Location of various music files

II've recently purchased a MacBook Pro, I now wish to sort my music collection out and store all music on the network drive which can be accessed via the cloud, not apple cloud incidentally. The thing is I have a variety if music files in various locations on the pc laptop, the old network drive. Is there any way I can find the location of the music file through iTunes So I can locate it on the network drive and transfer to the new cloud drive? I see there is a consolidate function in iTunes, would this do the job for me?
any help advice appreciated
thanks in advance
regards Colin

Use the consolidate function and move the iTunes library to the desired drive. If needed, launch iTunes with the Option key held down and specify a library there.
(108814)

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Thank you for your prompt response - I did as you said and did a drag and drop into the iTunes window - it imported and got my album art from the net. When I started Itunes with the shift key down I was prompted to choose a library but since I copied over the media folder and not the library folder I was unable to select that so I guess I will have to create a new library and add in all the music, videos, etc. unless I wait for my laptop and export the library or at least that seems to be the case? In short, all my data (iTunes media folder) is on my external drive and can be added to the blank iTunes screen but I can not choose a library folder. Is there anyway around completely making all those playlists again? I am not sure my laptop will survive the shop with data intact and really hate to start over on those.
In an unrelated question - I collect old TV shows from the 1950's. Can I make playlists within the home video folder somehow? In other words like one for Quiz shows, one for comedies, one for police and detective shows, etc. while I am remaking all my playlists for my music if I end up having to go that route?
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Cant open itunes, gives error message, cant locate my music file

as above. i installed a new hdd and my music is now on there, on opening itunes i just get a window saying itunes is unable to locate or create the itunes folder located in my music. file is in there. followed a suggestion that i rename the file path in itunes bin file to new drive name using a text editor, no joy, uninstalled and loaded latest itunes and still the same. windows has sp2 and all updates. any ideas????

no its a new internal hdd, though the fix may be the same? cant see why it would be different both run through the mobo just different conectors and a hdd with no operating system installed, which i,m guessing is the reason itunes cant find my music in windows on the c drive, cos it aint there!!!

Why does Itunes keep losing the location of music files?

Itunes will lose the location of the music files. they clearly listed under the right album and proper order but when you select a song a exclamation mark shows up and a window pops up asking me where it can be located. I don't know, Itunes lost it, I haven't done any maintenance work to the hard drive that I know of other than clean the registry on my firefox search engine.

The "missing file" error happens if the file is no longer where iTunes expects to find it. Possible causes are that you or some third party tool has moved, renamed or deleted the file, one of its parent folders, or the drive it lives on has had a change of drive letter. It is also possible that iTunes has changed from expecting the files to be in the pre-iTunes 9 layout to post-iTunes 9 layout, or vice-versa, and so is looking in slightly the wrong place. In the case of a library moved from one system to another there are also potential permissions issues. See Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows.
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In some cases iTunes may be able to repair itself if you go through the same steps with Get Info but this time click Locate and browse to the lost track. It may then offer to attempt to automatically fix other broken links.
If another application like Windows Media Player has moved/renamed the files then the chances are that subtle differences in naming strategies will make it hard to restore the media to the precise path that iTunes is expecting. In such cases, as long as the missing files can be found somewhere, you should be able to use my FindTracks script to reconnect them to iTunes. See this post for an explanation of how it works.
i may be able to give some more focused advice once there is a clearer picture of where things are.
tt2

Using the "consolidate" function has deleted 50% of my music files

Hi there, Any help appreciated: I stupidly thought that because I had music files in a couple of locations as well as itunes that using itunes to consolidate them would solve the problem. As the itunes help menu says for "consolidating your library":+Depending on how you've imported songs, videos, and other items into iTunes, your library can include items that are located in various places on your computer's hard disk or other locations. You can make sure that copies of all the files in your iTunes library are in your iTunes folder so that, for example, it's easier to move your library to a new computer.+ Now itunes can't "find" at least 50% of my tunes because it clearly hasn't copied anything: they are GONE. Supposedly "Files located outside the iTunes folder remain in their original locations, and copies are placed in your iTunes folder". This has not happened. I have searched my hard drive and they haven't been relocated anywhere I can find em, not even the recycle bin, or down the back of the couch. When I try to play or "get info" on a song I get an error message saying "the song could not be used because the original file cannot be found. Would you like to try to locate it?" Not only has itunes deleted half my music but it also created a big pile of folders by artist, with lots of handy subfolders by album, that usually contain NOTHING. There appears to be no rhyme or reason which music it has deleted. Has this happened to anyone else and is there a way to "locate" my lost music files and undo this?
Many thanks for any suggested solutions...

ITunes rearranges the files and folders only when the option to do so is checked under Edit•Preferences•Advanced•General. I think by default the option is unchecked and iTunes asks about it during install. After rearranging, it may look like lots of files are missing but they're probably just tucked into the Unknown Artist folder, where iTunes stashes any poorly tagged MP3.
Rest assured, iTunes always asks before deleting files, and actually it asks if the user wants to keep the file or "move to Recycle Bin," so the user can always retrieve from the Recycle Bin if he changes his mind.

How do i make it so iTunes plays the music files from where i have chosen to store them?

how do i make it so iTunes plays the music files from where i have chosen to store them as opposed to it scattering copies of my files into a myriad different folders based on the albums they came from when i'm not even interested in keeping whole albums?
I recently converted myself to mac after having been a windows formatted person since the beginning of time. I use last.fm and the client scrobbler only supports iTunes on the mac (scobbling since Nov 06 and i'm now heavily dependant upon it as a means of discovering new music) - if you don't know what that means then take it for granted i have no option other than to use iTunes as my media player whn using the mac. And almost immediately upon using iTunes i was filled with horror.
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That simple list i mentioned is my one and only playlist. This single playlist has been evolving for 15 years as tracks are added and removed and their position in the list changes because that song sounds amazing when heard after that other song whereas hearing this song after that song would be like pouring custard over your sausages (for me shuffling is an abomination). And so here is how i've managed this list and managed synchronization of said list and listed files with my mp3 player (currently a Zen).
Adding a new file: After deciding that song is a keeper i will copy it into that simple folder that holds all my music and drop it in to a position on the list i deem most suited for it. Incidentally over this entire 15 year (i'm pretty sure it's been around that long) my media player has been winamp but for the reason previously mentioned i am unable to use winamp in mac world.
Removing a file: fortunately winamp has an option to simultaneously remove a file from the list and the hard drive. And naturally so because after all if i no longer like a song then i want it expunged completely from life or at least from my hard drive and playlist. In the brave new world of iTunes i have to remove from the list there then delete the file from where iTunes copied it from and then the place iTunes copied it to.
Editing the list: drag an item in the list to it's preferred location and select to save it as i would for any other file using any other application... well desktop type application as opposed to one that uses a database as its primary means of storage.
Syncing with the mp3 player: copy drag drop playlist file from the simple folder on the hard drive to the simple folder on the mp3 player as i would for any other file. And then also copy drag drop the most recently created files from simple folder on hard drive to simple folder on player after having ordered them by creation date so as to make it easier to select the most recently created. After a while the mp3 player will fill up with the files no longer on the list so i will delete all files from player then re-copy all flies from simple folder on hard drive to simple folder on mp3 player.
I do not make changes to the list on the mp3 player so synchronization needs only to go one way: from laptop to player.
So all very simple. Apart from editing the positions of files in the list everything is managed by copy drag dropping and deleting files using windows explorer.
But i'm in a mac and circumstances have forced me in to the corner of using iTunes. And this whole iTunes situation is terrifying for me as over the years i've heard horror stories about it deleting all of someone's music files. Perhaps this may have been by using the software incorrectly but even so, the very fact that it appears possible for this to happen simply by using the software incorrectly and the fact that it happens with some degree of frequency given the number of reports of this happening that i have heard of over the years on music discussion forums fills me with dread that i have to now use this software. And given the software's blatant disregard for the user's choice as to where to store his/her files it's no surprise that this happens. The software is pointlessly doing dangerous things with my data. Please make it stop.
Please can i just at the very least make iTunes play the music from the folder i have chosen to put my files in and not copy those files here there and everywhere without my say so? Thankyou.

option discovered in preferences. Really this and any feature that moves deletes or edits a users data should as far as possible be OFF BY DEFAULT. It shouldn't by default and without the users specific say do this dangerous and unnecessary thing without even letting the user know what it's doing!!! And then cause me a few hours (as i'm new to mac) searching for the option so as to switch it off. If i hadn't noticed the status cage declaring that it was copying files then i might never have twigged that this insane thing was occurring. And if i hadn't of noticed i would have been left maintaining the contents of the folder i copied the files to, the folder which as far as i was informed and so believed was also the location of the music files i was playing. How does Apple justify this 'genius' piece of software non-design? Surely it will hurt no one if this was off by default for new users - overall at least i dare say it would cause a lot less distress in the future for the unsuspecting public at large. Thanks for the support.

Moving music files out of itunes

Hi,
I've finally maxed out my 20GB on my device and once I did, I experienced hard drive problems, with the hard drive whirring and clicking and struggling along. I believe I may have finally solved that problem, but now I'd like to separate out a significant amount of my music from my Itunes Library. Is there a way I can keep my music on my hard drive, but not immediately accessible to Itunes so Itunes will load more quickly?
Thanks for your time!
~daniel
Windows XP

daniel,
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You can delete those references by simply selecting (highlighting) them in your iTunes Library display and pressing the Delete key on your keyboard. (Ctrl-clicking or Shift-clicking will help you select multiple items.)
If iTunes asks you about deleting the files from your hard drive as well, just say no.

Associating music files with palylists and/or music library

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Morris:
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*Go to iTunes Preferences>>Advanced, and make sure that you have DESELECTED Copy music to iTunes folder when adding to library and SELECTED Keep iTunes Music folder organized.
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b iTunes Library
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I tried to follow the directions for moving files from one hard disk to another, but itunes cannot find them. It recognizes them if I manually give it the location, but I have a gazillion songs and it would take me weeks...
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My music files are located in at least four different places on my computer. I find them in c:/(user)/Music (all just stored in various folders outside the ITunes folder), in c:/(user)/Music/ITunes/ITunes Media/Music, in c:/(user)/ITunes/ITunes Music, and in c:/(user)/ITunes1/ITunes Media/Music. I think many are duplicated. How do I consolidate without painstakingly going through file by file? Win 8.1 brand new Dell laptop, 512 SSD.

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tt2

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Itunes has lost the location of ALL the music files in the library. I have not moved my files so I believe it may have happened when Itunes updated a few days ago. If this is the case, it is not very smart of the programmers! When I locate individual songs, Itunes only finds the other songs that are in the same subfolder, that leaves about 5000 files missing! I realise I can import my whole music folder but this will revert a lot of incorrect track information that I have manually edited over the months.
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That can definitely be stressful, but there's an article that can help you find the media you expected to appear in iTunes. I'd read through it and see if that helps you find the missing music:
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http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1408
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Recently, I've noticed that iTunes (8.2) skips certain songs in my iTunes library. No ! shows up to indicate it cannot find the file. Rather, the file link is to a completely random location on my harddrive where no music files exist. I'll link to a photo a previous poster put on the web which has the same odd file links. http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3459/327398302018d78347a5o.jpg
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Remove the compilations indicator from the tracks and iTunes should relocated the files for you. Make a playlist to pick up all the tracks in the album, highlight all the songs and right click on the selection, choose Get Info and when you are asked if you want to edit multiple items say yes, In the box that opens change Compilation to "No" and press OK.

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Location of various music files

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