iTunes Library Exclamation Problem... Help please? :(

[sonictonic]

Hi guys,

I thought I was doing everything the right way but evidently I missed a step.

I have a MacBook Pro, and have been storing my iTunes Library on an external 250GB hard drive. Today I bought a new 320GB external drive to use instead. I went into iTunes and I changed the iTunes music location in the preferences. Now, what I know I SHOULD have done was the consolidate library right, to have iTunes move all the stuff to the new drive. But instead I was stupid, and I exited iTunes, and moved the iTunes music folder to the new drive manually in finder. 🙁

Well now, I go into iTunes, and the new hard drive and folder is in the preferences, but every single item in my library has an exclamation mark and has to be manually located. WHY OH WHY?! 🙁

I tried changing the location in iTunes prefs again and then switching back, since now the files are on the new drive I thought iTunes needed to see that and do the "updating library" thing, but this has not changed a darn thing and all my stuff still has (!) marks.

How the heck do I fix this? I heard you could erase your library files and then reload it up manually as if starting from scratch but I would really prefer not to lose my ratings and playlists 🙁

Can anyone help me with this?

Thanks in advance...

 

[swiftaw]

1) Quit iTunes
2) Move the songs back where they were
3) Open iTunes, check that all songs are now playable
4) With iTunes open, move the files to the new location.
5) Because iTunes is open when you make the move, it should realize where the files have moved to and update the links automatically.

 

[sonictonic]

1) Quit iTunes
2) Move the songs back where they were
3) Open iTunes, check that all songs are now playable
4) With iTunes open, move the files to the new location.
5) Because iTunes is open when you make the move, it should realize where the files have moved to and update the links automatically.

Can you be a little more clear please? Right now iTunes prefs shows the new hard drive location. I leave that there? And when you say move the files to the new spot again with iTunes open this time, do you mean use the consolidate library function in iTunes, or move them in Finder? I think if you move in finder iTunes does not know whats going on and thats my whole problem, isn't it? I'm confused. 🙁

 

[swiftaw]

Firstly, the iTunes Music Folder Option in iTunes is only relevant for when you are adding new things. Given that you already have your songs in itunes this doesn't matter for right now.

What I was saying is that I believe that iTunes will recognize any moves made in finder provided that iTunes is open when the moves are made.

All moves I referred to in the previous post were to do be done in finder.

 

[sonictonic]

Moving the files in finder with iTunes open didn't work, thanks anyway though...

Anyone else have a suggestion? I really wanna get this fixed 🙁

 

[TumbleDryer]

Put the entire iTunes library where you want. Then open iTunes holding down the option/alt key. It will give you the option to create a new library or choose an existing one. Choose an existing one and navigate to the new location of your library. That should do it.

EDIT: All consolidating your library does is put all the files you have linked to itunes (i.e. files in places other than your library) and puts them into your iTunes library folder. If iTunes can't find the files to begin with (exclamation marks) then consolidating won't do anything because it has nothing to consolidate.

 

[sonictonic]

Put the entire iTunes library where you want. Then open iTunes holding down the option/alt key. It will give you the option to create a new library or choose an existing one. Choose an existing one and navigate to the new location of your library. That should do it.

EDIT: All consolidating your library does is put all the files you have linked to itunes (i.e. files in places other than your library) and puts them into your iTunes library folder. If iTunes can't find the files to begin with (exclamation marks) then consolidating won't do anything because it has nothing to consolidate.

Thanks anyway but that did not work. How would it anyway? The iTunes library file is stored in the hoome folder locally. So when I chose te location of the existing library file, it loaded up with the same issue.

Since it seems not too many people may be available to help me fix this I'm thinking I might just copy it all back to the old drive and do it the right way again in iTunes, starting over. My question about that though, is do I run any risk having moved the files 3 times total, since it's ~210GB over USB I worry about any of the files being messed up. Am I being paranoid?