Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
I keep my iTunes media folder on an external hard drive which failed. I was able to transfer my media folder to another external drive. How to I let iTunes know where it is and keep my playlists and albums and other info intact in iTunes.
iMac (20-inch Mid 2007), Mac OS X (10.6.8)
One option: Name the external drive exactly as the other one was, making sure the folder structure is identical to the previous.
Another option: Try to find one file associated with a broken link when iTunes asks you, then try to find others. This works if you have let iTunes organize your media. If you have not then things are going to get very messy very quickly and there will only be a partial solution.
Thank you for your quick response.
Regarding option one, the drive is already named and the file structure is already in use so this would be difficult. The only way I could think to do that is to move the current files off the drive, reformat the drive and rename it, then put the files back on it with the file structure of the of the original. Whew!
Regarding Option Two, I am not sure if iTunes is organizing my media. I don't know if I can open iTunes to check without compromising my playlists.
I was considering opening iTunes with the option key held down then choosing the iTunes library that is on the new drive, but I don't know if this will compromise my info.
A "library" is everything in the iTunes folder. However, in some cases, such as yours, you have moved your media folder out of the iTunes folder which iTunes does not really like but can live with as long as nothing happens such as a drive failing. The whole organization is stored in a file called iTunes Library.itl. Right now your .itl tells iTunes that when you click on track xyz it needs to play the file xyz.mp3 in a certain folder on a drive named___
The two ways to get iTunes to work are, as I said, either fool it into thinking the drive is the same one, or to get it to try to fix all the broken links.
Now, I use an older (and IMHO a much better) OSX version. I don;'t know about your version (I guess they have not changed in this regard) I know I can simply click on an external drive and rename it just as I would a any other file or folder. Of course if you changed the folder organization too that will confuse iTunes, but I don't know exactly what you have done until you tell me.
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
iTunes 9 [and later]: Understanding iTunes Media Organization - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3847 - plus supplemental information about organizing to new structure https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6477809?answerId=26404702022#26404702022
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.
Thanks. That is very informative.
Thank you for those links.
Out of curiosity what version of OS X are you using?
I have a Mid 2007 iMac, Intel Core 2 Duo 2 GHz, 4MB of RAM and a 250GB Hard Drive and the latest iteration of OS X, 10.7.5.
I am using the latest version of iTunes.
I ran out of space on the internal drive so I was using an external firewire drive. This drive failed and I got the files off and onto another external firewire drive that already had folders on. It had the capacity I needed.
If it is as simple as renaming the drive and using the same folder structure as the failed drive I can do that.
I moved the folders off the failed drive onto the new drive using Disk Warrior 5.
I could hide the folders that were already on the new drive in a folder that came over from the failed drive (although not into the folder with the iTunes media folder).
iTunes would see the basic structure of the failed drive it was expecting.
That assumes it didn't care about changes to folders that do not have the iTunes media folder. One of these would have the folders that were initially on the new drive before I used it to rescue the folders on the failed drive.
Can it be that simple.
OSX 10.4.11 on a G4 from 2002 with iTunes 7.5 (from ca. 2007). 🙂
I have seen cases where others tricked iTunes into thinking the drive had never changed. Basically the path to the iTunes folder has to be the same as it was before. It doesn't matter about other folder. Each of your tracks is linked to a file along a path listed in the ,.itl file and you need to make sure it still exists even though your physical drive has changed. Not to get too technical but if you had been using a networked drive where an address is assigned to the drive by a router then this is a lot more difficult to accomplish.
Sorry for the delay in responding.
I reformated an extra drive that I had, created the exact same path to the iTunes media folder as you described brought up iTunes and all my playlists and rating are intact.
Great. Thank you very much.
Then I proceeded to use iTunes to officially move the iTunes media folder to the new drive.
In the process I discovered that iTunes created a new blank iTunes media folder on the boot drive which it lists under advanced preferences. Yet it still sees the other iTunes media folder.
It has added my latest additions to iTunes to this new iTunes media folder on the boot drive instead of where they belong in the iTunes media folder on the external drive.
When I click on a song in the iTunes library and select Show In The Finder it shows the song file is located on the external drive as it should.
I would like to merge these two iTunes media folders and move them to the new external drive that is replacing the one that failed and not lose my playlists, artwork, rating etc.
Can this be done?
In doing this you somehow didn't configure iTunes in advanced preferences to use the correct folder on the external drive as the one to which to save media.
I did a brief scan of the posts and didn't see if you actually let iTunes organize your media. If you do not then this is a prime example of why not letting it do it is not a good thing. Moving files between drives is not easy unless you let iTunes do it an iTunes will only do it its way.
If you do let iTunes organize your media you can use advanced preferences to specify the correct top level media folder on the external then let iTunes consolidate/organize media to it. If you do not let iTunes organize your media you will have to move the files by hand, delete their entries from iTunes and re-add them as brand new files from the new location. iTunes will not track moving files between drives unless it does the moving.
Again thanks for your prompt reply. I hope this clarifies things.
Originally, I had to move the iTunes Media folder to the external drive due to capacity constraints on the boot drive. As you know the external drive then failed.
Fortunately I have "Keep iTunes Media Folder Organized" checked in advanced properties. Good news.
I made the discovery described in my previous post, when I went into the Advanced Preferences. I did this in order to use iTunes to move the iTunes media file to the new drive. In doing so I discovered the path to the new iTunes media file, now on the boot drive, was listed In Advanced Preferences instead of the original path to the external drive.
I think what is further complicating things is that "Copy files to the iTunes Media Folder when adding to iTunes" is now checked. This is adding the new songs to the new iTunes Media folder instead of the correct one from my perspective.
I am thinking that, in Advanced Preferences", I should uncheck this as well as change the "iTunes Media Folder Location" to the path to the new external drive.
The issue I am grappling with is whether this will update the links of the existing songs in the library to the files in the iTunes media folder once it is in it's new location and whether the integrity of my playlists rating etc will be maintained. I am back to my original issue.
No, you want to leave it to automatically put files there. Change the location back to the external drive and organize/consolidate your media to the drive.
Note a disadvantage of using an external drive is if for any reason you do not have it turned on when starting iTunes the iTunes application will default back to the internal drive. This is one reason for having the complete library, and not just media, on the external drive.
Keep iTunes info when identifying a new location for the media folder
