So I just bought a new computer and want to transfer my itunes library over. I went through the organize library option and consolidated the files to the itunes media folder, but when i checked the folder it was missing many files still. I tried to consolidate again and it didn't do anything. How can I fix this?
Windows 7
Did you attempt to consolidate the library on the old computer or the new one? It should be the former, and there are two steps you need to go through ...
If this doesn't have the required results you probably have some "broken links" in your library (i.e., the file locations that iTunes has in its database don't correspond to the actual location of some of your media files). Hopefully the procedure above resolves your problem, but if not there are further steps that you can go through to repair the broken links so that the consolidation process can be completed and you can transfer your complete library.
The links are all correct I just checked, I went through the whole process again but still am faced with the same issue.
Just to clarify ... you still have media files that are linked correctly from iTunes (i.e., right-click > Get Info, File tab shows the correct location), but these have not been moved to the "expected" location - assuming your iTunes folder is in the default place - C:\Users\username\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music\artist_name\album_title - correct?
There are a couple of other scenarios in which iTunes may not be able to complete the consolidation process:
Then try the consolidation process again ... if it still doesn't work as expected we'll need to dive further into details of how your media is currently organized and how the non-moving items appear in iTunes.
I unchecked the boxes for the read only option. the files that are not properly consolidating are located in a folder that I have on my desktop. The songs all play properly in iTunes so that means that the locations are correct I guess.
Under Edit > Preferences > Advanced click Reset Warnings.
Run the permissions fix on both the iTunes Media folder and the folder on the desktop.
Try consolidating again.
Is iTunes still linked to the copies on the desktop or is it now referencing files in the media folder?
tt2
Ok so i figured it out
I went in itunes and selected all of my albums at once, from there I Right clicked> Get info> Unchecked the box next to compilation. After pushing ok it did a full change of all the albums and is now showing up properly in my itunes folder. I appreciate all the help guys, I wouldn't have known where to start at all if it wasn't for you all.
Glad to hear you got there in the end. 🙂
tt2
Interesting ... changing the "Part of a Compilation" flag will normally move media, from:
iTunes Media\Music\Compilations\album_title
to:
iTunes Media\Music\artist_name\album_title
where artist_name is either the Album Artist value for all tracks in an album, or the common Artist value if Artist Value is blank (or the same as Artist). I wouldn't have necessarily thought that this would have had the right result (though obviously glad that it did) unless there was also an issue with the permissions or read-only setting on your iTunes Media\Music\Compilations folder that was preventing the media on your desktop being moved to there.
Perhaps a question of expectations. I suspect the files had consolidated already, but our friend wasn't checking the compilations folder.
tt2
Entirely possible 😀
That is exactly what I think happened. I didn't even think about looking in the compilations folder, nor did I know that there was a compilations folder at all in there. I look in there now and theres a few albums that I left by accident.
Yes - over the years I've found a few digital downloads, and more that a few cases of metadata imported from Gracenote for CD imports, where albums by a single artist have been classified as "compilations". I suspect that this may have been due to the pre-iTunes 12 name for the flag - "Part of a compilation" - and the assumption that this should apply to "Best of" or "Greatest Hits" albums, In record industry parlance these are "compilations", just not in the more restrictive sense used in iTunes.
Ya its not properly used in iTunes for sure. None of the albums where greatest hits or any sort of grouping.
One of several issues with the lack of quality control over the data that's uploaded - often by iTunes users - to Gracenote. Not just the inconsistent use of the compilation flag, but things like tagging each disc of a multi-disc album as a separate album 😟
Back in the day setting the compilation flag was also used as a workaround for the lack of support for Album Artist in iTunes which didn't arrive until iTunes 7 (2006). As far as I know Gracenotes still doesn't support Album Artist, yet people will often tag the individual artists on each track and, as we know, iTunes needs either a common Artist or common Album Artist to link the tracks from an album together properly.
tt2
I have tried to consolidate all my music files to my Itunes Media folder but it is still missing quite a few files. How can I fix this?
