iPod/iTunes help

loganlogan
Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
I transferred all my songs from my PC (on which I used musicmatch) to my mac which i now use itunes, but my problem is, they dont stay in their folders that i organized them into by artist when i transfer them over and i need to know how i can have iTunes look up all my song names and organize them into artist folders for me if that is possible because it was possible on MusicMatch Plus on the PC I wouldnt expect any less from iTunes.



Thanks

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    monkeyastronautmonkeyastronaut Posts: 1,343member
    woah all in one sentence!



    doesn't iTunes do that automatically? It grabs the song names from id3 tags and by default copies them into folders with the artist's name.
  • Reply 2 of 12
    loganlogan Posts: 284member
    Thats all u have to say No help?
  • Reply 3 of 12
    mjemje Posts: 91member
    Here ya go

    Open iTunes Preferences (under the File menu) Click on the "Advanced" tab. Unclick the box that says "Keep iTunes Music folder organized" and I think that should do it. Hope that helps

    EDIT: also unclick the "Copy files to music folder when adding to libary" That will make it load from your folders insted of moving it to where iTunes wants it to go.



    -MJE
  • Reply 4 of 12
    formerlurkerformerlurker Posts: 2,686member
    You may need to delete iTunes Library and Prefs in order to make the above work.



    Tell us more if you can.... how exactly did you copy the folders over from your PC, where did you put them, how did you get them into iTunes, does iTunes show artist/track info?
  • Reply 5 of 12
    loganlogan Posts: 284member
    I just used my network and dragged them strait into iTunes, and no, no info about artists/album came along.
  • Reply 6 of 12
    formerlurkerformerlurker Posts: 2,686member
    -Quit iTunes if it's open.

    -Delete iTunes folder (Home/Music/) and com.apple.iTunes.plist (Home/Library/Preferences).

    -Copy mp3s to local hard drive in Home/Music/ (or burn a CD if you can, it may have a better chance of transferring the ID3 tags)

    -Open iTunes, click YES for Internet prefs etc. and Add Later or whatever when it asks to search your HD for mp3 files.

    -Go to Preferences and Advanced tab and DE-select the bottom check box (Copy Files to iTunes. . .)

    -Go to File menu and select Add to Library and navigate to Home/Music and select it.

    -See if your mileage varies from the first attempt.



    Good luck, keep us posted
  • Reply 7 of 12
    overhopeoverhope Posts: 1,123member
    If no artist/album information came over, it sounds suspiciously like there's no data in the ID3 tags: since these are embedded in the track itself, they pop up in every ID3-compatible player regardless of platform.



    In iTunes, select a track and do a Get Info: if the fields are empty, I'm afraid you're in for a lot of typing, because there's no way to automatically assign information to a track retroactively.
  • Reply 8 of 12
    stupider...likeafoxstupider...likeafox Posts: 1,618member
    For whatever reason, PC users of mp3s are stuck in the metadata stone age of using directory structures for their music file metadata.



    iTunes works with the ID3 tags to give you a far, far, far... better experience.



    What you want to do is go to www.musicbrainz.org and download the MusicBrainz tagger for the PC. Point this at your mp3's and if you're lucky it will be able to identify them by comparing the first 30 seconds of music to its database.



    If your music is not already in the database it provides a reasonably sane interface for identifying the tunes you own and having the ID3 tags written out automatically.



    Once you've done that transfer the mp3's (now with ID3 tags) to iTunes and they will work a treat. They will also work better in most PC apps.



    Furthermore the iPod uses ID3 tags as the basis for it's highly intuitive song navigation system. I don't know how the iPod deals with ID3l-ess files but I imagine it isn't pleasant.



    Assuming you ripped these files yourself you might want to look into the ripping software's options and see how you can write ID3 tags for future rips. If the filenames and directory structure are correct then you must have got that info from somewhere and there is no reason not to use it for ID3 tags too.



    In fact, I haven't used MusicMatch but there may well be a facility to tranfer album/artists data from the directory structure automatically allowing you to skip the musicbrainz step. Have a look in the options/help.
  • Reply 9 of 12
    murbotmurbot Posts: 5,262member
    I think this thread is suited more to Digital Hub...



  • Reply 10 of 12
    overhopeoverhope Posts: 1,123member
    Although we could use this one in the Genius Bar.
  • Reply 11 of 12
    murbotmurbot Posts: 5,262member
    Damn, I didn't notice ALL the threads he has going.



    Keep it to the one Brad linked to I guess.



    Thanks for the heads up.



    Can't lock this as it's not my forum, but continue the discussion in that linked thread, please.
  • Reply 12 of 12
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Yeah, what I said in the other two or three threads I locked.



    Keep it in one place.
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