Moving iTunes library nightmare

[gsusser]

Without exaggeration, I've spoken to 10+ senior Apple advisors and spent countless hours trying to accomplish a seemingly simple move. Help!

The executive summary - in preparation for buying a new iMac, I needed to move my 1.2TB library from my local 2TB drive to an external. The new iMac only has a 512GB drive. I dragged the iTunes folder to my external. The problems I've encountered include songs not looking at the new library location even though in Preferences, Advanced - the new library location is listed. Seemingly getting that problem mostly fixed (some songs would still look at the old library), I then ran into a problem of losing all my playlist info. Then, seemingly fixing that, I now have 4000+ songs (out of 90,000) with the ! point and looking in the old library.

Find files doesn't fix things completely - in my current situation, I originally had 10,000 songs with a !. After a find files, it went down to 4,000. Organize and consolidate doesn't help.

Just as frustrating, it seems that various senior advisors give different solutions and one contradicts the other. I must have copied and recopied my library a half dozen times. That's 8 hours each copy. I stupidly listened to one advisor who deleted my original library, so things will never be the same.

Normally, one senior advisor will see the problem through. The reason I've spoken to so many different advisors is twofold. Since the various fixes the advisors generally give take a long time, they need to call back. More often than not, their shift has finished by the time the process is done and often they're off the next day. Or, I don't trust a particular advisor. The reason I bring this up is that I would love to speak to an advisor who has special expertise in this matter. However, I'm told that this is not how tech support works.

I really am heart-broken. My music is a lifetime collection and without a doubt the most important data on my Mac. I really don't know where to go at this point.

 

[Fishrrman]

"I really am heart-broken. My music is a lifetime collection and without a doubt the most important data on my Mac. I really don't know where to go at this point."

I have some thoughts.
My suggestions won't be easy.
But they should work.
I suggest you print this reply out and keep it handy.

First -- do you still have the ORIGINAL library on the 1.2tb drive. The old iMac is still up-and-running for the moment, right?

If the answer is yes, then do this:
1. Either buy a second external 2tb drive, or use the existing one (you will have to erase it first).
2. Download either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper. Both are FREE to download, and both are FREE to use for the first 30 days. I suggest CCC.
3. Use CCC to create a cloned backup of the OLD iMac's internal drive. NOT JUST THE iTUNES FOLDER -- but the ENTIRE drive.
4. If you do this, you will have AN EXACT COPY of the internal drive. It should boot and run the old iMac just as does the internal drive (try it and see).

I would recommend that (going from a large drive to a much smaller drive) you DO NOT use setup assistant to migrate your data.
Instead, when you get the new iMac, you want to "set it up fresh", create a new account (you can give it the same account name and password as on your old iMac).
Then, manually install apps and "manually migrate data" from the cloned backup to the new iMac.

So.. when you get the new iMac, take it out of the box, run through the initial setup procedure.
Note: I think you might have to de-activate iTunes (using the old Mac) and other Apple-connected stuff you're using now (I don't use these things, myself).

OK, you have the NEW iMac up-and-running.

The next thing you need to do is this:
(we are doing this to avoid permissions problems re the old iMac v the new one)
1. Connect the cloned backup drive.
2. Let the icon appear on the desktop, but DO NOT open the icon yet.
3. Click ONE time on the external drive icon to select it
4. Now, type "command-i" (eye) to bring up the get info box
5. Down at the bottom there's a lock icon. Click it and enter your password (the new administrative password you're using on the new iMac)
6. In the "sharing and permissions" area, put a checkmark into "ignore ownership on this volume"
7. Close the get info box.
This "cures" any permissions problems.

OK, on to iTunes and the old library.

The VERY FIRST TIME you try to run iTunes, hold down the option key as you click the iTunes icon. This should bring up the "choose library" dialog.
Now -- "navigate to" the iTunes library icon in the Music folder on your external drive, and choose that.
That should bring up the old iTunes library and run with it -- just as it ran while on the internal drive.

Take a good look around -- is everything "still there"?
Do things run as you expect them to?

If you do these things and get that far, it might be possible to "strip away" all other files not related to the music library and run that way.
But what I've detailed above is what I'd try first.
If you get that far, report back here.

NOTE:
I'm not an iTunes user myself (I organize my own music library in a folder/file hierarchy created in the finder).
I'm thinking there may be some glitches "migrating" an existing library from an old version of iTunes to a new one. I just don't know, again, I generally don't use iTunes.
But "cloning" the drive (as above) "preserves" the old iTunes library exactly on the external drive. Running it from there should be the same as if you were running it from your internal drive...

 

[gsusser]

First -- do you still have the ORIGINAL library on the 1.2tb drive. The old iMac is still up-and-running for the moment, right?.

First, thanks for the detailed response.

I mentioned in my post that the original iTunes folder on the old iMac is history thanks to one senior advisor. So, that ship has passed and I'm sick over it. He told me that it was wrong to copy it to another disk but that it needed to be moved instead. I foolishly listened. And the original copy was altered. However, I did make another copy fairly quickly so I think the changes to the copy are minor.

Here's where I'm at now... I have many copies of the iTunes folder since senior advisors had me renaming files, adding to files, and thoughtlessly doing other stuff to my library. I've kind of lost track of what's what. However, I seem to have a iTunes folder that is nearly the same as the original, at least in size. I'm in the process of copying it to the external drive that I want it to reside on. Only 2 hours to go out of 8, woo hoo. A few questions...

Most of the senior advisors tell me to point to the iTunes Media folder when choosing library. Some tell me otherwise - the iTunes folder. You mentioned iTunes, not iTunes media. Does it matter?

Do I need to organize and consolidate directly after choosing the library location?

Thanks again for chiming in. If this doesn't work, it's off to lugging my iMac to the Apple store. I'm done talking to tech support.