Sorry if we've done this, but: WHAT'S THE MAX NUMBER OF TRACKS ITUNES CAN HANDLE BEFORE IT TRIES TO EAT YOU?

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On the for real:
My computer's been giving me trouble ever since I tried to catalogue something over 167 gigs and I'm about to reinstall iTunes again.
Is there an upper limit to the number of tracks this program can handle? It's already erased my library and playlists multiple times now and these bad habits I cannot abide.
Tech help, please?

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Friday, 25 March 2005 03:47 (twenty-one years ago)

How many songs did you have on your iTunes before it all got erased, just out of curiosity?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 25 March 2005 03:49 (twenty-one years ago)

38 thousand or so, I think.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Friday, 25 March 2005 03:51 (twenty-one years ago)

I use the thing as a filing cabinet and a free association machine. The directory is called "Alexandria" if that tells you anything.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Friday, 25 March 2005 03:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Under the Patriot Act, the FBI are empowered to erase your hard drive if they believe you're listening to music produced outside of Tennessee.

― Ferlin Husky (noodle vague), Friday, 25 March 2005 03:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Ummm...well, that's an awful lot.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 25 March 2005 03:53 (twenty-one years ago)

I think i remember the number being only 14K before it starts to spaz. I've got about 13.5K right now and it's running very slow. I regularly get the dreaded exclamation points popping up, requiring me to relocate the files. This never happened before i got past 10K. Usually quitting iTunes and reopening the program will find the files but then others go missing when i'm not paying attention. I think there's a third party app you can get that allows you multiple library files to assist in large libraries.

― biznotic, Friday, 25 March 2005 03:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Are the spazzing and speed issues caused by the library being written as an XML file?

I was up to 13.5 and it was deadly slow, but I'm down to 9500 or so and it seems a bit quicker.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Friday, 25 March 2005 04:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha I do not have to worry about this problem.

― Jordan (Jordan), Friday, 25 March 2005 04:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Any recommendations on how to fix?

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Friday, 25 March 2005 04:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, you could trying taking some of the POX suggestions around here to heart.

― Ian Christe (Ian Christe), Friday, 25 March 2005 05:01 (twenty-one years ago)

think i remember the number being only 14K before it starts to spaz.

I started having xml problems around the same time....

― Mr. Harvey Weinstein (mr harvey weinstein), Friday, 25 March 2005 05:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Try archiving, burning it onto DVD's etc. I cannot fathom keeping ALL of your music on Itunes, it would drive me insane, how do you do it?

― Jena (JenaP), Friday, 25 March 2005 05:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, it's like ... I need a different live Fugazi set for every day of the month, dig?

― Mr. Harvey Weinstein (mr harvey weinstein), Friday, 25 March 2005 05:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Alexandria I and Alexandria II.

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Friday, 25 March 2005 05:21 (twenty-one years ago)

The main problems are with the XML library files used by iTunes. XML is just like HTML in that if a single character of code, like a "

― Broken Hipster (Broken Hipster), Friday, 25 March 2005 06:30 (twenty-one years ago)

The main problems are with the XML library files used by iTunes. XML is just like HTML in that if a single character of code, like a "

― Broken Hipster (Broken Hipster), Friday, 25 March 2005 06:31 (twenty-one years ago)

shit

― Broken Hipster (Broken Hipster), Friday, 25 March 2005 06:31 (twenty-one years ago)

The main problems are with the XML library files used by iTunes. XML is just like HTML in that if a single character of code, like a "[greater than symbol]", is missing/corrupted then the entire file after that point becomes unreadable. Considering how often your iTunes library file is modified/updated this is bound to happen eventually.

The best way to prevent this is to periodically BACKUP your iTunes library file. Find out where it's hiding and make a dated copy that you can roll back to if your shit gets fucked up.

And backup your playlists too, as they will also go bye-bye if your library file calls it quits.

― Broken Hipster (Broken Hipster), Friday, 25 March 2005 06:32 (twenty-one years ago)

you can write < for less than, and > for greater than

that said

FUCK ONE "ITUNES LIBRARY"

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 25 March 2005 07:07 (twenty-one years ago)

There are programs to get around the problem of iTunes running slowly with huge libraries - they unsurprisingly involve splitting the Library. I haven't used any of them.

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 25 March 2005 09:25 (twenty-one years ago)

My computer's been giving me trouble ever since I tried to catalogue something over 167 gigs and I'm about to reinstall iTunes again.
Is there an upper limit to the number of tracks this program can handle? It's already erased my library and playlists multiple times now and these bad habits I cannot abide.
Does your computer have enough horses to run Itunes? Are you on Windows or Mac?
My music library (just under 34k songs, 203gb) chugs along, albeit slowly, on my P3 733 machine. Looking around the net, there's no mention of any "hard" upper limit- much of it depends on your machine.
I've noticed when I leave Itunes open for a long period of time, performing many different tasks inside it (fixing titles, rating songs, playing songs to an airport express, etc) that it continually grabs more RAM- it's definitely a memory hog.
Forksclovetofu- give us your computer specs....

― mclaugh (mclaugh), Friday, 25 March 2005 12:49 (twenty-one years ago)

There was a hard limit of 32k songs, until iTunes 4 I believe.

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 25 March 2005 12:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Multiple things: I don't allow iTunes to collate my library; that way lies madness. I just drop individual tracks directly into iTunes and then arrange from there. That said, how would I make individual libraries in that fashion?

The zillions of tracks reflect a decision I made a few years ago not to own hard copies of anything. When I buy a disc, I rip it and sell/give away/dispose it ASAP.

The whole library is fully backed up; I'm not worried about losing the music, I just need to have the big ol' pile accessible for when I'm looking for just about anything. You'd be surprised how much you can learn just by making a big pile of music and then swimming around in it like Uncle Scrooge. A lot of the tunage rubs right on ya. Further, I can't tell you how often I suddenly realize that I need to listen to that Disposible Heroes of Hiphoprisy track about the kid that goes to prison RIGHT NOW followed by a Howlin' Wolf track RIGHT NOW and some Baaba Maal and Eddie Jefferson and Van Halen RIGHT NOW, so to speak. If iTunes won't allow me to catalogue, I need to find a program that will.

Broken Hipster, I'll try and learn a bit on that level and see if it helps.

Alba: what and where are these programs?

MCLaugh: PC, Pentium 4, 1.5 Ghz, 512 RAM

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Friday, 25 March 2005 17:22 (twenty-one years ago)

i have 50k songs in my itunes, and yes it runs slowly. my xml library file is over 100mgs. but really, it's still usable. sure, when i double-click a track it takes a half-second to start rather than being instantaneous. back when this bothered me, i had two separate libraries set up under two separate accounts on my mac. but the switch got to be such a pain in the ass i abandoned that and just learned to live with the pauses.

― Jams Murphy (ystrickler), Friday, 25 March 2005 17:28 (twenty-one years ago)

More than anything, I wanted to know if I was approaching some sort of hard limit; Yancy seems to suggest that's not the case.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Friday, 25 March 2005 17:32 (twenty-one years ago)

no, there isn't a hard limit. the limit is with your computer's memory; not itunes itself. at least as far as i can tell.

― Jams Murphy (ystrickler), Friday, 25 March 2005 17:38 (twenty-one years ago)

i had two separate libraries set up under two separate accounts on my mac

I was going to suggest that. Alex I and II wouldn't solve the problem, you'd have to use two separate users. But with Panther, you can slip between users on the fly using f10 key, right? Then the question is how to define your schizophrenia.

Or don't bother indexing your whole library via Itunes. If you're keeping the complete works of Mingering Mike on hand for future generations, you can just drag that folder into itunes when you need it.

― Ian Christe (Ian Christe), Friday, 25 March 2005 18:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I was thinking of a thing called iTunes Library Manager, but it's for Mac only.

― Alba (Alba), Friday, 25 March 2005 18:07 (twenty-one years ago)

The only suggestion I would make is to either up your RAM, or increase your swap file size on your computer.
Like many ILMers (me included), trying to rip all your music onto your computer yields a pretty slow Itunes. But, being able to access everything at once, whether at home or w/ an ipod, is the greatest.
Especially w/ random- it's almost like a game, wondering what crazy song you haven't heard in ages is going to play!

― mclaugh (mclaugh), Friday, 25 March 2005 18:44 (twenty-one years ago)

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