Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
To rebuild iTunes library from different folders on my computer (thousands of songs etc.), do I have to use Import to Library in iTunes or can I click and drag files in Finder, which would be quicker?
Mac mini, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3), 2.6GHz Intel Core i7 Quad 16GB
Drag & drop is probably marginally quicker than using File > Add Folder to Library and then browsing to each location in turn. That said in an ideal world you would place all of the media that you want to include in your iTunes library inside the iTunes Media folder first, then add the media folder. This makes it easier to backup, restore or migrate the library to a new drive or computer. See Make a split library portable for some background.
tt2
Drag & drop is probably marginally quicker than using File > Add Folder to Library and then browsing to each location in turn. That said in an ideal world you would place all of the media that you want to include in your iTunes library inside the iTunes Media folder first, then add the media folder. This makes it easier to backup, restore or migrate the library to a new drive or computer. See Make a split library portable for some background.
tt2
Thanks. I didn't know I could add a whole folder to the Library. For years I have had all my songs, audiobooks etc. in 'Mac HD'/iTunes/iTunes Music - I've not been aware of a Media Folder until today. On upgrading to El Capitan I lost all my playlists, apps etc and my songs have been split between folders in iTunes Music and a sub folder called Music. Many have been duplicated so I'm currently going through manually every album, deleting duplicate songs and folders so they're all in one place - 'Mac HD'/iTunes/iTunes Music/Music and I then want to move them all to the iTunes Media Folder.
I take it I use the 'Add Folder to Library' function after I've gone into preferences and reset the Media location to 'Mac HD'/User/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media folder? Once they're 'in' there, can I delete the originals or is the Media folder just an index for the files in their original location?
iTunes Music is the old (iTunes 8 and earlier name for the media folder, iTunes Media was the new name introduced with iTunes 9. Apple could have ut in a feature to automatically rename older libraries, but they didn't, so if your content is in iTunes Music you have a legacy library.
See Empty/corrupt iTunes library after upgrade/crash. It might be possible to restore your pre-upgrade library file. Depending on what you've do so far you've probably made parallel copies of the contents of iTunes Music in iTunes Media. I'd start with trying to get your former library functioning properly before worrying about converting to the new layout. After restoring the old library file you will most likely need to go into preferences and change the media folder so that it points at the old style iTunes Music instead of iTunes Media. Once you're sure the old library and playlists are working properly again we can talk about massaging the library into the new format.
tt2
Here's teh steps taken so far
1. In the iTunes Music folder I've deleted those I don't want any more and removed duplicates.
2. Next I copied all the music (app 47 GB) onto an external drive and deleted all the music in the iTunes Music folder.
3. I copied all the Artist folders back from the ext drive to User/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music.
4. I've gone into iTunes preferences and set the location of the Media to User/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media and restarted iTunes. Not successful and I wonder if I should point it to User/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music ?
I've checked Keep iTunes Media Organised in preferences but fear duplications again so haven't selected Copy files to media folder when importing to Library.
The core of the iTunes library is the database file iTunes Library.itl. Again for legacy reasons the library on a Mac might be called simply iTunes Library. If you did an in place upgrade to El Capitan then likely that involved an update to iTunes. When a new version of iTunes opens an older version of the library that needs updating it should make a dated copy of the .itl file in the Previous iTunes Libraries folder, then build a new version of the database from the old data. Occasionally this process can be interrupted leading to an empty or corrupt library. If you have access to the original .itl file either from the Previous iTunes Libraries folder or from a Time Machine or other backup, it should be possible to restore a version of the library that has your playlists in it. Deleting media and copying it back again won't help if you don't have the database since this is where playlists, ratings, play counts, etc.are stored. Pointing iTunes at a particular media folder in preferences tells it where new content should be stored in future. It doesn't check what is in there already. The correct level is either iTunes Music for your old database or iTunes Media for a new one. The Music folder inside is then used for Music, while other media kinds get their own subfolders. e.g. Movies, Podcasts, TV Shows, etc.
tt2
Thanks for your patience. The upgrade caused so much to be lost inc Email accounts, mailboxes, Logic Pro links to third party plug-ins etc. that I am starting afresh. It took several hours with Support the other night to get all my apps downloaded again to iTunes. They're working but I've no idea where they're located - so I don't want to to have to start with a fresh iTunes install again. Nevertheless the only only itb file I have is related to the new Music library, showing it created last month and modified today; It's where you said it would be (photo attached). I do not wish to get my old playlists back (I've mentally said goodbye to what I had before EC upgrade - mails, playlists, Firefox bookmarks etc.) but to simply get all the music I now have in the one place, organised and 'seen' by iTunes. I don't care about lost artwork either. Any help you can give on that and how to ensure my Apps which are shared with my devices are also stored properly is appreciated.
Take a look in the Downloads folder. This should normally be empty, or not even exist, unless you're in the process of downloading from the iTunes Store.
Under iTunes > Preferences confirm that the media folder is set to <User>/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media. Reset if it isn't.
Use File > Add Folder to Library and select the folder <User>/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media to add everything in the folder to the library. Anything that has already been added should be ignored so this action should not create duplicates.
See Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device for advice on working with your devices. Because you have a new library, even though it probably has the same content, iTunes will want to erase and sync media. Make sure that you back up the current state of the device first and extract any media items that only exist on the device. You should also copy off the contents of the camera roll and any app data that is available through the file sharing area.
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Thanks again - I'm just off to a gig but will get back on this tomorrow. 🙂
Cool. Enjoy the music! 🙂
tt2
It now seems to be working OK. Having deleted all the duplicates I could find ( in Finder) and moved the remainder to the iTunes Media Folder, on restart they all seem to be there. I've now used view duplicates in iTunes and trashed another load where I had the same song on different albums. Now I need to choose between those duplicates where I have one on my computer and another in the cloud. Once that's done I'll start making new playlists. My apps and movies are not appearing in iTunes Media Folder so that's something else to sort.
Sometimes signing out of the store and then back in again will resolve iCloud duplicates. If you think the iCloud version is going to be of better quality you can download that one and delete the one you have, or you can delete the iCloud one and hide from your purchase history to stop it showing up again.
tt2
Importing in bulk to iTunes Library
