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ITunes Question. Nerds Enter ----->

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Gorilla.Steeze
Posts: 2215 - Karma: 43
I have googled this pretty thoroughly and have had mixed results. So essentially, the scenario is that my primary external hard drive which contains the entirety of my music library is full (500 GB). I have a backup (1 TB) hard drive that contains an identical copy of all the music on my primary. I now want to make the 1 TB drive my primary. The obvious hurtles in doing this are that iTunes does not recognize the file location once the original HD is gone.

I am wondering what the easiest and most seamless way is to get iTunes to recognize the path location on my 1 TB HD. Keep in mind, I do not need to copy any files as they already exist on both HDs. I have tried just changing the location of the iTunes media folder but that does not work. I am also pretty sure that consolidating the files copies everything. I guess another option, which I have done so many times, is to re-install iTunes and start over with the 1 TB.

Thanks, NS.
Dec 26 2011 8:42PM
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stickerman
Posts: 2043 - Karma: 147
Copy the external music files to any where you desire on your computer (my music) Once everything is transferred there, just import everything into itunes. Make sure you copy the files you saved onto your comp, NOT the files that are on the external.

if that makes sense.
Dec 26 2011 8:53PM
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Gorilla.Steeze
Posts: 2215 - Karma: 43
Why would I copy them onto my computer? They already exist in two locations which are my two external hard drives. My laptop HD is around 200 GB anyways and couldn't even hold half of my library.
Dec 26 2011 9:35PM
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howlongcanausern
Posts: 4982 - Karma: 1,737
or remove all the songs from your current library and re-add the ones on your external

i'd probably just re-install. itunes sucks so hard
Dec 26 2011 10:18PM
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TheBlueMtSkier
Posts: 909 - Karma: 42
Of all the things Apple has designed, ITunes is by far the biggest piece of crap. It has given me so much shit from day one.


Can this be the hate on iTunes thread now?
Dec 26 2011 10:34PM
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Heart
Posts: 6156 - Karma: 3,462
^yes. Fuck iTunes, after I downloaded the newest version it deleted all my music and videos. I thought "no big deal, they're all linked to my account right?" WRONG, iTunes wouldn't recognize any of my previous purchases and I got some asshole response when I emailed them, so I said fuck that and now I torrent.
Dec 27 2011 12:19AM
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Gorilla.Steeze
Posts: 2215 - Karma: 43
afternoon bump. any suggestions besides starting from scratch?
Dec 27 2011 5:55PM
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icantskiiFILM
Posts: 2113 - Karma: 140
dont you just go to preferences -- Advanced -- and change the media location? no need to start over LOL thats the barbarian move
Dec 27 2011 6:21PM
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howlongcanausern
Posts: 4982 - Karma: 1,737
i believe this is just for downloaded itunes media.

OP the time it took you to make this thread/reply to it you could have fixed your library

go into songs, ctrl+a to select all, hit delete, then go to file, add folder to library, select external, walk away for 5 mins while it processes, and you're done. is there something terribly inconvenient about this process?
Dec 27 2011 6:28PM
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caucasian_chad
Posts: 4078 - Karma: 3,625
This. I changed the drive letter for my external (so it wouldn't change based on what was plugged in first) and this worked.
Dec 27 2011 6:35PM
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icantskiiFILM
Posts: 2113 - Karma: 140
thank you. it sounds dumb to have to delete music then re-import lol. i did this like 2 years ago when i acquired some external drives
Dec 27 2011 10:32PM
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howlongcanausern
Posts: 4982 - Karma: 1,737
what's dumb is paying for music

just tried this; only moves itunes music bought in the store
Dec 27 2011 10:40PM
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paige.
Posts: 1932 - Karma: 924
I've done this a couple of times and had no problems. It takes awhile for itunes to run through all the music on the hard drive the first time but everything is there.
Dec 27 2011 10:44PM
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saskskierftw
Posts: 898 - Karma: 62
How did you fill up a 500 gb hard drive?.. Lol
Dec 27 2011 10:46PM
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Gorilla.Steeze
Posts: 2215 - Karma: 43
Pretty easily. Half of my library is in "ALAC" which is Apple's Lossless codex.
Dec 28 2011 2:51AM
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caucasian_chad
Posts: 4078 - Karma: 3,625
You did it wrong then.
Dec 28 2011 3:39AM
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icantskiiFILM
Posts: 2113 - Karma: 140
which sucks anyways. your better off getting all FLAC if u want to archive everything in lossless
Dec 28 2011 11:52AM
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Gorilla.Steeze
Posts: 2215 - Karma: 43
I had everything in FLAC, APE or WAV but of course iTunes doesn't recognize any of these formats. BTW, I switched the letter of the drive to the original and it worked. The only problem is that I lost a lot of album artwork. Anyone know how to remedy this? I noticed that there is still an iTunes folder in "My Music" on my laptop which contains the .xml file for my library and an "album artwork" folder. Is this where the lost art is?
Dec 28 2011 3:18PM
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bigbromskier
Posts: 1175 - Karma: 330
[For FLAC Stuff]
Download Fluke: it makes it so flac files play in itunes, basically. This doesn't really do much for ipod and other players though, and I don't really care enough about lossless to keep it as flac, so I just use it to import .flac files into iTunes, which can then convert them to mp3 so they'll play on my phone/ipod. (I don't actively look for stuff in flac format, just use it when flac is all i can find.)
Dec 28 2011 4:22PM
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Kjell
Posts: 434 - Karma: 100
Go to:

Edit>Preferences>Advanced then click change, select the hard drive, click ok. 

Then go to:

File>Library>Organise Library and check the box for for consolidate library then click ok.

This should work.
Dec 29 2011 7:24PM
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WinterStick
Posts: 234 - Karma: 100
Try and play a song with the 1TB HD plugged in, and it will say it can't locate the original file, would you like to locate it manually? Say yes and locate the song on the hard drive. Then it will ask you if you would like to use that location to automatically find other missing songs in your library. Say yes. It will probably take an hour or more for 500 GB, but it should work.

Did I understand the problem correctly? Does this fix it?
Dec 29 2011 8:01PM
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