[kwitel]

I am beyond annoyed...iTunes decided to go blank last week.
No big deal to just "add folders" from my C Drive.
However,
I have TONS of music that constitutes full albums but the songs were never arranged by album or artist or even track number. They are just basically all over the place. These albums, when I pulled them into iTunes I just arranged the album, track numbers and all other pertinent info once it was in iTunes but not in "my music" folder on my computer.
-I hope I explained that properly.
Anyways, do I now have to arrange all that music all over again??
When I import a CD it goes into iTunes nice and arranged and in order since its reading the info direct from the CD. But alot of my music from back in the day is downloaded or from friends, etc. and is in nor particular order, even though all of the songs when arranged make up whole albums.

If the bad news is that I have to do this all over again, do I arrange it now from the back-end (my hard drive first then add to iTunes?) or, do I add all that random music to iTunes FIRST and then arrange once in iTunes?

Last but not least, I have realized that I have hundreds of "it.#.tmp" files?
What the heck are those and can I get rid of them?
I have about 700 in total; when I try to open it it says "windows cannot open this file".

Oh boy-this is gonna suck, isnt it.

 

[ChaseD13]

hmmm..im not sure how it will work out BUT since you are using itunes, i assume you have an ipod

if you have an ipod im pretty sure you could just import all the music using winamp or something

you could put it in a folder and it should be organized just as it was on the ipod.

then you could import from that folder into itunes

this is just a theory, but it has been my untested plan b when my harddrive fails or when i inevtiably screw up my computer beyond repair and will have to reinstall windows.

give my theory a test and tell me how it goes. i would love to clean up my "my music" folder as some of it is full of a) empty folders b) incorrectly titles songs that are not in folders and c) duplicate songs and ablums

ofcourse itunes is niecly oraganized just i cant stand looking for things in the actual folder

 

[Anilan]

Let me see if I can understand this:

You wanted to add all your music back into iTunes and you did that. In iTunes the music is all properly arranged to your liking, yes? However, in your "My Music" folder they seem to be all over the place?

From my understanding you don't have iTunes managing your music, that is, iTunes won't sort the files for you and are left exactly the way they are when they are added. If you turn this feature on, iTunes will organize your music using the tagged information in the track in a folder of your choice. It will arrange it as follows:

Artist name (folder) -> Album name (folder) -> Track name.mp3 (or whatever extenstion)

This can be turned on in the Preferences -> Advanced -> Keep Music Folder Organized check box.

 

[jvs]

What format are you using? If you did not use wav but mp3 or aac or such then the information you entered later on in iTunes should be stored with the music files in the form of tags I believe. In that case you should be okay searching your drives for music files and dragging them into iTunes again. Your additional info should still be there AFAIK.

 

[lionel marechal]

Like the other said the info (album, trackno, ...) is in the mp3 file itself, so when you add the files again, you are going to have the same structure.

Because I was concerned by things like that or by 'what to do if I use something else', I personally do not import in itunes , I always convert the CD in foobar, create a folder name and have a very simple organisation on my external HD like in the screen shot below.

It is more work, but way safer that havind the stuff all messed up (in term of files organisation ) in itunes. And again, who knows if in 2 years you are still going to use Itunes.

Lionel

 

[kwitel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lionel marechal Like the other said the info (album, trackno, ...) is in the mp3 file itself, so when you add the files again, you are going to have the same structure. Because I was concerned by things like that or by 'what to do if I use something else', I personally do not import in itunes , I always convert the CD in foobar, create a folder name and have a very simple organisation on my external HD like in the screen shot below. It is more work, but way safer that havind the stuff all messed up (in term of files organisation ) in itunes. And again, who knows if in 2 years you are still going to use Itunes. Lionel

In response to everyone:

First off-thanx for all your replies.

I seem to have a lot of music that are in single song format in my "my music" folder. They each have a little iTunes icon before them.
Then, I have a sub-folder to "my music" that is named "itunes music" and it has all the music that I have imported directly into iTunes.
I have now moved all my music into that folder just to make things easier.

It seems that some of those individual songs have been already copied and already exist in the iTunes folder.
When you play a track in iTunes (one that was originally not imported into iTunes, and came from another place), does iTunes automatically make a copy of it, or even a folder for it under "iTunes music" on your harddrive?
I seem to have duplicates of both tracks and folders....
So, I added all the music to iTunes and it did not come in organized. I have to change all the genres and track numbers AGAIN manually.
It sux and its going to take forever.
Should I a)organize it in my C drive and re-add to Itunes or just change it in iTunes?

Lastly, what the heck are all those it.#.tmp files???
Can I get rid of them?

BTW: what excatly does that "keep iTunes Music folders oganized" button do?
Does it copy what you do in Itunes and then make folders for the songs? (by album, band name, etc.)

 

[jvs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwitel Lastly, what the heck are all those it.#.tmp files??? Can I get rid of them?

Don't get rid of them. I don't know but they might be license files to play the songs you bought in the iTunes store.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwitel BTW: what excatly does that "keep iTunes Music folders oganized" button do? Does it copy what you do in Itunes and then make folders for the songs? (by album, band name, etc.)

Yes, that's the default in iTunes. But you can switch it off in the Preferences.

Now, if your original files were copied to the iTunes folder then the song with your added information will be those copied ones, not the original ones. Just have a look at the Properties of both versions.

Be careful though not to remove the old files yet since they might be in a different (and better) format. iTunes converts everything that is copied into the iTunes folder to aac, I think.

 

[kwitel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jvs Don't get rid of them. I don't know but they might be license files to play the songs you bought in the iTunes store. Yes, that's the default in iTunes. But you can switch it off in the Preferences. Now, if your original files were copied to the iTunes folder then the song with your added information will be those copied ones, not the original ones. Just have a look at the Properties of both versions. Be careful though not to remove the old files yet since they might be in a different (and better) format. iTunes converts everything that is copied into the iTunes folder to aac, I think.

Ive never purchased any songs from iTunes or anyother sight that would require licensing-so I dont think thats what they are.

As for AAC; I think my whole library is in AAC at 192-256kbps. Is that a bad format or should I be using something else?

 

[jvs]

No, it's not a bad format. It is compressed but okay.

 

[Nine']

Going out on a limb and assuming the windows version is the same as the mac, when the "keep itunes organized" button is set dropping the files into itunes does make an exact copy, not a re-rip...pretty sure it doesn't re-rip files period. Having that setting on also makes itunes create folders based on artist name, then within those folders it makes a folder for each album. So if you set things up okay in itunes, it should clean up everything else. (there should be an option in the menu somewhere called "consolidate library", I believe that puts everything into your music folder if it isn't there already, but don't quote me on this one)

 

[matt8268]

I'm not sure I follow exactly the problem you're having, but let me share the following:

1. When you import music into iTunes, if the "Copy Files to iTunes Music Folder When Adding to Library" option is checked, it will put a copy in your iTunes Music folder and use that copy as the source file for the entry in iTunes. The copy will be identical to the original (no resampling is done). If the option is unchecked, it will use the original file as the source file.

2. If the "Keep iTunes Music Folder Organized" option is checked, iTunes will keep your iTunes Music folder sorted automatically.

3. iTunes can be a pain for keeping your library synched to your files when you do any kind of folder changes or switch to a new computer. The iTunes Library.itl file stores where iTunes thinks it can find all the files that show up in your library. If you move files from their locations, the .itl file gets out of sync, and shows little exclamation points next to those songs. You can reimport those songs that got lost, but you'll lose the original info that was in the .itl file, such as ratings, song and artist name, etc.

In order to keep a usable backup for iTunes, I have to make a backup of the iTunes Music folder along with the .itl file. If I need to backup, I copy the .itl file back to its normal location, and copy all the music files back to exactly where they were, and everything comes up great. Just did that when switching to my new computer. I strongly recommend putting your iTunes Music folder directly off your C:\ directory, so you can easily restore it across multiple computers (instead of dealing with Documents and Settings\[User Name]\My Music...etc.

I realize this probably doesn't help you with your exact prob, but may enlighten and possibly help others.

 

[kwitel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nine' Going out on a limb and assuming the windows version is the same as the mac, when the "keep itunes organized" button is set dropping the files into itunes does make an exact copy, not a re-rip...pretty sure it doesn't re-rip files period. Having that setting on also makes itunes create folders based on artist name, then within those folders it makes a folder for each album. So if you set things up okay in itunes, it should clean up everything else. (there should be an option in the menu somewhere called "consolidate library", I believe that puts everything into your music folder if it isn't there already, but don't quote me on this one)

When you say it makes an exact copy, does it make copies of music that is imported INTO iTunes or just music from other programs or other areas of your computer?
I ask, b/c when I import a CD, it goes straight into the iTunes folder and no copies are made (or at least I thought thats how it was).
Does this also mean that if its making copies that its doubling how much space is being used to?
Id like to keep everything organized but I dont see any need to make copies of everything-it just uses too much space.

 

[Nospam]

There are two checkboxes in the iTunes Preferences that affect your files and how they are organized:

1) "Keep iTunes Music Folder Organized" or something like that.

2) "Copy files to music folder when adding to Library" or something like that.

When #1 is on, iTunes will organize all your files that are located in your iTunes Music folder, placing them in subfolders by artist and album.

When #2 is on, whenever you add a song to your library, iTunes first checks to see if it already resides inside your Itunes Music folder. If it's not there, iTunes will copy the file into your music folder. So yes, this does create an extra copy of the file.

Since you seem to want all your songs organized, make sure both options are turn on. Then, after you've added all your songs to the Library, delete any files that are located outside of your iTunes Music folder. Those would be duplicates of what's already inside the folder.

 

[jvs]

Hi Kwitel. I am curious if you managed to recover your tags?

 

[Nine']

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwitel When you say it makes an exact copy, does it make copies of music that is imported INTO iTunes or just music from other programs or other areas of your computer? I ask, b/c when I import a CD, it goes straight into the iTunes folder and no copies are made (or at least I thought thats how it was). Does this also mean that if its making copies that its doubling how much space is being used to? Id like to keep everything organized but I dont see any need to make copies of everything-it just uses too much space.

Whether iTunes imported the file initially or not, it will make a copy of the file (assuming you have the options set as above, forgot there was a "copy to iTunes Music folder option"). So yes, you'll wind up with two copies of the same file (one in the iTunes library, and the original file).

Importing a cd is making a copy though...if it didn't have a copy you would be unable to play the song when the cd was removed. The act of importing a CD rips it to whatever format you're using and drops it in the iTunes Music folder, but nowhere else. So in that case you're not using twice the space on your hard disk.