Home Forums Peripherals & Multimedia iTunes, iPhone, iPod, iPad, Apple TV Consolidate in iTunes

Perhaps to the extent that ‘it works’ it's okay to do, yes. I'm just saying that Consolidate wasn't exactly intended for that particular creative usage. [i.e., constantly compensating for a lack of HD space.] So referring to this as the "correct way to go" might be stretching it.

It just seems a bizarre approach, to have iTunes pushing everything 'over there' one minute... and then later (with no external at some point) pulling the rug out from underneath the table. To continue operation in this fashion, I don't think anyone (even Apple) can say for certain that nothing will ever break.

[make sure you keep multi-versioned backups of the lib files too, just in case... because that's the place where things could quickly go awry.]

Please excuse any ultra confusion I may cause with this reply, as I have had to/was forced to leave my bed much earlier than I am usually able in order to help my wife take a pet to the vets. Given that I am at a loose end sooner than normally, I decided to check out my emails and respond to yourself.
Right warnings and excuses over, here goes.
Out of interest/curiosity, have/did you ever use consolidate at all, and I assume, if you have, you consider/ed it to be a "once in a lifetime only" (perhaps I too exaggerate a little) action.
I would also confirm that I DO keep multiple copies on different sources of the "lib files", having learned the hard way that it was a good idea.
I'm adding two links which I think/hope might explain how I got sucked into the "Consolidate" thing.

http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=12618557
(I would re-iterate that MY "problem" has never been copying the files again, but simply that it appears to refer to the already existing ones, hence taking an inordinate amount of time to carry out a small task)

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to-a-new-hard-drive

As the second link is quite a long article I have copied the penultimate paragraph, and hope, as I have already said, it excuses why I continue to be in varying degrees of confusion in general and "Consolidate" in particular.

"Once you do return back home and plug the external hard drive back in, you simply need to restart iTunes and it will detect that its proper iTunes Media folder has returned, and go back to using that as its iTunes Media folder path. Any content you’ve downloaded or imported while you were away from the main library storage area can be transferred over simply by running the “Consolidate Files” option to copy those files over."

Anyway, I wlll, unfortunatelely for you , keep you advised of the"findings" I find when I am able to "confront my demons" again.
Thanks as usual. Regards. Mike

Already answered, but again: part and parcel of the whole process first requires that we turn over the keys to the kingdom to iTunes. [we have to give it full control to rename any file and restructure any path it wishes to... and for some users that would definitely destroy their desired database arrangement.] So yeah: i experimented once and saw the drastic dictatorial consequences, and decided no way José.



Yeah that iLounge article is great actually, and the final section is 100% relevant. I think my previous post says it best though... that this is a very "creative" use of the Consolidate function, and it does indeed appear to work. But i don't think it can be known how well it all works under every possible situation. There may be some combination of events (and/or errors) which could cause iTunes to rebuild the library file in such a way that it simply forgets about those "missing" files. [i.e., instead of exclamation marks as placeholders, it might just decide to prune all unresolved references along with the associated "metadata". (i've actually seen the opposite happen as well, where it doubled every single entry).]

So yeah, do things that way if you have to (or want to), but i'm not gonna bless the idea or guarantee the results.



Excellent... that's as close to a guarantee as we can get, and is the one "right" procedure we can all agree on.

Thanks again for your input.
Your consistent "dubiousness" of my (and obviously a few other users) interpretation of "Consolidate" has given me the confidence and enthusiasm to experiment to find the optimum method of moving my iTunes music around.
Do I detect a hint of scepticism and cynicism occasionally. That's not a criticism (all these isms!) by the way - my wife (and a lot of other people that know me) consider that my middle name should be Thomas (as in doubting Thomas) and on times I think that my full name should be Thomas Thomas Thomas.
I was honoured to get your "seal of approval" , albeit on what should be an obvious task (mind you "we" all know how abused/ignored it is).
Finally, thanks once again for your "tolerance" with me and, as I have already warned you, I hope to be able to inform you of a successful conclusion to my self-confessed ramblings. Regards. Mike