ITunes :: Media Folder Location Moved - Deleted All Media?
Apr 24, 2012
I recently changed the iTunes Media Folder default location to a different area on my drive. I waited a couple minutes and the files did not move. I was unaware you had to go into your settings and also select to consolodate files. Since the files didn't move I reselected my default location and kept trying to go back and forth a couple times. After letting it sit for a couple more minutes I noticed over 200 GB's of files were missing. I looked in each folder I tried to change the default Media Folder location to but they were not in either of them. I have also ran multiple system file recover programs and been unable to find them.Â
I moved my iTunes media folder to an external hard drive to free up space on my iMac's hard drive. The new one is located on a hard drive attached to my Airport Express. Since then, I keep getting messages stating that certain items weren't copied to my iPhone because the originals couldn't be found. When I check, the iTunes media folder has reverted to the location on my iMac's main hard drive.Â
How can I prevent this? At best this is annoying, but it also is using up hard drive space unnecessarily. Is this behavior avoidable, or is it something that goes with the territory when you move your media folder to an external hard drive?
My iTunes media folder location is set to my iTunes media folder, which is stored on my external hard drive connected to my network via aiport extreme router. The problem is everytime I turn my mac off and back on my iTunes reverts the location back to my itunes media folder on my mac and I have to manually set it back to my itunes media folder on my external hard drive. Why does it keep changing?
I moved my entire 1.4TB iTunes folder to my Drobo. Then I went into preferences and changed the iTunes Media Folder Location, and I also have Keep iTunes music folder organized. That worked fine all of the music, movies and TV shows opened up fine. Than after adding a new HDD to my drobo I opened my iTunes and all of a sudden it gives me the ! next to all my files and wants me to locate them, and the folder is still the same in the folder location. Is there anyway to fix this, or to automatically reconnect all my media instead of doing it 1 by 1.
I have a macbook pro with a 150g HD and only 30g remaining. I'd like to know how you find where all this mass is located? From my own findings it would seem that I have at least 43g of iTunes content found C Stride - Music - iTunes I don't fully understand why i have this and indeed if i can delete it as I thought i had all my iTunes content on an external so not to tie up my lap top HD (500g with 230g of iTunes content). But, when I look in preferences on iTunes the media location folder is no longer displaying anything?? It used to. 1. Can I get rid of the 43g of content on my HD? 2. Why is no media location displaying in iTunes? 3. How else can I see what is using 120g on my HD?
I am still pretty new to Mac and OSX and i had a question about itunes.
Ok, So if i add say 1 album and 1 Movie. Lets say the the album is in My Music folder and the Movie is in My Movies folder.
Now if i go to add to library in iTunes and add them then i am done. If i go and delete the 2 files from the folders i notice that the album and movie is still in itunes and still playable? How is that if i deleted them from the folders on my Mac?
Does iTunes actually COPY the movie and music i add to its own folder? so that way if i do delete it from my mac, its still in a iTunes folder somewhere?
Like with windows, WMP copies the location of that media, So if i add a album and later delete it from my PC and go and try to play it in WMP, it will say NOT FOUND or just no longer show it.
Reason i ask this is because i do not want to have double of everything on my HD and take up more space then i should...
I've followed several tutorials on how to get this done, as it seems so simple but it's not working on my end. I've moved the iTunes folder from the /music/ to an external hard drive. I'm opening iTunes, going to Preferences, Advanced, and replacing the iTunes Media folder location to the correct one /Volumes/Volume E/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media Â
I'm checking Keep iTunes Media folder organized & Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library, clicking on the "OK" button, and nothing happens.Â
Funny enough, Spotify finds it in seconds and I can play my music from that player instead.
Equipment: Mac Mini (Early 2009), Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GHz, 4 GB RAM, Lion. I started noticing my Mac Mini was having trouble reconnecting my Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, slow processing (spinning pinwheel of death), and programs freezing. I did a recovery within Lion from the recovery drive and it seemed to work for a week or so. It started acting up again. So, I decided to erase the HD and reinstall Lion. I basically use the Mac Mini as a server for all my iTunes content. Â
My iTunes default save location is to my Drobo storage unit. Now that I have reinstalled Lion, I am looking for the easiest, most convenient, and safest way to change the default save location in iTunes and then importing the media. It would be nice if it was possible to just simply change the default save location to the folder I previously had all my media saved in and it would just magically appear in iTunes. Everything was organized perfectly, which took hours of time and attention to details. Â
Info: Mac Mini, 2 13 Inch Macbooks, Mac OS X (10.5.7)
I have a new iMac with an SSD and a 1TB second drive. I backup the iMac 2nd hard drive to an portable external drive so I can carry my entire iMac file storage on an extended trip...5 months. What is the easy way of connecting my MBP iTunes app to the iTunes on the portable exernal hard drive so I can access stored movies, music etc.
Info:Mac OS X (10.7.3), Nikon Cameras, 2MacBook Pro, ApTV
My computer was full so I moved my iTunes media folder to a 3T time capsule following the 15 steps from the article ïTunes for Mac: Moving your iTunes Media Folder", everything went smoothly, no problems when I reopened iTunes, tested on a song, a tv episode and a movie to make sure I could watch them and no ! symbol or warning appeard. Afterwards, I downloaded an episode from the iTunes store and when I tried to watch it appears a warning "THIS MOVIE REQUIRES QUICKTIME WICH IS NOT SUPPORTED BY THIS VERSION OF ITUNES", I checked iTunes version (10.6.1) and Quicktime (no updates available).
I have 100% of my songs for iTunes stored on a USB Hard Drive.
I dont let iTunes organise my library, nor copy to iTunes library when adding
The default iTunes Media Folder is located on this drive where about 70% of the songs are (songs that have been ripped from CD or downloaded. My USB HD was plugged in correctly, but a song couldnt be found...so I tried another and it found it straight away...odd
I then hit 'Get Info' on the bad songs, and the location that Itunes was looking in, was changed to a new Default iTunes Music Folder on my Macs drive
Very strange as I have never known iTunes to change the location of a file before within the library?
Ive come to the conclusion that it was only the files that were stored in the Default iTunes Media Folder that coudnt be found.
So I then checked in preferences, to see where the Default iTunes Music Folder was, and it was on my Macs Drive, instead of the USB drive (possibly due to starting iTunes up, without my HD plugged in)
Changed this back to location on my USB Hard Drive, and all of a sudden iTunes re-writes my library to show all the files in the correct position again! Ive never known it do this before on my PC, is it a new feature?
I just noticed that instead of the normal iTunes folder structure in my home dir of Music/iTunes/iTunes Music now the iTunes Music folder as well as the Mobile Applications folder have been copied into a new folder called iTunes Media. Is this something to do with iTunes 9 or Snow Leopard. Also what folders are safe for me to delete? Because everything has been duplicated I am wasting about 30gb of my hard drive and I'd like the space back.
I want to duplicate my iTunes media folder onto my new MacBook from my desktop Mac. Can I hook computers together and move it or is there more to it than that?
I have about 250GB of music in my iTunes Music folder, too much for any of my player devices with the exception of the computer itself. The "iTunes Music" folder is located on an external drive. I want to create multiple libraries to simplify syncing with individual devices, named something like "Nano silver 16", "classic 160", "iPhone", "iPad", etc. I know how to create the new libraries from info at: [URL] Questions:3) Is there a way to switch the "iTunes Music" folder to sort by album, (instead of by artist, then album, which lists each individual song of a compilation (Greatest Hits of...". "soundtrack", "duets..., etc. in separate folders with one song each). Royal pain! 2) How do I populate the individual libraries from my media folder once I have created them? I can't find any info to do this. Am I right that these just reference the real files, and don't duplicate them in a new location/folder? I don't want to increase the space taken up by new library files. 3) Where should all of the library files live to make it easy to find and switch from one to another? At present, I have to check/uncheck individual files to sync onto separate devices, and this becomes impossible with so much to begin with. --WWmac mini, OS 10.7.4, iTunes 10.6.1Â
Generally you have itunes/itunes media/music and all your stuff is in there but on this iMac with lion, there is not a 'music' folder in itunes media. i cannot find my music anywhere.
I renamed certain tracks in iTunes 11 with macbook pro retina,I then tried and lookup the same song in finder,it shows the same old file name before the change.
How can I make the iTunes media version of the song change the same name I have in iTunes.
Info: MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013), OS X Mavericks (10.9.4), late 2013 mac book pro retina
I tried to consolidate iTunes to the default media folder but when I click ok nothing happens. It worked once before but doesn't now. I have the latest iTunes...
I use an Apple T.V. and I keep all my media for it on an External Hard Drive. Is there any way to add files to iTunes from the External without actually transferring them into the iTunes media folder - and without having to change the "copy to iTunes Folder" setting in preferences back and forth as I do want certain media such as songs to be moved into my iTunes media folder? In previous versions of Mac OS X there used to be a keyboard shortcut that would accomplish this. If you held down (either control or option) can't remember which it would import the media into iTunes but not transfer it to iTunes media folder. It would sort of import a "shortcut" to the desired media into your iTunes library.
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.
I never really used the iTunes media folder system. All my music is on extrenal drive and I was only importing it into iTunes manually to keep my own folder system, for example once a week Ive created a folder with a date of creating and there I had all the releases from that week (some in their own folder or separately but all in this one folder named by a dat eof creation). So on my ext. drive I have lots of these folders by date. And the names of folder always correspond with the date added to iTunes as well..My ext. drive is full now. so Ive decided to take a next step and put out the dvd-rom and put another internal drive (1TB) into my macbook pro which will be used for music and movie data only (the system stays on the old one).What I want to do now is somehow move all these music folder to my new internal drive, so they can be accessed from iTunes without reseting all its features.
Ive read that one solution can be creating the new iTunes Media folder on that new drive and Consolidate all music from iTunes to this location. Problem is I cant even try it, because when go to iTunes Preferences to change the location of Media folder a hit Create after selectin the new location (new internal drive) after fee seconds the progress freezes and Activity Monitor says that iTunes are not responding. Ive tried to leave it for about half an hour and no changes, even tho theres not much to copy/move cause the Media folder has no music in it, only playlists etc. So question number one is - why its freezing? any other way to trasfer all my collection and keep its organiation as it is without loosing the iTunes list and be able to use it after transfer?
I have music files in both media folder and on another drive, not copied to media folder. I know I can highlight and delete individual and multiple files in iTunes. Time consuming.What i'd really like to do is tell iTunes I want it to only see the files in my media folder.I want undo what I did when I told it to bring these other files into the library.
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
I had deleted my files from iTunes media folder, but as luckily I had the same files located in other place I just copied them to the iTunes Media but iTunes rejects to play them (in my iTunes Library). I'm only able to play them if I go through the procedure as followings: Play - "iTunes unable to open this file because the original file not found. Do you want to find it?" (or smith like that) - Find - Open and then it plays, but I have to perform these actions with every file separately and I have quite a lot of them. Oh, and after that first popping-up window the next one appears "Would you like iTunes to find other missing files from the same location as [the file's name]?" But when I click on "Find" it says "iTunes were unable to find other missing files". Why? How do I accomplish the same task but with all my albums at once without necessity to add them one by one? Does there some way exists to tie the tracks from my albums with original files without importing them to my iTunes library?Â
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.
When I'm importing some file with optimized media, it is create in many different folders referent another jobs that haven't any relation with job about media that I'm importing. So, I need to manage it to save in the right location according to media subject.
I've been doing some reorganizing lately, including updating my file structure from My Music to My Media, with Music, Books etc within it. I did this using the built-in iTunes option (File->Library->Organize Library->Reorganize files in the folder "iTunes Media"). I have both "Keep iTunes Media folder organized" and "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library" switched on.Â
When I performed this reorganization I noticed that the media folder was still called "My Music", not "My Media", though the directories within for Music, Books etc were all there and organized correctly. So I renamed the folder to "My Media" and updated this name in the Advanced Preferences by changing "iTunes Media folder location."Â
When I now add new items to the library I find they are being added to the directory My Media, and not to the media-specific subdirectory (Music or Books or whatever) even though the entries within iTunes itself appear in the appropriate media subsection.Â
My collection of iTunes music and movies has outgrown my internal hardrive. So I uncheck Copy Files to iTunes Media Folder when adding to library. What does not make sense to me however is the check box above. "keep itunes media folder organized". This really confuses me because if I am not moving the files into the media libary why would it want to rearrange the files? So does that mean for example that on my external hardrive its going to move the original source files?
I bought my iMac a year and a half ago, but I have no idea how to deal with anything when something goes wrong (because it's so rare that something goes wrong!). Here's what happened:
I woke up, went to my computer, and noticed that a folder was missing off my Desktop. It was full of movie files and it was gone. Thinking a friend had maybe accidentally deleted it, I checked the Trash, not there. I looked through Finder, nowhere to be found. I tried searching specific file names via Spotlight, no luck. I have Apple Care and I called them and the representative took me through all the steps I went through myself to no avail. She also did a disk repair and a permissions repair, no luck.
The weird thing is that if the files were really gone, I would think I would have gotten a lot of disk space back, but I didn't. I'm still where I was the last time I checked, a few days ago.
So now that I've exhausted my own (very limited) knowledge AND Apple's, I'm coming to you. The woman from Apple said sometimes things like this happen when the hard drive is old (only got the computer in April 2008) but I would think that if the files were just spontaneously deleted, I should get a few gigs back on my drive.
I have shared out a folder on my IMAC called "TV Shows" with several folders underneath this. I did this under System Preferences > Sharing > File Sharing. I am trying to access this from my Windows 7 Media PC. Everyone just has read access because its just to watch TV Episodes. I have also enabled SMB Sharing for Windows. On my Windows 7 PC it connects however doesn't ask for a Username or Password? I thought the whole point of SMB was so that it would ask you for those details? For some reason when I connect I can go into some folders but not others? Is there any reason why I can only access some folders under "TV Shows" and not all the folders?
