Help - Cannot select itunes library on secondary drive

[happle]

so i recently built a new hackintosh. i copied my itunes library from my macbook to my storage drive on my hackintosh. itunes is on the ssd but im trying to reach my itunes library on the secondary hdd.

First issue...

i option+clicked itunes and tried to select my itunes music folder. then it prompts me that there is no itunes library file in that location.

even when i look at my original itunes library folder in my macbook i cannot see any .xml or .itl files. but it works just fine on my macbook.

what could be up with this and how can i get my itunes opened up on this new hackintosh?

Second issue...

i noticed some of my music is in Itunes Music, while most of it is in Itunes Music -> Music.

i just clicked the organize music in itunes and it seemed to put more of my music in the Itunes Music -> Music folder, but still left others in the first location. what is up with this? and what should i do to get it sorted?

 

[happle]

anyone?

 

[Mike in Kansas]

I just did this last week, and although the process seems simple, it took me a couple of times. See this from Apple:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

One of the key steps is to put your old iTunes library into the Trash after you copy everything to your new drive. This keeps iTunes from wanting to go back to the old library location. After you have ensured that everything works the way you want it to, you can empty the trash and get rid of your old library for good.

ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS make a copy of your iTunes Media or iTunes Music folder before you go futzing around...

 

[happle]

I just did this last week, and although the process seems simple, it took me a couple of times. See this from Apple:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

One of the key steps is to put your old iTunes library into the Trash after you copy everything to your new drive. This keeps iTunes from wanting to go back to the old library location. After you have ensured that everything works the way you want it to, you can empty the trash and get rid of your old library for good.

ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS make a copy of your iTunes Media or iTunes Music folder before you go futzing around...

can you check your hidden files for me and tell me which ones are in your itunes folder? download onyx and go to parameters-finder-show hidden files.

the only ones i can see on mine are .plist but i thought there was supposed to be more...

and also what do you mean by deleting the original itunes library. you mean the one that is by default located in music-itunes-itunes media?

this folder has nothing in it for me because my itunes library is on a second storage drive, not my operating system drive. also when i delete it, it just recreates itself...

edit: on my macbook. i have 2 drives, the system drive, and a storage drive. i have my itunes media on the storage drive where i couldnt see any files such as ituneslibrary.xml etc. but then i opened up the default locations and those library files are there, but none of my music is there.

could it possibly be that my itunes is storing my library/playlist info in the default location, but getting my music from my storage drive? is this how it should be?

 

[hfg]

This support article might help:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

EDIT: whoops ... that is for the Windows version of iTunes, the correct one was posted above by Mike in Kansas. Sorry!

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US



-howard

 

[happle]

This support article might help:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1364?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

EDIT: whoops ... that is for the Windows version of iTunes, the correct one was posted above by Mike in Kansas. Sorry!

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US



-howard

my circumstances are different than this. im not just copying an itunes library to a new computer. i have 2 hard drives on my desktop which i use 1 for the system and 1 for storage. also on my macbook pro i do the same thing. so my itunes media is on the storage drive, but i believe the itunes library and playlist info may still be in the default location.

 

[hfg]

my circumstances are different than this. im not just copying an itunes library to a new computer. i have 2 hard drives on my desktop which i use 1 for the system and 1 for storage. also on my macbook pro i do the same thing. so my itunes media is on the storage drive, but i believe the itunes library and playlist info may still be in the default location.

As I recall ... you can do it both ways ... the secret is in the step where you select to "consolidate your iTunes library". That will end up moving the actual music files to the drive where the database is located. Otherwise, you can leave the music files where they are on your storage drive.



-howard

 

[happle]

As I recall ... you can do it both ways ... the secret is in the step where you select to "consolidate your iTunes library". That will end up moving the actual music files to the drive where the database is located. Otherwise, you can leave the music files where they are on your storage drive.



-howard

yeah but on my macbook i did hit consolidate files just to organize them since folders seemed to be everywhere and it did not move my music to the default itunes location..?

im not exactly sure what to do here

 

[Mike in Kansas]

I'm afraid I can't be of much more help. When I consolidated my library, it moved everything into my existing library location. I then COPIED my iTunes Media folder to an external drive, selected that location in the iTunes preferences, and then moved my old music to the Trash.

I still have my library files in the default location (I think they are supposed to stay there) but the media files themselves are on a network drive.

I'll check for hidden files soon - I did this on my MBA and haven't installed Onyx on it yet. I'm aware from it for the time being.

 

[happle]

I'm afraid I can't be of much more help. When I consolidated my library, it moved everything into my existing library location. I then COPIED my iTunes Media folder to an external drive, selected that location in the iTunes preferences, and then moved my old music to the Trash.

I still have my library files in the default location (I think they are supposed to stay there) but the media files themselves are on a network drive.

I'll check for hidden files soon - I did this on my MBA and haven't installed Onyx on it yet. I'm aware from it for the time being.

so you had all your music on one drive and you wanted to move the media files to another drive? so you moved the music to the external, selected that in options, then deleted ur old music from the default location? and your library/playlist files and such are still in the default location?

if so i think i have to copy my default itunes files on my macbook over to the default location on my hackintosh. ill try that later when im home or tomorrow and post back.

if anyone has more information until then im happy to hear it as every bit helps.

 

[Mike in Kansas]

so you had all your music on one drive and you wanted to move the media files to another drive? so you moved the music to the external, selected that in options, then deleted ur old music from the default location? and your library/playlist files and such are still in the default location?

if so i think i have to copy my default itunes files on my macbook over to the default location on my hackintosh. ill try that later when im home or tomorrow and post back.

if anyone has more information until then im happy to hear it as every bit helps.

Actually I mis-spoke. That's what I did the first time and it didn't work correctly.

What worked was to:

1. Select the location for the new folder via iTunes preferences.
2. Consolidate your library. This will COPY all of your media (music, apps, movies, etc.) from their current locations all into the Media folder in the new location
3. Move your old media into the trash. This ensures that iTunes can't find it
4. Restart iTunes - it should now be "pointing" to the new location.

 

[hfg]

Here is another article regarding moving your iTunes library which may be of help:

http://www.macworld.com/article/1157240/howto_move_itunes.html

It has been awhile since I did this after installing SSD boot drives on all my Macs and relocating the music files to the more spacious hard disk, so my memory is getting foggy (moreso each day . The important thing is to cause the database to update with the new paths to the actual music files, probably using the Consolidate option.

I remember if you do the right steps that you can have the database split from the music files (or have music files in several locations in one database) and stored in your user directory structure. Or, you can relocate the entire iTunes music tree to another location and symbolic link to it.



This link is an article about moving the music files to a home server, with each user's personal iTunes pointing to the music files.

http://www.mediasmarthome.com/artic...-iTunes-Library-To-Your-HP-MediaSmart-Server/


-howard

 

[happle]

Actually I mis-spoke. That's what I did the first time and it didn't work correctly.

What worked was to:

1. Select the location for the new folder via iTunes preferences.
2. Consolidate your library. This will COPY all of your media (music, apps, movies, etc.) from their current locations all into the Media folder in the new location
3. Move your old media into the trash. This ensures that iTunes can't find it
4. Restart iTunes - it should now be "pointing" to the new location.

i dont understand though...i already copied my media folder to the location i want it...i just want itunes to fetch it and load it up...


edit: thanks hfg ill give that a read and report back after.

 

[happle]

so i copied my default itunes library files which was only the library/playlist files and not any media. then i copied over all my media to the secondary drive and started itunes and everything works fine!

it did ask me to consolidate files but i selected no because everything works. im not sure if this is optimal. does anyone have any info on what consolidating the files will do since i have the media/music on my secondary storage drive and the library/playlist files in the default itunes location.

 

[hfg]

My understanding is that "consolidate" is used to collect your music files to a single location. You can "add" music from any physical location on disks or network drives and they will be added to your library, but the music file itself will remain where it originally was. If "consolidate" is checked, when you "add" a song or album to your library, the actual song files will be copied into your iTunes directory where your database resides, usually under your user home directory. In effect ... it "consolidates" all your music in one place.


-howard

 

[Mike in Kansas]

My understanding is that "consolidate" is used to collect your music files to a single location. You can "add" music from any physical location on disks or network drives and they will be added to your library, but the music file itself will remain where it originally was. If "consolidate" is checked, when you "add" a song or album to your library, the actual song files will be copied into your iTunes directory where your database resides, usually under your user home directory. In effect ... it "consolidates" all your music in one place.


-howard

Actually, Consolidate is a 1-time action that goes and collects all of your media files and puts them all into the location that you have specified in the Advanced tab of iTunes preferences. Also in the Advanced tab are a couple of options that you can select - one to to copy any new media files into the library location, and the other is to keep the library organized by artist, album and track. If you don't select the "copy new media files into the library" option, any NEW media added will stay in its original location even if you had consolidated the library at some point.

 

[happle]

ok, thanks guys...so im safe to consolidate as long as i have my media location chosen in preferences as my storage drive?

 

[hfg]

Correct ... and Mike is correct above ... I relied on memory (bad idea) and thought the term "consolidate" was used in both places you can select that functionality, but with different action terms.

As Mike says, in the preferences you can set the library location ... and select to always copy new files to your selected library as they are added.

From the iTunes menu bar, you can select to "Consolidate" your library ... a one-time command to update your selected library location with all files referenced by iTunes by moving them at this time only.


I hope that is straightened out ...


-howard