Do I need to keep Previous iTunes Libraries?

In my Music folder, I have one folder called "iTunes," which has 4 items: an "iTunes library," an "iTunes Music Library.xml," an "iTunes Music folder," and a "Previous iTunes Libraries folder." In the Previous iTunes Libraries folder are two files: one called "iTunes 4 Music Library" and one called "iTunes 4 Music Library (Old)." Do I need these? Can they be trashed? I need space and these seem to be duplicates of the iTunes library which exists outside of the previous libraries folder.
Thanks.
Terry

The previous library files are placed there after an upgrade and are not used by iTunes. you can safely trash them.
M

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Can't get rid of "Previous iTunes Libraries" Banner

When I opened my iTunes 10.5 it asked me to open a pervoius library for some reason. I tried searching for my most recent library to get it back to normal but now at the top on iTunes it says "Previous iTunes Libraries" How do I get rid of that without any big probelms?

Problem solved i found the solution from another dicussions. I hope this helps because it helped me:
I'm not sure if this is new with iTunes 9, but the words you're seeing at the top of your library are the name of the folder where your "iTunes Music.itl" file is located. If it reads "Previous iTunes Libraries" then you must be using using an .itl file that is located in the "Previous iTunes Libraries" folder, not the normal "iTunes" folder.
I can't tell you when your iTunes changed to this .itl file, but it could have happened before upgrading to iTunes 9 and you're just noticing now (if I'm right in that this "Title" is a new feature).
Look around your computer and see if you find another .itl file in the "iTunes" folder. Does it have a more recent date than the .itl file in the "Previous iTunes Libraries" folder? If so, then you can change .itl files by closing iTunes and then re-start it while holding the Opt key (Shift for Windows) -- keep holding the Opt key until you see the prompt, at which point you should select "Choose Library" and navigate out of the "Previous iTunes Libraries" folder and over to the "iTunes" folder and select the .itl file there.
If the .itl file in the iTunes folder has an older date, then you've probably been using a different .itl file. Find the most recent dated copy and move that to the iTunes folder, then use the Opt-start method to change iTunes to the new file location.

How do i keep 2 iTunes libraries in sync

Hi
I am sure this must have been asked before BUT, how do I keep 2 iTunes libraries in sync?
Some of the music is is purchased from Applestore but most is ripped from my CD's.
Some of my films are purchased from Applestore but most are ripped from my DVD's or digital downloads.
Most of my books are from audible.co.uk, CD rips and a very few from Applestore.
I need/want to keep my primary iMac (which syncs with my iPad and iPhone) in sync with my home media server which is a Mac Mini.
Andy and all help would be hugely appreciated.
Regards.
Robin
PS I have tried MyTuneSync but this duplicates lots of files and does not handle deletions at all well.
I have also tried SuperSync, this is hugely confusing, does not seem to wrok very well and has ZERO support.

What did you copy over?
I keep my iTunes library on an external hard disk on both machines as it is over 1.5Tb in size.
But you still have the 'management' part of iTunes in the local iTunes folder and this does not get updated when you add sometthing from one machine onto the other?
I do actually owned Synk but am sure I saw somewhere they do not suggest using it for iTunes?
Robin

I opened my iTunes and most of my music was gone, it said "Previous iTunes Libraries" at the top and had playlists from a few years ago (that I've long since deleted). How can I get my old library back?

Please help!! About a week ago I opened my iTunes to find that all but 200 something of my songs were missing (I had 1,000 something the day before) and all of my current playlists were gone. They've been replaced by playlists that I had nearly four years ago and have long since deleted. It also says "Previous iTunes Libraries" at the top. I am SO frustrated because everything is gone!!!

Nevermind, once I posted this topic it gave me some helpful related topics on the side and I found my answer! Would have been nice if it could have given me those before I posted this!!! Anyway, if anyone else sees this and is having the problem, press and hold the Shift key while double clicking to open itunes on your desktop, then it will ask you to select a library and just choose the one with the most recent date!! (Use the Opt key instead of Shift for Mac users). I owe alot of thanks to the person on the board that helped me, been frustrated for DAYS!!! THANK YOU!

How to get songs that are in "previous iTunes Libraries" folders ??

I am unable to play scores and scores of songs that were on my iTunes 4.9 playlists now that I have "upgraded" to 7.0 I have a strange icon to the left of the song on my song list and when I go to play the song I get a message that the song cannot be located. The following notes come from iTunes help (see below) and I am wondering if anyone else has lost music and if so.....are they really lost or just misplaced? I would hate to think Apple would insist on an upgrade to buy more iTunes if they are going to scrub away hundreds of your other songs.
HELP PLEASE
Note: The library file name for versions of iTunes prior to 4.9 was "iTunes 4 Music Library" for Mac OS X and "iTunes 4 Music Library.itl" for Windows. After upgrading to iTunes 4.9 or later, the older library files are moved to a "Previous iTunes Libraries" folder.

If the strange icon you refer to is an exclamation point, the problem is that the song files are not in the location the iTunes Library files are saying they are.
Note that the iTunes Library files do not contain the actual song files but rather a list of references that point iTunes to where the songs are (or rather should be) located.
So the first thing I'd do is find out just where the files are on your computer. Have a look at this article in the Apple Knowledge Base for some ideas on how to do so.
Post back and let us know if you're able to find the song files.

Keeping my iTunes Libraries in Sync

My wife and I share a single iTunes library from separate accounts on an iMac (actually I have two accounts - one for me and one for work, for a total of 3). The song files are on an external HD, the iTunes Library and iTunes Music Library.xml files are in each individual account's Music folder.
I load most of the music into the shared library via my personal account - CDs, iTunes Music Store purchases, an occasional freebie .mp3 from elsewhere. As far as I know, the only way for those songs to show up in the other two library listings is for them to be added in each instance of iTunes via the "Add to Library..." command, which can be a major pain when I go on a buying binge. Is there another way to update the other two accounts more efficiently?
Also, does anyone know what data beside the actual song is stored with the song file itself and what is stored in the iTunes Library or iTunes Music Library.xml files? It seems that the artist, song title, album artist, album title, any comments, the year and length of the song all transfer with the song, but I'm not sure about other fields. Apple keeps adding view options and I don't know where to find documentation on all of this stuff. Does anyone know or even care about things at this level any more?
Finally, one of my libraries says that it has 15,972 entries in it and the other says it has 15,985 - I believe that they are identical. So I exported a text copy of each library and loaded them to Excel and found that there were exactly the same number of entries in each copy. (I even compared the spreadsheets to make sure that the contents were in fact the same.) It's hard enough keeping track of all this stuff as it is, but when the numbers don't match, it can drive you nuts. Any ideas on how to fix this disparity, short of reloading one or the other of the libraries?
Thanks
Mike "Whatever Happened to Software Manuals?" Strohmeyer

Even though this is an old thread, one way to sync your iTunes library is to use rsync and Automator. If you're doing it that way, you can also sync your movies, audiobooks, podcasts, etc. from one computer to another which was an advantage for me. I just bought a MacBook Air and I had the same problem as you. Here's my solution: http://leolabs.org/blog/idevices/keeping-itunes-libraries-in-sync/
Regards,
leolabs

Keeping Two iTunes Libraries in Sync.

When iCloud became available, I was stoked to be able to sync the iTunes library on my work computer with my home computer. I thought that the cloud would keep my work computer up to date, updating new purchases automatically. However, that doesn't seem to be the case. My latest purchases on my home computer are not showing up on my work computer. What do I have to do to keep these two in sync? Is there a way to do it automatically?

Even though this is an old thread, one way to sync your iTunes library is to use rsync and Automator. If you're doing it that way, you can also sync your movies, audiobooks, podcasts, etc. from one computer to another which was an advantage for me. I just bought a MacBook Air and I had the same problem as you. Here's my solution: http://leolabs.org/blog/idevices/keeping-itunes-libraries-in-sync/
Regards,
leolabs

What is the Previous ITunes Libraries folder for

Hi,
I have the above in MyMusic folder where all my iTunes stuff is?
What is it for?

Each time you upgrade iTunes the existing library is first moved or copied into this folder and given a timestamp of the date of the upgrade. The libray is then updated to work with the new version.
Possible uses for the files:
~ Should the upgrade go wrong you can restore the previous library and try again.
~ Should you lose your library for any reason the most recent copy in that folder is a good place to start rebuilding from, though not as good as restoring from a proper backup.
~ Should you decide you want to downgrade you will need access to a previous version as libraries are not backwards compatible.
If you have a decent backup for your *iTunes Library(.itl)* file and no desire to downgrade iTunes then you can safely delete the folder.
tt2

I need to consolidate two iTunes libraries from different countries.

I have been struggling for approximately 5 years now to resolve an issue which it seems is normal for those Apple users who move countries from time to time. Specifically, I have ended up (inadvertantly in the first instance) with two distinct iTunes accounts -- one in Australia (which cannot be changed to UK as I don't have an Australian credit card and the balance at $1.04 is non-zero) -- and another in the UK (which I use all the time).
I have tried again and again to get this straightened out with Apple, with iTunes support, with Genius Bar people, store managers and on and on -- however, for some reason which is beyond my humble comprehension -- and despite being a significant (£30k) personal Apple customer over recent years -- I cannot get anything other than "passing the buck" between the Apple Store and Geniuses to iTunes Customer Support online -- who, frankly, have demonstrated a complete lack of ability to 1) understand the problem in the first instance without a lot of going backwards and forwards, 2) fail to provide any suitable or acceptible answers that would help -- instead repeating (as if in a different conversation) the same words again and again (via text emails -- which I'll happily share further with all who are interested); 3) fail to demonstrate any capability of elevating this so that the issue is solved once and for all.
I have a large library of music and music video's purchased in the UK and Australia (and some which was purchased in the USA when I was there -- thankfully without this particular set of problems). The Australian account cannot be changed to UK as it has a non-zero balance of $1.04 -- and so I cannot hope to put a UK credit card on file in order to achieve my first goal of upgrading the music and music videos to non-DRM, high resolution, explicit etc. etc. and also sychronising with iMatch alongside my UK content.
Every single time I attempt to do something with iTunes or my MacBook Pro (either of them), my iPad, my iPhone 5, my AppleTV, my Mobileme account etc. etc. -- it does not work properly due to the "split nature" of the music catalogue -- and the different countries which each are registered to -- where-as I am based in the UK (although may move back to the USA in some time again).
I would appreciate a full refund of all of the content which was bought in Australia -- so that these purchases can be transferred or remade with my current account. I also want to know how I am to manage this situation the next time I move country. So far, it would be easier to steal the music via P2P than to continue paying over the odds for content which is not being "handed over" to me in a reasonable way.
I love my Apple experience so much other than this particular issue -- please can somebody help me fix this. It is central to my whole experience of the vast investment I have made with joinging the "Apple Adventure"..
Grant Warrell

if you're on iTunes 9, the easiest way would be to drag & drop the contents of the (external ?) hard drive into the *automatically add to iTunes* folder inside the iTunes folder of the target machine.
you will have duplicates, which can be deleted later on (or kept and filtered using smart playlists).
JGG

Itunes match - do I need to keep my Itunes Library original files?

Can I delete my Itunes library on my hard drive if I subscribe to Itunes match? Would that be unwise?

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
You can delete the music from your hard drive and you will be able to access to it from your iTunes Match. In that case, you will have to be connected to Internet in order to listen to your music but you will save storage on your hard disk. iTunes Match uploads your music to your iCloud, so you will be able to listen to the songs without having them saved on your hard drive

Studio 11 install directory change needed to keep previous studio version

Is there a way to maintain different studio # versions? Studio 11 wants to install under /opt/* & we already have Studio 9 in that directory. Please advise how we can maintain several version installations. Thanks.

As explained in the installation instructions, you can install multiple versions of Sun Studio on the same machine, but they must go into different base directories. The default base directory is /opt. If you have one version of Sun Studio already in /opt, you can install another one in a different base directory.
It's best if you can plan ahead. For example, suppose your first planned installation is Sun Studio 8. You could install it in /opt/ss8, then Sun Studio 8 in /opt/ss9, and Sun Studio 10 in /opt/ss10. Or you could create a top-level directory ss, and install successive versions in /ss/n, where "n" is the version numer.
At installation time, the installer asks you what base directory to use. That's where you enter the base directory if you don't want it to be the default /opt.

Need to format c:\*.* but keep my ITunes library

I cannot find the anser to a seemingly simple question....
Assuming I have properly saved my itunes library to an external hard drive, how do I reinstall my itunes library after reinstalling Windows?
I'd hate to start this process without reassurance that I will recover my daughters itunes libray, playlists and ratings.
Thanks in advance for any help!

Assuming you have copied the entire iTunes folder - which includes the iTunes Music , Album Artwork and Previous iTunes Libraries folders along with the iTunes Library files - from C:\Documents and Settings\ user name \My Documents\My Music to the external drive, all you will have to do is paste it into C:\Documents and Settings\ user name \My Documents\My Music on your newly formatted computer.
The entire path to the iTunes folder on the new installation must be identical to the path on the old installation, including the user name .
Have a look at this User Tip .
Post back with any further questions.

How do I merge my iTunes libraries and make them accessible from multiple Systems?

Our family has several Macs using several versions of OSX.
My Music collection, mostly converted from my large collection of CDs, is scattered across all the Macs and several hard drives with Systems running OSX 10.6.8, 10.8.5 and 10.9.4.
The older Macs can not be upgraded to either Mountain Lion nor Mavericks.
My most organised library is the latest on the Mac running Mavericks. It is tidy ALAC, and has all the correct metadata such as covers, composers, ISBNs etc. So I have started by organising those onto an external 1.5 Tb Hard Drive in a folder called Central iTunes Library.
I intend to then go through the Libraries on the other hard drives and systems and add them to this central external collection.
1. Will I be able to open the Central Library (created in iTunes 11.2.2) on the older Macs and Systems directly, by plugging in the hard drive?
2. Is there a better way than reopening the files from the other Systems and Hard Drives and importing them all over again into the Central Library?
eg Drag and Drop or File > New or a Dedicated Utility for the purpose
3. Is sharing from my Mac, the only way to let everyone access the library?
4. Will the other Macs be able to add to the Central Library once it is shared from my Mac?
5. How do we manage our various iPhones, iPods and iPads with one central Library?
6. Are there any hazards to watch out for?
7. What is the best way to have a duplicated backup of the library?
Thanks,
Peter

The concept of a central library sounds great (in principle), but unless you can all follow the same rules about handling playlist/ folder/ genre naming it can get into a mess. Are you sure you want to see all of your son's & wife's music when setting up iOS syncing? I also suspect your son & wife may have a different opinion about accessing all your music (with it's larger ALAC file size) - they may be happier not sifting through all your tracks to find the ones they like for use on iOS?
The store authorizes to the Mac not the library - so as you move around on each Mac & use your AppleID to purchase that Mac will get tied to that AppleID. That would be fine accept iTunes has a 90 day limit on changing the Apple ID on a computer. You will have to wait 3 months to switch to using another Apple ID to download music & apps on that device - that also affects apps that sync from iOS for backups.
Personally I think that users need their own Mac with their own library (& each Mac needs to be backed up), especially if they have their own iOS device that needs syncing to a Mac. Home Sharing is ok for moving files that you want to hear from another library - but it can be bad when a client is on wifi.
iTunes is designed to be a single user who can share over the network - it isn't intended to be one large bucket for every family member to store media, the Apple ID issue makes this pretty clear to me.
Your flaky wifi issue sounds like a reason not to rely on anything that requires networking to work too.
You are correct to worry about the library versions, eventually an iTunes update will alter the library format. Only machines that have that version can open the library - this happened from iTunes 10.7 to iTunes 11.
See how many 'old libraries' you have in the Music/iTunes/Previous iTunes Libraries/ folder - that indicates how many times iTunes has backed up & upgraded the library. Is that more than expected? Major iTunes versions will need to be performed at the same time to keep it all working with the 'central music library'.
You may be tempted to access one iTunes library over file sharing on multiple Macs. This can cause problems when one Mac updates something (placing a file lock on the library file). It's hit or miss whether the other Macs can read & write to the library.
PJRS seems to be using a networked iTunes library - I can't understand how it works with iTunes from Tiger to 10.9? What version of iTunes is used PJRS?

"Previous iTunes Library" title. How do I remove this?

I upgraded to iTunes 10 and when I decided to open iTunes it told me to choose a library. I chose the most recent one but noticed that some songs were missing.
Right now I have organized all of my music under the iTunes folder and deleted all the other old libraries.
I've opened iTunes once again, but "previous iTunes library" keeps appearing as the title.
I tried to figure it out on my own by reading discussions here but I keep seeing something about .itl (if im correct, dont remember). but I don't see anything like that in my folders.
Please help?!

Hi, welcome to Apple Discussions.
The usual reason for getting in this position is that your original library was corrupt in some fashion and on start-up iTunes prompted you to find another one. Ideally you would restore your most recent backup of your library but I'm guessing you don't have one of those.
The next best thing is the most recent file in the *Previous iTunes Libraries* folder. These are often created automatically when iTunes is updated. Although it will usually work from there as you have found iTunes picks up the window title from the folder which is why your iTunes is now called *Previous iTunes Libraries*. Close iTunes and copy the file with the most recent date into the main iTunes folder. Rename any existing *iTunes Library.itl* file as *iTunes Library (BROKEN).itl* because it almost certainly is, then rename the file you've just copied as *iTunes Library.itl*. Now use the SHIFT-start iTunes method (press and hold down shift immediately on clicking the icon to start iTunes and continue to hold until a dialog box appears) to open the library file in the main iTunes folder.
Now that you've repaired the library you need a tool such as iTunes Folder Watch to detect any changes in your library since the backup file was created. Enable the option to check for dead tracks on startup so that it will find any files deleted since your last update.
For future reference...
*Fast backup for iTunes library (Windows Only)*
Grab SyncToy 2.1, a free tool from MS. This can be used to copy your entire iTunes library (& other important data folders) onto another hard drive or network share. You can then use SyncToy periodically to synchronise or echo your library to the backup. A preview will show which files need to be updated giving you a chance to spot unexpected changes and during the run only the new or updated files will be copied saving lots of time. And if your media is all organised below the main iTunes folder then you should also be able to open the backup library on any system running the same version of iTunes.
tt2

ITunes 10.2.1 Update has created 2 iTunes libraries

Have just updated to 10.2.1 and on checking finder there is an iTunes folder with all the music etc and another folder (iTunes new) which also has all the music etc. The folders are not identical as they are of different sizes but their structures are the same. iTunes is "looking at" the iTunes new folder. Is it OK to remove the other iTunes folder structure which would save me some 25GB of disk space?

This is a user to user support forum. Perhaps nobody who has read your post so far knows quite what to make of it and therefore what to suggest...
When you run iTunes what is the title of the window, "iTunes" or "iTunes New"? Do you know whether you are currently using the library files in the folder "iTunes" or iTunes New? If you hold down Option when starting iTunes you should get a dialog asking if you want to choose or create a new library. That dialog may also appear if the existing library file is corrupt? Did you accidentally create a new library when there was a problem?
Here is my usual suggestion for the empty/corrupt library that can occasionally follow an upgrade.
*Empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash*
Hopefully it's not been too long since you last upgraded iTunes, in fact if you get an empty/incomplete library immediately after upgrading then with the following steps you shouldn't lose a thing or need to do any further housekeeping. In the *Previous iTunes Libraries* folder should be a number of dated iTunes Library files. Take the most recent of these and copy it into the iTunes folder. Rename *iTunes Library* as *iTunes Library (Empty)* and then rename the restored file as *iTunes Library*. Start iTunes. Should all be good, bar any recent additions to or deletions from your library.
See Music Folder Files Not Added and Super Remove Dead Tracks for clean-up tools, if required.
In your case it is not so clear what to suggest, however you if you are certain that the active library is not connected to anything in the older folder, and there is nothing you want to recover from it, then you should be OK to delete it. However the older version of your library may have other data such as play counts, date added values, playlists etc. that you could possibly recover using the techniques above. The choice is yours.
iTunes picks up the Window title from the folder holding the library files (I'm assuming the same is true for the Mac version as Windows) so if, once you've cleaned up, and I've guessed correctly, you might find that iTunes is displaying as "iTunes New". If so, close iTunes, rename the folder as "iTunes" then restart. It will either reconnect automatically or ask you to choose or create a library. Click choose and then browse to the renamed "iTunes" folder and open the library there.
tt2

Do I need to keep Previous iTunes Libraries?

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