How do I consolidate my iTunes library without copying it?
Hello all,
I'm trying to move about 30 GB of music off of an old G3 onto an external hard drive. Last year, I followed a somewhat erroneous online tutorial. I copied and pasted the music onto the hard drive manually, pointed iTunes to the new location via Advanced Preferences, and then hit the "Consolidate Library" button.
Unfortunately, I had the "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library" check box clicked, and iTunes duplicated every single file, adding a " 1" to the end of each. I had to do a manual search and deleted every single file using the Finder. It was awful, and I've postponed making a second attempt until now.
The entire iTunes Music library is still sitting on my external drive. I've done more research since then, and I am hopeful that if I point iTunes to the external hard drive and consolidate the library again, "Copy files" check box unclicked, that it will recognize the location of the files without making duplicate copies.
Am I right? If I unclick the "Copy files" box, will it recognize the new location? Do I also need to unclick the "Keep iTunes Music folder organized" box? I don't want to start from scratch and move the files again. It takes about eight hours with my old computer and super-slow USB port.
Any help is appreciated.
I'm trying to move about 30 GB of music off of an old G3 onto an external hard drive. Last year, I followed a somewhat erroneous online tutorial. I copied and pasted the music onto the hard drive manually, pointed iTunes to the new location via Advanced Preferences, and then hit the "Consolidate Library" button.
Unfortunately, I had the "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library" check box clicked, and iTunes duplicated every single file, adding a " 1" to the end of each. I had to do a manual search and deleted every single file using the Finder. It was awful, and I've postponed making a second attempt until now.
The entire iTunes Music library is still sitting on my external drive. I've done more research since then, and I am hopeful that if I point iTunes to the external hard drive and consolidate the library again, "Copy files" check box unclicked, that it will recognize the location of the files without making duplicate copies.
Am I right? If I unclick the "Copy files" box, will it recognize the new location? Do I also need to unclick the "Keep iTunes Music folder organized" box? I don't want to start from scratch and move the files again. It takes about eight hours with my old computer and super-slow USB port.
Any help is appreciated.
iBook G3, Mac OS X (10.2.x), iTunes 8
