Is it just me..or is iTunes a piece of crap?

Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I am a converted PC user.



I have had my G5 for 2 weeks now and love it.



But the only thing that is consistently pissing me off is iTunes.



I dumped all my mp3s that I had backed up (about 9gb) onto my Mac HD in a folder called music.



Now iTunes created its own folder that duplicated any song I would choose to play.

Now I'm thinking ok, lets dump the whole folder in iTunes so it has everything and doesn't have to duplicate each file.



But it DID! Every file was doubled.

What the hell is this?

What do I have to do to make iTunes work? Am I supposed to delete the whole folder afterwards leaving iTunes to act as my mp3 "folder"?



either way I am fed up with the whole layout of iTunes and I want to hear of other good mp3 players a la winamp.

Thanks





edit: some side questions



1) how do I make the dock background clear?

2) how do I change the size of my desktop icons?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 14
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    1) iTunes copies all your music to keep it organized in one simple place. You can turn this off in Preferences->Advanced->Copy files to music folder.



    2) The dock can be modified by a utility called APE and cleardock. That's what I use. Somewhere here.



    3) Icons size can be changed by selecting View Options from the view menu. (or command-J)
  • Reply 2 of 14
    kabzkabz Posts: 53member
    thanks



    but what about the other mp3 players?
  • Reply 3 of 14
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    I use THIS when I'm not using iTunes.



    It was retired, so they released a free S/N
  • Reply 4 of 14
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    If you take a peek in the iTunes Music folder, you'll see that all of the music that iTunes imports is nicely organized (by default, you can turn it off) by artist first, then albums, then songs, and that the filenames are the song titles. Any other MP3 player can access this hierarchy just spiffily, and it's very fast to find what you want through the Finder as well.
  • Reply 5 of 14
    nd32k3nd32k3 Posts: 187member
    To fix this once and for all...delete your music library in iTunes. Put your folder "Music" or whatever you called it into the library, it will then move it all to "iTunes Music" and then you can delete your Music folder. Its a nice orgainzation tool
  • Reply 6 of 14
    mr. hmr. h Posts: 4,870member
    Kabz, some advice: before calling any piece of software "a piece of crap", you should try and learn how to use it properly. A very useful piece of advice for applications in OS X in general is this: if they are behaving in a manner which you think is odd, stupid, or whatever, open the preferences for that app (which should be found in the app menu, which is the bold one immediately to the right of the Apple menu) and have a poke around.



    In reference to your specific iTunes problem, nd32k3 has the right sort of idea, but I feel his suggestion requires elaboration. The precise course you should take depends upon whether you consider your mp3 collection to be properly tagged or not. I have made the assumption that you have not changed the iTunes default settings.





    If your mp3s are properly tagged follow these instructions:



    1. move the folder with your original mp3 collection (which you said is called "music") to the desktop.



    2. Launch iTunes, select everything in your library and delete. You'll probably get a message asking if you want to move everything to the trash. Click "O.K." (all your original mp3 files in the "music" folder on the desktop will be untouched, the files that iTunes duplicated will be moved to the trash).



    3. Open iTunes preferences, and click on the "advanced" tab. If you do not like the default location for the iTunes library, choose something else by clicking on the "change..." button. Personally, I use ~/music/ rather than the default ~/music/iTunes music/



    4. Make sure that "copy files to iTunes music folder when adding to library" is checked.



    5. Drag and drop the "music" folder on your desktop onto the "library" icon in iTunes' source list. iTunes will copy all the mp3s from the desktop music folder into the folder you selected in step 3, creating artist folders, album folders and file names according to the mp3 tags.



    6. When iTunes is finished, delete your "music" folder on the desktop.



    7. You are now ready to use iTunes.





    If your mp3s are not properly tagged, do this:



    1. Launch iTunes, select everything in your library and delete. You'll probably get a message asking if you want to move everything to the trash. Click "O.K." (all your original mp3 files in the "music" folder that you mentioned in your post will be untouched, the files that iTunes duplicated will be moved to the trash).



    2. Open iTunes preferences, and click on the "advanced" tab. Click on the "change..." button to the right of "iTunes music folder location" and navigate to your "music" folder that contains your original mp3s.



    4. Make sure that both "copy files to iTunes music folder when adding to library" and "keep iTunes music folder organized" are not checked.



    5. Navigate to your "music" folder with the finder and drag it onto the "library" icon in iTunes' source list.



    6. You are now ready to use iTunes.





    Some further notes on the "copy files to iTunes music folder when adding to library", "keep iTunes music folder organized", and iTunes in general:



    When you double-click on a sound file in the finder, if the file type is associated with iTunes, then iTunes will launch in order to play the file. In order for iTunes to play a file, it must be in the iTunes library. Therefore, if the "copy files" option is checked, double clicking on a sound file in the finder will copy that file into your iTunes music folder if it isn't there already. For this reason, I usually have "copy files" unchecked, and I activate it when needed.



    The "keep iTunes music folder organised" option will reflect any changes you make to a file's tags in the folder hierarchy and file name on your disk. For example, if you have the option checked, and you change a particular file's tags from song name "A", artist "B", album "C" to song name "D", artist "E", album "F", the file that corresponds to that track will be re-named D, and moved into a folder called "F" inside a folder called "E" inside your iTunes music folder, all automatically. This may or may not sound useful to you; it is important to bear in mind that if you have a large collection and the box is unchecked, then checking this box will move all your files around according to their tags and the changes made are not un-doable.



    In terms of iTunes in general, I think it's a brilliant, intuitive, powerful piece of software. Of course, you may disagree and that's fair enough, but I would suggest giving it another month or so to see if you can get into it.



    Hope all that made sense to you. If not, I'll be pleased to elaborate/clarify if need be...
  • Reply 7 of 14
    as per the thread title, it is YOU.

    iTunes is IMHO the nicest music/jukebox software on any platform period.

    Like others have already mentioned, take a look in the preferences/settings for an app and understand what it is doing before shooting your uninformed/ignorant mouth off.

    Have a nice day, Randy
  • Reply 8 of 14
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Wow, Randy, that was just not acceptable. In the future, try and be a minimum of civil when piping up with a 'me too' post. Thanks.
  • Reply 9 of 14
    kabzkabz Posts: 53member
    Well....

    thanks for the dozen of replies from obsessive iTunes users.



    I guess my frustration with the program didn't come through, the main point of this was to see if there were other mp3 players and to get my original question answered.



    The FIRST REPLY of the thread answered my question.



    Now I'm so sorry that I called COMPUTER SOFTWARE CRAP...but unless you are the programmer, don't start flying off the handle at me because I am annoyed with a computer program.



    Jesus, you guys are shockingly sensitive

    thanks anyways



    (thanks mod)
  • Reply 10 of 14
    mr. hmr. h Posts: 4,870member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Kabz

    Well....

    thanks for the dozen of replies from obsessive iTunes users.



    I guess my frustration with the program didn't come through, the main point of this was to see if there were other mp3 players and to get my original question answered.



    The FIRST REPLY of the thread answered my question.



    Now I'm so sorry that I called COMPUTER SOFTWARE CRAP...but unless you are the programmer, don't start flying off the handle at me because I am annoyed with a computer program.



    Jesus, you guys are shockingly sensitive

    thanks anyways



    (thanks mod)




    Well, that's gratitude for you isn't it? You will note that I did not "fly off the handle" and in fact spent quite a long time writing a perfectly balanced, sane post to solve a problem that was down to you, not the program. If you decided that iTunes was crap due to said problem, then that wasn't a very good decision, was it?



    I've got no problem whatsoever with you not liking iTunes, it's just that if it's solely due to the problem you were having, it's not a very good reason to stop using it.
  • Reply 11 of 14
    buonrottobuonrotto Posts: 6,368member
    It's just you. (Somebody had to say it.)



    Anyway, you don't hate iTunes any more because it does what you want, right?
  • Reply 12 of 14
    kabzkabz Posts: 53member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Mr. H

    Well, that's gratitude for you isn't it? You will note that I did not "fly off the handle" and in fact spent quite a long time writing a perfectly balanced, sane post to solve a problem that was down to you, not the program. If you decided that iTunes was crap due to said problem, then that wasn't a very good decision, was it?



    I've got no problem whatsoever with you not liking iTunes, it's just that if it's solely due to the problem you were having, it's not a very good reason to stop using it.




    it wasn't you...it was that fingers guy...



    and yes its just me...

    but now that I unchecked one little thing everything is fine.



    iTunes For Life!
  • Reply 13 of 14
    nd32k3nd32k3 Posts: 187member
    I think what Mr H is saying is that he probably spent an hour writing that response and you should atleast be thankful for that even if you dont like iTunes. He spent his time trying to solve your problem and you didnt even mention anything.
  • Reply 14 of 14
    that "fingers guy" has his middle one up right now!!

    I'm glad you figured it out. and sorry for jumpin' your case but your thread title was just outa line if you ask me. And since you posted this thread you were asking anyone with an opinion and you got mine. good luck with your iTunes.

    Have a nice day, Randy
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