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DO I HAVE THE SAME MUSIC IN TWO PLACES

DO I HAVE THE SAME MUSIC IN TWO PLACES

1. In my home folder I find my music folder in which I find two folders: Garage Band and iTunes.

2. When opening the iTunes folder i find a large number of folders with names of artists sorted alphabetically.

3. Going down to the letter i (in the middle of all the folders with the artists sorted alphabetically) I find the following:

  • iTunes Library Extras.itdb
  • iTunes Library Genius.itdb
  • iTunes Library.itl
  • iTunes Music

4. When opening theiTunes Music folder i find the following folders:

  • Automatically Add to iTunes
  • Books
  • Downloads
  • Mobile Applications
  • Movies
  • Music
  • Podcasts
  • Tones
  • Voice Memos


5. And when I open the Music folder I find thesame list of songs as in point 2.


My question is if I have the same music in two places. If so how should I correct the situation ???

regards,

pyry

 MBP 15, Mac OS X (10.7.2),  2xTime Capsule TB  iPhone4 32GB,  iPod 5gen 30GB,  iPod Na

Posted on Dec 5, 2011 5:39 AM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Dec 5, 2011 6:08 AM

Your iTunes Folder should be inside the Music Folder and look like this:

User uploaded file

If you have a second iTunes Music folder then you indeed have duplicated your music,that probably has happened when you consolidated your Library.


The first thing to do would be to check to which of the two "iTunes Music" folders your iTunes Library is pointing. Select any song in iTunes in the Browser, ctrl-click it and select "Show in Finder". Then we will know which of these two instances is your current library.

Post back, when you have done that.


Regards

Léonie

13 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Dec 5, 2011 6:08 AM in response to pyry

Your iTunes Folder should be inside the Music Folder and look like this:

User uploaded file

If you have a second iTunes Music folder then you indeed have duplicated your music,that probably has happened when you consolidated your Library.


The first thing to do would be to check to which of the two "iTunes Music" folders your iTunes Library is pointing. Select any song in iTunes in the Browser, ctrl-click it and select "Show in Finder". Then we will know which of these two instances is your current library.

Post back, when you have done that.


Regards

Léonie

Dec 5, 2011 6:58 AM in response to léonie

Léonie, have they changed layout again? I've been browsing not too old posts on folder strcuture and iTunes is inside of Music, not at the same level. Then inside of the iTunes folder there are the various library files, the media folders, etc.


Macintosh HD > Users > *User Name* > Music > iTunes >


Also:


Understanding iTunes Media Organization - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3847


Image of folder structure and explanation of different iTunes versions (turingtest2 post) - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2741246?answerId=13025536022#13025536022

Dec 5, 2011 7:03 AM in response to Limnos

Limnos,

Léonie, have they changed layout again? I've been browsing not too old posts on folder strcuture and iTunes is inside of Music, not at the same level.

No, it's not at the same level. I see, my screen shot is confusing 😊 - sorry, I should have noticed; I have the iTunes Folder in the Finder Sidebar for easy access, so it looks like it were at the same level.


So here once again:

User uploaded file

Cheers

Léonie

Dec 5, 2011 9:13 AM in response to pyry

Select an artist that appears in both the iTunes folder and in the lower level set of folders. See if the same album appears in both places. If it does, you have duplicates. You can then select a track in iTunes and use Reveal In Finder to see to which file it refers. If the albums are scattered about but not duplicated then you have an organization issue and may need to consolidate to get it all put in order.


I see a picture but I had to zoom in about 6x to actually read it.

Dec 5, 2011 9:52 AM in response to pyry

Can I just delete these??

Do you have a backup of your iTunes Library, if something should go wrong?


Homefolder>Music>iTunes>iTunes Music


So your iTunes Library points to the location where you found all your music, and I think you can delete music outside this foolder, but I would delete in easy installments, and check in iTunes before you delete.

Pick one of the artist folders, you want to delete, and reveal its counterpart in the library. If a comparison shows, that all songs you are going to delete, are also part of your librarry, then delete the folder. Repeat, until you are confident, that it is safe to delete all.

Dec 2, 2012 10:37 PM in response to léonie

Help. My music files have gotten all bolluxed up.


All my music files are in Previous iTunes Libraries. And I have no .itl file in my Music folder, but I have 5 of them of various dates in a folder called Previous iTunes Libraries inside the Previous iTunes Libraries folder i.e. 2 folders with the same name, one inside the other.


iTunes 10 cannot find my music at all (because I went putzing around in there before I understood how much trouble I could get in to.)


If I move the most recent .itl file out of the Previous iTunes Libraries folder into the iTunes folder, will iTunes be able to see all my music files?


Should I also move all my music files out of Previous etc and into iTunes Music?


Otherwise, how can I straighten this out? I have 35G of music files and don't want to rebuild my database.


Thanks.

DO I HAVE THE SAME MUSIC IN TWO PLACES

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