iTunes Library Question

[dpo]

I have a situation where part of my music library is in Library->Music and part of it is in Library->Music->iTunes->Music. Everything is in iTunes when I load it up. I think the situation has arisen because I chose to organise things myself, but from time to time I use the 'Automatically Add to iTunes' folder, and then of course there are things like podcasts and iphone apps where you don't have a choice.

What would be the least painful way (given that we're talking about 100gigs of music) to give it all over to iTunes at this point? Am I right in thinking that I will be stuffed if I want to use a different media player in the future?

 

[mkrishnan]

If you have the disc space for it, I'd think that File -> Library -> Organize -> Consolidate files would be the best option. Do it, verify it worked, and then you are okay to delete the ones that are not in your iTunes folder (because this will copy them, not move them).

 

[Sylonien]

Bit of explaining, sorry!

All my 7317 songs (48.81Gb) of music were stored on my external USB (Western Digital My Book) hard drive but I wanted to move the library to the iMac's internal 1Tb drive because

a) the external drive is louder (the only thing I hear in fact, the iMac is so quiet! so find it rather annoying hearing the external HD).

b) the ext. HD is in NTFS so I couldn't modify stuff

Anyway, I followed the Apple guide, Advanced Preferences, changed iTunes Media folder location to the internal drive, clicked OK, File, Library, Organise Library (use to be called Consolidate library).

All in all fine, but I realised that now and then the ext. HD would spool up before the track plays. So I checked the location of the particular track and behold, it's still stored on the ext. HD!

The problem is it's only on random few tracks now and then. How the hell am I suppose to fix or go through the 7000+ tracks to find out which ones are still on the ext. HD?

Of course I haven't deleted the ext. HD iTunes library just in case anything happens.

Help!!!

Many many thanks.

 

[GGJstudios]

b) the ext. HD is in NTFS so I couldn't modify stuff

NTFS (Windows NT File System)

• Read/Write NTFS from native Windows.
• Read only NTFS from native Mac OS X
  [*]To Read/Write/Format NTFS from Mac OS X, here are some alternatives:
  • For Mac OS X 10.4 or later (32 or 64-bit), install Paragon (approx $20) (Best Choice for Lion)
  • For 32-bit Mac OS X, install NTFS-3G for Mac OS X (free) (does not work in 64-bit mode)
  • For 64-bit Snow Leopard, read this: MacFUSE for 64-bit Snow Leopard
  • Some have reported problems using Tuxera (approx $36).
  • Native NTFS support can be enabled in Snow Leopard and Lion, but is not advisable, due to instability.
• AirPort Extreme (802.11n) and Time Capsule do not support NTFS
• Maximum file size: 16 TB
• Maximum volume size: 256TB

 

[Sylonien]

Thanks.

I know that I can't modify the NTFS external hard drive (that's why I'm moving my library over using the consolidate function).

But iTunes managed to copy 99% of tracks over from the external HD (NTFS) to the iMac internal 1Tb hard drive using the Organise Library function.

The problem is that there are a few random tracks that hasn't been copied over somehow and when I want to play it, it still accesses the external drive to play them.

I've tried consolidate / organising the library twice now.

 

[GGJstudios]

I know that I can't modify the NTFS external hard drive (that's why I'm moving my library over using the consolidate function).

You didn't read my post carefully enough. Notice the part that I bolded. The point is you can modify the NTFS external drive with Mac OS X.

 

[Sylonien]

Thanks for replying.

I did read it properly, but it requires me to get additional software right?

But I also mentioned that I wanted to move it to the internal drive cause it was quieter than the external one.

My main original question was that iTunes didn't consolidate all the files in to a single new location but it has a combination of songs stored in new consolidate folder and still some left on the external drive. Meaning I can't delete the old folder location.

Defeats the meaning of consolidating?

*UPDATE*

There we go, found another random track that hasn't been copied over. Listened to 91 songs on shuffle and suddenly found this one that is randomly still stored on the external drive whilst all the other ones are copied over.