Is there a way to ensure all my media is in iTunes?

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Level 1

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Is there a way to ensure all my media is in iTunes?

I am running iTunes 12.2.2.25 on my Windows 7, 64 bit laptop. I store all my music in the "My Music" library folder. Within that folder are a few separate subfolders: iTunes, Amazon downloads, and "other" music from friends or whatever.

I try to use iTunes exclusively to play my music, and so of course, most of the music in the Amazon and "Other Music" folders has been imported into iTunes at one point or another. However, over the years, between crashed hard drives, rearranged libraries, and the like, I am not certain that ALL the music in the Amazon and "Other" music folders is also represented in iTunes. Sometimes, I've added music to those folders and forgot to import it to iTunes at the same time. There are enough files and subfolders to look through that I really don't want to do it manually. It'd take a whole day, if not longer.

I tried to address this uncertainty a few times in the past by simply importing the entire contents of both the Amazon and "other" music folders into iTunes. While that gave me peace of mind that nothing was overlooked, it also created an absurd number of duplicates, which I had to go through and delete one by one. I don't want to do that again!

So does anybody have a trick for checking if files are already in iTunes, without having to import and then delete duplicates?

Posted on Aug 28, 2015 9:34 AM

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Answer 1

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turingtest2

Level 10

272,887 points

Aug 28, 2015 10:53 AM in response to jmc3282

What works well for me is to organize all of my media, even media that iTunes doesn't handle, inside the iTunes Media folder, using the basic iTunes layout. I can then use iTunes Folder Watch with its option to check for dead tracks on start-up to make sure that everything that is in the media folder than can be read by iTunes is connected to it, and that nothing that is connected to it is missing. Another advantage of taking this approach is that the library is then easy to backup and move to another drive or computer when needed. See Make a split library portable for some background and also this post on duplicates: Re: How do I eliminate duplicate songs?

Note you don't have to let iTunes manage the file and folder names if you really want to keep some things separate, but if everything is stored inside the iTunes Media folder, inside the main iTunes folder, then the library can be backed up or moved as a unit, and the risk of generating duplicates is eliminated.

tt2

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Answer 2

jmc3282 Author

Level 1

8 points

Sep 18, 2015 4:39 PM in response to turingtest2

Thanks, tt2. I decided to go ahead and bite the bullet - took your advice to combine all media into the iTunes folder. Left me with a ton of duplicates to delete, and cleanup did take the better part of a day (learning to use scripts would take me at least as long... so I just went the familiar way), but at least now I think I won't have to face any issues like this again in the future!

The iTunes Folder Watch program is just what I needed. Thank you for all your help!!

Jenny

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

272,887 points

Sep 18, 2015 6:40 PM in response to jmc3282

You're welcome. 🙂

tt2

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