Libraries - how can iTunes lose them?

Question

I am at a loss. iTunes is a famous Apple product and yet it is apparently so unstable that if you dare to move the files, even when following instructions, suddenly you can be left quite helpless, with not a song in sight. I have spent the entire evening resurrecting my iTunes folder on the second attempt, which I moved to my Hard Drive from my external drive, and (at great length) also fixed the artwork which was really muddled (a lot missing that had been there before, as well as some that was quite wrong). Then I decided to make a second library for some work files.
I followed the help file carefully but now I cannot open my entire, large, collection although it is there in the music folder. The new library I gave a new name to, but iTunes does not see it.
It's rather a bleak outlook, isn't it, because I see a lot of unanswered posts on this forum, and that suggests that there is something not quite right with the software, if so many people are having problems and there is not adequate help either in the form of articles or as people online to help sort it out. What a pity!
But if someone can shed light on this, I would be very grateful! It seems that I cannot select the new folder by using preferences. Why not? I am sure I have done it before.
Ynys

Answer 1

Smokerz wrote:
I rip a music Cd. It goes to the itunes music folder. I transfer this ripped Cd out of the itunes music folder. I then go to the itunes library and delete all music in that library from that ripped Cd. I use the add to library pointing itunes to where I stored those music files and I will not lose my files now that they are no longer located in the itunes music folder by deleting any file from the itunes library.
Hi.
I'm struggling but making some progress. I did find the artwork I was installing last night (that's good) but not where I expected, and I found all sorts of iTunes files all over the place. I think what I've got is actually what you described, as I did drag my music folder over from the external drive and dropped it into a new (named differently) folder, but I have no idea now whether iTunes is pointing to that folder or not. It does not contain a data file called iTunes Library. The 'good' album artwork folder is somewhere else!
Where are all the files that you need to run iTunes on your set-up?
I think one problem that many of us must be running into is the naming of the components. You said that you delete all the music in your iTunes Library - but I don't think you can't do that unless you mean delete the data file called 'iTunes Library'. What I suppose you did is delete all the music files in 'iTunes Music'. But I don't see how iTunes knows where to look for the files in the place that you put them - because that folder will not have the iTunes data files with it.
And did you know that the iTunes Music folders all contain data files that look identical to the data files in the iTunes folder but I am not sure if they are....What are they? For example, in among my music, looking just like one of my albums is a folder called 'Album Artwork'. And I'll bet you've got one too.
In other words, iTunes makes an 'iTunes' folder with various data files in it and your music folder called 'iTunes Music' and then, inside 'iTunes Music' are some files with identical names to the data files. Why are they there? Can I delete them? Why is the structure of this set-up not explained anywhere? More to the point, how do I put it all back together again into one operating whole?!
I hope some people will think about this but I can't get back for a few days.
Ynys