LairWare Forums

I have an hard drive hooked up to my Mac with my old iTunes library on it

The MAC iTunes library has some new stuff on it

The EXTERNAL iTunes library has some duplicates and some other new stuff on it

Can I clean up the External drive without bringing the material over onto the Mac before combining it with the stuff on the Mac drive?

If so, How?

Thanks in advance

Michael

If you mean that you want to independently clean up the iTunes library on the external drive before combining them, no problem. Hold down the alt/option key when launching iTunes and it will ask you to choose the location of the library you want to use. After choosing the iTunes folder on your external drive, wait for everything to become available and then quit iTunes. When you launch Song Sergeant, it will relaunch iTunes and work entirely with the external library.

Use this method again to re-choose your normal library when you're done.

The most important part is quitting out of iTunes after choosing the new library, so that it will store its new settings. Otherwise, 3rd party software like Song Sergeant may get confused about where your currently chosen library is.

Also, when you are ready to merge the two libraries, you may find this to be helpful:

• http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1449

I have replicated the iTunes file structure on the External HD

When I open iTunes in the manner described above I get the following error message:

"An iTunes library file could not be found in the folder 'iTunes Media'. Please choose another folder"

Any clues as to why?

Tx

M

The iTunes folder hierarchy should look like this (irrelevant items omitted):

iTunes
____iTunes Library
____iTunes Library.xml
____iTunes Media (or iTunes Music)
________Music
____________An Artist Name
____________Another Artist Name

It sounds like perhaps you have chosen the iTunes Media folder within the iTunes folder, instead of the iTunes folder itself?