Merge/Consolidate 3 Libraries to 1 new Library

I have 3 libraries on an external HD that i want to merge into 1 new library. All contents of libraries were ripped from my CD's. Once I have created a single library of all contents I will delete the original 3 libraries.
What is the easiest way to do this in iTunes? Or, is there a third party app I can use?

You might want to dig into some of the Apple iTunes Match support docs. I've listed several of them here.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/17171567#17171567

Similar Messages

Can I merge multiple iPhoto libraries in the new Photo's app. This was not possible in iPhoto but is possible in Aperture.

Now that iPhoto is 'Photos' on 10.10.3 is it possible to merge multiple iPhoto libraries. It is possible to this this in Aperture but not in iPhoto (I'm using 10.10.2 and can't upgrade until other software I use is qualified for 10.10.3). Here's the deal - I changed my drive to an SSD and backed up my old hard drive (which had the original iPhoto library on it. I did a clean install with my new drive so iPhoto created a new (blank) library. This upgrade was done a few months ago so now I have 2 different iPhoto libraries. Note that the newer library is connected to iCloud and if I was to 'Switch Libraries' it will delete my current photo stream. There is a way to do this manually - I could switch to the old library and locate the root folders in the 'newer library', move them to a new folder and import. This procedure is awkward and not my preferred route. So if there's anyone using the new 'Photos' app on 10.10.3 please let me know thanks!

To merge the libraries manually use "File > Export".
To save the high quality originals, set the export panel like this, with "Kind Original":
If you have edited versions with added titles, caption, places, etc, use these export settings to save your work:

Merge two iPhoto libraries into an Aperture library for my Macbook Air

Hey,
I've searched around a bit for this but can't seem to figure out how to to it.
I'm trying to manage my ~140GB photo library on my Macbook Air which has 128GB of HDD. On top of that, you can imagine that most of that 128GB is filled with system stuff.
My objective is to keep most of my library offline from the Macbook Air, but still keep it all together.
I kinda went "all-in" with iPhoto a few years back to organize my photos so gave up on Aperture. I'd always wanted to move to Aperture or Lighroom but the migration appeared to be a complete disaster. Now with "transparent" compatibility it seems like a no brainer to get the best of both worlds.
I thought that Aperture allowed you store files on external hard drives but still have "thumbnail" access to them even when the drive wasn't connected. Or did I misread that? (Is that Lightroom?)
Anyway with the new update I thought that I could merge my available iPhoto libraries into one Aperture library that I could always have access to, while offloading the actual photos somehow to an external HDD.
This would be a real winner for me. It seems tho that an iPhoto library stays an iPhoto library. So while merging might be helpful for someone with a big hard drive, it's completely useless for me as if anything, I need to split. Or create more. Or some other form of adding complexity.
Any ideas here?

Figured this out on my own.
Make a backup of everything - Aperture seems to require rebuilds and stuff and stories abound of "things going a bit wrong."
Did you make a backup? If you don't want to or can't, I wouldn't do this. After all, it's your photos!
Setup your Aperture library on a USB drive.
Update iphoto to the newest version. Open all your libraries in iPhoto to update them. This may take awhile depending on library size.
Import whatever iphoto libraries you have to Aperture. This make take awhile (hours!) - if your stuff is more than say 25 gigs I'd recommend setting it up for overnight.
Once everything is in Aperture - check its all working right. Then go ahead and maybe make another backup
Then migrate your photos out of the library. This takes all the originals and stores them elsewhere, called "offline". Once they're there, you can't move them around, so pick a good spot!! This also takes forever.
Once this is done your Aperture library should be smaller and just copy it to your MacbookAir
I'm still working on this as it looks like something went funky and I have to rebuild my thumbnails, another overnight processing thing. Like I said, keep a backup But I have a slimmed down Library on my Macbook Air now which is what I wanted.
This whole thing is kinda a mess and while it's feasible Apple hasn't made it easy. There's also some crazy stuff Aperture does with thumbnails and "previews" so that they take a bunch of space up (in my case almost as much as my photos), so you might have to work with that.
The guy at Apertureexpert.com is a genius.
Check out this post for more on slimming your Aperture Library:
http://www.apertureexpert.com/tips/2010/1/20/reducing-library-sizedramatically.h tml
Edit:As a side-note I put some HTML in my message and it looks like it isn't used in the forum - why does Apple bother having the formatting tools if they don't work? Kinda like the close-door button on an elevator?
Edit2: Haha it shows up in the answer but not in the normal thread. Strange, eh?

Merging external managed libraries to one referenced library

I tried searching for this with no luck.
I have my main Aperture library on an external drive and have been using a managed library. I also have another drive with a separate managed library on it with older photos. My goal is to have one referenced library file on my internal drive and keep my masters on the hard drives. I would like to keep the adjustments and organization of the original libraries. Really, my goal is just to have my photos that are spread across 2 external hard drives in one library. It's about 2 TB's of data.
I tried exporting the photos from one project of my external drive to the internal drive and unchecked "consolidate masters", but it still moves the managed master files. I'm starting to think this is not possible. Help! Thanks. (and yes, I have everything backed up)

Welcome to the list. Make sure you read the [Help & Terms of Use|http://discussions.apple.com/help.jspa] when you get a chance.
What you wan to do is doable and isn't to hard. It's harder to describe the steps then to do it.
In a nutshell you will use *File->Relocate Masters* to turn your managed masters into referenced masters and then merge the two libraries. The order you go in will depend a lot on how much free disk space you have on the three drives (internal and the two externals) and how big the current libraries are.
If you have the space on the internal drive to hold one of the current libraries you could copy it to the internal and then relocate the masters to the external (less chance of needing to reconnect masters when you're done). If not hen relocate the masters with the library where it is and then move the library to the internal. Aperture Should still see the referenced masters but if not reconnecting them isn't to big a deal.
Once the masters in both libraries are referenced you could merge the libraries.
Don't have time now to go into more detail. If you need more help post back.

Looking for the best way to consolidate iPhoto Libraries

I have a number of iPhoto libraries. I'd like to consolidate them into one library then eliminate the duplicates. Suggestions on how best to proceed would be much appreciated.

If you have the latest versoins of iPhoto and Aperture you can do it with Aperture.
Otherwise you'll need to paid version of iPhoto Library Manager. With it one can merge multiple libraries into a new library or one of the existing libraries. I'd create a new library to merge into. After the merge into the new library is dome and checked for completeness and to make sure it operates as expected the other, individual libraries can be deleted.
Setup iPLM's preferences similar to this:
OT

Merge 2 iTunes libraries from 2 home computers

I have an older iMac running 10.5.8 (newest OS possible on this computer) in my bedroom and a 1 year old iMac running 10.6.8 in the family room. My old iMac has the bigger and daily used iTunes library on it. Unfortunately I have used the new iMac's iTunes to purchase a dozen songs and to download several CD's that have been lost since. I now would like to merge the two libraries onto my new iMac as one and only download to the new iMac in the future. I don't care if playlists don't make it across. Once set I will use the old iMac to listen to iTunes on the new iMac via Home Sharing. So what are the steps to get the iTunes library on the old iMac onto the new iMac and merged into one library without deleting the new songs on the new iMac? (I'd appreciate a quick note to me at ************* in case I lose track of this thread. Thanks for your time and trouble.
<Email Edited by Host>

Hello Ghostridr2,
I'd recommend following the steps outlined in either the 'Home Sharing' or 'External Drive' sections of the following article.
iTunes: How to move your music to a new computer
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527
Cheers,
Allen

Merging two iPhoto Libraries from two different MACs

Can I blend together two iPhoto libraries? I have a library on another MAC and would love to move it to my laptop merging with the existing iPhoto. How I can do that? I just afraid to overwrite the original library.

marinamcdonagh\
Welcome to the Apple user to user assistance forums
Can I blend together two iPhoto libraries? I have a library on another MAC and would love to move it to my laptop merging with the existing iPhoto. How I can do that? I just afraid to overwrite the original library.
You need iPhoto Library Manager - http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/ - to merge iPhoto libraries
I recommend merging both libraries into a new library so if some problem occurs you do not mess up either original library - this of course requires adequate disk space for all three libraries
LN

Merging different iTunes libraries

I have an old iPOD that was sync'd with an iTunes library that I had on a Windows OS laptop. I changed to Mac and probably stupidly set up a new iTunes library. When I try and sync the old iPod with the Mac I get asked whether "I want to delete the music from the iPOD and then sync with the new library." Obviously I would like to merge the two libraries. The old library has many CDs that were copied into the old iTunes library and I do NOT want to lose those. The old PC and its library have ceased to exist. Anyone any ideas?

Hi, welcome to Apple Discussions.
*Recover media from iPod*
See this post from Zevoneer for options on moving your iPod data back to your computer.
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=7217190#7217190
Once you've rescued the all media you can decide what needs adding to your library.
tt2

Consolidate multiple libraries including ratings, playlists ...e.t.c ????

hi all,
i got crazy. i have started for a long time ago with several installations on different computers with itunes. (i know, bad decision)
i would like to consolidate all libraries into a new one including ratings, infos, playlists e.t.c
i don`t know how to do that, have anybody any idea ?
cheers
apathic

I have never tried this, but in theory it should work:
If you want to move all of the music files to one hard disk and combine all the library files into one, try this:
1. Connect your external drive to computer A, and change your music folder location (iTunes prefs > Advanced > General) to be a folder on you external drive.
2. Choose Consolidate Library from the Advanced menu. This will copy all your music files (but not ratings and playlists, that is the next part) to the external drive.
3. Once the copy has finished, choose Export Library from the File menu, and export the library file to the external drive.
4. Now connect the external drive to computer B.
5. Choose Import from the File menu in iTunes and point it to the library file on the external drive.
Does that work?

Adding 10 gig to new library

up until now ihave stored and used my iTunes on my PC. I have about 2 GB on an small external drive connected to my iBook.
I am getting a much bigger drive and would be over the moon if someone could tell me the best way to transfer all the tunes in both libraries into a new library on my new hard drive. I have my PC and iBook networked so physically moving the tunes isnt the problem, only getting them all into the one library so i can play, organise and fill my shuffle all from my iBook.
If anyone can make sense of what i am saying................. PLEASE help.
Pinkster

i got it.

I just ran migration assistant, and now I have two accounts on my new iMac...how do I merge my iPhoto libraries?

I just ran migration assistant, and now I have two accounts on my new iMac...how do I merge my iPhoto libraries? Is there anyway to do it without using an external hard drive?

Yes there is.
1: Log out and into the account you later want to remove.
2: Open your Pictures folder and look for the iPhoto Library.
3: Right or control click on it, a menu appears and choose the option "Show Package Contents", it's really a folder.
4: Find the folder called "Originals", select it and use the Finder menu to Duplicate it.
5: Move the Copy of Originals to the Desktop. Close the window.
6: From the Finder menu, select Go Computer.
7: A window appears with your boot drive, double click it and on the Users folder inside.
8: Select the OTHER users folder and open the folder called Public, inside is a folder called "DropBox"
9: Drag the Copy of Originals to that DropBox folder, it will copy it.
10. Log out and into the other account and access the DropBox folder, your files can then be imported into that iPhoto user Library from within the program itself.

Merging of multiple aperture libraries into one master library

Over the years, due to limited disk space on my Mac, I ended up having now 3 aperture libraries in 3 separate external hard drive, totaling between he 3 libraries over 2TB of photo storage. I just purchased an additional 4TB external drive (my 4th external hard drive from Lacie) to put ALL my separate Aperture libraries into ONE (1) master Aperture library. I would like to know if anyone could help me with a set of step by step instructions to MERGE my 3 separate Aperture libraries into ONE (1) MASTER library on my newly purchased 4TB external drive. I've looked online and found several articles dealing with merging libraries from multiple computers. I tried them all and was NOT able to do what I would like to do. PLEASE, if any of you have done what I would love to do or knows how to do it, I would appreciate your help. A step by step instructions regarding how to do it would be greatly appreciated! Thank you so much! Robert

Thanks Kieby,
This is what I did: 1.) File/Swith to Library/Other/New To create a new Aperture library which I called MasterAperture Library. The new library was created on my new 4TB external driver.
2.) I then CLOSED Aperture and re-opened it using my default Aperture library located on my Picture folder (Aperture Library).
3.) I did: File/Export/Project as new Library. I chose my external hard drive with the filename: MAsterAperture Library, EXPORT.
The first time I did that nothing happened, I still had an empty MasterAperture Library files without any pictures.
Then I did the same thing thing, except this time, I high lighted my first Projects and went down to my items on my albums and then CTL-H so everthing would be high lighted (ALl my projects and all my albums). Then I did step 3 to the MasterAperture Library and I was able to get the MasterAperture Library as an image copy of the content of the Aperture Library located on my Pictures folder.
Then another problem came up, when I tried to replicateduplicate the same steps outlined above to merge my other 2 remaining libraries, I could NOT do so because the process, at that time, told me that the file MasterAperture Library already exists and if I were to continue, the content of MasterAperture Library will be replaced. Of course this is not wantt. I would like to be able to MERGE the contents of the 2 or 3 remaining libraries that I have currently located in different external drive/locations into the file MasterAperture Library located on my 4TB external drive, and do so, if possible, without too many duplications (if possible, because if I have to remove duplicated projects/albums/photos later, I am willing to do so)!. By the way, I've read the Aperture userguide more than once and have tried the approaches suggested in the guide without succes yet. Thanks again for your kind help. Regards, Bob

Help! Mess-- Merging 4PCs' libraries into 1 common library on Home Server!

I am helping a friend of mine set up his new Windows Home Server. He currently has ITunes running on 4 different Windows PCs with different ITunes libraries (although there are tracks that appear in some or all of these libraries). These libraries were all located in their default locations, and the "Keep my ITunes folder organized" option was selected. The idea was to take all the contents of each ITunes library and copy them into one folder on the Home Server, and then set that folder up as the Itunes library location for all 4 windows PCs. I changed the Itunes library location for each user account on each PC to the folder on the server, and then I did a 'Consolidate Library'. However, each Itunes is reporting a different number of tracks. At this point I started 'trying things' to correct this (and I can't tell you exactly what I had tried because I was really tired at that point, but it did involve some cutting and pasting). Well now there are duplicates (and triplicates, etc) of many of the tracks on top of the original problem! Does anybody know what I need to do to fix this now?

Since you don't have a Mac, that link to Dupin won't help.
I think the best thing to do is to see what duplicates you have in Windows Explorer. You'll have to go through them one by one, but listing them alphabetically should help.
Once the tracks are OK on the server, you can start iTunes with a new blank library and add all the tracks in. Just drag the top-level folder over into the new itunes library. You can create a new library by holding down the shift key while itunes starts, and browsing to the server so the ITL file will be placed there.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1589
You could also try a program like TuneRanger that will manage multiple libraries, but it's not free. In fact your firend is going to have to buy something like this if he wants all 4 PCs to access one itunes library ITL file at once.
Otherwise he is only going to be able to open itunes on one PC at a time. If he tries to use the same ITL file on a 2nd or 3rd PC, he will get a message that the itunes library is in use.

Merging iphoto libraries onto a new computer?

I recently purchased a new macbook to replace my aging powerbook and imac.
Each of these computers has its own separate yet redundant iPhoto library and associated files (meaning there are plenty of duplicate photos, but many are unique). Addtionally, the iPhoto programs on these older computers are 2-4 years old. Is there any easy way to merge these two libraries and their associated image files and move it all onto the macbook without losing data about the photos or generating a lot of redundant images/files?
Thanks!

Rename the two Libraries: Library A and Library B.
Copy the two libraries to the new machine.
Hold down the option (or alt) key and launch iPhoto. It will ask you to choose a Library. Choose Library A. It will update it to an iPhoto 08 Library
Hold down the option (or alt) key and launch iPhoto. It will ask you to choose a Library. Choose Library B. It will update it to an iPhoto 08 Library
Now you have two iPhoto 08 Libraries.
Download iPhoto Library Manager and use its Merge feature to merge the two libraries.
Regards
TD

How to merge iPhoto v2 libraries into one iPhoto v11 library

Hi,
I just are going through a major upgrade from my iBook dual USB (500 MHz Power PC G3, OS 10.4.11) to my brand-new MacBook Pro (2.3 GHz core I5, OS 10.6.8).
As my old iBook was running so slow, I had splitted my libraries into two using IPhoto Library Manager some years ago running with iPhoto 2. Now I need to merge these two libraries into one and then transfer it to my new computer and let iPhoto 11 upgrade the library at once.
Based on very helpful earlier threats, I intend to follow the process below:
Merge libraries using iPhoto Library Manager (registered version) to get one library (on my old computer)
Copy this library into the Pictures folder of my new computer
Open iPhoto (shift key will give me the option to select if needed) and it will automatically upgrade my library.
So far so good - but I experience one issue I did not manage to solve. I use iPhoto Library Manager version 3.5.2 on my old computer, but after starting the merging process it tells me I need iPhoto version 4 at least; but I have version 2 only. I guess I cannot use iPhoto version 11 on my new computer as I first need to merge the libraries as old versions, as the iPhoto version 11 cannot work with the not yet upgraded libraries, can it? I have the IPhoto Library Manager registered version 3.6.8 installed on my new machine.
Before I make a major mistake to my pictures (> 20 GB): is it possible to upgrade both old libraries separately in iPhoto v11 and then merge them in iPhoto v11?
Many thanks for your advice!
Best regards,
Markus

Rename the second iPhoto 2 library to something other that iPhoto Library and put it in the Pixtures folder next to the other library on your new MBP. Then open it with iPhoto11 to convert.
Once both are converted to the same version you can use iPLM to merge them into a new library.
HOWEVER if you don't care about any metadata you might have in your last iPhoto 2 library you can use SyncPhotos
to import the photos in your iPhoto 2 library into your iPhoto 11 library.
Here's how it works:
1 - it compares the databases and/or album.xml files of Libraries A and B.
2 - the files in A that are not in B are imported into B by copying the original files from A into B's Import folder.
3 - it then does the same for B.
4 - metadata is not copied.
It can be used to just copy from A to B and not sync both ways if desired. It will work with 2 libraries that are different versions, i.e. between an iPhoto 08 and iPhoto 09 library.
OT

Merge/Consolidate 3 Libraries to 1 new Library

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