Hey tt2,
I'm not interested in play counts, ratings and associated data etc as I lost it in a blip when changing drive before.
I have a few playlists that I would like to keep but that's really it. It's possible to export a playlist isn't it? Could I do that before whatever change you're thinking of and then import it again afterwards?
I don't keep wav, FLAC or ALAC, and even try to convert all my AAC's so theyre all mp3, however my housekeeping has been not great so I know I have around 500 aac but the rest are mp3s. There is a fair chunk in an unknown artist folder because I have to organise that. After an import, if I have coverted from FLAC to mp3, there's normally no data apart from track name so I have to label all that afterwards. That was what I was doing when I noticed all this stuff going on and my attention has been diverted ever since.
On a positive note. I plugged the drive into my laptop (this is my machine which is on windows 10pro) to see if I could find the missing 22000 tracks on that machine. I couldn't. So, I took the plunge and clicked to check drive for problems, this showed up none. So I clicked the button for scan and fix errors. This took a while but when it finished it had found all the missing files. However, it has put them in two new folders (one called Various 1 - which was the previously named 'Various' & 'various' and another called 'Various A - 1' - which was previously called 'Various Artists' & 'various artists') and a few others I am certain.
I'm not sure how iTunes will deal with these changes when I plug the XHDD back into the iMac, so I haven't as yet. I wanted to see what you'd said before I did so.
When looking at the file system on my iMac, it is Mac OS Extended (Journaled), not the case sensitive version, which is surprising. I know the file system on the 'problem' / newest drive I set to ExFat and the one on the previous working XHDD was MS DOS Fat32. So, not sure what this case issue is about.
In regards to permissions. I looked at the XHDD and, in Properties there was no Security tab. After some investigation, apparently, on windows 10pro, and for FAT file systems - there will be no security tab. However, it does show in the Attributes section a box labelled 'Read only (Only applies to files in folder)'. So I unchecked this box and also, in the 'Customise' tab, I clicked to apply this to all subfolders within the structure. I've actually done this twice because after it completes, if you look again, the box looks like this, with a black box inside the other box?
Goodness knows why it's not just a white box like next to the Hidden option?? I assume it's done as it took a few minutes seemingly going through the whole structure making changes. Plus, I clicked in the box and 1 click clears it like the empty Hidden box; click again and you get an actual tick, click once more and it goes back to the aboce box in a box and those are the 3 states it can be in. It was an empty box when I applied it to the whole structure so I'm hoping it's done, even though its reverted to this box within a box look now. I'm logged in as an administrator, as I do on all my computers.
I think I've covered everything in your message. With the above info in mind, what do YOU think I should do now?
I want to plug into iTunes again to see if things are better with the permission changes and now windows has repaired/ slightly altered the structure, but conversely, I am also concerned now that some folders are changed, iTunes might start creating more folders again. I know it's best to make changes within iTunes but I'm not sure which way to do it or at what stage. The new Windows laptop is much faster and I am fine with only using iTunes on here for now on, if that would be easier & faster to fix everything.
wadayafink??
Thanks, Russ.