Syncing Music Folder on External HD After Downloading More Music?

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Level 1

12 points

Syncing Music Folder on External HD After Downloading More Music?

Hi guys, haven't updated my external iTunes media folder in a long time and i completely forgot how i used to do it. Not sure if i would just drag the media folder on my iMac HD and into the external? The method i used to use would just copy the new files it recognized which was awesome and it didnt take that long.

Can anyone help? Im going to be getting a new mac next year and just want to make sure my externals hd has all my updated music files from the computer.

I just tried dragging the music folder from the computer and into the externals "iTunes media" which is where i already have a "Music" folder and i received a message that reads...

"an older folder named "music" already exists in this location. do you want to merge or replace it with the newer one you're copying? Merge will combine the two folders, preserving all the newer items such as "the crystals" and 4,719 other items."

I feel like this might be the right option but i know for sure this wasnt the method i used to use. I am also not sure if this will create duplicates or not, i really don't understand the message too well.

iMac 27″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Nov 17, 2024 5:58 AM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

274,516 points

Nov 20, 2024 1:51 PM in response to gconley

gconley wrote:

"an older folder named "music" already exists in this location. do you want to merge or replace it with the newer one you're copying? Merge will combine the two folders, preserving all the newer items such as "the crystals" and 4,719 other items."

Is this external folder supposed to be a clone of your library, or an ongoing archive to which you add new or updated copies of tracks that are in your library and that may have been moved or renamed. Merge might preserve more files, but if you imported the library from the external drive at a later point you might gain many duplicates. On the other hand the drive might contain tracks that you belated realise have been removed from the library on your computer. If you replace the folder you lose any chance to restore those files at a later date. For a long time Macs didn't support merging folders, so you probably used to agree to replace. If in doubt, and you have space, copy to a new location/drive.

See Managing your Mac media libraries - Apple Community for background on managing media that used to be in iTunes. After making a backup you might want to tidy things up a little.

tt2

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Answer 2

gconley Author

Level 1

12 points

Nov 20, 2024 5:21 PM in response to turingtest2

So my external is only to keep a backup of all my music. Its been like this for years and every time i would download more music into iTunes or Music, i would make sure to update the external. I just cant remember how the **** I used to do it.

I might of actually highlighted all the album folders from the internal Macintosh HD, where they are being played from, and drag it to the external iTunes Media Folder. Im pretty sure when I used to do this, it would only transfer the newest songs that I had recently downloaded. I am just not 100 percent if this was my method.

I might just try that and see what happens.

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Answer 3

gconley Author

Level 1

12 points

Nov 19, 2024 2:34 PM in response to gconley

anybody?

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