My iTunes music is gone

[proZak]

Alright, so earlier I was trying to make space on my internal by moving things like my music to my external in order to allow room for FCS2. The plan I made sounded right, but ended horribly. Heres what I did. In this order.

-I copied my "iTunes" folder, which contains everything, onto my external.
-Went into settings in iTunes, Advanced -> iTunes Folder Location. Changed it to the new iTunes folder i had put in my external.
-It said it would take an hour or so to copy all my music, so I left assuming whatever I did would work.

I just got home, opened up iTunes, and everything is GONE. All my playlists, all my settings, Date Added, Play Count, etc. The music files, however, are still here. I am seriously freaking out, because they way I listened to my music really depended on how I structured it in iTunes and all my settings.

Could someone please tell me where I went wrong, and if there is any way to restore my original settings?

 

[sonictonic]

I really hope you have a backup...

What you should have done is:

1. Open iTunes and go to the Preferences, Advanced Section
2. Change the location of the files to the external drive location
3. Check the box that says "copy files to iTunes library when adding" AND the "keep iTunes library organized" - both NEED to have a check mark.
4. Click OK on your new prefs. and then in the iTunes menu bar go to Advanced, Consolidate Library.

iTunes then copies all your stuff in an organized way to the new location, and afterward you can verify that, and THEN delete the contents in your iTunes music folder on your internal drive, but LEAVE the other files on your internal, as they hold the playlist info, etc.


How come you didn't research this first?!

 

[happygodavid]

Hey Sonictonic (or anyone else reading this who knows what they're doing), can you give me a hand here as well?
I am trying to transfer my music to an external hd.
Here's what I did:
1. Copied iTunes Music folder over to new location on ext hd.
2. Deleted itunes music folder from hd (probably a huge mistake).
3. Opened Itunes, File>Add to Library... selected itunes music from ext hd.
4. Stopped process b/c all that was being added was the track name (along with track numbers next to the name), but no artist, album, genre, etc.
5. Changed itunes music folder location (Itunes preferences>advanced>general itunes music location) to ext hd itunes music folder.
6. Tried to Consolidate Library. Didn't work.
7. Tried copying all files from itunes folder on hd to ext hd. Didn't work.


So basically what I have is all the information from my original itunes folder on my ext hd (including itunes library, itunes music, folders that have artist names, previous itunes libraries, & temp files). If I try to Get CD Track Names (Itunes Advanced menu), it says "Itunes cannot get CD track names for songs that were not imported using itunes. To allow itunes to look for cd track names for this song, import the song again using itunes." So I tried using "import" from the file menu, and the same thing happens.

-Is there a way to reactivate these files so that Itunes will read them w/o having to manually change every single song/album from the Get info screen?
-If there is not a way to do this, which would be better: manually entering all the info? Or deleting everything and starting from scratch?

Thanks!

 

[nep61]

What I've been able to do before, and I've copied a few iTunes music folders from HD to HD....

1. Copy iTunes Music folder over to new location on ext hd.
2. Open iTunes, iTunes>Preferences>-- then ... Change your iTunes music folder location from the OLD location to the NEW (copied) location...
3. UNCHECK "copy files to iTunes music folder when adding to library"
4. NOW the tricky part... Click OK after you UNcheck that box.
5. Navigate back to iTunes... select all your songs (not PLAYLISTS) and delete... YES, delete !! Do not "Move to trash" but rather select "Keep Files"... Just as a safeguard... ya never know....
6. Now, navigate to YOUR NEW iTunes music folder through FINDER... and Click & drag the entire MUSIC FOLDER into the iTunes window... you are basically RE-populating the library with your NEW (copied) music folder... Remember, it's NOT copying the music itself because you UN CHECKED the COPY button in the Pref. panel.... rather, it is now updating the location of the NEW library... Your playlists should still be there and should re-populate as well... hope this helps