itunes help

Restart your comp, usually helps for me! :-)

i lost all the music off my itunes the other day (not the problem, i had it all backed-up), but i also lost all my playlists, including "recently added", "recently played", "top 100" etc. i want these playlists back. how do i do this?

all that info is held in one or two preference files, I had to deal with this when rebuilding my system recently and found the info by googling moving iTunes (and mail) to a new computer.

thx dan.

Dan, which files are those?

OK, so I recently moved my iTunes library to a new computer. Apart from losing some files due to a corrupt hard drive, it worked fine. But now, after a couple of days, any mp3 that I try to play prompts the exclamation mark icon and the message "The song ____ could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" The iTunes Music Folder Location (in Preferences>Advanced) is correct, and if I do locate it there, the song plays fine. But I've got over 10,000 mp3s in my library, and there's no way I'm doing that for each and every one.

What could be the problem? I'm sort of tempted to just delete everything in iTunes itself and repopulate my iTunes with the mp3s, but I also don't want to lose the library data (playlists, play counts, date added, etc.) if I don't have to.

Also, I feel a bit sheepish admitting this, but while trying to troubleshoot on my own, I accidentally moved all the mp3s to the trash; I was able to move them back to the iTunes Music Folder, but they're no longer in folders and subfolders. Not sure if this is fixable.

(Part of the reason I'm asking here is so I don't do anything stupid like that again.)

Unless you're prepared to deal with telling iTunes where each and every one of your exclamation-marked files is, I think you'll have to rebuild the iTunes Library file.

So yeah, your play counts and playlists might be toast.

Have you got the "keep music organised" option checked? Try moving all your music files out of the iTunes Music folder (but not the iTunes folder within that folder), then add them again en masse. iTunes will make new copies of all the files in proper subfolders and such, and with some luck it may even keep your existing library entries intact (preserving your play counts). I tried to test this with my own library, but iTunes kept finding the files no matter where I moved them.

I can't remember, if I update to the newest itunes, do the "dated added" fields remain unchanged?

(it's how I keep track of all the bullshit i download)

If I have to rebuild the library, then as far as I know, the folders and subfolders will be created automatically since I have "Copy files to iTunes Music Folder when adding to library" checked. I was just hoping that I didn't have to rebuild the library.

1. Drag all of yr MP3s onto "library" on the left panel. This will add them back into iTunes.
2. Get Super Remove Dead Tracks. This will remove the !'d tracks.

Super Remove Dead Tracks.

As long as you have "let iTunes keep yr files organized" or whatever, they will be re-sorted by iTunes according to the ID3 tags.

Yeah, that's what I was planning to do before posting here -- no way to preserve library data then?

(If I drag mp3s into the library and delete the !'d files, I lose my playlists, the playcounts are all reset to zero, and all the songs show up as having been added 8/25/08.)

(Super Remove Dead Tracks is great, btw. I used that to get rid of all the songs in my library whose files were lost on my external HD.)

Oh, OK. I don't think I've lost playlists doing this, since the files are restored to the orig location. The other stuff, I dunno. There are a zillion files on that guy's site which might help.

if you hold down shift when itunes is starting, it'll prompt you to choose your itunes library. browse to your itunes library, and it should restore everything to the way it was.

I bit the bullet and rebuilt the library. There were some other problems not worth getting into that made this necessary. But thanks for all the suggestions!

So I'm trying to burn a CD, as I've done a hundred times, and suddenly I get, "Disc burner or software not found."

What gives??

Yesterday it was burning tracks at between 10 and 12x, today nothing quicker than 3x and mostly 1.6-ishx. Anyone had this? Or is it usual?

So I'm trying to burn a CD, as I've done a hundred times, and suddenly I get, "Disc burner or software not found."

What gives??

^^^^^ this, except it just won't burn on my discs. Wrong brand?

in the past, when i've had a playlist i've wanted to be able to turn into a zip file for sharing, i've had to change the album names so that the whole playlist has the same album name and then mark it as a compilation so that they would all stay together in an "album" for me to convert into a zip. is there a better way to do this yet or is this still how people do it?

Ugh, I hate that.

every time i start itunes now it starts 'determining song volume' of some random number betwenn 800 and 1000 songs, wtf, it ties up the processor something rotten and how do i make it stop?

there should be a little 'x' at the bottom right of the 'lcd' panel, hit that

It will try every time you launch though. If you let it finish it won't do it again. (Well, it does it for each new song added)

I think you can turn it off by taking the tick out of the Sound Check box (Edit|preferences|playback on windows). might be wrong though.

fuck dat shit. why now? why only for 800? i guess i wouldn't mind some volume equalisation but ON MY OWN TERMS goddamnit. plus it really does slow up my (shit) pc.

xp yeah i found that from google but it ain't ticked ;_;

oh i think it's cause i ticked 'use sound check' last time i burnt a cd. THAT WAS JUST FOR THE CD YOU DOUCHE.

Why does the "outline" view - that thing at the top that groups your Library by artist, album, etc - now ALWAYS COME BACK EVEN WHEN I'VE COLLAPSED IT GOD DAMMIT I HATE YOU SO MUCH

^ anybody else??

have you tried view-->hide browser?

I HATE YOU SO MUCH

i mean, thanks, that worked

itunes has been randomly crashing on me. when i reload it, it takes a couple minutes to appear. does anyone know if something can be done about this? i have a pc, not a mac

anyone?

Maybe just delete and download again?

(I have recently acquired a PC and god damn I prefer it on Mac.)

you can try to rebuild your library file:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451

hi i know this is v simple and I remember doing it previouslty but why cant i shift songs around in a playlist>?

you using the new itunes? i just tried dragging some songs around and it didn't work

yeah wtf. i vaguely recall adding in a certain column meant i could move songs around.

This applies to "smart" playlists, right? Can't shift in those. When you create a new playlist (command+N) you're free to order songs the way you want.

nah man, i can't order my non-smart playlists

like when im dragging the songs the little blue line that used to show up b/w the songs on the old itunes doesn't show up anymore

oh i c, i created a new playlist and now i can move stuff around. Maybe that previous playlist was created before i updated to new itunes or someshit

im pretty sure that one wasnt a "smart" playlist?

thanks btw!

It might be becuase you had the playlist ordered by title, or artist, or any of the columns except the default, first, one. Click at the top of that furthest left, unnamed column, the one with the numbers of the tracks running down it, and you'll be able to move tracks around again.

yeah i think the thing is that you have to make sure you havent clicked on one of those tabs at the top to order it by 'artist' or 'album title' or whatever.

xpost yeah

yeah cheers i thought it had to do w/ rooting around with the columns. thanx guys!

OK, this is probably a really basic function, but I am iTunes retarded. I am spending some time this afternoon adding to & organizing my iTunes & if I could figure out how to do this, it would save me a lot of time: If you are organizing artists by folder & albums by playlist & you want to make wholesale changes to various categories, specifically "genre" & "album artist," is there any way to do so wholesale, by selecting each track you would like to apply the change to? I've been cutting and pasting tags for each individual track & it is getting really tedious.

Highlight all you want, cntrl+I, change info?

On a PC you can highlight separate tracks by holding down CTRL and clicking on the tracks, or highlight blocks by highlighting the first track and holding down SHIFT and then highlighting the track at the end of the block you want to highlight. Does that make sense?

Thanks Ned. I'll give it a try, but I am a Mac user, so I might have to experiment with command keys.

it's the same with macs, but use the apple key to select multiple separate tracks and apple-I to get the info box up and make any changes you want.

yes! thank you. I just figured it out. hurrah!

I just came back to say what Joe said (having messed about Mrs Trifle's mac) you I see you're good to go :)

try again...

I just came back to say what Joe said (having messed about Mrs Trifle's mac) BUT I see you're good to go :)

[I am tired]

On a PC you can highlight separate tracks by holding down CTRL and clicking on the tracks, or highlight blocks by highlighting the first track and holding down SHIFT and then highlighting the track at the end of the block you want to highlight. Does that make sense?

― commons hack spat (Ned Trifle II), Saturday, April 4, 2009 4:29 PM (2 hours ago)

this just blew my mind. i've wasted so much fuckin time editing track info one by one

wow dude

what if i imported this album but it only shows up when i search and not under the artist's name in the list of artists when browsing? i checked the tags and they seem to be accurate.

Is the compilation option clicked?

Also see if those files have the same "Album Artist" tag (like Various Artists or Blah Soundtrack) while having individual "Artist" tags.

there is no 'album artist' specified and compilation is not clicked

My computer died a while back and I was able to recover most of my data. However, some of my mp3s are incomplete. Is there a way to determine which mp3s are incomplete BESIDES listening to each and every one of them?

Okay has anyone else had problems with podcast descriptions in itunes 8 on t'mac?
Since an update or two ago, when I click 'show description' on iTunes it is stretched as tall as the entire screen so that I cannot close it. With the previous version of itunes - 8.0? - I could press apple-w, which would close the main iTunes window, and then if i hit it again the podcast descrip window would close too. Updated to 8.1.1 just recently, sort of hoping this would stop happening, but now apple-w will only close the main window, and the podcast info just sits there and sits there, a bar of white down the middle of the screen, until I quit itunes in frustration. Anyone else have this? Am I being some kind of idiot?

i was going to post this to 'i hate apple'. what was i doing, buying into a monopoly? now i am stuckkkkk.

Another obvious inquiry that I should probably already know, but please bear with me: I've only been seriously archiving music with itunes for about a year. Last summer, I finally got around to the process of digitally archiving my record collection (a long-term work in progress) and have been downloading new stuff as well. My general process has been to rip @ 320, store the files in folders on my hard drive (I am a mac user fwiw), and then drag and drop the files into playlists/folders on itunes, which I also set up to import files as 320 mp3s.

I've recently gotten around to doing some spring cleaning on my hard drive & it has occurred to me that the files archived by itunes in User > Music > itunes appear to be identical to the ones I've been saving elsewhere (i.e. they are also archived as mp3s, not m4as, and are the same file size as the others). Does this mean, essentially, that my storage folders are redundant, being that the same file structure has been reassimilated in the itunes folder and, if so, is it safe to delete said storage folders and depend solely on the itunes archives without the files having been somehow downgraded in quality upon import to itunes?

I hope that makes sense.

Is there a way of stripping the metadata from an mp3 using a Mac? It was easy with windows - just go into file properties and delete it. But since I've changed to a Mac I can't figure out a way of doing it.

You can use a hex editor like http://www.mitec.cz/hex.html and remove your email and info or you can download a cracked version of Fissi0n (http://www.rogueamoeba.com/fission). You just open and resave the file, it doesn't save all the headers.

Any guesses as to what's happened to mine? I installed a new version about a week ago and it's been really slow ever since - five to twenty seconds wait for a track to play, same to switch between playlists, etc. Really quite irritating. I've got about 1500 songs on there at the moment, which is the most I've ever had, but it's not a gargantuan collection.

When you make a big update, it goes through and reindexes all the tracks for sound equaliser and stuff like that, which can really slow it down.

When it's not playing anything, look at the info window and see if it says it's doing anything (press the little triangle at the far left of it if required). There should be a progress bar.

If it keeps being slow you could try this -

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451

Thank you gents, however in my exhausted state I couldn't actually work out how to do either of those. As it happens my computer must've been equally exhausted, because it shut itself down this morning and on restart itunes now works fine.

So I make that a victory for the 'have you tried turning it off and back on again?' school.

oh my fucking god i hate technology

this is why i NEVER install updates - for some insane reason decided to install the latest itunes update AND NOW IT WON'T OPEN AT ALL. AT ALL. AT ALL. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.

the last time i installed updates, they actually killed my hard drive. i don't know what i was thinking. NEVER INSTALL UPDATES.

seriously every time i try to do something technological, no matter how simple it looks, this shit happens. WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

xxp, i have a big library and itunes (and my computer) is pretty much unusable for the first 30 minutes after an upgrade. it sucks.

i hate the way they pretend that these updates will make your life simpler. LIES. ALL LIES.

The iTunes application could not be opened. A required iTunes component is not installed. Please repair or reinstall quicktime. (-42404)

i "repaired" quicktime but itunes still won't open. should i uninstall and reinstall (and how do i reinstall?)?

i think this is my fault, i stupidly let my them try to update quicktime + itunes and canceled it at the last second, realizing it was gonna take up like 300 mb of space

HELP

In my experience, if you uninstall and reinstall it remembers where your library is, so just uninstall iTunes, redownload it and reinstall and you should be good to go.

btw I am on a PC, I don't know if Macs handle it differently (I would assume not)

im a pc too, thanks. am i still going to have my playlists?

I did so I don't see why you wouldn't.

btw you will be using up a computer authorization on music purchased via iTunes with this but, since Apple lets you reset once a year after you've used all five, I wouldn't worry about it too much unless you have a lot of computers working off of the same downloaded songs

It seems that lately iTunes no longer will let me drag album artwork into the info box. Like, I used to get info, drag the image into the box and it would stick. Now, no more. I have to cut/paste it. Anybody else have this happen?

hey i reinstalled quicktime + itunes, everything is great except i have the new itunes now which is ugly (but faster!)

Does anyone else have issues with Genius eating the hell out of hard drive space when it is doing the weekly update thing? Yesterday afternoon I had about 1.16 GB free on my hard drive. Genius starts updating and suddenly I'm getting warnings about my C: drive being extremely low on memory. Check and, hmmm, suddenly I have 178 MB free space. Warning keeps popping up until Genius finishes updating, I check again and back to 1.14 GB free. Very annoying.

ok so installing itunes 9 destroyed my life a bit - basically usable but a) i can't access the itunes store (due to not being on the latest operating leopard system thing, which people have advised against anyway), b) with some - not all - mp3s, there's a spinning beachball lag of about 5 seconds before itunes will play the track. which sucks when it comes to mixes.

so questions -

- is there anything i can do to fix these things w/o uninstalling/installing more updates?
- if not, will an upgrade to itunes 9.0.2 be better, or should i try downgrading back to itunes 8 (nb: am terrified of losing playlists, music etc if i do this)

also who is responsible for these "updates" and can someone stab them please

HI

i still need an answer to ^^that problem please!

the itunes store seems to require the latest version of safari (wtf? it never used to) - but i can't install this on my version of os x. what the fuck am i meant to do? i have so much hatred in my soul right now.

What OS are you running? How much RAM? Do you have a backup of your iTunes 8 lirbary/xml file?

mac os x, version 10.4.11

2gb memory

and i don't know what an xml file is - my itunes library is located on an external hd so it's a bit complicated i think

I am running 10.5.8 or whatever the latest 10.5 version is and the 10.6.2 update has cleared up the initial issues with Snow Leopard. I would recommend an OS update. Apple OS is not monitored so just swipe a disc from one of your friends. I ran into issues when I first updated to iTunes 9 due to the 'determining gapless playback' bullshit but it's been working great since then.

ok, i'll have to find someone who knows how to do an os update then. sigh. fucking computers, just once i would like to go a week without them fucking me around.

10.4 is too old, daddy-o

10.4.11 works fine with itunes 9.02.

off-topic, but could anyone recommend a simple free FLAC converter? I guess there is no way to get itunes to play these, right?

http://sbooth.org/Max/

great, looks perfect. thanks!

An iTunes n00b writes:

I'm ripping stuff on to my MacBook's hard drive as I type, using iTunes. It's making a nice bunch of sleeves in iTunes representing each album I've ripped. So far, so normal.

I've found the mp3s themselves as well, and have noticed that some of them aren't really where i'd like them to be - ie a John Lennon compilation is in a folder called Compilations, rather than one called "John Lennon", and an Ute Lemper album has been divided into three different folders on account of a couple of tracks being collaborations etc.

Anyway, having sorted the above out by hand in the folder, I was surprised to return to iTunes and find nothing had changed: Ute Lemper was represented by three album sleeves, two of which only had one track in them.

As an experiment, I added an mp3 album I'd previously ripped using Windows Media Player into the folder where iTunes has been putting all my ripped-by-iTunes stuff, on the assumption that it'd show up on iTunes when I went back to it. But no, it's not there.

What am I doing wrong? Ultimately I want iTunes to recognise all my ripped albums, which I had intended to haul from an external hard drive into the iPod I just bought - but if iTunes can't see them in the exact same folder it's putting freshly-ripped albums into, how can I do this?

Argh.

Hi Charlie!

iTunes won't recognize anything unless you manually import it, either by dragging the files into your Library or by using the Import command. (Or by ripping a CD.) If you futz around with the files it will make no difference to how iTunes categorizes anything and may make iTunes lose track of where the actual files are.

If you like organizing the files yourself, you can switch off the "let iTunes keep everything organized for me" checkbox. Otherwise it's going to make up its own mind about everything.

If you want all your Ute Lemper together you'll need to change the artist field in iTunes to Ute Lemper (instead of Ute Lemper featuring Xzibit or whatever).

Cover art is a weird thing, someone else can probably help you better than I can.

One tip I can give you when using iTunes to rip CDs is to put the cd in and edit the tags BEFORE you click the import button. That way you can uncheck the compilation tag if you want and change whatever other tags you want.

Post import is when I do the artwork manually. That way I can just select the album and give it the artwork that I want and not what iTunes thinks.

Thank you folks. More idiot questions.

1. What is my "library"? I thought it was where iTunes had been dumping mp3s for me, but apparently not. So where do I drag things to?

I basically want to transfer about 35gb of music from an external drive onto my new iPod, and I assume the only way to do this is through iTunes, but I can't see a button that says "import files" or "import music"; only "import CD".

2. I have already changed the artist field to Ute Lemper for all the offending songs in iTunes, and sure enough I can now only see one sleeve. I've also moved the songs themselves into the same folder and deleted the (now empty) extra folders, for tidiness. This apparently now means iTunes won't be able to find them though, despite having changed the artist field in iTunes!

Argh.

3. Where is the "let iTunes keep everything organised for me" checkbox?

4. I can't see a Compilation tag anywhere. Where is it?

5. I noticed when setting up iTunes yesterday there was a checkbox called something like "add these songs to iTunes at the same time as importing" - I don't think I checked it, but in that case, how come I can see all the songs on iTunes?

1. Your "Library" is at the top of the left-hand column of your iTunes window.

Using Windows Explorer, or the Finder on a Mac or whatever, find the files on your external HD, select them all, and drag them to the Library.

Now go away and do something else.

2. Yep. To really use iTunes effectively you basically have to give up on organizing the files themselves. At least that's what I've found. Do all the organizing in iTunes.

3. In Preferences - Advanced.

4. If you "Get Info" for a track it should be a checkbox in that window somewhere.

5. Dunno about that.

Sorry, let me back up a second. Go to Preferences - Advanced. There will be two checkboxes, one for letting iTunes organize your files for you and one for having iTunes copy files to the iTunes Media folder whenever you import something.

So for instance, if that "Copy files to iTunes Media folder" checkbox is ticked, when you drag the files directly from your external hard drive into iTunes, it'll not only add them to the Library it'll copy all the files onto your local internal harddrive. If you DON'T have that ticked, you'll have to make sure your external HD is plugged in whenever you want to listen to those songs... Does that make sense?

Sorta - except it sounds suspiciously like iTunes makes TWO COPIES of every song you own, thus taking up twice the hard drive space, pointlessly. Surely it doesn't do that. Why would it do that? That's fucking stupid.

And when you say "drag files directly from your external hard drive onto iTunes", where exactly are you imagining the dropping to happen? i.e where am I dragging files to? Clearly not into iTunes' mp3 destination folder, because as discussed iTunes doesn't see them for some reason.

Wait, let me try something...

OK, so I just successfully imported an Add N To (X) album from my external drive into BOTH iTunes AND the destination folder by dragging it to the Music tab of my library in iTunes. Is this what you meant?

Sub-question - how do I add cover art manually? Ca't see a button for that either! Gracenote or whatever has been pretty good with 90% of the ones I've ripped using iTunes, but there are some odd omissions, and it seems that even though Windows Media Player found cover art for everything on my external drive when I ripped it, that art doesn't port over to iTunes!

Argh argh argh.

I don't know what you mean by "mp3 destination folder" but yes, you can drag stuff onto the "Music" bit at the top of the left-hand column which is helpfully under a little header that says "Library", and iTunes will import it.

Yes, if the "Copy files to iTunes Media folder" checkbox is ticked, it will make a copy on your hard drive. It's up to you whether you think that's stupid. For instance, you might want to hear that song even if your hard drive isn't plugged in. In that case, making a copy would be necessary. But if you don't mind attaching your hard drive each time you want to hear a song, untick the "Copy files to iTunes Media folder" checkbox and voila. Only one copy.

There are two ways to add cover art manually. You can click the little arrow in the bottom left corner to reveal a little square for displaying artwork. Now you can drag any image to that square. However I believe this method doesn't actually embed the artwork into the file - it's like iTunes' own little filing system. So if you emailed that file to a friend, for instance, the artwork wouldn't be included with it. If you want to embed the artwork into the file so that it's always there, you'll need to right-click (or Control-click) the file in iTunes and choose "Get Info", then choose the "artwork" tab, than drag an image to that square. Note you can "Get Info" on more than one file at once, which is handy for adding the same image to every file on an album.

Charlie, ITunes doesn't search a specified set of folders every time it launches. Instead, it acts as an index to whereever your file is stored. That's why you have to import files into your library, so it can build that index... it doesn't copy or move the file anywhere, unless you have the "Copy Files to iTunes Media Folder" checkbox on.

stop using this crappy program guys

It's slow and buggy, granted. But I've never found anything that does the job better. What do you recommend?

If you have an iPod it's a necessary evil though dude

If Charlie doesn't have an iPod then he might be better off with this (if he's using a Mac) -

http://sbooth.org/Play/

Just point it at a folder containing all your mp3s and you're done

it's made by the same guy who makes Max, which is the industrial strength ripper for Mac

I have an iPod, as discussed on HQ Mp3 Players Beyond IPod

So, in conclusion, there's no way for me to fill my iPod with tunes from my external hard drive without first copying the contents of the external drive onto iTunes, i.e. onto my MacBook's internal drive?

Leaving the external rive for a second, as it stands, I'm ripping albums onto iTunes, and (I've just checked) I have the "copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library" checkbox ticked. That folder, by the way, is what I mean when I say "mp3 destination folder" above.

So my question is this: is it posible to add a file to the library *without* copying it to the iTunes Media folder?

I'm getting the feeling it may have been better if I'd plugged my iPo in before starting all this, but whatever happens, all I really want is all my ripped music in one folder...

So my question is this: is it posible to add a file to the library *without* copying it to the iTunes Media folder?

yep!! just take the tick out of the "copy files to iTunes Media folder" !

but then WHERE DOES THE RIPPED FILE GO? How can I add an album to iTunes without the mp3s ending up... somewhere?

ahhhhhh i see.

i don't know actually - i rip with LAME which lets you specify what folder you want

i think the ripped file always goes into your iTunes Media folder, which by default is on your local hard drive. BUT you can change that in Preferences - Advanced. as to what will happen to the files that are already in iTunes once you do that.... god only knows.

i think the ripped file always goes into your iTunes Media folder, which by default is on your local hard drive.

If this is true, then what does unticking the "copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library" box effectively do?

This is the absolute crux of my confusion: as I'm seeing the situation now, if I untick the box, all my tunes will be ripped to iTunes and thus transferrable to my iPod, but the files themselves will be hidden somewhere, in some deep directory which I can't access (and presumably have no real interest in, as long as the tunes end up on my iPod somehow - otherwise I wouldn't have unticked the box, right?).

But if I tick the box, the files will be ripped to this unseen directory AND to the iTunes Media folder, right? That's what the word "copy" sugests to me. So I'll have TWO digital copies of every CD I rip using iTunes, taking up twice the internal hard drive space, pointlessly. Right?

(So my dilemma is, untick the box, use up half my hard drive space but have no access to specific mp3s if I want them for some reason (mix album etc), or tick the box, have access to everything, but use up twice as much hard drive space, for no real reason...)

Not right!

If you import a CD, it will be ripped to the iTunes Media folder, nowhere else! The tickbox has no effect on importing from CDs

If you import an MP3 with the box unticked, iTunes will index the file and play it from whereever it is currently stored.

If you import an MP3 with the box ticked, iTunes will first copy it to your iTunes Media folder, then index and play it from there.

It's slow and buggy, granted. But I've never found anything that does the job better. What do you recommend?

MediaMonkey - also slow on loading but so easy to move, edit and manage filenames/tags within

tomofthenest, you are the greatest. that's what i needed clarifying!

so if i want to transfer a bunch of shizz from my external hard drive onto my ipod, as long as i don't unplug the external drive i can leave the box unticked and not take up any space on my internal drive at all? right.

now can someone explain why my missus's itunes keeps insisting on creating a second itunes folder and putting music there, despite the fact she's already got a perfectly reasonable folder of that name?

A lot of confusing posts up there. My advice: in Preferences/Advanced, make sure both "Keep iTunes Media folder organized" and "Copy iTunes Media folder to Library" UNCHECKED.

That way you have to manage your files, any mp3 and can be in any folder but still linked to and accessible in iTunes. So you can have mp3s in ~/Downloads, ~/Desktop, ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music, //Share, //EXTHD, and so on.

Only "downside" is that you will want to know where your files are and iTunes won't keep track. But you sound conscious enough to put the files where you want them to be. No worries about extra copies floating around (well, at least when it comes to importing).

As for ripping a CD, you have two options: 1)let iTunes rip it, it'll make the mp3s and link them into your library, easy or 2)rip it yourself using a third party ripper (I use Max or XLD) and then import it manually into iTunes.

Re: the last post, one of those two boxes is probably checked, but if it's empty anyway, I don't see how an extra music folder can hurt.

As for ripping a CD, you have two options

There is a third option: use something like iTunes-LAME which uses a different encoder, but rips straight into your iTunes library.

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/8837/itunes-lame-encoder

yeah i use itunes-lame it's pretty cool

xharlie your missus needs to go to advanced prefs and point her iTunes media folder to the place where she wants it

if you install the newest versh of LAME it's faster btw

If you really care about the quality/size difference between the iTunes mp3 encoder and LAME, I think it's worth the extra step of using one of those programs, you get better options, newer version of LAME, etc. Otherwise the iTunes ripper/MP3 encoder is probably "good enough". I think most programs have the option of automatically importing the files into your iTunes library after encode if you want, actually.

xharlie your missus needs to go to advanced prefs and point her iTunes media folder to the place where she wants it

right, but based on what i've learnt tonight, if she wants her itunes to recognise her mp3s, she's got to add them to itunes again from wherever they've been moved to. which is, umm, annoying any not a little time-consuming.

why does itunes talk but not listen? i think you ought to be able to assign it a path, and then it'll look at the folder at the end of that path and acknowledge the existence of everything in it. meh.

iTunes 9 has an Automatically Add to iTunes folder.
I haven't used it but it seems to be what you're looking for.

Here's another weird thing iTunes - it DOES recognize where you've moved your library mp3s, but ONLY if the iTunes applications is open. For example:

Case 1: iTunes closed, you drag some mp3s from one folder to other. Next time you open iTunes and try to play that file, you'll get the ! files missing.

Case 2: iTunes open. Mess around with the files in Finder all you want, it'll keep track of whatever you do, even if you rename the files, move them to another folder, whatever. No problems.

Unfortunately if you already did Case 1 you still have to remove/re-add to library, but in the future keep that in mind.

Automatically Add to iTunes folder kinda sucks if you're not having iTunes automanage the files and folders though (unless you don't care that all your new music will be stuck in that folder).

I prefer not to have auto-add anyway, since I'm generally acquiring more new music at a faster rate than I can listen to them, with a stupid backlog. I'd rather not stick something in my iTunes library if I'm not even gonna bother to listen to it in the near future, leave it sitting in a downloads folder.

"Automatically add to iTunes" seems to be working, ta! Although I suspect the wheels will come off when I try to upload everything onto my ipod after I've unplugged the external drive...

iTunes isn't letting me edit any of my songs' info since last night...any hypotheses about what the deal is here?

Could the files have become 'locked' somehow? If u do a view-info on the files in Finder (not itunes) does it say anything about them being locked?

Actually, I am going to their folders, and they're empty. ???

Even as I listen to the very song I cannot find!

Ok, I searched a file, and it came up via search, and it was indeed locked. Which doesn't solve the mystery of why it's not just showing up in Finder normally.

This is only true of the files I added last night...all others are behaving normally.

Where did it turn out to be when Finder located it?

Right in the exact folder it should have been located it in.

It says it's in that folder, when I open that folder in Finder, that folder is empty.

Whoa. In over my head now. Maybe the files from last night which Search is finding are in the library of a different 'user' somehow?

There's only one 'user' set up on my compy afaik.

Well one time I had a second user somehow get spawned for no reason and some files were hiding in it (on an aging iBook FWIW). But if the filepath shown on the Search results is exactly the same as the empty location then yeah wtf.

Maybe search up each folder of the ones you added last night and copy them from the Search window to like yr desktop and then re-add to itunes?

Oh hmmm in itunes preferences where are the settings set to put newly-added things? Anything weird there?

The settings are same as ever.

Files I added this morning are appearing normally, too.

I mean, the problem I am describing applies only to these three albums I added last night.

Well that's good news. Chalk it up to some Tron battle that took place in your HD last night I guess.

did you copy them off a data CD or a DVD?

files from CDROMs/DVDs can end up on your local hard drive write-protected

Yes, I did. Mystery solved! If I copy the files from the DVD to my desktop first, would this avoid the problem?

^^^wow that explains a weird problem I have had w a particular album!

is there a quicker way to do this?

http://www.wikihow.com/Duplicate-MP3-Files-On-iTunes

OK i have an inexplicable issue. i want to retag some mp3s (for er last.fm reasons don't judge me). when i do it manually it looks like it's fine - they're not locked or anything and i have reading & writing permissions. but when i play them they revert back to their shitty original tags - can't seem to change the tags permanently...?

i can sort that one out

excellent thx! non-urgent but baffling

Actually sorry was just about to write something about permissions somehow missed that in your post

when you say "revert to their original tags", do you mean in iTunes, or as they show up in last.fm? because if the first, totally baffling, but if the second, last.fm "auto-corrects" tags.

no, in itunes! it looks like it's changed but as soon as you play them it changes back.

Why would a podcast not be able to get copied onto an iPod from iTunes? Downloaded four new podcast episodes tonight, three of them copied over to my iPod as usual - but one won't. Its definitely not a space issue, plenty of free room. I've tried ejecting and restarting the iPod, even unsubscribed, deleted, and resubscribed to the podcast - but it still won't copy to the iPod. Really annoying.

have you tried renaming the file? i remember having this problem with a podcast before that used a filename character that my ipod didn't like.

I'll give that a shot, doesn't seem to be any weird characters but maybe that will do the trick.

That didn't work, but I was able to convert it to AAC and copy it over so it showed up in the music instead of podcasts. Annoying, but it worked.

I bought music on my ipod through itunes and downloaded it onto my ipod but I want to take this music off my ipod for a while - can i store it elsewhere or will itunes let me download it again without paying for it the second time? Or is it a case of delete and you have to pay again?

bump

If you sync with iTunes, the purchases will be transferred to your music library.

Regardless, they now offer the ability to redownload things you've bought onto up to 5 different devices; I think it's in the iTunes store under a "purchased" link in the upper-right corner of the main screen.

ty

wtf with this:

track info says the song length is 21:37, but actually the song is only 6:34, and when it gets to that spot, it skips to the next track. how do I fix this?

Right-click the track and go to Get Info, go to the Options tab, does the Stop Time say 6:34 and is it ticked?

Usually that happens when the vbr header is messed up, you need to find a tool that does it for your OS.

does the Stop Time say 6:34 and is it ticked?

I changed it to 6:34 and checked the box. no change.

yeah google "id3 repair mac" or "id3 repair windows" depending

I have 2 hard drives on my computer. HD1 is running Vista and it's really bogged down. HD2 is running Windows 7 and is clean. I'm going to start using HD2 exclusively, but I don't know how to copy my iTunes library over. I copied all the files into the correct directory but iTunes doesn't see them. I can obviously just add them to the new library, but then I'm missing all the metadata like ratings/play counts, etc. Does anyone know how to do this?

wow, I just copied the itunes directory with all the music/xml to the new drive and it worked!! this is literally the first time an apple product has done something intuitive for me

I'm angered by all the expert transfers of old classical 78s which teh britishes can buy through the UK itunes store while (er, whilst) we americans are forbidden. Anyone know how to set up a UK account from the wrong side of the pond?

sigh what does it mean when itunes refuses to play the full song on certain mp3s and just skips ahead to the next track even though there's around a minute left to go

i thought the first time it did this the mp3s were dodgy but it's done this on three separate albums this week so maybe it is an itunes issue?

no seriously does anyone know, this is wrecking my life like technology ALWAYS BLOODY DOES

another weird thing it's doing with some other mp3s: it'll automatically change the end time to 2:47 (WHY) but still play the whole thing - the little ticker will just freeze at 2:47 and say there are 0:00 secs left but the music will carry on

WHY IS IT BEING LIKE THIS????!!!

it does that to me too, i think it means the file is somewhat corrupt

sometimes with DJ mixes, iTunes will think the track is like 36 hours long, making it impossible to move around within the mix, i.e. skip forward five minutes or whatever

basically iTunes is terrible

but it only started doing it last week to multiple mp3s, i can't only be downloading corrupt files all of a sudden?

what does it mean when itunes refuses to play the full song on certain mp3s and just skips ahead to the next track even though there's around a minute left to go

delete the offending track to the Trash, drag it out of the Trash and double click it when its on the desktop. That reloads it and it should play to the end. Its worked for me on the few tracks its happened on.
― Bloody Snail, Thursday, November 22, 2012 12:27 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

omg thanks so much this actually works!

for the two i've tried so far anyway, fingers crossed

http://twitter.com/jessicalessin/status/273962659278360576

My #1 wish concerns the manifestation of itunes that operates onboard the ipod classic. I've wanted this for years and it's never gonna happen.

If I click through 'Artists' i get a tree of artist names>album names>tracks. If I click Genres, it proceeds to artists>albums>tracks.

Why the fuck can't I have the option of this kind of menu for playlists? All I want is to be able to view the contents of a playlist in Artist>albums>tracks form instead of one long scroll of tracks. You can do this in iTunes proper, of course. Why not on the fkin ipod?

(can you do this in whatever itunes thingy operates in iphones?)

Yeah, that would make large collections way easier to manage. I don't think Apple spends a lot of time thinking about how to help people navigate huge collections of music. Actually I'm not sure anyone does, even Spotify.

It's basically the annoyance of having only three ways to menu-organize (artist, genre, composer) when onboard the ipod. Some things are psych AND exotica AND soundtrack AND chamber music!

what does it mean when itunes refuses to play the full song on certain mp3s and just skips ahead to the next track even though there's around a minute left to go
I've had this problem. I read a fix for this on an Apple support forum: delete the offending track to the Trash, drag it out of the Trash and double click it when its on the desktop. That reloads it and it should play to the end. Its worked for me on the few tracks its happened on.
Update to this. I've found this happening more and more since I've decided to play thru' my whole collection. I've also found that:
(i) if it happens on one track on an album, there's a good chance it'll happen on all the tracks on that album
(ii) if you don't update your iPod after deleting the offending track on iTunes on your main computer it doesn't see it as a new track and still cuts out, so to update both iTunes and iPod do the following;

- delete track or album from iTunes on computer (taking note of play counts if you're worried about that)
- plug in iPod and update
- drag deleted track(s) from Trash to 'Automatically Add to iTunes' folder. much quicker than double clicking them all on the desktop (if you're concerned about such fripperies, update play counts - there's a script you can download for this at Doug's AppleScripts site)
- update iPod again
- Voila! Songs that don't cut out anywhere from two seconds after they start to two seconds from the end!

'update' there ^ when used in conjunction with 'iPod should of course simply read 'synch'

Does anyone know what's going on in my iTunes?

When I play tracks, the last two seconds over every song skips a little. If you move the song to a PLAYLIST it doesn't do this though?

It's very annoying and Googling is just giving me a bunch of other skipping problems

:(

just a guess, but maybe it has to do with crossfade? do you have anything set for the crossfade time? maybe toggling it on and off might reset it or something

have you tried reinstalling it? sorry if obvious

ARGH WHY IS ITUNES SO SLOW ARGH