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Abe Froman

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 7, 2005
2
0
This may be the dumbest post in history, but is there an easier way to play a full album in itunes than having to make a separate playlist out of the album or having to check the box on every single track on the album? This seems slightly more complicated than it needs to be, but I can't figure out any other way to do it.
 

rainman::|:|

macrumors 603
Feb 2, 2002
5,438
2
iowa
I generally just play the first song in the Library, then stop it when it's reached the end of the last song.

Other than playlist, I don't think there's an easy way to get it to stop after the album is finished.

actually more than not, I don't notice, and wind up listening to the next 3 albums in a row :)
 

Mitthrawnuruodo

Moderator emeritus
Mar 10, 2004
14,424
1,065
Bergen, Norway
...or just choose to navigate the Library using the Browse function and choose the album in question from the list...

As long as just one album is chosen iTunes will just play that (unless you choose another artist/album or a playlist.
 

Gee

macrumors 65816
Feb 27, 2004
1,023
0
London, UK
Mitthrawnuruodo said:
...or just choose to navigate the Library using the Browse function and choose the album in question from the list...

As long as just one album is chosen iTunes will just play that (unless you choose another artist/album or a playlist.

Exactly. Click the browse icon (top right, looks like an eye), and the genre/artist/album browser appears. Double click the album name. You can start typing the album name after clicking in the browser album list to quickly move to the album you want.
 

fanbrain

macrumors 6502
Jan 31, 2005
275
48
So. UT
I have every album (CD) in its own playlist. I don't like wading through thousands of sound just to find the one I want. Helps for me. I don't have thousands of CD's though...
 

HiRez

macrumors 603
Jan 6, 2004
6,250
2,576
Western US
fanbrain said:
I have every album (CD) in its own playlist. I don't like wading through thousands of sound just to find the one I want. Helps for me. I don't have thousands of CD's though...
Why on earth would you need to do this? You do know about the Browse (eye) button, right?
 

Frank Schuerman

macrumors newbie
Jan 6, 2004
2
0
change arrow link behaviour and choose albums fast!

i find that this is the fastest way to get it my way :)

first of all i changed the arrow behaviour in itunes, you can search the command line on http://www.macosxhints.com

what this does is: switching the default button behaviour of the small arrows behind an artist or album.
unaltered when klicking the small arrows it takes you to the music store, altered it does the same thing as clicking the arrows while holding down the option key: automatically take you to browse 'mode'.
It opens up the browse pane and you only get the album of which you clicked the arrow.

beacause i switched the arrows to go to browse on click instead of 'option'-key + click on arrow it all becomes real fast.

behold: by cliking 1 arrow behind an album title, you seperate that album without fuz from your entire library.
 

stevietheb

macrumors 6502a
Jan 15, 2004
591
0
Houston
Frank Schuerman said:
i find that this is the fastest way to get it my way :)

first of all i changed the arrow behaviour in itunes, you can search the command line on http://www.macosxhints.com

what this does is: switching the default button behaviour of the small arrows behind an artist or album.
unaltered when klicking the small arrows it takes you to the music store, altered it does the same thing as clicking the arrows while holding down the option key: automatically take you to browse 'mode'.
It opens up the browse pane and you only get the album of which you clicked the arrow.

beacause i switched the arrows to go to browse on click instead of 'option'-key + click on arrow it all becomes real fast.

behold: by cliking 1 arrow behind an album title, you seperate that album without fuz from your entire library.
I must second this...the little arrows have been brought back for use in my iTunes. However, I often just search something like: "Dylan Highway 61" -- BOOM! There it is.
 

StokeLee

macrumors 6502
May 30, 2005
413
0
Stoke-on-Trent. Midlands, UK
Frank Schuerman said:
i find that this is the fastest way to get it my way :)

first of all i changed the arrow behaviour in itunes, you can search the command line on http://www.macosxhints.com

what this does is: switching the default button behaviour of the small arrows behind an artist or album.
unaltered when klicking the small arrows it takes you to the music store, altered it does the same thing as clicking the arrows while holding down the option key: automatically take you to browse 'mode'.
It opens up the browse pane and you only get the album of which you clicked the arrow.

beacause i switched the arrows to go to browse on click instead of 'option'-key + click on arrow it all becomes real fast.

behold: by cliking 1 arrow behind an album title, you seperate that album without fuz from your entire library.


You type this in terminal to change it

defaults write com.apple.iTunes invertStoreLinks -bool YES

to change it back to the iTunes store change YES to NO

I looked it up,,, took me ages, hard to search for something when your not sure what its called
 

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
OK, I must be missing something. If I double-click a song to play it, iTunes stops playing after that one song. The only way I can get it to repeat a song or play through several is to make sure that they're all "checked." To play an album, I select the songs in the album, right-click and "Check Selection", then play. I don't know any other way to get it to play more than one song.

I also have a smart playlist called "checked" so I know what all I've checked to be played.
I generally just play the first song in the Library, then stop it when it's reached the end of the last song.
If I play the first song of an album, it stops after that song and won't play the rest of the album, unless all songs are checked.
...or just choose to navigate the Library using the Browse function and choose the album in question from the list...
As long as just one album is chosen iTunes will just play that (unless you choose another artist/album or a playlist.
If I choose an album from the Browser and click Play, nothing happens unless I check all the songs in that album.
Exactly. Click the browse icon (top right, looks like an eye)
I know how to click View > Show Browser (or Command-B), but I don't see any icon that looks like an eye.
I have every album (CD) in its own playlist. I don't like wading through thousands of sound just to find the one I want. Helps for me. I don't have thousands of CD's though...
I've created smart playlists for different genres, but to do so would be very inefficient for over 1,500 albums.
 

hobbbz

macrumors 6502a
Mar 8, 2005
605
4
OK, I must be missing something. If I double-click a song to play it, iTunes stops playing after that one song. The only way I can get it to repeat a song or play through several is to make sure that they're all "checked." To play an album, I select the songs in the album, right-click and "Check Selection", then play. I don't know any other way to get it to play more than one song.

I also have a smart playlist called "checked" so I know what all I've checked to be played.

If I play the first song of an album, it stops after that song and won't play the rest of the album, unless all songs are checked.

If I choose an album from the Browser and click Play, nothing happens unless I check all the songs in that album.

I know how to click View > Show Browser (or Command-B), but I don't see any icon that looks like an eye.

I've created smart playlists for different genres, but to do so would be very inefficient for over 1,500 albums.

Why on earth aren't all your songs checked? They should always be checked.
 

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
Why on earth aren't all your songs checked? They should always be checked.
Because if they're all checked, they'll all play! I don't want every song in my library to play, when I only want it to repeat one or two albums!
2005 lives again!
Wow. You could almost have started your own new thread;)
...except that my post is directly related to this thread's topic of playing a full album.
 

drlunanerd

macrumors 68000
Feb 14, 2004
1,698
178
Holy thread resurrection Batman!

Hmm, seems an iTunes 101 guide is needed. It's changed a bit in the past 3.5 years.

http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/

Because if they're all checked, they'll all play! I don't want every song in my library to play, when I only want it to repeat one or two albums!

...except that my post is directly related to this thread's topic of playing a full album.

Various ways to do this:

You can just select those albums in the browser (for non-contiguous albums, use command-click).

Or create a playlist for the albums.

Either way it's wasting your time to have everything unchecked - do it the other way round if you need to.
 

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
Various ways to do this:
You can just select those albums in the browser (for non-contiguous albums, use command-click).
Or create a playlist for the albums.
Either way it's wasting your time to have everything unchecked - do it the other way round if you need to.
This isn't making sense. First, thanks for the condescending iTunes 101 comment, but I reviewed all of that before I ever used iTunes. :)

If I have everything in my library checked, iTunes won't stop playing after it reaches the end of an album, or repeat only that album. It keeps playing every song that's checked in my library. Creating a playlist for each album is ridiculous, unless a library is very small, and would offer no advantage to the method I'm using. If everything in the library is supposed to be checked, why have the option to check and uncheck items?

Right now, leaving everything unchecked, I can select an album and check the items, then start playing. While that album is playing, I can search, sort and edit tags in the rest of my library and can select more songs to add to the currently playing list, simply by checking the songs. If I hear a song and don't want it repeated, I simply uncheck it. This is much easier than creating playlists every time I want to play something.

If there's a more efficient method, I'm quite willing to learn it. So far, I haven't heard any suggestion that offers an improvement.
 

drlunanerd

macrumors 68000
Feb 14, 2004
1,698
178
This isn't making sense. First, thanks for the condescending iTunes 101 comment, but I reviewed all of that before I ever used iTunes. :)

Not meant to be condescending (well, not much ;) ). You were referring to UI elements that are longer present in iTunes 8 - the previous posts reference a 3.5 year old version of iTunes, whatever that was (4.1?).

If you go to View - Show Browser, you will get a list of albums on the far right. You can click on an album and then play it alone. Easy.

If you don't like certain tracks then by all means uncheck 'em, but unchecking your entire library is a unique way of managing your music. If it works for you then great, just doesn't seem that efficient to me and you miss out on some features of iTunes e.g. shuffle play, Party Shuffle etc.
 

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
If you go to View - Show Browser, you will get a list of albums on the far right. You can click on an album and then play it alone. Easy.
OK, I highlighted my whole library and clicked "Check Selection". After waiting 4 minutes for it to complete checking them, I went to View > Show Browser and clicked on an album, then play. So far, so good.

But when it gets to the last song in the album, the only way it will not go to another song in the library outside the album is if I leave iTunes with that album highlighted. In other words, I can't go browse my library, edit tags, update artwork, etc. while the album is playing, because when I do, it plays other songs that are not in the album that are also checked.

Am I missing something?
 

Mitthrawnuruodo

Moderator emeritus
Mar 10, 2004
14,424
1,065
Bergen, Norway
Am I missing something?
Use Party Shuffle and play the songs from there, then you can continue browsing, tagging and whatever with your library.

You can use mark one or more songs (like an album) and Right click -> Add to Party shuffle to add songs to the bottom of the list or Right click -> Play next in Party Shuffle to start playing the songs (if a song is already playing in Party Shuffle that will continue and the newly added song(s) will be played when that is finished.

Party Shuffle will also auto fill itself (from the Library or chosen playlist/playlist folder) if you don't "feed" it manually.
 

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
Use Party Shuffle and play the songs from there, then you can continue browsing, tagging and whatever with your library.

You can use mark one or more songs (like an album) and Right click -> Add to Party shuffle to add songs to the bottom of the list or Right click -> Play next in Party Shuffle to start playing the songs (if a song is already playing in Party Shuffle that will continue and the newly added song(s) will be played when that is finished.

Party Shuffle will also auto fill itself (from the Library or chosen playlist/playlist folder) if you don't "feed" it manually.
OK, I re-checked my whole library, then selected an album, right-clicked and chose "Add to Party Shuffle". As it was playing, I was browsing my library and searched for a different artist. When the Party Shuffle list ended, the music stopped. When I clicked Play again, instead of starting the Party Shuffle list again, it played the first song of the artist I had searched for.

It appears that leaving everything checked and selecting an album or playlist or Party Shuffle will only keep playing as long as you have that item selected. If you look up another selection, the music stops. This is one thing about Windows Media Player I liked. Once you add something to the "Currently Playing" list, it stayed there and you could do anything else you wanted without affecting playback.

So far, the checking/unchecking method I've been using is the only way I see to make iTunes keep playing one list while I look at other things.
 

Consultant

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,314
34
Tab to search box,
Type in artist and album name in iTune's search box, and play.
Way faster than getting a CD or browsing by folders.
Takes 2 seconds for me, as typically a partial name is enough to find the exact album.

PS. At least some people are searching. LOL.
 

Mitthrawnuruodo

Moderator emeritus
Mar 10, 2004
14,424
1,065
Bergen, Norway
OK, I re-checked my whole library, then selected an album, right-clicked and chose "Add to Party Shuffle". As it was playing, I was browsing my library and searched for a different artist. When the Party Shuffle list ended, the music stopped. When I clicked Play again, instead of starting the Party Shuffle list again, it played the first song of the artist I had searched for.

It appears that leaving everything checked and selecting an album or playlist or Party Shuffle will only keep playing as long as you have that item selected. If you look up another selection, the music stops. This is one thing about Windows Media Player I liked. Once you add something to the "Currently Playing" list, it stayed there and you could do anything else you wanted without affecting playback.

So far, the checking/unchecking method I've been using is the only way I see to make iTunes keep playing one list while I look at other things.
You need to play the song(s) from Party Shuffle. Either stay in PS and press play, or use the Play next in PS feature.

It doesn't help if you add the song(s) to PS but play them from your library or playlists.
 

GGJstudios

macrumors Westmere
May 16, 2008
44,545
943
Tab to search box,
Type in artist and album name in iTune's search box, and play.
Way faster than getting a CD or browsing by folders.
Takes 2 seconds for me, as typically a partial name is enough to find the exact album.

PS. At least some people are searching. LOL.
Searching, finding and selecting albums or songs isn't a problem at all. It sounds like iTunes doesn't work quite like Windows Media Player in this respect. With WMP, once you have a "Now Playing" list populated, it will keep playing that list, regardless of any other searching or browsing you do. With WMP, if you select Album "A" and start playing, you can then search for Album "B" to edit tags, artwork, etc. and Album "A" will continue to play. iTunes will stop playing after one song if you search or browse to any selection that doesn't include Album "A".
 

Bentron

macrumors 6502
Jul 10, 2008
346
245
Click on Grid View (Next to the Cover Flow button) and make sure it's set on albums. This way you can see all album covers and they're all separate.
 
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