ITunes 5 Changes Music Library Location to Default

ITunes 5 Developers - you might want to check your code somewhere, because installing iTunes5 via Software Update meant my library location randomly changes back to the default, instead of just using the location I had set in iTunes 4.x
(I wondered why my playlists were showing Exclamation Marks everywhere).
I use an external firewire disk to store my music as the internal 80Gb drive isn't big enough to store my CD collection in AAC160.
Mark.

Mark hello,
It is a trap many fall into... the 'Location Pointer' as it has become known does not do that... what it does do is tell iTunes where to put the next song you 'import' (rip) into your library and if that Location is not available iTunes will set it to the home iTunes Music folder by default when it starts up.
In your case the program must be trying to access the Ext.hard disk and is not finding it straight away hence it follows the default ruling and resets the 'Location' to home iTunes Music folder... why ? ... not up to speed when iTunes starts.... bad connection to name a couple...
A bit more on the Location of files...
You can store music files anywhere as long as iTunes knows about it... how does it know ?... it gets that information when you 1st put them in the library file... if the music files get moved iTunes may lose track of them and you will have to tell iTunes where they are... now you may think why can't iTunes just find them... as you can have absolute identical files stored elsewhere how would iTunes know which ones to add... the rule is: if you move them tell iTunes about the move.
The way Music files are stored has been changed recently ...
iTunes for Mac OS X uses the file's HFS+ FileID (inode number) rather than the /path/to/filename to locate the file where ever it is moved on the same volume; the file's inode number remains constant.
Although not fully recommended you can now move things around on the boot vol. and iTunes and OS X will keep track of it all but the same senario does not yet exist for other media like Ext. HD's... so there, do not move anything without telling iTunes about the move.
HTH Mark let's know if you need more help .... TP

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How do I stop Itunes from changing my library location

Is there just no answer to what should be a simple setting change?? No matter what I do, Itunes insists on changing my library location the instant there's any problem talking to my network share where all of my music is. This is absolutely ridiculous because this is on a laptop and there are times when the network connection is just not up yet, or whatever. Then it takes 10 minutes for me to change it back and let it figure everything out again. Has anyone ever been able to resolve this? I'd rather Itunes just return an error that tells me it can't read my library than to change it on me....

Have struggled with this issue in the past. In my experience, there is no simple, painless solution. I attempted to transfer my entire internal drive to my new external where there were copies of all the songs in place. Check to see how your library is organized on your network drive. Is it by media content (e.g. separate folders within /users/music/itunes/ folder such as Music, TV Shows, Movies, etc.)? Or are the various media types all lumped within a single iTunes Music Folder? If there is a discrepancy between your internal and external Library configurations iTunes struggles to cope. Can't say why this is the case, but I found that the only solution was to throoughly uninstall itunes via terminal (or using an app such as 'Amnesia'), reinstalling iTunes, and creating the library from scratch using files that are located on the external/network drive. I'm a moderately savvy programmer and I couldn't for the life of me get iTunes to build my library from an XML playlist that I modified to reflect the changed directory location of the new library on my external, but if you are more competent and patient than I am I'm convinced that the proper alteration of the Master library build would result in a seamless relocating of you media library as far as itunes is concerned. One last thing, make sure you click the 'I'll Add files myself later' option if you do choose to reinstall itunes just to cover your bases. sorry i can't give you a more helpful response--iTunes is a cruel mistress sometimes.
but: Used to introduce something contrasting with what has already been mentioned
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Lost iTunes Libraries After Changing iTunes Music Library Location

I followed the iTunes topic: Moving Your iTunes Music Folder article. Now when I hook up my iPod, I get an error message saying that my iPod is synched to another library - my only choice is to "Erase and Synch" or "Transfer Purchase" copies to this library...meaning that I would lose dozens of personal CDs that I have copied into the library. HELP!!!

I too have tried lots of things as my music collection outgrew my laptop, so stored all tunes on an exteranl hard drive and found that, when i wasnt looking, crafting old Itunes had changed my storage location to default. I posted on here, and like this thread got lots of people wanting to know the answer to the same thing. One outcome seemed to be that if you start itunes before your computer has recognised the external drive that itunes is looking for, it will regiaster the drive as not available and revert, without telling you, to default location.
Extremely irritating...
just a little add to the last comment about the software.. i agree, for a product that has sold millions and is downloaded millions of times i find it hard to believe they cannot get this right. Stupid things like this, not giving a notification that its changing to default location, abnd only realising when half my music and podcasts have gone missing, not rescanning the itunes folder for new tracks automatically on opening or by refresh to find new tracks added by, shock horror to apple, other download stores. Not allowing you to set several pre determined folder paths so most like most people you can have 3 maybe 4 completely different areas to save your music in and still ask itunes to not only find it every time, but update from it as and when you need to, not when it thinks you might want to, ie, never, and have the ability to recognise everything else added not via itunes.
For a world wide product it is simply awful. It would seem to me that one person in their spare time is developing this.
oh and last thing, maybe that one person should concentrate on doing proper updates and stop bugging me with a new 7.6.5.4.8.5.23 update over 7.6.5.4.8.5.22 i updated yesterday, and 7.6.5.4.8.5.21 the day before...
rant over... apologies if i bored anyone...

HT2470 Why won't Itunes store my music library in my User/Music Folder, if I select my user name as a storage location in Itunes, Itunes creates folders for artist name right in my user folder, instead of in my user/music folder

Why won't Itunes store my music library in my User/Music Folder?
If I select my user name as a storage location in Itunes, Itunes creates folders for artist name right in my user folder, instead of in my user/music folder. This gets especially annoying because if I tell Itunes to store my "media" in my user/music folder, Itunes will then create a folder named "music" in my "music" folder and will also create additional folders in my user/music folder location to store other non-music media in as well. It is very annoying to see this lack of affinity for folders between two Apple created programs.

Help iTunes locate your media folder:
No content shows up in iTunes after updating
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1967

Why does my Music Library Location Keep Reverting to Unwanted Location?

I recently switched from PC to Mac. My music library is now located on an external HD connected to my Airport Extreme Base Station.
I've noticed that at random times the location of my music library changes from the external HD to my iTunes Music folder located on my C: drive. I reset the location back to the external HD, I'm prompted to move the files etc. and all is well for a while.
Keeping an eye on the music library location in the configuration settings, I'll notice the location will switch back to the C: drive for what seems to be no apparent reason. I have all the settings checked regarding Keep Music folder organized, Copy files to iTunes Music folder etc.
The only thing I've done out of the ordinary recently was point my music library path to a DIFFERENT HD. I have an exact copy of my entire music library on a second HD which I use when I go out of town and can not access my primary music library. When I got home I pointed the library path back to my original HD.
It works fine for a day or so, but as I mentioned, it seems to randomly switch to my C: drive. Does anyone have any thoughts on what I'm doing, or did, that is causing this?
Thanks !
Chuck

ChuckLD wrote:
Thanks for the quick reply... Old habbits die hard when you're a life long PC user :- ) When I was refering to the C: drive, I actually meant my MacBook internal hard drive. I'm using OS X 10.5.2.
No worries. It's just sometimes people don't say what they mean or mean what they think they mean and it can slow down the process. Of course, sometimes I just don't read what people actually wrote.
I keep my external hard drive connected via the Airport Extreme Base Station, and always keep it connected ( in other words, I see it in the Finder SideBar, and it always says connected ).
Hmm. That should mean it's "mounted". However, I do have some vague recollection that using an Airport disk was problematic. However, the articles I read on that were back when the Airport Extreme first debuted. I'm not as conversant with using Airport disks as I just use an external USB drive connected to my MacBook. Sorry I don't have more wisdom...

How to change the library location because i don't have enough memory in my internal hard disk

can i change the library location because i don't have enough memory in my internal hard disk

Hi ahmedmagdyelrasheedy,
It is not clear what library you are trying to move, but if you are running out of space on your internal hard drive the most likely culprits are your iTunes music and your iPhoto library. Either of these can be moved to an external hard drive making room on the internal.
For the iPhoto library see this article -
iPhoto: How to move the Library folder to a new location
To move the iTunes music see this article -
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Brett L

Changing the Library Location

Because my computer is old and running out of disk space, I purchased a 250gig portable hard drive and moved all my photos and music to it for permanent storage. I have another portable hard drive for backups.
In iTunes I went to Preferences > Advanced and changed the Library location to the new iTunes Music folder on my portable hard drive. I noted the original location first and made sure I followed the same pattern, getting all the way down to the needed folder. But when I open iTunes the next time, I didn't have any music listed.
I didn't have time to mess with it this morning before work but I'm wondering how to fix this problem. Do I need to tell it to add a Library somehow?
Thanks for any input.

Followed the instructions at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449
I've completed the move - from my iMac's internal hard drive to an external drive and everything is working fine. No worries or problems.
Now, the big question. On my computer's internal hard drive, I still have a the following folders
[myusersname]/Music
this folder contains every single artist and song in my iTunes
This same folder also contains a folder
[myusersname]/Music/iTunes
which, in addition to several other items (including the all important iTunes Library and Album Artwork folders) also contains another folder named
[myusersname]/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music
which also contains every single artist and song in my iTunes.
Now that "everything" is moved over to the external hard drive, can I delete either the
[myusersname]/Music folder (leaving the abovementioned iTunes folder intact to keep from deleting the subfolder)
or also delete the
[myusersname]/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music
I'm hoping to free up space on the internal hard drive.

How to make iTunes recognize the music library in my external hard drive after instaIling Yosemite?

How to make iTunes recognize the music library in my external hard drive after instaIling Yosemite? I tried re-setting the media folder location, but it didn't work. What else should I do?

The issue is not related to the external drive. iTunes Match has difficulties matching tracks ripped fom CDs because they may differ slightly from the versions on sale in iTunes. You can try the match again. Otherwise do a search of this forum. There are already many discussions on this subject here that may help you.

Itunes duplicates my music library

itunes duplicates my music library

If you are on Version 11.0.1 rather than 11 Apple put it back in
View > Show Duplicates
Option + View > Show Exact Duplicates
so if you are on 11 upgrade to 11.0.1 and you will have it

I used the youtube mp3 converter via Safari and I can't find where the music downloaded to. It isn't in iTunes or my music library. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

I used the youtube mp3 converter via Safari and I can't find where the music downloaded to. It isn't in iTunes or my music library. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
I should say that I am doing this on the iPhone4 and not a laptop.

I believe that there is an app called MxTube that lets you download high quality youtube videos to your iPhone

Itunes Music Library Location

I had my tunes on the server, even when I select my server location as default for Itunes music, Itunes puts them back on my laptop under Itunes local hard drive music folder(music:iTunes:iTunes Music:). How can I keep it on the server and to stay there. Is it a way to "Lock" it?
Macbook Mac OS X (10.4.10)

After re-reading your first post I would like it if you could clarify something. You said: "I've imported a bunch of songs to my external drive where I keep my itunes library."
I am assuming that you mean you used the "Add To Library" menu item in iTunes. I hope that you didn't manually drag the song files into the Music folder. If you didn't add them through iTunes that could cause problems.
I had a similar problem a long time ago with iTunes losing track of files when I tried to move them to an external drive. When you look at songs listed in the main music library in iTunes do any of them have an exclamation point next to them in the left most column? If so, the iTunes index (library file) has lost track of the files. You will need to delete all the exclamation point marked songs from iTunes and then re-import them.
Once you have all the songs in one iTunes music folder you can then move them to the external drive. Instructions here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301748
You might also want to read this: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301509
If you still have problems let me know I will try to help you the best I can. Also let me know if you work the problem out. Good Luck!!

Changing how iTunes manages my music library

Because I didn't know any better, I originally set up iTunes to COPY files from my "My Music" folder to my "iTunesiTunes Music" folder. Obviously, this method results in two copies of my music library. I now understand this is not necessary and I would like to change it.
I understand what I should have done is to uncheck, or not to have checked in the first place, the option under the "Advanced" tab "Copy files to iTunes media folder when adding to library." Unfortunately, as outlined, the damage is already done and my music library takes up twice the amount of disc space that should be necessary to manage it.
Which brings me to my question. Can I fix this by unchecking the box in the previous paragraph then going into Windows Explorer and simply deleting the "iTunesiTunes Music" folder? By doing that, my understanding is iTunes would simply reference my "My Music" folder rather than making a copy and placing it in "iTunesiTunes Music."
What say you experts?

You could do it the other way round and delete the content files that are not in the iTunes Music folder, that would be the normal way.
iTunes needs to have an iTunes Music folder because that is where it puts any music you purchase or rip with iTunes.
If you want to leave your music where it was, you can delete the iTunes music folder and iTunes will create a new empty one next time it opens.
If you chose that route, also delete iTunes Library.itl in the iTunes folder - this is the library database.
Then you can uncheck your copy to box in preferences and then you can add your music files again using File>>Add folder to Library. This way iTunes will use the files in their original locations.
Be aware that iTunes does not do folder watching so you mustn't move or change anything once the files are added otherwise iTunes will loose them.
Also, remember that the recycle bin is not usually big enough to hold all music file so be careful when deleting things. It is always wise to have backups in case of mistakes.
Message was edited by: polydorus

ITunes musical library located on a WD 2TB, ext. drv. Computer destroyed by virus; ED survived. Bought new laptop, connected ED. Not able to see library. ED shows as 'G:' 95% full. How can I reconnect my old library to new laptop?

I had my iTunes musical library on an ext. drv. WD 2TB, ‘MY BOOK ESSENTIAL'. Three weeks ago, my computer was infected by a virus that fried it. It did not affect the external drive. I bought a new computer: a laptop, Dell XPS, Intel Core i7-2630QM CPU, Windows 7 Home Premium. I have been able to connect the WD external drive; however, I am not able to see the musical library in my iTunes or Explorer. ‘My Computer’ shows the external drive as ‘G:’ 95% full. It reads, 32.1 GB free of 1.36 TB. When I click on the drive to see its contents, it shows nothing. The library in iTunes also shows nothing. Can anyone help, please? How can I reconnect my old musical library to my new laptop and iTunes? Many thanks.

Hmm, viruses don't generally "fry" drives. They can make bootable operating systems not bootable, hide data, and corrupt executable files. Software can potentially wipe all the data from the drive but it shouldn't be able to physically damage the drive. Bah! What's done is done.
As to unhiding your files assuming they are just hidden....
Hit Start > Run, type in CMD and press enter. Type the following at the prompt and then press enter:
attrib -h -s -r g:\*.* /d /s
This tells windows to clear the hidden, read-only, and system flags from all files on the drive, assuming of course your profile has the power to "see" the files and change them.
If that doesn't work then you may need to take ownership of the drive first. The drive may have security settings that make it "belong" to an account on your old system. Right-click on the drive in Windows Explorer and click Properties. Click the Security tab, the Advanced button, the Owner tab, then the Edit tab. Make yourself the owner, then you can make any other changes to the security settings you want to back on the Permissions tab. (If you can't change the owner log out and log back in as Administrator). For iTunes your account (or everyone) and SYSTEM need full access to all files. Any changes you make should be applied to "This folder, subfolders and files", should be inheritable and you should also replace the permissions on all child objects.
tt2

Is there a way to export all of my music from my hard drive to an external drive, connected to my computer and have iTunes still work with the music library located on the external drive?

I do not have enough room on my hard drive for all of my music collection and want to export the music files to my external 300GB hard drive rather than purchase and configure a new, larger hard drive for my computer. Can I export all of my music library to the external drive and configure iTunes to always store music there, and operate seemlessly with the music library on the external drive?

http://www.wideanglesoftware.com/touchcopy/index.php

Changes made in Itunes not in Music Library

Hi: I have spent countless hours fixing track names, adding artwork and all the other fun stuff. None of these changes are reflected in the music library and I can't figure out how to fix that situation. I've scrolled through the forum and can't finad an answer that works. If anyone knows how to do this, I would certainly appreciate the help. Thanks.

I am not 100% sure, but that kinda sounds like a Vista permissions problem that other folks have posted.
Use these directions to take FULL control over your top-level music folder, and all subfolders.
Vista permissions are funny, sometimes read/write is not enough. You need FULL control and ownership.
How to Take Ownership and Grant Permissions in Windows Vista

ITunes 5 Changes Music Library Location to Default

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