Library Consolidating Crashes during large move

Question

I have 200gb of music on iTunes. When I attempt to move files to a new iTunes Media folder on an external drive by using the advanced preferences to point to the new location and then using the Organize Library > Consolidate Files feature, iTunes crashes, always about 149gb into the move.
In my current iTunes set up, at least 20gb of files are not stored in the main iTunes Music folder.
I have tried just copying the folders over manually which causes the files not in the main folder to go missing. When I do a "locate file" I can successfully point to the right mp3, but when it tries to automatically find other missing files in the same folder it fails to do so, even though I know they're there.
I have tried consolidating without copying to another drive and get the same results.
I have repaired permissions, safe booted and zapped pram.
Thoughts? Ideas? Magic?
Thanks

Answer 1

You've probably got a file that is either bad, or, iTunes does not like for some reason. The trick is to figure out which file this is, then either replace it, or figure out what iTunes does not like about it (sometimes simply removing the song from iTunes, then adding it back will fix things).
So here is what I'd do. I assume you have all the music its original places still, and hopefully have a backup of everything. I'd erase the external disk, and start the consolidation over again. When it crashes, look at the last file written (I think it consolidates alphabetically by artist name). Then look at that file, and, at the one that would have been written next - likely one of them is the problem song.
Or you could divide and concur. Select half your library, right click (or control click) and choose consolidate files from the drop down menu. If it works with out crashing, select half the remaining songs, and so on until you get a crash. Then you know what group of songs is the problem - divide and concur again until you isolate the problem song. This might actually be the best way to procede if you already have a bunch done, and can not start over. If you consolidate songs that are already in the right place iTunes will not do anything, so there is no harm.
Good luck.