Help transferring data via ethernet

Joined
Dec 14, 2008
Messages
9
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Hi guys heres the story. Yesterday I was cleaning up some files and moving them to the trash, I accidentally deleted all of my music files which is 60GB. So all the files were gone but in iTunes all the names still remained. Luckily I had an old backup of the music but it wasn't up to date it was only around 40GB or so. I copied that over but then I thought it would be too much of a hassle to get the rest of the music back. I remembered all of my music was on my iPod so I ripped all of it back to my MBP. Now I want to copy all that music using ethernet back to my iMac but it wouldnt let me. It stops at 1.93GB and pops up a message saying that there is a file with the name saved where the destination volume is and the volume doesn't distinguish upper case from lower case. I tried many methods like transferring to an external harddrive but the same message kept popping up. Anyway I gave up so if you guys know the problem please help me out.
 
OP
V
Joined
Dec 14, 2008
Messages
9
Reaction score
0
Points
1
am I allowed to post troubleshooting questions? or can no one really help me. It isnt that hard of a problem I don't think, I just don't know what to do. Can someone have the courtesy of telling me if this is the wrong section to post or if I am not allowed.
 

Slydude

Well-known member
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
Messages
17,596
Reaction score
1,072
Points
113
Location
North Louisiana, USA
Your Mac's Specs
M1 MacMini 16 GB - Ventura, iPhone 14 Pro Max, 2015 iMac 16 GB Monterey
I have been feeding the great Google monster trying to get a handle on this problem. Here is what I think is happening. OS X gives you the option of formatting a hard drive as case sensitive or not. Is it possible that one of the drives is formatted to handle case-sensitive filenames and one is not?

I did find this suggestion for a fix but I have not found and indication whether it works:

"There were also some music files within my iTunes music library that were affected, however I think I've found a way around that by
1. Music is currently stored on DriveA (case sensitive)

2. creating an empty Music folder on DriveB (non-case sensitive)

3. setting iTunes to 'keep music folder organised' and 'copy files to music folder when adding to library'

4. clear existing library from iTunes (not deleting music files)

5. pointing music location to new folder on DriveB

6. adding all music from DriveA to library (& thus having iTunes copy it to DriveB)

Have a lot of music, so it's taking some time, but it seems to be working."
The thread can be found at Can't restore from case sensitive TM backup [Archive] - The macosxhints Forums
 
OP
V
Joined
Dec 14, 2008
Messages
9
Reaction score
0
Points
1
I think that is exactly it. ok this is more clear.

this is what i tried to do

i ripped all the music from my ipod to my laptop
from that laptop i tried to back it up onto one of my external hd
from the external hd i try to replace all the music in my imac hd
it doesnt work
i dont want to reformat my external to make it case sensitive/ non case sensitive (i dont know which will give me less problems)

so can you give me a step by step what i should do... because right now i have no music on my imac ... my whole music library is on my external hd but it wont let me copy it over to the imac.
 

Slydude

Well-known member
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
Messages
17,596
Reaction score
1,072
Points
113
Location
North Louisiana, USA
Your Mac's Specs
M1 MacMini 16 GB - Ventura, iPhone 14 Pro Max, 2015 iMac 16 GB Monterey
It appears you have already tried one of the things I was going to suggest so that is out of the question.

Here is something that just occurred to me though it might be worth making a second copy of the music on your external hard drive just in case something goes horribly wrong.

1. Launch iTunes and go to Preferences and Advanced. Set the music folder location to where you want the music to be when this process is done..
2. Check the boxes that say "Keep the iTunes Music Folder Organized' and "Copy files to the iTunes Media folder when importing". I think that will be the important one.
3. Close the preferences, go to the iTunes File Menu and choose "Add to Library". Now find the folder with the music on your external drive and let itunes add it to the library. With a large library this could take a while. When the process is done things should be restored.
 
OP
V
Joined
Dec 14, 2008
Messages
9
Reaction score
0
Points
1
i had those two options checked from the beginning when i just started out. All of my music are already organized into folders with the artists name and album names and such.

will itunes recognize that and still add all the music into the library?

one other thing is i dont want to lose all the names because i edited the names really proper and nicely. i dont know if it also changed the actual file name.

i think i know what your saying, you want me to direct itunes to a new folder then drag my backup music into itunes itself.

i would do that but my songs are all in organized folders so i cant simply select all and drop in itunes.

what i want is to simply put those already organized music folders into the itunes media folder and let itunes recognize it.

but it wont let me since the message of case sensitive keep popping up.

i also wonder why it asks that. it says that there is content or files that contain the same names, but i have no music files on my imac, i hope its not referring the names in the itunes library.

i have 8000 songs in the library and roughly 7900 from the backup. and the other 100 is in the old back up.

what i want to know is if i delete everything in the library, will itunes load up the names from the songs or recognize it? because since the names are already there it would be music easier for itunes to just find the song and play it as suppose to replacing all the names again which is pretty much adding songs singly which would take awhile.

does the option to export library to .txt or .xml mean that it exports all of the itunes names and info?
 

Slydude

Well-known member
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
Messages
17,596
Reaction score
1,072
Points
113
Location
North Louisiana, USA
Your Mac's Specs
M1 MacMini 16 GB - Ventura, iPhone 14 Pro Max, 2015 iMac 16 GB Monterey
If you follow this procedure iTunes will use the folder structure that the backup had in place. It will still add the folders to the library.

I am not sure about retaining the filenames. I think they would be retained if the xml files associated with the library are intact. Not sure though. Perhaps others can provide more guidance there.

Direct iTunes to the new folder but I don't think it is going to let you add the existing folder by drag and drop. Use the "Add to Library command to add the stuff from the backup. If your backup folder already has the organization that you want iTunes should recognize it.

If the names are already in your library and they are still showing when you click on Library iTunes should give you a chance to find the song. I think the reason I chose to add them to the Library was to keep from having to locate every song iTunes wants to play though you only have to do that once.

I have had something similar happen in iTunes once or twice and I think I used the procedure I described to fix it. I would make a copy of the iTunes folder that is inside your User folder. Don't copy it to the external. Just copy it to somewhere else on the current drive. That way, if it doesn't work you can restore that folder and that should get you at least back to where you are now.

I'm still looking around to see if i can find a definitive answer to this problem.
 
OP
V
Joined
Dec 14, 2008
Messages
9
Reaction score
0
Points
1
I appreciate the work your doing to try and help me Slydude, and I thank you very much.
 
OP
V
Joined
Dec 14, 2008
Messages
9
Reaction score
0
Points
1
ok i think i found out the problem. i ripped my ipod to my macbook pro. the harddrive is formatted to extended case sensitive and journaled. my external hd is partitioned into 3 parts, formatted as journaled, case sensitive and journaled, and extended. my imac is journaled. so that is why i keep getting the lower and upper case message. im afraid i cant doing anything now. the only way i can get my music back on my imac is by ripping my ipod to the imac. what i dont know is ... will it just copy new names to the library or just recognize that there are already names and just copy the files.. i really dont want to delete my library names because it will be a huge hassle to make the playlists again. any thoughts?
 

Slydude

Well-known member
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
Messages
17,596
Reaction score
1,072
Points
113
Location
North Louisiana, USA
Your Mac's Specs
M1 MacMini 16 GB - Ventura, iPhone 14 Pro Max, 2015 iMac 16 GB Monterey
Did you finally get this sorted out? I must admit that I have not had much time to search for a better solution.
 
OP
V
Joined
Dec 14, 2008
Messages
9
Reaction score
0
Points
1
well i didnt find a definite solution. i kind of gave up. i presumed it was because i formatted my harddrives all different formats (which is a really stupid thing i might add) and i have a lot of data on them, so reformatting isnt a really good option. so now i will just play music out of my ipod connected to the computer. thanks slydude you have been an awesome help.
 

Slydude

Well-known member
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
Messages
17,596
Reaction score
1,072
Points
113
Location
North Louisiana, USA
Your Mac's Specs
M1 MacMini 16 GB - Ventura, iPhone 14 Pro Max, 2015 iMac 16 GB Monterey
I haven't found any solution yet. I did learn something from this though. I had never looked at the potential problems when one drive is formatted for case sensitive filenames and the other isn't.
 
OP
V
Joined
Dec 14, 2008
Messages
9
Reaction score
0
Points
1
me neither, i had no idea that this would ever be a problem. now that ive been through it, ill remember to format important high traffic volumes using the same format.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top