iTunes 10 Help

[firebug]

Originally Posted by troutman

The folder should be at least 60 GB. There is no folder in my Music or iTunes folders that big right now.

If you manually managed your music previously, your music files will not necessarily be in either the 'My Music' or the 'iTunes' folders.

You can also check your drive space, if it doesn't show 60 GB more free space than before, the files haven't been trashed and just need to be found.

~bug

[Rathji]

If you are having trouble finding your files with search, you could download Treesize Free, which will tell you what size different folders on your computer are, which will allow you to open the ones that are above 60GB, and go until you find your files

Ignore the pr0n folders if the old lady is around though.

[-TC-]

it worked ok for me on both the machines I installed it on (Win7, one 64 bit and one 32 bit) but this seems to be common for Apple, I had one version (8 I think) of iTunes that I had to revert back to even make it work.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by Rathji

If you are having trouble finding your files with search, you could download Treesize Free, which will tell you what size different folders on your computer are, which will allow you to open the ones that are above 60GB, and go until you find your files

Ignore the pr0n folders if the old lady is around though.

Treesize is a great tool for many things, this included. Good recommendation.

[sclitheroe]

Where did most of the music come from? I wonder if, as FB suggested, you were in manual manage mode, and have been dragging and dropping the files from, say, the default download folder for your favorite *ahem* file transfer client, and thus they are still there, but not in the default kind of locations you’ve already checked.


Also, what happens if you go File -> Add To Library -> and then point it at c:\ (the root directory of your hard drive)...this should cause iTunes to go deep diving and look at all subfolders for all media files it can handle, and add them to the library...

[troutman]

Did a search, and Treesize. I would say most of the songs are gone. There is only 10% of my songs left.

99% of my music was from CDs I purchased and ripped into iTunes.

I am pissed at Apple.

Will try to restore it with Sharepod.

Sharepod is pissing me off too, saying it can't find my iPod.

I should not have to enable disk mode as I manually manage music:

Select "Enable disk use" or "Manually manage music and videos." Either one will allow you to use iPod as a drive. If you select "Manually manage music and videos," iTunes won't automatically update iPod with the iTunes library. If you want iTunes to automatically update your iPod, select "Enable disk use" instead.

EDIT: Got Sharepod to work by opening iTunes with iPod connected, then opening Sharepod, then closing iTunes.

Ok, iPod is backed up to "Music" Folder, but it does not appear in iTunes. Sharepod was supposed to copy to computer and import to iTunes. How do I direct iTunes to music folder?

File - Add Folder to Library?

[MickMcGeough]

Originally Posted by troutman

File - Add Folder to Library?

Yup.

Not sure if iTunes has smartened up yet, but it used to make duplicates if you imported a folder that container music already loaded into iTunes. Watch for that.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by MickMcGeough

Yup.

Not sure if iTunes has smartened up yet, but it used to make duplicates if you imported a folder that container music already loaded into iTunes. Watch for that.

I just tested iTunes 10 last night on this and it showed both songs.

You can then use File --> Display duplicates and then you can manually delete every other song from the library

[troutman]

Thanks everyone. Seems to be working. iTunes is still showing duplicates, but I can fix that later. Looks like all album artwork got imported successfully.

I notice iTunes 10 treats compilations differently - the album cover is not displayed for each individual artist (a good feature).

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by MickMcGeough

Yup.

Not sure if iTunes has smartened up yet, but it used to make duplicates if you imported a folder that container music already loaded into iTunes. Watch for that.

iTunes will only copy files not move and delete. No software should ever delete user files.

IMO, let iTunes manage your music. You are tempting fate if you manually manage your music. Consolidate and use the iTunes folder structure. It's well organized and way easier to backup and restore.

If your going to spend time buying, ripping and tagging music, back it up. iTunes does it for you.

File > Organize > Back Up to Disc.

Pop in a few discs and if anything ever happens, you pop the backup disc in and iTunes restores automatically.

[troutman]

My theory so far is the iTunes 10 upgrade lost all of my albums that were not attached to a playlist.

[REDVAN]

That is super rough...

I lost my OS when my main drive fried about 6 months back. The music files were scattered all over my computer, and when I got them all into iTunes, I had about 5 thousand songs less than what I had on my iPod. Where'd they go?

So on the iPod I showed hidden folders, and got all my music off the iPod that way. Trouble was that when you go backwards, some of your songs lose their tags, so then you have a song called CTKQ or LBRK and no idea who it's by if you don't know the song. But at least you'll still have all your music.

Since that incident, I've got 2 externals that I back up on a regular basis.

[HeartsOfFire]

I upgraded to iTunes 10. Aside from the 2 hours it took to update my library, it went without a hitch.

[Burninator]

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this yet, but after you get it sorted it out you should seriously consider backing up your stuff, not just music.

You could back it up with an external hard drive and/or use an online backup. I do both. I use Carbonite. It will automatically back up your files. The good thing about it is that it is always backing up when you are not using your computer or internet. It's very hassle free. You don't have to worry about clicking the back up button or having a scheduled back up. If you download some music from iTunes it will automatically back it up to the internet as soon as you walk away from the computer. So if iTunes deletes your music, you lose your computer or the hard drive fails you will have a backup of your music and other files which you can download to your computer or a different one.

[REDVAN]

Bump.

Here's a question. I recently had to re-build my comp from the ground up, so that included getting windows 7, a new external hard drive, a new ssd for my os and programs, more ram, all that jazz. Have an "old" motherboard and processor if that matters.

I have recovered all my music and am storing it on my external drive, a 1TB WD passport. I used to have all my music on an internal secondary drive.

I notice when I click on songs now, it takes a few seconds to start playing, and occasionally stalls in the middle, or when I fast forward right to the middle of the song.

I think this has to do with the slowness of the external drives data transfer through to iTunes. Am I right? Would storing all my music on an internal drive make it faster? And if yes, can I slam a new drive into my machine, copy the exact folder structure over to the new drive, and then rename the new one with the same drive letter, making iTunes think the music has effectively never even moved at all?

Oh and a caveat- I have duplicate songs on the hard drive, and I have spent a lot of time weeding out the duplicates. That is why I don't want to just move the whole library and have iTunes auto-add it in again, because it'll just recreate all the duplicates that I've spent hours and hours sorting through... I need iTunes to think the music has never moved at all, just because I want it to load up smoothly.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by REDVAN

And if yes, can I slam a new drive into my machine, copy the exact folder structure over to the new drive, and then rename the new one with the same drive letter, making iTunes think the music has effectively never even moved at all?.

Should work. I just took a look at the XML file and I think you could just do a find and replace if you wanted to change the drive letter.

There is a line for each itunes item that specifies its location

<key>Location</key><string>file://localhost/C:/Users/Mark/Music/iTunes/iTunes%20Music/Podcasts/Calgarypuck%20Radio/Calgarypuck%20Radio_%20Regular%20season%20st.mp3</string>

if you found each instance of :

//localhost/C:/Users/Mark/Music

and replaced it with

//localhost/E:/Music

it should work, but it is not something I have ever tested. I am sure someone here will chime in either way.

Either way if you backup a copy of the library file, worst case scenario you can restore your old setup.

[3 Justin 3]

Is it safe to upgrade to iTunes 10? I have been putting it off for weeks now because of this thread!

[Barnes]

iTunes does not use the xml file. It is there for other applications to use so they can know about the folder structure.

All you should need to do is go to Preferences > Advanced and tell it the new folder location. It's been a awhile since I have done this though, you might have to move the folder to the new drive and then drag and drop the folder onto the iTunes library to force it to rebuild the database. Whenever you $*%$ around with iTunes, it's always good practice to create a copy of the .itl and xml files so you can just drop them back in place if something goes wrong.

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by 3 Justin 3

Is it safe to upgrade to iTunes 10? I have been putting it off for weeks now because of this thread!

I upgraded with no problems. I'd still recommend backing up first.