Macworld: Manage your iTunes library ...

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31 Replies Last post: Aug 7, 2008 12:08 PM by csleh 1 2 3 Previous Next

Macworld

6,528 posts since
Nov 30, 2007

Jun 4, 2008 7:10 AM

Manage your iTunes library

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ttcrane

20 posts since
Sep 7, 2005

1. Jun 4, 2008 9:53 AM

in response to: Macworld

Re: Manage your iTunes library

Very useful info here, but I was hoping you would touch on a problem we're having.

We're a large family with a central Mac we all use, each with a separate account. I have put the iTunes music folder in /Users/Shared so we all can have access.

Problem is, if one of us buys songs from the iTunes Store, it doesn't show up in all of the Libraries (because Libraries are always stored locally). This is fine most of the time because, to be honest, I don't always want the music my 13 y.o. buys. But I would like to know about the new music so I don't go out an re-buy the same song (this has happened more than once).

Any solutions? Any way to notify all users of new purchases? Yes, we could put a sticky on the front of the computer announcing the fact we have just bought a song, but I'm looking for something a little more "high-tech"

bastion

1,202 posts since
Oct 14, 2004

2. Jun 4, 2008 9:53 AM

in response to: Macworld

Re: Manage your iTunes library

"To move all current iTunes media files to another drive, first copy your iTunes Music folder to a location of your choice. Then set the iTunes Music folder location to that new folder (as described previously). iTunes will take a while to update your library, depending on its size."

This is not a reliable technique at all. iTunes on Mac OS uses alias records to track music files, and aliases don't remain valid when the referenced file moves to a new volume. The best means to move your iTunes library is to use iTunes' preferences to set the music library to the new desired location and then use the consolidate command. I suspect the reason the author saw it appearing to work lies in the use of the word "copy" in the tip; if you copy the files (rather than move them) iTunes will still find and use the ones on the original disk. The new library location will only be used for subsequently-added content.

bastion

1,202 posts since
Oct 14, 2004

3. Jun 4, 2008 9:57 AM

in response to: ttcrane

Re: Manage your iTunes library

ttcrane wrote:
Very useful info here, but I was hoping you would touch on a problem we're having.

We're a large family with a central Mac we all use, each with a separate account. I have put the iTunes music folder in /Users/Shared so we all can have access.

Problem is, if one of us buys songs from the iTunes Store, it doesn't show up in all of the Libraries (because Libraries are always stored locally). This is fine most of the time because, to be honest, I don't always want the music my 13 y.o. buys. But I would like to know about the new music so I don't go out an re-buy the same song (this has happened more than once).

Any solutions? Any way to notify all users of new purchases? Yes, we could put a sticky on the front of the computer announcing the fact we have just bought a song, but I'm looking for something a little more "high-tech"

I wrote a program to deal with precisely that scenario in my own house. It compares the contents of the music folder with the active user's music library file, reports discrepancies and offers the ability to play the tracks (so you can decide if you want them) and import the songs into iTunes. Write to me at uce@splook.com and I'll send you a copy.

kirkmc

127 posts since
Mar 29, 2004

4. Jun 4, 2008 10:29 AM

in response to: bastion

Re: Manage your iTunes library

If you read the paragraph after the one you quoted, you'll see that I said in some cases you'll need to use the Consolidate Library command.

Kirk

davekriss93

16 posts since
Mar 5, 2007

5. Jun 4, 2008 10:29 AM

in response to: Macworld

Re: Manage your iTunes library

Seriously? They designed the backup feature to only backup to optical media?! I easily have over a hundred gigs of stuff between music & video! Is there any workaround to this besides standard HD backups?

kirkmc

127 posts since
Mar 29, 2004

6. Jun 4, 2008 10:30 AM

in response to: davekriss93

Re: Manage your iTunes library

Well, there's Time Machine, and any of the dozens of backup programs available for Mac.

Um, seriously, you have more than 100 GB of stuff and you haven't backed it up yet...?

Kirk

Bigphaty

2 posts since
Jun 4, 2008

7. Jun 4, 2008 10:38 AM

in response to: Macworld

Re: Manage your iTunes library

Great article. I'm stunned that Apple hasn't addressed people using multiple computers. Your iPhone can synchronize with your iTunes library, and you can buy songs on the iPhone or via iTunes. Why can't my Macbook Pro sync with my iMac at home the same way? I should be able to open iTunes on my iMac and select which playlists and photos etc. get sync'd to my laptop and have it sync them right there. And if I buy songs or add photos to the laptop, those should sync back to the iMac.

This is such a no-brainer. Why don't they do it? Frankly, managing two libraries of music and photos is becoming a nightmare for me.

Schneb

1,390 posts since
Dec 10, 2002

8. Jun 4, 2008 10:53 AM

in response to: Macworld

Re: Manage your iTunes library

I wish iTunes was able to have a "library" pulldown menu. Basically, choosing between customized preference files. I have several types of media, but that does not mean I want to see all the folders at the same time. A library pulldown menu will allow me to see music, movies, comedy, audiobooks, podcasts, etc.

I used to use RooSwitch for this purpose, but it started having issues and was not very reliable.

anil_robo

8 posts since
May 21, 2008

9. Jun 4, 2008 11:59 AM

in response to: Macworld

Re: Manage your iTunes library

I'm using some of the techniques described in the article for almost one year now, and have managed to keep my humongous iTunes library intact over 4 wipeouts. I am able to restore the library each time, with one little problem. The song ratings I had given earlier vanish, as does the playcount. Any way to solve this? Preferably a simple way a 10-year old can understand?

bastion

1,202 posts since
Oct 14, 2004

10. Jun 4, 2008 12:05 PM

in response to: kirkmc

Re: Manage your iTunes library

kirkmc wrote:
If you read the paragraph after the one you quoted, you'll see that I said in some cases you'll need to use the Consolidate Library command.

I read that paragraph. What I'm saying is that the consolidate command should be the first resort. The mechanism that you suggested will never be sufficient if you're actually moving your content to a different volume until and unless you use the consolidate command, at which point the time the user spent on the manual copy was a wasted effort, and they'll likely end up with duplicate files in the new location, because iTunes renames the files it's moving so as not to overwrite the copied ones that it doesn't know about.

Specify a new location.
Consolidate.

Those two steps in that order comprise the easiest and most reliable way to move your iTunes library. Anything else is at best gratuitous.

bastion

1,202 posts since
Oct 14, 2004

11. Jun 4, 2008 12:16 PM

in response to: anil_robo

Re: Manage your iTunes library

anil_robo wrote:
I'm using some of the techniques described in the article for almost one year now, and have managed to keep my humongous iTunes library intact over 4 wipeouts. I am able to restore the library each time, with one little problem. The song ratings I had given earlier vanish, as does the playcount. Any way to solve this? Preferably a simple way a 10-year old can understand?

Which technique(s) specifically are you using to achieve this? That information should be carried through correctly as long as iTunes never actually loses track of the specific files. Let iTunes do the moving itself and it should "just work." If you end up moving the files manually, the primary iTunes library will no longer be aware of them unless you put them back in the same location when you're done (aliases will retain and try to resolve paths in addition to volume-ID/file-ID pairs). If you move the files manually and ultimately leave them on a different path your best bet is to move the iTunes Library file aside, edit the entries in iTunes Music Library.xml to reference the new location (if you're lucky a single global search/replace will do it) and then tell iTunes to import that XML file.

davekriss93

16 posts since
Mar 5, 2007

12. Jun 4, 2008 12:41 PM

in response to: kirkmc

Re: Manage your iTunes library

@kirkmc.

The thing is I'm not running Leopard; I run Tiger. My current backup scheme requires individual backups of each of the 4 HD's in my G4 MDD (because I have music in various places on those 4 HD's because of lack of proper care initially, I admit), which is fine because I should be doing that, too, but I'd like to keep an iTunes-specific backup separate from those HD backups...one that I can run whenever I choose that will keep an running iTunes backup. What I'm looking for but never find (unless I'm simply not understanding) is one method to do the following:

Backup all the iTunes-related media I have onto a single backup hard drive, one that will preserve playlists, ratings, artwork, tags...the whole shabang...so that if I ever needed to, I could restore it all without losing anything.

I can't currently consolidate to one drive because I don't have enough room on any one internal drive, and I don't want to have the pain of plugging in an external drive any time I want to deal with iTunes. This issue will likely be resolved when I finally buy a Mac Pro and a giant boot drive (which I will then, of course, keep a single backup of), but until then, I'd like to have a viable solution for now.

bastion

1,202 posts since
Oct 14, 2004

13. Jun 4, 2008 12:49 PM

in response to: davekriss93

Re: Manage your iTunes library

davekriss93 wrote:
What I'm looking for but never find (unless I'm simply not understanding) is one method to do the following:

Backup all the iTunes-related media I have onto a single backup hard drive, one that will preserve playlists, ratings, artwork, tags...the whole shabang...so that if I ever needed to, I could restore it all without losing anything.

I can't currently consolidate to one drive because I don't have enough room on any one internal drive, and I don't want to have the pain of plugging in an external drive any time I want to deal with iTunes. This issue will likely be resolved when I finally buy a Mac Pro and a giant boot drive (which I will then, of course, keep a single backup of), but until then, I'd like to have a viable solution for now.

But you do eventually want to have a drive dedicated to being an iTunes backup, right? One possible solution is to use that drive as sort of an intermediate step or staging area. Get the backup drive and start off by telling iTunes that's where you want your music stored and then using the consolidate command. Then rearrange the data on your non-backup devices so you do have a device that has enough space for your library, move it back there by using the consolidate command again and then use Finder to manually copy the library back to the backup device. You'll also want to take along the "iTunes Music Library.xml" which contains an almost-complete subset of the information iTunes tracks about your files in a form that can be manipulated if necessary and then reloaded.

If you don't want to end up with a consolidated library, or don't have the time/means to do the necessary reorg, you can use AppleScript to interrogate iTunes for the list of tracks and copy them. Doing that well will not be trivial, but it's certainly doable.

Plan_K

30 posts since
May 27, 2006

14. Jun 4, 2008 12:58 PM

in response to: Bigphaty

Re: Manage your iTunes library

Bigphaty wrote:
Great article. I'm stunned that Apple hasn't addressed people using multiple computers. Your iPhone can synchronize with your iTunes library, and you can buy songs on the iPhone or via iTunes. Why can't my Macbook Pro sync with my iMac at home the same way? I should be able to open iTunes on my iMac and select which playlists and photos etc. get sync'd to my laptop and have it sync them right there. And if I buy songs or add photos to the laptop, those should sync back to the iMac.

Amen, Bigphaty!

The laptop should act as a sort of Giant iPod, so you can take your selected synched music with you, just as you do with an iPod. Apple can even count that as one of the authorized computers for iTunes Store-purchased music. This could even happen via a wireless sync and maybe be a perk of the .Mac service.

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Jun 4, 2008 7:10 AM

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