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iTunes: how to save old playlists and play counts if location of mp3 has been changed?

Hi there, Mac People!


About a 1.5 year ago I bought MacBook Air. Then I've connected HDD box to this computer. There's a Macintosh HD of My previous MacBook Pro in this HDD box. Untill now I used HDD box to listen to the mp3 on iTunes 12.8.2.3.


Today I've copied all My music files from MacBook Pro's Macintosh HD to Macintosh HD of MacBook Air. The problem #1: iTunes can't find mp3 on MacBook Air Macintosh HD because iTunes is looking for MacBook Pro Macintosh HD connected on HDD box. The problem #2: I don't want to lose My playlists and songs play counts because I used iTunes for 10 years on MacBook Pro. :-(


I'm running macOS Sierra 10.12.6.


So… What should I do? :-)


Thank You for your answers, Mac People!


Regards!


Jaunius

MacBook Air 13", macOS 10.12

Posted on Dec 18, 2019 4:14 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 18, 2019 4:39 AM

Copying the files independently in Finder doesn't let iTunes know they've been copied. If you then remove the source drive iTunes won't be able to find the files. Instead you should reconnect the drive and restart iTunes which should mean that it can see the tracks once more. Then choose a new location for your media folder. Typically this would be ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media where ~ is your user's home folder, assuming you have space on the drive, otherwise <Volume>/iTunes/iTunes Media is a good choice. Having chosen a new media folder you use File > Library > Organize Library > Consolidate Files to tell iTunes to create new copies in that location and update the database to reference the new copies instead of the old ones. Ideally your library files (iTunes Library.itl, .itdb files, and Album Artwork folder) will be in the iTunes folder that contains iTunes Media. If that isn't the case due to past choices then with iTunes closed you can copy the active library files there, then hold down option as you launch iTunes and choose the iTunes Library.itl file on the new path. Keeping your library in this shape makes it easy to move the entire iTunes folder from one location or computer to another where it can be opened with the option-start-iTunes method and all of its file references should adjust automatically.


tt2

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1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 18, 2019 4:39 AM in response to Jaunius

Copying the files independently in Finder doesn't let iTunes know they've been copied. If you then remove the source drive iTunes won't be able to find the files. Instead you should reconnect the drive and restart iTunes which should mean that it can see the tracks once more. Then choose a new location for your media folder. Typically this would be ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media where ~ is your user's home folder, assuming you have space on the drive, otherwise <Volume>/iTunes/iTunes Media is a good choice. Having chosen a new media folder you use File > Library > Organize Library > Consolidate Files to tell iTunes to create new copies in that location and update the database to reference the new copies instead of the old ones. Ideally your library files (iTunes Library.itl, .itdb files, and Album Artwork folder) will be in the iTunes folder that contains iTunes Media. If that isn't the case due to past choices then with iTunes closed you can copy the active library files there, then hold down option as you launch iTunes and choose the iTunes Library.itl file on the new path. Keeping your library in this shape makes it easy to move the entire iTunes folder from one location or computer to another where it can be opened with the option-start-iTunes method and all of its file references should adjust automatically.


tt2

iTunes: how to save old playlists and play counts if location of mp3 has been changed?

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