My wife has a 30gig video Ipod and she wanted me to move the almost 10gig of music to a different hard drive that connects via USB.
Sooooo....
Being the brainiac that I am I just copy and pasted the Itunes file into the new hard drive and went into the area that lets me change where it looks for music. Thought that I had this all taken care of so I deleted the files on her laptop.
Yeah, big mistake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now I have 10gig of music on a hard drive that isn't recognized anywhere. I tried to reverse this process and only managed to keep things just as messed up.
ANY HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED, IF IT'S GOOD ENOUGH I MAY JUST HAVE TO THROW IN A FREE COVER FOR YOUR HELP!
It all depends on how you've configured iTunes to handle your music.
This will blow away your ratings and play counts, but I'd do this.
Go to iTunes option, change the music library location to the new drive. Then close iTunes and blow away (or rename) the iTunes Music Library.xml file in that new location and open iTunes. You now have a "clean" iTunes looking for music in your new location, and you library is empty. Next - drag and drop your music into your iTunes Library.
If you have iTunes keeping your files organized, then it will ensure that a copy is created in the new library folder.
So drop one song first to ensure you understand the process. You'll drop the song into the library, iTunes will update the XML file, and you can then verify that the song is in the new iTunes folder before erasing the "old" copy of the song.
Once you have that working, drop the rest of the songs over.
There are plenty of other ways too, you can backup your XML, modify the path in iTunes, then drop the new XML over there along with the music files after doing a find and replace on the path. Just remember that the XML file contains all your music history and ratings etc. So I would make a backup of the file as the first thing I did, if that stuff is important.
And if you use AAC, album art is embedded into the file, if you use MP3 it might link the album art file in the XML file too. So if you use MP3 you might need to re-add your album art. Though iTunes can do this too.
Anyway:
1 - Change the folder location in iTunes
2 - Let iTunes manage your music
3 - Drag and drop a song into the library and then check the physical file paths
4 - Reapply ratings.
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There are several articles on the iTunes help about how to move the folder. Although I don't know anyone who would check the help until after its already screwed up including myself. But in the future you need to go into the settings and change the location first. There is a function in the advanced menu that will consolidate the music to all one folder. If you have setup the new location then just run the consolidate iTunes will move all of the files for you.
I screwed up my iTunes folder a little while ago myself. I just dragged all my files back into iTunes again and just started over.
Howard, working on this now and have a couple questions...
Here's the path to the new usb drive;
E:\KIM BROWN\My Documents\My Music\iTunes
inside that folder is the following:
-a folder that is called "itunes music"
-itunes music library - itunes music database file
-itunes music library, says it's an xml document
-a temp file
Do I remove all the actual music from the itunes music folder?
Do I just delete that music folder?
do I rename the xml document or delete it?
What do I do with the databse music file?
Thanks, I'm going to do something but I'll be back in a bit to check it and see if I can get this working.
Howard, working on this now and have a couple questions...
Here's the path to the new usb drive;
E:\KIM BROWN\My Documents\My Music\iTunes
inside that folder is the following:
-a folder that is called "itunes music"
-itunes music library - itunes music database file
-itunes music library, says it's an xml document
-a temp file
Do I remove all the actual music from the itunes music folder?
Do I just delete that music folder?
do I rename the xml document or delete it?
What do I do with the databse music file?
Thanks, I'm going to do something but I'll be back in a bit to check it and see if I can get this working.
Thanks for the help!
Under the circumstances I'd be tempted to close iTunes, rename the .xml file to .old and then open iTunes. You'll have a clean library.
Now drag and drop one song from your music folder into the iTunes Library. Then right click on the song and I believe there is an option along the lines of "show file". This will show you the actual file on the disk. Ensure that it's in the right place (the USB drive).
If it is - you can drag and drop the rest of your music to the iTunes Library. Then you'll need to redo your ratings etc. And your artwork if you use MP3, but iTunes can automate that now anyway.
__________________
Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
Okay, I'm almost at the point of removing Itunes and re-installing. My only question is, how do I get all the music already in the AAC format into it so I don't end up with the same problem?
Okay, I'm almost at the point of removing Itunes and re-installing. My only question is, how do I get all the music already in the AAC format into it so I don't end up with the same problem?
Once you have installed iTunes and told iTunes the location of your library (the USB) and told iTunes to manage your music library, you just drop the songs directly into the iTunes Library.
__________________
Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
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