ITunes Music saved twice in iTunes and iTunes Media folders

I am using an old MacBook Air for my iTunes, which has limited hard drive space. My husband also has his music on this computer under his own user name. We keep having problems with disk space now, and when doing a search with OmniDisk Sweeper it is showing that the iTunes music files are double the amount of music actually stored - it seems that the music is being stored both in the iTunes folder and iTunes Media floder.
Can one of these folders be removed, or can they be consolidated in some way, or is the only solution to put all our music on to an external hard drive?
I'm fairly new to using Macs, so please bear that in mind!
Many thanks in advance for your help.
Louise

Hello aldesi,
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
For more information, take a look at:
How to find and remove duplicate items in your iTunes library
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2905
Have a nice day,
Mario

Similar Messages

Keeping two iTunes Media Folders (and libraries) in sync

Hi all,
Here's my situation... I can't be the only person looking for an answer to this. (Can I?)
At home I have a Mac Mini with my music collection on it managed by iTunes. I have the same at work. I also have Chronosync set up to nightly syncronize my iTunes Media folders. Obviously, this is just step one.
What I'd ultimately like is to be able to change files or add media at either location (through iTunes) and not only have the files moved by Chronosync but also have the iTunes libraries updated. Is there a way to do this via AppleScript or some other solution? I looking to keep two iTunes Media folders mirrored and have iTunes' library be updated at the same time (or on a regular basis).
Thanks in advance!
A

It sounds like a question for whoever wrote Chronosync. I have never heard of it and have no idea what it is or what it does. Generally you ask questions related to third party software on the software's own support forum. What you need it to do is synchronize the whole iTunes folder, not just media files. The library.itl file contains most of the actual playlist and content data but things also get updated in the artwork folder, and some other files (mostly also in the iTunes folder).
What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660
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
Apple's solution is to have you buy all your music from Apple and use the automatically download new purchases set on both computers. Of course it isn't a complete solution. For example, if you change the rating on one computer it won't change it on the other since all you're doing is downloading a file from a third place (the store) to both other places (computers).

Consolidating iTunes Media folders - Making sure I have all my music

I have over years of use, ended up with multiple iTunes Media folders on different hard drives, each with much of the same music but also each with some different music. I want to consolidate all of this into one (and only one) Master iTunes Media Folder. I know I could manually go through each sub folder and compare the songs in each and eventually (perhaps once I reach age 100) get this all together. BUT there has to be an easier way. Please instruct me - I love to learn. Thanks

At a guess you followed the process in HT1364 - iTunes for Windows: Moving your iTunes Media folder which would have moved the media folder to a new path of your choice. This process leaves the library database files back in the original location of <User's Music>\iTunes. Often people assume that all they need is now on the external drive and wipe the internal drive, or discard their old computer, before backing up the all important iTunes folder. If you have a backup of your user's profile folder from before the upgrade the iTunes library folder should be in there somewhere. Restore it to <User's Music> and your original library should pop back into existence. The external drive would need to have the same drive letter that it had previously.
A more effective way to relocate the library is to move the entire iTunes folder to the external drive, then hold down shift when starting iTunes and keep holding until asked to choose or create a library. You would then choose the file iTunes Library.itl in the iTunes folder on the external drive. If this is the way you moved the library before then that is how you should now reconnect to it. Changing the media folder in preferences doesn't change which .itl database file is opened, nor does double-clicking on an .itl file directly.
If you no longer have the original .itl file then you will have to build a new library and import the media to it. If you need to do this I would recommend you create a new library at F:\iTunes, then move your existing media folders inside F:\iTunes\iTunes Media before importing. This will avoid the creation of duplicates and make sure the library is in the correct shape going forwards.
If you have an iPod or iOS device my scripts ImportDevicePlaylists and SyncStats may well let you recover ratings, play counts & playlists from the device.
When you've fixed up your libray you should consider getting a second external drive to backup to.
tt2

Music Playing Twice as Fast and a Crackling Noise

When I first play music on itunes, there weren't any problems at all. Once my CPU usage goes up (like when i play a game) the music plays twice as fast and theres a crackling every second (1 second music then 1 second crackling noise ). Once I lower my cpu usage, the music returns back to normal.
I didnt have this problem with the previous version of itunes though.
dell 8400 Windows 2000 Media Center Edition

I am having precisely the same problem and also did not experience this with the last version of iTunes. As opposed to Jagged_Link, however, I am always getting this problem. I have a very fast dual core computer Athlon 64 x2 4400 with 4 GBs of Ram so I don't think that a performace issue is the source of this problem, but I do have many other applications running at the same time (azureus, firefox, beyondTV). This was never an issue with the old version and I think that the problem might have to do with the gapless playback analytics (a problem with the process, perhaps). I will try eliminating all apps other than iTunes to see if there is a change.
By the way, a repair of iTunes, using the original installation file, did not change my situation. I only use MP3s (no AAC) and it be helpful if the other posters can provide this info as well, so that the problem can be identified better.
I hope we can find the problem and get it fixed!

How do I consolidate two separate iTunes Media folders?

Apparently I have to separate iTunes Media folders. There is the one in the default location ( folder named "iTunes Media" in ~/Music/iTunes/ where the tilde "~" represents your home directory.) and one on my external harddrive. They BOTH have updates in varying folders.
At one point I moved my folder to the external drive, and thought I kept everything consolidated. When looking at the Advanced Preferences window (iTunes/Preferences/Advanced) it has my Media Folder location in the correct place, the external drive.
BUT I apparently have still be downloading SOME podcasts, mobile apps, and a couple of other things into an iTunes media folder in it's original / default location.
I have no idea why the original folder is there or how long I've been adding files to this dual media nightmare.
I'm just trying to figure out the easiest way to combine the two files.
Can I drag and drop the contents of folders from the default media into the external media? Or do I have to worry abut iTunes knowing where to look for these files? Why do I still have some podcasts and apps downloading into the default folder and some downloading into the external one?
I REALLY dont want to start over and deal with rebuilding my iTunes Media, because I know I'll loose lots of data or end up with tons of duplicates (it happened once before when switching between harddrives).
Thanks for any insight.

Hello Q-too_cool
I would start with checking out the article that talked about dealing with multiple devices on one computer. That is going to be the best way to have two accounts on one computer.
How to use multiple iPhone, iPad, or iPod devices with one computer
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1495
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Regards,
-Norm G.

Changing (Not Re-Locating) ITunes Media Folders

I have two iTunes media folders on my computer system. The first is an outdated Media Folder on my C: drive. The second is an updated Media Folder on an external hard drive. For reasons that are not worth explaining, iTunes was inadvertently re-directed to the Media Folder on my C: drive. I have redirected iTunes to the correct location on my external hard drive using the Advanced Preferences menu. However, iTunes is asking me "Would you like iTunes to move and rename the files in your new folder to match the keep iTunes media folder organized preferences?"
If I click "Yes" will this cause the Media Folder on the external hard drive to match the outdated playlist data on the C: drive?
If I click "No" will this maintain any playlist data in the updated Media Folder on the external hard drive?
Is there an entirely different procedure I need to follow if I want to change ITune Media Folders from the C: drive to the external hard drive while maintaining any playlist data on the external hard drive?

As Ed says, that's the way it works. For any similar group decide which of the two forms you think is correct and then use it consistently in Artist, Album Artist, and Composer when relevant. While not the ultimate arbiter of fact Wikipedia suggests that Bee Gees is the correct form in this example.
See my article on Grouping tracks into albums for more.
tt2

Itunes media folders for musical groups that Start with "The"

I am using Itunes 10.7 and have selected the option of copying files to Itunes media folder when adding to library. When I add a musician group that sometimes starts with "The" and other times don't start with "the" (eg Bee Gees or The Bee Gees) these two names are correctly sorted on the Itunes list - "The Bee Gees" sorts next to "Bee Gees".
When I look at the folders in Itunes/Itunes Media/Music I get one folder for "Bee Gees" and a second folder for "The Bee Gees. I have just started loading music into Itunes and already have 47 sets of folders where the groups are in two different folders - musical group name starting with "the" and another that does not start with the word "the".
Suggestions?
Thanks

As Ed says, that's the way it works. For any similar group decide which of the two forms you think is correct and then use it consistently in Artist, Album Artist, and Composer when relevant. While not the ultimate arbiter of fact Wikipedia suggests that Bee Gees is the correct form in this example.
See my article on Grouping tracks into albums for more.
tt2

Restructuring iTunes media folders for Home Movies

I'm working with Final Cut Pro X and it should have the ability to "share" edited videos into Apple Devices (like iTunes and Apple TV), and as I understand it, the video files should be stored in Home>Music>iTunes>iTunes Media>Home Movies.
But that's not what happens on my system.
I've tried to add the folder myself, but it doesn't seem to be taking. So I'm wondering if this is more of an automatic structure that gets built on the fly.
I'm currently using iTunes 11.1.0.50. However, all my music and podcast is actually stored on an external drive. (I don't know if that has anything to do with my problem)
Does anybody have insight into how iTunes file structure is built, and how/if I can make this work for me?

I figured it out (with the help of Apple Support)...
In the iTunes preferences, under the Advanced tab, I needed to check the box to "Copy files to iTunes Media Folder when adding to library."
Sure enough, doing so creates the folder that the video file can be stored in.
I had unchecked it so that I wouldn't bog down my laptop's hard drive with all my music. So each time I share my videos, I'll have to first go in to iTunes and check that box.

Having more than one iTunes media folders

Hi all,
I keep my music in my iMac locally (stardard directory /Users/xxx/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media). Now I'm using iTunes also for video and its size is so big that my HD is almost full.
I have a network drive (WD) so I'd like to keep my .m4v in a remote directory in parallel to the rest of my local files (music, etc). I've tryind to create a softlink pointing to the mountpoint in which I mount the remote folder but iTunes doens't recognice the content.
Can anybody tell me how to have more than one folder at the same time for my videos?
Thanks and regards...

Hi all,
I keep my music in my iMac locally (stardard directory /Users/xxx/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media). Now I'm using iTunes also for video and its size is so big that my HD is almost full.
I have a network drive (WD) so I'd like to keep my .m4v in a remote directory in parallel to the rest of my local files (music, etc). I've tryind to create a softlink pointing to the mountpoint in which I mount the remote folder but iTunes doens't recognice the content.
Can anybody tell me how to have more than one folder at the same time for my videos?
Thanks and regards...

How can I combine two iTunes media folders without losing media?

I have two media folders. One on an external drive that I used on an old PC before migrating to a new one, and my internal HDD on the new PC. My internal drive became nearly full so I had to start using my external drive and iTunes media folder again. So, right now iTunes looks to my internal drive for most of the media and my external drive for some of it. Now, I need to move all the media files back to the external drive and, hopefully, in one place. The primary challenge is that I don't know how to move the media files (and metadata) efficiently. I just don't know which folders have been affected and so a standard copy -> paste won't work because the PC will try to overwrite the folders and I have no idea which ones can be overwritten and which can't. Ugh...does this make sense? Thank you!!!

Hi there theskyisblue,
You can indeed switch between two different iTunes libraries, and this article outlines how:
iTunes: How to open an alternate iTunes Library file or create a new one
If iTunes is running, quit iTunes.
If you're using Windows, hold down the Shift key and from the Start menu, choose All Programs > iTunes > iTunes.
If you're using a Mac, open iTunes and immediately hold down the Option key.
You should see one of these screens:
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
All the best,
Sterling

Wind Vista SP2. iTunes 10.6.3.25. I'm trying to Consildate my Music Library on this PC, and get the error: "Copying files failed, because you don't have permission to change your iTunes Media folder or a folder within it." My admin user has Full Control

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

I did what you suggested on all three folders: The main Music folder on the Mac hard disk, on the iTunes folder on the external 160GB Hard drive which contains the current media content and on the new 2TB hard disk on which I created a new media folder. I selected permission for myself which were already read+write and chose the apply to enclosed items on all three folders. I then changed the permission for others to read+write and applied to enclose items also an all three folders.
But it didn't solve anything.
Here's what happens: I choose the new directory in iTunes preferences (the media folder on the 2TB disk) I then go to File > Library > Organize Library and then choose Consolidate files. A window pops up and says copying "filename" with a progression bar underneath but the filename never changes. Instead the beachball appears when the mouse pointer hoovers over iTunes. Upon pressing the iTunes icon in the Dock it says that iTunes is not responding. At this point there's 2 different ways:
A - If I then force quit iTunes the iTunes window disappears but the application does not close. When I want to eject the 2TB disk it says it's being used by another application. Only when I cut the power to the 2TB disk does iTunes fully close. A window then pops up and says that the drive was not put away properly etc.
B - if I cut the power to the drive without force quitting iTunes, a window appears with the said: "Copying failed because you don't have permissions to change iTunes media folders etc." iTunes remains open and fully functional.

HT1391 Do I need to keep both the Itunes Media and Itunes Music folder in order for Itunes to work? It has eaten my hard drive up.

I have Itunes Music and Itunes Media folders that have almost the same gigs in them, the media is larger. Do I need both of these? I am left with 12 gigs of 500 gig hard drive and it is because of all the music I have. Can I get rid of one of these? And, if so how? I do not want to screw up my Itunes because I love it. Thanks!

Hello there, achangeagent.
The following Knowledge Base article provides great recommendations for the situation you find yourself in:
iTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media folder
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449
Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Pedro.

How do i merge itunes media and libraries?

i've google searched this quite a bit, but seem to come up with various answers. I have several iTunes Media folders floating around and would like to consolidate everything into one place, and get rid of duplicates as well. What to do?

Why are you posting a second thread with the same question. This one isn't any clearer than your first post.
What do you mean "merge itunes libraries from two separate accounts"? You have an iPod listed. Are you talking about getting music from two separate iTunes libraries on two separate computers? Are you talking about getting iTunes purchased music on a single iPod from two separate Apple/iTunes IDs?
What is it that you are wanting to do? If you do not take the time to explain what it is you are wanting to accomplish, then you are not going to get the information you need to do it. We are not mind readers.
Cheers,
GB

How do you retrieve iTunes media from many locations to one file

I have all Mac devices.
The particular item I have a question about is my itunes media file.
Since I have a very large collection, I was advised by apple support to move my Itunes Media folder to the 1.5T wireless WD hard drive I have.
All was going well, until either itunes update occurred or my Macbook Pro OSx had updated that is when I started to notice I have many, many itunes media folders and I want and need to know how to stop this default from occuring and the hardest part is to accumulate all my media that is in itunes media files many on my MacBook Pro in subfolders and on my WD wireless Hard drive that essentially has done the same.
It has produced most cases many, many copies of each of media, and due to the many places that the media got switched to, some items need to be located to play. Especially Movies. None of the data is on cell phone, ipad or icloud. It is mainly conflicts somewhere from files on my Macbook Pro and what is on my WD wireless hard drive. (I only save media on this hard drive)
I have attempted to organize itunes, but it seems to perpetuate the problem.
Is there anyone who knows the best way to find and consolidate media for itunes and place it in one folder. Is there some App out there that deals ONLY with itunes media consolidating?
Thanks,
Tina C.

What do you mean "retrieve"?
If you mean previously purchased music, then you cannot, unless you are in the U.S. Then you can use the recently released icloud ( beta version).
Tap itunes, then tap purchasd

I can't copy iTunes media files from one external hard drive to another.

Hi, I am running the latest iTunes and Mavericks software on my MacBook Pro. My iTunes library is stored on an external Seagate 2tb hard drive and it is almost full. I want to transfer the files to a WD Elements 3tb external hard drive and have made that new volume the destination folder for my iTunes library. However, even though I have enabled read/write on both volumes and made the iTunes media folders on both shared folders, I can't copy all the files from the Seagate drive to the WD drive. It comes up with an error message that says "The operation can't be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -8058)". I can transfer files from my MacBook hard drive to the new volume, but can't copy files from the old Seagate volume to my MacBook hard drive; it makes the "boing" sound that indicates it is copying but nothing transfers. Files that won't copy include all music files, some video files and all podcast files. Some transferred with no problem. Any ideas out there?

Hi Limnos, thanks very much for your reply.
both external drives came preformatted for Windows but I erased each and reformatted them for Mac before using them.
i made the destination folder on the new WD drive the new iTunes folder using Advanced preferences in iTunes.
my original iTunes folder on the first drive contained all my iTunes files, as that, also, was the destination folder that was linked via Advanced preferences.
If I download new content now with the new drive attached, iTunes has no trouble finding where to place the files.
in Preferences I have both boxes checked (copy files" and "organize") that deal with copying iTunes files.
When I first attempted to copy all iTunes files from one media folder to the other on the external drives, I just did a drag and drop of the whole iTunes media folder from one to the other while both were mounted on my desktop. It started copying immediately with no problems, but as it progressed it started skipping files, each time displaying the error message I reported earlier. that included my entire Music folder. When I open, for example, a season folder that contains files that would not copy, eg, Modern Family Season 5, the episodes that won't copy are there and visible but any attempt to drag and drop them into the correct folder on the new drive results in the error message. There is no pattern to it; it will choose some episodes from some seasons but not others, and no music at all.
when I look at the "missing" files in iTunes they have the small exclamation mark that indicates the file is missing, but when I locate it through iTunes it doesn't copy the file on the old external drive to the new one. It just plays it having found the file on the old drive.
originally I had to make the iTunes folder on the old drive into a shared folder using the Get info window after either a software upgrade or an OS upgrade (I can't remember which, it was several years ago). For some reason the upgrade changed the preferences of that folder to a Read Only folder and after researching the problem found the only way to keep using the drive was to make the folder a shared one. I can't remember why and I apologise for that but it was a long time ago.; I can tell you that at the time it was necessary.
thanks again for your time; I have a good working knowledge of iTunes and Macs in general so I truly believe I have done everything according to how it should be done,, but clearly I've done something wrong!

ITunes Music saved twice in iTunes and iTunes Media folders

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for