Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Using Itunes with Google Music Manager

I love Google Music, it allows me to copy my entire iTunes library to Google, and allows that music to be shared with anything my google account is logged into.

Now I have a huge collection, about 30k songs, and that collection resides on a portable hard drive, that way as I get new computers, I don't need to reload the entire hard drive.  This last time I got a new computer, I installed the music manager, and then got an error There are 10 or less songs in your itunes library.

After much research, and testing, I figured out what the issue was.  Google Music Manager is looking for a specific itunes location, and if your library doesn't match the location, it will now see it.



Looking at the registry its looking for it my profile %UserProfile%\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music Library.xml

So I first thought, well, lets just update the registry setting.  However this didn't work, every time I restarted music manager it would just change the registry value back.  So my next thought was to create a sim link.  To do this click on the windows button, type "cmd" right click on "Command and Prompt" and click on "Run as administrator"

First check to make sure that you don't Already have a iTunes folder in your "Music Folder" if your iTunes library is not stored in the My Music folder, delete this folder.    


Next type in the following command
mklink /d %USERPROFILE%\Music\iTunes <Itunes.xml location>

in my example, my itunes library xml file was located in the M:\Itunes folder, so I did

mklink /d %USERPROFILE%\Music\iTunes M:\Itunes

Now if check to make sure your library is named correctly, in for me I had named my library "Itunes Library.xml"  This did not work, google Music still couldn't see it, I needed to rename my library.  So I renamed the "iTunes Library.itl" to "iTunes Music Library.itl" and "itunes Library.xml" to "iTunes Music Library.xml".  After doing this, google music manager could not see my itunes library.
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25 comments:

  1. ChodeybApril 5, 2017 at 12:40 PM

    Assuming your last sentence should say "now" instead of "not". I'll have to try this. I have currently been copying/replacing the .xml and .itl files in my external drive (taking from the itunes default location) every time i update a playlist which gets old fast. Another question, what triggers Music Manager to update the playlists on Google Play Music? For me, its seems that it happens randomly within a few days of updating my itunes playlist. I wish I could control it and force it to update. Perhaps I should turn off MM auto features?

    ReplyDelete
  2. David RosskopfApril 7, 2017 at 10:34 AM

    For me, It seems to update every time I add a song to a playlist. Thanks for the correction.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownJune 17, 2017 at 3:01 AM

    worked for me!! thank you soooo much!!!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mrs BrightsideJuly 13, 2017 at 7:54 AM

    I'm on a mac and it won'r load my itunes library, well it loads part of it then just stops, tracks missing from albums. I've tried about 5 times, and deleted my whole library on google play music and started again twice. I think the issue might be that we all have different libraries on itunes in our family and the whole music library is in mine Music/Sarah itunes/iTunes Media/Music . How do I resolve this? I selct the music folder in my itunes folder but it just shows as itunes in google play and loads some of music then stops. Thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. David RosskopfJuly 13, 2017 at 9:29 AM

      I imagine it would be very similar, however to create a symbolic link for a mac you would do "ln -s / /Users//Music/iTunes/"

      Delete
    2. dyevestJuly 15, 2018 at 8:31 PM

      This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  5. UnknownSeptember 17, 2017 at 1:39 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  6. UnknownSeptember 17, 2017 at 1:40 PM

    Thank you so much for this! I've been breaking my head over this problem for months and you've given me the solution. :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. talk hard, be heardOctober 6, 2017 at 9:11 AM

    This is fantastic. Was able to replicate and make it work. Wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
  8. talk hard, be heardOctober 6, 2017 at 9:13 AM

    Here are some links to help: https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/

    and

    https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/play/JVhNxsRAhxY/7vja3mOcAwAJ.

    ReplyDelete
  9. UnknownDecember 24, 2017 at 9:05 AM

    Hey David. This blog is fantastic. And, it has helped me in the past. I noticed with the very latest itunes update (12.7.2.60) this has stopped working again. My itunes library is in the default location (C:\Users\jwhan\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music Library.xml). And, my itunes music library file hasn't changed names. However, the chrome plugin no longer recognizes that itunes is installed on my machine.

    ReplyDelete
  10. UnknownDecember 24, 2017 at 9:06 AM

    Hey David. This blog is fantastic. And, it has helped me in the past. I noticed with the very latest itunes update (12.7.2.60) this has stopped working again. My itunes library is in the default location (C:\Users\jwhan\Music\iTunes\iTunes Music Library.xml). And, my itunes music library file hasn't changed names. However, the chrome plugin no longer recognizes that itunes is installed on my machine.

    ReplyDelete
  11. AndrewKDecember 29, 2017 at 9:06 AM

    In my case changing following setting fixed the issue: go to iTunes > Preferences > Advanced, and check Share iTunes Library XML with other applications.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UnknownSeptember 26, 2019 at 6:02 PM

      This was the solution for me on 12.9.4.102, thanks!

      Delete
  12. VuelosJune 6, 2018 at 7:19 PM

    Im getting a DRM in FILE message on music manager.

    ReplyDelete
  13. dyevestJuly 15, 2018 at 8:32 PM

    Thanks, this worked! Just one question, will this changes to the name files break itunes?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ChrisSeptember 25, 2019 at 11:17 AM

      this did break my itunes... hoping someone can help fix this

      Delete
    2. UnknownMarch 26, 2020 at 6:08 AM

      close itunes. hold shift and open itunes. select your renamed .itl file.

      Delete
  14. AkseosolutionsJuly 21, 2019 at 1:54 AM

    I'm glad I found this web site, I couldn't find any knowledge on this matter prior to.Also operate a site and if you are ever interested in doing some visitor writing for me if possible feel free to let me know, im always look for people to check out my web site. lease beats online

    ReplyDelete
  15. ChrisSeptember 25, 2019 at 11:16 AM

    Hello,
    This worked however now i can't see anything in my itunes library. It seems like itunes has made a new XML file and now won't recognize my library after changing the name to "E:\iTunes\iTunes Music Library". Please help!
    Thank you

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. UnknownMarch 26, 2020 at 6:36 AM

      close itunes. hold shift and open itunes. select your renamed .itl file.

      Delete
  16. Johan CarlosNovember 5, 2019 at 4:10 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
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    ReplyDelete
  18. UnknownMarch 26, 2020 at 6:35 AM

    THANK YOU!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
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