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A long, complicated iTunes mp3 backup question. I apologize in advance.

Hotsauce84Hotsauce84 8,450 Posts
edited January 2011 in Strut Central
Okay, I have a feeling I'm gonna explain this in a way that's confusing, so please bear with me and forgive me for my lack of technical expertise and vocabulary.

My internal hard drive on my MacBook Pro (I'll refer to it as HD-A) is full. I literally have 253 MB on it. I have a portable external hard drive (HD-B) that I use for all my music files and Serato gigs. It's plugged in every time I'm using iTunes and every time I add new music to iTunes. Basically, if my laptop's on, portable HD-B is plugged in. It's got plenty of space on it. I also back up regularly via Time Machine to a different external hard drive (HD-C), but I really don't think that'll play into this particular dilemma. (That said, I've backed up enough that I'm confident nothing will be lost for good.)

Okay, so iTunes reads most of my files off the portable HD-B. I'm set up so that if I download a song, it's saved to my desktop. When I drag it into iTunes, it creates two files: one in an HD-A music folder and one in an HD-B music folder. Now here's my problem: I want to completely delete the music files on the internal HD-A (approximately 213 GB) but I'm scared to death that I'll have to spend hours or weeks trying to correct and redirect any "files not found" issues.

Now, I've tested a few and did run into some issues where the same music file was both on HD-A and HD-B, but iTunes wasn't consistent.

For example:

1. Played "Lovesick" via iTunes.
2. Searched "Lovesick" in Finder and found duplicate files in HD-A and portable HD-B.
3. Deleted the file in HD-A.
4. Tried to play "Lovesick" in iTunes and got "file not found."
5. Dragged the "Lovesick" file in portable HD-B back into iTunes and it played.
6. Searched "Lovesick" in Finder again and found only one file in portable HD-B (which is what I ultimately wanted, to clear space in HD-A and leave one remaining file for iTunes to read).

Now I tried this with other songs and when I deleted the file in HD-A there was no issue at all because iTunes was already reading from portable HD-B.

In theory, what I'm thinking *might* work is that I delete all the folders in HD-A and drag the music folder from portable HD-B back into iTunes. This will ensure that iTunes is reading every song from HD-B, no? It won't duplicate files back into HD-A, will it?

Sorry if I'm over-complicating something simple. This stuff confuses and scares me.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

  Comments

  • minneapminneap 541 Posts
    I've had the same setup as you between iTunes, HD-A and HD-B and have solved a similar problem. I'll try to make sense.

    Whenever HD-A was full I would delete all music files off of HD-A and clean out the iTunes program. Doing this showed no songs in iTunes. If you do this make sure that you don't click the "Move files to trash" option when deleting to avoid possibly deleting MP3s that iTunes reads from HD-B. Then, once your iTunes is cleaned out and the files on HD-A are removed, simply drag and drop the entirety of HD-B into iTunes and you're all set. That way iTunes will only recognize the paths for the files on HD-B.

    This really only works if you're 20000% sure you've been diligent in backing up HD-A to HD-B. Realizing five years after the fact that you're missing the third disc from "A Love Supreme" Deluxe Edition doesn't sound like fun.

    Hope this helps.
  • minneapminneap 541 Posts
    Also, after re-reading your post, the files might duplicate back to HD-A if you have your iTunes setup to create and monitor a special iTunes folder for MP3s that are imported into iTunes. I usually choose not to do this to avoid redundancy but if you have that option open then they will duplicate back.

    And I'm pretty sure if you drag HD-B into iTunes without clearing out the program first you'll end up with a bunch of dead duplicates (from HD-A) that you'll have to go back and delete manually after the fact.

    I feel like I'm in that Drunk History videos except for techno babble and Soul Strut.
  • empanadamnempanadamn 1,462 Posts
    why don't you just have your files download onto HD-B, instead of your desktop (HD-A) and organize your files manually?
  • hungovermulattohungovermulatto 168 Posts
    it sounds like you need to check your itunes preferences. do you have the "copy files" box selected under "preferences/advanced"? if so, deselect; that eats up monster space.
  • djdazedjdaze 3,099 Posts
    empanadamn said:
    why don't you just have your files download onto HD-B, instead of your desktop (HD-A) and organize your files manually?

    cause he's lazy
  • OkemOkem 4,617 Posts
    Herm needs to start a collective thread called "How to Mac???"

    In which he swaps advice on how to use his MacBook, with, advice on how to mack wid da laddies (or gentlemen).
  • Hotsauce84Hotsauce84 8,450 Posts
    I think you're on to something, Okem!

    Thanks for your advice, everybody! I'm gonna reread and try your suggestions when I get home tonight.
  • willie_fugalwillie_fugal 1,862 Posts
    Herm,
    my suggestion would be to change your default iTunes music folder in preferences to whatever folder on the external HD-B is holding all of your music.

    when that's done you can use the "Consolidate Library" option to copy any files on HD-A to HD-B without losing anything in iTunes.

    nice, easy, simple and clean. iTunes swaggin.

    read this for the play-by-play instructions: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449
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