itunes exclamations moved mp3 files to new hard drive

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15 points

itunes exclamations moved mp3 files to new hard drive

hi

i recently bought a new computer (quad) and the new hardive is big enough to put all my mp3s onto one hardrive. so i put all 80gigs worth into one folder called "mp3s" and then i have sub folders to categorize them as latin etc...obviously itunes will display ! on every song now that they arent in their original location...so i went to advanced tab and made the "mp3s" folder the default music folder and assumed itunes would be smart enough to reestablish links to every song in my playlists...but no!!!...i tried one posts suggestions which worked the best (creating xml file etc)..but most all of the songs in my playlists still didnt show up...and every song in playlist is located in the "mp3s" folder so i assume it couldnt handle 80gigs worth of songs?

my complaint with itunes is i use to use some mp3 player on OS 9 that was smart enough to reestablish links to multiple playlists by simply selecting one song in the playlist and selecting the new location of the file, then it would automatically see any other mp3 contained in any subfolders and reestablish links to it....simple...why cant itunes on OS X do this.

any help appreciated

thanks

quad, Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Posted on Mar 10, 2006 7:48 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 10, 2006 11:03 PM in response to 93bravo

Moving your iTunes Music folder

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Answer 2

93bravo Author

Level 1

15 points

Mar 21, 2006 4:18 PM in response to William Gray1

after reading many posts on apple, talking to apple tech support and googling nothing solved my problem completely...however i figured out a way to get it to work for me

MY SCENARIO:
before i had two different drives with 20gigs of mp3s on each drive and itunes on another drive...my files are organized by genre not artist so having itunes oraganize my mp3s is a no go and i have alot of playlists that i spent alot of time organizing so i didnt want to loose them.....when i got my G5 i finally had enough room to put all mp3s in one MP3 folder and thats what i wanted to do.

STEPS I TOOK:
1. I exported every playlist in the itunes on my old computer by going to file/export song list. then saved as .xml file. heres a link to apples directions:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93763

2. I trashed all itunes prefs in user/home/library/preferences and all files in the user/home/music/itunes folder on my new computer...then i opened itunes and it goes thru standard steps and opens to an empty library.

3. I copied all my mp3s to my new computer and placed them into one folder called MP3's ( you can copy or move to any drive(s) or folder (s)you want)

4. then i went to itunes/file/add to library and selected the MP3s folder and itunes added every mp3 to the itunes library. (if you have mp3s on multiple drives simply continue to select the folders containing the mp3s and add them to the library)
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301509

5. import the .xml song lists in step 1...as it imports some will import instantly, others you might see a progress bar as it searches...if some mp3 files in the playlist are missing it wont display them in the playlist.

6. all mp3s should now be in the library and all playlists connected to the songs 🙂 no more exclamation points. 🙂

3. also afterwards or even in step 4 go to the advanced tab in the preferences and select the folder you want itunes to point to if you put all mp3s in one folder on one drive...make sure the "keep itunes folder organized" and "copy files to itunes music folder" are unchecked.

FINAL THOUGHTS
eventhough this wasnt that tough, this process could be made simplier by apple making itunes smart enough to locate broken linked files. i forget the name of an mp3 player i used on OS 9 but if i decided to move my mp3s to any other folder or hardrive, and reopen the mp3 app, it would show the files couldnt be found in the playlist, then when i clicked on one missing song the app was smart enough to scan that folder for any other mp3s in the apps playlists and automaticallly reconnect to them.

quad g5 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

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