I need to find my iTunes Music folder!

I'm a Final Cut Express user, recently upgraded from Tiger to Mountain Lion and then partway back to Snow Leopard, which is working with my FCE 3.5. Now I need access to my music, which I manually imported from my CDs five years ago, and use for soundtracks (these are underwater videos.)
I thought I had backup - I use Carbon Copy Cloner and have bootable clones of both Tiger and Mountain Lion, which should contain the iTunes Music Folder. But the folders I can find don't seem to contain any tracks.
Before I make the (probably correct) assumption that I somehow never did have the music backed up, I'd appreciate any ideas about where to look besides Library & Users folders. I do still have all the CDs - probably wouldn't take more than a few weeks...
Thanks for any ideas.
Sharron

Well, I did find the iTunes Music folder on the Tiger clone (MBP had to be booted up from the clone to access the folder) and figured out where Snow Leopard's iTunes wanted its music imported (the Automatically Move to iTunes folder). Couldn't move the whole Music Folder at once, though it's only about 11GB, but I could move whole albums over in bunches & got about 1/3 of the music transferred in a couple of hours, alternating startup drives to shovel it along.
The transferred music worked OK - I converted tracks to AIFF for a FCE soundtrack, inserted them in a sequence, fiddled around with simple fades etc. Began to feel confident. But then Snow Leopard started crashing - can't imagine it has anything to do with iTunes.
I've had about as much of this as I can enjoy, as the fox said...
But I do appreciate your clarification of the storage habits of iTunes.

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Finding you iTunes Library folder (via "Go" menu)

I had a heck of a time finding the answer to this so I thought I put it on the Apple site to help others. For whatever reason if you need to find your iTunes Library folder, here's the article that helped me, in particular since under the latest OS (as of this date OS X Mavericks) you don't see "Go" menu for the Finder. You simply need to press Shift+Cmd+G to get the Go to window, and then type /Library. Tada! Here's the entire article for more: http://www.macworld.com/article/161156/2011/07/view_library_folder_in_lion.html
Thanks Dan Franks!
Message was edited by: JEL888, change title

Those TMP files point to a software conflict between itunes and some other program on your PC.
It could be security software like Norton, itunes plug-ins like lastfm, other media management software like Sony or Zune, speed-up-your PC kind of software like UniBlue, who knows what you have on your PC? ..... besides you.
Anyway, what is happening, is itunes closes and saves the ITL and XML files, and it makes a TMP file while doing so. When itunes finishes it tries to clean up and delete the TMP file, but something is not letting it.
You can try using MSCONFIG or SysInternal's FileMon to find what is causing this. Those methods are for advanced PC users, so post back if you want more info.
I see you are on itunes v6. If you had at least v7, you could just move your ITL file to another folder and fake the other software out. That is an easy workaround for new PC users, but it won't work with itunes v6.
With itunes 7 and later, you can press and HOLD the shift key to select a different itunes library:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iTunesWin/8.0/en/15502.html.

How to find files in your iTunes Library & NOT in Your iTunes Music folder AND visa versa.

Finding Files in iTunes Music folder that are not Listed in iTunes
Make 2 Smart Play Lists and 1 Static Playlist as follows:
1. Make a smart playlist called “All Files” with this rule: “Artist” is not “123456789″ (or any nonsense name that won’t be in your library).
2. Make a static playlist called “All Live Files”.
3. Make a smart playlist called “Missing Files” with these rules: Match all of the following rules, Playlist is “All Files”, Playlist is not “All Live Files”
Preform the following operations:
4. Select all the files from “All Files” and drag them into “All Live Files”. The dead files marked ! will not copy over.
5. “Missing Files” will contain all of your dead files. Select all and delete (Option+Delete). Voila, a nice clean iTunes library.
I keep these three playlists in their own folder. Whenever I gather more than a couple dead tracks for whatever reason, I delete all the tracks in “All Live Files” and repeat steps 4 and 5.
Finding Files in iTunes Library Are Not Present in iTunes Music Folder
Search on ‘Net for an Applescript called “Music Folder Files Not Added.” This will be at a site called Doug’s Applescripts and costs a mere $1.99. Install and follow instructions. This script also happens of clean up gremlins such as Podcasts that won’t go away, etc.
<Edited by Host>

From the top of the page where the scripts live...
The general method of use is to download the script to a folder of your choice, e.g. your Desktop, Downloads folder or create a folder at ...\iTunes\Scripts. Select a playlist or highlight some tracks in iTunes and then double-click on the script to execute it. If no specific tracks are selected the script will try to work with all tracks in the current playlist. Some scripts offer a choice of track by track confirmation of changes or fully automatic processing of the selection. Many of the scripts can optionally display a progress bar while running.
You are strongly advised to backup your entire library, or at the very least the iTunes Library.itl file, before use. Test the behaviour of your chosen script on a small group of files first to make sure it does what you want before applying it to large numbers of files.
Most builds of Windows will execute *.vbs scripts when you double-click them. If that doesn't happen then you might need to visit the Add/Remove Programs or Programs & Features control panel to enable the Windows Scripting Host. I can track down details if you have issues.
Backing up and restoring data is an area that is often glossed over. Most people don't try to learn much about it until they've lost something important. (Me too )
If your iTunes library was in the usual layout then normally copying the whole iTunes folder from the User's Music folder in the old computer to the User's Music folder in the new one will usually work fine. Ideally this is done before iTunes is installed so that there is no empty library to replace, and all settings are picked up from the old library. This post contains more details.
tt2

Playlists can't find musc already in iTunes Music folder

I've seen this question is many forms but can't find the answer. Here goes:
I rebuilt my Vista system and then restored my iTunes files and music. I also installed the latest iTunes version. Within iTunes I see all my songs, playlists, ratings, etc...
However, each entry has an "!" to the far left and when I try to play it I get a message that says "The song XXX could not be used because the original fine could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" If I say yes, I can go to the iTunes Music folder, find the file, and then it will work.
However this is not a viable solution for 4,341 files. My music is stored on a separate internal D: drive witch looks like D:\iTunes Music\artist name\album name\file name. It has been this way for a couple of years. The reinstalled iTunes application and related files all all in their default locations. Only the location of the music files is different than the default, but not different from when it was working just before the system rebuild.
If you go to the iTunes menu for Edit - Preferences - Advanced - General tab - "iTunes music folder location I have it set to D:\iTunes Music, just as it was before I did the system rebuild.
With these settings and folder/file structure it won't "find" any of my music. There has to be a way!! Please help!!
BTW, all music was originally imported by either (1) ripping from original CDs with "keep iTunes Music folder organized" or directly from the iTunes store.
I need to get my songs to play "without:" moving the songs or losing the playlists, information, ratings, etc. Help, there has to be a way. I just can't take the weeks or months necessary to recreate this.
Many thanks,
John

hexonxonx,
Thanks for responding to my question. I'm trying to troubleshoot an audiobook that won't download from the iTunes store. It's part one of a two part audiobook. The second part downloaded properly, along with three other audiobooks.
iTunes support has given me two sets of instructions, neither which I can carry out.
The first set is to empty the Downloads folder and then empty the trash, and the second set to to empty the cache folder. Unfortunately, I can't find either folder. I also cannot find a folder labeled with the name of the audiobook that is hung up. If you have any further advice, I'd appreciate it.
Caoim

Moved iTunes music folder to HDD, Now iTunes Can't Find it--Help :-)

I finally was able to get an HDD that actually mounted and now I have moved my iTunes music folder based on the instructions here: iTunes: Moving your iTunes Music folder. I printed them out and followed them step-by-step.
Before moving the folder iTunes Music from my internal HD (~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music) to the trash, I played random tracks with no problem. So I moved the folder to the trashcan, then emptied the trash as instructed. Went back to iTunes to play some music, and now all of my tracks have the dreaded exclamation point in the first column. When I click on a track to play it, I get the message "The song 'blah blah blah' could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?"
Of course, I can select 'Yes' and go through the steps and locate the files on my HDD. This, however, is not an optimal process with over 2400 songs. Does anyone know what went wrong with my relocation?
Melissa
PowerBook G4 PowerPC Mac OS X (10.4.8) iPod 30G, MyBook 250GB HDD, iTunes 7.1.1

I've used that method to transfer music from one drive to another literally dozens of times and never seen it fail in the way you experienced. I'm at a loss to explain how you could have followed the instructions, successfully transfer the music to the new drive, and yet have the iTunes database still think the music should be on the original drive.
What I can suggest are two solutions: One for it you don't care about keeping your playlists, rankings, and playcounts intact. The other for if you do care.
Fast fix but loses the meta data: Quit iTunes. Open your home directory, find the music folder and open it. Trash everything you see in your music folder and restart iTunes. All your music and playlists will be gone. Open your new drive on the desktop, find the folder with your music, and drag it into your iTunes window. Your music will be imported into a new iTunes catalog and then you can create your playlists.
Keeping the metadata: After quitting iTunes, move the music back to its original location by dragging the music folder(s). Unmount the new drive and play some music. Remember the songs you clicked on and showed iTunes how to find? Do those songs all over again and once you've verified the iTunes library now points to all the songs properly, delete the songs from the new drive and repeat the steps to move them again.

Restored my Macbook Pro but my iTunes content was saved on a separate partition. When I re-setup iTunes the status bar reports 30gb less content than my iTunes Music folder. How can I find what is 'missing'?

My Macbook Pro software was failing and the Apple Store was able to restore it without removing the partition on my hard drive that contained most of my files including all my iTunes content. Initially when I re-setup my library I simply went to file--> add to library. Shortly after I realized that was essentially copying the library to the other portion of the partition because I forgot to change the location of the library. So I deleted the content already copied & then I re-setup the library, by asking it to be pulled from the previous location using this pages advice: iTunes: How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
It appeared to work & everything I thought was imported. But on closer inspection, it appears that I have 30gbs less appearing on the status bar in the iTunes app than I do when I pull up the info on the iTunes Music folder in my finder. I'm not sure if this means somehow I have 30gbs of duplicates in my finder folder or if (most likely) I somehow didn't fully import the library from that file. Any advice? Is there a way to restore iTunes to factory settings again & set it up correctly this time?
Also I never actually trashed the original content I accidentally transferred to the other drive but when i skimmed those in my trash bin it appears they ARE indeed in iTunes, so I have no clue what didn't actually import. Any ideas?! I'd greatly appreciate it!

You could have all the computers point to the same library but it can't be opened by more than one at any time.
No answer for knowing which library is in use other than selecting it at startup. This question gets asked here occasionally but I don't think it is a high-demand feature since most people have just one library. I guess you could put in an empty playlist with the library name so you have an identifier.

I imported a CD audio book into iTunes 11, searching says its there, but I cannot find it. It does appear in my iTunes music folder.

Using Audiobook builder I imported an audiobook CD into iTunes 11. I can see it in my iTunes music folder on the hard drive, searching in iTunes 11 says its there, but in either the albums or list, it does not appear. I have successfully imported many CDs using Audiobook Builder before, but with this particulary book I have this problem.
Any ideas anyone ?

The missing file thing happens if the file is no longer where iTunes expects to find it. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool has moved, renamed or deleted the file, or that the drive it lives 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.
At guess you've used a different profile name. Files inside the media folder have survied the transfer, but those outside are expected to be on the same absolute file paths, but no longer are.
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, then you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes.
tt2

Can't find Dowloads foler in iTunes Music Folder

Hi,
I can't find the iTunes Downloads Folder in iTunes Music Folder. I've tried searching for it using Find and Spotlight, but couldn't locate it. Can anyone tell me how to find it?
Caoim

hexonxonx,
Thanks for responding to my question. I'm trying to troubleshoot an audiobook that won't download from the iTunes store. It's part one of a two part audiobook. The second part downloaded properly, along with three other audiobooks.
iTunes support has given me two sets of instructions, neither which I can carry out.
The first set is to empty the Downloads folder and then empty the trash, and the second set to to empty the cache folder. Unfortunately, I can't find either folder. I also cannot find a folder labeled with the name of the audiobook that is hung up. If you have any further advice, I'd appreciate it.
Caoim

HT2237 what is Error code -8076 get it when changing read/write permissions on an iTunes music folder. I did google it but could not find

get it when changing read/write permissions on an iTunes music folder. I did google it but could not find anything???

get it when changing read/write permissions on an iTunes music folder. I did google it but could not find anything???

Why does my finder nest an iTunes music folder within my music folder and not let me delete it?

I'm working on the arduous task of combining and winnowing down my multiple iTunes libraries and music folders onto a single drive. The last thing I have to do is carve out the duplicate tracks from a time I tried to move my library to another drive and it rewrote all of my tracks and added a "1" to the file name (making it virtually impossible to use duplicate finder siftware.
In going systematically through every artist and album folder in my new iTunes/Music folder I found a subfolder called "Music" which essentially mirrors the folder it resides within. In that folder is another "Music" folder with exactlay the same comtents. It's like those russian dolls.
At first I though I found the reason why my folder was taking so much space on my drive (1.4 tb when it should noly be about 70 gb), so I though I would just delete it--but it will not allow me to, giving me the error code -8072.
Any thoughts out there?
Thanks for your time.

Here are typical layouts for the iTunes folders:
Your library is in the newer layout and you are trying to move/have moved the media folder (red outline) to D:\Music. The extra Music folder is supposed to separate other types of media within the iTunes Media folder.
If you don't want (or have room for) your library in the usual location of <User's Music>\iTunes, then you are usually much better off moving the entire iTunes folder to the root of your prefered drive, e.g. as D:\iTunes and accessing the relocated library by holding down shift as you start iTunes. The media folder would then be D:\iTunes\iTunes Media and music would end up at D:\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music\<Artist>\<Album>. Keeping this structure make moving the library easier in future.
Since it seems you've already started moving things around it is probably too late to move the library in a single step. See Make a split library portable for details of how you can proceed.
tt2

How can I move my iPod iTunes Music Folder from C: drive to a New Drive?

Running out of space on my PC's C: drive, so I tried moving all the folder to my new E: drive ie: (E:\My Music 2\iTunes).
ALSO set iTunes (Edit/Preferences/Advanced/iTunes Music Folder location to E:\My Music 2\iTunes - but nothing seems to help!)
All of the files couldn't find the source files, unless I pointed to them one by one.
Can't move them all back because they are about 7GB+, and I now only have about 5.5 GB on my C: drive.
And when I just went to open iTunes again, all my libraries don't even show.
I'm afraid to plug in my ipod for synching until I get this straight, for fear of messing that up too.
Please advise.
Compaq Presario Windows XP Notebook.
Compaq Presario Windows XP Notebook.

To move your iTunes music to an external drive...
1 Quit iTunes.
2 Move the entire iTunes folder including music to
the external drive.
In point #2 do you mean move the entire Program File folder of iTunes or just the "My Documents" iTunes library folder?
I have a full laptop, a big iPod and an external HD, I am trying to figure out how to store my library on the HD, but access it as if it were on the laptop.
I moved my iTunes library to the HD and then in iTunes I used the "add folder to library" function, but it brought all of the song files back onto the laptop.
How do you iPod gurus configure your setup with comp, HD and iPod? I need some guidance, my methods are not working.
laptop Windows XP

How can I add songs to itunes music folder without them being duplicated within the folder (not on my hard drive)?

I have music files all over the place and want to put them all in itunes with no duplicates and get rid of all the rest. how can I do that? Some of my playlists are missing songs. I would like to move the playlist back to itunes from my ipod without having to put the songs in my media folder yet again! I have wasted so much time fooling with this. Really what I am trying to get at through all of this is to run the songs on the ipod through ivolume so they play equally.
Can anyone make sense of this for me?

It sounds like you have a few different problems.
To find all your music, try using a spotlight search. Type "kind:music" in the spotlight search (the magnifying glass in the far upper-right corner ) then choose "show all in finder". You'll end up with a window that shows all your music files, regardless of where they are on your hard drive. But don't move any files, because that may confuse iTunes (it won't be able to find files that you move, because - d'oh! - you moved them and now they're not where iTunes left them. That's usually how people end up in the kind of situation that you're in.)
If you want to let iTunes organize your music for you, make sure those options are turned on in the iTunes preferences (in the "advanced" section), then go to the "File" menu, choose "Library" and then choose "Organize library". That will put all your music in the iTunes Library folder (but leave copies of the originals wherever they were, all over your hard drive).
To find duplicates in your iTunes Library, choose "display duplicates" (or hold down the option key and it changes to "display exact duplicates" which might help in some cases). You'll still have to manually go through them to delete one of each duplicate.
Now you can start combining those three techniques - if you consolidate your music and let iTunes copy everything into the music folder, you'll know that iTunes safely has a copy of all your music in the iTunes Library folder. So you can do the spotlight search, and delete any duplicate files that are not in your iTunes library folder. Anything that's left over (that is, it's not a duplicate and it's not in the itunes music folder), you'll need to add to iTunes (try using the "automatically add to itunes" folder - spotlight search to find it - anything you drop in there will get added to iTunes without leaving a duplicate file). Then you can use the itunes "duplicates" feature to find the duplicates in iTunes and fix those.

How should I copy my iTunes Music folder from my iMac to my Macbook Pro

I have copied the iTunes music folder from my iMac to my Macbook Pro using firewire and target disk mode. After all the files (for files read each individual song) have been copied I find that not all songs can be played. For those which will not play I get he error message "The song "bla bla" could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" When I answer "locate" on this popup I'm taken to a view of finder. If I double click on the song there, the song will play on iTunes. Seems to be something to do with the structure of the folders but in get info I cannot see a difference between songs encountering this problem and those which don't.

Instead of copying only the _iTunes music folder_, copy the entire *iTunes folder.*
That's all you need to do.

ITunes Music Folder Issue: Won't Read External Folder?

Hi There. Just bought a new Mac Mini and installed a time machine backup on to it to mirror it with my latest laptop settings. So far, everything has been breezy, except for iTunes. I have an external drive with about 200GB of music/movies that I want to use with the Mini. When in advanced iTunes preferences, I change the iTunes Music Folder location to that of the external drive and click "Change".
I get no errors or anything, then iTunes tells me it is updating the library, but it is still the same old (internal) library. For the life of me, I cannot get it to change it to see my external. Any advice? I thought it might be an XML issue, so I moved the XML file but it didn't change anything. Is the "Add to Library" option my next best bet? I'm ok with that as long as it doesn't actually add the files to my internal hard drive and keeps all of the items sorted correctly. Is the last case scenario to reset iTunes? How would one do that? Any advice appreciated!

When in advanced iTunes preferences, I change the iTunes Music Folder location to that of the external drive and click "Change".
Okay. iTunes will use that folder for everything in the future. Anything added to iTunes will put into that folder if you have *Copy to iTunes music folder when adding to library* ticked.
If there is any previous items in iTunes, it will continue to look for them where they were.
I thought it might be an XML issue, so I moved the XML file but it didn't change anything.
The .xml is generated by iTunes simply for other applications. iTunes does not use it at all.
Is the "Add to Library" option my next best bet?
It's the only option since this is how you add files to iTunes (along with Import when RIPping from CD).
If you want to have the items in the new location in iTunes, you need to File -> Add to library and select the location on the external.
I'm ok with that as long as it doesn't actually add the files to my internal hard drive
See 1st comment in this response.
and keeps all of the items sorted correctly
Depends.
The sort in iTunes is whaichever column you are selected on.
If you are talking about the "sort" in the Finder/on the HD, then iTunes sorts by Artist/Album/Song name. If you do not want this, you need to to uncheck *Copy files to iTunes music folder when adding to library* and uncheck *Keep iTunes music folder organized*.

ITunes Music Folder

Ok, so I tried downloading a TV show last night from the iTunes store and it said I didn't have enough space on my Hard Drive to complete the download. Well, that threw me off and as I was looking to see what was eating all my memory I noticed that my iTunes Music Folder, when navigated to via the finder, shows I have 30 GB of music files. If I look at the bottom of the iTunes window when the program is open it only shows 14 GB. I did FILE>SHOW DUPLICATES and it only shows 6.5 GB of duplicates. Does anyone know what is going on or how to correct? It is like there is two of every song, but I don't see duplicates in the iTunes Music Folder.

it is possible and likely that you have song files in your iTunes music folder that aren't referenced in your iTunes library. in other words, there are files in your iTunes music folder that iTunes doesn't know about.
for an unknow reason, you may have duplicate your songs using the finder. you can validate this by doing a "Get info" in iTunes on a song for which you see duplicate using the Finder. The Get info will show you the path of the selected song in the General tab. The duplicate you will see in the finder would have a difference in the name. This will allow you to manually discriminate which song is referenced in iTunes. But this could be a tedious task.
At this point, you will need to clean up this mess and there is several way to go. the simplest could be to drag'n drop your whole iTunes Music File into the iTunes window in order to have iTunes reference all your files and then, clean up the duplicates.
you may think of other way to go, but this will not be simple if you have a large library.

I need to find my iTunes Music folder!

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