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importing in itunes

A

AudiGuy

macrumors regular
Original poster
how do you import a a CD into a certain directory? i dont want itunes to toss all the songs into the unknown folder.
 
I guess you would have to go to the iTunes preferences and select advance. I was thinking you could just choose where the iTunes folder would be, but that won't help your problem. The only other thing I can think of is to deselect the "copy to iTunes music folder" and after you import the music, go into the particular folder it is in and move it to where ever you want. it will still play it, but it won't copy it back to your iTunes folder.
 
AudiGuy said:
how do you import a a CD into a certain directory? i dont want itunes to toss all the songs into the unknown folder.
Click to expand...

The best way is, of course, to let iTunes handle all the folders and files itself. Why do you want to manage all that stuff anyway? You don't need to know where the files are, iTunes does. If you need to copy some tunes later on, you can simply select the tunes from iTunes itself and drag'n drop them onto a folder (external drive, whatever).

And iTunes does keeps everything tidy anyway (iTunes folder, folders for albums, etc).
 
Best way is indeed to let iTunes organise it. Your imported music won't be tossed into an unknown directory as you fear, they'll be stored alphabetically by artists in your iTunes Music folder.
 
They only get tossed into the "unknown" folder if you're not around internet so that the program can go get the artist and song titles, or it doesn't recognize the album. I'm not sure if there is a way to do this on songs after they have been imported.
 
If you have to import CDs as 'Unknown', then if they're commercial ones, you can go online later and get the correct information. You just highlight all your unknowns, go to Advanced - Get Track Names and ta da...
 
yes but these CDs are dont have names on them they are like bootlegged CDs. they are from another country itunes will not recognize them trust me
 
AudiGuy said:
yes but these CDs are dont have names on them they are like bootlegged CDs. they are from another country itunes will not recognize them trust me
Click to expand...

iTunes queries what's called CDDB (Compact Disc Database) (Wikipedia article). If the CD was ever made as a commercial CD (even from another country), its possible it might be in the CDDB. A friend of mine downloaded a bunch of anime soundtracks, copied them to CD, and when he put them in his computer, CDDB found the album information for him. A bought a CD at this small show in Philly, and when I put the disc in iTunes, it found the info.

Edit: I don't think iTunes contacts the CDDB now owned by Gracenote because the wiki article says
while accessing the database - the programmer has to ensure that a CDDB logo is displayed.
Click to expand...

So maybe they use an alternative like FreeDB, but its still good.
 
Give them names before you import them- at least a unique album or artist name for each disk- then let iTunes organize them.
 
Before you import the CD, select it and "get info".
Now add album, artist etc information in the box that comes up, and then click "import".
Your CD tracks will now be put into (by default) ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Artist/Album. If you say the CD is a compilation it will go to ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Compliations/Album.
Simple eh!?
Let iTunes do the work.

Note: If you do import the CD as "Audio CD" A folder will be created like:
~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Unknown Artist/Unknown Album/Tracks
If you subsequently change the iD3 tags on the tracks, (changing the album name etc.) the folder structure will also be changed "under the hood" as it were.
 
OK, I'm not sure if I get how this is supposed to work. I've been using iTunes for Windows for awhile, but I'd still been using EAC/LAME to rip all of my CDs. I just started the other day using iTunes to rip a few albums, and it works well enough if I want to listen to my music in iTunes, but how do I find my actual music files when I'm not in iTunes? I'd like to be able to view all of my music info from within Windows Explorer. The stuff I ripped using EAC I had set up so that I would have individual folders in Music for each artist --> then album folder --> then tracks. I'd like to keep doing the same thing, but use iTunes to rip. Right now when I browse to Music --> iTunes --> iTunes Music I get an empty folder. If I'm reading James right I should have all of the artist, album, and song information located in this folder from within Windows Explorer?

😕

Thanks,
Dylan
 
In iTunes preferences, select 'copy to Itunes music folder when importing', and also select 'keep iTunes Music folder organized'. This means that every time you import from CD or add to your library from somewhere else on your system, iTunes copies the files into User > My Music > iTunes > iTunes Music. In this folder you will notice that all files are organized by Artists> Album> Track. In addition, all of this info is updated automatically when you edit names inside iTunes. It's the ebst way to keep your music organized. If you've already got a lot of stuff inside iTunes, you want also want to select 'consolidate library' which will copy to the iTunes Music folder anything that was added to your library BEFORE you checked the options above.
 
dylanemcgregor said:
If I'm reading James right I should have all of the artist, album, and song information located in this folder from within Windows Explorer?
Click to expand...
Make sure the preference "Keep my iTunes library organized" is ON. In iTunes>Preferences>Advanced
 
Thanks for the info guys. I do have "Keep iTunes Music Folder Organized" selected, but I don't have "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when importing" selected. Before I go and do this I have a question, does it really copy the files there are is it just a pointer to the true location of the file? I've got a pretty small hard drive, so I don't have room for each song to be on the drive twice. Sorry for what is most likely a stupid question.

Thanks,
Dylan
 
Nope- it PUTS it there- which is great. If you add something from elsewhere on your drive, it copies it to the iTunes folder, so you can go ahead and delete the original.
 
But like I said, you also want to 'consolidate library' before deleting anything. This is because anything that was ALREADY added to iTunes won't have been copied to your iTunes folder, just stuff that you add after changing your preferences. Consolidating will copy everything you already have in iTunes into the iTunes folder. (And you'll never have to consolidate again)
 
decksnap said:
Nope- it PUTS it there- which is great. If you add something from elsewhere on your drive, it copies it to the iTunes folder, so you can go ahead and delete the original.
Click to expand...

Thanks again, I will go ahead and give this a try, but hold off on deleting the originals for a bit. My main purpose in having music stored on my computer is so that I can stream them to my TV via TiVo. I'm unsure if TiVo can see any music that is stored in my iTunes music folder. (It couldn't with the files I put there manually, but I don't know if iTunes does something different when it copies them there.) I'll check this out tonight and see if it works. I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks,
Dylan
 
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