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iTunes Music library vs. music folder(s)
Authored by: sjk on Sep 29, '05 08:55:14PM

Partly in response to Kimhill's post, here's a way to keep a subset of the iTunes library on your laptop drive:

• Set the "iTunes Music folder location" preference to a folder on a volume of your internal drive, like the default ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music folder.

Then:

• Check the "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library" preference when you want to add content to the library that'll be saved in the iTunes Music folder. iTMS purchases are automatically saved there regardless of the preference setting.

• Uncheck the "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library" preference when you want to add content to the library from folders on different volumes.

Or:

• Leave "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library" unchecked, store content for iTunes in manually managed folders, and add those folders to the iTunes library.

In other words, the iTunes library might access different music folders on different volumes and can be influenced by the "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library" preference. I normally leave that pref unchecked and temporarily toggle it on when I specifically want content added to an iTunes-managed music folder (wherever it may be).

All of that may be obvious to this audience, but when people talk about the iTunes library it's not always clear if they mean the actual library and/or one or more music folders it's accessing. That differentiation can be important.

Multiple iTunes libraries aren't nearly as important for me as ways to manage different music folders for a single library directly from iTunes. And I think that's what some (not all!) people really mean when they talk about wanting multiple iTunes libraries.

It could take another lengthy post to address some "yeah, I know all that, but ..." reactions to this post but I'll just keep it simple by admitting that iTunes still begs for more flexibility in its library/folder management. :-)



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iTunes Music library vs. music folder(s)
Authored by: zzmcclos on Sep 30, '05 09:24:20AM

I skimmed the above comments, and now here's my humble (ahem) solution for "getting" music from one iTunes library to another; pseudo-code for general solution follows. If and when someone automates these steps, please provide the script for all to enjoy. Thanks...

1. Create a playlist with the music to copy/move in the source iTunes library, say toGet;

2. Right click on the toGet playlist, and "Export Song List..." to an .xml file, toGet.xml;

3. Copy toGet.xml to the target machine, and now work from there i.e. I'm now sitting at the machine where I'm copying/moving the files to;

4. Network mount the drive where the source library resides - this will cause the source iTunes library to be visible in: /Volumes/mntPoint/myUID/Music. My local iTunes library (the target) is /Users/myUID/Music;

5. Modify toGet.xml with one global search and replace as follows:

Globally seach for

localhost/Users

and replace it with

localhost/Volumes/mntPoint/Users

6. From the current/target iTunes library, File --> Import... the modified playlist, toGet.xml

After some network activity, all the music will have been copied to the target iTunes library!

7. (optional) To make this a move, goto the other iTunes library, and delete the songs.

Wah lah!

Enjoy. (-:



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iTunes Music library vs. music folder(s)
Authored by: sjk on Oct 01, '05 09:26:28PM

I wonder if it'll ever be possible to do that kind of iTunes library/content management without manually modifying XML files or use external scripts.

Conspiracy says Apple's being conservative with iTunes features now to get more people to have reasons to buy the more feature-rich Pro version they've been secretly developing. :-)



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iTunes Music library vs. music folder(s)
Authored by: zzmcclos on Oct 03, '05 04:35:09AM

I think Apple makes this kind of iTunes library management obscur to preservse the perception that Apple doesn't promote illegal music dissemination. Allowing the movement of copyrighted material freely between arbitrary libraries walks a fine line...



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iTunes Music library vs. music folder(s)
Authored by: frickster on Oct 02, '05 02:33:37PM

This seems a bit much. I have three hard drives for music: one external, two internal. In my /user/<me/iTunes/iTunes Music folder I have two simlinks, one for the external FW drive and one for the secondary internal drive.

All of my music sits on either the firewire or secondary drives. New music imported goes to the primary drive, and then I manually sort it because I'm ridiculously picky about how my music is organized.

All you have to do is add the songs to iTunes from the location in which they're likely going to reside, and the files should be located just fine.

Or am I missing the point??

---
-frick



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iTunes Music library vs. music folder(s)
Authored by: sjk on Oct 04, '05 07:43:36PM
I don't understand why you're manually sorting music folders after you've imported it. Why not just unset the "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library" preference before importing your preorganized music folders? Do you leave the "Keep iTunes Music folder organized" pref unset?

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iTunes Music library vs. music folder(s)
Authored by: loren_ryter on Oct 01, '05 09:21:30AM

if iTunes then tries to play a track on an external volume when it's not connected you'll wind up with a dead track. However I do think that iTunes has been fixed so that next time you mount that drive, iTunes will recognize it properly. I'm not sure, however, whether iTunes will skip that "dead track" in a normal playlist shuffle unless you try to play it manually. If it doesn't that could be a limitation of this method.

Personally, I keep two separate iTunes libraries -- one for laptop and one for external + laptop. and switch as needed. Doug's iTunes Library Manager does a fine job of this -- but I find it just as easy to do manually.



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iTunes Music library vs. music folder(s)
Authored by: sjk on Oct 01, '05 08:55:06PM

Thanks for the info about dead tracks. I finally got around to ridding my main iTunes library of the few dozen remaining ones. I considered using Doug's "Bring Out Yer Dead" script but that would have modified Date Added info and I wanted to preserve it so I just reassociated the tracks directly from iTunes. I'll be surprised if any go dead again since all the files/folders for that iTunes library are now on permanently mounted internal volumes, with backups on external volumes and iTMS purchases redundantly burned to DVD. A few years of chaotically managed iTunes content are finally behind me.



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iTunes Music library vs. music folder(s)
Authored by: zzmcclos on Oct 03, '05 11:19:29AM

Actually, when "File -> Import..." is used on an XML file (as specified above), iTunes copies the XML and the audio content (AIFF, WAV, ...) into the library from the source specified in the XML. When the source volume is unmounted, it doesn't matter - the content is now IN the target iTunes library. Hence, no dead track when the volume is unmounted.

I am, of course, assuming that "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library" has been specified in iTune's advanced preferences. That is why the song may be deleted from the source library - as in (optional) step 7.

Bill



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