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itunes has music folder inside music folder.I can't fix music itunes libraries.

I get SO annoyed everytime I get a new Mac, trying to transfer my music (and photos) libraries!

I like to keep my music files on an external drive, and this used to work fine. Trying to transfer/get a different Mac to read from them is SO FRUSTRATING!

I've done everything I sed to know how to do...delete any media on actual (newer) Mac, point library to external drive, re-'load' ALL my msic files by dragging them onto itunes, try to fine-tune within itunes when it can't find this (and when it keeps relabeling Audiobooks), consolidate library, etc...and then again, deleting this whole thing and trying again by doing this trhought 'add' in Finder, etc etc

I've spend at least 4 hours each day, for the past week, doing this, and STILL there are files missing, mistagged, 'not found' etc etc.

I also noticed a 'music' folder INSIDE the itunes music folder, that (almost) recursively had all the media again inside it. (see screenshot, where I tried to line up some of the same files).

I re-deleted, re-did (of course re-read posts here and elsewhere) and still it's happening and now this recursive 'music' folder seems to have mostly the Audiobooks (which are also in the 'audiobook' folder under the 'A's), mixed in with music media.

I have deleted, and re-tagged most of the Audiobooks manually, again and again, many times, and still it keeps doing this.

super annoying.

And naturally I've given up, years ago, on itunes saving my tags and ratings...I realized with the last 2 computer transfer that this is never going to happen

I'm loath to pay for external cloud drive(s), because i doubt their ability to find the odd treasures of international music/books that I own on CD and transfered to mp3 years ago. I know from other people they discover things missing from their drives.

I HATE COMPUTERS at these times. It would have been easier and less time-consuming to keep old Albums or CDs.


And I haven't dealt with the photos library horror yet....



Posted on Feb 6, 2021 9:56 AM

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Posted on Feb 6, 2021 10:41 AM

I assume you're running iTunes on Mojave or something older. The fact that your media folder is called iTunes Music indicates it was originally created with iTunes 8 or earlier.


See Make a split library portable - Apple Community for some background on the layout of the iTunes library. Ideally you would have a folder called iTunes on your external drive, containing the active iTunes Library.itl file and a folder called iTunes Media. iTunes Media is then subdivided by media types with all artist folders going inside Music.


See Organizing audiobook chapters - Apple Community for advice on audiobooks,


tt2

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 6, 2021 10:41 AM in response to lixy

I assume you're running iTunes on Mojave or something older. The fact that your media folder is called iTunes Music indicates it was originally created with iTunes 8 or earlier.


See Make a split library portable - Apple Community for some background on the layout of the iTunes library. Ideally you would have a folder called iTunes on your external drive, containing the active iTunes Library.itl file and a folder called iTunes Media. iTunes Media is then subdivided by media types with all artist folders going inside Music.


See Organizing audiobook chapters - Apple Community for advice on audiobooks,


tt2

itunes has music folder inside music folder.I can't fix music itunes libraries.

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