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Talev

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 15, 2009
19
0
Hey guys i run all my music from my external hard drive and i was wondering how i can edit the song info such as album name year composer and so on, i used to be able to do it very easily on windows through the file properties and im having a nightmare trying to find out how u do it on a mac, it has to be possible.... is it???

without this my itunes goes all over the place, i know i can edit thru itunes but it doesnt permanently change the original file info, only in itunes :(

any help pleeeasee would be much appreciated
 
You want to update the tags in the MP3 files themselves? You can do this by selecting the edited song(s) in iTunes, right/control-clicking on them, and selecting Convert ID3 Tags. Select a version (I seem to remember 2.3 being the way to go) and click OK.
 
i just simply want to change the album names and artists permanantly for the file so it does not go all over the place, this really pisses me off that mac hasnt even got such a standard feature... not happy why cant they just make it straight forward like the windows files
 
Oh, so it's the folder structure you're after. That's easy enough to do as well. Go into the iTunes preferences, to the Advanced page, and change the iTunes Music folder location to wherever on the external drive you keep your music. Check Keep iTunes Music folder organized and Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library, then click OK. I'm not sure if it'll rearrange your music automatically, but if not, go to File -> Library -> Consolidate Library.

There's no point in getting frustrated. Just because you don't instinctively know how to do something doesn't mean it can't be done.
 
Import to iTunes, change the metadata with command+i with the files selected in iTunes, then send the file from iTunes back to your external hard drive with drag and drop.

im tryin that dusnt seem to b working though
 
im tryin that dusnt seem to b working though

Oh sorry my bad, i thought they would overwrite the files
so wat i have to do is delete the old files then drag and drop the edited from itunes into the same location where the old files were????

I think that has worked now thanks guys
 
Import to iTunes, change the metadata with command+i with the files selected in iTunes, then send the file from iTunes back to your external hard drive with drag and drop.

There's no reason to "send the file back to your external hard drive". When you edit the song information (ID3 tags) in iTunes, it changes the info it stores in it's database *and* updates the ID3 tags inthe files themselves.

Talev:
Before importing the songs into iTunes, edit the advanced preferences and uncheck the option to copy files to iTunes. This will add the files into iTunes with a link back to your original files. Edit the information in iTunes and it will update the files on your external hard drive.
 
There's no reason to "send the file back to your external hard drive". When you edit the song information (ID3 tags) in iTunes, it changes the info it stores in it's database *and* updates the ID3 tags inthe files themselves.

Talev:
Before importing the songs into iTunes, edit the advanced preferences and uncheck the option to copy files to iTunes. This will add the files into iTunes with a link back to your original files. Edit the information in iTunes and it will update the files on your external hard drive.

wow ur totally right dude, this works
thanks heaps
 
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