Itunes is sucking the life out of me!!!!

[happygodavid]

Not really (I love itunes; I just need to understand how it works).

I am trying to transfer my music to an external hd.

I asked a "Mac Specialist" at an Apple store what to do... rrrriiiiiight. Should've come to Macrumors first. (What was I thinking!!!!!????)

Here's what I did:
1. Copied iTunes Music folder over to new location on ext hd.
2. Deleted itunes music folder from hd (probably a huge mistake).
3. Opened Itunes, File>Add to Library... selected itunes music from ext hd.
4. Stopped process b/c all that was being added was the track name (along with track numbers next to the name), but no artist, album, genre, etc.
5. Changed itunes music folder location (Itunes preferences>advanced>general itunes music location) to ext hd itunes music folder.
6. Tried to Consolidate Library. Didn't work.
7. Tried copying all files from itunes folder on hd to ext hd. Didn't work.


So basically what I have is all the information from my original itunes folder on my ext hd (including itunes library, itunes music, folders that have artist names, previous itunes libraries, & temp files). If I try to Get CD Track Names (Itunes Advanced menu), it says "Itunes cannot get CD track names for songs that were not imported using itunes. To allow itunes to look for cd track names for this song, import the song again using itunes." So I tried using "import" from the file menu, and the same thing happens.

-Is there a way to reactivate these files so that Itunes will read them w/o having to manually change every single song/album from the Get Info screen?
-If there is not a way to do this, which would be better: manually entering all the info? Or deleting everything and starting from scratch?

I've researched the heck out of this, both on Macrumors.com forums & on links to apple.com/support Knowledge Base (links from macrumors forums, of course... I can't seem to decipher how to find things on my own on Apple.com), and I've read so many opinions and techniques, my brain is fried. Please help!

Thank you in advance!

 

[happygodavid]

Oh, and one more thing:
I just read an article on apple.com knowledge base:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iTunesMac/7.3/en/2607x.html
This seemingly shows how to set up multiple libraries, which I eventually want to do (some music on my ext hd, some on my MBP).
Don't know if that helps anyone out there, but perhaps it will help in answering my questions.

 

[andy.barron]

Once iTunes reconises that the libary is on the external, have you tried moving all of the tracks to say the finder & dragging them all back onto the library of the app. This should then enter all the tunes onto the ext hd (you can then delete from the finder) & importing all track names & details.

Just a thought, may work.

 

[happygodavid]

First of all, I'm not sure that Itunes has recognized that the library is on the external.
Secondly, how would I go about "moving the tracks to the finder"?

Thanks.

 

[andy.barron]

just locate the iTunes library: Users/your user/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music.

Here will be all of your tunes divided by folder. You can move these out then to the finder.

Copy the iTunes folder structure to your ext hd, boot iTunes & in prefs/advanced change the location of the music folder to the desired location.

You should now have an empty iTunes lib, & simply add the tunes from finder into the main iTunes library (drag & drop) & these will now copy to the new location.

 

[happygodavid]

just locate the iTunes library: Users/your user/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music.

Here will be all of your tunes divided by folder. You can move these out then to the finder.

Copy the iTunes folder structure to your ext hd, boot iTunes & in prefs/advanced change the location of the music folder to the desired location.

You should now have an empty iTunes lib, & simply add the tunes from finder into the main iTunes library (drag & drop) & these will now copy to the new location.

What do you mean when you say "You can move these out then to the finder"? How do I move something to the finder?

 

[quigleybc]

He's saying, you may need to reimport your music.

Now that you have alll your tunes on your external, try opening iTunes, select where you want the library to be. Create a new playlist in iTunes and drag all your music into it.

Let it copy back in to the new library location, then delete your original iTunes music folder.

 

[happygodavid]

No luck so far... Any more ideas?
Why is it only showing the track names? I'm importing the whole folder of an artist, and all I'm getting are track names.

 

[andy.barron]

are you saying that if you drag the track onto your library that it does not bring in album artist etc.?

 

[Tommie Montana]

Have you copied everything in the folder iTunes? If so, then put back everything but iTunes Music on your mac, the library details (albums, rating, etc...) has to stay there.

 

[majordude]

I'm not sure what you are trying to do but have you tried holding down the option button while clicking the iTunes icon to start it? Hold it for something like 5 seconds. You can then switch to a different library. Then, just locate the directory on the external drive and I think it should load.

 

[MacBoobsPro]

What you should of done is locate your iTunes library folder, move the entire thing to whereever you want it to be then open iTunes while holding down the 'option' key. A box will pop up and ask to either create a new library or choose an existing one. Choose existing library and navigate to where you have just moved your library too. Thats it.

I transfered 300GB worth of iTunes library the other day using this method. Took ages though... damn USB2

 

[happygodavid]

Thanks for all your input, guys.

Yeah, I've still got all my music; I've just lost all the tags (album, artist, etc). The only thing that shows up is the song title with a track number.

I'm wondering:
Would there be a way to somehow insert the cds I used to import, and without actually having to import them again, tell Itunes to use cd X to get track info for files A-H in drive Y?

Thanks.

 

[conradabowman]

just reimport your library file

I moved my music from a windows PC to a macbook and had the same issue. What I had to do was set the library path on the windows PC to the default. Then I copied over the entire folder structure to an external HD. Next I moved it all to music on my account on my macbook. Finally, within itunes I reimported the library. This not only brought in all my songs and tags, but also all of my playlists.

The only gripe I have with mac itunes vs windows itunes is that on my windows PC it actually consolidated my music every time a track was added in tunes. Now on my mac It does the consoidation, but still leaves the copy in the music directory. So every month or so I have to delete the duplicate files. and no, I do not have the copy option selected. Pluses and minuses on both platforms I guess. But I am still going to stick with apple as this is the biggest complaint I have had. Can't say that about windows.

 

[apfhex]

Pluses and minuses on both platforms I guess.

No, iTunes shouldn't be doing that if you have the options turned off (there are two, one will keep the music folder organized while the other will actually copy the files).

I'm no sure I understand the OP's problem. The music files should have all song information self contained (ID3 tags, and AAC info) and not depend on the library file at all, unless something has gone seriously wrong, which I suppose it has?

 

[pagansoul]

I have a Mac Pro and was able to put all my iTunes to Drive 4 by going into iTune/Pref/Advanced and changed the location but first I moved the entire itunes: itunes music from Music on your main drive. It did reset all the times played and applied dates but all the art was moved.