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[mwheelerk]

I have purchased a new, larger Thunderbolt HDD for my library. Once the files are located on the new HDD do I need to do anything other than set the path in MC  to the new HDD? 

[Arindelle]

You have a couple of choices ... you could repoint the database, or move the files (and repoint at the same time) using the Rename, Move & Copy Tool .. I'm pretty sure this works in the same way for Windows, as I don't have a Mac installation currently.

Here is what you need to know about this. http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Rename,_Move,_and_Copy_Files Very good and recent article, please read it first

Of course you can reimport from scratch, but you would/could loose playback stats or more metadata stored only in the Library, that is not written to the files. Ther are other ways too, but I recommend the RM&C method

[blgentry]

If you're moving more than a few gigs of music files, my personal preference would be to do it like this:

1.  Move the entire music structure as is, to your new drive.  I would not change the structure at ALL during this.  As an example, let's say your current music files are in:

[your user directory]/Music/FLAC/[Albums and Artists go here]

...and let's say your new drive is at /Volumes/BigThunderBolt

I would move them such that the new path is:

/Volumes/BigThunderBolt/Music/FLAC/[Albums and Artists go here]

You could drag and drop to copy these files over.  Or you could use rsync if you're familiar.  I would use rsync, but it's use is WAY beyond this discussion.

2.  Now that your files are moved, you need to update MC to the new location.  We do this with the Rename, Move, and Copy tool, set to Update Mode.  This mode just changes the place that MC points to for each file.  It doesn't try to move any files.  Just updates their database pointers.  Because we already moved all the files in step 1.
   A.  Select some files.  I would do a few as a test and later do larger batches, or all at once.
   B.  Open RM&C.  Set it to Update mode.
   C.  Uncheck Directories, and Filename.  Check Find and Replace.
   D.  In the Find and Replace boxes, type in something like this:
        Find:  /Users/Your User Name/
        Replace:  /Volumes/BigThunderBolt/
   E.  Look in the Preview Pane to the right and check to see what the tool is going to do.  It should show you the new paths to the new files.  Check these to make sure the new paths look correct.  If not, adjust your find and replace rule until the new directory structure matches what you actually have on disk.
   F.  Press OK and let it do the updates.
   G.  Check your work.  Play a few files that you just moved, to make sure the update worked correctly.
   H.  Repeat from step A with a larger group of files if you were successful.

You could do the whole thing including the actual file moves using RM&C, but I'm not super comfortable with that myself because it doesn't show status during the file moves or copies.  That's just my preference.  Read up on the link above to learn about the RM&C tool.  It's pretty great.  Do whatever makes you comfortable.  This is just how I would do it.

Good luck.

Brian.

[mwheelerk]

I could use some help.  I got all the files transferred to the new HDD and everything seemed fine until I changed the Auto Import path in MC for Mac 20 to point to the new drive.  Now in my library it lists doubles of every song.

Any suggestions or help on how to correct this and eliminate the doubles?

[blgentry]

You probably moved the files externally, then didn't update the database as I detailed in step 2 of my procedure.  I'm just guessing, but that sounds like it.

Hover over two of the duplicated files and note the file name and path.  Is one of them on the old drive and one on the new drive?  If so there are a couple of ways to fix this.  I recommended a procedure earlier that would preserve all of your metadata about your songs.  Star ratings, play count, skip count, custom fields, that kind of thing.  Is keeping any of that important to you?

If it is NOT important, you can simply tell MC to remove the old files from it's database.  Go to a files view and do a search for the first part of the drive name that the old files are on.  Something like:  users/yournamegoeshere

That should bring up all of your OLD files.  Assuming it does, highlight them all, then Edit > Delete.  In the box that comes up, choose to remove ONLY from the database, not from disk.  That's the default.

Oh, please be careful doing this!  Make a database backup first, in case you make a mistake:  File > Library > Back Up Library...

I'll stop here for now to see if this helps, or if we need to go another direction.

Good luck.

Brian.

[mwheelerk]

You probably moved the files externally, then didn't update the database as I detailed in step 2 of my procedure.  I'm just guessing, but that sounds like it.

Hover over two of the duplicated files and note the file name and path.  Is one of them on the old drive and one on the new drive?  If so there are a couple of ways to fix this.  I recommended a procedure earlier that would preserve all of your metadata about your songs.  Star ratings, play count, skip count, custom fields, that kind of thing.  Is keeping any of that important to you?

If it is NOT important, you can simply tell MC to remove the old files from it's database.  Go to a files view and do a search for the first part of the drive name that the old files are on.  Something like:  users/yournamegoeshere

That should bring up all of your OLD files.  Assuming it does, highlight them all, then Edit > Delete.  In the box that comes up, choose to remove ONLY from the database, not from disk.  That's the default.

Oh, please be careful doing this!  Make a database backup first, in case you make a mistake:  File > Library > Back Up Library...

I'll stop here for now to see if this helps, or if we need to go another direction.

Good luck.

Brian.

Thank you for your previous reply and this one. It's sincerely appreciated. I chose to do an iTunes move since that is what I am most familiar with. The iTunes update has seemingly worked fine. I thought just changing the path would take care of it but I am certainly wrong. I will read your recommendation with care and see if I can't dig myself out of the hole I am in.

Respectfully thank you
Mike

[blgentry]

One more thought for you:  If you really have ZERO history in MC that you want to keep, you could just clear the Library with File > Library > Clear Library...

Then set your Auto Import rule to look at your new external disk location and boom, you're done.  <shrug>

Brian.

[Arindelle]

One more thought for you:  If you really have ZERO history in MC that you want to keep, you could just clear the Library with File > Library > Clear Library...

Then set your Auto Import rule to look at your new external disk location and boom, you're done.  <shrug>

Brian.

yep +1 I'd force a manual import though. File=>Library=>Autoimport after you do this. After all is said and done it is probably simpler/faster to just nuke everything and start over

recommended strongly: don't let iTunes touch ANYthing  it will be the bane of your existence if you do  (set a separate mp3 library of needed, but no "organizing" of these folders it will mess you folder structure up and add all sort of crap