so my itunes library is about 600GB on a 1TB external drive, all organized pretty meticulously, but one thing that bothers me is that if i change info within itunes that it wont change file info (i.e. misspellings) and also if i change anything with the file, then itunes 'loses' that file and i have to find it within itunes. small problems i guess.

also, it tends to bog down.

my questions are:

1) is it better to have itunes consolidate and manage your library, at least for speed and efficiencys sake?

2) if i do #1, will itunes automatically recognize changes i make to files, etc. as outlined above?

3) will i need a second HDD to copy the files to when consolidating, or can this be done incrementally, using the 250 GB or so that are free on my current external HDD.

1) Its better in the sense that you dont have to maintain the files and file structures yourself. *If your tags are good, it could make life a lot easier*

2) iTunes will recognize tag changes or the like as long as you havent changed file names or file folders etc.

3) NOT SURE- but I couldnt imagine consolidating requiring the full space (i.e. if your library is 200g // I dont think you need an additional 200g in order to consolidate-- that would be a programming fubar) - because I think it mainly consists of simply rearranging file structures. EDIT: Now Im not so sure about this...

this thread might help

my advice would be to get another drive and mirror it in case that 1TB drive fails.

What Dalen said.

I made the mistake of letting iTunes manage my files back in the day and it renamed the hell out of stuff. Mostly file names and they were wrong. It changed directory structures and put stuff specifically where I didn't want it. IE split my Tom Petty stuff from the Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, and the Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers. It also didn't move all the files in a folder if something was weird in one of the tags.

anyone update to v9 yet? worth it? problems?

Didn't blow up on me, which is a good start. Synced my 5G ipod twice without issue but haven't tried adding anything new.

Patrick: My iTunes library is manually tracked, so I can't speak to the questions directly. How much of an undertaking would it be to remove a section of the library (all 'A' artists, for example), and then re-tag/re-name/re-add? I'm doing something similar with album art, so I know it's a considerable project. If you break down, though, it might make it a bit more manageable.

It does not require duplicate disk space if you are running the consolodation in place. If you regularly drop files from other locations into Itunes, its probably not a bad idea to run it on occasion to run it on occassion to keep your music all in one place.

But I don't hate the Itunes file structure. Its good enough for me. If you do, you should turn off the manage files feature.

Haven't installed v9 yet, but I've heard that the Itunes sharing feature will now allow you to copy files in addition to streaming them. If this means that I can synch files from my desktop onto an Ipod connected to my laptop, I'll start using it more often.

Also, Itunes now relies heavily on the album artist tag now for sorting and directory creation. In theory, this tag can be used to fix sorting and Tom Petty style issues.

If I can figure out how its used, I'll probably use mp3tag to load the tag.