iTunes Media Organization in iTunes 9

[netnothing]

I notice that if you go to File -> Library -> Organize Library you now get a new option in the dialog box:

Upgrade to iTunes Media Organization

Anyone try this yet?

I'm guessing that if you do, it'll force Time Machine to re-backup everything since the file/folder structure has changed.

I'm too chicken to do it right now.

-Kevin

 

[veloceraptor]

Yes, but I only used the Consolidate Library option. Didn't use the second one yet.

Consolidate works like in old versions.

 

[netnothing]

Ok, so did this on my MacBook.

It takes and organizes all files under ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music into subfolders.

So you now have a folder for Music, Mobile Apps, Auto Add, etc.

-Kevin

 

[devburke]

Ok, so did this on my MacBook.

It takes and organizes all files under ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music into subfolders.

So you now have a folder for Music, Mobile Apps, Auto Add, etc.

-Kevin

Well that’s cool, but it seems like the “iTunes Music” folder should be named “iTunes Content” or “iTunes Media” or something now. Having it specifically say “Music” and then right away saying music OR movies OR tv shows, etc. doesn’t make sense.

Oh and yeah, it did make Time Machine back up EVERYTHING again, so be prepared to lose a few of your oldest backups if you do this.

 

[netnothing]

Well that’s cool, but it seems like the “iTunes Music” folder should be named “iTunes Content” or “iTunes Media” or something now. Having it specifically say “Music” and then right away saying music OR movies OR tv shows, etc. doesn’t make sense.

Oh and yeah, it did make Time Machine back up EVERYTHING again, so be prepared to lose a few of your oldest backups if you do this.

Or you could go in to Time Machine......delete all backups of ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music and then have it backup everything fresh.

Only do that if you don't need the incremental TM backups of your music files.

-Kevin

 

[thehacker123]

I like the idea... I am going to do it now on my PC and Mac! Ill post back with results

 

[ipedro]

Only half way...

This measure is welcome, but it only goes half way to solving the problem of huge video files inundating a Mac's HDD.

The balance is tipping well in favour of people owning laptops these days rather than desktops. Most laptops don't come with more than 250GB unless you upgrade it yourself. Many still come with 120GB!

With that in mind, most people would rather not have all their video files reside on their laptop's HDD but on an external disk.

Apple only went half way with this measure. They needed to allow you to select the path of where each of those folders are stored.

Now that at least the folders are segregated, I'm trying to figure out a solution via Automator where any files in the Movies and TV folders are automatically moved to a 2TB external drive on the network and then re-associated in iTunes to that new path.

I'm going to try organizing all my media into those folders and then move the folder to see if the link within iTunes follows the move.

Stay tuned...

 

[netnothing]

This measure is welcome, but it only goes half way to solving the problem of huge video files inundating a Mac's HDD.

The balance is tipping well in favour of people owning laptops these days rather than desktops. Most laptops don't come with more than 250GB unless you upgrade it yourself. Many still come with 120GB!

With that in mind, most people would rather not have all their video files reside on their laptop's HDD but on an external disk.

Apple only went half way with this measure. They needed to allow you to select the path of where each of those folders are stored.

Now that at least the folders are segregated, I'm trying to figure out a solution via Automator where any files in the Movies and TV folders are automatically moved to a 2TB external drive on the network and then re-associated in iTunes to that new path.

I'm going to try organizing all my media into those folders and then move the folder to see if the link within iTunes follows the move.

Stay tuned...

Agree. Apple needs to come up with a way to organize everything separately if we choose. As someone said before.....they need to also get away from iTunes and Music folders for storing other types of media.

I ended up doing this on my main library and everything went fine. I manually deleted all my current iTunes backups and let TM re-backup everything again.

What's interesting is before I used to exclude the Podcasts directory from TM backups. After the organization, that folder moved, and TM was able to update it's setting automatically. Very nice.

-Kevin

 

[ipedro]

I just tested my above theory:

"If you move the TV Shows folder to an external drive, will iTunes re-associate the link"?

No... and yes.

I moved the TV Shows folder to my desktop and iTunes continued playing all the tv shows within that folder, even though it was no longer inside the iTunes Music folder.

When I moved it onto an external drive, it lost the link and asked me to locate it.

So this is bad because we still have the problem of swelling iTunes libraries on our our laptops but it is good because you can move the TV Shows and Movies folder into a folder that makes more sense to you.

I'm renaming iTunes Music to "iTunes Media" in the interim but I hope they go the rest of the way and allow us to independently select a path for each media folder in the next point upgrade.

 

[devburke]

This measure is welcome, but it only goes half way to solving the problem of huge video files inundating a Mac's HDD.

The balance is tipping well in favour of people owning laptops these days rather than desktops. Most laptops don't come with more than 250GB unless you upgrade it yourself. Many still come with 120GB!

With that in mind, most people would rather not have all their video files reside on their laptop's HDD but on an external disk.

Apple only went half way with this measure. They needed to allow you to select the path of where each of those folders are stored.

Now that at least the folders are segregated, I'm trying to figure out a solution via Automator where any files in the Movies and TV folders are automatically moved to a 2TB external drive on the network and then re-associated in iTunes to that new path.

I'm going to try organizing all my media into those folders and then move the folder to see if the link within iTunes follows the move.

Stay tuned...

Hold option when you drag something into your library and it won’t copy to the iTunes Music folder, the file will just remain where it is and be added to the library. I haven’t tried it for external drives, but I’d think it would work. So just put your movies on the external drive, and option-drag them into iTunes.

 

[Galley]

Apparently there is now a "watched folder" created when using the iTunes Media Organization option.

 

[ipedro]

Hold option when you drag something into your library and it won’t copy to the iTunes Music folder, the file will just remain where it is and be added to the library. I haven’t tried it for external drives, but I’d think it would work. So just put your movies on the external drive, and option-drag them into iTunes.

I've been using that solution but it's not ideal because when I buy a TV show or Movie on tv or iTunes, it gets stored on my MacBookPro's HDD. I have to manually manage my library by moving the file to the external drive and then either option-dragging it or re-associating the link in iTunes.

 

[Corrosive vinyl]

okay, I turned this on and now I can't turn it off. I went so far as to delete the plists and reinstall itunes. On top of this I can't edit any of my songs. Can someone help me out.

 

[devburke]

okay, I turned this on and now I can't turn it off. I went so far as to delete the plists and reinstall itunes. On top of this I can't edit any of my songs. Can someone help me out.

Turned what on, the new organization? You can’t switch back unless you do it manually. It’s not really an option as much as it is an upgrade to the new style. The only way I can think of would be to downgrade to iTunes 8 and consolidate your library, then upgrade.

 

[lyzardking]

I just tested my above theory:

"If you move the TV Shows folder to an external drive, will iTunes re-associate the link"?

No... and yes.

I moved the TV Shows folder to my desktop and iTunes continued playing all the tv shows within that folder, even though it was no longer inside the iTunes Music folder.

When I moved it onto an external drive, it lost the link and asked me to locate it.

So this is bad because we still have the problem of swelling iTunes libraries on our our laptops but it is good because you can move the TV Shows and Movies folder into a folder that makes more sense to you.

I'm renaming iTunes Music to "iTunes Media" in the interim but I hope they go the rest of the way and allow us to independently select a path for each media folder in the next point upgrade.

When you moved the directory to a external drive did you create a shortcut/sym-link (in the itunes directory) pointing to the new directory?

If so, will iTunes add to the external directory (iTunes 8 won't) IE: movie directory is on an external (but sym linked in iTunes folder), if you add a movie to iTunes, will it add it to the ext dir, error out, or worse, create a new dir on the internal drive?

 

[alucinari]

Well that’s cool, but it seems like the “iTunes Music” folder should be named “iTunes Content” or “iTunes Media” or something now. Having it specifically say “Music” and then right away saying music OR movies OR tv shows, etc. doesn’t make sense.

I was curious about that as well so I created a new user and transferred over some files from my library (using the new libray sharing feature, which works great, btw) and in the new user's iTunes directory the sub directory is named "iTunes Media" not "iTunes Music" as in previous versions. I went ahead and renamed my own iTunes Music folder to iTunes Media to match.

Looks like Apple thought the same thing!

- Jeremy

 

[ipedro]

When you moved the directory to a external drive did you create a shortcut/sym-link (in the itunes directory) pointing to the new directory?

If so, will iTunes add to the external directory (iTunes 8 won't) IE: movie directory is on an external (but sym linked in iTunes folder), if you add a movie to iTunes, will it add it to the ext dir, error out, or worse, create a new dir on the internal drive?

Good theory. I tried it but it didn't work. I guess we're going to have to keep on waiting for Apple to implement a solution or people are going to stop buying video on iTunes because their HDD's are full.

 

[plinden]

This measure is welcome, but it only goes half way to solving the problem of huge video files inundating a Mac's HDD.

The balance is tipping well in favour of people owning laptops these days rather than desktops. Most laptops don't come with more than 250GB unless you upgrade it yourself. Many still come with 120GB!

With that in mind, most people would rather not have all their video files reside on their laptop's HDD but on an external disk.

I have my 350GB iTunes library on an external HD, with only music (30GB out of that 350GB) on my laptop. Granted, it's not quite what you want, but it's working quite well.

I moved my library onto a 1.5TB external drive, then removed everything but music via Finder (NOT iTunes!) from my laptop (this bit would have been so much easier with iTunes 9). I set the iTunes library location to the external drive, and checked that my content was available (randomly checking Get Info on a few items). ... edit: actually, I'm a bit hazy on this bit. It's been some time, but I think I'm right.

When I quit iTunes, disconnect the external drive, and restart iTunes, I now get the famous ! by all my video files, but all the music is accessed from the standard iTunes location in my home folder on the internal. Restarting iTunes with the external drive connected now grabs all content, including Music, from the external.

When I download music while the external is disconnected, it goes onto the internal drive, but I select "Consolidate" to move it onto the external drive when I reconnect.

Like I say, it's not quite what you want. There's a copy of the music files on the laptop, I have to remember to quit iTunes before I leave home or when I get home and want to access video, and I have to make sure I add music only when my external is disconnected (so I don't have to worry about getting a copy of new music onto the internal drive)

 

[netnothing]

Well that’s cool, but it seems like the “iTunes Music” folder should be named “iTunes Content” or “iTunes Media” or something now. Having it specifically say “Music” and then right away saying music OR movies OR tv shows, etc. doesn’t make sense.

Oh and yeah, it did make Time Machine back up EVERYTHING again, so be prepared to lose a few of your oldest backups if you do this.

I'm renaming iTunes Music to "iTunes Media" in the interim but I hope they go the rest of the way and allow us to independently select a path for each media folder in the next point upgrade.

Yeah, not sure why when switch that it puts everything in an iTunes Music folder. I thought I was reading somewhere where NEW iTunes users will be defaulted to an iTunes Media folder.....I might have to test that out.

Regardless, I quit iTunes, renamed the folder to iTunes Media and everything is working fine (of course I had to delete and redo backups again).

-Kevin

 

[netnothing]

Yeah, not sure why when switch that it puts everything in an iTunes Music folder. I thought I was reading somewhere where NEW iTunes users will be defaulted to an iTunes Media folder.....I might have to test that out.

Regardless, I quit iTunes, renamed the folder to iTunes Media and everything is working fine (of course I had to delete and redo backups again).

-Kevin

Well just tested this on a new account and YES, iTunes will default you to:

~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media

Weird that the upgrade doesn't switch that....wonder if it's a bug.

-Kevin

 

[lyzardking]

Good theory. I tried it but it didn't work. I guess we're going to have to keep on waiting for Apple to implement a solution or people are going to stop buying video on iTunes because their HDD's are full.

I was wondering if it would work with 9 (it certainly doesn't with 8)

 

[botsmack]

What doesn't make sense to me is why the iTunes Media folder is still located under Music. Not saying it's a better solution, but shouldn't they have moved it to ~/iTunes/iTunes Media or something similar?

 

[OriginalFormula]

What doesn't make sense to me is why the iTunes Media folder is still located under Music. Not saying it's a better solution, but shouldn't they have moved it to ~/iTunes/iTunes Media or something similar?

I'm sure you could move the location if you really wanted to, but what's the point?

 

[botsmack]

I'm sure you could move the location if you really wanted to, but what's the point?

Well, iTunes has gone passed Music. That's the whole point for the new media organization option. iTunes is music, movies, tv shows, apps, podcasts, etc. I was just wondering why Apple would go so far as to "organize" everything under an iTunes Media folder to recognize iTunes' all-encompassing footprint, but still default it to under Music. I plan on leaving mine where it is -- under the default folder. Just voicing my confusion as to Apple's thinking.

 

[acosmichippo]

So what alternative do you propose?

You can't just complain without having some kind of suggestion on how to remedy the situation...



anyway, the organization didn't seem to work quite right for me. I have about 20 artist folders under the "iTunes Media" directory - meaning above the music folder in the new structure. I just made sure they were all tagged as "music" in iTunes, which they were. Anyone else run into this issue?

I guess i may just have to manually move them and re-add them to the library.




EDIT:

hmm... it appears that these files were duplicated somehow. So in addition to being in the aforementioned directory, they were also in the ~/Music/iTunes Music/Music directory. Weird.