Dont fully understand the Deleting/Removing Albums process of Tune Span
Maybe I did not read the Tune Span instructions well but does Itunes need to be OPEN while Tune Span is Spanning? If it does, you need to clearly specify that in your help session. After loosing about 5 Albums and thinking that Tune span had them set up in the other destination drive, which I saw in Finders, I deleted the Albums in Itunes and than discover that the albums were no longer in Finders. That made me upset! I than Span some more Albums while Itunes were opened and let Tune span do what it was suppose to do and I think it's working now. The only problem is I am really not sure if Albums are truly removed from Itunes and move to the other destination files. These should be something that tells us definitively that those albums and folders are completely gone from Itunes and now exist on the other destination folder.
The same question
Thanks for getting in touch, I'm sorry the documentation is not clear.
First off, yes, iTunes needs to be open during the spanning process. But, if it is not running, TuneSpan will launch it automatically when it needs it, and if you quit iTunes before TuneSpan is done with it, it will be relaunched automatically.
But, it sounds as though you may not be understanding part of how TuneSpan was designed to function. Nothing should ever need to be removed from iTunes when using TuneSpan. In fact, if you remove something from iTunes, TuneSpan will no longer be aware of it. TuneSpan is just designed to load your iTunes Library and can therefore only be aware of the media that is in your library.
When you span some media, the files are moved to a new location, but the track listings stay in iTunes, unchanged except the tracks now point to the files in their new locations.
So, TuneSpan will never remove anything from iTunes, and unless you do not want to be able to play the media in iTunes, or span it through TuneSpan, you should not manually remove your media from iTunes.
The Span Results view that opens after the span is complete is the definitive listing of whether or not the span was successful, meaning whether iTunes knows the new location of the file. But, again, that has nothing to do with the track being removed from iTunes, that is not part of how TuneSpan is designed.
Let me know if that makes sense or if you have anymore questions.
Thanks again for getting in touch, and I am sorry for this confusion with how TuneSpan functions.
Thanks for getting in touch, I'm sorry the documentation is not clear.
First off, yes, iTunes needs to be open during the spanning process. But, if it is not running, TuneSpan will launch it automatically when it needs it, and if you quit iTunes before TuneSpan is done with it, it will be relaunched automatically.
But, it sounds as though you may not be understanding part of how TuneSpan was designed to function. Nothing should ever need to be removed from iTunes when using TuneSpan. In fact, if you remove something from iTunes, TuneSpan will no longer be aware of it. TuneSpan is just designed to load your iTunes Library and can therefore only be aware of the media that is in your library.
When you span some media, the files are moved to a new location, but the track listings stay in iTunes, unchanged except the tracks now point to the files in their new locations.
So, TuneSpan will never remove anything from iTunes, and unless you do not want to be able to play the media in iTunes, or span it through TuneSpan, you should not manually remove your media from iTunes.
The Span Results view that opens after the span is complete is the definitive listing of whether or not the span was successful, meaning whether iTunes knows the new location of the file. But, again, that has nothing to do with the track being removed from iTunes, that is not part of how TuneSpan is designed.
Let me know if that makes sense or if you have anymore questions.
Thanks again for getting in touch, and I am sorry for this confusion with how TuneSpan functions.
Hi Pico, Ok; now I get it. But I was under the assumption the whole reason for tune span is to remove files from one drive to the other to FREE UP DISK SPACE. If that's not what its sole purpose than sorry I don't need tune span. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Also why does the span result view offers a delete or trash method if you are not suppose to delete anything in itune. Sorry but I don't get that concept.
Thank you for helping me understand what I was doing wrong.
Hi Pico, Ok; now I get it. But I was under the assumption the whole reason for tune span is to remove files from one drive to the other to FREE UP DISK SPACE. If that's not what its sole purpose than sorry I don't need tune span. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Also why does the span result view offers a delete or trash method if you are not suppose to delete anything in itune. Sorry but I don't get that concept.
Thank you for helping me understand what I was doing wrong.
You are correct about that assumption. TuneSpan does remove files from one drive after copying them to another to free up disk space. That is the sole purpose of TuneSpan.
I believe the confusion is the difference between the actual file in the Finder, and the track listing in iTunes. They are not the same thing.
TuneSpan moves the FILES and updates the TRACKS in iTunes to point to the new file location. But the track listing stays in iTunes just as it was before, only after the track has been spanned it points to a new file location.
You can see this change in the Get Info window in iTunes or TuneSpan. You can also navigate to your span location in the Finder to see the files there. And you can see that the files will have been removed from the original location.
After a successful span, TuneSpan trashes your original files and empty folder (unless you have changed the default settings). So after a span is compete and you are happy with the results, it is up to you to empty the trash to reclaim the disk space.
TuneSpan offers that Empty Trash button to make is convenient to empty the trash, the normal trash in the Finder, that does not affect iTunes in any way. That is the trash that you see in the dock. Again emptying the trash will remove the original files and empty folder that have been moved to the trash. The track listings stay in iTunes and those tracks now point to the copied files in the span location.
Let me know if that doesn't make sense or anything.
You are correct about that assumption. TuneSpan does remove files from one drive after copying them to another to free up disk space. That is the sole purpose of TuneSpan.
I believe the confusion is the difference between the actual file in the Finder, and the track listing in iTunes. They are not the same thing.
TuneSpan moves the FILES and updates the TRACKS in iTunes to point to the new file location. But the track listing stays in iTunes just as it was before, only after the track has been spanned it points to a new file location.
You can see this change in the Get Info window in iTunes or TuneSpan. You can also navigate to your span location in the Finder to see the files there. And you can see that the files will have been removed from the original location.
After a successful span, TuneSpan trashes your original files and empty folder (unless you have changed the default settings). So after a span is compete and you are happy with the results, it is up to you to empty the trash to reclaim the disk space.
TuneSpan offers that Empty Trash button to make is convenient to empty the trash, the normal trash in the Finder, that does not affect iTunes in any way. That is the trash that you see in the dock. Again emptying the trash will remove the original files and empty folder that have been moved to the trash. The track listings stay in iTunes and those tracks now point to the copied files in the span location.
Let me know if that doesn't make sense or anything.
Whew, I understand part of this, but it is very confusing. Pico, your last reply threw me off. You say:
After a successful span, TuneSpan trashes your original files and empty folder (unless you have changed the default settings). So after a span is compete and you are happy with the results, it is up to you to empty the trash to reclaim the disk space.
Do you mean the regular Trash that we use? on the Dock?
You say the file and track is not the same thing. Do you mean that the file path or name gets moved? But the contents stay where they were? How can they stay where they were without a file name?
Whew, I understand part of this, but it is very confusing. Pico, your last reply threw me off. You say:
After a successful span, TuneSpan trashes your original files and empty folder (unless you have changed the default settings). So after a span is compete and you are happy with the results, it is up to you to empty the trash to reclaim the disk space.
Do you mean the regular Trash that we use? on the Dock?
You say the file and track is not the same thing. Do you mean that the file path or name gets moved? But the contents stay where they were? How can they stay where they were without a file name?
Yes, I mean the normal Trash, in the Dock.
A track represents a listing in iTunes.
A file is the actual media file on your hard drive.
A track in iTunes contains lots of attributes such as play count, rating, etc that are independent of the file. If you were to go in and delete a media file in the Finder, the associated track would still exist in iTunes, but it would not be playable because the file wouldn't be found.
So, a track's file location is just another attribute like rating, etc. TuneSpan copies the file and updates the associated tracks file location to point to the new path that TuneSpan copied the file to.
Does that make sense?
Yes, I mean the normal Trash, in the Dock.
A track represents a listing in iTunes.
A file is the actual media file on your hard drive.
A track in iTunes contains lots of attributes such as play count, rating, etc that are independent of the file. If you were to go in and delete a media file in the Finder, the associated track would still exist in iTunes, but it would not be playable because the file wouldn't be found.
So, a track's file location is just another attribute like rating, etc. TuneSpan copies the file and updates the associated tracks file location to point to the new path that TuneSpan copied the file to.
Does that make sense?
Yes it does, hooray! Thanks for the explanation.
Yes it does, hooray! Thanks for the explanation.
So can you still share your itunes library? Or would it be best to span to your Time machine drive? If your external drive is not attached can you still access your itunes? Can you access the itunes files on a NAS drive ie the Time machine drive on the router?
So can you still share your itunes library? Or would it be best to span to your Time machine drive? If your external drive is not attached can you still access your itunes? Can you access the itunes files on a NAS drive ie the Time machine drive on the router?
Yes, you can still share your library.
You can span to whatever drive you choose, but if you are using a Time Capsule, it should not be treated as a normal hard drive while you are simultaneously using it for Time Machine because of how Apple chose to design it.
If your external is not attached, your library is still accessible, but tracks that are on the unattached drive will not be available to play... for you, or for people accessing your shared library.
You can span to a NAS drive, it could be a drive CONNECTED to a router, but I cannot recommend spanning to your Time Capsule's built in drive directly. You can find more information online about using a Time Capsule for Time Machine and as a regular external drive simultaneously to learn more about the complexities and why it is not straight forward. It is nothing to do with TuneSpan, just how Apple made the Time Capsule.
Yes, you can still share your library.
You can span to whatever drive you choose, but if you are using a Time Capsule, it should not be treated as a normal hard drive while you are simultaneously using it for Time Machine because of how Apple chose to design it.
If your external is not attached, your library is still accessible, but tracks that are on the unattached drive will not be available to play... for you, or for people accessing your shared library.
You can span to a NAS drive, it could be a drive CONNECTED to a router, but I cannot recommend spanning to your Time Capsule's built in drive directly. You can find more information online about using a Time Capsule for Time Machine and as a regular external drive simultaneously to learn more about the complexities and why it is not straight forward. It is nothing to do with TuneSpan, just how Apple made the Time Capsule.
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