Itunes library duplication

I moved my library from my old Mac to my new IMac and I'm having trouble with duplicate songs and movies, and some songs say I've exceeded the number of uses when I know they are on at most 3 devices. I copied my old library to an external harddrive, I then moved the library from the external hard drive to my new IMac. Is there a way to take my Itune information strait from my Ipod, it's up to date with all my music and movies?

The .itl is only in the iTunes folder, and on any backups you make of your hard drive (always a good idea to make one before undertaking a massive edit of anything). It would take me some time to follow what you were doing and some of it is unclear. For example, how did you "open" the .xml?
iTunes only uses the .itl which only iTunes can read. It makes the .xml in a friendlier format so other applications can use iTunes data.
The /previous libraries is a backup of your library file from when you last updated the iTunes application.
The trick to creating a new library or using a different library is to hold down the option/alt key while starting iTunes and select the .itl iTunes should use. You could have duplicated all the library files in the old library, saving space by not duplicating all the media files but sharing them between libraries, then started from the duplicates library and editing that.
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 iTunes 9 [and later]: Understanding iTunes Media Organization - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3847

Similar Messages

I have an itunes library on an external drive I want to use on a dool boot computer. How do I set this up without duplication of files

Ok, here goes with the explanation. I am running a Mac Mini mid 2010 with mt iTunes library on an external USB drive. I dual boot the computer into Windows 7. I want to be able to use the same iTunes library in both Operating Systems. I am trying to set this up on the Windows side without accidentily erasing, moving or duplicating any files. In the past when I have tried I have ended up with multiple files. I have an iCloud also but do not want to download any files again. How can I get iTunes on Windows to simply recognise my existing storage and create a library list from what is already there rather than duplicating files?
Update: As soon as I signed in with my iTunes account iCloud picked up my playlist and now lists all my music. Right clicking on the songs give me the choice to download the files, but the files already exist oin my external USB. I simply want iTunes on Windows 7 to point to the existing files.

How is the external drive formatted?
Allan

Sharing an iTunes Library on one Mac?

I've one Mac on which Bob would like to use the
iTunes Library of Alice with Alice agreement.
Alice has already enabled the sharing on her account.
But Bob doesn't see anything when looking for shared
Libraries.
How is this possible?
dan

Josef Kowalewski wrote:
hI,
Tell Bob and Alice to follow Apple's advice - http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93195
Thank you for this great piece of documentation
which help to find a path to stop stupid duplication
of huge libraries. A search within the Apple Support
with the string "Sharing iTunes Library same computer"
gave no useful information.
Now I have a mostly similar problem I don't find a
word about in the Apple web support.
Bob is able to add to his Library any number of
piece of musique from Alice. But when he wants to add some
albums, the albums aren't imported. The pieces
of musique included in all the albums are included
in the "Library" but the albums contents definitions
are lost.
How is it possible to access to a large set of
well organised albums from another user's account?
dan

ITunes Library and apple TV

I have recently bought my self
- Mac Mini
- Time Capsule
- Apple TV
My objective is to be able to run the mac mini as a media center for the living room television and the apple tv to have access to the movies in a different room.
The point of the time capsule is to serve as an external disk for Itunes + as a backup
My problem is 2 things:
- I want Itunes to use the timecapsule as the data source as it has more space. This works fine, but every time I restart the mac mini itunes defaults back to the original itunes library!
- When in the middle of sourcing a movie on Apple Tv I can suddenly be in situation that the itunes library no longer is availalbe. I believe the problem might be that TC or Mini hibernates and that Apple Tv no longer can get access
What should I do.

Winston Churchill wrote:
does the Apple TV not use the xml file
i'm not sure but don't see how.
I was under the impression that at least the first generation model did
for what purpose ?
I understood it was on the Apple TV that the OP had duplications rather than in iTunes itself.
could be network related. i'd also try a +power cycle+ of my entire gear. however, let's see how he moved, deleted, and re-added the files.

ITunes library on an external hard drive - does the HD need to be connected?

Hi,
I want to move my iTunes library from my windows laptop to an external hard drive to free up space. I've read up about how to do it, but the one thing that i still cant figure out is whether my hard drive needs to be continually connected for iTunes to work. Obviously this is not a easy option for a laptop and i want iTunes to work without a hard drive attached. If this is the case, what are my options? I have about 40GB in normal music files, which are being doubled by my iTunes library and taking up too much space on my internal hard drive
Thanks.

I have my iTunes library on my hard drive, but keep a number of mp3's on an external hard drive..but here are some things I looked at to get an idea how to best manage this:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1473 ( adding content on your computer to iTunes section..important to avoid duplication)
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2723211
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364
Hope this helps.

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.

I need help transferring my itunes content from an old exteranl hard drive to a new one. The itunes media folder is on the external drive, the itunes library file (.itl) resides on my mac in the music folder.

I have already copied over from the old hard drive to the new hard drive the iTunes media folder (423 GB). But this does not contain the iTunes Library .itl file which for good or bad reason has been working from the mac itself from inside the user music folder. In iTunes Preferences, Adanced Preferences window the iTunes media fold location is currently set to the ITunes Media folder on the old hard drive. How and why i set it up like this all that time ago is forgotten! Do i simply browse for a new location for the newly created duplicaye file? My worry is that i will end up with every song listed twice in iTunes, or worse manage to wipe the content like a mate did!

Okay, solved. Simple really, just moved the media folder location and there was no duplication. Phew!

Itunes library on an external hard drive for the Ipad?

Does anyone know of a way that I can access an iTunes library through an external hard drive on the ipad? Currently, I have an external hard drive connected through an airport base station. From my ipad, I can connect to this hard drive and see all my media files (using the FileBrowser app); however I cannot create playlists or let the music play on a loop. Is there a way I can import this library of music into itunes and still have it reference the external hard drive location?
I have this setup on my computer to keep the hard drive clean and am trying to do the same with the hard drive.
Any suggestions?

I have my iTunes library on my hard drive, but keep a number of mp3's on an external hard drive..but here are some things I looked at to get an idea how to best manage this:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1473 ( adding content on your computer to iTunes section..important to avoid duplication)
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2723211
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364
Hope this helps.

Detailed q's about iTunes library xfer as it relates to a new iPad

I just purchased a new iPad4, upgrading from a first generation iPad. I have a few questions about how I will transfer all of my apps, music, etc. to the newer iPad. And, I don't think it's as simple as restoring via iCloud. Or... maybe it is.
I'VE A FEW FACTORS TO CONSIDER:
1.) I've always had my first generation iPad synched up to the family Windows "Vaio," as opposed to my iMac. (Long story as to why. Had to do with bending to my family's needs at one point in time.)
2.) I wish to move--as I said--all of my apps and music FROM the FIRST generation iPad to my new iPad4
3.) BUT! NOW I wish to synch my new iPad4 to my iMac... and to drag along the iTunes library that exists on the Vaio.
Q: What workflow will I adopt?
1.) Should I synch up my new iPad4 to the Vaio, then... synch THAT to my iMac. (Will my iTunes library transfer over to the iMac? Something tells me it won't)
2.) Would iCloud help me at all?
3.) Would I start to add MORE stuff to be backed up on iCloud? (I'd just as well delete all the stuff that USED to be backed up on my First generation iPad.)
I hope this all makes sense. I woud appreciate any help.

I'll do this. And check back.
One more Q:
When I go to backup my new iPad to iCloud, won't it duplicate much needed storage space?
Should I wipe my old iPad clean, back it up to iCloud, to avoid duplication? (I'm gonna donate the "wiped" iPad.)
I hope this makes sense.

HT1386 Recently downloaded ringtones cannot be "sync'd" to my computer. But, the ringtones are listed in my Itunes Library and in the Iphone. What's wrong?

After being downloaded from Ringtones #1 I verified the 5 ringtones were functional, listed both in the Itunes Library and in my Iphone 5. But, when I attempt to "sync" these ringtones I receive a display stating the ringtones cannot be found in the Library. I do not want to activate Icloud because of duplication issues. Anyone out there that had the same issues?

The "missing file" error 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.
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.
If another application like Windows Media Player has moved/renamed the files then the chances are that subtle differences in naming strategies will make it hard to restore the media to the precise path that iTunes is expecting. In such cases, as long as the missing files can be found somewhere, you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes. See this post for an explanation of how it works.
If you have to resort to trying to pull back the library from your iPod see Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
tt2

ITunes Library Portable Version

I have a Mac Mini running Mavericks and this Mini is my main computer. I am running the latest version of iTunes. I have an external drive which is a WD My Book attached to the Mini which stores my iTunes library and related folders. I like to keep the WD external drive stationary and not carry this external drive around with me. I use a Macbook Air running Mavericks when I am on the road and away from my house. I would like to carry around a portable version of my iTunes library and related folders on another external drive such as a WD My Passport. The purpose of this, is to use it with my MBA and when I am away from my home. Obviously, I want to connect my iPod Touch or my iPhone 5 to sync photos or music.
One problem to this ideal situation. Obviously, I will have 2 different versions of my iTunes library. I will have my home version and portable version. The home version is the master library and is used with the Mini. The portable version is the one that I travel around with making changes as I go along and is connected to my MBA.
The second problem is duplication. I don't want to add music and apps to the portable version and sync it with the home version and I have a huge mess.
The big question, how do I keep both iTunes libraries in check without duplication of songs or Apps? No, I am not going to pay $25 dollars a year for iTunes Match. Putting my library to Apple servers for that much money is not answer. If iTunes Match was cheaper, I would consider it.

Okay, let's try this again.
1) Copy main iTunes library folder to portable drive.
2) Leave home. Computer sits unused at home, no changes. Sitter feeds goldfish and waters plants and that's it.
3) You're on the road. Start iTunes to library on the portable by holding down option/alt key while starting iTunes. You're basically playing your home library from the portable. You'll only need to do the option key thing once as long as you always have the external drive on and plugged in before starting iTunes per normal.
4) Do what you want. Add music, apps, whatever.
5) Arrive home.
6) Start main computer.
6b) Do NOT start iTunes.
7) Plug in portable drive.
8) Copy iTunes folder from the portable drive over the one on the main external drive. The only changes that have been made have all been to the portable drive which is a copy of the main drive library (I get the feeling I said this before...). By copying over the main drive you are simply replacing the old one with the updated one.
9) Start iTunes. It will look for the library on the external drive as normal and start from it, but tricky you, it will be the updated one it is using.
Make step 8 a bit faster by using some sort of sync copy tool so instead of it copying back a library that is only 5% changed it only copies that 5% rather than the 95% that hasn't changed. That's just trimming on the process.
You are only using one library but you have two copies of it. One gets modified slightly during your travels but that doesn't matter because you then update your main external drive to that one upon return home.

Recommendations to restore/rebuild an itunes library?

greetings,
i've been trying different things without success... hopefully, someone has a suggestion for a better solution...
i use my old powerbook as my music server which is connected to my stereo. half of the music is on the internal drive and the other half in on an external drive. i keep the option to "copy files to the iTunes folder" turned off because the internal drive wasn't big enough...
recently the external drive failed. i have both drives completely backed up. i connected another larger drive as the external drive. i copied the iTunes folder and all music from the internal drive to the new external drive and manually merged the music files from my back up of the old external drive into that iTunes folder... i did find some duplications and thinned it out... so now i have an itunes library with all files in 1 place.
the part i'm having trouble with is to get iTunes to find and relink the files as the files from the old drive. presently itunes is still using the files on the internal drive for my testing... i'd backed up the libary with the "export" menu option... then i change the itunes preference to look for the music on the external drive... that did not get itunes to find the music on the external drive... this part i understand since itunes is not set up to "copy files" it is access the files still on the internal drive, but hasn't attempted to use the directory on the external drive...
as i expected from experince, if i try to access a song the which itunes has lost the like, it ask me if i want to locate it. when i click yes, it gives me an "open" dialog box and i can find it on the external drive and it reestablishes the link... with 2500 songs on the external drive, i don't want to do this manually...
if i manually drag and drop one of the songs on the new hard drive to itunes, itunes thinks the file is a new song and makes a duplicate entry in itunes list, but without the meta data (ratings, play counts, etc.) so this doesn't work... i've tried the "add to library" menu option under file. that unfortunately just duplicated every song in my library, without preserving the meta data and now the library which had 5000 songs, now has 10000 songs in the list... i quit itunes and renamed the library files with a temp name so i can open itunes and import the back up database. that process unfortunatly did not restore my library to the state before the "add to library" that duplicated all my song entires. the import seemed to start ok, but when it finshed, it said that it didn't find the songs and omitted the entries for the songs it couldn't find... so it lost about 1/2 of my songs, down to about 2500...
i can restore the names of the files i change and get back to the 10000 list... i should be able to find the copy of the file i'd copied to the external drive. so i expect that i'll be able to get back to the list of 5000... but i still don't have a good solution to relink the files...
so i'm a little uncertain about how to procede from here... if worse comes to worse, i can manually relink the songs and delete the duplicates... but that is not my preferred option...
my follow up to this is that i will be replacing my old powerbook in a few months and intend to transfer all the music and itunes library from the old computer to a newer model with a large enough internal drive to accomodate everything.. so i'll want to move everthing again in the not too distant future... but with the current problems, i'm not sure how to transfer files again even if i manually fix the links on the current set...
i'd sure appreciate any suggestions-
thanks-

You should find this Zevoneer post useful:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=9990366#9990366

ITunes library gone from iTunes after re-launching Finder

Yesterday while attempting to force quit an application I by mistake re-launched the finder which consequently meant all my settings on the system were lost(I know,I can't believe how dumb I've been as well) and I was in effect starting again from scratch.When launching iTunes it was completely blank,no library,smart playlists or created playlists.The music however was still intact on my hard drive.I have about 16GB of music on my system and about 49GB free.I decided to drag the iTunes music folder to "Library" in the source list and it copied all roughly 4600 tracks.However after doing this there was only 33GB free space so I deleted the library in iTunes leaving it empty again.I haven't synched my iPod since this happened so everything on it is as before my act of stupidity.I read the post earlier where someone's music went from their hard drive and were recommended to download Senuti to transfer it back from their iPod which I have done,although haven't used yet.Sorry for rambling slightly but I've tried to be as concise as possible.I would massively appreciate any help! Thanks
eMac G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)
eMac G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Here's what I'd do. Note that this will delete any playlists you have and may clear track ratings, etc.
- confirm that at least one of the iTunes folders has all your tracks;
- drag the other iTunes folder to the Trash (but don't empty the trash yet; if you're worried about accidentally emptying the Trash, drag that iTunes folder to someplace out of the way, but where you won't get confused about which you're working with);
- in the folder you're keeping, drag the iTunes Library and iTunes.xml files to the Trash (again, don't empty the Trash yet)
- launch iTunes; it should be blank now.
- Open the iTunes preferences, go to the Advanced preference and make sure that the iTunes Music Folder location is the iTunes Music folder in the iTunes folder you're keeping
- uncheck the "copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to Library" item
- run the Add To Library command (under the File menu) and select your iTunes Music folder.
That should get all your tracks back into iTunes without duplications (unless duplicates exist in the individual album folders). If it works, then reset the "copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to Library" item for future imports.
Once you've confirmed that all your tracks are back and play correctly, then you can empty the Trash (or delete the extra iTunes folder).
Hope this helps.

Y itunes library was corrupted recently (i thin g its connected to updating

m

Hello there, Plork66,
So glad you have your content and didn't lose any of it! The following Knowledge Base article gives some great guidance on how to clean up duplication in iTunes:
How to find and remove duplicate items in your iTunes library
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2905
One thing to keep in mind is this article was written for a previous version of iTunes. The duplicates option is now located in the View menu in iTunes 11, but the process should be the same.
This should prove very useful for you in getting things cleaned up.
Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Pedro D.

How can 2 family members who share an iTunes library both use iTunes match?

My wife and I both share an iTunes library on the same Macbook and both sync our phones to that computer. We each have our own Apple ID and we use a 3rd account for iCloud for Photostream. In ios5 we were able to both access the music library on our iPhones via iTunes match while signed in under our unique IDs. Now, it will only let one ID access the music on the phones. How can I get it to work like it used to, where we can both access the music while both continuing to be logged in under our own IDs on our own phones?

I am taking this slowly so I have not added my iTunes music to the new laptop yet until I figure out how to make it work. But I have just downloaded a digital copy of The Dark Knight and when I log on to my girlfriends user and open iTunes, the video is not there. When I log back into my user and connect her iPhone to iTunes, I am not allowed to drop in the movie. That is where I am at. I need to be able to add my stuff to her iPhone and her stuff to my iPhone without syncing and losing all info.

Itunes library duplication

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