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Site & Board Matters => About This Site => Topic started by: michael on February 11, 2006, 06:41:09 pm

Title: Itunes Problem
Post by: michael on February 11, 2006, 06:41:09 pm

Since this site is populated by a number of smart computer types, (and since I make the rules, I can break them), I'm asking for some assitance with a computer problem.

Mac 17". OS X 10.4. Itunes.

I had a disc space problem a few days ago, and to clear up some room I moved my 12GB Itunes library to an outboard Firewire drive.

Figuring that I'd keep the files there permanently I pointed Itunes to the Itunes directory on the external drive. No joy.

Itunes refuses to recognise its library now that it's no longer on my boot disk.

Any suggestions? What am I missing?

Michael

Title: Itunes Problem
Post by: John Camp on February 11, 2006, 06:57:29 pm

I'm sure I know less about computers than you do, but I have three music libraries scatttered over three Macs and have tried to use an Ipod to consolidate them (to make all the libaries contain all the music) and found that I couldn't do it. When I asked around the net, I was told that Itunes is specifically written to defeat such schemes because of a fear of widespread copying. However, there is equally widespread free down-loadable software which will allow you to both upload and download from Ipods, which in effect allows you do what I was trying to do, in a ham-handed way. I think you may have stumbled upon something similar, and you may have to download some specific software to defeat it. I suppose the idea would be to keep people from pointing an Itunes at somebody else's FireLite and uploading their library...

Or maybe you're just doing something wrong.  

JC

Title: Itunes Problem
Post by: Stephen Best on February 11, 2006, 07:02:02 pm

The index has hard-coded locations of all the files. You need to leave the existing files where they are, change the Library location in Preferences then do a Consolidate. After this you can delete the earlier set.

Title: Itunes Problem
Post by: michael on February 11, 2006, 07:15:05 pm

Sorry, you're missing me.

Is what you're saying that I first have to copy the Library back to my internal HD, then change the location, then do a Consolidate?

Michael

Title: Itunes Problem
Post by: Stephen Best on February 11, 2006, 07:27:45 pm

Quote

Sorry, you're missing me.

Is what you're saying that I first have to copy the Library back to my internal HD, then change the location, then do a Consolidate?

Michael
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=57970\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I haven't done it for a while, but I'm not aware of any other way ... other than a global edit of the location of each file in the index. The Library entry in Preferences tells iTunes where to store new files you rip, not where the Library is. You can have files in multiple locations as the full path is always stored in the index. Does this make sense?

Title: Itunes Problem
Post by: DarkPenguin on February 11, 2006, 07:40:15 pm

Does itunes have an option to "import" files?  If so delete all the old entries (but not the files) and then import them from the new location.

At least that is how our product works.

Title: Itunes Problem
Post by: 61Dynamic on February 11, 2006, 07:52:25 pm

Quote

Does itunes have an option to "import" files?  If so delete all the old entries (but not the files) and then import them from the new location.

At least that is how our product works.
[{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a] (http://index.php?act=findpost&pid=57973\")

The problem with that is that you will loose all of your ratings and play counts as import only imports songs and not the library data.

OS X Hints has [a href=\"http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050912094822530&query=move+itunes+library]a script[/url] that might do the trick. Another site to search for answers is OS X FAQ (http://www.osxfaq.com/).

I think Stephen's solution should work too. Just make sure you have a backup whichever rout you take.

Title: Itunes Problem
Post by: Peter McLennan on February 11, 2006, 08:02:04 pm

Incredible.  I've just this week discovered iTunes (and broadband   ).  

Just so I understand this, too:   iTunes won't build a library anywhere but the OS boot drive and moving the library to another drive takes a third-party workaround?

Is a  problem in Windows, too?

Peter

Title: Itunes Problem
Post by: Stephen Best on February 11, 2006, 08:09:12 pm

Quote

Incredible.  I've just this week discovered iTunes (and broadband   ). 

Just so I understand this, too:   iTunes won't build a library anywhere but the OS boot drive and moving the library to another drive takes a third-party workaround?

Is a  problem in Windows, too?

Peter
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=57975\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

iTunes will store the files in the Library location you specify in Preferences ... on any drive. If you change the Library specification it will then store new files there. Earlier files will stay where they are. If you then want them all in one place, do a Consolidate. It will look at the then current Library specification and copy them all there (as required).

Title: Itunes Problem
Post by: michael on February 11, 2006, 10:34:42 pm

Well, I'm stumped.

I've copied my Itunes library back to my primary HD, into the Music directory. I've gone to Preferences and selected Reset. I've restarted Itunes, I've rebooted.

Itunes just won't see my library, there or anywhere else.

Any more suggestions?

Thanks,

Michael

Title: Itunes Problem
Post by: 61Dynamic on February 11, 2006, 11:16:34 pm

Based off my experience with this in switching computers, it sounds like you loaded up iTunes after you had moved the files to the external and before bringing them back to your main HD. iTunes would have noticed the change and altered the library data files.

Do you have a backup of your "iTunes Library" data file and "iTunes Music Library.xml" file? If so, replace the current copies found in the iTunes folder with the backups. That should get you back to square one so you can try the previously mentioned transfer methods.

If you don't have backups of those files I'd say you are SOL. The library will have to be re-built by re-importing all of your music.

Title: Itunes Problem
Post by: michael on February 12, 2006, 08:57:23 am

Daniel,

Yes, I did have a backup, and thanks, it's now fixed.

So what one has to do is simply use Preferences to point to a new location for the Library, and then use the Consolidate command.

The thing that was tripping me up was that I was then deleting the Itunes directory from my main HD. Wrong. You can only delete the music files themselves, to recover disk space, not the other Itunes files.

Thanks for the help.

Michael

Title: Itunes Problem
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on February 12, 2006, 10:41:28 am

See how much easier photography is than other things you can use a computer for (like music).    

Eric

Title: Itunes Problem
Post by: michael on February 12, 2006, 12:15:18 pm

Ah for the good old days.

Plus-X in a Rollei TLR 2.8f, with the Beatles playing on the 8 track in my Corvair.

Michael

Title: Itunes Problem
Post by: Eric Myrvaagnes on February 12, 2006, 06:28:46 pm

Quote

Ah for the good old days.

Plus-X in a Rollei TLR 2.8f, with the Beatles playing on the 8 track in my Corvair.

Michael
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=58005\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Now you're talkin'!

Eric

Title: Itunes Problem
Post by: Kenneth Sky on February 13, 2006, 08:01:23 am

Now Canadians can get the "Olympic monkey" off their back. Missteps only occur in 3's. First there was Jeremy Wotherspoon, then Perdita Felicien and now Michael. Whew