Can't Move iTunes Music Folder to new External disk
Hi all,
Recently I wanted to move my 50GB+ music folder to a dedicated 500GB external USB drive from the partition of another external (FW800) drive on which it had been happily residing for 2 years.
Quickly remembering you can't just copy over the folder and point iTunes prefs to it, I then followed the Apple KB doc and started again. I created an empty folder on the new drive, pointed iTunes to it, and told it to 'Consolidate' (with 'keep organised' switched on).
Seemed to work OK. I played some tracks, and made using sure "Show in finder" on a few tracks did indeed find the tracks on the new drive. All seemed OK.
Then, not wanting to trash my previous music folder on the old FW800 (I'd rather keep it as a backup), I simply ejected the drive.
However now...
• Songs (and everything else) won't play, except new ones I've purchased since the move and about a dozen, seemingly random, others. Tracks don't come up as 'missing – would you like to locate?', they just won't play.
• The prefs are correctly set to use the new drive, and all tracks are correctly located on it. "Show in finder' does still find the correct file on the new drive.
• No tracks can now be manually added to itunes from the new music folder, or from anywhere else – not from the desktop, another drive, nowhere. Purchasing does work though, and does correctly put the new tracks on the new drive.
• I can get all the music to play by reconnecting the old drive and pointing iTunes back to it. (But not just by reconnecting.)
• The new drive seems to be operating normally, and has been checked by Disk Utility, DiskWarrior and Drive Genius. I have other work on it that copies on and off without incident.
• If I try to create a completely new fresh Library, it still won't let me add any tracks (from anywhere), again except newly purchased ones and the same dozen or so old ones.
• If I create a new Library and import my old, saved, playlists, They come in OK, but still won't play and iTunes won't let me add any tracks.
• I've trashed prefs, and even completely reinstalled iTunes – from 7 to 8 – no change.
• IF I create new Library, without importing old playlists, it lets me add my whole music folder again, but ONLY from the old drive, not the new one, and after consolidating to the new drive again (songs then play OK and are correctly located on the new drive by 'show in finder'), but then eject the old drive and boom.. same thing, nothing plays. No errors, no nothing, just won't play.
So, for now I've gone back to old setup using old drive, as I can't live without music!
But I need to solve this, as I must get all the media onto a bigger drive.
This driving me insane.... any ideas?
Recently I wanted to move my 50GB+ music folder to a dedicated 500GB external USB drive from the partition of another external (FW800) drive on which it had been happily residing for 2 years.
Quickly remembering you can't just copy over the folder and point iTunes prefs to it, I then followed the Apple KB doc and started again. I created an empty folder on the new drive, pointed iTunes to it, and told it to 'Consolidate' (with 'keep organised' switched on).
Seemed to work OK. I played some tracks, and made using sure "Show in finder" on a few tracks did indeed find the tracks on the new drive. All seemed OK.
Then, not wanting to trash my previous music folder on the old FW800 (I'd rather keep it as a backup), I simply ejected the drive.
However now...
• Songs (and everything else) won't play, except new ones I've purchased since the move and about a dozen, seemingly random, others. Tracks don't come up as 'missing – would you like to locate?', they just won't play.
• The prefs are correctly set to use the new drive, and all tracks are correctly located on it. "Show in finder' does still find the correct file on the new drive.
• No tracks can now be manually added to itunes from the new music folder, or from anywhere else – not from the desktop, another drive, nowhere. Purchasing does work though, and does correctly put the new tracks on the new drive.
• I can get all the music to play by reconnecting the old drive and pointing iTunes back to it. (But not just by reconnecting.)
• The new drive seems to be operating normally, and has been checked by Disk Utility, DiskWarrior and Drive Genius. I have other work on it that copies on and off without incident.
• If I try to create a completely new fresh Library, it still won't let me add any tracks (from anywhere), again except newly purchased ones and the same dozen or so old ones.
• If I create a new Library and import my old, saved, playlists, They come in OK, but still won't play and iTunes won't let me add any tracks.
• I've trashed prefs, and even completely reinstalled iTunes – from 7 to 8 – no change.
• IF I create new Library, without importing old playlists, it lets me add my whole music folder again, but ONLY from the old drive, not the new one, and after consolidating to the new drive again (songs then play OK and are correctly located on the new drive by 'show in finder'), but then eject the old drive and boom.. same thing, nothing plays. No errors, no nothing, just won't play.
So, for now I've gone back to old setup using old drive, as I can't live without music!
But I need to solve this, as I must get all the media onto a bigger drive.
This driving me insane.... any ideas?
MacBook Pro 2.33, Mac OS X (10.5.5), iTunes 7 and now 8