iTunes music CD imports going to iTunes/Media and not iTunes/Media/Music

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iTunes music CD imports going to iTunes/Media and not iTunes/Media/Music

For about the last 6 months (maybe longer ?), whenever I import a CD to iTunes, the music folder and files are saved in iTunes/Media by Artist/Album.

Previously, importing a CD iTunes would save the folder and files in iTunes/Media/Music by Artist/Album.

Now I have to delete the Album from iTunes (but keeping the files), use Windows Explorer to move the Album from /Media/Artist to /Media/Music/Artist and then use File/Add Folder to Library to restore the album into the iTunes library view.

I have also noticed that every time that I start iTunes, I look at the setting Edit/Preferences/Advanced/iTunes Media File Location shows as \\home NAS\Public\iTunes\iTunes Media which I Change... to include \Music at the end. Of course when I do that iTunes then takes about 20 minutes to go through some process (I have 3,500+ albums / 265 GB data).

Do I actually need to do that ??

iTunes always opens perfectly displaying my Music Library.

The only issue that I have is importing new CDs

The closest Community article that I could find is

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254456271?sortBy=best

but making changes to 'plist' is probably beyond me (without detailed step-by-step instructions !)

HP Spectre X360 laptop notebook running MS Windows 11 Home

iTunes 12.13.1.3

(I usually don't update iTunes versions very often as I am somewhat skeptical of new update stability (due to previous experiences) but updated to the latest version a few days ago to see if that made any difference - it didn't)

Windows, Windows 10

Posted on Dec 20, 2023 3:01 AM

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Answer 1

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turingtest2

Level 10

278,055 points

Dec 28, 2023 5:27 AM in response to ianmac57

ianmac57 wrote:

The .plist in \\home NAS\Public\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music is :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">

<dict>

<key>GUID</key>

<string>A8587F499C07D478C3DBB86104BADA44</string>

<key>Layout Version</key>

<integer>0</integer>

</dict>

</plist>

So looks like the integer value is 0 ??

Yes. Change it to 1, either manually or by using File > Library > Organize Library > Rearrange Files and new content should then start going into the \Music subfolder. If you use the second method existing content should be rearranged automatically, other turning Keep organized... off and back on again should do it.

tt2

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

278,055 points

Dec 23, 2023 2:27 PM in response to ianmac57

From the sound of things you should have your media folder set to \\home NAS\Public\iTunes\iTunes Media and then use the option File > Library > Organize Library > Rearrange Files to have iTunes put music items in the Music folder inside the media folder. This will update the .plist file for you. A manual edit is the only way to go in the other direction. Should you need to do so you simply drag the file into the Notepad application, edit one character, then save and close.

tt2

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

278,055 points

Dec 26, 2023 3:09 AM in response to ianmac57

Check the .plist in NAS\Public\iTunes\iTunes Media. Does the integer value read 0 or 1? Your most recent post suggests it will be 0, i.e. don't add the additional \Music folder for music items.

tt2

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Answer 4

ianmac57 Author

Level 1

5 points

Dec 26, 2023 2:55 AM in response to turingtest2

Thanks tt2

I have set the option that you suggested.

I then went to test play a couple of tracks from a couple of different albums. Music played ok, but.

Result was that iTunes rearranged the album folders and basically extracted the tracks that I played from \\home NAS\Public\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music\Artist\Album and put those tracks by themselves in NAS\Public\iTunes\iTunes Media\Artist\Album

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Answer 5

ianmac57 Author

Level 1

5 points

Dec 28, 2023 4:30 AM in response to turingtest2

The .plist in \\home NAS\Public\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music is :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<dict>

<key>Layout Version</key>

</dict>

</plist>

So looks like the integer value is 0 ??

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Answer 6

ianmac57 Author

Level 1

5 points

Dec 28, 2023 4:33 AM in response to ianmac57

The .plist in \\home NAS\Public\iTunes\iTunes Media is :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<dict>

<key>Layout Version</key>

</dict>

</plist>

The .plist in \\home NAS\Public\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music is :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<dict>

<key>Layout Version</key>

</dict>

</plist>

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Answer 7

ianmac57 Author

Level 1

5 points

Dec 28, 2023 5:17 AM in response to turingtest2

The .plist in \\home NAS\Public\iTunes\iTunes Media is :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<dict>

<key>Layout Version</key>

</dict>

</plist>

The .plist in \\home NAS\Public\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music is :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<dict>

<key>Layout Version</key>

</dict>

</plist>

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Answer 8

ianmac57 Author

Level 1

5 points

Dec 27, 2023 3:47 AM in response to turingtest2

I've searched NAS\Public\iTunes\iTunes Media for the .plist file but nothing found.

I expanded the search to NAS\Public\iTunes and still no .plist file.

Is this a hidden file ??

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Answer 9

turingtest2

Level 10

278,055 points

Dec 27, 2023 5:13 AM in response to ianmac57

Yes, it is a hidden file that should be in the designated media folder.

tt2

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iTunes music CD imports going to iTunes/Media and not iTunes/Media/Music

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