ITunes size different from "iTunes music" folder size!

When i select "Library > Music" in my iTunes (which displays all my music), i find that t the bottom of my iTunes 8.2, there is the information for my iTunes library. it is 4058 songs, 11.4days, 18.83gb
however, when i go to Finder > music > itunes > iTunes music, it shows a much higher value. like 20gb or sth.
i suspect this is because sometimes when i delete songs, i accidentally click "keep file" instead of "move to trash"
how do i reconcile this program and ensure that songs i don't like and have "deleted" are not taking up space in my HD anymore?

I believe this script should do what you want.
http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=musicfolderfilesnotadded

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My iTunes music folder is almost 1.5x the size on disc as my iTunes library. How can I get rid of this extra data?

When I look at the iTunes music folder in Windows Explorer, it shows as 28.0 GB. In the iTunes library, it says my music is 18.3 GB. I would like to get my 10 gigs back.
I've tried to add the media folder to my library - it just duplicated maybe 10 songs, didn't add any new ones. This suggests that there isn't any extra music in the folder. So why is it 10 GB larger? How can I get rid of the extra non-music data?

Apparently there are some mp3 files that aren't adding despite importing the folder...
That is actually a very common problem, due to iTunes being strict/finicky/incompetent (pick your own interpretation) about slight variations in MP3 formats. The problem can usually be corrected by treating the files with a 3rd party tag cleanup program, such as MP3 Validator.
i don't know how much of the missing 9.7 GB this will apply to, but definitely worth a try.

ITunes Music Folder Missing on external hard drive after changing iTunes Media Folder Location from MacBook Hard Drive. Not deleted...just missing?

I store my iTunes media folder on my external hard drive and can no longer find it there. It seemed to becomd lost after I re-designated the default iTunes media location. I had downloaded some things from iTunes without my external hard drive plugged in and when they downloaded they downloaded to the default location on my Macbook Pro. In recognizing that, I wanted to move those files from the hard drive on my MacBook Pro to the external hard drive. When I re-selected the location as the external hard drive a copy process began. I cancelled the copy process fearing the small number of files from my Macbook Pro would over-write all of the files on my external hard drive so I quit the copy process. Now I do not see my "iTunes Music" folder on my external hard drive. I fear that I have somehow lost the path but I believe the content is still on my external hard drive although I no longer see the "iTunes Music" folder on my external hard drive. I know I didn't delete it, but it isn't there. Is there a way to make it re-appear? I would really appreciate any guideance anyone has.
Thank you.
Best,
Matt

When you change the location in preferences it tells iTunes to start, from this point on, storing new media files in the new location. It then presents you with the option to move any old files in their current locations to the new location. It doesn't move the library files which are not media files. Read the links below to understand how iTunes works because you are the one with the computer in front of you and are in the better position to understand how it stands as regards to iTunes files.
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
Now, did you keep the whole library on the external drive, or did you keep just media? From your description of the situation it sounds as if you kept the whole library there and when the external was not attached it returned to default location on the internal drive. What you should have done then was plug in the external drive, hold down the option key, and guide iTunes to the library file on the external. At this stage you could have dealt with the mislocated new files on an individual basis.
I guess the key question is, did your trying to move the couple of new media files to the external drive overwrite the iTunes folder there, which because you then canceled may have also just resulted in it being deleted. I am not going to test the theory on my system.
How big was your library on the external? If it was 40GB do you now suddenly have 40 GB free?
Look for any iTunes folders on the external drive. In view options turn on "calculate all folders sizes" and see if there are any big ones.

Cleaning up duplication mess from Shared iTunes Music folder

I'm helping my sister clean up a mess on her Windows Vista computer. In the process of cleaning up one mess, I may have made another.
She's wanting to share the iTunes Music folder with multiple users on the machine--so that they can all access the music from their individual user accounts. A couple of months ago, I set up the iTunes Music folder in the Public folder so that all users could access it. Each user then created it's own iTunes Library database upon opening iTunes in their accounts.
We thought this would work fine, but she's now finding that if items are added in different accounts, they're not showing up in the others--you have to know what was imported/added in one account so that you can "add to library" in the others.
So, in order to try to fix that, I created a new Music folder ("iTunes Music New") for the Main user's account and "consolidated Library" so that it would contain everything. I then went into each account and changed their default Music folder location to the new Public one that I created "iTunes Music New".
My next problem occurred when I clicked consolidated library in a 2nd account. Now, since all accounts are pointing to the same folder and I hit consolidate library in 2 accounts, the Music Folder has duplicates of MANY, MANY songs. However, they're not necessarily duplicated in the iTunes Music Library database, since the consolidation occurred from two separate accounts.
Most of the duplication software/scripts that I've researched seem to be able to delete duplicates within the iTunes Music Library database. Obviously, I'm not needing that, I'm needing to delete duplicates from the iTunes Music folder itself.
Is there a way to do this?
Once I solve this problem, my next question is how to clean up all of the secondary user libraries so that they match the main one. It doesn't matter if I lose playcounts on these secondary accounts as long as I retain them in the main original. Can I just delete the .xml and iTunes Library.itl files and "add to library" the main music folder?
Or can I create a shortcut in each of the secondary users folders that would point to the .xml and .itl files in the "master" user's folder?
I hope that this makes sense.
I'm hoping to get this situation mostly cleared up before I leave my sister's in the next day or so.

Unfortunately, you're going to have to delete those duplicate files by hand.
On my PC when I do boneheaded things like that, Windows gives them names like
song[1].mp3
song[2].mp3
You can use Windows search to find files with [1] in the filename. That should speed up the process.
After you get everything on the hard drive fixed, all you have to do is set up the secondary accounts to use the main users's ITL file.
From iTunes > Help > iTunes Help
*To create or use a different iTunes library:*
+If iTunes is open, quit it.+
+Hold down the Shift key while you open iTunes (from the Start menu, choose All Programs > iTunes > iTunes).+
+In the dialog that appears, do one of the following:+
+To create a new library, click Create Library.+
+To choose a different library, click Choose Library.+

How do I remove song files from my iTunes Music Folder that are deleted?

Hi,
When I deleted unwanted songs from my iTunes Library I selected the option to Keep Files instead of Moving Song to the Recycle Bin. As a result I've now got a load of unwanted music files clogging up my music folders.
So how can I identify music files that are in my iTunes Music Folders but have been deleted from the iTunes Library and then remove them from my hard drive?
Cheers,
Andy.
Sony laptop Windows XP Pro

Here's a thought, have you added any new items to your library recently?
If you add your iTunes music folder to your library, anything not already in your library will be added.
Now go to your library view and make sure you have the date added column visible. (Right click in the header row to get a list of columns that can be selcted).
Now sort by date added and everying you just added will be together and can be easily identified for deletion.
Note this only applies if files are in the iTunes Music folder, files in other places have to be deleted in Windows Explorer.
PS iT is usually a good idea to make a copy of iTunes Library.itl before experimenting. Copy it from your iTunes folder to somewhere else.

ITunes Music Folder Missing on external hard drive after changing iTunes Media Folder Location from MacBook Hard Drive

The store my iTunes media folder on my external hard drive and can no longer find it there. It seemed to becomd lost after I re-designated the default iTunes media location. I had downloaded some things from iTunes without my external hard drive plugged in and when they downloaded they downloaded to the default location on my Macbook Pro. In recognizing that, I wanted to move those files from the hard drive on my MacBook Pro to the external hard drive. When I re-selected the location as the external hard drive a copy process began. I cancelled the copy process fearing the small number of files from my Macbook Pro would over-write all of the files on my external hard drive so I quit the copy process. Now I do not see my "iTunes Music" folder on my external hard drive. I fear that I have somehow lost the path but I believe the content is still on my external hard drive although I no longer see the "iTunes Music" folder on my external hard drive. I know I didn't delete it, but it isn't there. Is there a way to make it re-appear? I would really appreciate any guideance anyone has.
Thank you.
Best,
Matt

Any ideas? Anyone?

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

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

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

How should I copy my iTunes Music folder from my iMac to my Macbook Pro

I have copied the iTunes music folder from my iMac to my Macbook Pro using firewire and target disk mode. After all the files (for files read each individual song) have been copied I find that not all songs can be played. For those which will not play I get he error message "The song "bla bla" could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" When I answer "locate" on this popup I'm taken to a view of finder. If I double click on the song there, the song will play on iTunes. Seems to be something to do with the structure of the folders but in get info I cannot see a difference between songs encountering this problem and those which don't.

Instead of copying only the _iTunes music folder_, copy the entire *iTunes folder.*
That's all you need to do.

How transfer exact arborescence from my music folder on Hard Disk to iTunes ?

Hello All i'm French
How transfer exact tree from my music folder on Hard Disk to iTunes ?
I'm Dj, i use my Mac for that. I'm new on Mac.
On my Pc, i have create many Folders and sub Folders for my music (sample : House/march2010/House Club)
This tree is very important for me and i need to conserve this on Hard drive Mac in the same place.
I Want copy the same tree on Itunes but if i create that myself, it's to long !!
Help me please !
(arborescence in french, tree in english)

iTunes doesn't have any automatic way of re-creating your directory structure in terms of folders and playlists in iTunes. You will have to drag each music folder to a playlist and then arrange these in folders inside of iTunes (which I warn you can can slow down iTunes a lot). I guess the once chance of speeding this up will be if somebody has written an Applescript to do it, but I don't remeber seeing any anywhere.

Downloading songs into itunes music folder from limewire

I currently have songs scattered all over my computer and hard driveome from various programs and methods I have used to get music over the years. Some of the music is already in itunes and some isnt. I want to consolodate everything into my itunes music folder to make it more convenient. In an effort to do this I have switched my limewire preferences to download directly into the itunes music folder. However, when I download a song it appears in itunes only in a folder called "Limewire Tunes" but it is not present in the recently added folder or the itunes library. Does anyone know how I could remedy this?

Of course you can always go into your preferences @
Edit>Preferences>Advanced
and put a check next to Keep itunes music organized and copy files to itunes music folder when adding to library.
This way you can just add your new music to your library and it will automatically put it in your itunes folder for you all nice and neat like then you can delete the other music files from your limetunes music folder to keep you from having duplicates on your computer. Its a nice way to consolidate all your music into one easy to backup location
Hope that helps,
Seth
Windows XP

Why won't iTunes let me import this album from my music folder?

For some reason, iTunes won't let me import Radiohead In Rainbows from my music folder. The songs are mp3 files. I've imported thousands of songs and haven't had a problem. I've tried dragging it in and importing from the file menu.
The one thing I notice is that MP3 is capitalized in the file names, but I don't know if that has anything to do with. The music plays fine in Windows Media Player, but I want to put it in itunes so I can put it on my iPod.

I appreciate the reply. How do you check permissions (what is permissions)? This is very strange since it worked flawlessly in my itunes libraray before recently as well as my ipod and all of a sudden it wouldn't play in my library so I deleted the tracks from the library and tried to re-add them but it doesn't load them now and doesn't give me any kind of error message.
These are official MP3 tracks that I downloaded from the official Radiohead website and they play fine on my Ipod, Windows Media Player, and Quicktime. Just not Itunes itself.

.xml file and iTunes library files are missing from the music folder

I recently made a second itunes library on my external hd, today when I open itunes and choose this library, the .xml file and itunes music file are invisible or translucent, therefore I can't open my library. But when I go to my music folder they are missing. Another odd thing is that all my music is still in the folder. Is there a way to re-open my library w/o re-importing all my music? Can I some how get a new itunes library file?
Mac OS X (10.4.10)

This is not an answer but I have the same problem. From time to time I clone my music drive to an external drive for back up. When I do, I burn a copy of the album artwork folder, iTunes Music folder, iTunes Library.itl, iTunes Music Libraru.xml, and iTunes Library file to CDRW. This is so I can copy them into the music folder in my user home drive of my laptop then hook up the external and have access my library. Trouble is the .xml file and iTunes library files don't always show up when I go to the iTunes folder in my Music folder. There either is a blank where they should be or the names appear with no icon and when I click to select, that dissappers too. I thought I had a solve by exiting iTunes and letting it save everything. It seems to bring the .xml file back but not the itunes Library file. Any thoughts?

Recovering "iTunes Music" folder from Time Machine Backup (Permissions Err)

OK, long story, but stay with me.... could be an interesting one here.
So I move to a SSD hard drive in my 24" iMac. New Intel SSD drive is only 160GB, so I'm only using it for the OS, Applications, etc... all of my data is on an external FW800 disk (Western Digital MyBook). I've already relocated my Home Directory to the external drive and that seems to be working great for all my pictures, docs, movies, etc, except for iTunes.
My iTunes library comes up, but I can't locate any of the songs. I checked the preferences and it's pointed to the correct location on the external disk. So, I was trying to do the relocation, but it would appear that the MUSIC folder does not have all the data i copied into it. When I try to open the "iTunes Music" folder I get this error... "The folder "iTunes Music" can't be opened because you don't have permission to see it's content". I've checked my Time Machine drive which obviously has all the music files on it (the space is taken up), but I can't get to them to recover.
Any clue how I can get this permissions error resolved so I can get my music? I have (3) backups of the same directory... all the same story, no permissions. I even created the same user account name when I rebuilt Snow Leopard on the SSD.

I don't think you understand. I need to get my music from Time machine where it is backed up. How do i find it in time machine and how do i transfer it to a seperate HD?

How can I move my iPod iTunes Music Folder from C: drive to a New Drive?

Running out of space on my PC's C: drive, so I tried moving all the folder to my new E: drive ie: (E:\My Music 2\iTunes).
ALSO set iTunes (Edit/Preferences/Advanced/iTunes Music Folder location to E:\My Music 2\iTunes - but nothing seems to help!)
All of the files couldn't find the source files, unless I pointed to them one by one.
Can't move them all back because they are about 7GB+, and I now only have about 5.5 GB on my C: drive.
And when I just went to open iTunes again, all my libraries don't even show.
I'm afraid to plug in my ipod for synching until I get this straight, for fear of messing that up too.
Please advise.
Compaq Presario Windows XP Notebook.
Compaq Presario Windows XP Notebook.

To move your iTunes music to an external drive...
1 Quit iTunes.
2 Move the entire iTunes folder including music to
the external drive.
In point #2 do you mean move the entire Program File folder of iTunes or just the "My Documents" iTunes library folder?
I have a full laptop, a big iPod and an external HD, I am trying to figure out how to store my library on the HD, but access it as if it were on the laptop.
I moved my iTunes library to the HD and then in iTunes I used the "add folder to library" function, but it brought all of the song files back onto the laptop.
How do you iPod gurus configure your setup with comp, HD and iPod? I need some guidance, my methods are not working.
laptop Windows XP

Rebuild iTunes with Just VERY LARGE iTunes Music Folder

Hello,
As much as I tried to back every bit of my iTunes database up regularly, I failed to assure the quality of these files. Well, I had a family member accidentally delete the iTunes Library and iTunes Library.xml files (yup, my mistake to allow them access to my Mac in the first place). It is only now that I realize the most recent backup copy of these files are corrupted. The really good news here is that I have multiple intact copies of my entire iTunes Music Folder. My goal is to recreate my iTunes Library and iTunes Library.xml files to accommodate it.
Now, here is the kicker. My database is 38000 songs and 190 GB large! I certainly know how to add songs iTunes, but it seems as though it chokes with large projects like this and misses random parts of the tag information. So, what is the best way to get me out of this hole, with the least amount of trouble and most efficient restorative actions? While I wait for an answer, I am also researching various other options and digging deep into the root to rescue deleted files.
If we learn from our mistakes, then I obtained my PhD years ago,
Dr. Z.

Dr. Z,
My iTunes library is about the same size. I am experiencing a little different problem though. At times when I start iTunes up I get a message stating that my library is corrupt and it then tries to restore it from the xml file. It finishes, but doesn't get every song. I then have to select all song and clear them while keeping the files intact on the hard drive. I then have to add my iTunes music folder and all its contents using the iTunes "Add to Library" function. I gets all the songs, but of course now all the dates, when the songs were added to the library, have the current day's date. I have to repeat this whole scenario about three times a week. Grrrrr...
It seems like iTunes isn't capable of handling large amounts of songs. I'm sure it shoud be able to, but it sure isn't at the moment.
As to your problem, what if you try adding your songs a chunck at a time instead of all at once? Maybe that will keep your data intact. Just a thought. Might work. I've seen stranger things work.
G5 2.5gHz PowerMac w/DVD-RW Drive, G3 400mHz Powerbook Mac OS X (10.4.3)

100's of titles in my iTunes music folder say streaming..

100's of titles in my iTunes music folder say streaming.. this is the folder that holds the music for the iphone, it shows me this when it (iphone) is connected to the mac. Thing is, there are the same songs in the folder, but with a size listed. How do I remove these from my iphone (or this folder to stop wanting to stream these)?
See the attached image for what I am referencing.. Thanks for any insight

Aha, a clean install of iTunes 9 (or upgrading to iTunes Media organisation) would have defaulted to the new *iTunes\iTunes Media* folder layout instead of *iTunes\iTunes Music*. Main differences are that iPod Games & iPhone/Touch Apps are moved inside the iTunes Media Folder rather than the top iTunes folder and music ends up in *iTunes\iTunes Media\Music\Artist\Album* as opposed to the old *iTunes\iTunes Music\Artist\Album* layout.
tt2

ITunes size different from "iTunes music" folder size!

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