iTunes help

Thanks Erik.

I assume that by ticking the "Keep iTunes Media folder organized" (I don't normally have this box checked) and by ticking the "Consolidate files" box, this will have iTunes take the original music files in the 3-4 locations and copy them to the new location in a better organized way?

Oh, my tags are neat and tidy alright! I sort them out and check them manually before the files ever see iTunes.

Just in case I've been doing anything REALLY stupid in the past, this is what I tend to do when I buy an album off iTunes.

1) Once the album has been bought, I remove the tracks from the iTunes library - making sure I keep the files!
2) Move the album out of the composer's sub-folder in the "iTunes Media/Music" folder to elsewhere
3) Sort out all the tags and artwork in MediaMonkey
4) Copy the tracks to the "Automatically Add to iTunes" folder so that they are integrated back into the iTunes library

I can spend hours having fun tagging tracks to just the way I want them. (Though I do wonder sometimes whether I am duplicating files my disk space is disappearing so quickly! - The "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library" box is not normally checked,

You don't say....

The best thing for you to do is create a playlist (label it "iPod Update") with all the albums/tracks that you want synced with your iPod. Drag and drop files into the playlist when you want to add music to your iPod and delete files from that Playlist when you want to remove them from your iPod. And just sync that playlist alone - unless of course you want to sync other playlists as well.

Does that make sense?

NOTE - Make sure that you are only syncing SELECTED PLAYLIST, ARTISTS, ALBUMS and GENERS. You can find that in the MUSIC tab when your iPod is connected to iTunes.

-Erik-

As my collection is MASSIVELY larger than the 140+ GB that fits on an iPod Classic, I have created an incredibly complex set of (nested, manual and smart) playlists (with rather enigmatic tagging to enable easy filtering) that allows me to fairly easily adjust what I want to sync.
Yeah, that does mean you have to make some clear selection choices well in advance.

If I ever should lose my iTunes library set-up I'm doomed.
(Not gonna happen. It's backed up four different ways.
The only thing that could possibly gow rong is global thermonuclear war. And I'm kinda guessing the loss of my iPod library will be a fairly minor consideration if that should happen).

I have a question that's related to me changing the music files that I want to make up my iTunes library.

Currently, I have a set of "favourite tracks" that I have on an external hard drive ("Drive A") that I use as the source of my iTunes library. It's all been consolidated to the iTunes "format" when I transferred it a few weeks ago off my laptop and onto the hard drive ("Drive A").

However, I am now more interested in having all my music in my iTunes library and making up a playlist of my "favourite tracks" - i.e., a subset of the whole library. Currently I have my entire collection 500-600GB of data) on another external hard drive ("Drive B"). And I want this drive to be the new source of my iTunes library.

My question really is how I can direct iTunes to ignore the old drive (Drive A) and to use the files contained on Drive B as the new library. I am wondering whether there is the option of just asking iTunes to scan Drive B and build up a library without moving the files around and into a new file structure. Or do I have to have iTunes copy these files and paste them into a file structure that it can use?

Cheers Erik.

Once iTunes fires up after having created a new library, does iTunes then scan the folder selected and create the library itself? The reason I ask is that, I am seeing a "Music" button choice of either "Go To The iTunes Store" or "Scan For Media".

And I am unsure whether I need to actually click the latter choice or just have to wait because the program is doing it automatically but is taking a long time to catalogue the 8000+ separate albums?

If it doesn't do anything, rather than scanning for media, can I just drop my media folders that are in the external drive into the "Automatically Add To iTunes" folder that's located in my iTunes Media Folder Location?

Anyone know how to get stats for an iTunes playlist? Specifically, album artist data?

If I remove the year tags from all my albums, will this force the music app on my device to sort albums alphabetically (within artists)? Or will it do something irritating like sort them by the date I imported them?

Or is there an easier way of getting round Apple forcing you to sort by reverse chronological order?

If its Lincoln green it will take away all the music and distribute it to those in need.

But why don't you just sort your music alphabetically by album on iTunes?
That will copy it over alphabetically to your iPod (works for my playlists. If I order by alphabet, taht's the playlist I get. If I order by time, I get another sequence. Et cetera.)

I don't own an iPod touch, but does it not have a screen where you can simply choose albums?
Sorry, I honestly don't fully understand what you're asking and what your problem is.

Ah. iOs. I bow out gracefully.

Have you checked the "Sort Album" tab in each file? Maybe something screwed up and you have each file sorted by year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-YU4Tjue5E

-Erik-

And is there really no longer a way of working out how long an album is without adding up the track lengths in your head?