Consolidation of library

Hey all.
Just a quick one: if I click +Advanced > Consolidate library+ will this consolidate all the tunes from my partners profile on Windows also? I just don't want to press it and the entire back catalogue of my partner appear with mine.
An added complication is we're retaining all our music on an external drive. Will this make any difference to the consolidation tool?
Cheers.

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 doesn't add songs to a library that aren't already there, it simply finds files referenced in the library and where appropriate copies files to one folder (the iTunes Music folder): Copying all your iTunes files to one location - Windows

Similar Messages

I consolidated my library to an external hard drive then the drive crashed. How can I restore it?

I consolidated my library to an external hard drive, a few days later the drive crashed. Everything still exists on the local computer in the old locations. How do I tell iTunes to use the old locations again? I don't need to redownload anything, I hadn't purchased anything between the consolidation and the crash.
Due to space contraints, the way it was stored before was not the iTunes default. Most things were in the default location, but the media folder location was on a separate hard drive.

Sort of. My media was on multiple hard drives, some local, and actually some networked, and then I conolidated it to a single external hard drive. Renaming drives and moving files sounds like a recipe for disaster.
When doing a consolidation, files are copied to a new location and the old ones are left untouched. Does iTunes create a backup database of the file locations before doing a consolidation? I could use the backup if that were the case, since everything still exists in the original locations.
I've recieved my replacement hard drive for the one that crashed and I may be able to copy everything back manually if I knew where it went. I looked inside the iTunes Music Library.xml to see if I could figure out the folder structure, but for some reason they all say they're located in the iTunes folder in My Documents. They're not, of course.
Would the Previous iTunes Library.itl be of any use, or is that for another purpose?

Organizing Songs After Consolidating Your Library

I didn't realize that you should check the box that says "Keep iTunes Music folder organized" before consolidating your library, so the box was unchecked when I consolidated my library. After consolidating my library, I went back and checked that box and hit okay again, and this box came up, saying that it was organizing my songs or whatever. Can I assume then that my songs are still arranged by album, artist, etc.?

Sorry, I'm computer-illiterate, but I'm not sure which one of the folders in my iTunes main folder is the consolidated library. There's one folder called "iTunes Music," which has a bunch of different subfolders, but I think there's some music on there that I deleted from my library, because I didn't want to listen to it anymore. Then there's another thing in my main iTunes folder called "iTunes Music Library," and it has the icon of a dog-eared page with a world on it with these signs: < and > on either side of it and straight lines under it (sorry if i'm not descriptive enough). The only problem with that is that it only has 3.52 MB of stuff on it, and I think I have more than that amount of music on my iPod. When I click on it, it opens a page on the Internet filled with what looks like programming text. Finally, there's a third thing in the main iTunes folder just called iTunes Library, and it has the icon of the dog-eared page with the iTunes symbol on it and the word "Data." When I click on this, it opens iTunes on my computer. Do you have any idea which one of these is my consolidated library? Thanks for your help!

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!

Help! I consolidated my library! Where did my music go?

I consolidated my library, it went to the iTunes folder, but my itunes program library is completely bare.

When consolidating, all music is stored in the directory set in the preferences.
On a Mac that directory is set in Preferences>Advanced>General.
On a PC it should be something similar.
If you can't find it, I suggest you post your question in the iTunes for Windows forum.
Hope this helps.
M

I consolidated my library, where did my music go?

I consolidated my library, it went to the iTunes folder, but my itunes program library is completely bare.

I just went through this.
go to Edit>preferences>advanced tab
and check the path in the "iTunes music folder location" box.
That's where your music went

Is there any way for additions made by one user of a shared library to be visible to the other user of the same library, without having to always "add file to library"? This was the whole reason we consolidated the library into a public folder

My wife and I share a computer but have separate Windows ID's. We also each have an iTunes account, using two separate Apple ID's. We have always struggled with the headache of getting music that one of us added (via purchase, downloading CD, etc.) to the other person's music library. A friend suggested we consolidate and share the same library. Sounded like a good idea so we moved the libraries to a public folder, consolidated them, etc. But now when one of us adds music to the library, the other person still has to do an "add file/folder to library" in order for them to be able to see it. This is exactly the step we were hoping to eliminate by this consolidation. Does anyone know if there is a way to make this happen automatically, or will we have to continue to do this every time?
Also, ended up with a lot of duplicates in the process of consolidating. Is there any way to identify and "mass delete" these? It will take a while to go through them all individually as the library is somewhat substantial (approx. 16k songs)
Hardware is Windows 8, one iPod classic, one iPod Nano (obviously only selected playlists on this one). All hardware and iTunes running latest software.
Any information would be appreciated!

It sounds like you are using two independent libraries with a common media folder, whereas the plan would have been to ensure that both profiles were using the same library library database. Although you can place this within the Public folder I would normally create a shared library at the root of a drive, e.g. at X:\iTunes where X: is the drive that you want to use. See Make a split library portable for information on moving the library around back into a standard shape.
As for duplicates, Apple's official advice on duplicates is here... HT2905: How to find and remove duplicate items in your iTunes library. It is a manual process and the article fails to explain some of the potential pitfalls such as lost ratings and playlist membership.
Use Shift > View > Show Exact Duplicate Items to display duplicates as this is normally a more useful selection. You need to manually select all but one of each group to remove. Sorting the list by Date Added may make it easier to select the appropriate tracks, however this works best when performed immediately after the dupes have been created. If you have multiple entries in iTunes connected to the same file on the hard drive then don't send to the recycle bin.
Use my DeDuper script if you're not sure, don't want to do it by hand, or want to preserve ratings, play counts and playlist membership. See thisthread for background, this post for detailed instructions, and please take note of the warning
to backup your library before deduping.
(If you don't see the menu bar press ALT to show it temporarily or CTRL+B to keep it displayed.)
The most recent version of the script can tidy dead links as long as there is at least one live duplicate to merge stats and playlist membership to and should cope sensibly when the same file has been added via multiple paths.
tt2

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

Even after consolidating, itunes library does not mirror music folder

i copied my itunes music folder from my old harddrive to my new computer. some of the songs in the library are not in the music folder. how could this be if i copied the folder? is there a way to make them exactly alike? is it even important for them to be the same if my library has all my songs? i tried consolidating to my music folder but that didn't help anything. i use only itunes for music and i am very confused as to why they don't match up even though i have itunes copy every import into the music folder.
HP Pavilion Windows XP MCE

This area is for G5 iMacs.
Suggest you repost your question in one of the iTunes for Windows Forums so that other users of Windows computers can see your question & help you.
Good Luck!

Two vexing consolidation and library problem

1. About 3 years ago, the "C drive on my computer was just about full. I moved iTunes content to the "D" drive, unfortunately without consolidating. On that computer, all content -- whether purchased or added before or after the move from "C" to "D" -- could be accessed and played equally well.
I just bought a Western Digital NAS, and a second computer. I consolidated the iTunes content from the "D" drive to the NAS. After several hours of pouring over many different library files on both the "C" and "D" drives, I was able to copy the correct library file onto the NAS (the "W" drive) and pointed iTunes 9 on both computers to the correct library file on the "W" driver. All 5,500 items in the library are listed in iTunes. However, no content added to iTunes before I moved the music from the "C" to the "D" drive (on 12/31/06) can be located in iTunes. Attempting to locate that content manually on the computer where the music was stored on the "D" drive will, in fact, locate the content on the "D" drive of that computer. Attempting to locate that content manually on the new computer will, in fact, find it on the NAS (the "W" drive)
I still have on the old computer a number of old "library" files. A few have create dates of 12/31/06, the day I did the move. Some have earlier creation dates.
So, how can I get the necessary information concerning the pre-move content to the NAS ("W" drive) so that iTunes will recognize and play that content automatically like all of the content that post-dates 12/31/06?
2. As noted above, I have consolidated files to the "W" drive, and pointed iTunes 9 to the library on the "W" drive. However, after exiting iTunes, and then re-entering, the program is forgetting that I have specified the "W" drive and the associated library as the place for content. I have indeed specified "W" as the place where iTunes content is located, in the "preferences" and "advanced" pane.
Thanks!

1. About 3 years ago, the "C drive on my computer was just about full. I moved iTunes content to the "D" drive, unfortunately without consolidating. On that computer, all content -- whether purchased or added before or after the move from "C" to "D" -- could be accessed and played equally well.
I just bought a Western Digital NAS, and a second computer. I consolidated the iTunes content from the "D" drive to the NAS. After several hours of pouring over many different library files on both the "C" and "D" drives, I was able to copy the correct library file onto the NAS (the "W" drive) and pointed iTunes 9 on both computers to the correct library file on the "W" driver. All 5,500 items in the library are listed in iTunes. However, no content added to iTunes before I moved the music from the "C" to the "D" drive (on 12/31/06) can be located in iTunes. Attempting to locate that content manually on the computer where the music was stored on the "D" drive will, in fact, locate the content on the "D" drive of that computer. Attempting to locate that content manually on the new computer will, in fact, find it on the NAS (the "W" drive)
I still have on the old computer a number of old "library" files. A few have create dates of 12/31/06, the day I did the move. Some have earlier creation dates.
So, how can I get the necessary information concerning the pre-move content to the NAS ("W" drive) so that iTunes will recognize and play that content automatically like all of the content that post-dates 12/31/06?
2. As noted above, I have consolidated files to the "W" drive, and pointed iTunes 9 to the library on the "W" drive. However, after exiting iTunes, and then re-entering, the program is forgetting that I have specified the "W" drive and the associated library as the place for content. I have indeed specified "W" as the place where iTunes content is located, in the "preferences" and "advanced" pane.
Thanks!

Incomplete consolidation of library

Hi everyone,
The first 1/2 of my library was consolidated fine, however, the other half was not. It appears it cut it off alphabetically i.e. it stopped at the 'S'.
Now for the weird part: I can play all the songs from my ext. harddrive, the entire library but when I take the HD off line "S" through 'Z' 'cant't be found'.
When I show those files in the finder it shows them in an iTunes folder created in BACKUP. BUt I don't have a Backup schedule for iTunes on this comp so I cant restore.
So, how do i get those files out of the BACKUP file and into my library?
Thanks.

Well that was easy.
I just dragged the file out of B/U. once out of there, iTunes recognized them and consolidated.
Sleep and coffee, good things....

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.

I changed drives and consolidated my library, but many files are missing

I recently changed my the hard drive on which my iTunes media were stored. I followed instructions on this page:
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder
However, after consolidation I discovered that quite a lot of folders and files are missing from the new created file. The missing songs are still in my library, and when I try to play them, I get the exclamation mark and have to direct iTunes to the original files on the old hard drive.
I've restarted everything and tried to consolidate again and again, but the files remain missing.
What should I do?
All advice gratefully received.

I am not doing it in ITunes, but i did down load the song from ITunes. I loaded the song on to my Nano, but in my menu selections it doesn't show the song or the artist in any search format. However, when i plug in my nano to my PC I see the Nano library on my PC drive listings and that song and artist are there. I can click on the song and it will play in Windows media on my work PC. I did notice that the format for most all the songs in my library on my Nano are MPEG - 4 audio Files.
Thanks for your help, Mel

Consolidating my library was the worst thing I ever did

Alright, so I had a ton of different folders in my Music Folder, and I wanted to put all of my artists in to one folder, but then I remembered that I would have to re-associate all of my songs in my iTunes library with the new place all of my songs were, so I just said screw that and consolidated my entire library.
What a joke this was.
Now when it consolidated my videos, that was my fault (and a huge waste of time), so I can ignore that, but for some reason two songs from 6 or 7 of my artists would be thrown into my music library and wouldn't be in my iTunes folder anymore. This was after I deleted all of my songs from my music folder because they were all in my iTunes folder. So I had to go back and put them back in to their respective iTunes folders.
Then for some reason the library wasn't detecting 6 podcasts I had downloaded earlier in the day, and tried to download them again, so I had to re-add those to the library.
Then the mother of all problems happened to me today. Almost every single song in my 1,900 song library can't be detected by iTunes in my iTunes folder. All of these songs are in the exact same spot from yesterday, when iTunes worked, but for some reason it can't detect almost all of my songs. Now just a month ago my library file was corrupted and I had to re-add all of my songs and used a script so I could have my play counts what I wanted them (I had my play counts synced with last.fm, so I could just look up how many plays I had before my library was corrupted), so I know how annoying it is to have to do all of this over again.
So any solution besides deleting, re-adding all of my songs, and redoing all of my play counts over again (which is about the only problem I have with this) would be appreciated. Thank you.
*Note: If it wasn't clear, yes, some of the songs in my iTunes library are being detected in the iTunes folder, but a majority aren't. Oh, and all of my podcasts and movies are being detected just fine.
Message was edited by: brian9bpm9
null

http://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/1000/MA1565/en_US/iphone_user_guide.pdf

Having trouble consolidating iTunes library (to then copy to new computer)

The music on my iPod was compiled over time from various files on the computer. I am trying to consolidate all the music into a single iTunes library so I can move the entire library to my new computer. When I tried to do that, it said "copying files" and then I got an error message: "Copying music failed. The file name was invalid or too long." What can I do to consolidate my music? thanks

iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
Quick answer if you let iTunes manage your music: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Start iTunes with the option (shift on Windows) key held down and guide it to the new location of the library.
To see your iTunes folder click on the Music folder icon in your Finder sidebar.

Consolidation of library

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for