Move Library While Keeping Custom Folder Structure?

I just upgraded to a new larger hard drive, moving my old one to another bay of my G4.
Most of my music is organized on the drive in folders based on custom mixes I have built, a legacy of my pre-iTunes organization and my personal preference to organize by era and my previous custom mixes. Those mixes have also been organized into iTunes playlists.
Manually copying the folders to the new drive moved the music in my preferred structure, but I cannot get the Library file to recognize the new drive, everything plays off the old drive.
I don't want to have to re-import dozens of playlists and re-enter all the tags and ratings or manually reconnect 1800 songs. Consolidating the library on the new drive will wipe out my structure for iTunes' rigid Artist, Album, etc. scheme which I detest.
I just want to know if there's a way for iTunes to move or reconnect the files with my preferred organizational structure without hijacking the process and doing things its way.

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Exporting Aperture photos to an external HD while keeping existing folder structure

Hi,
I have over 300gb of photos on my MBP. I need to export the photos onto an external Hard Drive and keep the existing folder structure. How can this be done?
My source for the Aperture library is iPhoto. I know that I can 'show package contents' from right clicking the iPhoto library, but this only displays the masters. I need the versions as I have done many edits on the majority of photos. I am fine with having the photos separated out by date - renaming the folder isn't a problem. I just don't want to have to sort through ALL of my photos and place them into different folders.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks!

Thanks for the information everyone! I apologize if I'm not being clear.
Here are a few call outs:
1. I have my aperture library and iPhoto synced (the source of all my photos is iPhoto. I exclusively use Aperture for photo editing however).
2. I am actually using a work computer and I am leaving the company. Therefore I need to give the computer back. I will be 'uninstalling' Aperture and eventually erasing all the photos.
3. I don't know what my next photo editing computer will be at this point as I have not purchased one.
4. Since I don't know my next computer, I would like to have all of my existing "Folders" and "Projects" (as Aperture defines them) on an external drive so I can pick and pull the ones I would like to view / edit.
5. On my next computer, I would not like to import my exact settings / folder structure from Aperture. I will be starting fresh. With that said, I would prefer to have all my existing "Folders" and "Projects" in one giant folder called "Pictures" on my external HD.
Example folder structure on my External HD:
Folder 1: Pictures
Folder 1a: Aperture "Folder" 1
Folder 1ai: Aperture "Project" 1
Folder 1aii: Aperture "Project" 2
Folder 1b: Aperture "Folder" 2
Folder 1bi: Aperture "Project" 1
Folder 1bii: Aperture "Project" 2
I have roughly 90 "Projects" inside about 5 "Folders". Of course I can create a folder on my external HD, select all the pictures, and click export for every single one of my "Projects", but I would prefer not do to that as it is incredibly time consuming. I am looking for an automated way of copying all my photos to an external drive while maintaining my existing folder / projects hierarchy into what 'finder' defines as 'folders'.
Although I would like to keep my 'masters' and 'versions', my original thought was to just export the versions. So actually, I guess just 'moving' the entire library would work. But since I don't know what computer I will work on and I may be on a temporary computer (install Aperture and manually select photos to import and work on), I wanted to have them be in a folder structure for easy importing and viewing if I wanted to on any mac.
My existing structure in Aperture are Folders --> Projects.
In order to copy my entire library, I have gone into (from finder) "Hard Drive" > Users > Wingmandan > Pictures > iPhoto Library. I have taken that icon and dragged into my external HD. It was 300 gb, and took about 8 horus to complete.
Desired end result
-Be able to quickly reference/view the versions of my pictures on any mac through my external HD (Versions)
-Be able to choose what photos to import based upon my existing 'folders' and 'projects' into my next computer (Versions and Masters)
-Have a full backup of my Aperture Library
I hope this makes more sense and I'm a bit more clear. Again, thanks again for your help. I need to return the laptop by the end of the week.

How do I add to my library, while keeping songs on external hd

I have a huge music collection on an external hd. When I "add to my library", the songs are being saved on my macs hd- I dont want that to happen.
I would like to be able to access my entire music collection thru itunes without using up all my macs memory.
My old pc used to add songs to my library, while keeping the songs on my external hd.
Anyone have any idea's
mac book Mac OS X (10.4.8)
mac book Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Another option is to have your iTunes library stored on your external hd.
Hold down the option key when you load up iTunes and you'll be presented with a dialog that asks if you want to open an existing library or create a new one. Create a new one and save it to your external hd.
Import your songs from wherever they are (I recommend enabling the copy to iTunes library setting in your options and then once you're satisfied, delete the originals which will now be duplicated).
From now on, everytime you load up iTunes it will automatically launch the library on your external hd and everytime you add a song it will automatically copy to the right place on your external hd.
Front Row will also act the same... it will automatically pick up your external iTunes library with no extra configuration. Easy.

I have several pdf files in my computer which are organized in folders. I want to transfer them to IBooks (in my Ipad) and keep the folder structure I use in my computer. Is it possible to do it? Do I need any other app?

I have several pdf files in my computer which are organized in folders. I want to transfer them to IBooks (in my Ipad) and keep the folder structure I use in my computer. Is it possible to do it? Do I need any other app?

By design, the organizer (and any other database management systems) is there to prevent you from duplicating your media files. The catalog management allows you to have the same image in different categories or albums. Duplication in different folders is to be absolutely avoided.
The same image file can have multiple tags like 'family', 'vacations', 'birthdays' and be present in three different albums with the same names. On obvious advantage is less disk space. Another one with your present folder system is that if you edit one of your duplicates, the other ones are unchanged.
I don't see an easy way to make your present folder structure simplified for the organizer ...

Best way to integrate system Music & Movies folders with iTunes' default folder structure?

I understand that OSX has system folders that can't be moved (Music, Movies, Documents, etc.). These folders are the only ones that get their specialized icons in the sidebar. I like those icons as they make choosing the right folder easier (even though I can read).
MUSIC:
Isn't there something very un-elegant to have my actual music files buried 4 layers deep in OSX's folder structure? By that I mean, I'd like to click on my (system) Music folder and see my music. But OSX and iTunes have schemed to make users have to deal with Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music. It's weird, right?
I am aware that the iTunes library location can be altered via Advanced Prefs, but I like having Music, Podcasts, Movies, etc. be on the same folder level, if that makes sense. If I point iTunes to my (system) Music folder, then my other media will be down below in the iTunes Media folder.
MOVIES:
Likewise, if I let iTunes manage my files, movies go to the Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Movies folder. I don't let iTunes copy everything into the Media folder (as I don't want to eat HD space with duplicates), but that's still where it wants movies to go when it organizes. Similar to the Music folder issue above, how can I make use of my (system) Movies folder given this setup?
I know that I can just remove whatever folders I want from the sidebar and put in the ones that iTunes uses, but then I lose out on the icons and I end up having permanent folders in my Home folder that don't even get directly used for the media files they're supposed to hold.
Thoughts?

first of all, to get rid of the duplicates, you tell iTunes to consolidate Library.
I think you may be missing the idea of what iTunes does for you. If you have content, like music, that you want to find the file of, you right click the name of the file in itunes and then "show in finder" . For things like iChat, you can simply drag and drop your music into the chat window from itunes, just like it was finder. iTunes organizes your media for you so you don't have to go looking for it.
The same thing goes with videos.
There is no reason to have two of the same files on your computer. Think of iTunes like finder, only it plays media too.
Not everyone uses itunes. Things like quicktime player, after you do a recording, will save the content into your videos folder. They're not on itunes but it uses your video folder to save the recordings. This is just one example of how your video sidebar icon folder will still be useful.
Delete the backups you have of your media unless they're in a format the itunes doesn't support, like lossess formats such as Flac, because it is pointless and wasteful to have two of the same files for music and video on your computer.

Aperture only sees MOVs in SD card copy folder structure

I copied a couple of SD cards to hard disk and trying to import images only shows the Movs which are in H.264 MTS file packages and completely ignores JPG images in the folder structure root and DCIM folders. All seems very random as not all MOVs are shown anyway (Quicktime handles packages perfectly).
It's obviously no big deal and just requires some finder foot work but I see more and more vague behaviour from all Apple products these days.

Thanks - reading directly from SD card shows images but many of the movies are still missed. Basically all a bit random - less than useless for a professional tool were users may rely on dumping card contents into a library before reuse.

Need to batch convert PDF to RTF while maintaining original folder structure

I'm using Acrobat Pro 9 and I need a way to batch convert PDF files to RTF while maintaining the original folder structure. So for instance, I might get a set of interview transcripts that were conducted with members of 1000 randomly selected households in 3 different cities. Something like this, where the words in all caps are folder names:
BOSTON
       HH1001
            PERSON-1A
                    Interview1.pdf
                    Interview2.pdf
            PERSON-2A
                    Interview1.pdf
                    Interview2.pdf
       HH1002
            PERSON-1A
                    Interview1.pdf
                    Interview2.pdf
            PERSON-2A
                    Interview1.pdf
                    Interview2.pdf
            PERSON-1C
                    Interview1.pdf
                    Interview2.pdf
DETROIT
       HH2001
            PERSON-1A
                    Interview1.pdf
                    Interview2.pdf
            PERSON-2A
                    Interview1.pdf
                    Interview2.pdf
       HH2002
            PERSON-1A
                    Interview1.pdf
                    Interview2.pdf
            PERSON-2A
                    Interview1.pdf
                    Interview2.pdf
            PERSON-1C
                    Interview1.pdf
                    Interview2.pdf
As u can see, the folder structure can get quite complicated and it's important to keep it the same. Is there any way I can batch convert without having to open all 1000 files at once (which would crash the computer) or without having to add each subfolder to the Export Multiple Files window?
I also tried saving the original folders and files in a portfolio and then converting the portfolio, but that puts all the converted files in a single folder.

Bernd Alheit wrote:
For the output location choose 'Same Folder as Original(s)'
Yes, I've done that many times. It doesn't put them in the correct folder structure, it just puts all the new files in the highest-level folder.

How can I batch move files to the same folder structure in a different location?

Hi,
I recently had an issue with my iTunes Library so I used the Organize Library feature to have iTunes organise my library. What happened was that it put all of my music in a folder called 'Music' on my external hard drive, whereas previously it was not in a folder at all, e.g.
BEFORE: External Hard Drive / Abba / Greatest Hits / Mama Mia.m4a
AFTER: External Hard Drive / Music / Abba / Greatest Hits / Mama Mia.m4a
I don't have any particular issue with the updated folder structure, except that I had copies of the artwork for each album in my album folders, and these weren't moved when the audio files were moved/consolidated/organised. So I need to find a way of moving all of the artwork to the new folders, e.g.
External Hard Drive / Abba / Greatest Hits / folder.jpg
needs to become:
External Hard Drive / Music / Abba / Greatest Hits / folder.jpg
I have to do this for 3,000+ albums, and I have multiple artwork files for some albums, so I am hoping that there is a way of doing this using a batch/automated method of some kind, but I haven't been able to turn up anything yet.
Can someone help with this?
Thanks,
Nick

You can make a smart playlist containing episodes of both series and play from that. Podcasts are linked together by the URL they are served from so merging ongoing series isn't really practical.
tt2

I've moved an internal hard drive with all my music and library files to a new computer --- how can I get itunes to import the whole library while keeping my metadata?

I've always kept all my music on its own dedicated internal hard drive. Now I've got a new PC, finally made the switch to Windows 7 from XP, and I've moved my internal hard drive over to the new machine.
I installed iTunes, but I'm having a heck of a time getting it to import the music and library files, keeping all my playlists and metadata. Why is this so hard?

If your New to You Used Mac is froom mid 2012 and originally came with Lion installed on it you will need to Reinstall that version using the Online Internet Recovery system and then at first boot of the new install use the Setup Assistant system to copy over all the data from your wifes old hard drive.
To access the Online system at startup hold down the Command + Option/alt + r keys and keep them held down until you see a globe on the screen. From the resulting screen that cames up, Mac OS X Utilities, select Disk Utility and then the top most entry for the hard drive, left hand panel, drive model number and size, and then the Partition tab. Repartition the drive as One Partition, You Must do that to get ride of the Mavericks Recovery HD partition which is hidden. Name the partition Macintosh HD with a format of Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
Once that is done exit disk utility and select Reinstall Mac OS X.

Ann: LR2/TreeExporter - Export your images while preserving the folder structure

Hi,
I've just released a new plug-in that'll export images whilst preserving the original folder structure.
The plug-in scans the images to be exported in order to determine the deepest folder that contains all the images, and then exports the tree from this point (although you can optionally choose to start higher up) to your destination.
Real time examples are given so that it's very clear what's going to happen. The UI is polished and easy to use.
More details here:
http://www.timothyarmes.com/lr2treeexporter.php
and don't miss the quick guide:
http://www.timothyarmes.com/lr2treee...sec=quickguide
As usual, comments and feature requests are welcome.
Tim

Hi,
Unfortunately the SDK doesn't offer access to this
information.
I hope some day it will...
SDK should provide methods to enumerate collections.
Even if it did this would probably not be possible
since a photo can belong to many collections.
But this is not a problem - copies will be duplicated in correspondent folders.
Regards,
Grafin

How to store movie contents while keeping same music library

Pretty much what i wanna do is that to save music in my computer but keep my movie contents in external hard drive. How do i do this?
Thanks in advance

Put the movies on the external drive. Hold down the option key while dragging them to an iTunes window which will leave the files where you put them. Of course the movies will show as broken links iif you do not have the external turned on when starting iTunes, but the links will repair themselves if you turn on the drive and restart iTunes.
My preferred method is to make a separate library for movies and store this on the external drive. To do that, start iTunes with the option key held down.

Trying to split large library, I exported a folder of 3000 images to a new library. The new library was created with these images, but it still remained in the original library. How can I remove it from the original library while keeping it in the new l

Splitting a library does not remove the folder I moved from the original library. I exported a folder of 3000 images from the original library to a new library. The new libraryb was created alright, but the folder and the 3000 images remain in the original library. Why? And how do I safely remove them?

The new libraryb was created alright, but the folder and the 3000 images remain in the original library. Why? And how do I safely remove them?
Exporting a library will create a duplicate of the exported library items. Usually you do this to work on a partial library on another computer and later merge the changed images back. Splitting the library is not the primary purpose of exporting.
If you want to remove the library items that you exported, select them in the source list of the library inspector and delete them (File > Delete Original Images and all Versions). Then empty the Aperture Trash, after checking that you did not trash more than you wanted.
But check, if the backup of your Aperture library is in working condition, and check the exported library carefully, before you do such a massive delete.
Regards
Léonie

How to move library if iTunes Media Folder is not at default location

I need to move my iTunes library from my old laptop to my new one which should be simple enough but the problem is that my iTunes library database and content will not be in the same relative locations on the new computer - ie...I long ago ran out of space on my laptop HD and all my music has been on an external HD so my iTunes Media Location is not the standard "My Music" folder but instead points to E:/ITUNES EHD.
I would like to plug in the external HD to the new PC and copy the files to the new internal HD (as one of the reasons for buying the new computer was to do away with using the external HD for iTunes) and have the new iTunes point at the new media location but all the copied files have a pathway starting with E:/ rather than C:/ so iTunes immediately ignores them.
How can I transfer the files (including all the playlists other info) from the external HD to the new internal HD so that the "new" iTunes will recognise the files in their new location.
I hope this makes sense to somebody out there - please help or ask me any questions if I have not been too clear.

This article should get you started:
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to -a-new-hard-drive/48
The most important thing for a trouble free transfer is all you music files must be in your designated iTunes Music/media folder. That is set from the advanced tab in preferences.
If your current media folder is not set in preferences, you need to set it. If there are any music files outside the designated folder you need to consolidate your library.
The reason for this is that iTunes is extremely fussy about paths to files, but it can cope with a change in the path above the level of the designated media folder.
If you want to keep your current playlists etc, you will need to transfer your current iTunes folder containing the library files.
A simple way to do this is to install iTunes on the new PC then with iTunes closed drag the new iTuneas folder out of music to the desktop and replace it with the iTunes folder from the old PC.
You will need to adjust the permissions on the folder so your new account is the owner with full control.
Initially set the location of your iTunes music folder to the external drive and check that it all works.
Then you can move your files, by changing the location of your itunes media folder to one on the internal drive and then consolidating.
See this on moving the music folder:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364?viewlocale=en_US
If I haven't explained it clearly enough post back with any questions.

Is there a way to just keep my folder structure + names?

My music collection is already painstakingly sorted into folders and all the mp3's have descriptive names. When I add them to my iTunes I get a giant mix of junk that's impossible to sort, search, or rearrange.
I can't even see the filenames or paths much less sort on those.
Is there an option I'm missing?

My music collection is already painstakingly sorted
into folders and all the mp3's have descriptive
names. When I add them to my iTunes I get a giant
mix of junk that's impossible to sort, search, or
rearrange.
I can't even see the filenames or paths much less
sort on those.
Is there an option I'm missing?
The filenames and paths are not used by iTunes. You need to properly tag your music. I recommend using a mass tagger like Tag&Rename which can pull information from the path and filename and tag the files correctly. It can also pull tag information from Amazon.com and such, and is very handy.
Tags, BTW, are information like Artist/Album and such that are stored in the music file itself. Folder names and filenames can be changed by accident easily, tags will stay the same unless you change them with a tag editor.

Export multiple folders while keeping folder structure

I want to export multiple folders at one time. I select the folders in LR and then all the photos in those folders. When I look at the exported photos they're all lumped together (and the keywords are gone, if I do one folder at a time the keywords remain)
Any way to keep the folder structure while exporting multiple folders?
Thanks

You can use a publish service such as this one: Jeffrey Friedl's Blog » Jeffrey’s “Folder Publisher” Lightroom Plugin

Move Library While Keeping Custom Folder Structure?

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