ITunes music folder help

I have been trying to save space on my laptops small hardrive by telling iTunes to put my music folder in an external hardrive that I have connected. My problem is that I accidentally deleted my music a while ago and in an effort to try and get it back into iTunes through an iPod ripping application for some reason iTunes made another iTunes music folder in my "my music" folder. I just want to be able to listen to my music in iTunes and preferably be able to automatically update my iPod still without it taking up my regular hardrive space.
I am also wondering if there is a way to export whole playlists from my iPod into iTunes without using iPod ripping software because it will duplicate all of my songs that way.
Thank you for any and all suggestions.

I had the same problem you are having a year or so ago. I was transferring my music from a shared folder through a network. I copied the contents of the folder with the music into it and I had to locate everything manually. I can't guarantee that thie will oslve your problem because I never tried it, but maybe if you copy all of your music to your existing iTunes music folder first and then copy the music from the iTunes music folder it might work. I'm not sure exactly where your music is stored now, but if it is somewhere else than the iTunes music folder created by iTunes this could work. Before you copy the music though you will want to delete everything in your existing library (make sure you keep the files though when it asks) so that you don't have a bunch of duplicates. I hope this helps.

Similar Messages

ITunes Music Folder Location - PLEEEEASE HELP

All my music on iTunes is saved to an external hard drive. Every few months or so, iTunes will automatically change the location for the iTunes Music Folder to the wrong destination. When I change it back to the actual source of the music on my external hard drive, iTunes will not recognize the songs without me manually inputting the song locations one song at a time (10,000+ songs).
The only thing I can think of is to remove all music from iTunes and readd it, but this is DEVASTATING as I have about 30 playlists which are not easy to recreate whatsoever.
So, I either need to know how I can get iTunes to recognize the songs, without losing all my playlists...
Or I want to know why iTunes changes the Music Folder Location, so I can stop this from happening in the future.
This has happened to me twice before, and it's been absolutely DEVASTATING each time. I posted twice previously and no one helped me. I am desperate to stop this madness. Please help!

I don't know whether I have a solid answer for you or not, but thought I will share my thought with you. Of course this assumes that you know where we designate the path to store the iTunes Music Files.
Could the "folder path changing" problem be due to the fact that you have it in an EXTERNAL drive? I have my Original CDs copied into the external drive but I maintain the iTunes Music folder on my internal hard drive and let iTunes manage that. Time to time, i copy that to my external drive for safe keeping.
Now in your case, it is the external drive. The question becomes the full path name with which iTunes finds this location. Being an external drive, the Drive Letter assigned to it could chnage depending on what otherd evices you may have connected to your PC at the time - one time it could be F, and another time it could be G and so on. Could this be causing you the random problem?
It is an idea!

Help With Transferring Files into iTunes Music Folder

Last year, my computer crashed and I had no backup. I used a program called Sharepod to import all my music from my iPod onto my new computer. Now, all that tranferred music resides in C:\Program Files\Sharepod.
The songs play just fine out of iTunes, but because I'm a little OCD I'd really like them to be in the iTunes Music folder where they belong. But I've found that when I drag the songs from the Sharepod folder to the iTunes Music folder, I then have to help iTunes "locate" each song one by one. It's very tedious.
Is there a better way to do this?
Many thanks!
Message was edited by: kidsmoke

Yes. Once songs are in your iTunes library, do not move or rename them in Windows. If you want to get them all in one place, use the iTunes Consolidate command.

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.

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

I have 100's of CDs that I have downloaded to my itunes library and they are in the library playable but they do not show up in the C drive under the iTunes Music folder under users. Why are they in the libary and not in the itunes music folder. Win 7 OS

I have 100's of CDs that I have downloaded to my itunes library and they are in the library playable but they do not show up in the C drive under the iTunes Music folder under users. Why are they in the libary and not in the itunes music folder. Win 7 OS. When I look in the library under the get info screen it says they are in the folder itunes music, under the c: drive but when I actually go to that folder to look for them they are not there....HELP!

Hello RumDog,
I think this article will help you find the media in your library.
Where are my iTunes files located?
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
Discovering and changing the iTunes Media folder location
Note: You would usually only change the iTunes Media folder location to share music between accounts on the same computer. See this article for specific steps on how to accomplish this. Also, see this article if you want to know how to move your music to a new computer.
Mac OS X: Click the iTunes menu and choose Preferences.
Windows: Click the Edit menu and choose Preferences.
Click the Advanced pane. iTunes displays the location of your iTunes Media folder.
You can then:
Note where your media folder is, such as for backing up your media.
Use the Reset button to reset it's location to the default (which is the iTunes folder).
Click the Change button to select a folder for a new location. Once you change this location:
If you make a new or alternate iTunes library, the new location will be used by that library.
Existing files will not be moved unless you choose File > Library > Organize library and choose the option to "Consolidate files."
From: Where are my iTunes files located?
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391
Cheers,
Sterling

Two user accounts one Itunes Music Folder, How do I keep the Libraries sync

Okay let's see if I can explain my dilemma properly. My girlfriend shares my computer with me, so I gave her a seperate account to keep her stuff in. However I keep all our music on an external hard drive in the iTunes music folder. The problem is everytime I upload new music or delete something on my account/ iTunes library, It doesn't update the iTunes library on her account. Therefore I have to sign in to her account to update her library with new music or delete tracks that have been removed from the Music folder. Kinda a minor thing until you upload 5 new CD's and remove like a 100 old tracks/podcasts, then it gets to be very annoying and time consuming. So is there anything I can do to sync our libraries to the music folder when changes are made? Hope I explained that well, and thanks for your help in advance!
powerbook G4 1 Ghz 12.1 inch Mac OS X (10.4.7) iTunes 6.0.1
powerbook G4 1 Ghz 12.1 inch Mac OS X (10.4.7)

open749
As both libraries are the same you're wasting disk space, so have only one library - yours and enable sharing on it.
You need to be looged in and iTunes running, she will enable 'look for shared libraries' in her Preferences... and your library will show up.
Regards
TD

How do I move my iTunes Music folder to a new hard drive?

I've installed a new drive in my Mac Pro. I now have to move my iTunes Music folder into the new drive and junk the old one. I know that I can use iTunes/File/Add to Library menu item to get iTunes to locate the new Music Library; however, this is going to leave me with two entries for every track, one good and one broken after I remove the old drive. I think I should junk the old library and then have iTunes rebuild it from the Add To command... what is the best way to avoid problems? Select All, move to Trash and then locate and add them back? Expert advice appreciated.

No, it's simpler, epecially if iTunes manages your music for you (default).
iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
do not confuse moving your whole folder and library with moving just media files as in
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449
Quick answer if you let iTunes manage your music: Copy the whole iTunes folder and all its subfolders and files intact to the other drive. Start iTunes with the option key held down and guide it to the new location of the library.
I'm not sure abot your model Mac but you might be able to do this with the computer in Firewire Target Disk Mode.
How to use FireWire target disk mode - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661 - includes description of hardware and software requirements.
Target Disk Mode - Mac OS X 10.6 Help: Transferring files between two computers using FireWire - http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/8443.html

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.

Itunes cannot see the itunes music folder on my external hard drive

I recently put all of my music on an external hard drive to free up space on my computer,
However, when I am in itunes and trying to point the library to the music folder, itunes still cannot see it. Instead all it can see is the E drive WD Passport, and folders named autorun, WD Sync Data Wd Windows Tools.
Can anyone tell me how I can see my itunes music folder on my external hard drive while I am in preferences, advanced, library location, change??

I don't know enough about iTunes for Windows to help you with this. But if you post your question in the Using iTunes for Windows forum you will get help from people who know more about this.
(This is the forum for Apple's Mac OS X web browser, Safari.)

Can I copy music iTunes Music Folder from my external Hard drive to new PC?

not sure if this is possible but I copied my folders (documents/music/itunes/itunes music folder) from my local hard drive from laptop to my external (for backing up purposes) and now i have a new computer. can i just simply copy/paste this folder to my new computer and open itunes and it will be there. i know it's probably too easy but was hoping someone could help me out???? thanks.

You can by dragging them from itunes to your external drive this will copy them to it. Then do the opposite for from you drive to the new computer. Just make sure if you don't intend to keep the drive connected to your new computer. That you put copies of the songs in a folder on it before putting them on itunes or you have problems playing your songs.

Duplicates in iTunes Music Folder but not in iTunes

If this has been addressed already, please forgive me, but in my User>Music>iTunes Music Folder each of over 6000 songs has a duplicate.
They don't show up as duplicates in iTunes or under Show Duplicates.
Is there anyway I can get rid of the 6000+ extra tunes other than clicking on each duplicate and dragging it to the trash?
tia,
Bob

Steve,
I started over by trashing everything in my User > iTunes file and relaunched iTunes.
Then I went to iTunes Menu > File > Add to Library where I re-imported all of my tunes into iTunes from by backup file on my external hard drive.
I then Consolidated the library (whatever that means); now, I'm back in business.
Here is a link that might help indirectly: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1329
hth, Bob
p.s. If you don't have your music backed up externally, you can get the tunes into iTunes directly from you iPod using this: http://www.fadingred.com/senuti/

Best practice for iTunes' music folder

i keep my music on an external drive, but want itunes to be able to play the songs.
currently, the itunes music folder is set to its default location. i changed the preference to prevent iTunes from copying music to this location. i added music to iTunes using File | 'Add folder to Library' menu.
my friend, who also has his music on an external drive, set his itunes music folder to the Music folder on his external drive.
what are the differences between these two approaches? what are the issues?
is there a best practice for using iTunes w/ music stored on an external drive?
thanks for your time.
craig

Thanks Paul for helping
I am getting the symbol and can locate the song but it is very time consuming and I can't do whole albums .
I tried dragging the entire music folder into iTunes . Is this it , iTunes Music Library.xml ? These are all the files and folders I found
iTunes 3 Music Library Data file
iTunes 4 Music Library Data File
iTunes 4 Music Library (Old) Data File
iTunes Music folder
iTunes Music Library.xml document
Temp File Document
I unchecked the "Copy files to iTunes Music folder "
before I dragged the xml. doc into the iTunes symbol in the dock .
This seems to have made matters worse . Now I can't find the file at all except through the finder .
Remember this is 10.3.9 with v4.7
Powerbook Mac OS X (10.4.6) Panther eMac

ITunes music folder keeps reverting back to default

If anyone can help, I'd appreciate it: I just moved my music library to a new hard drive, following the Apple instructions on "moving the iTunes music folder" (i.e. changing the iTunes music folder location on the advanced tab in preferences, setting it up to copy files, and then consolidating the library). The move worked, but for some reason, whenever I exit iTunes and come back in, the iTunes music folder reverts back to the default (C:\Documents and Settings\default\My Documents\My Music). It doesn't announce it or anything, but when I go to add new music, it sends it there instead of the new drive. What am I missing on the transfer?
Windows XP SP2

"booting up"= turned on.
I have noticed that you have posted on a thread that is 2 months old. This is really a bad idea as your issue can be easily overlooked. It's always much better to "start your own topic" by click on this link on the forum main page.

Time Machine now only works if I exclude iTunes Music folder

Time machine has worked very well for me in the past until recently. I get the "unable to complete backup" message every time TM tries to do a backup. I've tried erasing my backup drive (LaCie External 500GB) and starting over. That didn't work. I erased the disk again and started from scratch, but this time excluding the "iTunes Music" folder. The backup worked! I then removed the exclusion and I got the error again. For now, I excluded the folder again and all is well. There is more than enough room for my all this data on my external hard drive, but for some reason it just won't backup when I include "iTunes Music". In the meantime I'll be manually backing up my iTunes Music folder on an other drive.
Any help getting everything to backup to my LaCie drive would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Thanks for the tips guys.
I have verified the HD and got this:
+Verifying volume “Macintosh HD”+
+Performing live verification.+
+Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.+
+Checking Extents Overflow file.+
+Checking Catalog file.+
+Checking multi-linked files.+
+Checking Catalog hierarchy.+
+Checking Extended Attributes file.+
+Checking volume bitmap.+
+Checking volume information.+
+Invalid volume file count+
+(It should be 662127 instead of 662128)+
+Invalid volume directory count+
+(It should be 164759 instead of 164758)+
+The volume Macintosh HD needs to be repaired.+
+Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.+
Then I clicked 'repair permissions' and got this:
+Repairing permissions for “Macintosh HD”+
+ Reading permissions database.+
+ Reading the permissions database can take several minutes.+
+Warning: SUID file "System/Library/Filesystems/AppleShare/afpLoad" has been modified and will not be repaired.+
+Warning: SUID file "usr/bin/setregion" has been modified and will not be repaired.+
+Warning: SUID file "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Install.framework/Versions/A/Resources/runner " has been modified and will not be repaired.+
+Warning: SUID file "System/Library/Printers/IOMs/LPRIOM.plugin/Contents/MacOS/LPRIOMHelper" has been modified and will not be repaired.+
+Permissions repair complete+
I'm not sure if this will fix my problem or what those warnings mean. I'll try using TM again and will report later. Thanks again.

ITunes music folder help

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