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Level 1

8 points

My iTunes is using both old and new folder structures...

I'm on 10.7 of iTunes now on a MacMini mid-2011 + a MacBook Pro mid-2009. I turn on Home Sharing to access one iTunes' content from the other, and both are authorized to the same Apple ID for the iTunes store.

I've been using iTunes since it was first released and have a fair amount of old data.

I have the content stored on an external HD for the Mac Mini. It is defined in the iTunes > Preferences > Advanced tab as "/Volumes/<HD Name>/iTunes".

Keep iTunes Media folder organized and Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library are both checked on.

Within the "iTunes" folder on this external drive, I have an "iTunes Media" folder, but it also contains the older file structure folders here as well: "Album Artwork", " "Books", "Movies", "Podcasts", "TV Shows", etc. etc.. These folders also all exist inside the iTunes Media folder. Sometimes when I use the File > Add to Library... option or even when I drag and drop something like a movie into the iTunes main window, it will get copied to the iTunes > Movies folder, but sometimes it will be copied to the iTunes > iTunes Media > Movies folder. Sometimes it will get copied to both.

When I look at the item in the iTunes window and command-I or File > Get Info on it, it will point to the iTunes > iTunes Media > Movies folder, but when I browse through the folders in the Finder or the Terminal, I can clearly see the movie file does not exist in that folder, it exists in the iTunes > Movies folder instead. I can still view the content and watch the movie, it is only that the Get Info dialogue box is incorrect.

All of this seems to result in the odd behavior I experience - one day I'll add new content to iTunes and the next day it has disappeared (from the iTunes window, not from the computer itself). I also end up with lots of duplicated content on the drive.

When I access the File > Library > Organize Library menu option, I have the ability to select "Consolidate files" but not "Reorganize files". If I try "Consolidate files" the window pops up with the progress indicating it is moving data around, but it disappears after two seconds and nothing has changed.

Clearly my iTunes is using both file structures and is getting confused about it, but I don't know the best way to fix the problem. I'm worried about manually renaming folders or trying to rebuild my Library as it is probably confused anyway.

Has anyone else seen this kind of behavior?

Mac mini, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.1)

Posted on Sep 14, 2012 2:24 PM

Best reply

turingtest2

Level 10

272,865 points

Posted on Sep 14, 2012 5:36 PM

As a general rule don't move any content by hand once it is connected to iTunes.

Here are the typical layouts for the iTunes folders:

Background:

If you have upgraded from version 8 (or earlier) to iTunes 9 (or later) at some point, then your media folder (everything inside the red outline) may still be called iTunes Music instead of iTunes Media. The extra Music folder inside the media folder is used if you have allowed iTunes to Upgrade to iTunes Media Organization (iTunes 9) or used File > Library > Organize Library > Reorganize files in the folder "<Media Folder>" (iTunes 10). Depending on your choices for Keep iTunes Media folder organized and Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library plus a little bug in which one build changed the name of the file storing the choice of layout it is quite easy for some of your files to be organized according to one layout and some the other.

Why iTunes should sometimes use one structure and sometimes the other now is a bit of an odd one. Are you accessing the same content from different profiles/computers with slightly different settings? I would have recommended that you point Preferences > Advanced > Media folder at /Volumes/<HD Name>/iTunes/iTunes Media which should then have been organized into the different media sections.

As you say there is no reorganize command, but you can trigger this by turning "Keep organized..." off, and then back on again. iTunes can only organize suff inside the active media folder. With your confused structure we can get things moved up into iTunes, but not down into iTunes Media where, in my opinion, they really ought to be. We can do that later if you want but let's concentrate on imposing a little order for now.

Check under iTunes > Preferences Advanced that the media folder really is set to /Volumes/<HD Name>/iTunes and not /Volumes/<HD Name>/iTunes/iTunes Media.
Select File > Library > Organize Library... > Tick Reorganize files in the folder "<Media Folder>" and click OK. Skip if this option is grayed out (already upgraded) or you prefer the older layout.
Select File > Library > Organize Library... > Tick Consolidate files and click OK. This will bring any files currently organized outside the designated media folder into it. NB This will create duplicate copies of any file that needs to be consolidated, and you will need to manually clean up afterwards. Skip if you've already done this...
Select Edit > Preferences > Advanced tab, uncheck Keep iTunes Media folder organized and click OK.
Select Edit > Preferences > Advanced tab, check Keep iTunes Media folder organized and click OK. This triggers iTunes into reorganizing everything inside the designated media folder to the designated structure.

Do you know where your active library files are? Depending on you how you moved things around to get to where you are now the Album Artwork folders and other files could be "current" or remnants of an earlier version. I need to know which before recommending how to proceed.

PS If you really prefer the older layout, but it is already in the new one then edit the file called .iTunes Preferences.plist in your media folder and change the integer from 1 to 0 before doing step 3. (Not recommended).

tt2

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16 replies

turingtest2

Level 10

272,865 points

May 28, 2013 1:26 PM in response to cltaylor12

Apologies. The scripts I posted links to in the last message are for Windows only, Doug's Scripts has Mac versions of some of them. Once your library is properly organized you can clone the folder into the MacBook and switch between the copies. You can then use something like CarbonCopyCloner to keep the external version up-to-date and ready for any catastrophe.

tt2

My iTunes is using both old and new folder structures...