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Question

Move library to external HD - do IOS apps move too?

Jul 4, 2012 1:23PM PDT

I found these video instructions courtesy of CNET on how to move your iTunes library to an external hard drive so as to regain room on my MacBook Pro's hard drive.

LINK

The video is a couple years old though, and makes no mention about IOS apps. The question I have is if the apps I have downloaded will move with the music, podcasts, books, and video when I follow these directions?

Thanks for any reply

grim

Mac OS 10.6.8 Snow Leopard
iTunes 10.6.1

MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4 GB Ram
and a
Western Digital MyStudio Firewire 800

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Apparently, yes. The apps do move.
Jul 4, 2012 1:43PM PDT

I'm sitting here watching the list of titles as they transfer and starting seeing the names of IOS apps start to appear.

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Well, I might have a problem.
Jul 4, 2012 4:18PM PDT

I just compared the two folders and the two are not identical...


iTunes clone 152.93 Gb 12,777 items

iTunes original 154.75 Gb 18.965 items

I'm gonna have to do a lot of research before I go throwing away the iTunes library on my computer.

Anyone know what may be going on?

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Just a guess, but,
Jul 4, 2012 10:25PM PDT

the Finder may be reading the file sizes in a different way.

How is the external formatted?

P

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AND,
Jul 4, 2012 10:26PM PDT

what size is the new drive?
what size is the original drive?

P

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Hi P, to answer your questions...
Jul 5, 2012 3:55AM PDT

The HD in the MBP is a 250 Gb formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

The Western Digital is a 500 Gb formatted as Mac OS Extended. I originally had the external formatted as Journaled but just got through wiping the drive using Tech Tool Pro 5 and assumed the drive was still journaled. I will probably use Disk Utility to go ahead and format the drive again.

.....................................

Doing a little digging through the original iTunes folder, I now see that using the process suggested by CNET on the video only copied the "iTunes Media" folder. Also, I find 12 items inside of that folder and 11 in the copied folder.

A folder called "Downloads" is in the original folder. It contains many IOS app folders named in this manner... "Kinotopic.tmp" , "LinkedIn.tmp" , and so on. The "Downloads" folder also contains one other folder called "Podcasts" and its' contents has a partial podcast I downloaded yesterday. I'm assuming all these folders in "Downloads" contain partial apps and files which did not download fully, the first time around.

.....................................

I got sidetracked there.

Anyway... another issue I ran into last night (why do I wait until 1:00 am to do these things?) is that my iTunes will not update. It's running 10.6.1 and says that an update is available BUT when software update runs, it states that software is up to date.


It's good to see you P. Hope you are doing well.

grim

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All that may explain the size difference,
Jul 5, 2012 6:44AM PDT

and I would not worry too much about the iTunes update, just yet.

If it concerns you, you can always download a complete new version from the iTunes section of the Apple site. Check the version number first though.

Doing well here, have not heard from you for some considerable time.

Nice to see you are still active

P

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Two last questions, and some observations.
Jul 7, 2012 4:17AM PDT

Well, the observations come first...

I made 2 backups of iTunes on my external HD. One backup used the method called for on the CNET video, and one advocated by a blog writer who advised to just copy and paste the whole iTunes folder to the external HD.

Remembering that CNET's method basically copies just the iTunes media folder, I used an old copy of Chronosync to compare the 2 backup "iTunes Media" folders to the original.

Chronosync found zero differences between the "copy and paste" folder and the original on my MBP. However, there were over 4000 differences the syncing program detected between the original and the CNET method folder.

Some of those differences were in book folders, some in music folders,. Three "iTunes U" folders were marked for syncing. Podcasts, ringtones, movies, mobile applications... Chronosync found discrepencies it said needed to be synced in both the original to the new backup and vice versa.

exact results were this:

original to backup - syncs needed : 285
Backup to original - syncs needed: 3799
Conflicts: 0

When I compared the complete iTunes library to the "copy and paste" backup using chronosync, it did find the need to recommend 3 sync updates from the original to the backup, but these were in .xml , itl. and itdb files, so I assume these were called for just because of normal file updating that iTunes would do.

Interesting stuff, eh.... or is it just my obsessive / compulsive side showing through ? LOL

Anyway... first question: does anyone have a preferred method for moving their iTunes library to an external HD and using the external library?

Second question: once I start using the external HD, should I just throw away the whole iTunes folder, or just the iTunes media folder, or what?

Cheers and Thanks for any advice!

... And nice to see you are still here, P. Happy

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I prefer the copy and past method to move the library.
Jul 7, 2012 10:57AM PDT

It works really well if you have consolidated the library before you do it. Consolidation is the Apple preferred way to do it.

Theoretically, once the move has been made and you are happy, not withstanding OCD, that everything moved, I would then move the media folder our of the iTunes folder on the internal and run iTunes.
If all seems to be functioning correctly, move the media folder to the trash.
When you are really, really that all made the move safely, delete the trash.

I think I detect a little Oscar Charlie Delta in that procedure but better to be safe than sorry.

P

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Hmmm, I have lost some songs, but not lost them.
Jul 10, 2012 10:29AM PDT

When I choose to play some songs, I get this message from iTunes...

"The song " a song name here " could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?"

When I do a search using Spotlight, I find the song right away, sitting happily in the iTunes Media folder, just waiting to be played. This didn't happen with all the songs... just a few.

This occurred in both the original folder and the external HD back up. I have to ask how do I re-associate the titles in iTunes with the few songs it seems to have lost? Using the "Would you like to locate it?" just opens up a finder window in the Documents folder.

Documents folder? Really? One would think the program would have at least started looking for lost songs in the Music folder!

Oh, I did upgrade to 10.6.3 since the auto software upgrade system chose to work the last time I tried it.

I was wanting to clear enough space on my MBP to archive and reinstall the OS since it has run unmolested since I got it 2 years ago. Now I'm thinking about just doing a wipe and reinstall.

On top of that, the AC in my 2000 CR-V pretty much quit working and we have had 90°f degree weather for weeks now. Sheesh.

lol