iPod Auto Detecting new Music?

[Osarkon]

Is there any way to make iTunes automatically detect when there's new music been put into the iTunes Music folder and automatically add it to the library?

I'd have thought it would be a simple thing seeing as Windows Media Player has been doing it for years, but I can't for the life of me work out how to get iTunes to do it

This is on both a Windows XP machine and OS X 10.4.10

 

[robbieduncan]

iTunes can't do it automatically but you could use a folder action and a bit of AppleScript. I'd choose a different folder though, iTunes can get a bit funny about adding music already in it's music folder.

 

[Osarkon]

That would work well enough for what I need, I don't suppose you'd know of an equivalent idea that would work in Windows?

And how would I go about doing this generally? I've never had a need to use Folder Action or Applescript before..

 

[googull]

Auto Detection

I am a recent convert to iTunes coming from WMP. It appears that the iTunes vision is that users all load their own content locally and share it with one another. Thus when one user adds new content all shared consumers "find it". This has playlist and album art limitations so no one is fond of it here in my world (house) and I traditionally rip everything and host it on a server that everyone attaches to. WMP on each client scanned and detected this content making it available to all clients for individual playlist creation. etc. I too am looking for a way to do this with iTunes. Even if not automatic isn't there a means to have iTunes resync it's music folder to discover new content that has been put there without "adding" the entire folder back on top of the library again and again? I though perhaps I could rip to a new folder, move it to the main folder then when iTunes can't find it I could adjust the reference - quite a lot to ask my kids to do, but it isn't practical to do this because when I adjust the reference to one "missing" song, iTunes doesn't use that to adjust them all - you have to fix the reference to each and every song individually!

 

[volvoben]

Don't want to make this an itunes bashing thread, but I really wish this was (easily) possible within itunes. I don't use itunes to rip my music, i have a very particular system. I get a lot of demo and EP type cds sent to me, and add new music to (or amend ID3 tags) at least twice a week, but i have to remove all the tracks in tunes and then add my music folder every time I change anything. And worse of course is the album art processing time (even if you turn off album art it processes it apparently), which is rather long for my 120 gig music collection.

I just want itunes to check for changes to its default folder when it starts, nothing whacky. I'm sure Apple just thinks users should use itunes for everything and if you're not buying it from the itunes store or ripping the cds in itunes you must be a dreaded pirate monster, but it's not the case.

 

[c-Row]

I get a lot of demo and EP type cds sent to me, and add new music to (or amend ID3 tags) at least twice a week, but i have to remove all the tracks in tunes and then add my music folder every time I change anything.

You have to remove and add them again when you change ID3 tags? That's a funny version of iTunes you apparently use...

 

[volvoben]

You have to remove and add them again when you change ID3 tags? That's a funny version of iTunes you apparently use...

They're on a server actually, but when i run itunes on that (windows) server (since i can't put shared playlists on my iPod on my main mac computer) it never updates ID3 tags correctly. hasn't since itunes 6 i think. works on my mac, but I don't keep my music locally.

Actually my windows box doesn't seem to save ID3 tags that I amend IN itunes. Perhaps my itunes install is screwed up somehow, but when I amend the tags in a program like tigotago it ends up with 2 versions in the playlist, 1 with the old label and the new one with the "!". 'Tis a pain, I usually just do it before leaving the computer for the night.

Not a huge deal, but this is a feature every other decent jukebox application has done for years. The "!" shouldn't exist, it's very windows-esque; in finder you can open a document, then move the document to a new folder, and no one goes apesh$&, but in windows you get yelled at for moving a file that's in use. This is the same idea, but itunes is too dumb to check for the actual existence of files before trying to play them. Apple just gets too carried away with their 'our way or the highway' bs. It might be easy for some folks who don't care where their actual files are located, but I sure as hell don't want itunes organizing my music for me.

 

[c-Row]

Ah, ok. Makes more sense now to me.

 

[googull]

Giving up on auto sync in iTunes for time being

After several days of testing I have not found any painless way around this challenge. We are installing Sonos and because I use WMA lossless this is a show stopper. Thus the migration to Apple lossless and iTunes for all. My kids really really like the iTunes UI as do I but I don't want them all to become rippers and managers for their own content. We only need one ripped copy for all four of us to access and that means we need to use a music client that detects when new content is available and cleans up after itself when content is removed (good basic hygiene). I really hope that Apple considers this type of household need important enough to implement one day but I don't hold out hope because it is so basic for it not to be there already says to me that perhaps they've deliberately ignored this. Not sure what we'll do now - perhaps give the new version (BETA v3) of Media Monkey a try until iTunes can help us.

 

[ebow]

Is there any way to make iTunes automatically detect when there's new music been put into the iTunes Music folder and automatically add it to the library?

I'd have thought it would be a simple thing seeing as Windows Media Player has been doing it for years, but I can't for the life of me work out how to get iTunes to do it

This is on both a Windows XP machine and OS X 10.4.10

Hmm. When I have music from a source other than iTunes and I want it to appear in the iTunes library, I just drag it from where ever it currently is into the iTunes window. iTunes then makes a copy of it in the iTunes Music folder, which I never ever have to look at or think about, it appears in the library, and then I throw away the original file.

I don't know how well this approach works with topics that came up later in this thread, such as multiple users or hosting the music on a server, but it gives me exactly the behavior you might desire, as describe here.

 

[aperture01]

geez...

I really wish iTunes did this. It's really annoying... I use Winamp currrently with ml_ipod which is an awesome plugin to use my iPod. And WinAmp also handles my large library faster. But I know as soon as I get my iPhone it's going to force me to switch to iTunes. I get most of my music from e-music, burn them-myself or from friends that let me borrow cd's. To rip I use exact audio copy. I will admit that sometimes I do get music from "different" sources. I have for years. And I also like sorting and tagging my mp3s because I just do. It's just a hobby of mine, and it lets me remember what i'm adding to my library. I would buy more from the iTunes store but the quality of the files is simply not there for me. When they start upping the quality of the files (as they have started) i'll purchase more songs from there.

I recently just purchased a macbook pro and I want it to be synchronized with my library on my pc over the network so I can stream the music over my network when my laptop is home. In winamp i just click "Rescan my library" and off it goes. Why can't I do that in iTunes. I suppose it's to discourage "pirates" from adding new things. And yes I realize I can drag albums in and it'll add them but sometimes I have so many that I can't remember which ones to add.

I wish there was a script or something that did this. I've heard of:
http://itlu.ownz.ch/wordpress/?page_id=2

but that's only a windows solution.

Any insight to this would be great.

 

[pna]

I also have wished iTunes would be smarter about knowing when files had been added or deleted from the underlying folder structure without having to take care of it manually from within iTunes. The only advice I've heard about this for adding files, is just to drag a top-level directory with your music into the library again. Allegedly it will not re-import songs that it already has in the library, but will import the new songs you've added. This doesn't solve the problem of removing songs automatically when you've deleted the files, though.

I recently just purchased a macbook pro and I want it to be synchronized with my library on my pc over the network so I can stream the music over my network when my laptop is home. In winamp i just click "Rescan my library" and off it goes. Why can't I do that in iTunes. I suppose it's to discourage "pirates" from adding new things. And yes I realize I can drag albums in and it'll add them but sometimes I have so many that I can't remember which ones to add.

I wish there was a script or something that did this. I've heard of:
http://itlu.ownz.ch/wordpress/?page_id=2

but that's only a windows solution.

Any insight to this would be great.