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iTunes import problem

B

bux

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 22, 2004
119
0
Sweden
Hi,

I have around 35gb music (mp3 and aac) and I want to import them to iTunes.
Sure, iTunes imports it no problem. But the tracks won't come in the right order, it's kind of irritating on some albums where all tracks is "connected to each other" (for example Avantasia - The Metal Opera, Aina - Days of Rising Doom).

I have all my music organized like this:
Artist/Album (sometimes Artist - Album)/TrackNumber - TrackName

But iTunes completly ignores the TrackNumber part so that's the problem, is there a way to make iTunes not to ignore that?
 
Ugg

Ugg

macrumors 68000
Apr 7, 2003
1,992
16
Penryn
Are you connected to the internet when importing files? It always works fine for me when I import from CDs but then iTunes looks up the album info on CDDB and I've never had a problem with album song order. I'm thinking there must be an issue with importing single files so it doesn't see them as an album really.
 
B

bux

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 22, 2004
119
0
Sweden
Yeah, I'm always connected to the Internet.

And yes, importing directly from cds works... but I don't really feel like "re-ripping" all my music again (it took a while) :)

Maybe there's a script somewhere that can add all files to the library in correct order?
 
jaseone

jaseone

macrumors 65816
Nov 7, 2004
1,245
57
Houston, USA
iTunes uses the meta info(more commonly known as MP3 tags) from the files as opposed to directories and filenames to organize music, when you import a CD it looks up all this information for you but on existing files it doesn't do this as it is much harder to identify songs from individual files than it is a CD.

Seeing how your collection seems to be in a sane state, prior to importing into iTunes you should use something like TriTag to add the meta info to the files using the filenames.

If you also have trouble with files that aren't named very well then you can also use iEatBrainz to look up the information online using the acoustic footprint of the song, this one takes a LOT longer though but it is fairly accurate but I would still check the results before applying them as you still get a few false negatives.

Both of those programs are freeware so you should be good to go. :)

Cheers,
Jason
 
B

bux

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 22, 2004
119
0
Sweden
After checking the ID3 tags with those programs I realize that the ones that I ripped a long time ago, was not very well named (stupid homemade program) :/

Oh well, I guess I will have to fix the ID3 tags somehow... I didn't really understand that TriTag program really. =)
 
D

dmbmikee

macrumors newbie
Nov 8, 2004
13
0
I have a similiar import problem.....

When I go to "import" I choose the folder which the songs "to be imported" reside and I see them, but cannot "choose" them. The "choose" option isn't highlighted so it's not an option.....??? Hell I cannot even select the folder itself? I've tried dragging the folder and or the files, and they won't even show up in iTunes... And it's not just that particular folder....it's most everyone. All the music files are mp3's and I can't see why this is a problem....? All of the files also are iTunes iconized....Thanks for any help:)
 
jaseone

jaseone

macrumors 65816
Nov 7, 2004
1,245
57
Houston, USA
dmbmikee said:
When I go to "import" I choose the folder which the songs "to be imported" reside and I see them, but cannot "choose" them. The "choose" option isn't highlighted so it's not an option.....??? Hell I cannot even select the folder itself? I've tried dragging the folder and or the files, and they won't even show up in iTunes... And it's not just that particular folder....it's most everyone. All the music files are mp3's and I can't see why this is a problem....? All of the files also are iTunes iconized....Thanks for any help:)
Click to expand...

That one used to get me all the time when I first started using iTunes... You actually want "Add to library" and not Import, I think Import is to import an existing iTunes library but I'm not exactly sure.
 
jaseone

jaseone

macrumors 65816
Nov 7, 2004
1,245
57
Houston, USA
bux said:
After checking the ID3 tags with those programs I realize that the ones that I ripped a long time ago, was not very well named (stupid homemade program) :/

Oh well, I guess I will have to fix the ID3 tags somehow... I didn't really understand that TriTag program really. =)
Click to expand...

I haven't used TriTag before but have used similar tools, basically you point it at your MP3 collection, tell it the pattern to look for as in your first post like Artist / Album / TrackNumber - Songname.mp3 and then it will populate the ID3 tags for you based on that information.
 
D

dmbmikee

macrumors newbie
Nov 8, 2004
13
0
jaseone said:
That one used to get me all the time when I first started using iTunes... You actually want "Add to library" and not Import, I think Import is to import an existing iTunes library but I'm not exactly sure.
Click to expand...

Sweet thank you very much:)

Oops...I did that and was able to select the folder or the individual files, but they're still not showing up.....? I think I screwed something up and should restart my computer. Maybe it's cause I'm burning other music with Roxio at the same time and caused some sort of a conflict?
 
jaseone

jaseone

macrumors 65816
Nov 7, 2004
1,245
57
Houston, USA
dmbmikee said:
Sweet thank you very much:)

Oops...I did that and was able to select the folder or the individual files, but they're still not showing up.....? I think I screwed something up and should restart my computer. Maybe it's cause I'm burning other music with Roxio at the same time and caused some sort of a conflict?
Click to expand...

Are you using the Windows version of iTunes? If so it has I think Add file to library and Add Folder to library, you would want the latter otherwise you would have to select the files themselves.
 
D

dmbmikee

macrumors newbie
Nov 8, 2004
13
0
jaseone said:
Are you using the Windows version of iTunes? If so it has I think Add file to library and Add Folder to library, you would want the latter otherwise you would have to select the files themselves.
Click to expand...

No I'm using iTunes on my iMAC:)

You know about an hour ago, I was able to drag the files and they'd show up....but now that doesn't even work....think there's a conflict?

And is there a way to sort of refresh iTunes w/o restarting?

Thanks for your helpfulness:)
 
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