iPod greyed out import options - different

Congratulations on the switch and welcome to the community.

I don't quite understand the importing issue. Why can't you just drag them into iTunes? You can just drag the folder they're in into iTunes if you want to, it's that simple. If you want to keep them together, drag them into a new playlist.

As for converting them, do this in iTunes under the Advanced menu. It keeps the old ones though, so I recommend then going to the Edit menu to Show All Duplicates.

Chinashaw said:

Hi,
I am sorry if this is a redundant thread, I have looked for others on this problem but none seem to address it. If I am wrong, sorry again and please can you show me the thread?

a. I have been able to import all my old itunes songs from my IBM to my MAC.

b. I have not been able to 'import' my very old and messy mp3's. I can 'add folder to library'. I dont want to do this because I cannnot then get the names etc from the database.

c. Is there a way round this? Do I need some software to do this pre putting them into iTunes?

d. Finally when I import them I want to convert them from MP3 to whatever the format all the rest are, I assume the apple format as I used itunes to rip them from my cds. How can I get iTunes to convert them automatically or should I do it in advance with some other software?

Many thanks

Click to expand...

The answer to b and c would be to re-import the songs from the original source. If the original source is not available, you'll have to modifiy the ID3 tags manually as the CDDB database is based on albums and your mp3 CD will not be on the database. You may want to search for a utility that can speed up the ID3 tagging operations. Who knows what you'll find.

As for question d, I would just as soon leave them in mp3 format. If you convert from mp3 to aac, you're going to lose quality. iTunes works fine with mp3 files, so there's no advantage in going with aac for those tracks.

ft

Meat is murder!

Chinashaw said:

Hi,
a. I have been able to import all my old itunes songs from my IBM to my MAC.
b. I have not been able to 'import' my very old and messy mp3's. I can 'add folder to library'. I dont want to do this because I cannnot then get the names etc from the database.
c. Is there a way round this? Do I need some software to do this pre putting them into iTunes?
d. Finally when I import them I want to convert them from MP3 to whatever the format all the rest are, I assume the apple format as I used itunes to rip them from my cds. How can I get iTunes to convert them automatically or should I do it in advance with some other software?
Many thanks

Click to expand...

a. Good!

b & c. for my old and messy mp3s, I used iEatBrainz and it searched out some of the missing info...not 100% reliable, but way better than typing it in by myself. I just make a new playlist in iTunes, then drag in tracks that I think need more data. From iEatBrainz you can see the playlists and get the info on the tracks in need.

d. I wouldn't bother converting mp3 to aac (the itunes standard format). If you imagine your music is a steak, it would be like making ground beef (mp3s) out of your steak, then deciding you want steak tartare (aacs) later on and trying to somehow turn the ground beef into steak tartare. It would kind of work, but my cookbook warns that consumption of steak tartare (aacs) made with contaminated ingredients (old mp3 files) can cause serious illness or death.

Well, it might not kill you, but I would guess that you wouldn't have any better sound with your hybrid files, and likely it would be marginally worse. Try it out on a song or two and see what it does...
If you are a vegetarian or something and didn't get that whole meat-music thing, I can try to come up with a soy-based analogy for you.

cheers-
~joe

p.s. I hope you appreciate the info, as it cost me my coveted newbie status...over three years I've held on to that. Now I am just another member and will have to start posting more serious replies.

Joe,

Good call on that iEatBrainz app. I'm going to have to take a look at it tonight.

Very good analogy (and funny too) comparing steak and mp3s...