Question about media already split among drives and also .ite
Good evening-
I wish I had discovered your app before this weekend! I just moved all of my iTunes Movies and TV Shows to an external drive. I'd love to purchase the app, just have a few quick questions - I really appreciate any advice/guidance you can give!
1. Now that I've moved all of my movies to my external drive and pointed my iTunes library to that folder, can I purchase and use TuneSpan to manage any new movies/TV shows that I'd like spanned to an external drive? I assume there are no updates needed to the files I just moved to the external drive and that I just run the app each time I add new video content. Is that correct?
2. I understand that iTunes Extras can't be spanned and that the .ite files will be left on the internal hard drive. Will iTunes Extras still work when playing the movie if the .ite is on my internal drive and the .m4v is on an external drive?
Thank you very much for your help!
The same question
1. Yep, you can still use TuneSpan even though you've already moved media around manually.
But, if you've set your default iTunes Media folder to be on your external drive, all new media will go there automatically when you add it to iTunes.
Or have you relocated your actual iTunes Library files? Not just your default media location? Either way, you can use TuneSpan, I'm just checking. TuneSpan can load iTunes Libraries from any location by holding the Option key when you launch TuneSpan or select "Choose Library..." from the File menu. If your iTunes Library is not found in the default location, TuneSpan will prompt you to locate it.
But of course, even if your default iTunes Media folder is on your external drive, TuneSpan makes it very simple to move some of your media to other external drives or even back onto your internal drive.
2. The iTunes Library keeps track of the iTunes Extras files and and the rest of the album or movie independently. So, it should be fine.
But, I've only tested iTunes Extras that were associated with an music album. The iTunes Extra exists independently so it was no big deal.
To be sure everything will work how you expect, you can download the beta version of TuneSpan for free from tunespan.com
It will nag you about buying it on the Mac App Store, but it's fully functional in terms of spanning. But, the Mac App Store version is the one that will be getting new features. In fact, I am working on an update to TuneSpan right now that has some nice new features and fixes that will continue to differentiate the beta version from the Mac App Store version.
1. Yep, you can still use TuneSpan even though you've already moved media around manually.
But, if you've set your default iTunes Media folder to be on your external drive, all new media will go there automatically when you add it to iTunes.
Or have you relocated your actual iTunes Library files? Not just your default media location? Either way, you can use TuneSpan, I'm just checking. TuneSpan can load iTunes Libraries from any location by holding the Option key when you launch TuneSpan or select "Choose Library..." from the File menu. If your iTunes Library is not found in the default location, TuneSpan will prompt you to locate it.
But of course, even if your default iTunes Media folder is on your external drive, TuneSpan makes it very simple to move some of your media to other external drives or even back onto your internal drive.
2. The iTunes Library keeps track of the iTunes Extras files and and the rest of the album or movie independently. So, it should be fine.
But, I've only tested iTunes Extras that were associated with an music album. The iTunes Extra exists independently so it was no big deal.
To be sure everything will work how you expect, you can download the beta version of TuneSpan for free from tunespan.com
It will nag you about buying it on the Mac App Store, but it's fully functional in terms of spanning. But, the Mac App Store version is the one that will be getting new features. In fact, I am working on an update to TuneSpan right now that has some nice new features and fixes that will continue to differentiate the beta version from the Mac App Store version.
Thanks so much for the quick reply. I believe I just moved the actual media files to an external drive - the library itself is still on the internal drive. When I opened a movie in iTunes, it asked me to locate the file - I just pointed to the file on the external drive.
I've left the Music media file on my internal drive and my Movies/TV Shows media files are on the external drive. However, the iTunes Media Location is still - /Users/devriesp/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music. When I purchase new movies at iTunes, it downloads them there. I've been manually moving the files to the external drive, deleting them on the internal drive, and then adding them to the iTunes Library again (I've removed the check to "Copy files to iTunes Media Folder when adding to library"). Not efficient at all - I know :)
I'm trying to keep my video on the external drive and music on the internal drive.
How would you recommend I use TuneSpan? When I purchase new video content in iTunes, run TuneSpan and have TuneSpan move the content to the right folder on my External Drive (either the Movies or the TV Shows folders that I just painstakingly set up on the external drive)? Would that work? Can I leave the "Copy files to iTunes Media.." checked and then just have TuneSpan move it from the internal to external folders?
Sorry for the long winded questions. I really appreciate your help.
Peter
Thanks so much for the quick reply. I believe I just moved the actual media files to an external drive - the library itself is still on the internal drive. When I opened a movie in iTunes, it asked me to locate the file - I just pointed to the file on the external drive.
I've left the Music media file on my internal drive and my Movies/TV Shows media files are on the external drive. However, the iTunes Media Location is still - /Users/devriesp/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music. When I purchase new movies at iTunes, it downloads them there. I've been manually moving the files to the external drive, deleting them on the internal drive, and then adding them to the iTunes Library again (I've removed the check to "Copy files to iTunes Media Folder when adding to library"). Not efficient at all - I know :)
I'm trying to keep my video on the external drive and music on the internal drive.
How would you recommend I use TuneSpan? When I purchase new video content in iTunes, run TuneSpan and have TuneSpan move the content to the right folder on my External Drive (either the Movies or the TV Shows folders that I just painstakingly set up on the external drive)? Would that work? Can I leave the "Copy files to iTunes Media.." checked and then just have TuneSpan move it from the internal to external folders?
Sorry for the long winded questions. I really appreciate your help.
Peter
Yep, you got it.
You can leave "Copy files..." selected in the iTunes Preferences.
Whenever you have new media in iTunes that you want to move to the external, fire up TuneSpan, select the tracks, select your "span location", and click "Span..."
TuneSpan will copy each file, update each location in iTunes, and trash the original files and clean up empty folder for you. No fuss.
Only thing is... you have to manually empty the trash in the Finder yourself after TuneSpan moves everything there for you. Consider is a safe guard to know that TuneSpan will never outright delete your files, it's up to you to do that.
Some people find TuneSpan's interface intuitive, some don't :-(
So, I would recommend taking a look at the screenshot images I have on the Mac App Store (and on tunespan.com), they act as a very basic tutorial of how to use the interface. There is some description text in each image that may be a bit long winded as well, but I hope it helps to explain TuneSpan. I plan on reworking those images at some point soon, but I am also working on TuneSpan itself which is a lot more fun that making tutorial image :-)
Hopefully this next update will make a few things slightly more clear and simple.
But, if you do end up having any questions after you start using TuneSpan, don't hesitate to ask! You can contact me here, or through my form at http://contact.tunespan.com and there are also direct email links in TuneSpan. Any way you choose, I'll be here.
PS. after using TuneSpan, people seem to be craving more automation... being able to set some smart criteria for tracks and a location and have TuneSpan move them automatically when new media gets added that matches the set criteria. I agree that it would be a very nice feature, and I plan on implementing it at some point, but can't give any deadline on that. So, just letting you know there is no automation yet. But, I do hope you enjoy using the TuneSpan interface to select your tracks to move when you add new stuff... over doing the tedious manual process :-)
Yep, you got it.
You can leave "Copy files..." selected in the iTunes Preferences.
Whenever you have new media in iTunes that you want to move to the external, fire up TuneSpan, select the tracks, select your "span location", and click "Span..."
TuneSpan will copy each file, update each location in iTunes, and trash the original files and clean up empty folder for you. No fuss.
Only thing is... you have to manually empty the trash in the Finder yourself after TuneSpan moves everything there for you. Consider is a safe guard to know that TuneSpan will never outright delete your files, it's up to you to do that.
Some people find TuneSpan's interface intuitive, some don't :-(
So, I would recommend taking a look at the screenshot images I have on the Mac App Store (and on tunespan.com), they act as a very basic tutorial of how to use the interface. There is some description text in each image that may be a bit long winded as well, but I hope it helps to explain TuneSpan. I plan on reworking those images at some point soon, but I am also working on TuneSpan itself which is a lot more fun that making tutorial image :-)
Hopefully this next update will make a few things slightly more clear and simple.
But, if you do end up having any questions after you start using TuneSpan, don't hesitate to ask! You can contact me here, or through my form at http://contact.tunespan.com and there are also direct email links in TuneSpan. Any way you choose, I'll be here.
PS. after using TuneSpan, people seem to be craving more automation... being able to set some smart criteria for tracks and a location and have TuneSpan move them automatically when new media gets added that matches the set criteria. I agree that it would be a very nice feature, and I plan on implementing it at some point, but can't give any deadline on that. So, just letting you know there is no automation yet. But, I do hope you enjoy using the TuneSpan interface to select your tracks to move when you add new stuff... over doing the tedious manual process :-)
Replies have been locked on this page!