iTunes :mad: - Need help fixing my wifes library

WeegyAVLover

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Hi All,

I am an IT guy so anything IT related in my house falls to me to fix.
Not wanting to offend anyone here (so apologies if I do) but I hate iTunes with a passion and whenever my wife asks me to look at an issue my heart sinks. I have put of this issue for about 4 months and ignore it any longer I cannot.

So I have a synology NAS that I have a share setup on there which is mapped to the laptop as the I drive (I for iTunes... Get it... Genius!:)).

A-n-y-w-a-y.... My wife went to use it (yes 4 months ago) to update playlists on the 7th circle of hell that iTunes and all the tunes in the library were greyed out, this is when the laptop was handed over to me and I was asked to fix it.

With the little knowledge I have of iTunes I went to check the library location and that had changed to a local drive location - weird!
I (need to take screen shots of this but do not have them to hand at the moment) then found a setting that showed local iTunes library and Shared(NAS) library.
Turns out some of the tunes on the NAS share (about 10) out of 100s or 1000s of my wifes music was greyed out.
The local iTunes library had more but would say 50% were greyed out so it looks as they something has went totally down the toilet in terms of configuration.

I am hoping someone on here has more iTunes knowledge than I do and can provide some helpful hints or possible solutions on how to resolve this problem.
I am heading out to the shops (need to buy more gas so I can stick my head in the oven later) and when I come back I will be working on this for the rest of the day or however long it takes (so probably all weekend!)

Please AVF..... You're my only hope!
 
Hi

Also IT in a previous life. iTunes doesn’t deserve the hate it’s generally very reliable. Much, much more than most.
Hopefully the most simple answer here is to point iTunes back to the library file on your nas. If it’s not still there someone’s been fiddling but all is not lost.
 
Assuming the actual music files are still there, delete and rebuild the library. If you decide to remove ITunes and reinstall, it has to be done in a certain order.
 
Thank for the replies.
I think iTunes is very cumbersome. I understand why it is/has been with the stipulations put on it by music industry but still not always easy. I am also using windows not a Mac which probably also adds a layer of bureaucracy between Apple & MS.

i was wondering If I could consolidate each library into the same new location and hope all tracks would be there.

or if there was a way to copy the tunes from my wifes iPod to a folder and point the library to that location?
 
Ok I've not used on Windows for a long time but there is probably a way forward. Multiple libraries does rather complicate things. There should be a tick box somewhere to consolidate the library and also to place all files with the library file. If all else fails (and playlists won't like this probably but google may have a solution for that) put ALL of the music in one place, preferably not on a NAS and build a new library.
 
Right ok.
So I have been looking at this now for a bit.
I have 2 libraries listed now:
1602257136632.png


"This Computer" and "Home_Server".
the computer has about 5GB of songs.
Home_Server has about 70GB worth of songs.
Looked at wifes iPod (I know very 00s) and that shows 35GB of music.

Now I am working on the basis that the iPod is correct as it has always been able to hold all my wifes music to date.

When I look at the NAS library of song in Itunes almost every song is listed 2 or 3 times. so there is duplication here for some reason.

I search the I drive (NAS) via Windows Explorer for a random song - Back and Forth by Aaliyah - which is listed 3 times in NAS library and I get this:
1602257407028.png

it only finds 2 copies - 1 in itunes\..\..\blah & other in an ipod_control folder.
Not sure if either of these can be deleted or not. However there is no way of removing this music within iTunes as those options are greyed out.

What I am trying to figure out is - can I move/copy this music either via iTunes (preferably so it keeps track of it) or via Explorer to a local drive on a new laptop (this current laptop is broken - screen is falling off).

My head is melting :D
 
Ah ok. What you have is a nas with some flavour of iTunes ‘server’ running on it and a local library. That’s all ok. The iPod control folder is most likely a slight red herring as somehow the iPod is syncing with the nas not locally. As for moving I’d ask google as my help would be for Mac not windows. On Mac it’s possible and easy just time consuming. I think Windows is very similar but can’t swear. Essentially you’d find the folder that hopefully has your library (.itl on a Mac I think) file and media files (in an iTunes media folder usually) and copy them by whatever means to a folder on the new machine. Then install iTunes on the new machine and just open the library file and all should be good.

Lol I bet it is. Splitting libraries is rarely a good idea. I keep one for music which is backed up rather than have it on a nas. I use another machine for a MUCH bigger tv and film library which uses home sharing like you have here.
 
I think having a NAS share setup is a decent idea but not always the best idea. Hence why I want to revert to a local copy.

you are right my synology does have an itunes server running on it. I thought I had to or it made it easier, but maybe I was wrong.

Do you know if the ipod control folder is needed or not? Either I am not googling very well or info on this is not great. I am thinking it maybe an old folder from a previous migration many years ago and is no longer required.
 
I’ve found nas iTunes servers to not be very useful but that’s just for me. If I had a more powerful nas it might be better.

I think the way forward. Haha. Is to make one local library that has everything you want in it. Then back that up. Then wipe everything else. Then the iPod. Then sync the iPod with the new library. I think.
 
Right - I have finally after 8hrs of copying stuff about from various locations got the music onto new laptop.
turns out the iPod_control folder is very important, not sure why but I am not going to question it.

Couple of tunes are missing but hopefully I can locate them on old laptop before clubbing it to death and taking it to tip.

Thanks for sticking with me and helping me out.
 
iTunes is indeed an abomination. Use Mediamonkey which works perfectly well with Apple products
 

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