Consolidating 18 GB of iOS Apps to NAS

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Consolidating 18 GB of iOS Apps to NAS

Trying to make room on the SSD Boot Camp partition of my 2012 Mac Mini and I see the iTunes Media\Mobile Applications folder has swelled to 18 GB despite iTunes being configured to use my Network Attached Storage as its media drive. When I go in iTunes to File / Library / Organize and choose the Consolidate option, the ensuing status shows that songs are moving and not apps, so I abort. Why move songs? All the songs are on the NAS. It's the 18 GB of Apps I want to move. How do I make iTunes move what I want moved and not waste time moving songs that are already where they are supposed to be? (And I can't tell which way media is being moved because the status is only flashing names of song after song after song and not giving information as to the source and destination.)

Anyway, the 2012 Mac Mini has limited SSD storage, and syncing a 64 GB iPad and a 128 GB iPhone is the #1 user of that limited space with 46.7 GB used. (This is outside of the 18 GB of Apps.) #2 is the 21.4 GB of Picasa2 databases. (Not pictures, just the database of the pictures.)

I have 1.3 TB of free space on the NAS begging to be used while the Mac Mini is starved for space. iTunes, just put the **** Apps on the NAS!

Posted on Apr 20, 2015 11:18 AM

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Answer 1

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turingtest2

Level 10

272,749 points

May 6, 2015 2:58 PM in response to ckahn

Take a quick look at Make a split library portable and iTunes: Understanding iTunes Media Organization. My guess is that iTunes is using the older layout so that the Mobile Applications folder is hosted on the same drive as the library files. File > Library > Organize Library > Rearrange Files should fix it for you, but note that there are other effects on the layout of the media folder. I would also caution that NAS storage isn't officially catered for by iTunes. It may work, but it might not, and if doesn't recovery can be difficult or impossible. Recent Windows builds of iTunes wouldn't play nice with NAS and updated apps causing aborted sync sessions.

A locally connected external hard drive as the primary location of the entire library, with NAS acting as backup, might be a more robust solution.

See also this guide on how to move the iOS device backups. Again I would suggest locally connected storage may be ideal, and might even be neccessary in this case. http://support.digidna.net/hc/en-us/articles/203504123-Storing-your-iPhone-Backu ps-on-an-Alternate-Location

tt2

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Answer 2

ckahn Author

Level 1

18 points

May 6, 2015 2:58 PM in response to turingtest2

Firstly, I almost missed this response because Gmail has been labelling my Apple Support Communities emails as spam. Spam is only kept for 30 days, so who knows how many responses I've not been alerted to.

Anyways.

I'm using the newer "iTunes Media" structure within a folder called "iTunes Music", which makes spotting the difference confusing.

When I click Organize Library I get two checkboxes:

1) Consolidate files - Puts copies of all media files used by iTunes in the iTunes Media folder and leaves the original files in their current locations.

2) [greyed out] Reorganize files in the folder "iTunes Music" - Your iTunes media files are already organized into subfolders (Music, Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts, Audiobooks, and so on).

This "leaves the original files in their current locations" part -- does that mean that consolidating will just copy the 18 GB of iOS apps rather than move them? I really need them moved. If I just manually moved the 18 GB iOS app files with Windows Explorer over to the corresponding NAS folder, will iTunes get confused?

In Advanced Preferences, my iTunes Media folder location to "Z:\iTunes CK\iTunes Music" with "Keep iTunes Media folder organized" checked and "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library" unchecked.

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

272,749 points

May 6, 2015 3:28 PM in response to ckahn

Consolidating makes new copies. You can delete the originals once the copy is complete. Moving by hand leaves iTunes confused, don't do this. Not only will the 18Gb of apps come in, but anything else that was added to the library from a folder outside of the media folder while the option Copy files... was disabled. I would recommend you enable it. It it then easy to backup all of the media as it is in one place. With a split library you also need to make sure to backup the library files as well.

tt2

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Answer 4

ckahn Author

Level 1

18 points

May 8, 2015 12:04 PM in response to turingtest2

I had 0 bytes left on my "C:" drive thanks to the ever-enlarging Picasa database files. The iTunes Consolidate operation was just "preparing" -- not copying or moving anything -- I had to manually move those 18 GB of iOS apps so that Windows could function properly. I hope the damage to Itunes isn't serious. It's amazing how a 187 GB partition (with the assist of an always-connected 6 TB NAS) isn't enough to hold Windows, iTunes and Picasa.

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Answer 5

turingtest2

Level 10

272,749 points

May 9, 2015 7:47 AM in response to ckahn

Well iTunes is clever enough to only let you have one copy of a given app, so unlike reimporting a media folder there is less potential for duplication. You should place the Mobile Applications folder inside your media folder and, if the option isn't greyed out, use File > Library > Organize Library > Rearrange files in the folder "<media folder>". Then use File > Add Folder to Library to add the Mobile Applications folder which will get iTunes to add anything that it hasn't already fixed by itself. Finally I have a script called CleanDeadApps which can removed unneeded versions of apps from the folder which can sometime get left behind when updating.

This technique could be used to move the iOS backup data to another locally connected NTFS drive.

Relocate iOS device backups

Make a new folder called MobileSync at the root of the drive you want the backup data to live on, e.g. as D:\MobileSync
Use Windows Explorer to move current Backup folder at <SystemDrive>\Users\<User>\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup into the folder you just made. If the backup folder is large this may take some time.
To make iTunes look for the data in the new location copy the text below, open a command prompt, right-click to paste in the command, edit the drive letter/path if needed, and then press <Enter>.
```
MkLink /J "%AppData%\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup" "D:\MobileSync\Backup"
```

If you want the backup elsewhere replace D:\MobileSync accordingly.

Note that while this method works for iOS device backups it cannot be used to redirect sections of the media library.

tt2

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