Hi Alex, I've never tried to copy a huge amount of data manually from a Time Machine backup, but I have tried copying a few odds and ends. Finder has always performed the copying with no problems. So, I don't see why it shouldn't work for you. I'll admit, I too am having problems with the user interface of Time Machine in Yosemite.
Grant On Oct 19, 2014, at 11:53 AM, Alex Hall <[email protected]> wrote: Thanks, I'll give this a try, but I have one problem. In Yosemite, the Time Machine browser doesn't work well - a bunch of unknowns and unlabeled items, with no files I could find. So, as long as O copy and don't move the library, can I copy the whole thing somewhere else without breaking anything? > On Oct 19, 2014, at 2:34 PM, Grant Hardy <[email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > > Hi Alex, > > I would recommend opening up the Time Machine UI and copying your iTunes > folder to another place on your hard drive. Time Machine backups can, I > believe, be corrupted if you manually move or edit files in the Finder or > anywhere else outside the Time Machine UI, not to mention file permission and > symbolic linking issues. > > That being said, if you have a valid iTunes Library that you want to point > iTunes to, you can do so by holding down the OPTION key immediately after > launching iTunes. You'll be given an opportunity to browse to the appropriate > path and select the iTunes Library file, which will have a .itl extension. > The good news is that anything in your iTunes Media folder will still be > found by iTunes, as it respects relative paths. For example, on my Windows > machine my iTunes Media folder was located at E:\iTunes\Itunes Media. When I > switched to the Mac, I copied my entire iTunes library over to ~/Music/iTunes > on the Mac, and all my media was found. If you have media outside of the > iTunes Media folder, though, that won't be accessible unless you copy it over > such that the the file paths are identical, or update all invalid paths > manually using iTunes. > > Grant > > Sent from mobile > > On Oct 19, 2014, at 7:13 AM, Alex Hall <[email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > > Hi all, > I have a 64GB Macbook Air, so I don't have room for the music library I had > on my 500GB Mac Mini. That library is still stored on my Time Machine backup > drive, and I'd like to let iTunes access it from that drive (no, this is not > a network-connected drive, just a USB one). > > The first question is: how do I do this? The second, stickier problem is that > this library is on a backup drive, and all the files there seem to be locked. > How would I let iTunes modify the database? Would I need to copy something to > a writeable part of the drive? If so, what would I copy, exactly? Or, is > there a way to make the TM backups writeable directly? Finally, since the > whole thing is copied to an external drive, will the file paths in the old > library still work? > > I spent a *lot* of time tagging tons of files with album, artist, and so on, > and I really don't want to lose all that work. Plus, I'd just like access to > my music again, and I want to really figure out iTunes12 so I can put up a > guide to it. Thanks for any help. > > -- > Have a great day, > Alex Hall > [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries > <http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries>. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout > <https://groups.google.com/d/optout>. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries > <http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries>. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout > <https://groups.google.com/d/optout>. -- Have a great day, Alex Hall [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries <http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries>. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout <https://groups.google.com/d/optout>. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
