Can I reorganize my itunes music folder using Windows Explorer?

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Can I reorganize my itunes music folder using Windows Explorer?

While browsing my iTunes music folder I found hundreds of files stored in the "Various," "Various Artists," and "Compilations" folders. Most of them are easy to identify and are merely stored in the wrong place. I am reluctant to move any of them, however, because I fear iTunes will lose track of them and the result will be the same as if I had deleted them. I would hope that there is some way to have iTunes recatalog the entire collection once everything has been moved to its proper place. I have also found many dupes lurking in the wrong place as well. I could run my deduper to fix that, but I wouldn't know which one was in the iTunes library. Same question. If I dedupe, can I then run some recatalog command in iTunes to get everything back in order.

iPod classic, Windows 7, iTunes music folder on HP Server

Posted on Apr 16, 2015 3:38 PM

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turingtest2

Level 10

272,725 points

Apr 17, 2015 5:36 AM in response to davidfrommd

Don't move files by hand, as you have surmised iTunes loses track of them. See Grouping tracks into albums for some tips on getting organized. If you let iTunes organize the media folder then the files and folders will tidy themselves up as you clean up the inconsistencies in the library.

As for duplicates see this iTunes DeDuper script. All content in the media folder should be added to the library before you start. Using a file level deduper is likely to break iTunes connection to files leaving broken entries. These could be cleaned, and the media folder reimported, but you will lose ratings, play counts, playlist membership, etc.

tt2

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