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recently added completely not working and other issues

So I just bought a new iMac and figured since I now have 500gb of hard drive space keeping music on my computer will not be a problem since prior to this I always kept it on a external hard drive. So yesterday I plugged in my external and dumped my itunes music folder into my new itunes. Three things happened which are really frustrating:

1) Seems as though a lot of songs are missing. I keep searching in itunes only to find many did not transfer, so I go plug in the external and low an behold nope that file did not transfer. So I dump it in one by one. It's working when I do this why did it not do it yesterday? Don't understand why this happened now I have to rack my brain an try an find what didn't make it one by one out of about 7000 songs/tracks!

2) Seems I have a ton of duplicates?!! 1700 or more to be exact! Could this be why a lot of tracks are missing? Duplicates came over instead of certain tracks?

3) Now that I'm dumping tunes that are missing one by one, I need recently added to actually work, which it is not. Even though I've already deleted it, added a new smart playlist, made the proper rules: date added, is in the last, 1 day(s), and limit to: 25 items, selected by: most recently added. Checked "match only checked items" and unchecked live updating (actually I've tried every combo and it still does it) IT STILL gives me random 25 songs no matter what and NOT the most recently added.

Any help would be appreciated. Should I just toss the itunes folder and start again?

iMac 3.06 ghz, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on Oct 8, 2010 6:00 AM

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7 replies

Oct 8, 2010 6:10 AM in response to Chris Ibsen

Chris Ibsen wrote:
Should I just toss the itunes folder and start again?


it might come to that 😉

first, though, let's clarify a couple of points:

I always kept it on a external hard drive.


what exactly did you keep on the external ? the entire iTunes folder or just the iTunes music folder ?

if the latter, do you still have access to your old Mac's iTunes folder ?

J GG

User uploaded file

Oct 8, 2010 6:21 AM in response to Jolly Giant

Well before I was using an old iMac from 2002 so it only had 40gb (LOL) of hard drive space. So I bought a fantom external to keep the music on and routed iTunes to the external. Basically unless I had the external on, I could not play anything in itunes. So I guess it would be the entire iTunes music folder. That's what it says when I turned it on to check just now.

I still have access to the folder, as I still have the external drive.

Message was edited by: Chris Ibsen

Oct 8, 2010 6:37 AM in response to Chris Ibsen

Chris Ibsen wrote:
I still have access to the folder, as I still have the external drive.


okay, let's make really sure it is the entire iTunes folder. a typical one looks like this on the inside

User uploaded file

the red arrow points to the heart of your iTunes library - the iTunes library file, the iTunes database. you will want to treat this file as the apple of your eye !

anyhoo, if indeed the entire iTunes folder is on the external, simply drag it from there to <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music on the new Mac.

since a folder by the same name is already in that location, the finder will tell you so and ask you if you want to "replace it with the one you're moving". confirm that you want that.

when the copying has finished, fire up iTunes and you should be taken to the exact same library you were used to from your old Mac.

finally, go iTunes > preferences > advanced and check that +iTunes media folder location+ is set correctly - it should point to the iTunes folder on your new Mac's startup disk. if it doesn't, change it accordingly.

please post back with results !

J GG

User uploaded file

Oct 8, 2010 7:16 AM in response to Jolly Giant

Yikes It looked like the one 4 below the arrow. Probably the reason. I'll work on what you said to do and post results.

Incidentally when I tried to migrate yesterday using firewire mode it would not let me due to OSX version conflicts. My old iMac was using Tiger, so it said OSX not found. I have a firewire adaptor cable that goes from 800 to 400. So I'm wondering if I just have a iTunes copy on my external and I might not be able to ever access the real iTunes folder on my old mac.

Message was edited by: Chris Ibsen

Oct 8, 2010 7:29 AM in response to Chris Ibsen

Chris Ibsen wrote:
Yikes It looked like the one 4 below the arrow.


okay, no worries.

do this:

(a) copy the complete iTunes folder (use a thumb drive or your network) from the old Mac to the new Mac's music folder and replace the one in place there with the one you're moving
(b) connect the external to your new Mac and have it mount on the desktop
(c) fire up iTunes. this should take you to the library you were used to.

if it does and everything works as expected, go iTunes > preferences > advanced and change +iTunes media folder location+ to point to the iTunes folder in <MacintoshHD>/users/<yourname>/music. also on the same tab, put (or ensure there are) ticks in the little boxes next to +keep iTunes media folder organized+ and +copy files to ... when adding to library+.

next, go iTunes > file > library > organize library > consolidate files. if the option to +upgrade to iTunes media folder organization+ is available, select that too. hit ok.

iTunes will copy your media files from the external to your internal HD.

when done, you may erase the external or keep it as a backup.

J GG

User uploaded file

recently added completely not working and other issues

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