ITunes Folders

How do I get my "iTunes Music Folder" to aslo be the default for my i Tunes Libary and album files?
I have a new PC and have installed 8.0. I set the folder where I keep all my music (not the default "My Music" because that folder automatically synchs with drives at work) as my default location for the "i Tunes Music folder".
I then used "Add folder to Library" to bring in all my music and it also went and grabbed album art too.
In doing this a new folder containing my library and album art was created in another location (back in "My Music" where I do not want it).
Is there a way to change the default location for the library files?
Thanks - Tripp

Yes, you need to move the itunes database file. The ITL file.
Put it in your new non-default folder.
Then press and hold the shift key while starting itunes so itunes will use it.
Album artwork & mobile apps will start getting put there. And itunes remembers that is the library you are now using, so you only have to do the shift thing once.
Article on that:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iTunesWin/8.0/en/15502.html

Similar Messages

How do I consolidate multiple Itunes folders on one computer?

I had a mishap with my external hard drive (I didn't know how to use it properly..yup USER ERROR!) so I have three different Itunes folders intertwined in my music folders with different previous Itunes libraries. I made a backup of the entire music mess on a flash drive, have a new computer and finally an ipod to put my music on...
Can someone give me some detailed steps to be able to consolidate all of my many Itunes libraries and let me know how I can access the music in my previous Itunes libraries? I want to make sure that I still have the rights to the music that I purchased in the past. I had some music in the Itunes cloud which is great but not nearly all of it...DRATS!
I found some steps to consolidate music from different computers onto one but I'm not sure that the same steps apply to my situation. Here are the links that I was looking at in eHow: http://www.ehow.com/how_5704389_consolidate-multiple-itunes-libraries.html and http://www.ehow.com/how_8149083_can-itunes-libraries-two-computers.html.
Thanks so much in advance!
Itunes libraries make my brain hurt!

Import everything into one library and then dedupe it.
tt2

Help - moved itunes folders to external drive and now my itunes is totally

A few months ago, in order to free up space on my c drive, i had to purchase an external drive - everything i installed via itunes since that date has been on the hard drive and everything was fine.
Last night i needed more room on my C drive so i stupidly moved the remaining itunes folders from my C drive to my F drive - unfortunately, when i opened itunes it was blank.
i've tried a few things - including adding the folder from the F drive - and that retrieved about 80% of my music/videos and the last playlists i had - however, they were all missing songs - even if all the songs that should be included remained on my itunes
i began the tedious process of manually adding files back in but soon realized this doesn't help itunes consider this the same ipod as what's still on my actual ipod.
*What I'd like to do (if possible) is to wipe itunes clean and somehow restore everything on my ipod into itunes so that i retrieve not only the songs and videos but also the playlists that i've spent way too much time building. At this point i fear that the various components to my ipod are in too many files on my external drive to be easily restored another way (though if i'm wrong please let me know)*
sadly (as this story might suggest) I am borderline computer illiterate - I've read a few posts suggesting some sort of software online (something the apple help line also made an "off the record" remark about) - but I can't for the life of me figure out which i would use or how to do this without risking the contents of my existing ipod (which has the playlists and songs/video I want to reestablish).
*Can anyone possibly suggest how to best handle this and walk me through it in painstakingly basic and specific detail? I would be forever grateful.*
Thanks

iTunes uses the iTunes Library files - in particular the iTunes Library.itl file - to keep track of where your song files are located as well as playlist and related information.
Most likely in moving your folders around iTunes has been confused to such an extent that it created a new Library file. With a bit of luck you might still be able to find the old file which would restore your old Library.
So the first thing you want to do is look around your computer and make a note of any iTunes Library.itl files you can find. Generally speaking you'll find them in the iTunes folders on your system and depending on how you've been moving the folders - i.e. whether you "cut" them or "copied" them - you may still find at least one one on your F: drive and some on your C: drive.
Having noted where they are you know want to check each of them out as described in this article in the Apple Knowledge Base. In following those instructions you want to select the Choose Library option and use the pop-up window that appears to zero in on the various .itl files you've located.
Remember that each Library file will show a different Library in iTunes - perhaps slightly different, perhaps completely different - and if the first one isn't what you're looking for you'll have to close iTunes and repeat the procedure by selecting one of the other .itl's.
Post back for any clarification.

2 iTunes folders on one computer, 1 iPod - does it work?

This part seems to work: putting one iTunes folder into the users>music folder at a time, with the other iTunes folder (containing its own iTunes Music folder and library) into a folder located elsewhere on the computer. If I just switch the entire iTunes folders then I can access each as I please. So far it works great that way (eventually I may merge the two but there are thousands of songs in each so it will be a monster job just creating new playlists). So now -- unless someone tells me that there is a problem with that part -- my question relates to putting music into my one (1) iPod. Can I do it from both iTunes libraries (one at a time)? Or can I just do it from one library?

Import everything into one library and then dedupe it.
tt2

Two iTunes Folders on one PC (My mistake). Please help!

Sorry, I had this in another post that was too long and could not edit. Please don't punish me, mods...
https://discussions.apple.com/message/12497755#12497755
Edited:
My old computer crashed and I couldn't recover the most recent iTunes folder on that drive. However, I did back-up the folder to an external drive a few months ago (I know, why so long).
Here's where I did something wrong... I installed iTunes on my new Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit computer, then I copied the older backed-up folder from the external to write over the iTunes folder installed on my PC by the iTunes app after installation (can't remember which location I put the B/U folder, I am new to Win7).
I did a "Shift" Open iTunes to choose folder and the app informed me I have two (2) iTunes folders. One is path "Home -> My Music -> iTunes" and the other is under path "Libraries -> Music - iTunes". I think I really screwed-up here.
* How do I tell which folder the app iTunes is using (they are both the same size and same number of files)?
* How do I tell which folder to safely delete since I don't know which one iTunes is accessing?
* How do I get this back to way it was on my old XP machine? (iTunes folder was in failed machine "My Documents -> My Music -> iTunes")
When I try to delete the one in "Libraries -> Music - iTunes" the computer also deletes the one in "Home -> My Music -> iTunes".

Here's where the duplicate folder is:
But I want to consolidate to my path "Home - My Music - iTunes" and have one folder only.
Ideas? Thanks

How do you move or can I move Itune folders (Movies), (TV Shows) and (Home Videos) to other internal hard drives (running out of space) on my computer's main hard drive and have Itunes recongize where they are?

I built my own computer which has 4 internal hard drives with 3 internal hard drives that are 3tb. With my movies and tv shows, I need to know if I can move the Itunes folders (Movies, TV shows and Home Video's) and move each one of them to 3 seperate internal hard drives while Itunes can still find them to play with my apple tv. Does anyone know how I can do it?

While you can do that, it is not a feature of iTunes. Put your movies on the external drive, then add them to iTunes by dragging the files to iTunes while holding the option (alt) key down so it leaves the files where they are located. There are other ways to move them if they are already added but they can be more involved and tricky. If it's just one or two try: http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=relocateselected

How can I download a previously downloaded purchase to my iTunes library on my laptop when the listing for the song in my library won't play because it says it cannot locate the file. Yes I have searched my iTunes folders and also done a full windows sear

How can I download a previously downloaded purchase to my iTunes library on my laptop when the listing for the song in my library won't play because it says it cannot locate the file. Yes I have searched my iTunes folders and also done a full windows search. The track plays on my iPad and my iPhones but will not play on my laptop!?
It has an "!" To the left of the song title in my library
My worry is that if I sync my iPad/iPhone then I will lose the track on those also!

If you cannot find the file on your hard drive then once you delete the current broken entry you should be able to redownload from iTunes in the Cloud. This assumes the item in question qualifies. Note that audiobooks, digital booklets, iTunes LPs & Extras, ringtones, selected movies etc. don't.
If prompted don't hide the item. You may find that you need to close and then reopen iTunes before it will appear for download.
tt2

How do I permanently delete music files from itunes AND my computer (without going to the folder to delete each item)? It's a windows system. I've tried 'reset all dialogue warnings' as I've been told to do but no luck. Files are still in Itunes folders.

How do I permanently delete music files from itunes AND my computer (without going to the folder to delete each item)? It's a windows system. I've tried 'reset all dialogue warnings' as I've been told to do but no luck. Files are still in Itunes folders. I would really appreciate help!

Solved! Music was in Itunes folder but not in Media folder within that. It doesn't seem like a very user friendly system so far!

HT1473 My itunes will not open at all - I repeatedly get the message"itunes library is corrupted...not installed correctly...please reinstall itunes" I have tried opening all my itunes folders but nothing will even open.

My itunes will not open at all - I repeatedly get the message"itunes library is corrupted...not installed correctly...please reinstall itunes" I have tried opening all my itunes folders but nothing will even open.

Let's try a repair install of iTunes first.
Restart the PC. If you're using Vista or 7, now head into your Uninstall a program control panel, select "iTunes" and then click "Repair". If you're using XP, head into your Add or Remove Programs control panel, select "iTunes", click "Change" and then click "Repair".
Can you launch your iTunes now?

Please HELP join these 2 iTunes folders in Windows 7 preserving album artwork & tags (discussion reply requested)

(Discussion Reply Requested ) Please HELP join these 2 iTunes folders in
Windows 7 preserving album artwork & "tags"
I have searched and not found an up to date understandable answer as how
to join 2 working portable same (apple ID) user iTunes folders into one itunes folder
while above all else preserving hand edited Abum Artwork and hand edited tags.
( It was many hours of hand edited added Album Artwork and editing of tags )
Situation is Windows 7 ( 64 bit ) with current iTunes installed ( 2014-03-17 )
The hard drive crashed and the old \iTunes folder and all old contents have been copied and backed up.
The windows 7 64 bit and latest iTunes 64 bit has been re-installed cleanly ( no old music added )
Music from the iTunes cloud was then added/downloaded into iTunes
Now \itunes has 40 gig of music available to play.
Now I want to join the currently installed working \itunes folder ( 40 gig of music )
with the old saved \itunes folder ( 100 gig of music ) into just one \iTunes folder
with preserving the current Album Artwork and editing of "tags" of both folders.
I have seen previous answers that use words like " consolidate " , " export / import ",
" merge " , " apple home sharing " , " use explorer to copy ..." , ect
none of which mentioned if the current Album Artwork
or tags survive unchanged from their current "specially edited" status.
I know their may be the ineviatable "duplicates", but there seems
to be several ways to handle them. ( If you know the best way to
prevent or remove duplicates in this situation with joining two
iTunes folders in Windows please include that information also ).
Please provide an explanation of how to join these 2 iTunes folders
in Windows 7 into one \iTunes folder while preserving Album Artwork and tags.

Mike, thanks for the response. I will try this. I'll have to dig around here too, bc I want to know more about how I can import a windows xml file (while replacing the drive paths) and it creating a seperate itunes library with the pointers on the mac. Essentially, I have 2 libraries and there may not be a way around this with a windows machine and a mac - ive read plenty on Choose library on open, and mac to mac, windows to windows.
I also need to know more about what is getting stored in the album art folders. I believe it seems that when you select all, and copy the image in the artwork get info page its actually embedding these images in the files themselves, but if you paste into the left bottom artwork display pane its just adding where?? If I deleted the contents of this folder what would happen, should I not be copying this content?
If I update the images on the mac and swap out the drive paths and move the external drive back to the windows box, will i lose any updates I did while on the mac?
Good suggestion though, I'll try this out.

Join these 2 iTunes folders in Windows 7 preserving artwork

I have searched and not found an up to date understandable answer as how
to join 2 working portable same apple user iTunes folders into one itunes folder
while above all else preserving hand edited Abum Artwork and hand edited tags.
( It was many hours of hand edited added Album Artwork and editing of tags )
Situation is Windows 7 ( 64 bit ) with current iTunes installed ( 2014-03-17 )
The hard drive crashed and the \iTunes folder and all contents have been copied and backed up.
The windows 7 64 bit and latest iTunes 64 bit has been re-installed cleanly ( no old music added )
Music from the iTunes cloud was then added/downloaded into iTunes
Now \itunes has 40 gig of music available to play, all is ok
Now I want to join the currently installed working \itunes folder ( 40 gig of music )
with the old saved \itunes folder ( 100 gig of music ) into just one \iTunes folder
with preserving the current Album Artwork and editing of "tags" of both folders.
I have seen previous answers that use words like "consolidate " , "export / import ",
"merge" , "apple home sharing" , "use explorer to copy ..."
none of which mentioned if the current Album Artwork
or tags survive unchanged from their current "specially edited" status.
It was easy to find out how to "backup" the \itunes folder and make them "portable".
I currently can rename my \iTunes folder \oldiTunes and start itunes with the
Shift key held down to "Choose Library" to point to the ".itl" file and load
either one of the iTunes "Libraries" ( the 40 gig new clean itunes or the
older 100 gig itunes ) and it will play the music when asked.
I know their may be the ineviatable "duplicates", but there seems
to be several ways to handle them.
Please provide an explanation of how to join these 2 iTunes folders
into one while preserving Album Artwork and tags.
Thanks

Hi, welcome to Apple Discussions.
I've a feeling that Windows Vista & 7 differ from XP in that they "should" be able to create folder images on the fly from the files themselves. In XP this is a side effect of having the media files catalogued by Windows Media Player which in turn creates hidden Folder.jpg images in each folder that holds WMP compatible media. I have a script called CreateFolderArt which can automate the production of Folder.jpg images for all types of iTunes media which you might find useful.
tt2

How to copy HDD (MP3)Folders directly into specific iTunes Folders ?

I want to import specific music folders from my HDD into specified iTunes folder but I only can import the content of specified folders into the iTunes music library, then I have to manually copy them into the specified iTunesFolders or Playlists.
Any way to import folder from my HDD directly into iTunes Folders/Playlists ????

Hello Paul, welcome to discussions.
When the folders are copied to itunes and ipod, these folders are ignored, creating a big pile of mp3-files.
Sounds to me like your MP3 files are missing all of the data in the ID3 tags. If this is the case, then I can understand how your collection is not properly organized in iTunes.
If you are in fact missing the ID3 info... then any MP3 player is going to do the same thing to your collection. Just about every piece of audio software and every MP3 player that I know of relies on the ID3 tags to organize music.
I doubt any of them are going to rely on your folder structure and file names for organization.

Merge Two iTunes folders

Hi,
I would like to organize my music, but I have 2 iTunes folders on my pc. They each contains libraries, a lot of music, artwork etc...
What should I do to merge both together?
I tried to cut one and past it in the main music folder (next to the other iTunes folder), but then I cancelled because I got scared that i would delete any song from any folder.
I clicked on "keep itunes media organized" in the preferences before coming here. But i didn't see much happen....
Thanks for any help.

Hey J & F,
It seems like you want to combine two iTunes Libraries from two computers and avoid as many instances of duplicates as possible. I would like to suggest that you use Home Sharing in order to accomplish this, as it seems like the most elegant solution:
iTunes 12 for Mac: Use Home Sharing to import items from another iTunes library
https://support.apple.com/kb/PH19614
Take care, and thanks for visiting the Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Braden

Identical iTunes folders on same pc but need to know how to delete one

I have two identical iTunes folders on my pc. I want to delete one copy to save space but am unable to delete one (or part of it) without deleting the exact same in the other. That is, the action on one folder is exactly mirrored in the other. Any assistance would be appreciated.

Thanks tt2. Appreciate your help. Fyi, I summed up the size of all my folders and the total exceeded the capacity of my hard drive. And when I deduct the space taken by the iTunes folder, it approximates the capacity consumed. So you are right.
pricenk
- now can you help me understand how I can assign you some points?

Duplicate iTunes Folders within One iTunes folder

Multiple iTunes folders with some artists and songs duplicated. Consolidating doesn't clean it up. We'll have one iTunes folder with most of the same songs stored under another iTunes folder but it's impossible to see what's overlapping. It's a total disaster. Please help!

Dennis
In iTunes preferences, select the advanced tab and the general tab. You can change or select a different library there.

Support for iTunes folders?

Anyone know when Apple will support iTunes folders on an iPod?
It was a great feature addition with iTunes allowed me to organize my music in a folder structure so that, for example, I could put all Beatles music together. Unforunately, none of this carries over to the iPod, so you end with with lots of duplicate playlists that say "Greatest Hits". Yes, I suppose I could back through and change all my playlists under folders to say something like "Beatles - Greatest Hits", but that just defeats the purpose of the folder structure.
What good is having folders in iTunes if they don't carry over to your iPod? Anyone know when Apple is going to fix this?

I'm getting a DNLA error on the upper right hand corner of the SP3 screen.
Also my art work is there on iTunes but a lot is missing with the Media Hub.
I also think for a product to be called "The Media Hub" that the option to play your music should be robust.
As most people by this to run Itunes I'm surprised that the setup is not better.
The conflict with their shadow software and what it takes on from a "personal" folder is nuts.
Why do I want my word documents and gif and jpeg files in my documents folders mixed in with my Photos that I want to view.
Now the Media Hubbhas multiple folders and directors and content I don't want on it.
It also now has multiple instances of Itunes and it still doed nor get iTune "right"
I could have saved $350.00 by just placing a hard drive with a CAT5 cable to the back of my router, What a mess!!! Who has the time for this????

ITunes Folders

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for