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iTunes Music Organisation Question...

I

iangude

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 14, 2011
16
0
Pulling my hair out (what' left of it).

I currently manage my music outside of iTunes, and hold my albums in the format....

Rolling Stones, the - Greatest Hits [320]

ie <album artist> - <album title> [bitrate]

I want to add all my music into iTunes, but keep this folder structure. That I know I can do by unticking the boxes on import NOT to let iTunes manage my music, and NOT to copy tracks in.

HOWEVER.

We know iTunes doesn't have a 'watch this folder' facility. So once I have added all my music in, how do I add future albums ? I prepare music in a temp directory before adding into my structure, so if I add the music from there, then move to my structure, iTunes won't know where it is, as it will have moved from the original adding location. If I move into my structure first, then how will I know which haven't been added into iTunes ?

We are also talking a 2tb collection here, so I'm guessing a complete library rebuild every time I add a couple of CDs is also out of the question.

Suggestions welcomed !
 
You could add a new Folder to the Library. Under File/Add to Library, then navigate to your new album.

Personally, I use one of Doug's Applescripts; "Music Folder Files Not Added."
 
Thanks for the tip. The first one wouldn't be suitable as I add anything up to a 100 cds at once to my library, which would mean searching for them one by one.

I've added the script, and told it to go search my library. It's been scanning for 3 hours so far, and nothing...just the spinning ball. I think I'm hitting issues due to the size of my database.
 
iangude said:
We know iTunes doesn't have a 'watch this folder' facility.
Click to expand...
Yes, it does. iTunes creates a "Automatically Add to iTunes" folder. You could put your music files in that folder to have newly added files automatically added to the library.
iangude said:
Thanks for the tip. The first one wouldn't be suitable as I add anything up to a 100 cds at once to my library, which would mean searching for them one by one.
Click to expand...
You don't have to search for them individually. I manage my own music files, rather than have iTunes do it for me. My arrangement is by Genre, then Album Artist, then Album, then tracks. If I add multiple new files in various locations, I can simply add my entire music folder to the library. iTunes won't add files that are already in the library, but will locate any new ones and add those. To speed up the process, I usually don't add the entire music folder, but rather one Genre or Album Artist, where I added the new content. Another tip is to first uncheck all the files in your library before adding new ones. Then, when you add new files, they're automatically checked, making them easier to locate with a Smart Playlist.
 
Hi

Thanks for the suggestions. I've experimented with the "Add Music Automatically' folder, but this seems to delete the music from this folder from iTunes, which then means I can't move it to my directory structure.

Your second suggestion (add the whole library back in) is basically what I was thinking I'm going to have to do, just makes it a little long-winded, as my library is well over 2tb.

Out of interest, the Dougscript (searching my library for items not already added) didnt come up with anything after 24hours scanning, so it had either crashed or was struggling with my volume of music.

I am trying again with a MacPro Quad Core, with the music all on-board on an 8tb raid - I'll see if this works better than it being on a NAS.

Any other suggestions welcomed !

Ian
 
iangude said:
Out of interest, the Dougscript (searching my library for items not already added) didnt come up with anything after 24hours scanning, so it had either crashed or was struggling with my volume of music
Click to expand...
Some of Doug's scripts run quite well. Others are very slow and can't seem to elegantly handle large libraries.
 
I have question about iTunes music organisation, so I will post it here.
On my iMac I have bootcamp with Windows 7. Is it possibly to have one music library that I can use both in Mac OSX and Windows 7 on iMac? Now I have two music library, one in Mac OSX and Windows 7, and I need to organize both music library separately.
 
akilone said:
I have question about iTunes music organisation, so I will post it here.
On my iMac I have bootcamp with Windows 7. Is it possibly to have one music library that I can use both in Mac OSX and Windows 7 on iMac? Now I have two music library, one in Mac OSX and Windows 7, and I need to organize both music library separately.
Click to expand...
You would need to store the library where both Windows and Mac OS X can access it. An external drive would work fine.
 
OK. But, if I import some new song in iTunes on max osx, it would be on that external driver, but itunes on windows wont automaticly import that song from library? That means that I need to import that song twice. Can iTunes scan library and update automaticly?
 
iangude said:
I've experimented with the "Add Music Automatically' folder, but this seems to delete the music from this folder from iTunes, which then means I can't move it to my directory structure.
Click to expand...
That shouldn't happen if you uncheck the box for iTunes to copy files. I haven't experimented with it, because I prefer to manually add music when I choose.
akilone said:
OK. But, if I import some new song in iTunes on max osx, it would be on that external driver, but itunes on windows wont automaticly import that song from library? That means that I need to import that song twice. Can iTunes scan library and update automaticly?
Click to expand...
If you store your iTunes library on the external drive, along with your music files, you only need to import one time. When you launch iTunes from either Mac OS X or Windows, select the library that resides on the external drive, which will already contain any music you've imported.
 
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