I just recently transferred all of my songs from my iPod to my MBP, but the option to copy everything to the iTunes Music folder when added to the library was checked, so I have twice the number of songs and I want to get rid of them. The problem is, I don't know which folder to delete, but all the music that is played is stored in the iTunes Music folder. How did that folder become the main folder, and how do I switch it back to the normal Music folder? Or can I?
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Doubled library: iTunes music folder and Music folder
- Thread starter evisa
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The best solution is to move the iTunes library folder to another location on your Hard Drive (iTunes Menu==>Preferences==>Advanced==>General Tab), make sure you also have "keep music organised" ticked on this screen, once this has finished Consolidate your library (Advanced Menu==>Consolidate Library) in iTunes and then to clear out the remaining contents of the music folder (but don't empty trash) then finally restoring the library to it's original location. You should then only have one copy of your music. Once you are sure then empty the trash.
Restore the library to its original location? What do you mean? I just want my Music folder to be the original location, but how do I do that if everything is in my iTunes Music folder?
By default the "original" folder for iTunes is Music/iTunes/iTunes Music so that it doesn't get mixed up with stuff from other apps that also use the Music folder (like Garageband).
You can change the location of the folder in Preferences > Advanced but making it the Music folder might end up causing confusion.
iTunes will still store it's library file in Music/iTunes regardless.
You can change the location of the folder in Preferences > Advanced but making it the Music folder might end up causing confusion.
iTunes will still store it's library file in Music/iTunes regardless.
Thanks, that's what I ended up doing - changing the location of the original music folder to the default Music file. I'm not too worried about mixing up files because I won't be using Garageband very often, but now I have to delete all of the duplicates by hand. I just don't know why my library was almost tripled the size; it was originally about 14 GB and now the music folder is almost 41 GB. Maybe it was because I was using Senuti + the option to copy to iTunes Music was checked?
I still think you'd be better off keeping the folder location where iTunes likes it, sometimes the Apple Way is a bit odd, but it usually ends up being easier to just do it their way in the end..
If the reason you want to keep the music in the music folder is to get quick access to it, then just add the iTunes Music folder to your sidebar or the dock
It sounds like you need to Consolidate your library, although this will be difficult because you've chosen a location that contains the previous libraries already. What would be cleanest, if you still have the space left, would be to change the folder location to somewhere else entirely (like make a new folder in home called MyMusic), Consolidate (copy everything listed in the Library) to that folder, and then trash everything out of the music folder bar the iTunes folder and the two Library files inside it.
If the reason you want to keep the music in the music folder is to get quick access to it, then just add the iTunes Music folder to your sidebar or the dock
It sounds like you need to Consolidate your library, although this will be difficult because you've chosen a location that contains the previous libraries already. What would be cleanest, if you still have the space left, would be to change the folder location to somewhere else entirely (like make a new folder in home called MyMusic), Consolidate (copy everything listed in the Library) to that folder, and then trash everything out of the music folder bar the iTunes folder and the two Library files inside it.
Maybe I will move it back, then. I just don't understand the point of having a main Music folder if there's going to be a subfolder where all the music is kept. On my old PC, I would just download single songs and it would automatically go to My Music, where there was also an iTunes music folder (and was normally only touched when full albums were added). How is it different on a Mac?
I don't think I need to consolidate the library anymore considering I've deleted all of the duplicates. So all I should do is change the location of the original folder back to within the iTunes folder?
if you've got rid of the duplicates, the music files are all in the Music folder, the folder size is back down to 14GB and it's all working fine then maybe just leave it as is!
As to why, who knows, it's an Apple way of doing things - iTunes works the same way on the PC - music gets copied to My Music/iTunes/iTunes Music
Mostly there's a method in their madness however. If you have Garageband and other apps also generating music files it can be handy to have everything in separate subfolders (otherwise, if there's other stuff in there and you need to reload the iTunes Library, that stuff will get added in too)
As to why, who knows, it's an Apple way of doing things - iTunes works the same way on the PC - music gets copied to My Music/iTunes/iTunes Music
Mostly there's a method in their madness however. If you have Garageband and other apps also generating music files it can be handy to have everything in separate subfolders (otherwise, if there's other stuff in there and you need to reload the iTunes Library, that stuff will get added in too)
Music is somewhere
I have used senuti to copy all my music off my 60GB ipod onto the computer.. fine but it has saved all the music to a location path that is /volumes/untitled/iTunes. problem is this is somewhere on my hard drive and I now only have 4 GB free out of a 100GB. I try spotlight to find the location of these songs and it can't I can't find any folders named untitled or volumes etc.
Please help as senuti needs to copy all of these into the itunes library to enable to put onto my new 80Gb ipod..... ahhhh please help!!
I have used senuti to copy all my music off my 60GB ipod onto the computer.. fine but it has saved all the music to a location path that is /volumes/untitled/iTunes. problem is this is somewhere on my hard drive and I now only have 4 GB free out of a 100GB. I try spotlight to find the location of these songs and it can't I can't find any folders named untitled or volumes etc.
Please help as senuti needs to copy all of these into the itunes library to enable to put onto my new 80Gb ipod..... ahhhh please help!!