Clean Mavericks Install - How do I bring over my iTunes Library as it is

cooa99 · Mar 5, 2014

Hi Guys,

I have about to upgrade my Retina Macbook Pro from to Mavericks (clean install).

I am a little apprehensive about my MBP because I have my iTunes Library and Multiple emails that I would like to bring over BUT I would like to do it without hopefully using Time Machine.

So My questions are :-

(1) How do I backup my multiple emails and then restore it into the maverick install?

(2) My Biggest headache is going to be my iTunes Library
It is about 100gb in size, Its location has been changed to a separate partition and I have made sure that iTunes does not organise my music folders & will like to keep it that way. Also my library has been uploaded into iTunes Match.
How do I move this to new install without breaking anything!?

(3) My iPhoto is slightly big, do i just simply copy the single file to the mavericks install?

Thanks

Gav2k · Mar 5, 2014

1, what email service is it?

2, http://support.apple.com/kb/HT6101

3, use migration assistant

cooa99 · Mar 5, 2014

mail services are yahoo and gmail accounts

i'll give the other 2 suggestions a try cheers

cooa99 · Mar 6, 2014

When I got my 2012 MBPr, the 1st thing I did was wiped the SSD to create 2 partitions(160GB + 590GB) and reinstalled ML on it.

Issue I have now is that 2nd Partition is filing up (I work with a lot of VM's ) and Mac does not give you the beauty of being able to shrink/expand partitions without destroying the contents Like using 3rd party products in Windows/Unix.

since I am going to be moving on to Mavericks my questions are :-

1) Would going back to 1 single partition and creating a single folder to store all I had in my 2nd Partition be a better solution?
2) If the above is the solution then how would I edit my iTunes Library to use the new path?

cheers

Weaselboy · Mar 6, 2014

cooa99 said:
When I got my 2012 MBPr, the 1st thing I did was wiped the SSD to create 2 partitions(160GB + 590GB) and reinstalled ML on it.

Issue I have now is that 2nd Partition is filing up (I work with a lot of VM's ) and Mac does not give you the beauty of being able to shrink/expand partitions without destroying the contents Like using 3rd party products in Windows/Unix.

It does. See this guide. Assuming there is no data you need to keep on partition two, just delete it then expand partition one to fill the drive. This will not erase data on partition one (at the top).

since I am going to be moving on to Mavericks my questions are :-

1) Would going back to 1 single partition and creating a single folder to store all I had in my 2nd Partition be a better solution?
2) If the above is the solution then how would I edit my iTunes Library to use the new path?

1. IMO yes... there is no need to mess with two partitions.
2. Move the iTunes library to where you want it then hold the option key while you launch iTunes and a window will popup asking you to point to where the library is.

cooa99 · Mar 7, 2014

Thanks Weaselboy, your info on the partitioning worked! so I was able to expand my 1st partition ......

Weaselboy said:
1. IMO yes... there is no need to mess with two partitions.
2. Move the iTunes library to where you want it then hold the option key while you launch iTunes and a window will popup asking you to point to where the library is.

I am still skeptical on the iTunes Library, so i doubled checked my existing installation so that I can paint an accurate picture.
Bearing in mind that my 2nd partition is labelled "DataHD2" ....

iTunes Advanced preferences shows that My iTunes Media Folder Location is:-
/Volumes/DataHD2/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media

All my Music files, are in :-
/Volumes/DataHD2/Music

It also appears that my iTunes Library files are in:-
~/Music/iTunes ... on partition1

So what I want to do now is to move the iTunes media folder
from /Volumes/DataHD2/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media
to location /Volumes/Macintosh HD/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media

Am I correct in assuming that from my explanations ... that my "iTunes Library files" is not actually changing location hence no need to use option-key to open iTunes?

Also do I only just need to change "iTunes Media folder" in advance preferences to point to new location and everything should be OK?

cheers

cooa99 · Mar 7, 2014

I changed media folder to partition 1 where I copies it and does not seem to have made any difference because when I check the locations of the apps or music files , they are still pointing to partition2

any more clues?

Weaselboy · Mar 7, 2014

cooa99 said:
I changed media folder to partition 1 where I copies it and does not seem to have made any difference because when I check the locations of the apps or music files , they are still pointing to partition2

any more clues?

I think this is acting differently than we expect because you have those boxes to allow iTunes to manage your music unchecked, so it is ignoring that setting in advanced prefs.

So you have moved the actual music MP3/AAC files themselves into a Music folder in /iTunes Media on partition one? Then pointed advanced prefs to that?

cooa99 · Mar 7, 2014

Weaselboy said:
I think this is acting differently than we expect because you have those boxes to allow iTunes to manage your music unchecked, so it is ignoring that setting in advanced prefs.

So you have moved the actual music MP3/AAC files themselves into a Music folder in /iTunes Media on partition one? Then pointed advanced prefs to that?

indeed Thats what it is doing.

I virtualised my mac to test this out ......

I have moved the music & Apps to new location on partition 1 and then change advance pref to the new location. But when you do getInfo on the actual files they are still pointing to old location.

I tried downloading an app from the app store and that seems to go into the new location .... so looks like new app downloads go into new location correctly

So I must now try to find a way of linking existing apps to new location without having to download ......

.... and them somehow change location of music files as well ...

cooa99 · Mar 7, 2014

The apps side of things look sorted.

I copied(not move) the apps to the new location, and then dragged it again(from new location) into iTunes application window. This caused iTunes to bring up a replace dialog which then overwrites the old location!

So now , there has to be a way to sort out the music ........

Weaselboy · Mar 7, 2014

cooa99 said:
The apps side of things look sorted.

I copied(not move) the apps to the new location, and then dragged it again(from new location) into iTunes application window. This caused iTunes to bring up a replace dialog which then overwrites the old location!

So now , there has to be a way to sort out the music ........

I think you will need to do one of two things. Either check those boxes then move the music like this, or create a new library. It looks to me like by not having those boxes checked the library has no way to know where the media is now.

Can you try backing up the library files to the desktop then option launch iTunes and click "create library'? That will make a new library that I suspect will be empty, then you will need to drag the music in again. Of course playlists etc will be gone.

cooa99 · Mar 7, 2014

Weaselboy said:
I think you will need to do one of two things. Either check those boxes then move the music like this, or create a new library. It looks to me like by not having those boxes checked the library has no way to know where the media is now.

Can you try backing up the library files to the desktop then option launch iTunes and click "create library'? That will make a new library that I suspect will be empty, then you will need to drag the music in again. Of course playlists etc will be gone.

I tried the 1st method to and went through check box and organise library process and that brought my music into the iTunes folder BUT left me to the mercy of the folder structures implemented by Apple so Looks like thats not the way for me....

Rebuilding the library again and dragging contents back in looks like would certainly work so might be my only solution.
Any Idea if this process would try to re-upload again to iTunes match?

If the absolute path to the my media files are contained within the iTunes Library.itl, is there no tool to edit it?

cheers

Weaselboy · Mar 7, 2014

cooa99 said:
Rebuilding the library again and dragging contents back in looks like would certainly work so might be my only solution.
Any Idea if this process would try to re-upload again to iTunes match?

I'm sorry... I don't use Match and have no idea. One would think not though?

If the absolute path to the my media files are contained within the iTunes Library.itl, is there no tool to edit it?

Not that I have ever seen.

cooa99 · Mar 9, 2014

Thanks weaselboy,
with your links and other random links, I was finally able to resolve my issue..... So might as well explain here just incase someone else needs to do the same OR I forget next time I am doing this again!

The steps explained below is to move your iTunes Music files from one location to another e.g. to an external drive or partition ... .
However your iTunes Library still stays in same location e.g. /Users/cooa99/Music/iTunes ... since its just metadata....
This is also only useful for those who don't want iTunes to organise / Consolidate their Music Library

1) Quit Itunes
2) Backup all your iTunes Folder usually in ~/Music to a safe location. This will contain the .itl, .xml and maybe your apps as well...
3) Edit the iTunes Music Library.xml file to replace the old file path with the new location of where you will be putting your music files ...
i tried to use the sed command in the terminal but did not work so I downloaded a free text/hex editor that can handle large xml files.

old location => file://localhost/volume2/Drive2/MusicLibrary
new location => file://localhost/MusicLibrary

MusicLibrary is the root folder for all my music and video files

4) Delete existing iTunes Library.itl file and then recreate it again so that its an empty file
5) Copy/Move your Music files to the new location
6) Launch iTunes, and it will try to rebuild your iTunes itl file from the xml file. Might take a few minutes.....
7) done

cheers

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