help with Itunes massive library consolidation

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126 points

help with Itunes massive library consolidation

i have my itunes library spread over 3 hard drives - most of it on an external 1tb hard drive and the rest spread over my 2 internal HD's (because the 1tb drive was full, i had to add music to the other drives).

lately the western digital external has been randomly unmounting and acting crazy, and this is causing me great concern. so i went ahead and got a LaCie (who i have found very reliable with macs in the past) 1.5 TB drive that i intend to use for my ENTIRE itunes library now.

so my question is this - what is the best/safest way to have Itunes treat my new hard drive as the ONLY place any music is? should i move everything manually and THEN consolidate?

Since i was afraid that my 1tb drive was about to die i have already started moving the entire itunes music folder (not library files) from my western digital to my new Lacie, but now i am wondering if a library consolidation is what I should have done from the start. I have read the directions but want to make sure this is what i should do:

1) in Itunes preferenes, tell it that the location of my itunes folder should be ON THE NEW DRIVE, then consolidate??

2) move my main itunes library file to the new hard drive//tell itunes this is where my library location is then consolidate to new drive (?)

any help appreciated

thanks

Message was edited by: oleus

PowerMac G5 dual 2ghz//4gb ram, Mac OS X (10.5.2), bluetooth FCP keyboard/mighty mouse/isight/ipod 80gb video/1TB audio server

Posted on May 27, 2008 10:29 AM

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Answer 1

oleus Author

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126 points

May 27, 2008 10:42 AM in response to oleus

OR - i just thought this might work:

continue to let my 1tb external HD itunes folder to copy to my new 1.5 tb drive...

when that is complete, THEN tell itunes the new hard drive is where the itunes library should be created.

at that point, then drop that copied itunes music file folder into the newly created main Itunes folder on the new hard drive...

THEN consolidate to the new drive (to move the random other music files from my internal drives to the new HD).

at which point everything would be properly pointed to the new HD?

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Answer 2

Sioldana

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May 27, 2008 11:01 AM in response to oleus

I've had to do similar in the past, only moving 150Gb, I had my library on a 160Gb Lacie external but needed more space, I copied the entire library folder to my new 500Gb external, then I just deleted my entire (old) library from iTunes (not from the old external) I then had a blank slate, then changed my preferences for library location to the copied library on my new external, then went to add folder and selected the itunes library on the new external and it imported the entire contents, had no problems, as long as you have physically (sic) moved the files to the new drive then there is nothing to worry about, I have since then moved an even larger 200Gb library to another external HD for my other computer in the exact same way, again no problems

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Answer 3

oleus Author

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126 points

May 27, 2008 11:05 AM in response to Sioldana

i think years ago i may have tried it that way with a much smaller library, but i seem to remember having to go back and manually rename each and every song after re-importing my tracks again. was that not the case when you tried it Sioldana?

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Answer 4

May 27, 2008 11:06 AM in response to oleus

If you intend to have iTunes do this for you, I'd say your best option is to change your iTunes preferences to use your new HDD as your iTunes Music Folder, and make sure the "Copy files to iTunes Music Folder when adding to library" is selected. Then Consolidate your library. In one step your files are copied and iTunes will continue to look to this drive for your music files. This method is less-steps than copying the files manually and then redirecting iTunes to your new drive.

CG

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Answer 5

oleus Author

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126 points

May 27, 2008 11:11 AM in response to CasperGemini

Casper -

great info...one quick question on that. Since i am already in the process of copying the largest of my three itunes music file folders (almost 1tb) to my new HD (already a few hours in to the copy), will that pose any problem during final Itunes consolidation? Should i change the library file location to the new HD in preferences, drop my already-copied music files into that new folder, THEN consolidate?

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Answer 6

May 27, 2008 11:17 AM in response to oleus

Honestly, I would cancel that proces and remove whatever is already on the new drive. In other words, start over. If you let that complete and then consolidate, you'll end up with duplicates in iTunes as well as unnecessary space taken up on your external drive, and iTunes doesn't offer a good solution for removing duplicates from the library. Essentially, you have to delete each and every one of them manually.

CG

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Answer 7

oleus Author

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126 points

May 27, 2008 11:32 AM in response to CasperGemini

Casper, i had a feeling that might be the case. it's updating the itunes library file right now on the new hard drive, and when that's done I'll start the consolidation process.

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Answer 8

oleus Author

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126 points

May 27, 2008 1:03 PM in response to CasperGemini

casper - can i ask you one more question? once i started the consolidation process, it gave me a window saying "preparing copy" - and it's been on that window for almost 30 min now with the blue candycane moving progress bar indicating that no transfer has even started yet. is that normal? i have a pretty large library so i'm hoping it's just something to do with that.

UPDATE - itunes isn't locked up, i am not getting any spinning pinwheel either but this "preparing copy" window has been up over an hour now. suggestions?

Message was edited by: oleus

murphy's law - actual copy process started right after i hit "edit message". wish me luck!!

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Answer 9

Sioldana

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May 27, 2008 1:07 PM in response to oleus

Good Luck 🙂 .....btw what exactly is this consolidation process you speak of, I'm actually going to be getting a new Mac in the near future and obviously will have to do a bit of moving about, I have 3 externals all with a version of my library from different points in time but will want to start afresh with a spanking new drive

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Answer 10

May 27, 2008 5:11 PM in response to oleus

Oleus or Caspar, here's a related question, as I'm about to go through the same process. My external HD where I kept my iTunes music files died, so I'm going to switch to the back-up copies. I lost a few tunes, since I hadn't done a back-up in awhile, but not too many.

Anyway, since iTunes doesn't recognize my ex-backup music files as my current music in iTunes, so I've got to re-add them all per Caspar's Consolidation advice above.

Three quick questions:

1. There shouldn't be any problems about having both the old iTunes music files & the new iTunes music folder on the same HD, as long as I have room for temporarily duplicating them all, right?

2. Once I've changed the iTunes preference to point to the new, empty iTunes music folder, I'll need to delete all the music currently displayed in iTunes, so these won't be useless duplicates upon Consolidation, right?

3. And since doing that will lose all my non-Smart Playlists by definition, is there any easier work-around for replicating these playlists after Consoldation, besides just manually reconstructing them song by song?

Thanks!

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Answer 11

May 27, 2008 7:30 PM in response to vebiltdervan

Sioldana-
The Consolidation process in iTunes is helpful in moving your library from location to another, so for example, from your computer's hard drive to an external drive. It also allows you to copy all of your media files into one location, in the event your library is scattered across your hard drive as a result of downloading media from various sources. The simplest way to do this is point iTunes to your desired end-location and select "copy files to iTunes music folder when adding to library" in your Advanced preferences, and then from your Advanced menu choose Consolidate library.

Vebiltdervan-
(1) As long as you have two separate locations for the music, and enough disk space, it is perfectly possible to consolidate to the same hard drive.
(2) Consolidating the library only works with the files listed in the iTunes library, so don't delete anything from iTunes if you want it copied via the Consolidation process. You'll likely only end up with duplicates if you try to recreate the library, or if you happen to add both locations to the iTunes library.
(3) Yes - you can definitely back up and restore playlists. See this article for more information:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93763

CG

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Answer 12

May 27, 2008 7:59 PM in response to CasperGemini

Hi,

Are you saying that a 1TB library can be used in iTunes? I mean, can you have active in an iTunes session a library so big?
With my iBook G4 I've found that whenever I'm over 30 or 40 GB in the same library it becomes so slow that I have to create a new one. So far I have 4 different libraries...

(Sorry if this is slightly off-topic)

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Answer 13

May 27, 2008 8:20 PM in response to guatequero

guatequero:

Sorry I can't answer that for you, my library isn't nearly that large. I imagine it would probably depend on the speed of the hard drive, as well as the computer's processor/RAM.

CG

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Answer 14

Sioldana

Level 1

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May 28, 2008 9:28 AM in response to guatequero

Guatequero, My library is nearly 300Gb and I don't have any problems, I'm on a Mac Mini with 1.42 PowerPC G4 and 1GB ram, sometimes if I have a lot of programs open iTunes might be a little sluggish to respond, but only for navigation the music plays faultlessly

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Answer 15

oleus Author

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126 points

May 28, 2008 11:19 AM in response to Sioldana

the main problem with large library sizes (i had over 1tb) is the problem that made me start the thread - drive stability if you're using an external drive and the risk of losing large amounts of data if you have a ton of music on one huge drive. you just have to make sure to back everything up, which isn't always easy when dealing with 1tb+ size drives.

BTW, i was never able to successfully consolidate the library, it kept freezing about 10 min. into the process. so i am almost done moving the entire contents of my almost-broken western digital drive to my new Lacie. since the folders/contents will be exactly the same i'm going to name the new drive exactly like the old one and see if Itunes finds the music or not...anyone know if it will?

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