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!!

Similar Messages

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

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...

HT1660 My "itunes library" folder is empty. My libray music (prior to upgrading itunes) is now in an .xml file in my itunes location under my music. How do I extract/convert this .xml file to a Itunes database and restore my Itunes music library??? Than

My "itunes library" folder is empty. My libray music (prior to upgrading itunes) is now in an .xml file in my itunes location under my music. How do I extract/convert this .xml file to a Itunes database and restore my Itunes music library??? Thanks, Tom

Empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash
Hopefully it's not been too long since you last upgraded iTunes, in fact if you get an empty/incomplete library immediately after upgrading then with the following steps you shouldn't lose a thing or need to do any further housekeeping. In the Previous iTunes Libraries folder should be a number of dated iTunes Library files. Take the most recent of these and copy it into the iTunes folder. Rename iTunes Library.itl as iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl and then rename the restored file as iTunes Library.itl. Start iTunes. Should all be good, bar any recent additions to or deletions from your library.
See iTunes Folder Watch for a tool to catch up with any changes since the backup file was created.
When you get it all working make a backup!
tt2

My iTunes Music Library.xml includes 2 location paths for files

A while ago, I copied and consolidated my itunes-songs from internal drive c: to internal drive f:
I changed the location of my "itunes library" accordingly to look at f:... - all went well and all songs were playing from the new location (I thought).
However, after a while I decided to delete the OLD physical location of the mp3-files on c: and now about 2.000 songs in my iTunes are missing and have the well know "!" mark in front of them.
Now, in the itunes music library, there are 2 different locations for my songs listed - although there is only 1 location given in the settings.
Most songs are - where they should be - at localhost/f:/....
But the missing songs still are listed at localhost/c:....
Apart from the fact that I am still searching for the songs (have emptied the trash since) - how in the world can the itunes library still contain 2 different paths?
Any ideas?

One point where this seems to occur consistently is if you reboot or turn off Windows while iTunes is running, and have a largeish music collection.
Explanation: Programmatically, iTunes main window apparently responds OK (=TRUE) to the Windows WM_QUERYENDSESSION message and at the same time starts to write the *.ITL and *.XML files to the hard disk. Meanwhile, Windows continues to end the session because - after all - it was OK'ed by iTunes. Now, if the iTunes music library is "large enough", Windows will finish ending the session before iTunes has finished writing said files, and the next time you run iTunes they'll turn up corrupt. This is a huge caveat during iTunes reinstallation, because most of the time a reboot is needed whilst iTunes will necessarily be running at the same time (consequently, if you have a largeish music library, always back up the *.XML and *.ITL files before reinstalling or updating iTunes!!!!)
This is nearly an elementary bug, and a sad indication of the level of testing done by the Apple to products before they're released.
Workarounds: I myself just frequently backup the *.ITL and *:XML files to a different directory, and restore if file corruption occurs. Another workaround is to have another program (say, Notepad.exe) with an edited but unsaved file currently open. When Windows session ends, you will have one extra chance to delay the session end, so that either you remember to close iTunes first, or if iTunes was closed first, it'll have enough time to complete writing the library metadata back to disk.
Asian and European phone giants have nothing to afraid about iPhone, if iTunes and iPod classic are any indication of its quality.

How can i change the iTunes music library file location

Hi, I have installed the latest version of iTunes6.0.4, by default my music library files are storing in "c:\documents and ettings\administrator\myDocuments\myMusic\iTunes\iTunes Music". It's nothing but my H:\ drive and it will be shared by a group of pepole. I would like to move this location to "C:\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music".
I tried by changing the location in the below specified way.
iTunes preferences --> Advanced --> iTunes Music Folder Location --> Change.
But still it's iTunes is storing the music libraries in"c:\documentsandettings\administrator\myDocuments\myMusic\iTunes\iTunes Music".
Could you please let me know how can change this location permanantly from ""c:\documents and ettings\administrator\myDocuments\myMusic\iTunes\iTunes Music" to "C:\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music".
Thanks,
Chetan.

The music library files are hard-wired to the My Documents folder. The only way to move the files is to move the My Documents folder, which affects the entire system.
Related links:
What are the iTunes Library files?
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx - TweakUI, used for moving My Documents, etc.

The iTunes music library.itl file cannot be found or created?

itunes 7 worked all day for me yesterday, but I have had this problem since last night where when I try to start it I get this message: "the iTunes music library.itl file cannot be found or created. the default location for this file is in the "itunes" folder in the "my music" folder. PLEASE HELP!

there should also be a "Previous iTunes Libraries" in the itunes folder besides itunes music.
if not, good luck making a new playlist

How to move iTunes Music Library from an external HD to another?

Yesterday I tried to move all my music from an external HD to a new bigger one.
Well, I encountered various problems, the most important one is that the “iTunes Music Library” file messed up.
I transferred all files and both “iTunes Music Library.xml” and the “iTunes Library” file in the new HD. I have to say that I didn't know so much about those two files and I thought that it was enough to move them in the new location; I discovered that those files included the information about where the music is located (among other infos), so it still redirects to the older HD.
However, now I’m trying to recreate the previous situation on the older HD, and I’m trying to “rebuild” the iTunes Library (I have a back-up of the xml file, even if it is not the running one).
This operation is very important for me because about two years ago I used (for a long time )an earlier version of iTunes that had a bug: even if wrote all the tag infos on an a mp3, the “artist name” and “album name” tags didn’t remained. But I still can see all the informations through the iTunes browser (thanks to the iTunes Music Library DB). So, I cannot recreate it from zero. I absolutely need to export the existing “iTunes Music Library” to the new HD, or at least to use the existing “iTunes Music Library”, leaving it where it already is and moving only the “iTunes Music folder” (even if I don’t want to use two external HDs, the older one holding the existing “iTunes Music Library” e “iTunes Library” files and the newer one holding the “itunes Music” folder I moved!).
As far as you know how can I move safely “iTunes Music Library” e “iTunes Library” files on the new HD applying them to the new “iTunes Music” folder??
I really need your help!
This article http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307074 didn’t help.
Stefano

Sorry, I wasn't responding to you, just the original poster. I didn't look at the date on that posting and didn't realize that you'd added a post that wasn't quite the same problem. In future, you'll find you get better answers if you start your own thread. You're issue really is a bit more complicated.
If iTunes currently recognizes all the music on both internal and the external drives, it should work. You have to make sure that both drives (old and new) are mounted. Make sure you have both "Keep iTunes music organized" (you probably already do) and "Copy files to iTunes..." (you probably don't) checked.
If not all of the music is currently in your iTunes library, perform the procedure with the music that is a part of the library and add the other stuff afterwards.
Best of luck.

Can I manually edit the iTunes Music Library.xml file

Here's why.
Noticed on my Apple TV that there were a number of podcasts that when selected would say "Apple TV cannot play the current song".
Looked in iTunes and these podcasts are no where to be found. Did some searches in Spotlight and also, turned up zeros. Not found.
I then looked directly into my iTunes Music Library.xml file and sure enough there are the records.
What is odd is that the location of all the bad songs have a similar invalid path.
Bad path.
<key>Location</key><string>file://localhost/Volumes/iTunes/iTunes/iTunes%20Music/Podcasts/KQED/podcast.mp3</string>
Correct Path
<key>Location</key><string>file://localhost/Volumes/iTunes/Music/Podcasts/KQED'/podcast.mp3</string>
Now, all of these have dates that lead me to believe this was due to an iTunes upgrade back in September of 2005. It doesn't look like they are causing problems with iTunes itself. However, it is quite annoying for my Apple TV.
Question. Is there a different way to fix this than just manually removing the entries from the xml file?
I haven't tried to edit the iTunes Music Library.xml file just yet as I want to make I don't totally screw things up first.

I did some additional testing here and I deleted the track information from the iTunes Music Library.xml
On start up of iTunes, it does not add the deleted file back in. On the Apple TV, it still shows the bad file.
What I think that means is that even the Apple TV gets its playlist information from another source.
I have also started on another track which is to remove all of my podcasts from iTunes. Which I have now done.
The only ones left are these bad tracks that only show up in the iTunes Music Library.xml file and more importantly on my Apple TV.
I'd put this on the podcast or the Apple TV thread, but still believe this is an iTunes issue.

How do my move my itunes music library to a different computer?

my itunes music library is housed in an external drive, and i want to move it to a new computer. what is the least painful way to do this? any help will be greatly appreciated.
ps: i can no longer access the computer where my orignal itunes was installed.
Message was edited by: highonpod

zebedy1 wrote:
want to transfer the whole thing to an external hard drive so i don't have it on my laptop memory anymore and free up laptop memory for other things. How do i do this?
Assuming you use the iTunes default settings where iTunes copied added items to your iTunes folder and organizes your library (meaning - everything is all self contained in the iTunes folder), then all you have to do is drag & drop your iTunes folder (not just the iTunes Music folder you find inside the iTunes folder) to the external drive and copy the entire thing.
If you want to test that it worked or would like to actually start using it from that location instead, use these instructions when you start iTunes to point it to the new location...
How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304447
If you are just testing, then close iTunes after you verify it works, and restart iTunes again with the same instructions and point it back to your internal drive (original) location.
Additional info...
Back up your iTunes library by copying to an external hard drive
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=307074
Cheers,
Patrick

Itunes looses library location on external drive

I transferred my iTunes music library to an external hard drive (Toshiba 1T) and had set the media folder location in Preferences to the new location on the external drive. Yet, occationally the external drive "shuts down" even though the computer goes to sleep and iTunes cannot find the music library.

ssn wrote:
I transferred my iTunes music library to an external hard drive (Toshiba 1T) and had set the media folder location in Preferences to the new location on the external drive.
When you move the library, you don't set the location to the new location, It is already set there.
Yet, occationally the external drive "shuts down" even though the computer goes to sleep and iTunes cannot find the music library.
Exrternal (and internal) drives usually shut down when the computer goes to sleep.
Make sure the drive is ready before launching iTunes.

Can I add the iTunes Music Library (old) to iTunes Music Library?

Hi, I'm asking this question on behalf of a friend and I don't want to give her incorrect advice ... She has an Intel G5 iMac running 10.5.8 and iTunes 9.0 (she has downloaded but not installed the iTUnes 9.1 update).
Her problem is that she has deleted certain songs from her 'Jane Doe's iPod Playlist' so that she didn't have those songs on her iPod - I don't know the method she used to do this, nor does she. However, it has resulted in those songs now not showing up in the iTunes music library on her computer. There's just an exclamation mark and a dialog box asking if she would like to locate the songs.
She asked me to help her out and I discovered that all these songs (there are dozens- more than a hundred - of them) are still on her computer in a folder called 'iTunes Music old' - this is a sub-folder of the iTUnes Music folder where the path is Music - iTunes - iTunes Music.
My question is this -
Is it possible to select all the albums in this 'iTUnes Music old' folder and simply drag and drop it onto the iTunes Music folder (after making sure that the location I'm dragging and dropping to corresponds to the location for her library as specified on the advanced tab of preferences) so that the songs will be back in the default library?
It seems to me that it should work but I don't want to be responsible for the person who loses all her music for her if it doesn't.
I would really appreciate someone who knows their way around iTUnes telling me the best way to sort her music and whether or not she should install the 9.1 update before or after reorganising the library.
Cheers
Tricia

Her problem is that she has deleted certain songs from her 'Jane Doe's iPod Playlist' so that she didn't have those songs on her iPod - I don't know the method she used to do this, nor does she. However, it has resulted in those songs now not showing up in the iTunes music library on her computer. There's just an exclamation mark and a dialog box asking if she would like to locate the songs.
If you're seeing the , that's generally an indication that media files (the mp3 or m4a, etc., files) were moved using Finder. They were moved or removed and the iTunes library wasn't able to keep track of where they went. If this is an old machine that she's messed around with, it can be a bit of a crap shoot trying to figure out where the stuff should go (iTunes is quite unhelpful in telling you where the music for the broken links was expected to be ... you can take some guesses, but iTunes 9 and iTunes 8 use different folder structures, so getting the stuff in the right place can be a nuisance).
Is it possible to select all the albums in this 'iTUnes Music old' folder and simply drag and drop it onto the iTunes Music folder (after making sure that the location I'm dragging and dropping to corresponds to the location for her library as specified on the advanced tab of preferences) so that the songs will be back in the default library?
Surprisingly complicated question. If you were confident of where the music files should go, you could try moving them (safer, copy them) to your current iTunes media folder and if you drop them in the exact same spot they were before, your broken links problem will be solved. It's a long shot, though.
There are apps out there for rebuilding libraries, but if you don't have extensive playlists that would take forever to rebuild (or you don't have lots of ratings or things like that which you are trying to preserve), I'd personally be inclined to rebuild her library from scratch by:
Create a new library by pressing and holding down the option button while you start iTunes, keep holding the button down until it prompts you to create a new library.
Go into the "Advanced" section of the "Preferences" screen and tell iTunes to (a) keep your folder organized and (b) to copy music to the new media folder.
Use the "Add Folder to Library" command on the "File" menu to add the music to your iTunes Library. This will copy the music to the new folder you specified in the previous step. Repeat this for her old iTunes folders (sounds like she might have it in different areas). Nice thing is, you can select some common parent folder (e.g. your parent "music" folder) and you'll only have to do this once.
Once iTunes is done copying music to the new media folder and has rebuilt the new library, you can clean up the old music media files that it sounds like are scattered about on her machine.
Again, I personally lean towards just rebuilding the iTunes library, allowing iTunes to organize the files like it wants, and then rebuild your playlists. But, if you'd rather try to repair her old library in situ, then you'll want to check out some of the apps designed for repairing broken links in libraries. Let us know if you want to do that and we can point you to some apps that might be able to help.
It seems to me that it should work but I don't want to be responsible for the person who loses all her music for her if it doesn't.
It's kind of hard to lose the music unless you do something nuts like drag stuff to the trash without making sure you've got a copy/backup somewhere. In fact, go ahead and have her back up her machine before you start. And when you're all done, and you've confirmed that everything is great, do another backup.
I would really appreciate someone who knows their way around iTUnes telling me the best way to sort her music and whether or not she should install the 9.1 update before or after reorganising the library.
Unless her version of iTunes is archaic (v7 or earlier), I'd suggest fixing her library first, and then doing the upgrade. Let's not add variables to the situation. Also, I don't know what the iTunes upgrade process would do with the broken links in her existing library.
Frankly, there are enough bugs/problems with 9.1, you might want to wait until 9.1.1 comes out anyway. I personally regret doing the 9.1 upgrade. It works, but I'm working around various bugs. And some people are having very serious problems. If you absolutely need 9.1 (e.g., iPad), you can do it and you'll probably be fine. But unless you need 9.1 for some reason, I'd wait for 9.1.1 release.

How do I transfer my iTunes music library to a flash drive

How do I transfer my iTunes music library to a flash drive

Drag and Drop the iTunes Folder to the Flash drive.
Locate and organize your iTunes files - Apple Support
Since this really has nothing to do with Appleworks (a long dead Officie suite of Apps), I'll request it be moved to the iTunes forum.

Japanese text is gibberish in iTunes Music library

Hello,
Problem is: Songs w/Japanese text (Kanji, Kana) as artists and/or title names look like gibberish in my iTunes Music library (viewing songs on the hard drive).
On a new WinXP PC I loaded iPod+iTunes from CD on computer. Songs play fine in iTunes. Japanese text looks fine in Windows\My Music folder. Japanese text looks fine in iPod device. With iPod connected to PC, I can view my iPod songs inside the iTunes window and the Japanese songs text Kanji looks great. (Yet if I look at same songs located on the PC using the iTunes program, they look bad).
I removed iTunes from PC, then downloaded it from the Japan Apple.com site; no change in problem. Help!
Window's settings are:
--WinXP is US English, Control Panel region is US English, Window's Far East language support is enabled. but language for non-Unicode programs is Japanese (other Japanese software looks fine), Japanese IME is enabled
-- Internet Explorer's Language Preferences is set for Japanese 1st, English 2nd.
Thanks in advance!
Erin W

I tried the "convert ID3 tags >> Reverse Unicode" option on a few songs. It only caused the gibberish song names and titles to change to different gibberish.
The odd thing is that I have some songs that had english in some ID3 tags (such as "name") and Japanese in other ID3 tags (such as "artist") and for those, the Japanese text looks great. And yet some song text doesn't.
I tried deleting a few songs from the iTunes Music library, then click-and-drag the songs from Windows' My Music folder into the iTunes program. It adds it back with the Japanese text still unreadable, same as before.
I don't know what else to do. I've searched the discussions database here and found instances of the same problem but no fixes.
Thanks for the help though, and I'd be glad to see any other ideas.
Erin

The iTunes Music Library file cannot be saved

Ok, so without making any modifications (hardware or software) whatsoever- I come in from work, plop down to my computer, click on iTunes, and the music library has disappeared- I get the following error message:
The iTunes Music Library file cannot be saved.
The disk could not be read from or written to.
So, in iTunes there is no songs and no playlists and no podcasts...
...the music is on my hard drive, it's just not in iTunes, the iTunes Library file has gone missing, but I'm not sure how...
I have like 5,000 songs so I keep them on an external drive to save room on my internal drive. I thought maybe the warning means that the disk is write protected, so I right clicked on the drive (and iTunes folder), said "Get Info," and I have read and write access.
I tried changing my iTunes Library location to a different hard drive and folder, and nothing works, what in the world do I do?
Powerbook G4, 1.25 GHz, 2GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.5) 500 GB LaCie Big Disk

Ok, so without making any modifications (hardware or
software) whatsoever- I come in from work, plop down
to my computer, click on iTunes, and the music
library has disappeared- I get the following error
message:
The iTunes Music Library file cannot be saved.
The disk could not be read from or written to.
So, in iTunes there is no songs and no playlists and
no podcasts...
...the music is on my hard drive, it's just not in
iTunes, the iTunes Library file has gone missing, but
I'm not sure how...
I have like 5,000 songs so I keep them on an external
drive to save room on my internal drive. I thought
maybe the warning means that the disk is write
protected, so I right clicked on the drive (and
iTunes folder), said "Get Info," and I have read and
write access.
I tried changing my iTunes Library location to a
different hard drive and folder, and nothing works,
what in the world do I do?
Powerbook G4, 1.25 GHz, 2GB RAM
Mac OS X (10.4.5) 500 GB LaCie Big
Disk
I'm having the exact same message, except in my case, nothing changed. I leave all 3,000 songs on my hard drive and suddenly nothing will copy. I still have the same songs as before, but nothing can be added from the store or from my cds. Have you worked out the problem? Can you share your strategy?
Thanks.
Joe

Itunes Music Library Location

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