The actions I HAVEN'T taken referred to in the support article are to create a new folder ( as the folder already exists on my external drive ) or to consolidate my library as I understand this to mean 'copy files to the new location' - a) the files are already in the new location and b) I'm not moving any files FROM the laptop, as there are none to move.
There's obviously some step I haven't taken or something but I can't work out what.
Can someone help? Many thanks in anticipation.

If you moved the whole iTunes folder to the external drive then your library file should be there as well. Hold down the Option key when opening iTunes. In the resulting dialogue you will get the option to create a new library or navigate to an existing one. Go to the iTunes folder on your external drive and choose open: How to open an alternate iTunes Library file

How do I move my iTunes Library to an external drive and retain everything?

I'm sure this is a common [stupid] question, but I couldn't find a clear answer and I want to be sure I'm doing it correctly.
To clarify; I want to move/relocate my iTunes Library folder to an external drive (FW800 two-disk RAID1) to free up my system drive and have a backup. Do I redirect iTunes to the new location and use File>Library>Consolidate Library, or, can I just move or copy the 'iTunes' folder to the external drive and then change the iTunes 'music folder location' to the new location? Will this now save all subsequent imported/purchased music, movies,,..etc to the external drive and retain all my library details?
Message was edited by: Sakahara

Hello, Welcome to Apple Discussions.
Below you will find more information about your options of relocating iTunes Library and backing it up.
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Music folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449
How to use your iPod to move your music to a new computer
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1329
Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1751
How to back up your media in iTunes
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1382

Help! Just copied iTunes media to second external drive and now have broken links in the original drive??

Hi everyone
I wonder if anyone can offer me some advice to rectify the problems I'm experiencing in my itunes?
I have been saving my media to an external hard drive since rebuilding my itunes collection, while keeping the library on the hard drive of my MBP. This was working well with no problems but as my media reached 300GB on my external I thought I would copy it to another external hard drive as back up, and after that I decided to also make a copy of my library data to the same second external drive so I would have a full back up of itunes in case of failure of my main hard drive...
So after copying my media from my first external drive to the second, and then copying the library data from my MBP hard drive it seems the copy of my media and the copied library are working fine on my second external hard drive, but now when I open the first external drive where I originally was saving my media files I am suffering quite a lot of broken links???...I followed the copy process as I have done in the past although I did not tick the check box for renaming and moving my media as it was about to be copied,and I thought that was correct as I used the consolidate function to copy it..
Been trying to figure out how to rectify the problem tonight and am getting nowhere fast. Can anyone offer suggestions as to how I can sort the issue on my original external hard drive as it's the one I prefer to store my media on and it was functioning perfectly before?? from having a tidy and clearly functioning itunes I now have a mass of problems....
I hope this is clear to someone.....as I was hoping to have it fixed in readiness for a new MBP...am I missing something obvious?

OK, this should sort you out...
Move the following files and folders from /Volumes/Backup/iTunes up to /Volumes/Backup/
Album Artwork (folder)
iTunes Library.itl
iTunes Library Extras.itdb
iTunes Library Genius.itdb
iTunes Library.xml
sentinel (hidden)
Launch iTunes. It should warn that the library is missing. Browse to the file /Volumes/Backup/iTunes Library.itl and open it.
Go to iTunes > Preferences > Advanced and change the media folder location to /Volumes/Backup/Music. Let iTunes consolidate files if it asks, if not use File > Library > Organize Library... Tick Consolidate files and click OK.
Close iTunes. Rename /Volumes/Backup/Music as /Volumes/Backup/iTunes Media. Start iTunes.
Go to iTunes > Preferences > Advanced, check that the media folder location now reads /Volumes/Backup/iTunes Media. If necessary, change and then close and reopen iTunes.
Go to File > Library Organize Library... and, if not greyed out, tick Rearrange files in the folder iTunes Media, then click OK.
Delete /Volumes/Backup/iTunes/iTunes Media which now contains redundant copies.
Move the following files and folders from /Volumes/Backup/ into /Volumes/Backup/iTunes
Album Artwork (folder)
iTunes Media (folder)
iTunes Library.itl
iTunes Library Extras.itdb
iTunes Library Genius.itdb
iTunes Library.xml
sentinel (hidden)
Launch iTunes. It should warn that the library is missing. Browse to the file /Volumes/Backup/iTunes/iTunes Library.itl and open it.
Go to iTunes > Preferences > Advanced, check that the media folder location now reads /Volumes/Backup/iTunes/iTunes Media. If necessary, change and then close and reopen iTunes.
Each time you change something and start iTunes just check that a track will play. If not, close iTunes and undo your last action.
That should be it. You can clone this iTunes folder to any other drive and the clone is a functioning copy of your library.
tt2

Consolidate to external drive?

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