Moved all music files

I recently moved all of my music files to an external hard drive. Since now they are in a different location, itunes can't play the song because it can't find the original file. All my music files are in the same folder, but I have only been able to locate each song one by one. Is there a way I can tell it where all the files went all at once?

Yes. A bit painful. I have redone my entire library because I don't like the way iTunes imports the songs from one album into multiple folders. I own about 800 CDs and decided to import them all. I actually used an external hard drive connected to my laptop to do all the importing so i could watch TV during the tedious process. In the end I copied the entire iTunes music library from the external drive to my main computer (where I sync my iPOD). I loaded it to a partitioned drive. I still have the iTunes folder in the C:\documents\My Music directory, but the iTunes Music folder is empty.
When you are ready, you need to highlight all songs in your existing library and delete them. Say Keep Files as a precaution(although I had already deleted my original folders). You will LOSE all of your playlists, and any ratings, etc. Make sure that under preferences you have UNCHECKed the "copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library". Also set the Advanced preferences to your new library folder on your external drive.
Then you can do File-Add Folder and map it to the new iTunes music folder on your new external drive. It will add all the songs back with their new mapping. You need to decide if what you lose by doing this (playlists, ratings, etc)or remapping songs is the most tedious. I find remapping songs to be very tedious, and I only had a couple of playlists.
When this is finished you may want to recheck the add files to library. Under Edit-Preferences-Advanced, you need to make sure that you point your library to the external iTunes Music folder. Otherwise everytime you import songs, they will go to the My Music folder on your internal hard drive. Not sure if this helps, but I found that this worked fine, and I have about 12,000 songs (43GB) in my library. Make sure your folders on your external drive are exactly how you want them before you start this. (otherwise you can redo the whole process multiple times, like I have...)
My daughter is actually keeping half of her library on the internal drive on her laptop and less desired music on an external drive. We moved the files she wanted to her internal hard drive music folder. Deleted all her songs in iTunes, added the folder to iTunes, created a playlist of ALL the songs on her hard drive. Then added the folder from the external drive (this is really where you need to make sure that iTunes doesn't copy them all again. We blew it the first time...her drive ran out of space...so we had to start over). Now she can play music from her laptop using the playlist we created when she is not connected without hitting alot of missing tracks. When the laptop is connected to the external drive, she can play anything.
Not sure if this will help. Good luck.

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I have a Windows 7 laptop using I tunes 64 and all my music files are on an external disc. I rarely use I tunes and at one point moved all my files (including the music files) from one external disc to another without considering what affect this wou

I have a Windows 7 laptop using I tunes 64 and all my music files are
on an external disc. I rarely use I tunes and at one point moved all my files
(including the music files) from one external disc to another without
considering what affect this would have on the I tunes library. When I eventually
attempted to use I tunes, every selected a song from the library resulted in a
message stating that the file couldn't be located. After following some of the procedures
explained in this community I was able to reconnect the library back to where
the associated music files are presently stored. However, there are still 2
problems that need to be corrected. 1) Every song file now has a duplicate. One
file works and the other file will result in the same message stating that the
file couldn't be located. Before there were 4,000 songs in the library, now
there are 8,000 songs. I need to eliminate the 4,000 dead song files. 2) All
the playlists are still associated with the dead song files which makes the
playlists unusable. Can the playlists be reconnected to the usable files
without manually having to recreate them? Thanks in advance for the help.
sdkr

So am I understanding correctly?
You used your iPod as a hard drive (drag and drop) instead of having iTunes install the music?
If you used drag and drop your choices are different than if you used iTunes to transfer.
Good luck!

Find all music files and move to one folder for all of family to access, find all music files and move to one folder for all of family to access

I seem to have music files in various places on my laptop, on my husbands computer and our main imac. What we want to do is put all music on imac so when each of us logs on we have the same files availabe in itunes, but we logon seperately so we can have different playlists and checked music. So here is what I want to do:
Find all music files on each computer seperately and put everything in one folder one each computer, so three folders total to start...
Move my husbands itunes library and my itunes library from each of our laptops to our main imac, making one huge itunes folder
I want to store our music on an external hard drive, which I have, so I have a full library for backup purposes.
I want all future music downloaded on any of our laptops to transfer to the main imac computer, again to keep one main library
I want all video, apps, books, etc on each laptop to be available in one file on my main imac also so we can all use them
So mainly I want to organize, organize, organize and put everything in one spot so things don't get all messed up and some items are only accessible to me some times and not my husband or vice versa. We want to share everything we can so we don't have to pay twice. I have read many instuctions, but nothing seems to be helping me and was hoping someone could...
Thanks, l

I am totally running into the same issue as well. On top of that, when syncing to my iPhone, it took some of the tracks from my iphone and recopied them to the iTunes library, as new files, so now I have a ton of duplicates, and tons of tracks that can't find the iTunes folder, so they have the little "!" next to them.
It would be really nice to have someone answer this question. I didn't think, moving my iTunes library to a bigger external hard drive would have caused all this madness

HT1473 Help I just moved my music files to a external hard drive and am using the new crappy version ( i know my opinion) of itunes and cant add the files to my libray it gives me the add file to library option but not the add folder to library option wha

Help I just moved my music files to a external hard drive and am using the new crappy version ( i know my opinion) of itunes and cant add the files to my libray it gives me the add file to library option but not the add folder to library option what am i doing wrong?

In iTunes 11 uncheck the preferences setting in in the iTunes Preferences panel "Advanced > Copy Files to iTunes Media folder when adding to Library"

New version of ITunes installed - Not all music files are being recognized

My system crashed and Itunes was automatically 're-installed.' My music is located on my external hard drive. When I reconnected my music to ITunes about 3000 music files did not appear in my library. Before the re-install all music files were available in the library.
The music files are all still located on my external hard drive. Strangely, when I copied my music on my external hard drive to create yet another back up of my music many music files were missing on the copy. The missing files were a combination of downloaded music from a cd and purchased, no trend.
I welcome any advice on how I can get 1. my ITunes library to read all of my music files (which are in ITunes format) and 2. how do I copy all of my music on my external hard drive to make a safe back up (I-tunes back up is not an option because not all of the music appears in my library)
Thanks for your help

See Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device.
tt2

After a backup all music files are invisible and iTunes don't see anything

Hi,
I got a very strange problem and I'm really lost.
I made a backup of my portable iTunes libray (using a 160 GB Maxtor one touch 4 mini usb) on another backup disk (750 GB Maxtor onetouch III firwire 800). I have my library on a external disk to safe disk space on my MacBook Pro disk. For the back up I use the software Personal Backu4 of Intego Software. The 160GB iTunes disk is Formatted als Mac OS Extended format.
Now all back up data that aren't music files (AAC or MP3 files) was correctly back up, but all music files was like deleted, all artist > album folders looks empty. But, cheking with the disk utility it looks that all files exist and the Used space (36.06 GB) looks correctly and the numbers of files too (some 5942 files). But all files are invisible, folders looks empty. Now is looks that all purchased and CD imported int my library didn't exist anymore: and this in BOTH disks, side by side is the same situation.
How I can come out from this situation, I really don't have any idea how to coming out fron this sad situation.
Hany help is really appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Julien - Switzerland
Message was edited by: jdaulte

OK, here's what REALLY doesn't make sense.
After manually fixing a lost file, NOTHING in the XML changes. Not one single character changes in the XML file. I diff'd the whole file before and after - no difference. So, basically, it goes out and 'finds' it and updates something that we can't see to repair the connection, meanwhile we are left to think that this XML file has the library data in it.
Mind you, the media file(s) are present and accounted for in the file system - correct name and path and everything - before and after I go Locate the file when iTunes complains about it being missing..
iTunes is so overbloated, we can't even fix stuff when we see precisely how it is broken.

Media Transfer 1.41 deletes all music files

When i updated media transfer to 1.41 this problem apeared:
it first deletes all music files on the phone before it syncs them.
If i sync one mp3 file it takes 1-2 hours for media sync to first delete all files ant then copy all files to the phone.
(I have over 4gig of music on my memory card.)
I did not have this problem with the 1.4 version.

I have a few comments/bug reports (I have also submitted these through the app).
BUGS:
1. The app seems to force conversion of perfectly normal AAC files created in iTunes (.m4a). The files are converted to... AAC!!!
There is no need for this conversion as the files play fine on the phone (N95)
Both files created with iTunes standard ACC settings and with a custom VBR settings are converted.
MP3 files are transferred without conversion.
2. Bookmarked AAC files (.m4b) are not converted or transferred (they are ignored) - many podcasts use this format and they play fine in iTunes and QuickTime.
(Edit - it seems iTunes and OS X treat these files as protected, even though they are not - also the N95 will not play the files if copied without conversion).
FEATURE/ENHANCEMENT REQUESTS:
1. User prefence for caching - I have a 4GB memory card and may not be interested in having everything on it cached on my computer. When using USB2 the connection should be fast enough for viewing/streaming from the phone.
2. The viewing in the browser is a bit confusing - when e.g. the memory card is selected it shows a lot of different files from different folders (I have TOMTOM maps on the card so a lot of useless files are showing) It would be nice to either be able to select which files are shown, or just make the browser work normally, so it is only showing files in the current folder (selecting the memory card would show the root folder).
3. Options for conversions (e.g. "Do not convert files with a bitrate below xxx kbps").
I look forward to the next version - if the 2 bugs are fixed this is already a very solid app.
Great to see real OS X support.Message Edited by peter321 on 09-Jun-200707:31 PM

7.0.2 How to view all music files on iPod

I upgraded my iTunes version on my Mac and now I am having some issues deleting songs off a playlist. Basically I have a podcast playlist and then I just have all my music dumped on the iPod not on a playlist. After I had finished listening to a bunch of the podcasts in my podcast playlist I would click on the iPod device in iTunes Source Tree and then I would see all music files on my iPod including podcasts. I could then delete them when I am ready. Now with 7.0.2 if I click on iPod I get the new fancy display showing my iPod Stats and stuff. If I click on my podcast playlist and delete the files it removes them from the playlist but they still actually reside on my iPod and no space is freed. How can I remove files off my iPod now in 7.0.2? I had iTunes 6.0 on a Windows machine and I was able to actually get the files off using the old version but I don't have access to this Windows machine too often so I really want to figure out how to remove files off a playlist permanently and gain access in iTunes to remove any files not associated with a playlist.

Hey thanks for replying. That is the way the old iTunes did it but now any songs I move to my Podcast playlist I don't see show up in my Music category. I was using clicking on the chevron for Music but it still doesn't show any new files placed into my Podcast Playlist. If I sort by date added or modified I can't find them. If I search thru all the songs I still can't find the podcast files. I have an old 3G 20GB, I wonder if it is an issue with them because I can't believe nobody else has this issue.

I keep getting "startup disk full" message even when I already moved all my files/documents to an external hard disk

Dear all,
What should I do? I keep getting the "startup disk full" message even when I already moved all my files and documents to an external hard disk.
Thanks a heap.

For information about the Other category in the Storage display, see this support article.
Empty the Trash if you haven't already done so. If you use iPhoto, empty its internal Trash first:
iPhoto ▹ Empty Trash
Do the same in other applications, such as Aperture, that have an internal Trash feature. Then reboot. That will temporarily free up some space.
According to Apple documentation, you need at least 9 GB of available space on the startup volume (as shown in the Finder Info window) for normal operation. You also need enough space left over to allow for growth of your data. There is little or no performance advantage to having more available space than the minimum Apple recommends. Available storage space that you'll never use is wasted space.
If you're using Time Machine to back up a portable Mac, some of the free space will be used to make local snapshots, which are backup copies of files you've recently deleted. The space occupied by local snapshots is reported as available by the Finder, and should be considered as such. In the Storage display of System Information, local snapshots are shown as Backups. The snapshots are automatically deleted when they expire or when free space falls below a certain level. You ordinarily don't need to, and should not, delete local snapshots yourself.
See this support article for some simple ways to free up storage space.
You can more effectively use a tool such as OmniDiskSweeper (ODS) to explore your volume and find out what's taking up the space. You can also delete files with it, but don't do that unless you're sure that you know what you're deleting and that all data is safely backed up. That means you have multiple backups, not just one.
Deleting files inside an iPhoto or Aperture library will corrupt the library. Any changes to a photo library must be made from within the application that created it. The same goes for Mail files.
Proceed further only if the problem isn't solved by the above steps.
ODS can't see the whole filesystem when you run it just by double-clicking; it only sees files that you have permission to read. To see everything, you have to run it as root.
Back up all data now.
If you have more than one user account, make sure you're logged in as an administrator. The administrator account is the one that was created automatically when you first set up the computer.
Install ODS in the Applications folder as usual. Quit it if it's running.
Triple-click anywhere in the line of text below on this page to select it, then copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C:
sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper
Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
Paste into the Terminal window (command-V). You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.
The application window will open, eventually showing all files in all folders, sorted by size with the largest at the top. It may take a few minutes for ODS to finish scanning your files.
I don't recommend that you make a habit of doing this. Don't delete anything while running ODS as root. If something needs to be deleted, make sure you know what it is and how it got there, and then delete it by other, safer, means. When in doubt, leave it alone or ask for guidance.
When you're done with ODS, quit it and also quit Terminal.

I have the new iPhone 4s. I'm using cloud. I try to sync my playlists to my phone an it either erases them completely or keeps saying it cannot move all music files over? Please help. Also my purchased ringtones will not sync up as well.

I have the new iPhone 4s. I'm using cloud. I try to sync my playlists to my phone an it either erases them completely or keeps saying it cannot move all music files over? Please help. Also my purchased ringtones will not sync up as well.

iPod touches or any iDevices from Apple sync only to one computer. If you sync to a different computer, all your music will be replace with the music from the new computer's iTunes. If the music were purchased from iTunes, you can re-download them again otherwise the music on iPod touch will be deleted. Do you have iTunes backup?

Moved all my files to my portable hard drive and put them back on my computer but all downloads - music and apps - aren't showing up on my computer

I had a problem where I had to remove all of my picture, movie, and music files from my computer and now that I've put what I moved back onto my computer, I went to sync my iPod and realized that all of my previously downloaded apps and music files are not showing up in iTunes and I haven't been able to locate my apps anywhere. If I sync my iPod, will the files on my iPod transfer to iTunes or will I lose everything? I paid money for a lot of those apps and I don't want to risk losing them. Help please!!

You can transfer iTunes purchases to the computer by:
iTunes Store: Transferring purchases from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod to a computer
You can transfer non-iTunes purchased music by using a third-party program like one of thse discussed here:
Best iPod to PC

ITUNES DOES NOT PLAY ALL MUSIC FILES AFTER DATA RECOVERY

My external Iomega Firewire 160gig HD, all of a sudden, changed the drive letter from H to F with unknown format.
I recovered music files ( Using Stellar Phoenix FAT)and files/folders are in iTunes but only 20-30 play (out of over 6,000)
I can play CD and rip new music in iTunes, though.
Any suggestions how to get my music play all library files??
Dell Windows XP Media center

WiseBird,
There might be several causes for that kind of erratic behaviour:
1st use Disk Utility to check your internal disk as well as the external one.
2nd Your Library database might be damaged
- Quit iTunes
- Goto ./Users/YourUserName/Music/iTunes
There will 2 files named something "Library" - move them to your desktop
- Launch iTunes
As you're now starting from scratch, iTunes will offer to search for audio tracks - Don't let it.
- Your iTunes should be "clean"
- in iTunes Preferences - Advanced - General:
Point the Music Folder Location to the appropriate folder on your ext hd
Disable "Copy Files to iTunes music folder....."
- Quit Preferences
- From iTunes Menu - File choose "Add to library..." + select that folder on your ext hd that contains all your tracks.
- All your tracks should be back by now in iTunes Library.
- To get your playlists back: From iTunes Menu - File choose "Import" and open that .xml file that you moved to your desktop (might work but need not).

ALL music files lost on 4G/20 gig iPod today - help?

Had the iPod since February of this year. No problems. Recently updated to the latest version of iTunes. Everything's updated. Today, went to turn it on and every single file was gone. The menu settings were completely reset. Plug it into the pc and iTunes says there are no music files.
There were 14 gigs of music on it. And it's just...gone.
Help? Is there anyway the files are still there? What caused the complete loss of data? If I start the teidious process of putting it all back will this happen again?
Using WinXP with 4th Gen/20gig (non color) iPod.
Thanks in advance.

So it's connected to the new update? Jeez. Because it just happened out of the blue yesterday and the iTunes/iPod update was done back when it came out. (Thank goodness I didn't get around to updating the other one yet. I'll definitely be holding off now.)
For the moment, we (my boyfriend and I; it's his iPod that had the loss) had to restore to factory settings. After the data loss, it wouldn't update. Thing is, I think he re-installed the new version again and then began putting songs back in it.
I know last night it had accepted songs and played without problem, but...if it's a software issue and given it already failed once without warning, I'm of course worried it'll happen again.
I'll try to read through the topics back in September. Doing a websearch for this really didn't net me a lot. Which is why I thought it might be a fluke thing rather then a software thing.
I'm just trying to keep from having to go through this again. Poor guy, he had 18 gigs of music on there. A lot of it rare and odd things that he didn't have back-ups of, you know? He loves his iPod and this is just crushing. I'd like to learn the whys and the how to's of preventing it moving forward.

I moved all my files around on my computer to free up space now itunes library is empty?

i moved all my itunes folder, music,photos etc.. on to d drive to free up space on my computer as c drive was full as i was unable to backup my iphone or update software due to memory space. After i did this i went back in to itunes but all my music,apps etc are gone. It also does not recognise that this is the computer where all my files for my iphone & itunes library are stored. It will not let me backup my phone or update without wiping everything off my iphone first, as it says plug your phone into the computer where your files are stored to update or it will update my phone using this itunes library which is empty??Can anyone advise please?

I have the similar issue. Can someone please help us?

Itunes has lost all music file locations

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.
I would love some help as all the other posts seem to refer to slightly different problems and can never get around the problem of files being in various subfolders.
Thanks.

Hey Lhatcher1987,
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:
iTunes: Finding lost media and downloads
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1408
All the best,
David

Moved all music files

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