Merging Two iTunes folders, help needed.

[gvegastiger]

Ok, here's my deal. I have one official iTunes library with music files on my Mac and then I have a folder on my backup drive with iTunes music files. These two directories are mostly the same but they each have a few differences. I want to backup my iTunes music onto that backup drive but I need to make sure that I get all the music from my Mac and the backup drive. The folders are slightly different and I don't want to lose any music. Whats the best way to do this? Should I just run an rsync command to merge the two folders together into a third folder and then use that as my backup?

 

[wrldwzrd89]

If you know how to run rsync then yes, that's the easiest option, if you have the drive space to handle it.

 

[gvegastiger]

This is the command I'd use right?

rsync -r /users/gvegastiger/iTunesbackup /users/gvegastiger/Music/iTunes Music/

 

[wrldwzrd89]

This is the command I'd use right?

rsync -r /users/gvegastiger/iTunesbackup /users/gvegastiger/Music/iTunes Music/

Almost.

 rsync -r /Users/gvegastiger/iTunesbackup /Users/gvegastiger/Music/iTunes\ Music/

That backslash is required to escape the space in the path name, so it doesn't confuse Terminal. Also, "Users" needs to be capitalized - for case-insensitive file systems it won't matter, but it's always good to be ready for the future

 

[gvegastiger]

Thanks for the quick help.

 

[gvegastiger]

Ok, I got a problem. I ran the rsync command below that you suggested and instead of merging the iTunesbackup into the iTunes Music folder, it created a new folder called iTunes Music put it in the Music directory and then copied iTunesbackup into that folder. What did I do wrong?

rsync -r /Users/gvegastiger/iTunesbackup /Users/gvegastiger/Music/iTunes\ Music

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Ok, I got a problem. I ran the rsync command below that you suggested and instead of merging the iTunesbackup into the iTunes Music folder, it created a new folder called iTunes Music put it in the Music directory and then copied iTunesbackup into that folder. What did I do wrong?

rsync -r /Users/gvegastiger/iTunesbackup /Users/gvegastiger/Music/iTunes\ Music

Oh... I know what happened. Easy mistake to make, you forgot about the iTunes folder between Music and iTunes Music. Therefore, the command needs to look like this: rsync -r /Users/gvegastiger/iTunesbackup /Users/gvegastiger/Music/iTunes/iTunes\ Music