How to prepare for macOS Catalina by organizing your iTunes library

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  • Reply 21 of 28
    kgarrkgarr Posts: 7member
    cmd-z said:
    kgarr said:
    cmd-z said:
    kgarr said:
    In iTunes, when you “consolidate” it puts everything, music and videos, all on the same drive. With the separate apps in Catalina, does the Music and AppleTV apps have separate storage locations?
    In the current iTunes you can “selectively consolidate” portions of your library to different locations, I keep movies and TV episodes on an external drive. With separate apps tapping into your media, I doubt they’ll care where the media resides.
    I didn't know you could do that. Is that a setting in iTunes, or did you do something like, changing the media folder location, consolidate selection, changing the media folder location again, and consolidate a different selection?
    Yes that is exactly what I do: (1) change the media folder location, (2) say "No" to the prompt about moving and renaming existing media, (3) select what you want moved to this alternate location (one or more items of any media type), (4) select File/Library/Consolidate Files (depending on your OS), and (5) let iTunes manage the file management process, which may take some time depending on the amount of media, speed of your computer, speed of destination storage, etc.  When done, change your media folder location back to what it was before (again, saying No to the prompt) and iTunes will see and play the items from their new location.  There is no impact to items that you didn't move.

    Technically the native files will be copied to the new location (not moved) so delete the native files that you consolidated from their original location.
    That's a pretty good solution.

    I finally got the beta installed in a VM. Each app does have a separate media folders location, so you wan't have to fiddle with consolidate like that anymore. I'm not sure where download podcasts are going. There is no setting in the app and I don't see the downloaded files anywhere obvious.

    Music library default: /Users/kgarr/Music/Music/Media
    AppleTV library default: /Users/kgarr/Movies/Apple TV/Media

  • Reply 22 of 28
    davgregdavgreg Posts: 1,046member
    If you subscribe to iTunes Match your entire library is backed up to Apple’s servers- to include music ripped from your CDs or other digital downloads. It costs little and extends your entire music library to the cloud.

    The only caveat is that the match files will be in the standard iTunes format, so if you have ALAC or other tracks, the matching tracks will be AAC.

    Also, as to not having a drive- you can buy a CD/DVD/BluRay external USB drive for very little. I think the Pioneer I have was like $30 at Best Buy.
    chick
  • Reply 23 of 28
    cgWerks said:
    The big question I'm asking myself, is whether I should even bother with iTunes (or it's replacement) any more. It no longer meets my basic needs, so will it on the next update?

    I guess I'm going to start experimenting with other options (like Plex) and just forego the whole Apple media-collection/organization system. But... I also don't know if Plex will do better, so time to get experimenting, I guess.
    (The big problem, at least for music, is that since Apple ditched 'family sharing' our whole music library doesn't show up to all our devices, only the tracks that are part of Apple Music. I just want to get back to our whole library, available everywhere. I'll add in streaming music with the best service, then, if we decide we need it.)

    Same with videos... same with photos. I would like a solution that kinda works.
    Family sharing is gone too? Well one more reason not to upgrade. I'm sure iTunes will still work in Mojave. If not, it will still be in Windows with Parallels. Syncing is probably my biggest complaint without iTunes. Btw, I clone my drives.
    Apple hasn't ditched Family Sharing.
  • Reply 24 of 28
    cgWerkscgWerks Posts: 2,952member
    Mike Wuerthele said:
    Family sharing is absolutely not gone.
    It's possible I have the terms wrong, but what used to be there to share out one's library to one's various devices, and allowing one to load-locally tracks, isn't there anymore (unless they snuck it back in when I wasn't looking). Apple Music/iTunes Match don't do the same thing.

    davgreg said:
    If you subscribe to iTunes Match your entire library is backed up to Apple’s servers- to include music ripped from your CDs or other digital downloads. It costs little and extends your entire music library to the cloud.
    So long as the ripped CDs or other audio tracks exist in Apple Music. If the track is your kid's trumpet solo, or an audio-book you recorded, or an MP3 of a lecture, etc. then you're out of luck.
  • Reply 25 of 28
    cgWerks said:
    Mike Wuerthele said:
    Family sharing is absolutely not gone.
    It's possible I have the terms wrong, but what used to be there to share out one's library to one's various devices, and allowing one to load-locally tracks, isn't there anymore (unless they snuck it back in when I wasn't looking). Apple Music/iTunes Match don't do the same thing.

    davgreg said:
    If you subscribe to iTunes Match your entire library is backed up to Apple’s servers- to include music ripped from your CDs or other digital downloads. It costs little and extends your entire music library to the cloud.
    So long as the ripped CDs or other audio tracks exist in Apple Music. If the track is your kid's trumpet solo, or an audio-book you recorded, or an MP3 of a lecture, etc. then you're out of luck.
    You're thinking of Library Sharing and it's still there.

    iTunes Match uploads anything for which they don't have a match.  I can confirm this since i have a lot of odd one-off CDs and tracks as well and they are all uploaded with no issues.

  • Reply 26 of 28
    cgWerkscgWerks Posts: 2,952member
    You're thinking of Library Sharing and it's still there.


    iTunes Match uploads anything for which they don't have a match.  I can confirm this since i have a lot of odd one-off CDs and tracks as well and they are all uploaded with no issues.
    Hmm, so if I ditch my Apple Music subscription, and instead get iTunes Match, I’ll be able to download (not just stream) anything from my collection to any of my devices?

    That would still suck a bit that I have to pay for what used to be free, but it would be cheaper than Apple Music (which I thought was supposed to do that, too).
  • Reply 27 of 28
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,822member
    In what was iTunes Match, after upgrading on one of my Macs to the developer Catalina (now in 2nd beta version), all the track's names are there in 'Music'  but none are 'found' and cannot play.
  • Reply 28 of 28
    cgWerkscgWerks Posts: 2,952member
    MacPro said:
    In what was iTunes Match, after upgrading on one of my Macs to the developer Catalina (now in 2nd beta version), all the track's names are there in 'Music'  but none are 'found' and cannot play.
    I guess it's alpha/beta, so maybe it will eventually work. But, I kind of doubt it will work like it used to. I've been experimenting with Plex, and will probably move to it. It works pretty well for music, though has some really odd video/photo library issues.
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