Finding and combining multiple itunes libraries

I believe I have set up multiple itunes libraries that are located on different drives (the internal and an external). I'd like to find them and combine them into one place. Any help would be appreciated..
macbook running OS X 10.9.4

The .itl is simply a listing of what tracks you have selected for that library. It does not include the music itself. I have never imported another library so I don't know if the methods Niel outlines will actually move your music files into the same library folder or simply use them where they are. You can easily check by seeing if they have moved to the folder, or by get info on a track in iTunes and look at the information on where the actual file it uses is located.
Read the links below on what actually makes up a complete library and why combining them involves merging multiple items.
What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
More on iTunes library files and what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management
What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html
Where are my iTunes files located? - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391

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Combining multiple itunes libraries

Help- cabn anyone tell me how to combine multiple itunes libraries in mac osx so that I have one library on a large external drive? Thanks
Michael
[email protected]

Did you ever figure this out or get help on this issue? I am looking to do the same thing.

How do I combine multiple itunes libraries

I have multiple (6) itunes libraries scattered across my iMac 24", my Powerbook laptop and 2 external hard drives. Each library has different songs, playlists and meta data. I just bought a Glyph GT062E 4TB external hard drive. I would like to merge all 6 libraries into one and put that library onto my Glyph.
I'm not worried about play counts, date added, etc. I just want ALL of my music in one place. I am concerned about duplicates and how to remove them. Also, after the consolidation is complete, what is the best way to check that I have copied all of the files from each library before deleting the old libraries? I will make a back up of the consolidated library once it is organized and managable.

The simple solution is to go into the iTunes Music Folder on my hard drive and copy all of the songs into my External Library. Like this:
Hard Drive > Loren's Desktop > Music > iTunes Music
Similarly with your secondary library. You should be able to drag files from there to your External Drive.

Moving music to external drive and combining multiple itunes accounts to 1

Some how I have a couple of different itunes accounts. I had itunes before I got an iphone and bought some music that i listened to on my mac. Then i got an ipod and bought music. Then got an iphone and bought more stuff. And then my new iPhone 4. But the music is all on different "accounts" sort of. When I open my itunes I have under "store"
Purchased
Purchased on Susan's iphone
Purchased on Susan's iphone
But I can't combine them all together on my current iphone 4, yet I bought all those audio books and music!
I asked at the Apple store and they said move all the music to an external drive then plug in the phone and when it asks if I want to do something or other (sheesh I can't remember it all) say yes and it will make one account, delete some of the music, then move the music that is on the drive into that account.
So I have an external hard drive. I have itunes open. I don't want to delete anything until i'm sure I'm going to have it all on the external drive. And i have no idea what to do next. I thought i could just make a folder on the external drive and drag the music there but thats not working, it won't drag. And I have audio books that i bought but can only listen to on the computer it seems i can't move them to the iphone! What a mess.
Can someone help!
Susan

I wrote this a bit prematurely. When I got around to syncing my ipod again that contained the games, they reappeared in itunes. Perhaps this will help someone else.

Will aperture scan and combine multiple photo libraries

I have photo in 3 differnt iphoto libraries. Will this software scan all devices and bring all photos to one new library?

I'm not sure what you mean by "scan all devices and bring all photos into one new library."
Aperture CAN import another Aperture or iPhoto library into its own library, as long as they are the right versions (current version is 3.4.5 of Aperture, and I believe iPhoto 9.4.5). If the libraries are the same version, then you can open one Aperture library, and then do File->Import->Library to import another library into your mail library.
So you should start with one library, then import the other two, then archive off the iPhoto libraries for a while until you're convinced all is working as it should.
Oh, and have up-to-date backups of EVERYTHING before you do this. It has worked perfectly for me in all cases, backups are always a good idea when doing something as large as this with something as valuable as your photo libraries!

Repair itunes library (damaged) file. Multiple iTunes libraries on an external harddrive. All libraries have been working fine. Do some "housecleaning" on a one of the large libraries 296GB. iTunes quit and now has damaged file. 296 GB still on HD.

How to repair itunes library (damaged) file. Multiple iTunes libraries on an external harddrive. All libraries have been working fine. Do some "housecleaning" on a one of the large libraries 296GB. iTunes quits and now has damaged file. 296 GB still on HD.

The duplication is unnecessary. Exporting creates a duplicate of the file. So now you'll have a duplicate of a duplicate. Exporting is not "working on" a file.
No it's not merging, it's exporting from one to the Finder and into another. No matter what lose something. If you export the Original you leave behind all the work you've done in iPhoto. If you export anything else, you lose the non-destructive editing and the ability to revert to the original. With merging you preserve that work. Yes, you can trash the old Library when you have completed the manoevre but no it's not the same thing as merging.
This User Tip
https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4921
has details of the options in the Export dialogue. But in brief:
Current gets you the iPhoto Preview, used for sharing via media browsers. It's a jpg, medium quality missing metadata. Original gets the file you imported, unchanged and then you can export different version of the current version at different qualities. If you choose to export anything except the Original you do not get a Raw. There's no such thing as an "edited Raw", and you lose the connection between the original and the exported version. That means you've taken a non-destructive workflow and turned it into a destructive one.
The Tiff will certainly be higher qulaity and less likely to suffer generational loss in future editing but the file sizes are vast, often more than 10 times the size of the jpeg.
Put it this way, it would be cheaper to buy Library Manager than the disk you'll need to contain all the Tiffs. Unless you plan on a lot of editing, I'd go for a high quality jpeg as a reasonable compromise.
To be clear:
So, I guess my new question is, how can I edit the Raw image and keep it in a RAW format that IPhoto recognizes so that I can reprocess without any loss at a future time, or is it that once you edit a RAW image, then it is no longer a RAW image?
Once you edit a Raw it can no longer be a Raw. End of.

Multiple itunes libraries on same computer and removable hard drives

I have multiple itunes libraries, one resides on my internal hard drive on my computer and the other on a removable hard drive that I pug into the ocmputer via a USB cable, can itunes recognize both libraries at once, and how do I get it to do that?

That *****, apple should add a feature that allows multiple libraries.....hopefully they will in thenext release of iTunes.

Multiple iTunes Libraries on same computer?

Hi,
My wife, daughter, and I all have ipods, each uses a different computer, my wife and I each use our laptops, and daughter uses the home desktop. Recently, the desktop has crashed and looks like we might need to re-format the drive (i.e. lose everything) and re-install Windows XP. She's got all her music on her iPod but unfortunately, no back up on a CD or DVD. Is there some way to re-create a new library for her from her iPod on to either of our laptops without causing conflicts with our existing iTunes libraries which are totally different. I.E. will the "sync" function work to recreate a library on a hard drive vs. going the other way around as usual.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

To create or access a second (or more) library, hold down the Shift key in Windows when launching iTunes. In the resulting dialogue you will get the option to create a new library or navigate to the other Library.
Note: You can only have one Library open at a time and iTunes will default to the last library opened if you don't use the keyboard command to choose one. The new library will be empty until you add content to it. To get back to your original library you need to close iTunes and open it again while holding down the shift key, this time choose to open an existing library and navigate to its location: Using multiple iTunes libraries -Windows
iTunes will only let you copy your purchases directly from an iPod to the computer, you'll find details in this article: Copying iTunes Store purchases from your iPod or iPhone to a computer
For everything else (music from CDs, other downloads and including iTunes purchases) there are a number of third party utilities that you can use to retrieve the music files and playlists from your iPod. You'll find that they have varying degrees of functionality and some will transfer movies, videos, photos, podcasts and games as well. You can read reviews and comparisons of some of them here:
Wired News - Rescue Your Stranded Tunes
Comparison of iPod managers
A selection of iPod to iTunes utilities:
TuneJack Windows Only (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
SharePod Windows Only (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iPod2PC Windows Only
iDump Windows Only
YamiPod Mac and Windows
iPod Music Liberator Mac & Windows
Floola Mac & Windows
iPodRip Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iPod Music Liberator Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
Music Rescue Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iGadget Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iRepo Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
iPod Access Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
TouchCopy Mac & Windows (iPhone and iPod Touch compatible)
There's also a manual method of copying songs from your iPod to a Mac or PC. The procedure is a bit involved and won't recover playlists but if you're interested it's available on page 2 at this link: Copying Content from your iPod to your Computer - The Definitive Guide

Have multiple iTunes libraries on one machine?

Hi,
I want to have multiple iTunes libraries on one machine (with two different hard drives, internal fore mp3s and external for AAC files). One library is composed of mp3s for an iPod, I want the other library to have AAC audio files for burning CDs. I would rather the libraries not be mixed.
I have read the article (#301748) for migrating an iTunes library and am preparing to migrate one of the libraries on to a external hard drive.
I have read about using Libra to maintain two different libraries on one machine. I was wondering if anyone does this and if they have encountered any problems? Is there a better solution?
Thank you,
TPK

It's one thing to want two music libraries on one machine and another to want two music libraries on one user account. For the latter, here's what I've done.
I created folders in my iTunes folder called, say, Main Library Folder and Second Library Folder. (These could be anywhere you find convenient.) I dragged my regular iTunes Library file into the Main Library Folder. Then I opened iTunes and created my second music library. When I finished that, I closed iTunes and dragged the just-created iTunes Library file into the Second Library Folder.
If I want to use my main iTunes library, before opening iTunes I drag an alias (Cmmd-Option-drag) of the iTunes Library file from the Main Library Folder into the iTunes folder. Then, when I open iTunes, iTunes reads my main library file. And of course, it works the same way for the second library.
Of course, you could just shuffle the actual library files into position in the iTunes folder from their holding areas, but I strongly preferred to get myself into the habit of relying on aliases, so I could leave the actual library file alone in their respective folders. You most definitely would not want to accidentally overwrite one of your iTunes Library files.
I'm sure one of the shareware products would do a more elegant job, but this just shows you that it's not a difficult process.
The alternative is to set up separate user accounts to access different libraries on the same machine. This has real benefits and, to me, should be the first option one considers. It's easier on the brain, as it sticks to iTunes' one-user-one-library model, and there's absolutely no risk of getting libraries confused. Fast User Switching on the Mac makes going back and forth between accounts easy. But if you really want to avoid using different accounts, and it's only you that has to keep things straight, the approach of jumping back and forth between different libraries in the same user account should be OK.

Is it possible to use my music files in both my girlfriend's and my separate Itunes libraries through our seperate user accounts?? I want to import my music into her library with out copying the files onto my hard drive a second time....

Is it possible to use my music files in both my girlfriend's and my Itunes library's through our seperate user account? I want to import my music into her library without copying to my hard drive a second time.....

Would any of these help you?:
http://www.apple.com/itunes/inside-itunes/2011/05/two-ways-to-share-media-librar ies-through-itunes.html
http://www.apple.com/itunes/inside-itunes/2011/01/keeping-multiple-itunes-librar ies-on-a-single-computerif-you-share-your-computer-with-others-and-you.html

Multiple iTunes Libraries?

Is there anyway you can have multiple libraries (not playlists) for different iPods on the same computer? We don't want our music to mix...how can I fix this?

To create or access a second (or more) library, hold down the Shift key in Windows when launching iTunes. In the resulting dialogue you will get the option to create a new library or navigate to the other Library.
Note: You can only have one Library open at a time and iTunes will default to the last library opened if you don't use the keyboard command to choose one. The new library will be empty until you add content to it. To get back to your original library you need to close iTunes and open it again while holding down the shift key, this time choose to open an existing library and navigate to its location. Multiple libraries can prove tricky when using multiple iPods, if you don't use the keyboard command you can risk syncing to the wrong library: Using multiple iTunes libraries -Windows
Another option is to create a separate Windows account for each person on your PC. Different user accounts by definition would give you completely separate libraries. Each account has it's own iTunes folder, Library and iTunes Music folder and you load it with CDs etc just as you did with your original one. The iPod can be set to update however the owner chooses, sync all, manual or sync specific playlists.
Apart from these methods there are several other ways to use two or more iPods with one computer, have a look at this help page for all the suggestions and choose the method that suits you best: How to use multiple iPods with one computer

Multiple iTunes Libraries on single Mac

I have somehow managed to create libraries of music/podcasts/videos in 5 different places on my iMac. I would like to consolidate all of them into one spot that can be shared by all accounts. Is there a way to merge them easily, that is without copying song by song or rewriting the entire library, potentially losing some files that are more current? For example, I have 3 folders of the Killers, only 1 of which has all downloaded songs. Thanks.

If you want to do it that way, each person should have their own computer login which will give each person their own iTunes library.
This would be far easier than using multiple iTunes libraries in one computer login.
To do different content on each device, select the device in iTUnes (menu View > Show sidebar), click the tabs acroos top and select what you want to sync to that device. Do the saem for all devices.

Problem with multiple iTunes libraries!

I've been using a program called PowerTunes that enables easily switching between libraries. I suspect that it may be the culprit of the multiple iTunes Libraries that I have. It's out of control! I've nested Previous iTunes Folders six layers deep!
In addition to this weirdness I've also got multiple plist files and temp files. It's a mess!
When I look at my backup iTunes folder it looks much cleaner. None of the nested folders (pictured above) or the temp files and multiple plist files. Can someone help me to understand this and restore my iTunes library to a normal state??
I've written the maker of PowerTunes but he's just one guy so who knows when I'll hear back from him. The more overt problems I am having include:
• losing ratings
• recently added items disappear
• when I switch libraries, iTunes wants to rebuild the genius library (every time!)
Any help at all would be greatly appreciated!!

I'm noticing that with iTunes 8, iTunes now doesn't keep separate preferences for multiple library locations, which is really crazy. I wonder if it's a bug or if there's a reason they did that. so when you hold option and launch itunes to get to your other iTunes library, this "other" iTunes library is now using the "old" iTunes library's file location. So if you add music to them, then they get all jumbled together and you don't know what's going where.
I'm thinking this is the cause of what's happening to you. When you "keep music organized" or whatever, who knows where iTunes is putting the stuff now. It's really bad. I'm hoping somebody has a solution, or any ideas.

Opening Multiple iTunes Libraries at Once

I was wondering if there was a way to have multiple iTunes Libraries open simultaneously? For example, if I wanted to view two websites at the same time I would just open a new window, thus having the two sites side-by-side. Is there a way to do the same thing with my iTunes Library, either thru Apple or after market, so that I can create and compare different libraries without having to close out of one before opening another?
Thanks for any help, and sorry if this has been asked before...

Hi, welcome to Apple Discussions.
No, iTunes doesn't have a multiple document interface for the library database. You can however get it to open a separate window on a playlist so you can compare one playlist to another. If you want to view separate libraries at the same time host one on a virtual machine, a second physical machine with remote access or put two machines side-by-side.
tt2

Can you access and store two itunes libraries on one computer?

can you access and store two itunes libraries on one computer?

Welcome to the Apple Community.
Yes but you may run into issues if you want them both to run iTunes Match or automatic downloads.

Finding and combining multiple itunes libraries

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