iTunes re-mapped my music location - how to fix?

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Level 1

19 points

iTunes re-mapped my music location - how to fix?

First, I do not have iTunes manage my music. I keep my files on a network mapped drive and copy them into iTunes.

For example, my music is on:

file://localhost/Volumes/mp3

Recently I moved my music to a new external storage unit with the same share name. I *thought* everything was ok as it could still find my music even with the other server shut down.

However, just today I realized that iTunes has renamed the path to all my music:

file://localhost/Volumes/mp3-1

I can't get this to change. OBviously you can't just edit the .XML file as the .itl file will just overwrite it.

So... how was iTunes able to change it once... and how can I set it back to mp3 without the "-1" appended?

(I've tried deleting the tracks and re-importing from export (which has the right share path) but it somehow still wants to go back to mp3-1 for most my library. somewhere, somehow, itunes is stuck thinking mp3-1 is valid. I need to get it to stop thinking that)

Thanks.

Posted on Dec 20, 2011 6:12 AM

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Answer 1

Limnos

Level 10

411,187 points

Dec 20, 2011 8:10 AM in response to lundejd

So let me get this straight. You gave a second server the same name as the first, moved the music files, then shut down the first server and started itunes with the intention it thought it was still looking at the first server since the second one now had the name of the first? iTUnes renamed your first server to mp3-1 and is still looking for the music there? I'm not sure I can help here but it might be handy for somebody else who can to know more. Even if you give volumes the same name I think OSX is pretty good at telling the difference.

The XML file is editable. I can't remember if iTunes saves a copy of the itl to xml when it starts or closes, but if you edit XML at the wrong stage then it will get overwritten. I don't have the details (and don't want to close my iTunes right now to test) but what you need to do is back up everything, then edit the XML and follow something like hte procedure in http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1451 to get itunes to generate a library from the XML file.

Note, the XML does not contain 100% of the information that your real library file does. You may lose some things -- not sure which but maybe playcount, date added or some such trivia (for me).

Another way may be to edit some file on the computer so it really thinks the drive you want it to use is the drive as listed in your library file, i.e. the old drive. This may take some devling into things well hidden from you in hte underlying UNIX structure.

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Answer 2

lundejd Author

Level 1

19 points

Dec 20, 2011 8:20 AM in response to Limnos

Basically I had a Windows 2008 server share set up with all my music files. I'm moving my Exchange to the cloud, removing my Active Directory, and put all my files (including music) on a NAS box. I basically re-created the same shares on the NAS box, sync'd the files over there, removed the old mapping and turned on the new one... all went perfect because it didn't point to a servername specifically iTunes was just fine.

I think along the way I turned on my old Windows box to get at something else and left it on. My guess is at some point I rebooted my Mac and the mapping stuck. Apparently when there is already one there, it will append the "-1" to the next. Why iTunes decided to look at the second for some but not all files is a mystery that probably won't be solved here, though its worrysome. (since that time I actually removed the shared on the WIndows box just in case I have to fire it up again)

I'm going the route of deleting the .itl file and re-importing the .XML. We'll see if that fixes things.

I think at some point I might have to bite the bullet and let iTunes store and arrange my music. Since I can remember I've used a network share and a specific naming convention for all my music... it will be tough to let iTunes take control. I think if I do it will be much easier to avoid these types of things in the future.

Apple should let people (advanced users) modify the data in the .itl file to fix this type of screwup. In their attempt to make things easy they basically make fixing mistakes impossible.

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Answer 3

lundejd Author

Level 1

19 points

Dec 21, 2011 4:15 AM in response to lundejd

For those interested, deleting the .itl file and re-starting iTunes fresh, then re-importing the .XML (after fixing the paths in the XML) did the trick.

Note that I didn't lose play counts and iTunes match didn't require any new uploads - everything just sync'd back up just fine.

Prior to deleting the .itl file I exported each playlist to text file as well just in case. (but did not have to use)

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Answer 4

STRiDOR

Level 1

0 points

Dec 23, 2011 8:21 PM in response to lundejd

This worked for me. thanks for sharing.

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