Moving unmanaged iTunes files | Jim Ursetto

Moving unmanaged iTunes files

Some time ago I wrote an article about manipulating the iTunes XML database. I had moved some mp3s around on my NFS drive, and iTunes had lost track of them. Though I came up with a Scheme program that tracked them down and correlated them with their old location, it turns out you can't modify the iTunes XML database without losing most of your metadata, including play counts.
The best I could do was to extend the program to create symlinks from the original locations to the new ones; iTunes continues to reference the old locations, but it will see the files through the symlinks and thus access to your music is restored.
Unfortunately, this leaves a bunch of ugly symlinks hanging around for all eternity. This article fills in the missing piece by forcing iTunes to directly use the new locations.