Filename of Itunes library

Since my earlier question went unanswered, can someone give me the name of the file where Itunes music files are physically located?

Katrina S. wrote:
The actual music files themselves are in the artist/album folders.
C:\users\username\Music\iTunes\Artist\Album
Oops, I think that's normally:
C:\Users\<Username>\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music\<Artist>\<Album> (iTunes 9) or
C:\Users\<Username>\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\<Artist>\<Album> (iTunes 8 & earlier)
tt2

Similar Messages

Ludicrously long filenames in iTunes Library

I've recently been re-encoding some of my iTunes library (all classical) as ALE files with no apparent problems until a backup started complaining about over-length filenames. What seems to have happened is that individual titles from Gracenote have been concatenated for multiple movement works and used as (soetimes very long) filenames ... even though I overwrote the titles with my own shorter versions in iTunes itself.
I'm wondering if there is any easy way to fix this. Editing the XML in the iTunes Library to change filenames to correspond with shortened filenames could be one option but probably tedious and risky. Another could be to take the files out of iTunes, rename them and then re-import with Gracenote off.
Any easer/tidier options out there, and any way to stop it happening other than just keeping Gracenote off?

Put it back the way it was, if you move files in Win Explorer, then iTunes loses it's placemarker to the files, as you've found.
Then use iTunes to move the files.

Can I show filenames in the Library?

Can I show filenames in iTunes library?

ronfrompowell river wrote:
Can I show filenames in iTunes library?
No.
Many people like that feature of Windows Media Player, but it is not possible in iTunes. As the King notes, you can see the location one file at a time.

ITunes library filename

Hello,
I am using iTunes 10.6.1. Since I am using Alarm Clock 2 application, which uses my iTunes library to wake me up in the morning, I always need to export my up-to-dated library with "iTunes Music Library" filename. But the default name of this library, automatically updated by iTunes, is "iTunes Library". In this case, Alarm Clock is not able to read my iTunes library. How can I solve this problem? Is there a way to make iTunes save automatically the library filename as "iTunes Music Library"?
Kind regards
Raffaele

raffyvitale wrote:
the default name of this library, automatically updated by iTunes, is "iTunes Library".
See
<http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660>
for info on iTunes library files. Basically, Alarm Clock 2 (about which I know nothing) should access iTunes Library.xml, which is created and updated automatically by iTunes for other apps. You can try to rename this file iTunes Music Library.xml; iTunes might continue to update it (it does on my Mac, presumably because it's been inherited from way back). Or there might be some way of making Alarm Clock 2 look for 'iTunes Library' instead of 'iTunes Music Library'—either a setting within Alarm Clock 2, or by using an alias or symbolic link.

Multiple users sharing one itunes library

i have multiple users on my mac, but i'd like us all to be able to access the same itunes library. when i go to itunes prefs on one of the other users accounts and redirect their music library to my folder, it says it is doing it, but itunes still goes to their own music folder instead of mine. i can share my library with the sharing pref, but while they can now listen to my music, they still can't use it in imovie. is there any easy way around this problem??
thanks for your help.

I wrote a simple shell script that executes each time a user logs in (well, actually, each time I log in, coz' it's not really applicable to other users). It syncs my work and home addressbooks and iCal calendars to one another.
I named it "sync". Then I read somewhere that if you wanted to make it double-clickable (to launch it from the Finder), I appended a ".command" filename extension (so it's now named "sync.command"). I also did a chmod 755 to that file so that it had execute privileges. Depending on whether you give each user their own copy of this thing, or keep a single copy in, say, the /Users/Shared directory, you may have to play around with chmod. Whatever, just so long as the user that has just logged in has execute permissions to the file, and to the entire path to the file, you should be good.
Then, in SysPrefs > Accounts > Login Items, I added that "sync.command" file to the list. So, really the only difference is I'm not wrapping mine inside an Automator script like you are.
I had tried adding it to ~/Library/LaunchAgents and make a launchd plist for it, that would kick it off at login. But I didn't get that to work. Don't know why. But just adding the double-clickable executable unix script to the Login Items list did the trick. Whether the plist has to hang out there with it, I don't know. I still have it there, though, in case I ever get motivated to figure out what's wrong with my launchd plist file. So, if just adding it to the Login Items list doesn't do it for you, you could try making a (functional?) launchd plist for it and plopping them both in ~/Library/LaunchAgents, too. That's how I am now, and, like I said, it launches at user login as that user's process (not as a root process like the above referenced article said how login hooks worked -- although, you may want it to run as root since you want this to work with multiple users...in which case, you might want to listen to Cole and not me...).

Trying to sync iPod with library, but receive this message, "The iPod is synced with another itunes library. Do you want to erase this ipod and sync with this itunes library". I do not want to erase my iPod... Any suggestions?? Please help!!

Trying to sync ipod with itunes library, but I keep getting this message, " The ipod is synced with another itunes library. Do you want to erase this ipod and sync with this i tunes library?"
I do not want to erase my ipod!!! Any suggestions?? please help!

Another way. You can use a USB flash drive & the camera connection kit.
Plug the USB flash drive (works the same with an SD card) into your computer & create a new folder titled DCIM. Then put your movie/photo files into the folder. The files must have a filename with exactly 8 characters long (no spaces) plus the file extension (i.e., my-movie.mov; DSCN0164.jpg).
Now plug the flash drive into the iPad using the camera connection kit. Open the Photos app, the movie/photo files should appear & you can import. (You can not export using the camera connection kit.)
Using The iPad Camera Connection Kit
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4101
 Cheers, Tom

Can I open an iTunes library running on a mac from a PC over the network?

I've got an iMac running iTunes with my main library on it and a Vista laptop on the same network, running the latest version of iTunes, with a blank library. Can I open the library on the iMac and use it on the Vista laptop without screwing it up on the iMac?
I don't want to change, remove, or add anything from the Vista laptop, just use the library. I know I can share the library out from the iMac and that works fine, but I'm running Vista Media Center and want to access my iTunes library from Windows Media Center. There are plug-ins for Windows Media Center that make this happen but they have to be running on a PC with iTunes running.
Any Ideas?
Thanks

Assuming you have AVG then yes, a second patch has apparently been released to day which may resolve the issue. See this post for general advice.
If you don't see the .itl file extension then don't add it to the filename of the renamed file.
iTunes Library 2012-09-22.itl > iTunes Library.itl
iTunes Library 2012-09-22 > iTunes Library
My advice has generally been aimed at Windows users, but if you have AVG on a Mac and that too suffers from this issue then it is worth nothing that at one point the iTunes Library on a Mac was stored without any extension. If you match the name of the empty library file you are replacing it should work.
tt2

How do I fix an Itunes Library (Damaged) on a Mac with all current software and udates?

I have lost my main Itunes Library. I have one now that came straight from the music in my phone. All playlist are gone. 75 gigs of music are gone. the only music availible to me is the music that was in my phone. down to 15 gigs I have found a file that says "Itunes Library (Damaged)" but I can't do anything with it. Of course Mac wants $ to fix it. Is there anything I can do to remedy this disaster? Running Imac with OS X 10.8.2, Iphone 4 w/ios6 and original Ipad with all updates. The Iphone seems normal but is missing all playlist. It reorganized the music. The Ipad has no music and over half the Apps have disappeared.
HHHHHHHEEEEEEEELLLPPPPPP! Please!

Assuming you have AVG then yes, a second patch has apparently been released to day which may resolve the issue. See this post for general advice.
If you don't see the .itl file extension then don't add it to the filename of the renamed file.
iTunes Library 2012-09-22.itl > iTunes Library.itl
iTunes Library 2012-09-22 > iTunes Library
My advice has generally been aimed at Windows users, but if you have AVG on a Mac and that too suffers from this issue then it is worth nothing that at one point the iTunes Library on a Mac was stored without any extension. If you match the name of the empty library file you are replacing it should work.
tt2

How to move an item from the main iTunes library to Audiobooks?

I have several audiobooks copied into my iTunes Music library. They're listed as "Books & Spoken" and each chapter is a separate item in the library.
I haven't been able to copy these audiobooks into the "Audiobooks" subcategory of the Music library in iTunes. How do I do that?
I have tried highlighting an item, right clicking and selecting "Get Info", and changing the Genre in the Info tab, but there isn't a selection for Audiobooks, so that didn't work.
What makes iTunes decide if an item in the Music Library is an Audiobook or not?
Thanks.

OK... that works for the audiobooks I already have in my library. Right now I have to copy the files into a folder on my desktop, change the extension manually for EACH file of the book (some have hundreds) to .mp4b, then reimport the book into the iTunes library. This is gonna take a while!
Now, how do I ensure that the new audiobooks I import will have an .mp4b extension to the filename? I know how to import them as AAC.

Bug Report - Some items in your iTunes Library ... because the file could not be found.

10.6 and this is still this is a problem?!?!?!?!
Not like this is an obscure issue only affecting a few noobs. Google returns 11,200 results on this issue!t'
Can we PLEASE at least allow the list of broken files to be dumped as a text file so I can find them manually! guess not,
I'll just have to get out a pencil and write down 100 songs to spend my saturday looking up and fixing. Or I could let my wife purchase 100 songs she already has whenever this comes up...
What's really infurating is that non-technical wife thinks this means she must go to the iTunes store and buy them again. Is it just coincidence that this only happens to songs that we ripped from the CD with iTunes? Hmmmm?....
what follows is for the programmers, please make sure this get's to the development group.
iTunes is the only music library manager, Media player was not even activated.
iTunes is configured to "Keep folder organized", "Copy files to folder when adding"
this has been a recurring issue since iTunes 9.x for us
The issue is persisted accross system and library rebuilds.
some of the same songs recurr but most of the time the list differs.
Library survived transfer to new computer and back for a system rebuild (new hdd) w/o this issue.
I'm guessing 100 songs is an arbitrary limit for error reporting.
Songs seem to get lost for the following reasons.
Track number added to filename
Spelling of some tags like Album, Artist, Title differ in iTunes library and the file path !!!!
Only seems to happen to mp3 files.
My suspicion is that iTunes is downloading meta data from the store and updating the mp3 tags and iTunes Music Library.xml then predicting the new file location without actually moving the file to that new location. I've enabled insert/update auditing on the NTFS folder to see if that provided any new info. I'm also capturing iTunes Music Library.xml so I can compare it to the new one WHEN this happens again and see if there is a pattern there.
Would love a bug number and feedback chanel on this.

The missing file thing happens when files are no longer where iTunes expects to find them. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool has moved, renamed or deleted the files, or that the drive they live on has had a change of drive letter. It is also possible that iTunes has changed from expecting the files to be in the pre-iTunes 9 layout to post-iTunes 9 layout, or vice-versa, and so is looking in slightly the wrong place.
Select a track with an exclamation mark, use Ctrl-I to get info, then cancel when asked to try to locate the track. Look on the summary tab for the location that iTunes thinks the file should be. Now take a look around your hard drive(s). Hopefully you can locate the track in question. If a section of your library has simply been moved, or a drive letter has changed, it should be possible to reverse the actions.
Alternatively, as long as you can find a location holding the missing files in a relatively sensible structure, then you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes .
Although you say you haven't used Media Player it can be raised as a background process by visiting enabled web sites. Possibly worth you reviewing this post: Getting iTunes & Windows Media Player to play nicely
jerunamuck wrote:
...My suspicion is that iTunes is downloading meta data from the store and updating the mp3 tags and iTunes Music Library.xml then predicting the new file location without actually moving the file to that new location. I've enabled insert/update auditing on the NTFS folder to see if that provided any new info. I'm also capturing iTunes Music Library.xml so I can compare it to the new one WHEN this happens again and see if there is a pattern there.
Unlike Windows Media player iTunes doesn't have a feature to automatically update tag data, although it will sometimes spot when a 3rd party program has (say during playback) and then update its own copy of the data. The iTunes (Music) Library xml file is provided for querying by third party software and is rewritten every time there is a change to the library, but is otherwise of no relevance to iTunes. The library is maintained in the iTunes Library.itl file. I suppose what could be happening is that iTunes issues a command to the file system to move a file based upon its tag, updates its knowledge of where the file is supposed to be, but the OS fails to move the file for some reason. Alternatively everything could go as planned, but iTunes could fail to get the updated copy of the library written out to disk so next time you start you get the previously stored locations.
I have ideas of my own about the best way to organise my media, but I'm quite familiar with the way iTunes does it. It might be interesting to see the details of one of the broken tracks, the path iTunes thinks it is at, and the actual path, in case there is anything that can be deduced.
Apple don't run an open bug tracking system so you won't be able to follow reports/progress based on a bug number. You can drop a line to iTunes Feedback or get a free Apple Developer account and submit a bug report report there.
tt2

Issues With iTunes Library On An External Drive

I'm attempting to use my external iTunes library across both Mac and Windows. My music library has been living on my Mac for awhile, and that's where I'm trying to move everything from. I started off by redirecting my music folder to the external drive (which is in Fat32 format) and then running the consolidation process to copy everything over. After that, I manually copied over the iTunes library files and then tested it out with an Option-button start to choose the library on the external. Everything seemed fine, until I plugged the drive into Windows, where the following things occurred:
1) When running a Shift-button start to choose a library, I couldn't originally find the library file on the external because Windows was looking for a file with the extension itl, which the Mac had not included. I manually renamed the file, though, and it loaded up just fine.
2) Things looked okay at first, until I started browsing through my library and discovered that a number of songs had exclamation points stating they could not be found. At first it seemed very random and when I checked the actual folders in Windows Explorer, the files were there. It took a few moments, but I finally noticed a common trend: They were all long song names, and thus long file names. As it turns out, at some point in the process, long file names were truncated, but the iTunes Library file is still pointing at the full filename. I haven't had a chance to go back and try the process again to see if I can figure out which step led to the truncation, but I suspect I'm not the only one this has happened to.
Any ideas? Anyone? Bueller?

Ok
I just upgraded to OS 10.5.5, and now it works ... however, I still don't know what the root cause was.

ITunes library repair/moving to external network drive

Hello all, I wonder if you can help. I have searched high and low for a solution to my situation, but to no avail, and so you really are my last hope. I've been trying to get my iTunes library in order for quite a while and things have gone wrong, and it has really got me down as I'm worried I'm about to have to start again from scratch. It has taken me about 6 weeks (spread out over the course of a few months) to rip the 18,000 tracks in my library, then another month or so to get all the metadata right, weed out duplicates, etc. However, the music collection is so big I have had to place it on a network drive in batches (which has the benefit of being able to access it on any laptop at home - but whatever I do iTunes just doesn't like it.
I can't actually bring myself to recount everything I've done as it's a bit upsetting so I thought I might just summarise the situation that I'm now in to see if anyone could help. I would be very grateful.
I now have a network drive with an iTunes style folder structure within it's music folder, and within that artist/album/song.wav file path. For reasons I'll explain later I have many MP3s, a few AACs, and *lots* of WAV files - which sadly, don't hold track metadata, otherwise I could have just re-imported all the files into a new iTunes library. However correct metadata and having the files as WAVs are vital (again, I'll explain later), so it's not something I can change.
I have moved iTunes libraries before when I have moved PCs without any hitches, by moving the music folders and files and doing a search and replace in the library file to point to the new locations. I thought this would be the same situation. It's complicated by the fact that I had been hoping to put the music files and library on the network drive so that iTunes on my Mac and PC would be able to access it and write back metadata changes, play counts and so on.
I've not been able to work out how to do this as file paths to the network drive differ on both OS's - Windows paths are more like \\DISKSTATION\Music\ etc etc whereas Mac ones are more like file://localhost/Volumes/Music etc etc
I don't understand networking very well so quickly gave up on the idea of trying to get my library to work off two machines with two OSs (though is someone can explain how/if this is possible, I'd like to try it again).
Now I was left trying to get the library to work with iTunes on either just the Mac or just the PC, and I haven't managed it yet. When I have been experimenting with amending the file paths in the library and opening it iTunes again I get little WiFi style icons, like the ones you see in the radio section of iTunes - indicating an audio stream - next to every track, and if you click play, it tries to open the track - but doesn't - and keeps trying. It does this on both machines. I've tried windows style file paths on the PC, and Mac ones with OSX, I've tried referring to the drive's network IP address and so on - but can't get it to work. Most of the time it behaves as described above. Some times it deletes the whole library and starts again from scratch. At present the file seems to have reverted to the point after I had added all my tracks but before I'd amended the metadata.
(I have a backup of the library file with all the correct data in it, but pointing to files in the wrong places, so I am happy to experiment.)
I've read a lot of threads on similar external drive nightmares people have been having, and it is often mentioned elsewhere to consolidate the files to the iTunes folder once you have told iTunes of the new location, but this wouldn't have been practical - there was over 400gb of them to move over a (relatively) slow network. And I can't consolidate now with the music files on the network drive as iTunes has all the information in the library, it just seems to not be able to find the files.
So my question is what am I doing wrong and/or how can I fix the library to point to the files in the new location? It must be possible as I have a version of the XML file with all the artist/album/filename.wav structure intact - it's just getting the bit before it correct and getting iTunes to accept the library once I've amended it. Is there a way to get my library to recognise the files on the network drive properly - even just on one machine?
I would be happy to start reloading tracks into a new, clean library but there is no metadata WITHIN the wav files like there is in the MP3 and WAVs and so I'll be left with a lot of wavs that aren't titled properly (and I really can't face going back and adding the titles and artists for thousands of tracks again). Before moving the library I *did* rename the files with artist - track - genre - year etc. etc. information - so if there was a way for iTunes to rebuild the library with information from the filename, I'd be happy to try it. But even the great Doug's iTunes Scripts website can't even offer anything like that.
To explain the point about the files being all WAVs - the files are going to be used for broadcast and so need to be in the best quality in a format that can be opened - FLAC won't work. And similarly, the metadata is important as it will be used in a professional situation too.
Any help would be gratefully received as if this doesn't work I seriously think I will stop buying music as I don't want to add to the problem! I can't face months of ripping everything in again. I'm so fed up.

Yes it's quite possible, that's how I have mine set up, and Moving iTunes Music will tell you how to go about it.
Pitfalls? Can't really think of any.
Regards
TD

How do I get a list of filenames in a library

Last night I started importing roughly 31,000 photos and videos into an otherwise empty iTunes library from a remotely mounted Windows share. This is iTunes 9.5.1 on a new MacBook with Mavericks.
This morning the import seemed to have completed, but iTunes was displaying a warning that 3 files were unreadable and iTunes itself was frozen with a beach ball cursor. About 10-15 minutes later iTunes crashed.
Now, when I restart iTunes and select "Photos" with the Info pane open, I see "28,071 photos, 521 videos". So I'm missing about 2,500 items but I have no idea what's missing.
To debug this, is there some hidden import log I can search through for errors, and/or some way to get a list of events/filenames that are currently in the itunes library?

Not really - if you select Photos view in the source opane on the left and turn off show event titles under the view menu you will get all of your photos and they can be sorted several ways (again under the view menu ==> sort photos) - maybe that will help
As a suggestion I would limit the numbr of photos imported into iPhoto (I assume that you mean iPhoto not iTunes) - it is a consumer level program designed around digital cameras
And given that it crashed I'm concerned that yout database is not complete and that you will have other issues
Probably the best route is to start over and import in smaller batches of 500 to a 1000 photos per batch
LN

How to tell which items are in iTunes library on disc but not in program library?

I made a mistake the other night and I deleted some items from my iTunes library ... but NOT from disc.
These items are still in my 65 gig iTunes library on disc. Somewhere.
I'd like to re-add these songs. Is there any way to tell which songs in the iTunes library on disc are not in the iTunes program library?
I don't want to have to add all 65 gigs again and then remove all the duplicates
thanks!

You should try dragging some files already in the library into iTunes to see what happens. I just did, and the new iTunes 10.6 seems to be ignoring them. I then made a copy of a file already in the library, and I added both it and the original by dragging and dropping. Only the new file was added. There was no warning about duplicates in either test. So you may be able to drag your whole library back into iTunes.
For when you do want to determine what files on disk aren't in the iTunes library or vice versa, here's one way to do it (if there's an easier way, I'm all ears):
Export your library as a playlist to a text file.
Use a program that can recursively list all your files on disk as full paths and save its output to a text file.
Load the into a decent text editor. I use Notepad++. Then use a regexp search/replace to tidy up the files so that both consist of one fully qualified filename per line.
Sort the files.
Diff the files and examine the differences.
I can do both 4 and 5 in Notepad++.

OS X accessing iTunes Library inside Parallels-Windows

Hello,
over the last year I have built up quite a big iTunes library with content from the iTunes store (950GB, + approx. 25GB each month).
(Its a family library, no addicts at work here )
Now I need a way to securely store my files, since they have outgrown my iMac's HDD.
I want full redundancy (all data must exist on at least two drives) and adequate speed (should allow FullHD streaming over Gigabit Ethernet) at the lowest cost possible.
However, I dont need off-site redundancy. If my house burns down, I dont care about my movies.
Since I am not aware of a software solution for MacOS X, I had one crazy idea.
Use the oldest Intel Mac Pro, run an iTunes Server in Windows Home Server in Parallels and: Voila.
My reasoning here is this:
The old Intel Mac Pro's are available fairly cheap.
They have plenty of SATA-connectors (I want at least 3TB, not possible in Mac Mini or iMac).
They deliver great streaming performance.
Windows Home Server stores each file on two different physical drives.
However, they are all combined to one big logical drive and all the "cloning" happens in the background.
Almost like RAID 5, just at file-level and not KB-level.
Exclusions and rules can be specified, too. Its just what I need.
I could not find another solution that promised the same bang for the buck.
OS X does not support software RAID 5.
When hardware RAID 5 controller-card fails all data goes out the window, unless a compatible card is installed... Thats a No-Go.
The reason for a Mac OS host system would be to allow for remote access via the internet (screen sharing).
Also, WHS could just run in the background inside Parallels and the Mac OS could be used as an AppleTV replacement.
(Nice AppleTV GUI's for Frontrow are available)
Does this sound like it would work?
Are there any solutions that are more straightforward and dont require Windows?
The only thing that worries me is this:
WHS stores everything on NTFS partitions.
If I want to add data (say, a movie) to the central library, how could I get it into Windows without using USB-drives or other crazy solutions?
And also: Would Mac OS be able to acces the library directly, or would it have to go through the network (two network cards would be no problem).
Thanks for any comments.
Message was edited by: Jokener

I ran into an issue with the "Choose Library" step.
When I went into the folders to find the iTunes Library file, it wasn't there. So, re-started in Mac just to make sure I hadn't messed with that file location. Sure enough, the file was actually there, but the filename extension is different in Windows 7 and Mac - I think that's why it's not visible for me to select. I think the Mac is *.itdb, and the file type that it was looking for in Windows was *.itl
I was unable to get Windows to search for another file type.
So, then I tried to create a new library, but that didn't work because there was no music in the new location, and I couldn't save a new library into that folder.
I'm going to go play with it now to see if I can just copy the actual music files into the default location in Windows and create a new library.
Your post was really helpful, and it got me started!
Thanks!
Message was edited by: TheBeBlend

Filename of Itunes library

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