how to automatically import music into itunes library?

katcannon said:

my itunes won't import music files from the my music (or other) folders. this is annoying since it means i'd have to import about 2000 songs manually if i want them on my new ipod.
anyone know of a solution??

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I don't really understand what you want to do... you have music in your music folder, that is not in iTunes? And you want it in your iPod? And what do you mean by manually importing?

This is what I would suggest:

1) Set iTunes to not copy files to the iTunes library: iTunes -> Preferences -> Advanced -> uncheck the "keep iTunes library organized" and "copy to the iTunes library" items....

2) Open your music folder in Finder.

3) In the spotlight bar, enter in kind:music exactly like that, with no space. This will identify all the music files. Change the focus from the music folder to the home directory or whatever encompasses all the music files you want.

4) Make sure you've selected the show all so that you can see all of them.

5) Use Apple-A or select all from the menu to select all of them.

6) Drag the selected items to the iTunes icon in the dock.

All the songs will then be in iTunes without making duplicate copies. This entire procedure should take less than a minute to complete.

Drag and drop

This was a frustrating thing for me too, especially since Apple software in the past has been more user friendly than PC. Move all of your folders of music into one folder on your desktop (or really anywhere, it's just easiest on the the desktop). Open iTunes, but 'restore down' so that you can see the folder you want on the desktop and the song list in your music library. Drag and drop the folder into your song list.