Hello everyone
First post on the site. Hoping for some help
So the majority of my music on ITunes is from an external hard drive, and downloads. Since I have started using Itunes on our new imac, about 3-4 months now, I have always had the option checked for "copy files to itunes media folder." For some reason, I remember looking back and not seeing all the copied files on the hard drive. Someone at the AppleStore showed me how to consolidate so that whatever music did not have a copy would now have one. All was well with that until today. Yesterday, I checked the option to share my library with my wife, who listened to some music yesterday, did not edit anything under her account. Today I listened to several songs, but noticed a few random ones with a ! mark next to them. ITunes was unable to find these songs. I went ahead and tried to search for them under the music folder, and to my surprise, all the artists were present and correct, however each one was missing a handful of songs. For example, Kings of Leon, tracks 1, 3, and 5 were there, but none of the others. I then played track 2, which didnt have a ! mark, and now a mp3 copy of that song appeared in the file!?! So a few ?s:
1) Why is this happening? If I already had made a consolidated copy of all my music, and since then, anything I add is supposed to have a copy made in the music folder, where are all these mp3s?
2) Am I thinking about the process right, if I download an album, add it to ITunes, and then trash the original downloaded album, I should still have an mp3 copy of the album in the music folder on hard drive?
3) How could a song, which had been played a day earlier, and not moved or deleted, come up with an ! mark the next day?
4) I have read several articles on how to make an mp3 copy of your itunes library on an external HD. However each article seems to just say, this is how to move your library to your external. If I want to completely copy it as a way to have mp3 backups, is it the same process and then just going back to options and changing the location of the music file back to the original location on the hard drive?
THANK YOU SO MUCH IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR HELP!!! I am greatly appreciative!
First post on the site. Hoping for some help
So the majority of my music on ITunes is from an external hard drive, and downloads. Since I have started using Itunes on our new imac, about 3-4 months now, I have always had the option checked for "copy files to itunes media folder." For some reason, I remember looking back and not seeing all the copied files on the hard drive. Someone at the AppleStore showed me how to consolidate so that whatever music did not have a copy would now have one. All was well with that until today. Yesterday, I checked the option to share my library with my wife, who listened to some music yesterday, did not edit anything under her account. Today I listened to several songs, but noticed a few random ones with a ! mark next to them. ITunes was unable to find these songs. I went ahead and tried to search for them under the music folder, and to my surprise, all the artists were present and correct, however each one was missing a handful of songs. For example, Kings of Leon, tracks 1, 3, and 5 were there, but none of the others. I then played track 2, which didnt have a ! mark, and now a mp3 copy of that song appeared in the file!?! So a few ?s:
1) Why is this happening? If I already had made a consolidated copy of all my music, and since then, anything I add is supposed to have a copy made in the music folder, where are all these mp3s?
2) Am I thinking about the process right, if I download an album, add it to ITunes, and then trash the original downloaded album, I should still have an mp3 copy of the album in the music folder on hard drive?
3) How could a song, which had been played a day earlier, and not moved or deleted, come up with an ! mark the next day?
4) I have read several articles on how to make an mp3 copy of your itunes library on an external HD. However each article seems to just say, this is how to move your library to your external. If I want to completely copy it as a way to have mp3 backups, is it the same process and then just going back to options and changing the location of the music file back to the original location on the hard drive?
THANK YOU SO MUCH IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR HELP!!! I am greatly appreciative!