can someone please enlighten me on the correct way to put music into itunes on my new mac mini running Lion? tried it once already and it was a total failure. here's what happened- my main computer is an imac running Snow Leopard. i have all of its music backed up on an external drive. i connected the drive to the mini and dragged my "music" folder into the "itunes media" folder on the mini. after doing it this way, i kept getting messages saying itunes could not find the files that i wanted to play. through the advice on this site, i followed a procedure to show itunes where the music was, but it never remembered so i had to do this procedure every time. i gave up and deleted all of the music from the mini. i want to start over w/a clean slate.
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proper way to put music into itunes
- Thread starter boynigel
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Did you copy the library file to the mini when you copied the music? I find it easier to replace the entire iTunes folder instead of just the music folder in iTunes media. That way everything transfers such as play counts and playlists.
i basically dragged a folder titled "music" from my backup drive that has all files in it into the folder, "itunes media" on the mini. i've done this a bunch of times between two macs running tiger through snow leopard w/no problems. i knew something was up when i saw the folder, "itunes media" on the mini/lion. previous versions don't have this folder. i just took a guess and put the files there, which obviously was wrong. i guess the quick answer to your question is NO.
You could import all of the music files into iTunes from the external drive and create a new iTunes library or maybe edit the xml library file with the correct file path. I'm not sure if that will work though.
do you mean drag the files right into the iTunes app itself? i was considering that but was concerned that it wouldn't get the album artwork this way, seeing that i'm just dragging audio files.
I'm not at my computer right now but I think the album art is in the music folder and will follow the songs. You could try deleting the iTunes library file, opening iTunes and dragging the music folder directly into iTunes to import it and form a new library.
To answer your original question, There are five ways to add content to iTunes:
1. Import a CD using iTunes
2. Purchase iTunes Store content
3. Use the iTunes "Add to Library ..." function
4. Copy your music folders/files into the
~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Automatically Add to iTunes folder. Files will get added next time you restart iTunes.
5. Copy your music folders/files to the left hand Library panel in the iTunes window.
Manipulating the music files/folders in the Finder and not via iTunes is just asking for trouble in my experience, #4 excepted.