Itunes playlists don't follow when moving the music folder

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Level 1

4 points

Itunes playlists don't follow when moving the music folder

HI everyone,

Having a large music library on my windows 10 pc and needing the space, I moved the music off to an external drive.

After moving it, in Itunes, by using file-add folder to library, it added and organized all my music just fine.

However, not a single playlist copied over. I have at least a hundred playlists so rebuilding manually if out of the question.

Is there a step I missed or is this just not possible?

I know programs like Tunesgo (Wondershare) will copy playlists from my Iphone, but Tunesgo restricts its copy of material to the default C drive music folder. Exactly what I am trying to avoid.

Many thanks to this community for help in this issue!

Russ

Posted on Dec 12, 2018 5:54 AM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

272,098 points

Dec 12, 2018 12:16 PM in response to Russ678

See Make a split library portable - Apple Community for advice on moving components of the iTunes library around safely. Depending on exactly what you've done you may need to restore a working copy of your database using the steps in Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash - Apple Community.

tt2

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Answer 2

Russ678 Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 13, 2018 12:25 PM in response to turingtest2

TT2, what I did is to copy the entire music folder to another location. Everything in that folder was copied. Then I pointed the Itunes to the new location. No playlists followed. Did that more than once with the same result.

I don't believe I had a split library.

Should playlists still be there using what I described above?

I did read the links above. I'll save them for reference but I don't believe this was my situation.

thank you! Russ

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Answer 3

Best answer

turingtest2

Level 10

272,098 points

Dec 13, 2018 1:00 PM in response to Russ678

You cannot point the library at a media folder in the way you describe. There is typically this hierarchy of folders inside the user's music folder:

iTunes

iTunes Media

Music

Where the active database is in the iTunes folder. If you move Music or iTunes Media elsewhere then iTunes can no longer find the files properly. You may be able to change the media folder and then iTunes may repair broken links in the library if you repair one, but it isn't the right way to move things around. If you move the entire iTunes folder, but don't use the hold-down-shift-when-starting-iTunes method to connect to the library on the new path, and your library was in the standard layout, then iTunes will make a new empty library without a fuss. If you then reimport the media folder into what is now a split library you only get the media files, not the playlists that used to be in the library.

Read the first link I posted. Where have you got .itl files? One may be the lost version of the database with your playlists.

tt2

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