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Mac Forum / Applications / Mac Applications / January 2005iTunes Question
Greetings! I now have about 2,000 mp3 tunes in my iTunes library. They are all stored in ~/myname/Music/iTunes Music/ -- is this a good idea? I mean, to have all 2,000 mp3s in one folder? One problem is this: In iTunes, if I click on certain songs, I get this dialog: "The song Oh Doo Dah could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" Then I must go to the above folder and sort through 2,000 tunes to find it. Why cannot iTunes find this song (and many, many others)? All are stored in the one single folder mentioned above. Is there a neat way to tell iTunes that any song it can't find is located in ~/myname/Music/iTunes Music/? Do I need to rename these folders? The iTunes Music folder runs about 24 GBytes. There are two other files in the iTunes folder: iTunes 4 Music Library (2.5 MBytes) and iTunes Music Library.xml (2.3 MBytes). Running OSX 10.3.7 on a 400 Mhz G-4 with 960 MB RAM and 80GB HD. Many TIA. earle * > Greetings! I now have about 2,000 mp3 tunes in my iTunes library. > They are all stored in ~/myname/Music/iTunes Music/ -- is this a > good idea? I mean, to have all 2,000 mp3s in one folder? You bet, no reason not to. > One problem is this: In iTunes, if I click on certain songs, I get > this dialog: > "The song Oh Doo Dah could not be used because the original file > could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" Then I must go > to the above folder and sort through 2,000 tunes to find it. Did you manually move (or delete) that song using something other than iTunes? It knows where it put it, and it seems to have changed. > Why cannot iTunes find this song (and many, many others)? All are > stored in the one single folder mentioned above. Are you sure you haven't moved it? > Is there a neat way to tell iTunes that any song it can't find is > located in ~/myname/Music/iTunes Music/? If it's telling you it can't find it, then it probably isn't. > Do I need to rename these folders? That'd just make thinsg worse, I think. There's a "consolidate library" which will go and straighten all of this out for you, I think. Dave Hinz > Greetings! I now have about 2,000 mp3 tunes in my iTunes library. > They are all stored in ~/myname/Music/iTunes Music/ -- is this a good > idea? I mean, to have all 2,000 mp3s in one folder? I have 4196 songs 14 days and 20 Gigs of music. They are all in the same folder. iTunes won't just forget it has a song -- something needs to happen like a track is moved renamed/tagged. > One problem is this: In iTunes, if I click on certain songs, I get > this dialog: > > "The song Oh Doo Dah could not be used because the original file could > not be found. Would you like to locate it?" Then I must go to the > above folder and sort through 2,000 tunes to find it. ITunes organizes your music by artist>then album, so it's really not hard to find files. > Why cannot iTunes find this song (and many, many others)? All are > stored in the one single folder mentioned above. [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > Do I need to rename these folders? Don't don't this. > The iTunes Music folder runs about 24 GBytes. There are two other > files in the iTunes folder: iTunes 4 Music Library (2.5 MBytes) and > iTunes Music Library.xml (2.3 MBytes). I believe this is your prefs and playlist. Once you import your tracks don't touch 'em > > "The song Oh Doo Dah could not be used because the original file could > > not be found. Would you like to locate it?" Then I must go to the > > above folder and sort through 2,000 tunes to find it. > > ITunes organizes your music by artist>then album, only if you tell it too. which is sounds like the OP didn't. there's nothing wrong with either method, IMO > Why cannot iTunes find this song (and many, many others)? All are > stored in the one single folder mentioned above. Why can't Apple have the sense to put a third button "remove from library". Sometimes I do delete mp3s... > > Why cannot iTunes find this song (and many, many others)? All are > > stored in the one single folder mentioned above. > > Why can't Apple have the sense to put a third button "remove from > library". Sometimes I do delete mp3s... Drag the unwanted songs from the library to the trash and they're gone.  SignatureTom Stiller PGP fingerprint = 5108 DDB2 9761 EDE5 E7E3 7BDA 71ED 6496 99C0 C7CF > > > Why cannot iTunes find this song (and many, many others)? All are > > > stored in the one single folder mentioned above. [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > Drag the unwanted songs from the library to the trash and they're gone. Defeats the original point. If you throw away an mp3 file, the song remains in itunes. Should you try to 'play' it, it comes up with a dialog saying it cannot find the song - do you want to try to find it; with a yes or no option. If itunes can't find the song, why not include a third button on this dialog box that says 'remove from library'. Rather than making me hit 'no' and then having to delete the file by hand... > > > > Why cannot iTunes find this song (and many, many others)? All are > > > > stored in the one single folder mentioned above. [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > library'. Rather than making me hit 'no' and then having to delete the > file by hand... You misread what I wrote. Drag the song from the iTunes library to the trash. SignatureTom Stiller PGP fingerprint = 5108 DDB2 9761 EDE5 E7E3 7BDA 71ED 6496 99C0 C7CF > You misread what I wrote. Drag the song from the iTunes library to the > trash. And you misread what I wrote. :) I don't start up itunes whenever I want to throw a file away in the finder. It's not like I see a song in itunes I don't want, then go to the finder to move it. I'll just be in the finder cleaning house - mostly sample mp3s and such. I'm not going to invoke itunes, try to find the files, and then move them to the trash. I'm just going to delete them from the finder and be done with it. > > You misread what I wrote. Drag the song from the iTunes library to the > > trash. [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > find the files, and then move them to the trash. I'm just going to > delete them from the finder and be done with it. The only thing I saw from you was regarding a "third button" to . "remove from library". Since OP was referring to iTunes, it never occurred to me that you would want such a button in the Finder. SignatureTom Stiller PGP fingerprint = 5108 DDB2 9761 EDE5 E7E3 7BDA 71ED 6496 99C0 C7CF > > You misread what I wrote. Drag the song from the iTunes library to the > > trash. [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > find the files, and then move them to the trash. I'm just going to > delete them from the finder and be done with it. Don't do that. iTunes, not the Finder, is the UI for managing your music. SignatureJerry Kindall, Seattle, WA <http://www.jerrykindall.com/> Send only plain text messages under 32K to the Reply-To address. This mailbox is filtered aggressively to thwart spam and viruses. > > I don't start up itunes whenever I want to throw a file away in the > > finder. It's not like I see a song in itunes I don't want, then go to [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > Don't do that. iTunes, not the Finder, is the UI for managing your > music. But Finder and not iTunes is the UI for managing our files. > > > I don't start up itunes whenever I want to throw a file away in the > > > finder. It's not like I see a song in itunes I don't want, then go to [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > But Finder and not iTunes is the UI for managing our files. Just forget they're files. The Finder is an awful tool for managing files in any case, as it requires you to remember what they're named and where you put them. It should be a last resort. SignatureJerry Kindall, Seattle, WA <http://www.jerrykindall.com/> Send only plain text messages under 32K to the Reply-To address. This mailbox is filtered aggressively to thwart spam and viruses. > Why can't Apple have the sense to put a third button "remove from > library". Sometimes I do delete mp3s... Are you referring to deleting it from the library while you're looking at a playlist? If so, Option-Delete does that. SignatureMike Rosenberg <http://www.macconsult.com> Macintosh consulting services for NE Florida <http://bogart-tribute.net> Tribute to Humphrey Bogart Toyota Prius fans: Check out alt.autos.toyota.prius > Are you referring to deleting it from the library while you're looking > at a playlist? If so, Option-Delete does that. Cool, I didn't know that. > Greetings! I now have about 2,000 mp3 tunes in my iTunes library. > They are all stored in ~/myname/Music/iTunes Music/ -- is this a good > idea? I mean, to have all 2,000 mp3s in one folder? No problem. I prefer to have iTunes organize the music folder, but this works too. > One problem is this: In iTunes, if I click on certain songs, I get > this dialog: > > "The song Oh Doo Dah could not be used because the original file could > not be found. Would you like to locate it?" Then I must go to the > above folder and sort through 2,000 tunes to find it. Sounds like you moved the file to a different disk. When you add a file to iTunes (I usually do it by dragging the file to the iTunes window), iTunes records the location. If you move the file to another place ON THE SAME DISK VOLUME, it will be able to track the file. If you move the file to another disk, iTunes will lose track of it EVEN IF YOU DRAG IT BACK TO THE ORIGINAL LOCATION AFTERWARDS. My guess is that this is what happened. > Why cannot iTunes find this song (and many, many others)? All are > stored in the one single folder mentioned above. The reason is a bit technical. iTunes (like any well-written Mac app) does not use path/file names to remember a file's location. Instead, it asks the system for a unique volume/file ID and uses that. This ID doesn't change when the file is moved around on a single disk, but it does change when you move it to a different disk. Once that ID is trashed, iTunes has to use the path/file name to open the file, forcing it to start searching. > Is there a neat way to tell iTunes that any song it can't find is > located in ~/myname/Music/iTunes Music/? I don't think so. > Do I need to rename these folders? No. You shouldn't touch anything under the iTunes Music folder. If you do, you confuse iTunes and create problems like these. If you want to move your library to a different location, you should do it this way: - Change the library location in your iTunes preferences window - Choose "consolidate library" from the menubar iTunes will then copy everything (or everything it can access) to the new location. Once it's done, you can delete the files left behind at the old location. Moving the library using any other mechanism may result in lost files and broken links. Once this happens, you may have to re-import everything to recover, which will trash your playlists. > The iTunes Music folder runs about 24 GBytes. There are two other > files in the iTunes folder: iTunes 4 Music Library (2.5 MBytes) and > iTunes Music Library.xml (2.3 MBytes). These comprise the iTunes database where your library and playlist info are stored. If you delete them, iTunes will forget all of your songs. -- David > Sounds like you moved the file to a different disk. > [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > IF YOU DRAG IT BACK TO THE ORIGINAL LOCATION AFTERWARDS. > My guess is that this is what happened. This all makes sense, and brings up a similar question. I just copied my iTunes folder to an NFS-mounted filesystem, shared from a Unix (Irix) system. Ownership & group & permissions were preserved. I told iTunes that it's library was now on /oxy/iTunes/iTunes Library instead of /user/me/Library/iTunes/iTunes Library (or whatever the paths are, I'm not in front of it right now). It doesn't see any songs. However...if I 'open' or double-click on the mp3s in the new location, iTunes treats it like a brand new song - analyzes song volume and all that, then adds it to the display, then starts playing it no problem. I'd really really like to be able to move my music library to that NFS mounted partition, but I'm not seeing why it's doing this. Do you have any suggestions as to what I'm doing wrong? I tried changing the location to where the songs are now, doing a "consolidate library", and it returns immediately (after asking if I want to do it), with no action and no visible messages. Obviously I'm missing something, and maybe you can clue me in? >> Is there a neat way to tell iTunes that any song it can't find is >> located in ~/myname/Music/iTunes Music/? [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > - Change the library location in your iTunes preferences window > - Choose "consolidate library" from the menubar So, I should whack my copy & do it at that level instead of from the finder, then, it sounds like. > iTunes will then copy everything (or everything it can access) to the > new location. Once it's done, you can delete the files left behind at > the old location. I'll try that. Amazing how long 30 Gig takes to move even on a 100baseT network. > Moving the library using any other mechanism may result in lost files > and broken links. Once this happens, you may have to re-import > everything to recover, which will trash your playlists. Hopefully I haven't done this. Dave (not the OP) Hinz |
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