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I changed the setting of my iTunes Media folder, temporarily, and now wish to switch it back again. I have many, many music files stored in the following location:

/Volumes/SAMSUNG/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/{band-name}/{album}/{song-title}.m4a

When setting the preference "iTunes Media folder location", what value should I choose? Is it "/Volumes/SAMSUNG/iTunes" or "/Volumes/SAMSUNG/iTunes/iTunes Media"?

Additionally, when I set this, what else do I need to do to ensure iTunes recognises it - i.e. all my music appears. Choosing either location appears to do nothing, which is partly why this is so confusing - there's no indication if I've chosen the 'correct' folder or not.

Bobby Jack
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  • In what context are you asking "Which folder does 'iTunes Media folder' refer to"? Obviously, from a path perspective it's, $HOME/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media however without proper context there is not much else to offer. – user3439894 Mar 06 '16 at 14:51
  • @user3439894 Sorry for the terribly-worded question. I've edited it and it's now, hopefully, much clearer. – Bobby Jack Mar 06 '16 at 15:26
  • That is wordend much better! The default is $HOME/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media however you are free to set it to any location you want. Personally I always uncheck "Keep iTunes Media folder organized" and "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library" because I always manually move my music and use the File > Add to Library... command selecting the target folder that contains the music that is in a hierarchal folder structure of my choosing to bring it back into an empty iTunes Library or individual folder when adding it to the existing Library, etc. So, can't really help here. – user3439894 Mar 06 '16 at 16:07
  • Is this on a Mac or Windows? – Ashley Mar 09 '16 at 20:43
  • @Ashley This is 'Ask Different', so Mac :-) (I guess you could argue it would be relevant here even if it was Windows because it's Apple software but ... no, Mac) – Bobby Jack Mar 10 '16 at 01:27
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    I'd have a look at my answer to http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/230207/how-to-share-an-itunes-library-between-mac-windows/230208#230208 because I think you can reset this without losing your existing playlists, play counts etc. The currently-accepted answer will make you start from scratch. Your issue is essentially two-fold. 1) where iTunes thinks your actual song files are & 2) where they really are. You can change one to match the other without losing anything. – Tetsujin Mar 11 '16 at 11:17

2 Answers2

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You would have to set it too

/Volumes/SAMSUNG/iTunes/iTunes Media

And iTunes will follow through all the Albums and artist.

Sorry my mistake, thought you could still see your library. That setting only tells iTunes what folder to use to store/organize your files and it would rediscover them if they still were shown in the library.

Because of the change, iTunes has likely lost track of where your files are. The best way to re-add them is to simply drag and drop all the files into iTunes.

Do you have it set so iTunes organizes your music? If you do only then will this setting really matter for music. Otherwise it just uses the location it was imported from.

If you want to check if it works, try playing a song and see it if can find it.

Or right click on a song and select 'Open Folder Location' (Something along those lines, it is 'Open in Finder' on Mac). This should take you to the location of the song, if it doesn't then it hasn't been set properly.

While not necessary, close and open iTunes to ensure it is updates the library.

Rio
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  • I can't check this right now, but does everything you say hold true when, currently, my library is showing nothing at all (once I've disabled viewing purchases)? Because I've definitely tried that, and it didn't 'rescan' the media folder automatically. I'm wondering if I have to "Add folder to library" once I've changed the setting. – Bobby Jack Mar 08 '16 at 16:09
  • @BobbyJack Take a look now, I have updated. Simply draging the music in to iTunes will repopulate your library. That is the only way if there is nothing showing in iTunes at the moment. Setting the library path only tells iTunes where to look for the music that is in your library – Rio Mar 08 '16 at 17:07
  • Sorry, have to downvote this. It really is doing it the hard way, losing everything & starting over - which really wasn't necessary; for the sake of 5 minutes in TextWrangler it could have all been reassembled with no data loss. – Tetsujin Mar 16 '16 at 16:12
  • @Tetsujin Dragging and Dropping is the hard way? What exactly are you proposing you do with TextWrangler? The Metadata would have to be re-obtained regardless of which way is done as there was nothing in his library. You could potentially end up in more trouble using TextWrangles. – Rio Mar 16 '16 at 16:22
  • Did you have a look at my linked answer in the question comments? http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/230207/how-to-share-an-itunes-library-between-mac-windows/230208#230208 It doesn't answer the question precisely, but gives the bones of the method. If you have a folder of 'tunes' & a dissociated library xml file, you can fairly simply re-associate them. – Tetsujin Mar 16 '16 at 19:59
  • @Tetsujin What is described is the long way around to do the EXACT same thing. Editing the XML file will result in iTunes having to fetch/import all the files again anyway, similar to what happens when you drag and drop files. Weather you edit the xml file or drag and drop the files, you end up with the exact same solution lol. The OP is not losing anything because there is nothing to lose, he has nothing in his library and the only way for itunes to add things back to the library is to reimport everything. – Rio Mar 17 '16 at 13:45
  • It's not even vaguely the same thing. One preserves all history, playlists, most album artwork; the other just adds all the songs to the library & makes the user start over. – Tetsujin Mar 17 '16 at 13:47
  • @Tetsujin You are missing the point though. THERE IS NO history, playlist, album artwork. The OP's library was blank. – Rio Mar 17 '16 at 13:51
  • ...which only means he was looking in the wrong place. Anyway, I'm done on this subject. – Tetsujin Mar 17 '16 at 14:37
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It sounds like iTunes may be confused about where the iTunes Library file is. That file contains the database about the music, which has references to where the individual files live.

If you can still an iTunes Library file, say in /Volumes/SAMSUNG/iTunes, then try the following:

  1. Quit iTunes.
  2. Start iTunes whilst holding the alt (option) key.
  3. You should see "Choose iTunes Library":

Choose iTunes Library dialog

  1. Press the "Choose Library" button.
  2. Select the folder that contains iTunes Library and press Open.
  3. Hopefully iTunes will open and show your music again.
Ashley
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