Deleting second itunes library

[admin_exported]

I created a second iTunes library when I bought my mac a couple of months ago. I did this so that I could have an Apple Lossless version that I play through my AV receiver, and a separate 256Kbps AAC library for iPhone syncing.

I've decided that it's all a bit too much faffing about to create lower bit rate versions of each new album I import in the main (lossless) library, so I want to try the "on the fly" conversion to 128Kbps and see how that works.

My question is therefore how to go about deleting the second library. There's lots of info on the web about creating the new library, but nothing on deleting it. Is that because I just have to press delete when I go to the "Choose Library" bit before you open iTunes? Or is there something more complicated I need to do?

I know that iTunes can have problems working out where all the songs are when you want to move your library (to an external HD for example), so I'm cautious about this. Perhaps one of you iTunes buffs can give me a steer?

Thanks, Chris

 

[Dan Turner]

I did exactly the same thing for exactly the same reasons. I just found the folder for the second library under 'Music' and deleted it. It isn't presented as an option anymore if do a 'choose library', so I guess that's all you need to do.

The 128kbps conversion on the fly means that things take a lot longer to sync to your iPhone, so be prepared to leave it overnight the first time.

 

[Anonymous]

Excellent, thanks for the tip on the time it takes to sync... but overnight, sheesh!

So just to be sure, did you just use the "Finder" on your mac to locate the iPhone library, select it and press delete? And everything went to the Trash, and there were no further problems / lost tracks / etc?

 

[Dan Turner]

Yes I looked in Finder to locate the library that I had created for syncing to my iPhone and just 'right clicked' and selected 'move to trash'. I made sure that my main library was still there OK when I opened iTunes and worked OK before I emptied the trash can.

If you have a completely separate library for syncing to your phone right now and all the tracks are also in your main one, then there shouldn't be any risk of problems if you delete the iPhone one.

 

[Anonymous]

Just to let anyone else contemplating doing this that it really was very easy.

In terms of time taken to do the sync on the fly, I have 55 GB of Apple Lossless music on the computer and I started everything at 6pm last night, and it was completed on my iPhone by 10pm. So that works out at about 14 Gb per hour, and I've got the latest Mac Mini with 4Gb of memory, and a 32Gb iPhone 3GS.