Mobile Applications folder not consolidating on external drive

i'm seeing the same thing. iTunes follows the rules set in preferences > advanced except for mobile apps. on top, iTunes seems to keep the originally downloaded apps along with the updates. here's a screen shot of my internal music/iTunes music/mobile applications folder



there seems to be no pattern. some mobile apps go to the external, most to the internal.

iTunes even went so far as to create a *previous mobile library* within the +mobile applications+ folder on the external



i'm not one to put this word in my posts lightly but you may have come across a bug.

let's see what other users have to contribute as the day goes by ...

J GG

I suspect this is only an issue because you've split the library and media folders across two drives. When you download a new file, e.g. app, music, podcast etc. where is the temporary download folder created? Is it on the internal, external or does it depend on the media? After downloading the file will need to be moved. Depending on how the move is managed it may fail if the source & target are on different volumes. If so iTunes is unlikely to issue any error message, just not move the file.

You could copy your library files & album artwork folder into the parent folder of your current media folder, and copy the contents of the internal Mobile Apps folder into corresponding external folder, then use the shift-start iTunes method to open the library on the external. This will put your library in the standard layout which should resolve the problem going forward. You can cull the older versions of the apps.

tt2

turingtest2 wrote:
I suspect this is only an issue because you've split the library and media folders across two drives.

i don't. my media files are on an external drive, though i keep the iTunes folder locally. i consolidated my library to that external when space on the previous drive became tight.

When you download a new file, e.g. app, music, podcast etc. where is the temporary download folder created?

i'd have to watch out for that. again, this is only for apps. tunes, movies, tv shows: all goes straight to the external as expected.

edit:

i'm running two iTunes libs. one is my +test environment+: 400 gig USB drive hanging off my TC and my MBP connects mostly wired, sometimes wirelessly.

my main library resides on a 2 TB firewire 800 drive connected directly to my mini.

in both cases the iTunes folder (library and .xml files, artwork folder, etc.) is kept locally.

i see the same in both libraries.

J GG



edited by the Jolly Green Giant (where Green stands for environmentally friendly)

and it's set up to consolidate all files.

Consolidate is not something you _set up_ to do. It's not an ongoing task.
It is simply something you do one time.
iTunes menu File -> Library -> Organize library - Consolidate.
This will copy everything in iTunes to the new location set in iTunes prefs -> Advanced.

Did you tick both *Consolidate files* and *Upgrade to iTunes Media organization* when you did this?
I have read others having the same problem with applications not being moved but I have not looked into it much.
Try consolidating again.

Can you select all the applications then right click -> Consolidate selected items?

Chris CA wrote:
Can you select all the applications then right click -> Consolidate selected items?

i can't. right-click brings up +clear downloaded artwork+ or delete.

also, what about the double entries (see my screen shot) ? what about the +previous mobile applications+ folder within the mobile applications folder ?

J GG

I'll have to check it out later on my iMac.

Chris CA wrote:
I'll have to check it out later on my iMac.

so, anything ... ?

J GG

I could not duplicate this.
Everything copied over just fine.
I tried it to the internal drive in a new library and tried it to the external drive in a new library.

Go to iTunes menu File -> Library -> Organize library... and tick Consolidate again and see what happens.

well, iTunes moved all apps okay, dropping the dupes along the way. the +previous mobile applications+ folder remains, though. wonder why this is so ...

J GG

I have the exact same problem. Itunes will keep everything on my external HD but the apps. After consolidation the Apps remain on my laptop (for the most part), some apps are on the External HD. There is no way to consolidate the Apps, no such option on the right-click meny either

I have exactly the same problem, and can find no way around this, even if i delete the library after backing it up and getting all the updated apps to the backup, then get itunes to use this new library, every new download & album art goes to the internal disk and not the external library (disk)

huh? what temporary download folder are you talking about?

I have had this problem for at least a year. I too have my iTunes media on an external drive that is attached to a Mac Server. The media is organized as well. And naturally the iTunes library xml file is on my local drive in the iTunes folder as it should be.

When I first saw this, I tried to fix it by deleting the Previous Mobile Applications folder. Seemed natural since in my mind they were outdated. Then I noticed that some of the apps that were in that folder were not in my "current" mobile apps folder. So I put back the "old" ones that were missing. As you can imagine, it got messy. Then I noticed some apps were in my local iTunes folder also. Now this was just too confusing so I stopped and used good old Time Machine to go back to a time when I was ignorant and blissful.

To make a long story shorter, I tried again to tackle this and I believe I got it all correct (as I would think it should be). I ran some app updates and everything was fine. A month or so I went back and looked again. That "Previous…" folder was back and now there was another "Previous…" folder nested within that one. There were duplicate apps all over the place.

My conclusion, don't try to fix what apparently isn't broken. Everything was working fine. It just seemed that Apple had a very unorthodox way of organizing the mobile apps. There very well may be something that I am doing that is causing this, but I don't notice any problems on the front end. So back to ignorance is bliss.

Message was edited by: DLR