iTunes program question

[MartyJazz]

Here I am with an iPod on which I have upwards of 700 selections separated into various playlists of my own choosing, and today I open up the iTunes program in order to add more music and, lo and behold, it's Day One, i.e., none of my selections are listed. What's more is that the original defaults of the iTunes program are there, e.g., their suggested playlist categories, etc. When I go into "Edit", "Preferences", I see that my iMusic folder on my external hard drive is listed and indeed, it still does contain all the music that I have loaded from various CDs, but I don't see any option on the iTunes menus that would allow me to import my whole library of music, and to restore my chosen playlists, necessary for separating my music into various categories of my choosing. Help menu isn't especially helpful. Suggestions? Also, any reason(s) as to why this problem occurred?

[John L]

Importing your library back into iTunes is not a problem. Just select "add folder" and then select your iTunes music folder. Restoring your playlists is a more complicated matter. Somebody else might know more. I would search around for your iTunes library file. iTunes stores them by default in the iTunes folder. For some reason iTunes might have lost reference to that file. It should have all your playlists on it.

A similar thing happened to me once when my iTunes library file became damaged (I have since learned to back them up every now and again). If the playlists exist on your iPod, however, I believe that there are programs that will allow you to transfer them from your iPod back to iTunes. I don't use one of those programs, but others might know something about it.

Good luck.

Edited January 30, 2010 by John L

[MartyJazz]

Importing your library back into iTunes is not a problem. Just select "add folder" and then select your iTunes music folder. Restoring your playlists is a more complicated matter. Somebody else might know more. I would search around for your iTunes library file. iTunes stores them by default in the iTunes folder. For some reason iTunes might have lost reference to that file. It should have all your playlists on it.

A similar thing happened to me once when my iTunes library file became damaged (I have since learned to back them up every now and again). If the playlists exist on your iPod, however, I believe that there are programs that will allow you to transfer them from your iPod back to iTunes. I don't use one of those programs, but others might know something about it.

Good luck.

Thanks. Yeah, I simply dragged the iTunes folder from my external hard drive to the iTunes window and that restored my music library. However, I had to laboriously re-create my playlist folders and re-insert the music into them, a real pain that bugs me because I don't know iHow and iWhy the problem occurred in the first place.

Edited January 30, 2010 by MartyJazz

[Shawn]

iTunes saves all the playlist information in the "itunes Library" file. Backing up this file is important because it contains so much information, if the file gets corrupted you'll be back to square one again. However, there is an easy way to recover if you have the file backed up.

This works with either operating system (windows or mac). If you open iTunes and your information is messed up or you get a library error, here are the steps.

1. Close iTunes.

2. Replace the Itunes Library file (inside the iTunes folder) with the backed up version.

3a - For Windows: Hold down the left shift key on the keyboard and double-click the iTunes icon. This will give you a screen that asks whether you want to create a new library or choose existing.

3b - for Mac: Same process, but hold down the Option key before clicking on the iTunes logo.

4. Select "Choose Library" from that window, navigate to the iTunes folder and select the Library file you just replaced.

5. iTunes will open up normally with all your information intact.

*random hint* - If you keep your iTunes library on an external hard drive, make sure the drive is "awake" before opening iTunes. I've had a couple library problems because iTunes tries to access the library file before the drive is completely awake and it freaks out. Navigating to the drive in Explorer (or Finder) and just browsing the contents will make the drive wake up.

...working for Apple has its benefits.

Edited January 30, 2010 by Shawn

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I got an iPod yesterday. And a second external hard drive for backing up the first. I haven't even unpacked either, because I've spent almost all day checking the tags on all my music files, before doing a second copy of 'em. (Really, REALLY, boring job.)

So, when I do unpack them and try 'em out, my recollection is that iTunes is going to say that it'll look for my music files and shove 'em into my iTunes library. Very helpful thanks, but it'll be on the external. How do I point iTunes in the right direction? Should I turn down iTunes' glorious offer to round up my music? And if so, what then?

MG

[Shawn]

So, when I do unpack them and try 'em out, my recollection is that iTunes is going to say that it'll look for my music files and shove 'em into my iTunes library. Very helpful thanks, but it'll be on the external. How do I point iTunes in the right direction? Should I turn down iTunes' glorious offer to round up my music? And if so, what then?

MG

iTunes doesn't really care where the music is, as long as you tell it where to find it.

1, open iTunes

2. go to edit>options>advanced

3. uncheck "copy items to iTunes media folder"

4. Tell it not to "keep your library organized".

5. Close Preferences.

6. Go to File>add folder to library and browse to your external hard drive.

7. iTunes will import all the files into the library, but it won't actually make another "copy" of the songs, it just points to their location.

hope that helps

[Jim R]

I almost never use playlists, but I'm always curious to read about how others go about using iTunes and iPods. After reading this thread, another idea occurs to me. If Marty wanted to keep track of which music files belonged in different playlists (in case of another problem like the one he's encountered), couldn't he just use the playlist names as tags?

Such as...

1. Open an existing playlist in iTunes

2. Go to "Edit" and choose "Select All" (or use the Command-A keyboard shortcut)

3. Go to "File" and "Get Info" (Command-I)

4. Choose an unused field (such as "Grouping" or "Comments" in the Info window; or, click on "Sorting" and choose an unused field there, such as "Sort Album"). Enter the name of your playlist (choose a specific name that is unlikely to turn up anywhere else in iTunes).

If the playlists ever disappear again, type the name of any playlist into the search box and all the tracks should come up. The only catch is that you might need to save the names of your playlists someplace in case you forget them. Or, if you did forget a name, you could just search for any track that you know belongs in that playlist, "Get Info", and find the field where you entered the playlist name.

If you were to include the field you chose for entering the playlist names ("Grouping", for example) in your "View Options" (found in the "View" menu; or Command-J), then you'll be able to see which files are associated with each playlist at any given time, and you could sort them accordingly by clicking on that heading.

[MartyJazz]

Great suggestion, except that I chose to edit a used field within each playlist, i.e., Genre. Since most of my playlists consist of various jazz subgroupings, e.g., "Bebop", "Big Band", "Modern", etc., I simply removed the "Jazz" category in the Genre field and substituted the actual jazz subgroup playlist names. Sure enough, the new Genre fields showed up in the entire music library, so if the same problem should occur again where the playlists are gone, it should be easy to sort the entire library by genre and easily re-create the playlists. Thanks

[A Lark Ascending]

I suspect, MG, that like many of us you really won't need most of the 'automatic' features. Best to check 'Manually manage music and videos'.

When I import or download into iTunes I always re-label prior to putting on the iPod. Not sure if you can see this but it's how I work it:

If you click a track and click 'Get Info' you will see a window like this where you can change anything you want.

If you select all the tracks from the album (clicking the 'Info' tab as it automatically brings up 'Summary' with a multiple selection) then you can change the album information all at once, but individual track titles stay the same - obviously helps to change them one at a time if you need to.

Once I have it uploaded (and, for downloads, burnt on a disc...I still can't cope without a disc!)I move the file to an external hard disc and every now and then purge iTunes.

If I want to reload it to the iPod I just move it back from the external disc (File>Add Folder (or File) to Library). Seems to have worked so far.

I think a lot of the automatic stuff is useful for people with small collections; but not very helpful to those of us who know what we want and want to organise it ourselves.

There are probably much more obvious ways of achieving the same result. This is the route I worked out and it seems to work.

A question of my own.

I have a few vast compilation folders that I like to put on 'shuffle' when travelling. The trouble is that if I then go to something else and come back to the compilation it goes for total random again, repeating things.

Is there an easy way to exclude recently played from a compilation (either in the main file or by making a playlist) so I can work through the entire compilation without repeats.

Or am I asking too much from the technology?

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

So, when I do unpack them and try 'em out, my recollection is that iTunes is going to say that it'll look for my music files and shove 'em into my iTunes library. Very helpful thanks, but it'll be on the external. How do I point iTunes in the right direction? Should I turn down iTunes' glorious offer to round up my music? And if so, what then?

MG

iTunes doesn't really care where the music is, as long as you tell it where to find it.

1, open iTunes

2. go to edit>options>advanced

3. uncheck "copy items to iTunes media folder"

4. Tell it not to "keep your library organized".

5. Close Preferences.

6. Go to File>add folder to library and browse to your external hard drive.

7. iTunes will import all the files into the library, but it won't actually make another "copy" of the songs, it just points to their location.

hope that helps

Thanks Shawn - looks like the stuff I want to do. Printing it out, so I don't forget

Now got my 2nd external HD working and all music on both EHDs; deleted from C: Going to try out the ipod this afternoon.

MG

[Shawn]

A question of my own.

I have a few vast compilation folders that I like to put on 'shuffle' when travelling. The trouble is that if I then go to something else and come back to the compilation it goes for total random again, repeating things.

Is there an easy way to exclude recently played from a compilation (either in the main file or by making a playlist) so I can work through the entire compilation without repeats.

Or am I asking too much from the technology?

A smart playlist should accomplish that goal, the possibilities are near endless. Maybe something like this....

Edited January 31, 2010 by Shawn

[A Lark Ascending]

Thanks, Shawn.

That looks exactly what I need!

[A Lark Ascending]

It works, Shawn!

The only difference:

1. Doesn't need that first 'Compilation' line - for some reason it excludes tracks.

2. You need a line with 'Genre' 'is' 'Jazz Mix Album' (or whatever you have labelled the tracks as).

Many thanks. This makes the iPod far more user friendly for random playing.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

It works, Shawn!

The only difference:

1. Doesn't need that first 'Compilation' line - for some reason it excludes tracks.

2. You need a line with 'Genre' 'is' 'Jazz Mix Album' (or whatever you have labelled the tracks as).

Many thanks. This makes the iPod far more user friendly for random playing.

Looks good. When I get time, I'd like to put "That devilin' tune" on a random shuffle like that.

Got my ipod working, but no music on it yet. Had not realised what a huge overhead converting .wma to .mp3 would be. Takes forever. Will use itunes to rip stuff in future.

MG

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Oh, Shawn - your little bunch of instructions worked perfectly! Thanks very much.

MG