Itunes exclamations moved mp3 files to new hard drive

hi
i recently bought a new computer (quad) and the new hardive is big enough to put all my mp3s onto one hardrive. so i put all 80gigs worth into one folder called "mp3s" and then i have sub folders to categorize them as latin etc...obviously itunes will display ! on every song now that they arent in their original location...so i went to advanced tab and made the "mp3s" folder the default music folder and assumed itunes would be smart enough to reestablish links to every song in my playlists...but no!!!...i tried one posts suggestions which worked the best (creating xml file etc)..but most all of the songs in my playlists still didnt show up...and every song in playlist is located in the "mp3s" folder so i assume it couldnt handle 80gigs worth of songs?
my complaint with itunes is i use to use some mp3 player on OS 9 that was smart enough to reestablish links to multiple playlists by simply selecting one song in the playlist and selecting the new location of the file, then it would automatically see any other mp3 contained in any subfolders and reestablish links to it....simple...why cant itunes on OS X do this.
any help appreciated
thanks

after reading many posts on apple, talking to apple tech support and googling nothing solved my problem completely...however i figured out a way to get it to work for me
MY SCENARIO:
before i had two different drives with 20gigs of mp3s on each drive and itunes on another drive...my files are organized by genre not artist so having itunes oraganize my mp3s is a no go and i have alot of playlists that i spent alot of time organizing so i didnt want to loose them.....when i got my G5 i finally had enough room to put all mp3s in one MP3 folder and thats what i wanted to do.
STEPS I TOOK:
1. I exported every playlist in the itunes on my old computer by going to file/export song list. then saved as .xml file. heres a link to apples directions:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93763
2. I trashed all itunes prefs in user/home/library/preferences and all files in the user/home/music/itunes folder on my new computer...then i opened itunes and it goes thru standard steps and opens to an empty library.
3. I copied all my mp3s to my new computer and placed them into one folder called MP3's ( you can copy or move to any drive(s) or folder (s)you want)
4. then i went to itunes/file/add to library and selected the MP3s folder and itunes added every mp3 to the itunes library. (if you have mp3s on multiple drives simply continue to select the folders containing the mp3s and add them to the library)
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301509
5. import the .xml song lists in step 1...as it imports some will import instantly, others you might see a progress bar as it searches...if some mp3 files in the playlist are missing it wont display them in the playlist.
6. all mp3s should now be in the library and all playlists connected to the songs no more exclamation points.
3. also afterwards or even in step 4 go to the advanced tab in the preferences and select the folder you want itunes to point to if you put all mp3s in one folder on one drive...make sure the "keep itunes folder organized" and "copy files to itunes music folder" are unchecked.
FINAL THOUGHTS
eventhough this wasnt that tough, this process could be made simplier by apple making itunes smart enough to locate broken linked files. i forget the name of an mp3 player i used on OS 9 but if i decided to move my mp3s to any other folder or hardrive, and reopen the mp3 app, it would show the files couldnt be found in the playlist, then when i clicked on one missing song the app was smart enough to scan that folder for any other mp3s in the apps playlists and automaticallly reconnect to them.
quad g5   Mac OS X (10.4.5)  

Similar Messages

  • Moving Music Files to new hard drive

    I followed the instruction in iTunes Help, but it says to choose "Consolidate Library" from the Advanced tab in preferences. I have no such option on the screen. Can anyone help?

    Consolidate Library is under Advanced on your Menu bar, up where File and Edit etc are, not in Preferences.

  • How do I restore iTunes library from Backup files on External Hard Drive?

    How do I restore iTunes library from Backup files on External Hard Drive and keep the new iTunes library on the External Hard Drive. I have all the media and playlist and .xml .itl files, just want the iTunes to recognise the content.
    I backedup my iTunes content by dragging to External Hard Drive. Formatted and reinstalled OS. My iTunes content is so large, that I wish for the Library and content to remain on the External Hard Drive. I have all the music files and playlists, I just cannot get the iTunes application to display all the content. Hoping to Not have to drag and drop all the content to be recopied into new iTunes organised files.
    Troubleshooting this by researching other conversations on the web, I have come stuck for a solution. One Troubleshoot told me to hold down the Command key and then lauch iTunes and a dialogue box will appear to Choose a new library, however when I try this, no Dialogue box appear to give me the option!?

    It sometimes has that funny switch symbol on it too.  
    tt2

  • I had to get my hard drive replaced from Apple, I lost all of my music obviously.  My question is, how can I get all my music off of my iPhone onto iTunes?  Since it's a new hard drive, the iPhone isn't recognizing this as it's home computer.

    I had to get my hard drive replaced from Apple, I lost all of my music obviously.  My question is, how can I get all my music off of my iPhone onto iTunes?  Since it's a new hard drive, the iPhone isn't recognizing this as it's home computer.

    You will need to use third-party software to transfer music from your phone to the iTunes Library. I recommend Phone to Mac - Pod to Mac | Macroplant.com.

  • ITunes won't let me move files to new hard drive

    Hey, all...I'm having a really major problem with my computer. I'm trying to move my iTunes library to a new hard drive. Currently, it's in a 1-terabyte Western Digital USB drive powered through the USB, and I'm trying to move it to a Seagate 1-terabyte drive. I currently have 535 gigabytes of media in my library and I have a MacBook with a 250-GB hard drive that I don't store any music on currently.
    I move the library file over to the new USB hard drive, and I consolidate my library as it asks me to do. Then, when I go down to "Organize library", it prepares to copy the files to the new disk, then gives me the big red stop sign and tells me "The disk cannot be read from or written to." and that's that. The files work fine when I try to play them, so they're there, and presumably, not irretrievably damaged. They're just impossible to move.

    A reply to an old problem, but I couldn't find this solution anywhere. I had the same problem when I moved my iTunes library to an external drive. As Apple recommends, I used File > Library > Organize Library > Consolidate Files to copy my music files from my overstuffed hard drive to the external drive. Copying went fine for a while, adding about two-thirds of my files to the new drive without incident. Then I got the big stop sign with the error message: "Copying files failed. The disk could not be read from or written to."
    This turned out to have nothing to do with either the hard drive or the external disk. I had a bad file in my music library that was shutting down the consolidation process. Unfortunately the error message says nothing about which file may be the culprit. All I could think to do was to go back to my original library in iTunes and sort by Artist, select all cuts with artists beginning with A, right click and select "Consolidate Files". Then do the same with B artists, etc. Proceeding this way, files resumed copying but when I got to the "S" selections, the consolidate process failed again. Then I selected smaller and smaller batches until the problem file was identified. Removed it from my library and then Consolidate worked fine through the rest of the library. Problem solved.
    I spent several days working through this; hope I can save someone else the time.

  • Moving from old to new hard drive, some songs lost track number in file nam

    Anyone have thoughts on this? I changed to a larger hard drive a month ago. Copied everything over and things seemed OK. Synced daughter's ipod and things started acting weird. I compared old to new hard drive now and a bunch of songs are missing from the new drive but weirder is that some songs lost the track numebr in the name on the new drive - 04 loving.mp3 is now loving.mp3.
    we can't find a pattern to why those specific songs are like that. any thoughts?

    Sorry, never heard of that before.

  • Itunes won't play library on new hard drive

    I had to install new hard drive.  Moved all itunes files over including library.  Downloaded latest version of Itunes, but it won't play any of my music.

    This is relevant portion of the support document with a bit of editing for clarity.
    If iTunes is running, quit iTunes.
    Using a Mac click the icon to open iTunes and immediately press and continue to hold down the Option key.
    You should see the following screen:
    If iTunes opens normally, close it and try again.
    Once you've got that dialog you have two options. If your previous iTunes library database is stored on the external drive use Choose Library to browse to it and open it. If you only have the media folder on the drive then use the Create Library option to create a new iTunes library at /iTunes on the external, move the media folder to /iTunes/iTunes Media and then add it to your new empty library.
    tt2

  • Moving media files to networked hard drive

    I just moved my media files to a hard drive connected to my time capsule. I thought I did it the way we're supposed to: specifying a new library location, and then organizing the library so that all of the files get copied to the new location. That worked fine, but when I start itunes (10) and do a command-I on a song, the file location is still the old one. I changed the directory name of the old media folder, and even moved the folder outside of the itunes folder, and every time I start itunes it still points to the old library. When I check my settings, the new library location is listed as the default library, but it seems as if the itunes library file is still looking for the old media folder. Anybody know what I'm doing wrong here? Thanks!

    I am having the same issue as well...

  • Moving iPhoto files to external hard-drive

    Hi everyone,
    I've seen versions of this question asked many times but felt the need to ask myself before I go into the Genius bar to have someone help me. I take A LOT of high quality photos and they are currently taking up 60GB on my tiny 150GB hard drive. I need to move these files off my hard drive to free up space because the computer is prompting me to delete things, the hard drive is full! I downloaded iPhoto Library Manager a few months ago and created a back up copy of my library and put it on an external hard drive. But now - I want to move all of them OFF my hard-drive. I know how to make a copy... But how can I move all of these files so they are just on the external hard drive?
    Thanks for your help in advance!

    Moving the iPhoto library is safe and simple - quit iPhoto and drag the iPhoto library intact as a single entity to the external drive - depress the option key and launch iPhoto using the "select library" option to point to the new location on the external drive - fully test it and then trash the old library on the internal drive (test one more time prior to emptying the trash)
    And be sure that the External drive is formatted Mac OS extended (journaled) (iPhoto does not work with drives with other formats) and that it is always available prior to launching iPhoto
    And backup soon and often - having your iPhoto library on an external drive is not a backup and if you are using Time Machine you need to check and be sure that TM is backing up your external drive
    LN

  • HT1923 how to save all my itunes data to reinstall on a new hard drive

    i want to reinstall my windows 7///how do i keep my downloaded mobile applications , backups for Iphone etc...to be incorporated back to iTunes once I renstall windows & new install iTunes.
    I have a seperate temp hard drive setup where i have other windows docs etc saved //

    Simply make a backup of your iTunes library onto that disk > http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1751 After reinstalling Windows, simply install iTunes, put the iTunes library in My Music folder and open this application

  • Do I have to deactivate my lightroom 5 installation before moving it to a new hard drive as with Photoshop elements 10?

    I cannot find any way to deactivate my Lightroom 5 install prior to moving it to another hard drive like I did on my Photoshop Elements 10 .

    There is no activation/deactivation process with Lightroom. Just install it on the new hard drive. You might need your serial number.

  • Having trouble with error message in itunes every since I had a new hard drive installed. Write access are not enough or permissions aren't allowed.  I have changed all of these in the corresponding folders, restarted and nothing works.  I need help bad??

    Got a new hard drive installed and since then, I cannot get purchased song into my itunes.  It is telling me that my write access or permission are wrong.  I have changed all and nothing works.  HELP!!!!!!

    Use the trackpad to scroll, thats what it was designed for. The scroll bars automatically disappear when not being used and will appear if you scroll up or down using the trackpad.
    This is a user-to-user forum and most people will post on here if they have problems. You very rarely get people posting to say there update went smooth. The fact is the vast majority of Mountain Lion users will not be experiencing any major problems with the OS, or maybe with apps which are not compatible, but thats hardly Apple's fault if developers don't update their apps.

  • MDD freezes when transferring files to new Hard Drive.

    I am using a G4 MDD Dual Processor Tower with 1 GB DDR SDRAM, Dual 1 GHz and an 80 GB hard Drive on an ATA/100 controller, using a cable select cable (OEM). I just installed an additional PATA Western Digital WES-WD3200JB 320 GB hard drive. Both drives are on the ATA/100 and on Cable Select mode. The 80GB hard drive (which has the system installed on it) was originally installed in the slave position (and still is). I zeroed the drive and did a PRAM reset before I partitioned and formatted the drive.
    I have had freeze up troubles when I try to transfer files from the old 80GB Hard Drive to this new 320 GB one. I have tried transferring files from a DVD to this new Hard Drive without a problem. I have tried transferring that same load of files from the new Hard Drive to the old one without a problem. The only time it seems to freeze up is when I try to transfer a large number of files from the old Hard Drive to the new one. The problem doesn’t occur with large files, just with a large number of files. For example, I have transferred a single 917MB file without a problem, but when I try to transfer a folder that has 158 items totaling 38.6 MB, that is when my computer freezes up. However, I have frequently transferred folders containing a few (under 20) files that are under 5 MB without a problem.
    I have considered putting the new drive on the ATA-66 controller instead of the ATA-100 (as several Apple forum posts recommend), but I would rather figure out why the freeze up occurs in only this specific set of circumstances.
    Any theories on what is causing this freeze up, or suggestions on how to fix it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

    ATA doesn't share a bus very nicely, you can always put the WD 320 over to ATA/100 or do that now, but yes, isolate them.
    You may have directory problem or bad sectors, so eliminating that would be another step.
    Some people even recommend zeroing a new drive right off the bat.
    PATA should not have the problems of SATA, but you might want to look into whether this drive has come up in other problems. OWC includes it in one of the FW cases also.
    And you could move your OEM to FW case, can't imagine continuing to use the OEM drive at this point (they were slow and had only 2MB cache then, I use mine for an emergency FW backup system).

  • Getting iTunes and IPod to work on new hard drive

    My old hard drive had crashed and i have just put in the new one into my computer, so I had to re-download itunes. Is there a way to put my songs on itunes with my new hard drive, because when i try to put new stuff my ipod it says that it will erase all the songs that is already on it.

    Yes it is possible to copy songs from your iPod to your PC.
    See this thread for options:
    http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=3860757#3860757

  • Copying Large Blocks of MP3 files from External Hard Drive to iTunes

    I'm trying to copy large numbers of MP3 files from my external
    hard drive to iTunes. I tried putting them in the iTunes music folder but this did not work. Then I tried selecting blocks of the songs and dragging and dropping them in iTunes. This also did not work because when I select a large block of files and then click on them (holding down the mouse button) to drag them, then they become "unselected." So, I guess my question is 2 fold: Why can I not copy and paste these files to some folder on the Macintosh Hard drive where they will be recognized by iTunes (show up in iTunes) and what is wrong with my clicking and dragging technique? Am I losing it?

    If you are trying to add tunes to your library then do the work from within iTunes not via the Finder. Droping the tunes into the iTunes folder will not create a reference for iTunes to find the tunes. You should be able to drag-drop the tunes/folders into the main iTunes window.
    It is usually easier to use the 'keep' and 'copy' features selected. This way iTunes will keep your tunes organized and all in one place. If you work from in the iTunes interface then you will likely not go wrong.
    From the iTunes File menu select 'add to library' (+O) and navigate to your ext HD and iTunes should bring those tunes into your library.
    MJ

Maybe you are looking for

  • Want to partition a new External Hard drive for both pc and mac

    Hello! I am going to partition a new Seagate external hard drive for both my pc and mac.  What format do I choose for the PC partition?  MS-DOS (FAT), ExFAT, or Free Space. Thank you! Nikki

  • Flashing question mark and folder icon

    Hi I got the dreaded flashing folder/question mark icon a couple of days ago I used a friends computer to read the information in these forums and eventually managed to get my iMac to start up again. I have a very recent Time Machine back up, so am n

  • Shifting Database from 8i to 9i

    I have a 8i Oracle database running on a machine , now i have installed orcale 9i on a sepreate machine , i want to move the complete 8i database on this new 9i machine , kindly guide me through the process in detail as i am a bit new to Oracle.

  • E6 - Mail for Exchange-invalid credentials

    Hi, need some help.... After configuring my nokia E6 for Exchange mail I keep receiving a message "mail for exchange-invalid credentials". I've checked all my credentials en configuration: they are correct.  I have tried the configurations on a Nokia

  • Peap AUthentication User Group issue

    Dear All, I have a strange problem. We are running Wireless service which includes Cisco AP1200 (B&G), radius server ACS 4.0, WPA/TKIP. We have two setups, one for trusted machines which are part of our domain, other is untrusted which is from studen