Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

iTunes won't let me copy songs from playlists to a folder

O

OziMac

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 24, 2003
438
4
I haven't been able to find a thread on this point exactly so far.

I'm using iTunes 4.6. I made a playlist of some songs that I wanted to transfer to another computer (quite a lot of songs). However, when I try to copy the songs from the playlist I created into another folder, nothing happens! Sometimes the icons for the files will briefly appear and then disappear again. Copying from the library is still fine, but not the playlists - weird.

I may be hard of hearing, but I thought the restrictions on iTunes playlists were to limit the number of BURNS per playlist, and I can't recall copying restrictions on them... anyone better informed able to enlighten me? Or anyone else have these same problems?
 
SilentPanda

SilentPanda

Moderator emeritus
Oct 8, 2002
9,992
31
The Bamboo Forest
I *think* it might be that it's just trying to copy the text from the playlist (since it's a playlist) instead of the actualy songs.

Something that might work would be to select all the songs in the playlist and change a field (like BPM) that you don't use to something for all those songs. So for instance change the BPM for all those songs in the playlist to 999. Then in your library have it show the BPM column, sort by BPM, and then do your copy from there. Of course you'll probably want to change the BPM back afterwards but that should work.
 
wrldwzrd89

wrldwzrd89

macrumors G5
Jun 6, 2003
12,110
77
Solon, OH
OziMac said:
I haven't been able to find a thread on this point exactly so far.

I'm using iTunes 4.6. I made a playlist of some songs that I wanted to transfer to another computer (quite a lot of songs). However, when I try to copy the songs from the playlist I created into another folder, nothing happens! Sometimes the icons for the files will briefly appear and then disappear again. Copying from the library is still fine, but not the playlists - weird.

I may be hard of hearing, but I thought the restrictions on iTunes playlists were to limit the number of BURNS per playlist, and I can't recall copying restrictions on them... anyone better informed able to enlighten me? Or anyone else have these same problems?
Click to expand...
I just did a test - select some songs from a smart playlist in iTunes 4.6, click and hold in the left area where the numbers are, then drag to the folder I want - iTunes creates a copy just fine. The "Copying" dialog appears then disappears, and all the songs I selected appear in the folder I dragged them to (and don't go away).
 
Horrortaxi

Horrortaxi

macrumors 68020
Jul 6, 2003
2,240
0
Los Angeles
I just tried it as well and didn't have any problems. You said that you have a lot of songs you're working with. Sometimes dragging/dropping a lot of files is a little sluggish. By completing your drag & drop action before Finder is ready to move the files effectively cancels the action.

Try copying 1 file and see if you get different results. If it works, then highlight all your songs and start to drag them--just a little--and wait for the Mac to catch up. I forget how you know it's ready--either the files go from light to dark blue, or they move to where your mouse pointer is, or both--you'll recognize it. Then complete your action.
 
O

OziMac

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 24, 2003
438
4
Perhaps I should clarify.

I'm not using a smart playlist or the library - interesting idea though, Silent Panda.

I have tried copying single songs and it works fine. But even for smaller numbers of songs the problem seems to persist.

Very odd. Anyone else have this problem? I will keep you posted though on my attempts though. Thanks for your advice so far.
 
wrldwzrd89

wrldwzrd89

macrumors G5
Jun 6, 2003
12,110
77
Solon, OH
OziMac said:
Perhaps I should clarify.

I'm not using a smart playlist or the library - interesting idea though, Silent Panda.

I have tried copying single songs and it works fine. But even for smaller numbers of songs the problem seems to persist.

Very odd. Anyone else have this problem? I will keep you posted though on my attempts though. Thanks for your advice so far.
Click to expand...
Here's an update: iTunes refuses to drag-copy certain WAV files. I have no idea why, so I use a workaround - delete the file from my library, and send it to the Trash. Get the file out of the Trash, put it where it needs to go, then drag it to the iTunes icon so iTunes gets a copy (if I still want it in my library).
 
Horrortaxi

Horrortaxi

macrumors 68020
Jul 6, 2003
2,240
0
Los Angeles
OziMac said:
I have tried copying single songs and it works fine. But even for smaller numbers of songs the problem seems to persist.
Click to expand...
How small is small? If you can copy 1 song you know it basically works. The problem is probably in the number of songs you're copying at a time. Somewhere there is a sweet spot where you don't have too many songs anymore.

What kind of Mac to you have, and how much RAM?
 
eliotw

eliotw

macrumors member
Nov 16, 2006
42
7
New York, NY
Duplicate filenames is the problem...

This is a dated thread, but I was having the same problem and think I've figured it out.

While it seemed to be related to the number of files being drag-n-dropped, turns out that the real issue is if you've drag-n-dropped objects from iTunes to a Finder folder that have duplicate names. I guess it isn't able to prompt the user for a response so it just decides to not copy anything.

My issue was multiple videos with the title "01 Intro". So I just had to put those into different folders.

I still do wish iTunes had an option to burn a playlist to a directory so that it could handle the filename issue.

Good luck,
E
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom