ITunes resetting library location

I have yet to figure this one out, but I'm dealing with an extremely large iTunes library (+120GB), which is stored on a NAS drive, which is making this problem an absolute nightmare,
I have manually set the iTunes library location in preferences to be to a location on my NAS drive. I keep my library consolidated in that location. All good so far -- the problem is that iTunes randomly resets my library location to the default -- not the one I had set in preferences. My suspicion is that this happens if iTunes is forced to quit, but I'm not sure. I have discovered this because on a couple of occasions when syncing my iPod, iTunes has told me that it cannot find music files to sync to the ipod, but I can play them just fine (that is a whole other apparent iTunes bug -- it seems that iPod syncing is looking for songs in the iTunes library location, while actual song playing looks for the songs where the song config in the library file is set, which in this case, is different).
So I checked the library location in preferences, and reset it to where it is supposed to be. Now iTunes updates the entire library for every song, which takes a little while, with 7500+ songs. But here's the nightmare: it now consolidates the library to "keep songs organized", and despite the fact that all my songs are already sitting in the exact location they are supposed to, iTunes tries the copy anyway, duplicating every song file in their respective directories, adding a " 1" to the file name. So my library size is doubled, I have 7500 extra songs in my library, and a big mess that is prohibitive to even attempt to clean up manually.
I have had this happen three times now, and with the data sizes in play, it takes an entire day runtime to fix this.
Any answers to this, why it happens or how to prevent it?
Brad

HangTime,
HangTime wrote:
perhaps i'm overlooking a fine point that is important to you, but when i've accidentally added music to my local drive I just moved the files to my external, and then dropped them into iTunes.
does this cause a problem for you of which i'm unaware, perhaps, in my usage?
Thanks for the reply. You are overlooking a few things. First, now I've confirmed, that when this happens, the library location has been automatically changed by iTunes from the external drive location to the default local location. Second, when these files are "accidentally added", they are presently in the library.
So in your scenario that you mention, you have two things you have to be concerned with. The first is to go into preferences and reset your library location to the external drive from the default location iTunes has changed it to. If you do this, and your preferences are set to keep your library organized and copy files imported into your library, once the library location has been changed, it will update your entire library with the new location, after which you will receive a dialog to copy the files into the new library location. If you select OK, then the entire library is going to get copied into the exact same location where it already resides, duplicating every file except for those copied local, which of course have only a single copy in that library location.
The second thing you have to be concerned with is that you cannot just move the files from where they are at -- your current iTunes library is currently pointing at those, and so you have to remove them from your iTunes library first, or else the links will be broken.
Does that help to clarify?
Btw, I'll add that it has all happened yet again since this thread started, because my network connection between by NAS drive and my Mac was interrupted, once again setting my iTunes location back to the default -- this is a major pain, and more so, really renders my iTunes library unusable because of its size. It appears that every time communication is interrupted between my external drive and my Mac, either because the external drive isn't mounted/ready or because of network communication, it resets my iTunes library location, causing the problem all over again.
There has got to be a solution to this.
Brad

Similar Messages

How To: Change iTunes media library location/folder

*PLEASE READ THIS ENTIRE POST BEFORE ATTEMPTING THIS PROCESS. IT’S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE, BUT IT IS FAIRLY INVOLVED AND ENTAILS SOME RISK. THERE ARE SOME WARNINGS AT THE END.*
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REQUIREMENT
Move iTunes media (music, videos, podcasts) to another folder and update the iTunes library to reference all the media from that new folder.
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Example cases: Move iTunes media from C:\ drive to D:\ drive; Change iTunes folder name from Music to Media.
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Note:
Special action is only necessary if the +Keep iTunes Media folder organized+ option is not selected. If this option is selected, iTunes will move media to the new location when the +iTunes Media folder location+ is changed. More info can be found here: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449
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PROBLEM
When the location of iTunes media files changes (files are moved, folder name/drive letter changes), iTunes cannot automatically locate these files. iTunes entries can be updated to point to the new location one at a time or by deleting all entries and re-adding all files. Updating one at a time is time consuming, and deleting and re-adding causes a large amount of metadata (play count, date added, rating, etc) to be lost.
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SOLUTION
The iTunes library can be exported to an XML file, modified, and re-imported.
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Process:
- *Backup the iTunes library data:* Make sure iTunes is closed, and then backup the folder containing all the iTunes library data. This can normally be found in +<user-folder>\My Music\iTunes+ for Windows, or in /Users/<username>/Music/iTunes for Mac. The +iTunes Media+ and +Mobile Applications+ folders can be excluded from the backup since they will not be affected by this process. If this process does not work for some reason and you need to restore the previous state of your iTunes library, you’ll need to use this backup as the source for restoring.
- *Move iTunes media files to new location:* This may be changing which drive is used to store iTunes media files, renaming a folder, or whatever. This can be done for the whole library or for only part of it.
- *Export the iTunes library:* In iTunes, select File -> Library -> Export Library... and save the file somewhere for editing (Desktop is a good location).
- *Open Library.xml in a decent text editor:* Notepad is not recommended, since Library.xml can be very large. Some free options include PSPad, Notepad++, Smultron, and Text Wrangler.
- *Update Library.xml:* Locate the files that have changed location and update their path accordingly. The XML file has the metadata for each file labeled with XML tags. The file location is denoted by <key>Location</key>. If the whole library is being moved, a find/replace on the whole file is recommended. Once a file is located in Library.xml that needs to be updated, copy the part of the string that has changed starting with <key>Location</key>. Use that as the find parameter, and enter the replace parameter in the same format. Include as much of the string as possible to prevent unintentional replaces. Save and close the file when done.
- - - Example: Find: <key>Location</key><string>file://localhost/C:/Data/iTunes/
Replace: <key>Location</key><string>file://localhost/D:/Data/iTunes/
- - - Note 1: This step may require adjustment to match your situation. You may want to count how many files need to be updated and make sure that the find/replace only changes that many or edit them by hand if the location of all files have not been changed. It shouldn’t be difficult, but it may require some thought.
- - - Note 2: Music, TV Shows, Movies, and Podcasts are stored in this file, so make sure to account for all media types. If the location of all types didn’t change, the find/replace strings will need to take that into account.
- *Remove all modified media entries from iTunes:* For any of the files that are being moved, the associated metadata must be removed from iTunes to avoid having duplicates in iTunes. This can be done by selecting all entries in iTunes that will be modified, right-clicking the entries, and choosing “Delete”. After confirming that you want to remove the selected item from your iTunes library, make sure to choose to keep the file in the iTunes Media folder if prompted.
- *Import Library.xml:* Import the modified Library.xml by selecting File -> Library -> Import Playlist... and selecting the modified Library.xml in the file open dialog that appears. Depending on the size of the iTunes Library, this could take a while (10 minutes or more).
- *Test results:* Locate a file in iTunes that has been moved, right-click on the file, and choose “Get Info”. The “Location:” field should indicate the new location of the file. Close the Info dialog and try to play the file. If the file plays, the process was successful.
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_*DISCLAIMERS/ADDITIONAL NOTES*_
- I tried this out a couple of times, and it worked fine for me. I can’t guarantee it will work for everyone, but I thought I’d share since I couldn’t find instructions for this situation anywhere else.
- If the process fails, you SHOULD be able move the iTunes media files back to their old location and restore the backed up iTunes library data to the iTunes folder to restore your previous configuration.
- I wouldn’t recommend attempting this if you don’t feel comfortable with backing up your iTunes library data and editing the XML file.
- I don’t know if this process will preserve whether videos and podcasts have been played or if it will preserve the play position where items were last paused.
- If you are moving all of your iTunes media files, you’ll want to update the “iTunes Media folder location” under the “Advanced” tab in preferences. This appears to be the folder that iTunes will use for some of its basic operations, such as storing synced audio notes, Podcasts, and the “Automatically Add to iTunes” folder.
- This process duplicates playlists, probably because you are importing your entire library again. I just deleted the duplicates when I was done.

If all the media is on one drive and you're not letting iTunes manage it then you can achieve the "portable" status simply by moving the library files high enough up the tree, i.e. the root of the drive if necessary, letting iTunes know where the nominal iTunes media folder is and then moving the library to the new drive keeping the relative paths from the library files to each distinct set of media folders unchanged. Personally I don't like iTunes cutting my file & folder names short, but the advantages of a portable library mean that I'm quite happy to organise my media inside the iTunes Media folder, albeit largly on my own terms. Indeed all my non-iTunes multimedia is now also organised in the same folders. The only media files iTunes organises, temporarlily, are rips & downloads apart from active Podcasts whose folder names I leave unchanged. Everything else gets sorted just the way I want it - full length filenames, different character replacements, folder art etc. I used to do it by hand, deleting, tweaking & reimporting, but these days I use a custom script which does it all automatically - renaming files just as I want and reconnecting iTunes to the newly moved file so that no iTunes-only metadata is lost.
There are similar XML-editing how-tos elsewhere on the web, I just wanted to make the point that there may still sometimes be a way to achieve the desired result which isn't quite as complicated but nevertheless leaves the user fully in control of their file structure.
Anyway, at least you took the trouble to find a method that works for you first. There are sadly too many tales of woe on these boards from people who've moved all their files around first only to discover that they've broken their libraries and can't work out how to undo the damage.
tt2

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.

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!!

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...

HT1391 Itunes alternate Library location?

I have a relatively small hard drive on my laptop and a large ITunes library how can i set an external drive as the location for my ITunes Library?

iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music [library] to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527 - a somewhat bewildering and not always easily understandable set of options.
Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Open iTunes and immediately hold down the Option (alt) key (shift on Windows), then guide it to the new location of the iTunes Library.itl file in the moved iTunes folder.
For the record there's this reference for iTunes 11 but it really doesn't strike me as having the specifics you need. iTunes 11 for Mac: Move your library to another computer - http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12168

ITunes reset library! Lost all playlists etc.

Hi Folks, I've consulted this forum many times over the years but have a problem that I can't find a solution to:
I was quietly working away organising my itunes when itunes crashed while in the middle of syncing with my ipod! When I reopened itunes, it has deleted all playlists etc. and all that remains are the tracks bought from the itunes store and not added from CDs etc. My latest previous library file was over 3 months ago at the last update I presume and I've spent weeks sorting out my >150GB library since then! I still have all my music stored on an external hard drive (where it always was) but it's the loss of hundreds of playlists and play counts that is really bugging me.
Could anybody shed some light on how to get my itunes library back to normal? I must stress that previous itunes library versions are too old to be of much use and I don't want to start all my playlists again from scratch.
This is the second time this has happened in 2013 and I now realise the need to manually back up the itunes library files!
Thanks in advance
Andy

See this post.
tt2

ITunes library location resetting itself

I have moved my iTunes Library to a server drive so that it can be backed up, but iTunes keeps resetting it to my local hard drive. I had first moved the library several weeks ago, and then accidentally discovered it had changed back to my local hard drive all by itself at some point. I had moved it prior to the recent 6.0 and 6.0.1 releases (currently running 6.0.1), so I thought maybe the upgrade from 5 had reset it. A couple of nights ago, I got it all cleaned up and recombined back on the server drive. I had downloaded the 2 new free downloads this week, and then had numerous podcast updates during the day. That night, I found that again the location of my library has changed back to my local hard drive, and those downloads I had just done had went there. Again, I changed the library location through Preferences (with the "Keep iTunes Music folder oganized" and "Copy files to iTunes Music folder" options checked), and then "Consolidated" the library. Today, at around 4:00 this afternoon, it again switched back to the default C: drive location, when no one was even home. What's up with this? iTunes is supposed to allow changing of the library location, and I have followed the proper procedures, but it will not stay!
Help!

Speculation about future iTunes releases, features, or bug fixes is not allowed to be discussed here, but I can safely say that iTunes 7 won't be out for a long time. We went from 4.9 to 6 in six weeks recently. Highly unusual, and I don't expect that to be repeated anytime soon. However, that doesn't mean version 6 won't be updated.
What's important to remember is that your setup isn't the majority of iTunes' target market. That translates into your feature request or bug fix requirement probably being lower on the ladder of priority.
What would be useful to the iTunes community here is someone to volunteer to do some extensive testing and report the results.
- try multiple network/mount methods
- quit/launch iTunes quickly and see if there's any correlation with the speed of disk access
- make a note of any other processes that may have locked the network volume for a brief period, causing iTunes not to have access

ITunes can't locate ⅔ of my Music Library -- How to repair?

I manually reorganized the iTunes Media Folder on my MacBook Air because everything was all jumbled up in the Music folder -- Songs, Movies, Mobile apps etc. everything all mixed up in Music folder. I manually dragged the Movie, iTunes U, Mobile Applications etc.Folders out of Music Folder and put everything into iTunes Media Folder. The same order as it is on my desktop iMac. Now iTunes can't locate about 1/2 of my Music library. Everything else (movies, TV shows etc.) works fine, but iTunes lost the location of 1/2my music library. I get the message "The song "ABC" could not be used because the original file could not be located. Would you like to locate it"
Is there a way to reset iTunes so that it knows where all the songs are (they are all in the music folder which is in the iTunes Media Folder). If I have to locate every song individually it will take weeks.
File ->Library -> Organize Library -> click Consolidate and Reorganize files in iTunes Media didn't seem to work. Isn't this the way to let iTunes know where all those songs it can't locate are?
Kindly advise if you know how to slove this.
Thank you.
P.S. Still using Mountain Lion on this computer

I manage my music manually by turning off the advanced preferences for iTunes managing my music and copying it to the iTunes folder when adding it to the library. Realize if you do this you are taking responsibility for keeping track of your music -- you will have to be organized. If you want to move your library you will have to track down all the files. Your files will retain their original names and folder names and structure, so make sure it makes sense. There's a few other disadvantages which I can't remember right now. Even with manually managing you still occasionally get a broken link, and my experience is all with iTunes 7.5 which I still use. I may be wrong but I suspect newer versions of iTunes are trying to do more at one time with all the store and cloud interface and may be more "delicate".
If you are downloading from Apple or ripping a CD, iTunes will put it in its normal folder structure anyway, though you can remove it from there.
The various scripts on the Dougscripts web site were written at different stages. You have to read about iTunes version compatibility in the blurb about each script. I don't see how you end up with multiple libraries using hte scripts.
The .itl file can reset itself but not with what you are doing. If you had moved your whole library and broken all the links you could have found just one and iTunes might have offered to find the others based upon the same structure (not something it will do if you manually manage, by the way).

ITunes 5 Changes Music Library Location to Default

ITunes 5 Developers - you might want to check your code somewhere, because installing iTunes5 via Software Update meant my library location randomly changes back to the default, instead of just using the location I had set in iTunes 4.x
(I wondered why my playlists were showing Exclamation Marks everywhere).
I use an external firewire disk to store my music as the internal 80Gb drive isn't big enough to store my CD collection in AAC160.
Mark.

Mark hello,
It is a trap many fall into... the 'Location Pointer' as it has become known does not do that... what it does do is tell iTunes where to put the next song you 'import' (rip) into your library and if that Location is not available iTunes will set it to the home iTunes Music folder by default when it starts up.
In your case the program must be trying to access the Ext.hard disk and is not finding it straight away hence it follows the default ruling and resets the 'Location' to home iTunes Music folder... why ? ... not up to speed when iTunes starts.... bad connection to name a couple...
A bit more on the Location of files...
You can store music files anywhere as long as iTunes knows about it... how does it know ?... it gets that information when you 1st put them in the library file... if the music files get moved iTunes may lose track of them and you will have to tell iTunes where they are... now you may think why can't iTunes just find them... as you can have absolute identical files stored elsewhere how would iTunes know which ones to add... the rule is: if you move them tell iTunes about the move.
The way Music files are stored has been changed recently ...
iTunes for Mac OS X uses the file's HFS+ FileID (inode number) rather than the /path/to/filename to locate the file where ever it is moved on the same volume; the file's inode number remains constant.
Although not fully recommended you can now move things around on the boot vol. and iTunes and OS X will keep track of it all but the same senario does not yet exist for other media like Ext. HD's... so there, do not move anything without telling iTunes about the move.
HTH Mark let's know if you need more help .... TP

ITunes reset when moved location

I've been reading other postings and can't find the answer I need. Running out of HD space, I bought an ExHD and copied all my disorganized music folders (My Music and iTunes Music) into one iTunes/iTunes Music folder on the ExHD. Then I deleted the now duplicate folders on my computer HD to free up the space. Before I closed iTunes, I reset the location path in Prefs/Advanced to the new ExHD location. However, when I relaunched iTunes, it came up empty, as if it had just been installed. I have made copies of everything on the new ExHD (so I'm not freaking out yet), I just don't know which file will restore the Library (and all my Playlists, Purchased Music etc.) or how to do it. I could resynch my iPod, but I'm nervous about how the changes I've made might affect it. Does anybody know which files I need, and where to place them so I can restore it as it was before?

iTunes operates as a database of information for your music files. The actual music files are stored on your PC, not within iTunes. iTunes keeps absolute references of the music file location and other information in its database file. This allows iTunes to use music files from any location on the PC: different directories/folders on the main HD, another internal drive, an external drive, or a network drive (or any combination of the above).
Each song reference has a specific and hardcoded location (both drive letter & path) so iTunes can find and play (or sync) it. Move the file, change the path, re-map the drive it is on, shut down or remove the Drive, and iTunes will lose the file (giving you the '!' of a ‘Broken Link’). Lose, move or corrupt the ‘iTunes Music.itl’ file and your complete Library will ‘vanish’.
If you delete, corrupt, or otherwise lose your ‘iTunes Library.itl’ file, you will end up with a ‘blank’ Library within iTunes. Nine times out of ten, your underlying music files are still on the PC. They can be ‘re-Added’ via the File==>Add Folder/File menu command, but you will lose some of the music meta-data. Recovering your Library via backup copies of the iTunes database file, or from importing the XML file is always preferable.
Rebuild your Library by 'Adding' the songs back into iTunes, then Import your Library XML file to recreate your Playlists. Here's how:
‘Refresh/Rebuild’ Your iTunes Library
If you changed your music locations by hand (not allowing iTunes to manage the move), want to remove duplicate song references, or just have confused iTunes too much, these steps will re-initialize your Library for you. Read it completely through and do the small trial run prior to implementing the whole thing. You will lose your Playlists, as well as reset your Ratings, Play Counts and Last Played attributes. If these are important, post back and instructions on saving these (as best as your Library has) can be provided::
First, make sure that iTunes is correctly looking in the right Folder for your song files.
--- Make sure you know the current location of your music files (best to confirm this)
--- In iTunes choose: Edit==>Preferences==>’Advanced/General’ tab
--- Select 'Change' and browse to the music folder in your PC drive (if it isn’t already)
--- Click OK to save that setting
-- In iTunes: Edit==>Preferences==>’Advanced/General’ tab.
---- Make sure that the 'Keep iTunes Music folder organized’ box is checked (if you want iTunes to organize your folder structure)
---- Also, that the ‘Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library’ box is unchecked
-- Click ’OK’ to accept and close the Preferences dialogue box.
-- Single click on the "Library" in the Source Pane
-- Single click first track in the Library
-- Select all songs (any one of several ways)
-- Delete – or select ‘Clear’ (yes, delete them all)
There will be 2 dialog boxes that pop up (one at a time). The first one asks ‘Are you sure you want to remove the selected items from the list?’ The second asks if you want the files moved to Recycle Bin or to keep them in the iTunes folder. You DO NOT want to send the files to the Recycle Bin, so select ‘Keep Files’. This will only delete the song reference links (both valid and broken). It will not delete the actual music files on your hard drive.
IMPORTANT:
Perform a small test of this prior to doing it en mass. If you do not receive both dialogue boxes, then stop and see this link prior to continuing. You will need to reset your iTunes preferences and also retrieve the ‘deletion test’ song files from the Recycle Bin. Scott P.: My Source List is missing (or, resetting the prefs)
Also note: 'Deleting and Restoring' the song references will reset the Play Count, Ratings, Date Added, Last Played, Ratings, and EQ attributes (there may be a few others). It will remove all song references from any Static Playlists you have. Also, any Smart Playlists that depend on any of the aforementioned attributes will be impacted. This may be a small price to pay to recover your Library -- or not.... You can ‘Export’ your Playlists to an XML file for ‘Importing’ after the refresh. This can restore your static playlists. The export only saves the song info, not the underlying music files. Of course, exporting your playlists is to be done before you delete any song references within iTunes.
Once your song references are removed from iTunes, this is how to get them back:
1 - In iTunes: File==>Add Folder to Library
2 - Browse to your main iTunes folder and select it
3 - For multiple music file locations, repeat 1 & 2
Depending on how small/large your music library is, the speed of your computer and your amount of RAM, this could take a few minutes to a few hours.
Your library should now be back to normal.
To rebuild your Playlists, search for the original version of the 'iTunes Music Library.xml' file on your PC (not the most recent, current and blank one). If you deleted it, then you are out of luck.
Within iTunes:
- File=>Import
- Browse to the location of the XML file and select it
- Let iTunes do its thing
You should have recreated your Playlists if you picked the right file.

ITunes Library Location and Music Default Folder

I have a fairly large music library (350 GB) and keep it on external hard drive. In the iTunes Preferences I changed my default library location to such external drive. However, from time to time I can see that my library location gets back to the default internal HD of my Mac. Once it does that the system starts slowly copying music from my external to my dafault internal HD where there is obviously not enough space for that. Is their any way to stop iTunes changing the location of my Library? Did anyone come accross this issue?
Also does anyone know how to change the location of the default Music folder to refer to my external disc? I can not find where this can be done.
Thanks
Ruben

If iTunes doesn't find the iTunes Music folder at startup, it will set it to the default location. iTunes does so, because it has to know a location where to store imported music.
To prevent this, always connect your ext. HD before running iTunes.
You can make it somehow failsafe by using the method I described here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=318759
It's not an elegant solution, because it will give an error and iTunes won't run.
At least it doesn't reset the 'iTunes Music folder' location and you are reminded to connect your ext. HD.
Hope this helps.
M

Is it possible to control an itunes library located on an iMAC from a

I am trying to set up a sound system for a blind person using an ipad as a controller. The itunes music library is located on a iMAC and there is a Wifi network with an Airport Express located elsewhere. The ipad has the Remote App and Airport utility. The library is in excess of 64 Gb so cannot be stored on the ipad (16Gb) I can access and play from the library using the touch screen but Siri does not recognise the library and merely says that there is nothing on the ipad - which is literally correct. Is there any way that I can achieve this? The iPad is running iOS 6.1

Unfortunately, I don't see a solution to your problem.

How do I stop Itunes from changing my library location

Is there just no answer to what should be a simple setting change?? No matter what I do, Itunes insists on changing my library location the instant there's any problem talking to my network share where all of my music is. This is absolutely ridiculous because this is on a laptop and there are times when the network connection is just not up yet, or whatever. Then it takes 10 minutes for me to change it back and let it figure everything out again. Has anyone ever been able to resolve this? I'd rather Itunes just return an error that tells me it can't read my library than to change it on me....

Have struggled with this issue in the past. In my experience, there is no simple, painless solution. I attempted to transfer my entire internal drive to my new external where there were copies of all the songs in place. Check to see how your library is organized on your network drive. Is it by media content (e.g. separate folders within /users/music/itunes/ folder such as Music, TV Shows, Movies, etc.)? Or are the various media types all lumped within a single iTunes Music Folder? If there is a discrepancy between your internal and external Library configurations iTunes struggles to cope. Can't say why this is the case, but I found that the only solution was to throoughly uninstall itunes via terminal (or using an app such as 'Amnesia'), reinstalling iTunes, and creating the library from scratch using files that are located on the external/network drive. I'm a moderately savvy programmer and I couldn't for the life of me get iTunes to build my library from an XML playlist that I modified to reflect the changed directory location of the new library on my external, but if you are more competent and patient than I am I'm convinced that the proper alteration of the Master library build would result in a seamless relocating of you media library as far as itunes is concerned. One last thing, make sure you click the 'I'll Add files myself later' option if you do choose to reinstall itunes just to cover your bases. sorry i can't give you a more helpful response--iTunes is a cruel mistress sometimes.
but: Used to introduce something contrasting with what has already been mentioned
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