Putting my library together

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Putting my library together

Hello, for a long time my iTunes library has been split between a computer and two hard drives. However we just got a WD My Cloud, since it has a feature that allows it to serve as an iTunes library, and it has plenty of storage for all our files.

My Goal Is to make a folder for my iTunes library that has a composite of all the 3 drives, organized in a way so that iTunes will recognize and list all the new videos and songs. Then upload that folder to the my cloud.

My difficulty is that I don't know exactly how the file system works, I don't know where to drag and drop the files so that iTunes will recognize them. For example inside of the iTunes->iTunes Movie->Movies folder it appears each video gets its own folder with the singular video file inside, when i import my other video files will i need to give each one its own folder?

Basically I'm worried that their is some sort of database file, and so when I have put all the files on the cloud and accessed them on iTunes, only one of the drive's content will show up, even though the other two are still their. Is their a good way to ensure they all show up?

Posted on Jan 20, 2015 8:09 PM

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Answer 1

Limnos

Level 10

411,247 points

Jan 21, 2015 9:40 AM in response to tandaladoc

There's only very specific cases where you dragging files and folders from place to place will work. For most people (those who don't know those cases) you should let iTunes do the file moving so it keeps track of where things have been moved.

iTunes 12 for Mac: Change where your iTunes files are stored - http://support.apple.com/kb/PH19507 - a good example post by CellarDwellr in https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6789435

Have fun with the NAS. I see plenty of posts where people have NAS issues with iTunes -- they just do not play well together at times. Probably something about the server software. You're better off at keeping your whole iTunes library there (see "portable" below) since split libraries seem more prone to file location problems.

What are the iTunes library files? - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1660

More on iTunes library files and what they do - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes#Media_management

What are all those iTunes files? - http://www.macworld.com/article/139974/2009/04/itunes_files.html

Where are my iTunes files located? - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1391

Image of folder structure and explanation of different iTunes versions (turingtest2 post) - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-7392 and making an iTunes library portable.

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