Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iTunes and Music Collection Help Pls (Newbie)

V

virtuosity

macrumors member
Original poster
Hi - first time post - recent convert from the dark side to Macs and still getting used to the different OS!

Of course, I am comparing to PC - but on my old XP set-up, my music collection was on an external HD (where it had to be due to crashing!!) When I launched iTunes, and imported Library, it would store information about where each track was on the external HD but in a local folder called iTunes Library - but obviously not the tracks themselves. This meant the iTunes library for my 100GB external HD music collection would be a few MB in my local music folder - perfect!

However, on My Mac, I want to copy my music collection off my external HD, and into my local music folder (I want to use my external HD as a Time Machine - the way it should be used!) on OS X and I have done this, then i booted up iTunes, imported the library, but it's created a copy of each and every track!! So my local music folder is now 200GB! Have I done something wrong / different? Or does it do it differently on the iMac??

Also - because my external HD is NTFS, all of the folders copied onto my local drive are "locked" - sort of "Read Only" - I know how to unlock them - but only individually - I cannot go to the folder above ("Music") and unlock this one - then "apply to enclosed items" like you can do on a PC cos it just doesn't seem to work...

Any ideas how to resolve these 2 issues please?
Many Thanks!!
 
Welcome to the Mac user's community !

For the first point :
In iTunes (for both Windows and Mac OSX versions), you can configure whether the tracks are copied into iTunes Music folder or not when imported in iTunes library.

In Mac version, you can configure this behaviour in iTunes preferences / Advanced / "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library".

Nota : why do you want your music to be stored outside iTunes music folder ?

For the second point :
- Open a terminal window
- change current directory to your local music folder (you can drag and drop your music folder from Finder to the terminal instead of typing it)
Code: 
cd path/to/your/music/folder
- add the write permissions for the current user recursively
Code: 
chmod -R +uw *

That's it ...🙂
 
hey thanks chocodup! that's 2 great tips on the iTunes - thanks! and you know what i have just worked out from your question - "why have your music stored outside your iTunes library?" - well, why indeed? I guess the right way to configure it is to 'import' from my external HD, Mac will automatically create the iTunes library in my local music folder - and voila!
Then I guess - I won't have to worry about the 2nd part to the question either!!

I see where you're coming from (i think!) - 🙂 thanks!!

The 2nd tip is useful also though, as the same has happened on my photo library, so I will give that a try now!

thanks again!! really appreciated! 🙂
 
DougAdams said:
Here is Apple's proscribed method for moving files from one drive to another.
Click to expand...

Hey thanks Doug! I should have explained that one of the reasons I wanted to move the files over was because I wanted to retain my ratings etc! But having seen that article, it explains everything - I think i will search through the other articles also - really handy thanks!

good forum guys thanks!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back