Q: Moving iTunes Music Folder: conflicting information
Hello. This is a somewhat complicated question, so bear with me as I give some background. I have a Mac Pro with 3 internal 1 TB drives. I use the Mac Pro mainly for music production with Logic Pro 10.1.1. It also contains my music library for DJing, and I also use it for business. I'm using iTunes 12.1.
Currently, my 2nd internal drive (NOT the boot drive) contains my Logic Projects, my iTunes Music folder, and a lot of business documents. My music files for DJing are in my iTunes Music folder, but the organization of my DJing music library is done by Pioneer's rekordbox 3.2.0 software. My 3rd internal drive currently contains only my music samples.
I plan to erase my boot drive (first time in 4 years of owning it) and reinstall all my software. I also plan to erase the 2nd internal drive. I do not plan to erase the 3rd internal drive.
When I restore files (from an external backup drive), I want to put ONLY my Logic Projects back on the 2nd internal drive. I want to move the iTunes Music folder (along with my other business files) to either the 3rd internal drive or the boot drive. My intention in doing this is to write less to the drive with my Logic Projects.
So my question is this: I know that Apple's recommendation for moving the iTunes folder is to use the Change button in the "iTunes Media folder location" pane, along with the "Consolidate Files" function. However, rekordbox support advised me not to use the consolidate function, saying, "I would not consolidate - that will end up moving all sorts of files, making relocation MUCH more difficult within rekordbox." They instead advised me to simply put the iTunes music folder to where I want it when I restore files, then launch iTunes and see if the music still plays (I assume they meant also that I should use the Change button in the iTunes Media folder location pane).
My main concerns are these: a) I don't want to lose the metadata in my iTunes mp3 files (such as artist, BPM, grouping, comments, etc. and b) I don't want rekordbox to be unable to locate and/or read my iTunes files and their metadata, and I also don't want to lose cue points that I've added to my tracks using rekordbox.
If anyone has any thoughts, I would gladly welcome them, and if you made it this far, thanks very much for reading.
Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), 3.33GHz 6-Core 32GB RAM
Posted on Mar 26, 2015 11:35 AM
I know absolutely nothing about the other software you are using.
iTunes is pretty unforgiving about moving files to a different drive except by specific methods. To start, iTunes library.itl file is central to your media listing. when you add a file to iTunes the application reads the file metadata and put that and the location of the file in its library file and uses that reference for pretty much everything. If you move the file, in particular to another drive which is not normal moving but copying to a new file + deleting the old, iTunes loses the link. iTunes also works with managing its own media file placement and you can disable this but you do not say if you have done this (but I think it possible if your other program wants to manage media too). That too will change the rules on what you can do.
Moving files to a different drive works in 3 scenarios:
1) You keep all your iTunes files in one master iTunes folder and move the whole folder to the different drive, then start iTunes with the option/alt key held down and guide it toe the new (actually old) library on the other drive.
2) Use iTunes to consolidate/organize the files to different location, even on a different drive.
3) Have kept iTunes' default preferences for organizing media and use Finder to copy the media folder to another drive, even if your main library file remains on another. iTunes will complain about broken links but if you guide to one file in the new location it will (hopefully -- keep your fingers crossed -- and slowly) find the locations of the other files.
iTunes is set up to be consumer level software. One you go beyond the basics (as you are doing) you need to know in detail how the application operates. Get used to browsing topics of relevance on this forum and read these links:
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/message/26404702#26404702
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.
Note when reading Apple help documents. They may look casual but word by word understanding to detail is absolutely critical. If they say "relocate your media" they mean just media which is not the same as a library which is all your iTunes files together.
Posted on Mar 26, 2015 9:14 PM