hi all, so my problem originates back when apple introduced the 'media folders' for music and content organization. i assume i'm not the only one that may have had trouble that originated with the iTunes folder reorganization.
i allowed my music to be copied to the media folder, but i continued to use the iTunes music folder when manually importing new music files to iTunes. because all of my music is on an 1tb external hdd, i had lots of free space, and it was not a pertinent issue to resolve.
to make a long story short, i recently had to 're-link/reestablish' iTunes with my external hard drive (containing all my music). iTunes needed to locate the music files when i attempted to play them. once i selected a location where the music could be found, iTunes indicated to me how many music files it was able to locate. however, it also indicated how many files it did NOT find. knowing a few, specific albums that it could not find, i tried playing one, iTunes could not play it, and then iTunes began locating the rest of the missing music files.
the problem is that iTunes has now split my entire music library (250+gb) between the media music folder and the music folder. maybe it was like this before, but now i'm aware of the split.
moreover, they are almost identical except for maybe several dozen file differences. iTunes recognizes some music from the media folder and other music from the older music folder.
what sucks is that i'm not sure what i can delete and what i cannot delete for fear of losing files.
so that's my music storage dilemma. has this happened to anyone else? any solutions?
btw, for relinking the external hard drive to iTunes, i followed what apple suggests on its tech support library.
i allowed my music to be copied to the media folder, but i continued to use the iTunes music folder when manually importing new music files to iTunes. because all of my music is on an 1tb external hdd, i had lots of free space, and it was not a pertinent issue to resolve.
to make a long story short, i recently had to 're-link/reestablish' iTunes with my external hard drive (containing all my music). iTunes needed to locate the music files when i attempted to play them. once i selected a location where the music could be found, iTunes indicated to me how many music files it was able to locate. however, it also indicated how many files it did NOT find. knowing a few, specific albums that it could not find, i tried playing one, iTunes could not play it, and then iTunes began locating the rest of the missing music files.
the problem is that iTunes has now split my entire music library (250+gb) between the media music folder and the music folder. maybe it was like this before, but now i'm aware of the split.
moreover, they are almost identical except for maybe several dozen file differences. iTunes recognizes some music from the media folder and other music from the older music folder.
what sucks is that i'm not sure what i can delete and what i cannot delete for fear of losing files.
so that's my music storage dilemma. has this happened to anyone else? any solutions?
btw, for relinking the external hard drive to iTunes, i followed what apple suggests on its tech support library.