Hi,
I'm hoping someone might be able to help me with this / point me in the direction of a reliable guide (...there seem to be 100s of possibilities on the net).
I'd like to organise all my iTunes files in one place. I originally started on my current laptop with everything on C drive. This got full, so I moved iTunes to D. However, while most music is on the D drive, not all of it is, and there seem to be files within files (e.g. in D I have My Music > iTunes and then most of my music, but also folders called iTunes Music and Music that seem to have a lot of music in them. I have no idea how these came to exist. I also have an Amazon folder that appears on both C and D drives! Some album tracks on iTunes seem to be missing as well, even though I know they were imported. I would like to have everything in one place, but am worried that I may end up wrecking everything ... to complicate matters, I have an iPhone on which I keep most of my music - I would like to keep Apps and backups safely with the music if possible. I've found the Apps but don't know where the backups are stored.
I feel the need to "tidy up" my computer - it is getting on a bit now and I am worried that I could lose settings and some files if it fails in the near future. I back up regularly, but would like to be able to keep all music (and iPhone settings) in one place if possible.
One final point is that I also have a netbook where I would like to keep a second copy of all my music (in iTunes if possible). I cannot use the "Easy Transfer", as it only has a C drive and couldn't "find" the music ...
I have a 500GB external drive to copy to and this is looking the best option at the moment! I hope this is reasonably easy to follow ... I am confusing myself at the moment!
Thanks in advance.
Firstly, make sure you don't have the iTunes option "Let itunes manage my files" or whatever it is - that renames and moves files by their tags, so files without tags get renamed and put in Unknown Artist folder etc. It's a nightmare.
What I did was start the iTunes library afresh: In iTunes, select everything and delete. Obviously move or copy them all to your 500gb drive first, in case you're worried about actually deleting the files.
I then created my own new folder structure (under e:\Music) (used genres, which is working ok), then re-added everything to the iTunes library.
Hope that helps!
Seconding Dez here - pull all your music to a single place, set up a folder structure as you prefer, then delete them all from iTunes and re-import. And make sure "Let iTunes manage my files" is unchecked!
If you want to backup to an external HDD or separate machine all you need to do is copy your single Music folder over - nice and simple.
I moved all my music from a PC to a mac in batches using [url= http://mediarover.com/ ]mediarover[/url] which is a free application for moving and consolidating itunes libraries. Might be worth a look.
[i]SamB [/i] - that's my wife's name 😉
Thanks,guys! That's exactly what I needed to hear. I've been trawling through Apple support, but nowhere does it seem to give a single, simple answer - your strategy will definitely help and it's good to hear from people who have already done this without losing everything 🙂
I'm in the process of backing everything up now and will try the new library idea later (I have over 3000 songs so don't want to mess this up).
Any ideas where the iPhone backups might be? This is just in case my computer dies ... or would connecting my iPhone to a brand new computer re-log all my settings?
Cheers!