Q: Music Folder Within Music Folder
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Aug 22, 2015 7:25 PMby Cunnla,Hi,
What is the path of that second Music folder?
In my case, there is a Music folder inside the iTunes Media folder, like this: /Users/Home folder/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/ This Music folder holds all the files for my songs. Other media are in other folders such as Movies, Podcasts, etc.
When you say "larger Music folder" is that the one in /Users/Home folder/Music?
Also, how is you iTunes library organized? In iTunes Preferences > Advanced, do you have the boxes checked for "Keep iTunes Media folder organized" and "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library"?
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Aug 22, 2015 9:54 PMby donhoos66,The first folder path is: User/Music/iTunes/Music. Within the last "Music" folder in that path are all of the artists (starting with "A Flock of Seagulls").
The path of the second sub-folder is: User/Music/iTunes/Music/Music. In other words, if I scroll through the artists in the first folder, I eventually get to the letter "M" and I find the second "Music" folder within the first folder's list of artists...if I open that second "Music" folder, there is a brand new list of artists, also beginning with "A Flock of Seagulls").
At one point I also had a "Movies" folder within the first "Music" folder and some others that I just deleted. But I'm concerned about deleting this second "Music" folder because I'm not completely sure that everything in it is also in the first "Music" folder.
I noticed that I don't have an "iTunes Media" folder at all.
Those same three boxes are checked in my iTunes "Advanced Prefereces" (keep iTunes Media organized, copy files to iTunes Media folder, and Share iTunes Library).
Thanks!
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Aug 22, 2015 11:39 PMby Cunnla,At one point I also had a "Movies" folder within the first "Music" folder and some others that I just deleted.
That indicates that your first "Music" folder-- the one after /iTunes in the path -- is what is now called the iTunes Media folder.
Older versions of iTunes did not have a "Media" folder but called it Music, which could become very confusing. You can rename that folder as iTunes Media if you like.
In iTunes 12.2.2 you can go to View in the top menu bar and select Show Duplicate Items. It's tedious but you can check those against what is in the second folder.
You can then try deleting the duplicates. Find and remove duplicate items in your iTunes library - Apple Support
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Aug 23, 2015 1:17 AMby donhoos66,If I use that method to delete duplicates, how do I know that I'm consistently deleting the version in my second/sub-Music folder vs. the version in my first/main Music folder? I'd want to make sure that I don't wind up with partial albums in each folder because I deleted some of the duplicates from one folder and one from the other.
And, if I do that, at some point would I delete the second/sub-Music folder from my folder structure in Finder?
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Aug 23, 2015 2:10 AMby Cunnla,You would use the iTunes > File > Get Info and go to the File tab on the right. That will show the location of the file and you can use the arrow signs at the bottom to go to next or previous.
However, you have such a huge library it might take a lifetime doing it manually. There are third-party apps for removing duplicates but I don't know if they are any good or not.
And, if I do that, at some point would I delete the second/sub-Music folder from my folder structure in Finder?
Once you have removed the duplicates, there will probably still be files in that folder. You can select them all and, using a new Finder window, move them to the main Music folder. The second folder will now be empty and can be deleted in Finder.
By the way, what's the name of the folder in iTunes Preferences > Advanced for the location of your media?
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Aug 23, 2015 8:06 AMby donhoos66,Is there a way to ensure that the Music folder I'm going to keep has all of the my songs in it? For example, could I add all of the songs from my sub-folder to iTunes and then use the "Show Duplicates" option in iTunes to delete any duplicates that I just added? Maybe something like this?
Use File > Add Folder to Library to add the second/sub-Music folder to the library.
Use the Option+File > Show Exact Duplicates feature to show exact duplicates.
Sort the list on Date Added.
Delete the duplicates added today.
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Aug 23, 2015 6:38 PMby Cunnla,Hi,
Use File > Add Folder to Library to add the second/sub-Music folder to the library.
On my version of iTunes -- 12.2.2 -- there is only Add to Library in the File menu.
Here is something that works. Choose Add to Library and navigate to the subfolder. As a test, select 20 or so items and press Open. Those items will appear in the main Music folder and disappear from the subfolder. Or you can select all the items in the subfolder and press Open, and all the items will go to you main folder, and the subfolder will disappear.
Before doing that, run Show Exact Duplicates and check to see if a duplicated item is in both folders. It would be better to remove the duplicates before taking the above steps.
