MacBook Pro :: Consolidating Copy Of ITunes Folder On External Drive Via Terminal
Jun 28, 2012
I've recently got a new MacBook Pro, and for at least 6 years or more, I've been using Windows to handle my iTunes library. At one point, when trying to transfer my library, somehow I lost ALL my music. As a result, I learned to back it all up...And I learned to be patient when doing so. Any way, I want to make sure that when I transfer my files THIS time, I do it right. I just need to consolidate my iTunes library that I have backed up to an external hard drive to another folder on the same drive.
Then when I move it to iTunes on my Mac, I only have to put the files into the "Automatically Add to iTunes" folder. That said, I'm fairly decent with using the terminal; I've used Ubuntu for a while, and right now I'm using Fedora. I would use the terminal on my Mac, but I really don't want to use it there; I'll stay safe and let my Fedora computer do the work. That said, I know that both Mac and Fedora have "rsync" and "find" as part of the UNIX kernel both are built off of. With all that out of the way.
My question is simply which commands I ought to use to manually consolidate the files in the iTunes folder to a separate folder on the same external hard drive. I also happen to have a number of duplicate files, for some reason, except the duplicates are sometimes .mp3 files, while others are .m4a files. While the majority of my music has been restored because of "Purchased" section of the iTunes Store, I'm unsure of which files I'm looking to preserve; Do I just copy the mp3 files, or both? I hate doing music database repair.
Info:
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
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Jul 4, 2012
My internal hard drive is FULL so I am planning to relocate the entire iTunes media folder of music and movies to an external hard drive. I found this article which describes the exact process:Â
[URL]
But here is my problem... Step 11 starts me down the path of organizing the library and consolidating the library. Keep in mind, I have long used the option to keep my media organized by Apple's naming convention and suggested location. But when it comes to consolidating, I am very hesitant. The reason being, I have media files, which I do not want to incorporate into iTunes. Like stuff relating to old jobs, my own crappy mp3 files, home movies of the kids, etc. I fear that consolidation will seek out every possible media file which iTunes is capable of reading and suck it inside. I do not want that. All my media files for iTunes are already inside the iTunes Media folder. I just want to move that external.Â
Another important goal for me is to maintain my precious playlists and the "date added" of all existing media files in the iTunes library... I love sorting music by date of purchase (or date encoded) and would be VERY upset to lose my long history.Â
Info:
imac, Mac OS X (10.6.7)
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May 27, 2012
Do I have to copy each file individually or can I copy an entire folder to external hard drive?
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iPad 2, iOS 5.0.1
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Feb 9, 2012
I am trying to copy my iTunes folder from one external hard drive to another external hard drive but I keep getting an error message "unable to copy because file (song name) is in use". It starts copying for a while but keeps stopping when the error message pops up. No songs are playing so I am not sure why it says certain song files are in use.
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Mac book pro, Mac OS X (10.5.6)
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Feb 24, 2012
new user...how do you drag or move or copy a file or folder from the desktop to an external drive? I have tried dragging and copy/pasting.
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MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7.3)
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Sep 5, 2014
I want to copy my iPhoto library to an external drive but I cannot find the folder on my Mac Air. When I open Finder there is no Picture folder showing so I cannot find the iPhoto library.
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MacBook Air (11-inch Mid 2013), OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)
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May 4, 2012
how do you copy the itunes folder to an external disk? I want to put the data on another computer/
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Apr 27, 2010
I have two Macs, a desktop PM G5 and a laptop Black Macbook, both running 10.5.8. Currently when using the laptop I can see and access the PMG5 and its files through my wireless connection. I'm planning on picking up an external drive, and I'd just like this confirmed, as in its access ability. If I hook up the external drive to the G5 so I can leave it there, and access its files through the G5. will my laptop also be able to access it through the G5. In other words, when I access the G5 from the laptop over wireless, will the external drive appear as just another folder and/or device on the G5 and I'll be able to move and copy files just like I already do?
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May 27, 2012
Can I copy entire folder to external hard drive?
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Mar 31, 2012
How do i copy my itunes and iphoto to my external hard drive?
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iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.8)
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Aug 26, 2014
How to copy one folder from Mac and copy to external HDD ?
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MacBook Air, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)
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Nov 23, 2010
I've just brought a new MacBook Pro. I used to have my iphone apps one mac's itunes that I've got at work, and keep my music on itunes at home. Is there any way of consolidating everything to my new itunes?
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Jun 30, 2012
how do i move my iTunes folder to an external drive?
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Jun 5, 2014
I have a hard drive on my 2008 MacPro that's problematic and so I bought a new drive and installed Mavericks on it and am booting just fine on the new drive. There is however, one folder in the Library/Preferences folder that I need to copy over to the new drive. All the tricks for accessing the Library folder work great on the start up drive, but I can't seem to access the Library folder on the old drive (both drives in the MacPro as it has 4 drive bays), even though the drive will mount. How can I see that Library folder on the old drive? Note while I can mount the old drive, I can't boot to it.Â
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Feb 24, 2012
I am trying to copy a document folder from my MacBook Pro to a flash drive, but can't figure out how to do it.Â
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MacBook Pro (15-inch Late 2008), Mac OS X (10.5.8)
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May 9, 2012
I have recently started using a Time Capsule with an external hard drive attached. I have moved my music and video to the external hard drive to free up space on my MacBook Pro hard drive. I have set up iTunes to play from the external hard drive (which works fine), however, although I have changed the location of the iTune media folder in Preferences it keeps reverting to the iTunes media folder on my Mac's hard drive.
Info:
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.2)
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Jan 15, 2009
Okay here's the thing: I (not so long ago) copied my entire itunes library to my external hard drive. Now I have updated my itunes library on my powerbook, and want to make sure that I back up the new songs/albums I have. The problem with this is that I have always found that when I drag the itunes folder from my powerbook to the itunes folder on my external drive, it asks to 'replace the itunes music folder'. I don't want this as there are some albums that I have stored in my folder but not on my itunes library and still want to keep them stored.
Is there any way that I could just keep adding to the 'existing' itunes folder on my external drive?
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Nov 11, 2009
I'm in the process of moving my iTunes folder to an external hard drive due to my computers hard drive being full. Now the external hard drive I'm using needs to be plugged in to a power source, now if I transfer all my music/movies to the external drive and also have my iTunes automatically download everything to the drive will I be able to copy my movie files back into my computers hard drive when I wan to be able to watch them on plane trips or would I be better off using a external hard drive that doesn't need a power source so I can just take it with me?
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Mar 16, 2012
I have my iTunes Library Folder on my external hard drive which is a WD MyBook Live.I did this to save room on my macbook's hard drive. It is great and I successfully moved the folder over and saved tons of space on my hard drive.The problem I'm having is that each time I turn on my computer and open iTunes for the first time it asks me to manually locate the iTunes Library Folder.I have gone in and reset and updated the physical location of the folder to the external hard drive but it still makes me go and manually find it before it will open.Once I do that it works fantastic.
Info:
MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8), WD MyBook Live External Hard Drive
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Dec 22, 2009
When importing songs into iTunes, the software by default is set to copy the music files to the iTunes media folder and convert them to .m4a format. This, of course, results in having two copies of each song after the import is done. Before I disable this option I'd like to know what you think are the pros and cons of having this option enabled/disabled.
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Dec 15, 2009
I am running the latest iTunes on my G5 and added a new internal hard drive - capacity 1.5TB. Now I want to consolidate my iTunes Library to the new drive. The 219GB of music is currently on my external 250GB drive. I first set my Music Folder file to the new drive, then perform the function: File>Library>Organize Library>Consolidate Files After it runs a 30 second "Preparing Copy" function, I get the incorrect error: There is not enough room on <MyNewHardriveName> to copy all of the requested files." Does anyone know the solution to this?
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Oct 2, 2010
I have a WD external hard drive that I got for the holiday's last year.Here lately I've been using it as my iTunes library. A great way to free up some space on my Powerbook g4. Question is, why does iTunes keep changing my library folder after I'd already changed it when I initially set up the hard drive as my iTunes library destination?
Another question is how do I make sure that all my music files automatically go to the folder on the external hard drive when I download music. For example I may snag a free song from a website and will double click it after downloading and it plays in itunes. I want that file to be saved on my external hard drive as well (yes it's plugged up and plugged in).
I only have an 8g ipod so I have to constantly check and uncheck songs that I want to hear, so I want to be sure they are all in the same locale. And one way I know that certain files are on my internal and not external is when i unplug my external those files still play when they shouldn't unless it's plugged up.
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Aug 21, 2010
I was one vacation for 6 weeks and I was the only one that had a computer so we put all pictures on it. Long story short. When my dad tried attaching his external drive IPhoto wouldn't let him copy the pictures and Os X didn't read the flash drive he gave me to try. Another piece of information that might help is, that my laptop is the only Mac in my family, everything else is windows.
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Feb 18, 2012
How do you restore your itunes music folder from time machine back-up to an external portable hard drive?
Info:
MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
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Mar 14, 2012
I want to drag files to an external hard drive as a hard copy. I have already set up "Time Machine".
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MacBook Pro, iOS 5.1
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May 26, 2012
I have had both my MacBook and external hard drive for over three years now, and have never had a problem. In the last week, my external hard drive stopped letting me copy files onto it. When you try to drag and drop it just comes up with the blocked symbol. I have tested this with other hard drives as well and keep getting the same error. I've read other forums where it seems the answer is just to reformat the hard drive to the correct format, but I've never had a problem before so it seems strange that the format would just suddenly change.Â
Info:
MacBook, Mac OS X (10.7.3)
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Dec 26, 2010
I consolidated my iTunes library because some files were on an external and the rest on the computer and when I did this it made copys of most of the songs in my music folder. Also it didn't consolidate the whole library it still shows many songs on the external.
The actual iTunes library is right, just not all songs point to the computer hard drive.
I have about 100 gigs worth of duplicates that I have no idea how to delete besides doing them one by one.
Any ideas on how to fix this?
This is how my iTunes folder looks for most albums.
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Dec 30, 2008
First one was a portable 500gb freeagent, and also I put it in a folder in my 1.5tb time machine drive. Tonight I am updating the second, and I think I'm noticing a problem, but not sure. First of all, when I move my library locatation in preferences to the ext. drive in preferences, and do consolidate library the "info" on a few of the songs still shows a filepath leading to the built in hard drive on my mac (the original library). Also, when I perform the Library>consolidate library function it seems like it copies all of the files that are already on the drive, too. So they only appear in itunes once but they appear in the actual folder more than once, in appended form. Anyone else think this is unnormal. How do you manage a library on mulitple drives? The original reason I did this was to clear some space on my macbook's hard drive, but I'm always too scared to delete the files on it.
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Jan 12, 2011
I want to move my home folder to another drive. Do I copy my home folder to the other drive, then go into sys prefs, accounts, advanced, etc and then change it?When I change it without copying it, none of my settings etc are still there.
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Sep 10, 2014
i have been trying to copy files on macbook air to my external hard disk which i used for my windows pc, n=but im unable to do so. and i even cannot delete the files on the hard disk. but i can copy the files on hard disk to my air.
Info:
MacBook Air, iOS 7.1.2
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