Migrating iTunes>Music & Relocating media with split library on multiple volumes

I'm pretty sure location can be updated, although a script I use at the moment doesn't do it because I'm moving things around on the same volume and it already knows the new location without me doing anything. I can certainly do it in Windows, and Doug's Scripts has a tool for moving files that presumably updates location when it needs to.

Copying data from one place to another with AppleScript is certainly on the cards.

• If I recall that option works with a selection of files. Nothing selected=disabled option. File > Library > Organize Library > Consolidate Files does the whole library in one hit, losing any data you might currently have encoded in the path. Probably best not to do that right now.
• Yes, if you tick the box and click OK everything will start being copied in that is outside of the media folder. If you tick Rearrange Files everything that is inside the media folder, but not in <Media Folder>/Music, gets moved down inside it.
• I normally suggest that having Copy files... enabled is good practice so that everything you add to the library ends up in the media folder, and if you back that up you will always have all of your content. Internal layout of the media folder is up to you. You don't have to enable Keep organized... but consolidated media always goes into the standard layout, so you have to fix things after import, or place them exactly where you want inside the media folder if the structure matters to you. It is better to have all useful information encoded in tags, even if you still want some manual control.

Just to cover all the bases, enabling Keep organised... will immediately rearrange anything inside the media folder to the default artist and album folders, with or without an additional /Music folder that depends on a preference file in the media folder. See the section on iTunes Media Organization in Managing your Mac media libraries - Apple Community for details on that. Enabling Copy files... only affects future additions to the library when adding content from a location outside of the media folder.

tt2

There is no simple way to do what you want. There should be a way to do it in AppleScript where you move selected files to the new path that you want them to have, and then update the location property in iTunes/Music. I do have a script that renames files the way that I want them, but it doesn't as yet have the ability to move them from one folder to another, although this is something I've managed in Windows.

tt2

Loren Ryter wrote:

So I'm trying something now: I moved the target folder to /<VolumeName>/Audio/Media/ on a Shared Folder on my Synology NAS. Pointed iTunes media folder there.

Again, this really isn't the right way to do it. When iTunes/Music is in charge of copying the files to the new location it also updates the references to the files so they continue to work. Repairing manually relocated files after the fact is much more likely to fail, particularly if they aren't where iTunes/Music would otherwise put them.

Second question, maybe easier:

Is there really any advntage to having the Music library file itself located on the same volume and at the same level as the /Music/Media/ ? I would think it would be faster for that to exist on my boot volume SSD in the standard location?

Having the library files in the default location with respect to the media folder (i.e. in the parent of the media folder) helps when moving the library as a unit from one computer or drive to another, but yes absent of that use case having the library files on a local drive will be better than having them on an external drive (marginal) or remote network drive. My usual advice would be to have all on an external drive, backed up to NAS for security.

tt2

See Move your iTunes library to a new computer - Apple Community. In principle if all of the volume names remain unchanged it may be possible to copy over the current .itl file and convert it to the Music format. If you're going to consolidate to a new volume ahead of time I would recommend using a target folder of /<VolumeName>/Music/Media as the new media folder, then you can place the converted library package in /<VolumeName>/Music when you're done and subsequent moves should be straightforward.

tt2

Music stores the artwork cache at ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.AMPArtworkAgent/Data/Documents. When converting .itl to .musiclibrary the old iTunes Album Artwork folder is ignored. Artwork embedded in files should be added to the library, with everything else, where possible, fetched from the iTunes Store.

Support for the direct downloading and transfer of apps to or from devices, along with iBooks and tones, was dropped back in iTunes 12.7. Any legacy .ipa files you might have in the Mobile Applications folder are going to be seven years out of date. They probably aren't compatible with your device any longer. Finder might technically support drag & drop to transfer apps, but it really shouldn't be necessary.

tt2