iTunes file organization... possible to change?

[GimmeSlack12]

very clear, thank you and that is exactly what i am saying. a correct hierarchical structure is vital when using non-iTunes players. also, in other applications (let's say you want to make a DVD or even add music to a presentation as two quick examples), the user is prompted to make music selections by accessing these folders. thanks for your help!

I hear that. And yes that can be a real pain when not using an iPod or burning an mp3 CD. You could always drag the files from iTunes into whatever directory you are using (for burning discs and so on). As for swapping the Album Artist for the Artist info I'm afraid there is no easy (or time saving) option. That I know of.

EDIT: Like Motulist said, take a look at versiontracker.com I did a quick search and found a number of programs that could swap tag info Doug's iTUnes scripts. I'm on my work PC right now so I can't try any of that stuff.

 

[motulist]

I was just doing some stuff in iTunes for myself and I noticed something that might help you. When you get info on a song there's a sub tab called "Sorting" that has a bunch of different info fields. Try experimenting with those to see if any of those fields will change how iTunes manages its folder organization. Bear in mind that iTunes probably will never change the folder organization placement of your mp3 files onces they've been added to your iTunes library, to see if a tag change results in a different automatic folder ogranization system you'll have to delete the song from your library and the re-add it to iTunes again.

If you find a tag field that'll produce the results you seek, then writing a script to apply a copy and past to put the correct info there would be rather simple.

 

[killmoms]

Bear in mind that iTunes probably will never change the folder organization placement of your mp3 files onces they've been added to your iTunes library, to see if a tag change results in a different automatic folder ogranization system you'll have to delete the song from your library and the re-add it to iTunes again.

Actually, if you edit a tag that would alter the placement of a file in iTunes' structure, it will automatically move it as soon as you apply the change.

 

[peeaanuut]

I read the thread and seem to be still a little confused. But let me try to understand.

I have an album by Artist Chingy. it has a lot of different artist tags (Chingy feat., etc) So I put Chingy in the album artist field and in the actual folder it puts it into one folder called Chingy. Another example is that I put together a grouping of all the songs used in the TV show Entourage broken up by season. So the name of the album is Entourage Season 1, etc. The artists and song titles are set right and in the Album artist field I put various artists and iTunes organizes it into a folder called Various Artists and than a sub folder for the album as I have alot of compilations like this.

So is this what you want it to do or do you want it to seperate them into seperate folders for each artist?

 

[killmoms]

Another example is that I put together a grouping of all the songs used in the TV show Entourage broken up by season. So the name of the album is Entourage Season 1, etc. The artists and song titles are set right and in the Album artist field I put various artists and iTunes organizes it into a folder called Various Artists and than a sub folder for the album as I have alot of compilations like this.

Eeeeughhh. You shouldn't do this. "Various Artists" should never be in the tags of your files. If you want to have a compilation grouped, just mark it as a "Compilation" in iTunes' tag editor. This will put the album's folder into a folder called "Compilations." Then there are no evil "Various Artists" tags necessary.

 

[bcslippers]

I was just doing some stuff in iTunes for myself and I noticed something that might help you. When you get info on a song there's a sub tab called "Sorting" that has a bunch of different info fields. Try experimenting with those to see if any of those fields will change how iTunes manages its folder organization. Bear in mind that iTunes probably will never change the folder organization placement of your mp3 files onces they've been added to your iTunes library, to see if a tag change results in a different automatic folder ogranization system you'll have to delete the song from your library and the re-add it to iTunes again.

If you find a tag field that'll produce the results you seek, then writing a script to apply a copy and past to put the correct info there would be rather simple.

another great idea... but, unfortunately, does not work. it only seems to "sort" within the iTunes browser. too bad.

 

[bcslippers]

EDIT: Like Motulist said, take a look at versiontracker.com I did a quick search and found a number of programs that could swap tag info Doug's iTUnes scripts. I'm on my work PC right now so I can't try any of that stuff.

thanks for the tip. i will have to investigate this on the home computer. these scripts aren't easily searchable but they are a help and one of them may work...

 

[bcslippers]

I read the thread and seem to be still a little confused. But let me try to understand.

I have an album by Artist Chingy. it has a lot of different artist tags (Chingy feat., etc) So I put Chingy in the album artist field and in the actual folder it puts it into one folder called Chingy. Another example is that I put together a grouping of all the songs used in the TV show Entourage broken up by season. So the name of the album is Entourage Season 1, etc. The artists and song titles are set right and in the Album artist field I put various artists and iTunes organizes it into a folder called Various Artists and than a sub folder for the album as I have alot of compilations like this.

So is this what you want it to do or do you want it to seperate them into seperate folders for each artist?

i can indeed achieve the desired results by copying the artist as the album_artist, but then i have no place to actually move the album_artist, which i also use from time to time. i can't even use the comments section because then it will ruin the album_artist sort on my iPod... close, but not quite...

still searching for a winner here... thanks for the ideas everyone and keep 'em comin'

 

[peeaanuut]

Eeeeughhh. You shouldn't do this. "Various Artists" should never be in the tags of your files. If you want to have a compilation grouped, just mark it as a "Compilation" in iTunes' tag editor. This will put the album's folder into a folder called "Compilations." Then there are no evil "Various Artists" tags necessary.

I find using various artists for compilations in the Album Artists to be more intuitive than compilations. this way I can still list by artist instead of having to go into the compilations section. To each his own.

 

[peeaanuut]

i can indeed achieve the desired results by copying the artist as the album_artist, but then i have no place to actually move the album_artist, which i also use from time to time. i can't even use the comments section because then it will ruin the album_artist sort on my iPod... close, but not quite...

still searching for a winner here... thanks for the ideas everyone and keep 'em comin'

Ok you made me more confused here. The album artist would be something like this.

The Re-Up presented by Eminem

The Album Artist is Eminem and than the artist on each track is whatever artist it was. or are you trying to create a 3rd category?

 

[bcslippers]

Ok you made me more confused here. The album artist would be something like this.

The Re-Up presented by Eminem

The Album Artist is Eminem and than the artist on each track is whatever artist it was. or are you trying to create a 3rd category?

i have different information filled out in the artist, album_artist, and composer tags, and i want to organize my folders by artist... not album_artist. sorry if my last post didn't make sense at first but this is all that i am trying to accomplish, yet cannot find a simple way to do this other than taking a week to manually manage the database.

there's too much variation in the album_artist field, which causes 5x the folders that are necessary and makes it difficult to know where your files are.

 

[OberonSF]

i have different information filled out in the artist, album_artist, and composer tags, and i want to organize my folders by artist... not album_artist. sorry if my last post didn't make sense at first but this is all that i am trying to accomplish, yet cannot find a simple way to do this other than taking a week to manually manage the database.

there's too much variation in the album_artist field, which causes 5x the folders that are necessary and makes it difficult to know where your files are.

There are MANY utilities that do this but my favorite is Moodlogic. It's a very cool program with all kinds of features. After you import your music you can fix and organize the files based on your preferences. Take a look. I think it's at moodlogic.com.

 

[asya]

iPod file organization

Hi
I newbie and this is my first Mp3 player. I have a songs from my past organize on my computer how is the best for me. I would like to put them to iPod similar way. Maybe I show for example how it looks.
1 Albums:
a.Cultural:
Dominicanada
Varadero
Traditional Chinese Music
....
b.English
The Beatles
Diana Krall
Frank Sinatra
....
c.Russian
Baskov
Leont'ev
Ovsienko
.....
d.Mixes
English
Russian
German
.....
e.Soundtrack Albums
Frida
Cabaret
Lion King
....
This is my music folders tree. I didn't know how to explain my setup and this is why I show my folders tree. I'm not sure if is possible to organize the same way my music on iPod but I would be really happy if someone will help me and explain how to do this.

 

[motulist]

Hi
I newbie and this is my first Mp3 player. I have a songs from my past organize on my computer how is the best for me. I would like to put them to iPod similar way. Maybe I show for example how it looks.
1 Albums:
a.Cultural:
Dominicanada
Varadero
Traditional Chinese Music
....
b.English
The Beatles
Diana Krall
Frank Sinatra
....
c.Russian
Baskov
Leont'ev
Ovsienko
.....
d.Mixes
English
Russian
German
.....
e.Soundtrack Albums
Frida
Cabaret
Lion King
....
This is my music folders tree. I didn't know how to explain my setup and this is why I show my folders tree. I'm not sure if is possible to organize the same way my music on iPod but I would be really happy if someone will help me and explain how to do this.

you could use smart playlists.