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iTunes Music Transfer Question

CosmoCosmo 9,768 Posts
edited April 2008 in Strut Central
So I (finally) ran out of room on my big hard drive where I store all my MP3s. I have all my MP3s on an external and I have the iTunes preferences to use DRIVE A:MUSIC as the library for iTunes. So last night I copied all the files to the new drive (took about 10 hours) and then set the preferences in iTunes to DRIVE B: MUSIC as the new library.How do I make it so that all the music that I have in my iTunes reads the stuff that's on DRIVE B? I've added a new song and it shows up in iTunes but is in the DRIVE B. When I've clicked on a song that's already in iTunes it adds it to DRIVE B but as a duplicate.Am I explaining myself correctly? Know what I mean? Any advice? I just want to make this as fast and painless as possible - and I figured just a click here and there should do the trick. I guess not...

  Comments

  • JimsterJimster Cruffiton.etsy.com 6,946 Posts
    I think you have to wipe the existing library and then add drive B in as an import.

    Or, use media monkey which bypasses all that ish
  • CosmoCosmo 9,768 Posts
    Can you expand on that a little?
  • DB_CooperDB_Cooper Manhatin' 7,823 Posts
    I think you have to wipe the existing library and then add drive B in as an import.

    Yeah, that's all I can think of. It'll take forever, though.
  • DeegreezDeegreez 804 Posts
    If you are talking about having Microwave read the stuff from drive B only unfortunately they will be read as separate files because they are duplicates according to the way you introduced them thru the external the computer won't recognize the dupes. You will have to manually delete the excess files.
  • DB_CooperDB_Cooper Manhatin' 7,823 Posts
    Can you expand on that a little?

    Highlight and delete your entire library. Reimport from Drive B with a drag and drop or File>Import. It'll take a long ass time. Make sure your preferences aren't set to copy the files into your iTunes folder or you'll end up with dupes of everything on your hard drive.
  • CosmoCosmo 9,768 Posts
    Can you expand on that a little?

    Highlight and delete your entire library. Reimport from Drive B with a drag and drop or File>Import. It'll take a long ass time. Make sure your preferences aren't set to copy the files into your iTunes folder or you'll end up with dupes of everything on your hard drive.

    Okay that's what I thought you meant. I'll give that a try...
  • JimsterJimster Cruffiton.etsy.com 6,946 Posts
    Yep - what they said. It's just one of the things that hack me off with itunes. It's slick, but it makes freeing up files and drives a chore sometimes. I suppose if you are Mac then it's more bearable?

    Always been down for the PC - Gimme DOS or Gimme Death.
  • mannybolonemannybolone Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
    Cosmo,

    I take it back...you may have to start over but it may depend on what you're trying to do.

    If you want to duplicate your entire iTunes library from one drive to another, playlists and all, then yeah, I think you'd need to start over. The reason being - iTunes can't relearn the location of your sound files *after the fact* unless you just want it to "Consolidate Library" using your new drive as the source.

    That will reimport the songs without having to copy them BUT you'll lose your playlists in the process. iTunes will simply treat those songs on Drive B as new songs that it's never seen before.

    What you probably should do is go to your original iTunes library (this assumes you still have your songs stored on Drive A): FILE --> EXPORT LIBRARY. If I'm not mistaken, that will create a simple text file that contains all the meta-information on your iTunes library.

    Then you would create a NEW iTunes library, with the music folder set to Drive B. I recommend a program called Libra but there are other, very simple ways to do this. Once you start up iTunes again, you'll have a blank library. Then go to FILE --> IMPORT and import that text file. iTunes will then, basically, recreate your old iTunes file, and copy all the songs it needs from the original source drive (A) to your new target drive (B).


    Of course, if you've already deleted the songs from drive A or deleted the original iTunes library...all the above is moot. At this point, you'd have to reimport all the songs back into iTunes (using the "Consolidate" option will work) but you'll have to recreate all your playlists from scratch.
  • CosmoCosmo 9,768 Posts
    "Would I like iTunes to move and rename the files in my new iTunes Music folder to match the 'Keep iTunes Music folder organized' preference?"
  • CosmoCosmo 9,768 Posts
    Cosmo,

    You don't need to delete your library and start over. Gimme a sec.

    SHITE! Already done did it, Oliver.
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