| Computer Related > Importing Itunes playlists | Miscellaneous |
| Thread Author: BobbyG | Replies: 60 |
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New Sat 22 Sep 12 20:22
Importing Itunes playlists - BobbyG
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OK scenario is as follows (and remember how poor I am with computers). I have an ipod classic and it was previously synched with the itunes on my netbook. On my itunes I had made up a few playlists. Netbook started to die so I made a back up of the full "my music" folder to an external hard drive. Included within this is the various itune library files. Bought new laptop, copied the music folder over from EHD. Installed itunes and got it to search for my music and itunes is all set up again ready use with all my songs on it. However my playlists are no longer there - some googling told me to search for the itunes itl files which I found, and imported them. However all this has done is to give me duplicates of the standard itunes playlists ie recently played, recently added etc. The playlists that I set up myself are nowhere to be seen. So some questions 1. Is there anyway I can get these playlists retrieved and if so, how? 2. I realise that when I connect my ipod up to this new laptop for the first time it will wipe the ipod and then sync fully again to the "new" itunes (at least thats what it did last time I changed PC.) Should I just use the External Hard Drive as the source instead of the laptop and that way if I need to change again I don't need to go through it all again? I don't tend to add much new music through I do download weekly podcasts? 3. I like the idea of the smart playlist where you can automatically make a playlist based on the known song info - I like the idea of making up a 70s and 80s playlist but most of my songs don't have the year tagged - is there an easy way to do this?? Itunes "Get Info" option doesn't seem to include year? |
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New Sat 22 Sep 12 23:53
Importing Itunes playlists - smokie
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Re playlists... I'd suggest you rename your new iTunes folder (to iTunesx). If your old iTunes folder is within your music, hence on your new disc, start iTunes and it will ask for the location of the iTunes folder - point it at the old one. Then nothing has changed, and your playlists will be correct (as will Date Added etc).If the drive letter is different you will need to change this in iTunes options and let it faff around for a bit sorting itself out. I think whether it recognises an iPod is all down to the iPod serial which it's holding in the iTunes library, so retaining your old library may avoid that problem. Tagging of downloaded songs is terrible. There are a few programs which try to do it for you by recognising the song but its pretty much a manual task at import time. When I used to download a lot I had a program called Tag and Rename which I used to use to manually correct tags before importing them Even for me, year was not something I've bothered tagging. |
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New Sat 29 Sep 12 09:39
Importing Itunes playlists - smokie
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| Was the above of any use Bobby? |
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New Sat 29 Sep 12 16:54
Importing Itunes playlists - No FM2R
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Smokie's way is undoubtedly the best. That having been said you can try this.... iTunes / File / Library / Import Playlist Browse to wherever the *OLD* iTunes library location, select a file called "iTunes Music Library.xml". I think it'll work. |
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New Sat 29 Sep 12 18:39
Importing Itunes playlists - Mike H
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| I can't help thinking, reading this thread, that CDs are easier. The recent motoring thread referring to the potential demise of a simple medium is depressing, seems that to get a selection of music in the next car means I might have to spend hours ripping CDs to get rubbish quality music in the car. Bit like the electric handbrake - solution to a non-existent problem :-( |
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New Tue 2 Oct 12 08:39
Importing Itunes playlists - BobbyG
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Sorry Smokie, I tried what you suggested but didn't seem to work for me - don't know if this was because I had copied it from old netbook to External drive and then back over to new laptop? I had about half a dozen playlists and I haven't yet connected my ipod up to the new PC so I have spent a spare hour here and there just scrolling through my playlists on my ipod and manually setting them up again on itunes. Bit slow and laborious but it has also given me the kick I need to go through my music and do some more tagging, some more playlists and also to make a playlist of all my itunes excluding the weird and wonderful ie kids tunes, obscure b sides etc that everytime they come on, I skip past them but keep them in my itunes in case one day someone says " Have you got x" and I can say yes! |
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New Tue 2 Oct 12 09:33
Importing Itunes playlists - smokie
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Maybe I made it over-complicated. If you rename your current iTunes library to iTunesx then you will get a prompt at iTunes startup as to which iTunes library you want to use. You could point it at your old one (wherever that is) and it would load it...playlists and all. Just looked at mark's suggestion that would quite probably work too, to retrieve your playlists. AFAIK other info would not come across (e.g. times played etc). |
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New Tue 2 Oct 12 12:19
Importing Itunes playlists - BobbyG
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So when you refer to "itunes library" are you meaning all the tracks? I have a folder called Music and within that there are all 5500 songs. Also within that folder is a folder called Itunes (I think - I am at work just now) which contained some itunes files. This was all copied over en masse from the external disc. So when I loaded itunes on to the new laptop , at some point in the install it asks for the prompt of looking for music tracks, I just ticked yes and it went ahead and found all these tracks. (There was no other music on the new laptop). So when you are referring to "itunes library" is that different? It is my understanding, probably wrong, that itunes doesnt keep a seaprate file for each song, it just sort of imports the existing ones? Within that itunes folder, there were various files and it was them that I tried to import in as playlists - it seemed to kind of work as it created duplicate playlists but unfortunately these were the itunes produced ones ie recently played etc, rather than my own personal ones? |
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New Tue 2 Oct 12 14:21
Importing Itunes playlists - smokie
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Yes Bobby, iTunes is a folder name and it should contain (at least) files called iTunes library.itl and itunes library,xml, the file which Mark is referring to. It probably has your music folder in (with all your tracks) by default, but I keep mine separate. I think the way you installed it, it thought it was a new install. So it created a new library (probably in iTunes on your C drive) and you then let it scan to import all the music. Whereas you could have pointed it at your old library (which you could have previously copied to your C drive...), thereby keeping everything. You could still fix it - either Mark's method, or take the files (not the folders) from you old iTunes library and copy them to replace the new ones. btw the location for where your music is stored can be changed in iTunes - go to Edit, Preferences, and click the Advanced tab. First item is iTunes media folder location... |
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New Tue 2 Oct 12 13:56
Importing Itunes playlists - No FM2R
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>> AFAIK other info would not come across (e.g. times played etc). Correct. It would ONLY bring playlists. Renaming and moving the itunes folder as you said would get you everything. |
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New Tue 2 Oct 12 22:03
Importing Itunes playlists - BobbyG
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| OK I will give that a try and report back! |
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New Tue 2 Oct 12 22:19
Importing Itunes playlists - BobbyG
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OK, when I go into MY Music folder I now have the following folders: Itunes My Music Within this Itunes folder, I have the following: Folder called Album artwork Folder called Itunes Media Itunes Library Extras (database file .itdb) Itunes Library Genius (database file .otdb) Itunes library database file . itl Itunes Music Library.xml These all have recent dates from when I newly installed itunes on the new laptop. If I then pick the My Music folder, within that I have a folder called Itunes (as per your suggestion) and within that I have folder called Album artwork Folder called ipod games Folder called Prevoious itunes libraries Itunes Library Extras database file .itdb Itunes Library Genius database file .itdb Itunes Library . itl Itunes Music Library . xml The 3 folders have modified dates of when installed on new laptop, the rest are dates from 2009. Now after I had set up itunes etc, I am sure these were the folders that I then tried to import for the playlists but they ony came through as the itunes standard ones ie recently played etc. Now , what should I do in nice easy steps? Delete itunes, delete the new itunes folders and then reinstall and try and point toward the old folders? How exactly do I do that? Cheers for all your help so far! Bobby |
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New Wed 3 Oct 12 21:46
Importing Itunes playlists - smokie
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For the sake of testing, delete nothing for now. Just rename your new iTunes library and start iTunes. It will say there is no library. Point it at your old library and see if that still has in it what you want. Then come back and tell us :-) (Actually if you hold down the Shift key while starting iTunes it is also supposed to prompt for which iTunes library you want to use, but I've always found that a bit hit and miss) |
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New Wed 3 Oct 12 23:27
Importing Itunes playlists - BobbyG
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>>(Actually if you hold down the Shift key while starting iTunes it is also supposed to prompt for which iTunes library you want to use, but I've always found that a bit hit and miss) Smokie, you are a genius - did exactly that, held the shift key down and then directed it to the old library and , like magic, all my playlists are back!! So thats me there now, have went back into itunes again and it is still sitting with the correct playlists. So finally, as I like to keep my files cleaned up, Am I safe to delete the complete itunes folder that was created on the new laptop altogether (not the music files just the new itunes folder). |
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New Thu 4 Oct 12 02:55
Importing Itunes playlists - No FM2R
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Rename them to a file name and move them to a directory that will enable you to move them back but stop the computer finding them. Put OLD_ in front of them or something. If after a few days you’ve noticed no ill effects, then dump them. |
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New Thu 4 Oct 12 21:18
Importing Itunes playlists - BobbyG
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Smokie - I take that comment back, well sort of! As I mentioned, all the playlists are now showing and all the songs are showing on itunes. But when I actually click on any song it says that it can't be found! So the plan hasn't quite worked - any thoughts? |
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New Thu 4 Oct 12 21:27
Importing Itunes playlists - BobbyG
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| Got it sorted again! |
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New Thu 4 Oct 12 23:21
Importing Itunes playlists - smokie
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That was because your music had moved. From my post somewhere above this... "btw the location for where your music is stored can be changed in iTunes - go to Edit, Preferences, and click the Advanced tab. First item is iTunes media folder location..." |
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New Fri 5 Oct 12 10:46
Importing Itunes playlists - BobbyG
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Another few gremlins seem to have came into the equation - songs on my itunes library but with exclamation marks beside them as it is unable to find the tracks? In an ideal world, what is the correct / best file structure to have? As mentioned before I have the standard Folder called My Music, and within that there is another folder with all the tracks in that folder, separated by folders for each artist. I then have a separate itunes folder with all the itunes type files. But I brought a song into my music folder last night from elsewhere on my laptop and it did not appear on the itunes. However I uploaded Adele album and as this got uploaded through itunes, this did appear? Looking online, there seems to be suggestions that all my music files should be stored in the "Automatically add to itunes" folder? Think I will go and dig out my vinyls ............ |
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New Fri 5 Oct 12 12:09
Importing Itunes playlists - smokie
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Bobby, this should be easy, don't despair. Exclamation marks mean that the tracks are not where the iTunes database thinks they are. So either they are somewhere else, or they've been deleted (but not through iTunes). Where is your music? Is it all under one top level folder? If it is, then make sure that top level folder equals the iTunes Media Location as mentioned above. I have my music in a folder right at the very top level (i.e. not under iTunes - under c:) in a folder called Music. You can have it where you like so long as you tell iTunes where it is... In iTunes, go to Edit/Preferences, then click the Advanced Preferences tab. Then check the box which says Copy to iTunes Music folder when adding to library. When you download or rip something new, put it somewhere else on your hard disc (not in your iTunes library). Then in iTunes go to File/Add file to Library, or File/Add Folder to library to bring it into iTunes, and it will copy the files into your iTunes music library and add them to the database. You can then delete them from the other location. If the mp3 tags are set correctly (i.e. it is showing correct details for track name, number, album and artists) you could go to Edit/Preferences, then into Advanced preferences and tick Keep iTunes Media Folder organised. Then when you import music, it will go into a folder called the artist name (Album Artist field I think), then another folder which is the album name, and the filenames will be prefixed with the track number. This bit isn't important though, just makes it all nice and tidy. You can get programs which allow you to correct the mp3 tag, also some programs try to complete it for you from the Internet (I think Gracenote does). in your music folder Missing music files will not show in playlists. There is a cunning way to discover missing files using playlists and Smart playlists but I won't go into that now. |
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New Fri 5 Oct 12 12:40
Importing Itunes playlists - BobbyG
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Cheers for that Smokie - will have a look tonight but to answer your first question, all my music is in the one folder ie My Music/ Music/ and then all my music is within that, subdivided into folders for each artist. Will check the other items and report back!! Thanks again |
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New Fri 5 Oct 12 12:56
Importing Itunes playlists - smokie
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OK, well to confirm what you're saying, go to one of the tracks which has the exclamation mark and right click, then Get Info. That should show where it is expecting to find the file. You could carry on the Find the file manually, but that would be tedious if there are a lot. If you really believe that all your music is in one place you can do the Add Folder thing above. IIRC It won't add files that already exist. Once it's finished you can sorted the library by Date Added to see what it's found, then re-populate your playlists with any missing tracks |
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New Fri 5 Oct 12 13:06
Importing Itunes playlists - No FM2R
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You may wish to consider a re-run. Uninstall and re-unstall iTunes and pointing it first time at the approriate places. >> IIRC It won't add files that already exist But IIRC, neither will it take out the erroneous file with the exclamation mark. Perhaps I would rename the libraries to something that iTunes won't find, delete everything in iTunes, and then put the libraries back and add them all again. Quicker than it sounds. |
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New Fri 5 Oct 12 13:26
Importing Itunes playlists - smokie
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That won't make any difference Mark, it's reading the database file (the .xml IIRC) whether it's a new install or just being re-pointed. Running Add Folder on your existing music library will re-add any music files which are under that file structure, so the exclamation marks will go, if the files are there. Then it's just re-add them to your playlists, as above. |
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New Fri 5 Oct 12 17:11
Importing Itunes playlists - No FM2R
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Agreed Smokie. But if it was working before then it should work now. So a clean install, and then overwrite every file/directory with the copies from the original directory structure should resolve it all in one hit. |
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New Thu 11 Oct 12 23:03
Importing Itunes playlists - BobbyG
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Mark / Smokie, sorry for not getting back to you, things have been hectic at home and work so not had a chance to look at this again. Off on holiday for a week starting Fri at 5pm so will get a better chance over the weekend maybe and be back with more of my questions! |
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New Sun 14 Oct 12 22:19
Importing Itunes playlists - BobbyG
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OK update time, I have kind of taken a mix of both your suggestions! I first of all renamed the new itunes folder to irunesx and moved it from My Music into My Documents out the way. I then removed the original itunes folder that was previously within "Music" in "My Music" folder and moved it up a level so that when you go into C:/My Music , you then have the option of "Music" -where all the mp3s are stored in a folder for each artist OR "Itunes folder" So far so good, and after i pointed itunes to C:/My Music/Music, it then brought all the songs in again. However I am back to stage one in that I still have a load of songs that it says it can't find. HOWEVER On my ipod, which has never been connected to the new laptop so still working on the old itunes, it says I have 5475 tracks. This new itunes says I have 5767 tracks so I am guessing the difference is the tracks that won't play. A year or so back I went through my itunes and deleted duplicates of songs. Having a glance at the error songs, it would appear some are duplicates but others are not. So as an example, a song it can find is c:usershousemusicmy musicsam cookeoriginals 1 Wonderful World.mp3 but one it can't is file://localhost/C:/Users/House/Music/itunes/previous itunes libraries/itunes media/marvin gaye/originals/02 I heard it through the grapevine.mp3 (both of these info taken from "Get Info) On a similar vein, in my Itunes library I have 2 versions of Fairytale of New York, one works and one does not. The one that does not is the one that is shown in my Christmas playlist on itunes. But on my ipod, my Christmas playlist shows the other track, the one that does work. So does this mean I have somehow loaded on a library that is too old and had previously been superceded maybe? Also on a different not, my ipod has 5 different podcasts but now the itunes is only showing 1. Now I know I can go and try and just reload podcasts from Itunes Shop but is there any way of retrieving these easier? Thats all for now..... |
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New Sun 14 Oct 12 23:08
Importing Itunes playlists - No FM2R
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Is everything you want on your iPod? If so, I hope its backed up because you can restore iTunes from an iPod, although its fun. Anyway, try file / library /organise library tick both and go for it. That can cure a multiple of ills. |
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New Sun 14 Oct 12 23:28
Importing Itunes playlists - BobbyG
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>>Is everything you want on your iPod? If so, I hope its backed up because you can restore iTunes from an iPod, although its fun. The way my ipod is just now is the way I want my itunes to look!! Basically I haven't made any changes to my ipod for a good while, certainly back to when I was using my netbook. Prior to it dying, I backed up all the files to an EDD and I have then reimported these back into the new laptop. So theoreticallt one folder of music went out, and one came back in? >>Anyway, try file / library /organise library tick both and go for it. That can cure a multiple of ills. Does this not then make a duplicate of all my songs so that instrad of it taking up 25GB or whatever, I will have two folders with the same tracks and it will be a combined 50GB? |
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New Sun 14 Oct 12 23:33
Importing Itunes playlists - rtj70
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| If you tell iTunes to organise it will move the files. Of course you have a recent full backup of the laptop to go back to...? |
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New Sun 14 Oct 12 23:51
Importing Itunes playlists - BobbyG
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| Yes - new laptop so everything being imported from the backup on EDD. |
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New Sun 14 Oct 12 23:38
Importing Itunes playlists - smokie
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Yes, that's a maybe yes. What that will do is move everything into the folder structure you have defined for iTunes (leaving the originals orphaned where they are, if different). It's looking like the best bet is to restore your iPod and replace your iTunes library with it. No idea, I can research but someone else may know. |
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New Sun 14 Oct 12 23:38
Importing Itunes playlists - No FM2R
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>>Does this not then make a duplicate of all my songs so that instrad of it taking up 25GB or whatever........ It should not. However, what it will do is concentrate/move a copy of all your songs into the iTunes Library *if* it finds them outside that library. Therefore if it is duplicated elsewhere, you can safely duplicate the "elsewhere" copy. It should sort out all the missing files also, and remove the title if the file does not exist. |
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New Sun 14 Oct 12 23:42
Importing Itunes playlists - No FM2R
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>> the best bet is to restore your iPod and replace your iTunes library with it. In which case there is no reason not to go with an "organise" which actually I think stands a fairly good chance of sorting it out. However, I don't understand what has gone wrong. 1) copy of the original, and correct, iTunes folder system kept safe. 2) clean install of iTunes using the same folder names as before 3) Copy old files on top of new structure overwriting duplicates 4) File/library/Organise the library And that should be it. I've done it at least a dozen times. I don't understand where the dodgy playlists and the duplicate entries are coming from. Do you Smokie? |
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New Sun 14 Oct 12 23:08
Importing Itunes playlists - smokie
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Phew, lotsa questions... and I'm just back from t'pub. Right, one thing - if something isn't in your iTunes but it is on your iPod then if you Sync your iPod you will lose the iPod copy too. The sync only works from iTunes to iPod, not the other way. So don't sync till you know iTunes is straight and has what you want. You should probably start by ensuring that ALL files with suffix ./mp3 are under your Music folder - if not, move them there, ideally by Importing them via iTunes as that will put them into the iTunes folder structure. I think you should then prove that the "missing" files really are missing. Taking your second example, the file path indicates a path which may no longer exist because you have deleted it. But search your whole C drive for the file and see if it is still there, somewhere else. If it IS somewhere else then you can re-point iTunes at it from the Get Info screen. But it shouldn't be, if you have followed step 1 above. That might be a bit tedious for 5000+ files, so if you want to find a list of what iTunes thinks you have, but that don't really exist: Create a playlist called Exists. Add all your music and podcasts to it. Then create a Smart playlist called Missing. The rule definition is Playlist Not = Exists. This new Smartlist should be a list of music files in iTunes which do not exist on your disc. Re Fairytale in NY, the iTunes library would usually be in sync with the playlists. I think that Playlists do not show files which do not exist, which is why the above method works. So I'm a bit puzzled by you saying that the one which doesn't work is the one your iTunes Christmas playlist. Another thought. We might be nearly back at square one here. Now you have your original iTunes playlists, export them (individually, to files). Then re-point your iTunes at the new database, wherever you put it, and import them. This database was, IIRC, rebuilt when you installed, so references all music currently on your PC. Then accept that you have lost some tracks, if you have... Last thing for now - I have no experience of recovering tracks which are missing from your computer from your iPod, but I believe it can be done. So don't sync your iPod if you think there is stuff on there which is missing from your computer. |
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New Sun 14 Oct 12 23:09
Importing Itunes playlists - No FM2R
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>>Last thing for now - I have no experience of recovering tracks which are missing from your computer from your iPod, but I believe it can be done. It can be, I've done it several times. As Smokie says, lets not connect the thing until iTunes looks right. |
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New Sun 14 Oct 12 23:38
Importing Itunes playlists - BobbyG
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>>So don't sync till you know iTunes is straight and has what you want. OK - agreed >>You should probably start by ensuring that ALL files with suffix ./mp3 are under your Music folder - if not, move them there, ideally by Importing them via iTunes as that will put them into the iTunes folder structure. As mentioned in my reply above, all my music was on one folder that got copied from old netbook to an EDD prior to the netbook dying. I then copied this same folder from the EDD back to the new laptop. >>I think you should then prove that the "missing" files really are missing. Taking your second example, the file path indicates a path which may no longer exist because you have deleted it. But search your whole C drive for the file and see if it is still there, somewhere else. If it IS somewhere else then you can re-point iTunes at it from the Get Info screen. But it shouldn't be, if you have followed step 1 above. have checked, its not anywhere to be found >>That might be a bit tedious for 5000+ files, so if you want to find a list of what iTunes thinks you have, but that don't really exist: Create a playlist called Exists. Add all your music and podcasts to it. Then create a Smart playlist called Missing. The rule definition is Playlist Not = Exists. This new Smartlist should be a list of music files in iTunes which do not exist on your disc. OK will give this a try tomorrow though it seems a long winded way, would I not be as well just going throug the itunes library and making a playlist with all the songs with an "!" beside them? >>Re Fairytale in NY, the iTunes library would usually be in sync with the playlists. I think that Playlists do not show files which do not exist, which is why the above method works. So I'm a bit puzzled by you saying that the one which doesn't work is the one your iTunes Christmas playlist. Playlist is definitely showing the Fairytale that doesn't exist along with an Aaron Neville (Silent Night) with an "!" beside it as it doesn't exist either. Another thought. We might be nearly back at square one here. Now you have your original iTunes playlists, export them (individually, to files). Then re-point your iTunes at the new database, wherever you put it, and import them. This database was, IIRC, rebuilt when you installed, so references all music currently on your PC. Then accept that you have lost some tracks, if you have... >>I am thinking that I might be as well just to accept that what I have is what I have and just start working on removing all the not found tracks and getting on with loading up my podcasts again? Last thing for now - I have no experience of recovering tracks which are missing from your computer from your iPod, but I believe it can be done. So don't sync your iPod if you think there is stuff on there which is missing from your computer. >>OK will hold fire for just now till I have exhausted all avenues. One other thing I will try is that I am going to reconnect my EDD and just triple check that there were not any other music folders hiding that I maybe didn't copy over to the new laptop. |
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New Sun 14 Oct 12 23:56
Importing Itunes playlists - BobbyG
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Have just had a quick look through the folder on my EDD and there is music on there which does not appear on my new itunes, although the music is in the folders identical to everything else on the My Music folder. An example, as mentioned the My Music folder has folders in Artist Name. Two of the folders are Eliza Doolittle and Adele, both of which were probably my most recent CDS. These appear in the same folder structure as all my other music - but they are not showing in the Itunes library. Does this indicate that I have maybe went to an older library rather than the most recent (correct) library? |
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New Mon 15 Oct 12 00:01
Importing Itunes playlists - BobbyG
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Just went onto Itunes, Import Folder, and imported both the Adele and Eliza Dolittle folders and that has worked. A comparison of Itunes vs Music folder shows that Itunes has 21.79GB of songs in it but the Music folder seems to have 25.2GB music so this would kind of indicate that there is quite a bit of music in the Music folder that is not showing in itunes? But , and there is always another but, my Ipod DOES have Adele and Eliza on it??? |
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New Mon 15 Oct 12 00:02
Importing Itunes playlists - BobbyG
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And on that note, I think thats enough for one night! Cheers guys .... to be continued!! |
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New Mon 15 Oct 12 07:44
Importing Itunes playlists - smokie
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Sorry... the alcohol took over and I had to go sleep :-) It sounds like you have not imported everything into iTunes doesn't it. So lets's do that before doing anything. First make sure you have control and understanding of where your music library is going to end up. In iTunes, got to Edit/Preferences/Advanced. Make sure the iTunes Media folder location is set to where you want it. Then make sure "Copy files to iTunes media folder when adding to library" is ticked. (Keep organised is good if your ID3 tags are good as it creates a file standard file structure - you can tick that too). Attach your removable disk, and in iTunes got to File/Add Folder to Library. Navigate to the root of our removable disk (e.g. d:) and click OK. This will add any files that DO NOT already exist in the place where it wants to put the files - i.e. the structure above. May take some time...but then you will hopefully have ALL your music in the same place on your hard drive and correct in the iTunes database. What you will also have is an untouched copy of your music still on your hard drive i.e. it doesn't delete as it imports. And you may have duplicates because... If at almost any earlier point you had not ticked to keep the music folder organised (see above) then any music imported at that time, will just be in one big heap under My Music, whereas this import will try to create folders based on artists and album name. There is a button in iTunes to show duplicates but it isn't too smart - it will show duplicates based on (I think) track and artist name, so these may be really duplicates or they could be different versions of the same song. Whatever, you can start there to see if you appear to have a load of dupes. I would imagine, though you are saying otherwise, that the songs that have been missing would not be in playlists, so a manual job to re-add them I'm afraid. |
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New Mon 15 Oct 12 19:23
Importing Itunes playlists - BobbyG
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Smokie, thanks for your note. Just to clarify, MY Music on my laptop has 25.2GB showing on it, the same as the folder that was on the EDD. However, although I freshly installed Itunes yesterday, and directed it to "My Music" folder as being the library, the itunes ony has 21.79GB of music on it. I discovered yesterday that the Adele and Eliza DOlittle albums, although showing in the My Music folder , were not showing in the Itunes folder? So I thought that maybe if I just go back onto itunes, select "add folder to library" and then add the whole of My Music again, it would only add the missing tracks and that would be me sorted. Except It is still adding them as I type this - currently at 24.69GB on my itubes !! So I don't know if it is now adding back into itunes, the songs that I had previously deleted a year ago when I removed all my duplicates - I thought that this also removed them from the My Music but maybe it still leaves them there? Grrr Now at 24.80 GB..... |
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New Mon 15 Oct 12 19:34
Importing Itunes playlists - Zero
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Youve made a right mess of this. You've got mutliple aliases from multiple incarnations of Itunes all over the place All this imprting and exporting of playliest and links is driving you deeper in the mire. You need all your songs in a unique directory structure NOT managed by itunes. IE d:/music/ with all your albums in a unique separate subdirectory under /music. For example. d:/music/led zeppelin d:/music/ELO Move any music in my documents/music/itunes to your d: library. Now delete Itunes, reload Itunes and then File/add to library d:/music. Then see what you have on iPod/itunes. |
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New Mon 15 Oct 12 19:43
Importing Itunes playlists - No FM2R
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>>Now delete Itunes, reload Itunes and then File/add to library d:/music. s'wat I said. |
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New Mon 15 Oct 12 19:48
Importing Itunes playlists - BobbyG
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OK, what I have is all my music is in C:UsersHouseMusicMY Music and it is in the format of C:UsersHouseMusicMy MusicAnnie LennoxDiva whereby every artist has a folder bearing its name, a sub folder bearing any album name and then files for each song within that album name. So are you suggesting delete itunes again, reinstall it a clean install and direct it to C:UsersHouseMusicMY Music to use as its library when it prompts during the install? If I do this, how do I get my old playlists in which was the whole point of this exercise? |
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New Mon 15 Oct 12 20:00
Importing Itunes playlists - smokie
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Your old playlists aren't much use till you have all the music there as well... When you deleted your music how did you do it? If through iTunes, you have an option to delete from iTunes but keep the file. If not through iTunes then they are gone, although could still be visible in iTunes. Might have time during the day Thursday to do a Teamviewer session to your computer if you want. That's where you give me access and I'll log on and poke around and try to find what's where - you can see what's going on. Would that be any help? And, contrary to Zero, I quite like iTuines managing my music locations as it always ends up where I want and expect it. De/re-installing iTunes does nothing btw. You just need to point it at whatever library you want to use, using the trick from before. |
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New Mon 15 Oct 12 20:13
Importing Itunes playlists - Zero
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>> And, contrary to Zero, I quite like iTuines managing my music locations as it always >> ends up where I want and expect it. And the reason it all goes tits up when you try and move it around or do OS upgrades. Last edited by: Zero on Mon 15 Oct 12 at 20:14
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New Mon 15 Oct 12 20:45
Importing Itunes playlists - BobbyG
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Smokie, thanks for the offer but a. I will be away down to Birmingham (ish) to a conference on Thursday b. I think I need to do some more tidying of files first especially my unknown artists and c. I don't want to waste your time anymore though with (c) you are probably thinking it would be a 2 min job through teamviewer rather than a 2 week job through C4P ! let me work on the Unknown artists folders and then I will come back. thanks |
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New Mon 15 Oct 12 20:12
Importing Itunes playlists - Zero
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>> If I do this, how do I get my old playlists in which was the >> whole point of this exercise? The whole thing is now well screwed up beyond the point of saving playlists. >So are you suggesting delete itunes again, reinstall it a clean install and direct it to >C:UsersHouseMusicMY Music to use as its library when it prompts during the install? Yes |
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New Mon 15 Oct 12 20:43
Importing Itunes playlists - BobbyG
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OK have a folder called unknown artists which has some random songs in it so working on that just now to put into correct artist folder then I will be back for some more advice from the experts on here! As mentioned (I think by Zero) I now seem to have a load if different itune directory folders so it might be a good idea to tidy this up once and for all! I'll be back! |
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New Mon 15 Oct 12 21:06
Importing Itunes playlists - No FM2R
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I presume that you have a single copy of your working and acceptable itunes library from your old computer? If so... 1) uninstall iTunes. 2) Remove every directory conceivable associated with iTunes 3) Delete any file which could possibly be associated with iTunes 4) Re-Install iTunes. 5) Use the same directory names that you used previously on old installation 6) Copy old filenames on top of new filenames 7) Organise library That will return your itunes library to the state it was with playlists. Its simpler without the requirement for playlists. If this still causes difficulty than I an beginning to think that your old iTunes library was not quite the paragon of virtue that you remember it to be. Last edited by: No FM2R on Mon 15 Oct 12 at 21:07
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New Mon 15 Oct 12 22:23
Importing Itunes playlists - BobbyG
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OK, beginning to think now that it might not be a bad idea to scrap every bit of itunes associated files and start again as I seem to have whole load of previous itunes libraries. I realise I could possibly try and get the right library to get the right playlists but frankly it is looking too technical for me just now. As a for instance, I have the following structure: C:UsersHouseMusicItunes and within that I have various other folders, libraries, ipod quizzes, databases you name it , its there! So I delete everything associated with itunes and reinstall itunes, direct it to my existing folder that is full of my mp3 songs and take it from there. Alternatively, I use my EDD as the "master" and do the above but direct it to the EDD for my library and that way the next time a laptop dies then hopefully the EDD will still be alive and then I can sync with it easier and won't lose my playlists again??? I also now seem to have 9GB of duplicates on my itunes. So what I propose to do is: 1. Use current itunes to go through and remove the duplicates I don't want and also remove these from "My Music" library. 2. Once this is complete, export the Playlists that are currently showing in the itunes library (have tried exporting and then importing a dummy one and it seems to work fine) 3. Fully delete itunes and everything associated with it (apart from the above playlists which I will keep in a separate folder) 4. reinstall itunes and point it to "My Music" folder 5. Import the above playlists 6. Give you all peace !!!! That sound about right? |
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New Mon 15 Oct 12 22:33
Importing Itunes playlists - smokie
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Ignore my post re ID3 tags for now. Go with what you think, it will work. You could save a bit of time by not de/re-installing iTunes, but I'll give up saying it's a pointless step shall I? :-) Tend to agree with Mark, maybe it wasn't as good as you thought it was... Last edited by: smokie on Mon 15 Oct 12 at 22:33
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New Mon 15 Oct 12 22:29
Importing Itunes playlists - smokie
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You really need to get the ID3 tags right to allow iTunes to manage your library. If they are not right, do not allow iTunes to manage it, once you have reorganised it, as iTunes will move it into the standard structure. Nor will info be displayed completely correctly on your devices, although in your case it may do a reasonably good job of it. Remember if you import files into your iTunes library from somewhere else, it doesn't delete the source. |
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New Mon 15 Oct 12 22:35
Importing Itunes playlists - Zero
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| Use MP3Tag to sort out your tagging. |
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New Mon 15 Oct 12 22:45
Importing Itunes playlists - rtj70
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Booby in the time you've messed with this the play list could be recreated. You probably know what you have already. You might be able to export or look at the playlist files to help recreate them. I let iTunes manage my music (so everything end up in the folder structure) but no longer sync as I use an Android phone and happy with the apps I use. I never used playlists anyway. So leaving the music under the iTunes folder anyway. You seem to be making a mountain out of this. And asking here and getting replies every now and then has made the process even longer. Personally I'd be unhappy if I lost the music files. And it's why I backup automatically to a drive (Apple's TimeMachine handling that). Sync to a NAS. Backup the NAS to an external USB (sync actually). And still might put my important files (photos, video and then music) on the Internet somewhere. |
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New Mon 15 Oct 12 23:02
Importing Itunes playlists - BobbyG
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Yeah fair point, I am going round in circles here and taking up too much of folk's time. I suppose what I want is a folder full of my songs organised correctly, that itunes is then a vehicle for playing that music, making up a playlist and synching it to my ipod. What i don't want to do is basically hand over the lot to Apple / Itunes and let it mess about with it. With my limited computer knowledge I can understand a structure that has a folder with a music file within it. Its when I start getting all these itunes folders, databases etc that freak me out but I suppose some of these are necessary evils. Anyway, I will bow out now, thank you to everyone for their help, it has been useful and has given me a kick up my backside to try and get my music folders sorted into some sort of logic. |
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New Mon 15 Oct 12 23:10
Importing Itunes playlists - No FM2R
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>>Use MP3Tag to sort out your tagging Now I am a huge fan of MP3Tag and use it all the time. But as with all tools it's in how you use it, it won't solve the world's problems for you. Essentially it is a tool which allows mass editing of MP3 Tags and the manpiulation of those tags and the file name. I use it together with Media Player and it solved and continues to solve, any issues with filename, directory name, sorting and directory structure. 1) MP3 Tag to make sure all the tags are correct and complete and standardised. 2) Allow Media Player to rename the file and recreate your directory structure according to the tag data. Job done. |
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New Tue 16 Oct 12 22:44
Importing Itunes playlists - smokie
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| At the risk of repeating myself, the important tag fields for iTunes to properly manage your music are Album Artist, Album, track number and track name. |
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New Tue 16 Oct 12 22:56
Importing Itunes playlists - No FM2R
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| Does it not differentiate between Album Artist and Track Artist? |
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New Wed 17 Oct 12 19:51
Importing Itunes playlists - smokie
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I' pretty sure it does it's organising using Album Artists. I set that to Various Artists when appropriate and have a Various Artists folder full of albums. Track artist wouldn't really make sense for compilations. Mind you if that's blank it may go to Track Artist. |
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