My music is in Finder but not in iTunes.

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Level 1

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My music is in Finder but not in iTunes.

A few years ago I installed iTunes on my Windows XP machine, and uploaded a number of CDs. I eventually transferred that music to a new iPhone. Then when I bought a new Mac, I transferred the music from my phone to the Mac. I never tried to listen to the music on my Mac until the other day, and that's when I found out there were only two songs in iTunes on the Mac, and they play as expected. My first question is, how do I download those two songs and save them onto my Mac desktop?

Since I was sure I had all the music somewhere on the Mac, I snooped around the other day and found them in Finder under username/music/iTunes/iTunes music. I can play them, but they are so quiet I can barely hear them, and I can't turn the volume up any louder. So my second question is, how do I move that music so they're actually in the iTunes app? And that's why I want to save those first two songs onto my desktop, in case they're overwritten or deleted somehow when I'm able to put all the music into iTunes.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Nov 1, 2012 10:01 AM

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Answer 1

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Limnos

Level 10

411,175 points

Nov 1, 2012 10:08 AM in response to tioli

Then when I bought a new Mac, I transferred the music from my phone to the Mac.

That's not how it was intended to be done.

iTunes: How to move [or copy] your music [library] to a new computer [or another drive] - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4527

Quick answer if you use iTunes' default preferences settings: Copy the entire iTunes folder (and in doing so all its subfolders and files) intact to the other drive. Open iTunes and immediately hold down the Option (alt) key (shift on Windows), then guide it to the new location of the library.

Windows users see tip at: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4095896?answerId=18879381022#18879381022

You can add files to iTunes by dragging them to the "Automatically Add to iTunes" folder.

iTunes 9: Understanding the "Automatically Add to iTunes" folder. - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3832 - Files put into this folder are actually moved from this folder onto the correct location in the iTunes Media folder.

It may be the volume got adjusted in the files. In iTunes get information on those two files and check under options.

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Answer 2

tioli Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 1, 2012 11:16 AM in response to Limnos

Thanks for getting me started, Limnos. I wonder why I thought the beauty and simplicity of the system was that whenever you connected an iPhone to iTunes on a computer, the oldest music would be updated automatically?

I decided to use the home share version of transferring, and now that I have the share open on my home computer, I find that there are only those two songs on my Mac that are already on my Windows computer listed under shared/music. All the music that I have is listed under library/music. So how do I move that music file from library down to my shared music?

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Answer 3

Limnos

Level 10

411,175 points

Nov 1, 2012 11:42 AM in response to tioli

iTunes only transfers music bought from the iTunes Store from a phone to a computer when attaching, not CDs or media from other sources.

My computer is incapable of Home Sharing so I cannot provide advice on using it.

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Answer 4

tioli Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 1, 2012 1:56 PM in response to Limnos

I can't remember the exact sequence of events here but this is what happened:

I turned on sharing on both computers so I guess they were connected to each other. Then I went to Finder and dragged the first 5 albums available into the "Automatically Add to iTunes" folder. And for some reason I looked at iTunes and my entire library was now already there. In spite of that, I dragged the rest of them into the folder anyway.

So they're now on the Mac under shared/my music, with them arranged alphabetically by artist. If I go one level below that, so it's under shared/music, I think all the music is still there, but I can't figure out how they are arranged. It certainly isn't alphabetical, but at least all the albums are still in one piece.

Here's what I don't like: as soon as I turn off the Windows computer, the share button on my Mac iTunes disappears, so all of the music disappears with it and it's only to be found on the Finder again. Is there a way to move it into iTunes permanently, so I don't need Windows turned on?

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Answer 5

tioli Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 1, 2012 3:58 PM in response to tioli

Limnos, thanks for your help. I did a lot more checking around and now I've got it figured out. Thanks.

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