Consolidate Library Itunes Mac

  1. Mar 11, 2020  The guide shows how you can combine songs into one album in both iPhone and iTunes. Let’s check it out. Combine Albums in iTunes on Your Computer. If you are seeing separate albums for the same set of music tracks in iTunes on your computer, this section will show you how you can fix the issue so you only have one album for your music tracks.
  2. Apr 07, 2010  Moving iTunes from PC to Mac WITHOUT Consolidating? But I think you'd still have to do the consolidate library and/or let iTunes keep it organized for you, which might mess up your.
  3. Up to40%cash back  How to Consolidate, Find and Backup iTunes Library. It would have been appropriate to first discuss how to consolidate iTunes library, find the iTunes media folder, and backup iTunes library and media files, before discussing how to reset iTunes Library on Mac or Windows PC. However, we let the first come last for a genuine reason.
  4. Nov 28, 2010  Keep your iTunes media organized and avoid unlinked files and problems down the road. What Does Consolidate Library Mean in iTunes?: iTunes Help. Export Copy Songs Videos Apps New Mac.

Though we store more and more of our music online these days, a hard-copy backup is still the gold standard for keeping your data safe. And if you use Apple Music or iCloud Music Library, the best way to do that is still iTunes.

Library

There are a few ways to back up your iTunes library; it's important to choose one and regularly back up so that you won't have to worry about your local copy getting lost or damaged. My music — at least for me — is one of those must-backup items; I don't want to have to manually re-build or re-buy thousands of tracks.

First: Make sure your entire library has been locally downloaded

If you use iCloud Music Library or the iTunes Store, you may have some or all of your music stored in the cloud. But to truly make sure your purchased and owned content is backed up, you'll want to download a local copy to your Mac. Here's the best way to do so:

May 26, 2008  Well, if you share your iTunes folder on the Mac you want to copy the music from, drag those songs from the shared folder into the iTunes folder on the Mac you want the music, then consolidate the library. Might take a while to copy it all through the. Oct 21, 2016  I am running the latest iTunes on my G5 and added a new internal hard drive - capacity 1.5TB. Now I want to consolidate my iTunes Library to the new drive. The 219GB of music is currently on my external 250GB drive. I first set my Music Folder file to the new drive, then perform the function.

To download specific items in your iCloud Music Library right now to your Mac's drive, do the following:

  1. Launch Music (or iTunes on Mojave and earlier) on your Mac.

    Source: iMore

  2. Find the Artist, Albums, or Songs that you want to download.

  3. Click the .. button to bring up a pop-up menu.

    Source: iMore

  4. Click Download to initiate the download of these items.

    Source: iMore

And if you want to start automatically downloading everything that you add to your Apple Music library from this point forward, then it's easy peasy! Here's how:

  1. Launch Music (or iTunes on macOS Mojave and earlier) on your Mac.

    Source: iMore

  2. Click Music in the menu bar.

  3. Click Preferences (or press ⌘, on the keyboard).

    Source: iMore

    Open old iphoto library on new mac. How to access your old iPhoto library without iPhoto. Now you will see a new folder with a lot of years. Click on a year, then a month, and you will see all the pictures from your iPhoto library from that month. You can then open the photos one by one, copy them, or do what you like with each picture. How to open very old ClarisWorks. For copying iPhoto library to a new Mac: Connect your external hard drive. When it displays on Finder, drag the iPhoto Library folder or package to external hard drive. Eject the hard drive from your old Mac and connect it to this new one. Now open iPhoto on the new computer.

  4. Make sure you're in the General tab.

    How to unhide library folder on mac. Mar 12, 2020  Unhide the Library folder temporarily. If you just want to access the Library folder once or twice, you can use one of these two methods easily. Finder and the Option key. This first method of accessing the Library folder on Mac is the quickest.

    Source: iMore

  5. Click the box for Automatic Downloads to turn it on.

    Source: iMore

Once that is turned on, any music you add to your Apple Music library will be downloaded automatically to your Mac's hard drive.

How to back up iTunes via Time Machine or another backup service

If you have Apple's Time Machine backup system enabled — or any other cloud — or system-based backup — your iTunes library should automatically be covered. This way, if you ever need to restore, you can just pop back in Time Machine's History (or a past backup from CrashPlan or Carbon Copy Cloner, for example) to retrieve it.

How to manually back up your iTunes library

If you're not employing a Mac-wide backup service (really, you should get on that), or if you just want to manually back up your iTunes library separately, here's how to go about that.

Consolidate your library

To ensure that all of your iTunes files are in the same place when you make a manual backup, you should first consolidate your iTunes library.

  1. Make sure you've downloaded a local copy of your music to your Mac.

  2. Launch Music (or iTunes in macOS Mojave or earlier) on your Mac.

    Source: iMore

  3. Click File in the upper left corner of your Mac's screen.

  4. Hover your cursor over Library in the drop down menu.

    Source: iMore

  5. Select Organize Library from the secondary menu.

    Source: iMore

  6. Tick the box for Consolidate Files when the Organize Library window appears.

    Source: iMore

  7. Click OK.

    Source: iMore

This will make a copy of all files in the iTunes media folder, leaving the originals in their current location.

Copy your iTunes library to a backup source

  1. If you are using an external hard drive, connect it to your Mac using a USB cable.
  2. Click on Finder to open a Finder window.

  3. Select your Mac's Hard drive.

    Source: iMore

  4. Click on Music in the sidebar.

    Source: iMore

  5. Select the Music folder (or iTunes on macOS Mojave and earlier) and drag that folder to the external hard drive icon on your desktop or copy it to your online backup service.

    Source: iMore

  6. Click Authenticate, if prompted, to give permission to make a copy of the iTunes folder.
  7. Enter your administrator password.

  8. Click OK.

    Source: iMore

The copy process will begin. This could take a very long time, depending on how big your Music/iTunes library is. So, sit back, relax, watch a movie, or whatever you do to pass the time.

Desperate times call for desperate measures

If you are about to do something wild with your Music or iTunes library and don't have a way to back it up on an external drive or online backup service, you can make a temporary backup that you store right on your Mac. This is, by no means, a solid backup plan, but can be useful in a pinch.

Note: After making a copy, it is a good idea to move the copied folder to an easy-to-find location that is separate from any folder you plan to make changes to (like the Music folder). This copied folder should be deleted immediately after it is no longer needed because it takes up extra space on your computer's hard drive unnecessarily and could cause confusion with your most current Music or iTunes folder.

  1. Click on Finder to open a Finder window.

  2. Select your Mac's Hard drive.

    Source: iMore

  3. Click on Music in the sidebar.

    Source: iMore

  4. Right-click or control-click on the Music folder (or iTunes folder if you're still on macOS Mojave or earlier).

    Source: iMore

  5. Select Duplicate from the drop down menu.

    • The copy process will begin. This could take a very long time.

      Source: iMore

  6. Move the copied iTunes or Music folder to a new, easy-to-find location.

  7. Delete the copied iTunes or Music folder once you no longer need the temporary backup.

Any questions?

Running into issues making an iTunes backup? Pop them in the comments below.

March 2020: These are still the current steps for how to back up your music.

Consolidating Multiple Itunes Libraries

Serenity Caldwell contributed to an earlier version of this guide.

Backing up: The ultimate guide

Main

How To Merge Itunes Libraries

Power up

Anker's PowerCore Wireless 10K charger is a battery pack without the fuss

Itunes Consolidate Files Greyed Out

Anker is out with a new wireless battery pack that'll keep things ticking along no matter where you are.