Moving to Original iTunes Library from a Temp - Setup and Question

[Gerryh]

Hi there I'm wondering if someone has some advice / tips on setting the ITunes library location, and what it looks like with a new library.

 

I have my iTunes library on a NAS, with a moderately large collection (>30k songs).  I am running OSX Mojave 10.14.6 and the latest version of iTunes (not Music as that is Catalina). I was traveling and set up a temporary iTunes library when I was ripping some CD's so I didn't have to deal with constant reminders that I couldn't connect to the network drive. I now want to re-connect to the original library on the NAS.  So I have a couple of questions:

 

1.  I didn't write down the exact location of the network library 😬.  I think that it should point to the ITunes/ITunes Music (I may have changed the name when setting up to iTunes Music from iTunes Media) directory which is the level above the sub directories that have Music, Movies, Apple Music, Books etc.  My music library is in the /ITunes Music/Music directory.  Is this correct?  The corresponding .xml and .itl library files are in the directory above (at the /ITunes level).

 

2.  I did point the library to that location as above and started iTunes.  Unfortunately things didn't look right.  My Recently Added music was not there, and I quit out of the program - got a bit scared that I would screw up the library that took so long to get right.  I would hope that if iTunes is pointed at the correct location, it would pull up the library just as it was before being pointed to the temporary library.  But maybe that is not the case?  Does anyone have any experience with it?  

 

I hope this is reasonably clear and would appreciate any advice.  Thanks in advance!

 

Gerry

 

[kirkmc]

What do you mean when you say "I didn't write down the exact location of the network library?" Can't you find it on the NAS? I'm afraid I don't understand what you did. 

[Richard Dale]

On 9/4/2020 at 10:40 PM, Gerryh said:

Hi there I'm wondering if someone has some advice / tips on setting the ITunes library location, and what it looks like with a new library.

 

I have my iTunes library on a NAS, with a moderately large collection (>30k songs).  I am running OSX Mojave 10.14.6 and the latest version of iTunes (not Music as that is Catalina). I was traveling and set up a temporary iTunes library when I was ripping some CD's so I didn't have to deal with constant reminders that I couldn't connect to the network drive. I now want to re-connect to the original library on the NAS.  So I have a couple of questions:

 

1.  I didn't write down the exact location of the network library 😬.  I think that it should point to the ITunes/ITunes Music (I may have changed the name when setting up to iTunes Music from iTunes Media) directory which is the level above the sub directories that have Music, Movies, Apple Music, Books etc.  My music library is in the /ITunes Music/Music directory.  Is this correct?  The corresponding .xml and .itl library files are in the directory above (at the /ITunes level).

 

2.  I did point the library to that location as above and started iTunes.  Unfortunately things didn't look right.  My Recently Added music was not there, and I quit out of the program - got a bit scared that I would screw up the library that took so long to get right.  I would hope that if iTunes is pointed at the correct location, it would pull up the library just as it was before being pointed to the temporary library.  But maybe that is not the case?  Does anyone have any experience with it?  

 

I hope this is reasonably clear and would appreciate any advice.  Thanks in advance!

 

Gerry

 

You can reset the iTunes location back to being an external disk or NAS instead of the default place in your home directory, and no harm will come to the main collection on the NAS. I know this because I have my iTunes library on an external disk under /Volumes. If I start iTunes without the external drive, it will start using the default location in my home directory instead. For reasons which I don’t understand it does this silently without any dialog asking you where the hard drive is (what poor design!).

 

Once you have iTunes using the location on the NAS, you can use the ‘Import to Library’ menu option to import the music that was ripped to the temporary iTunes location.

[Gerryh]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

 

@kirkmc - The files are in their original location on the NAS ( I haven't moved or deleted them), I just forgot where the library was pointed to in iTunes.  I wasn't sure if the library should point to where the .xml files are (/Itunes) or the sub directory under that which includes /Apple Music and /Music - which is where all my files are.

 

@Richard Dale - Thanks.  I will try to reset to the original location.

 

If that doesn't work - do I have the correct directory in picture A? Or Picture B?  

 

 

A:

B:

 

Thanks, Gerry

 

 

 

[kirkmc]

iTunes wants the Media folder; or, in your case, the iTunes Music folder. That's what you need to choose. 

[Gerryh]

Thanks for the help.  I finally got the right folder and iTunes did read the existing .itl library file.  All the recent adds were there, and a quick check of the library showed everything was in order. Wrote down the location for next time 😉