iTunes newbie question....

[dscan99]

When I got my new iBook, I took my CD full of MP3s and copied them all into the "My Music" folder. Then I basically dragged and dropped all the songs into my iTunes. and then proceeded to create playlists.

Last night while poking around my iBook, I found that iTunes has COPIED all the songs into the "My Music/iTunes" folder .. I'm thinking this has happenned when I imported them into iTunes. I thought they would be just be references to songs in the My Music folder but apparently not. Then I saw a preference for "Copy file while importing into iTunes" or something along those lines and i un-checked it. Now my question is the following--

Can I delete all the folders (artist, album etc...) in my iTunes directory and still have the songs in my play list play?
-If I delete all the folders in my iTunes directory, do I have to re-import songs from "My Music" directory with the "Copy ..." setting OFF.

I hope this makes sense.... Thanks in advance

 

[tech4all]

When I got my new iBook, I took my CD full of MP3s and copied them all into the "My Music" folder. Then I basically dragged and dropped all the songs into my iTunes. and then proceeded to create playlists.

Last night while poking around my iBook, I found that iTunes has COPIED all the songs into the "My Music/iTunes" folder .. I'm thinking this has happenned when I imported them into iTunes. I thought they would be just be references to songs in the My Music folder but apparently not. Then I saw a preference for "Copy file while importing into iTunes" or something along those lines and i un-checked it. Now my question is the following--

Can I delete all the folders (artist, album etc...) in my iTunes directory and still have the songs in my play list play?
-If I delete all the folders in my iTunes directory, do I have to re-import songs from "My Music" directory with the "Copy ..." setting OFF.

I hope this makes sense.... Thanks in advance

Ok I'm not totally sure of the process you did, but if you want to simply rip your CDs to iTunes/HD, put your CD in tray, open iTunes and click import. Done.

Is that you meant or am I totally off?

 

[dscan99]

Ok I'm not totally sure of the process you did, but if you want to simply rip your CDs to iTunes/HD, put your CD in tray, open iTunes and click import. Done.

Is that you meant or am I totally off?

Understood. What I meant to say was I have an MP3 CD full of MP3 (already ripped from audio CDs) .. The direcroty structure in my CD looked like:

CD:\Album1\song1.mp3, song2.mp3, song3.mp3....
CD:\ Album2\ song1.mp3, song2.mp3, song3.mp3....
.. and so on...
So I basically copied the entire contents of the CD using Finder into "My Music" folder. And then drag-dropped these MP3s into iTunes. And Later found out that iTunes creates COPIES (not references) of songs in it's itunes behaviour. I'm trying to free up unnecessary HD space so I was wondering if I can delete songs from the iTunes folder (because I don't like the way it's organized) and still be OK because I have the original MP3 files in My Music folder that were copied over from CD.

 

[dotnina]

I think I get what’s going on. You have two copies of each song on your HD now, right? One in the neat little organized folder hierarchy of iTunes, and one in the Music folder, where you yourself put the song?

You can delete the iTunes hierarchy of folders and still have your music, as long as the second copy is still on your HD (you would need to import the second copy into iTunes, though, so it knows about it). However, you might want to exercise care about this. If you’ve recently added a song to your library, and if the only copy of that song is in the iTunes music hierarchy, you’ll be screwed if you delete it.

May I ask why you’re not a fan of the way iTunes organizes things? Just wondering. If you ever need quick access to a song file, you can right-click the song in iTunes and say “Reveal in Finder” – no hunting down necessary.

 

[dscan99]

I think I get what’s going on. You have two copies of each song on your HD now, right? One in the neat little organized folder hierarchy of iTunes, and one in the Music folder, where you yourself put the song?

You can delete the iTunes hierarchy of folders and still have your music, as long as the second copy is still on your HD (you would need to import the second copy into iTunes, though, so it knows about it). However, you might want to exercise care about this. If you’ve recently added a song to your library, and if the only copy of that song is in the iTunes music hierarchy, you’ll be screwed if you delete it.

May I ask why you’re not a fan of the way iTunes organizes things? Just wondering. If you ever need quick access to a song file, you can right-click the song in iTunes and say “Reveal in Finder” – no hunting down necessary.

Dotina,

You're aboslutely correct. As soon as I posted my last response, I boldly went ahead and deleted the entire heirarchy of iTunes folders... I didn't see how I needed two copes if the same song. But you're right. I have thus risked losing any song that is not in "My Music" folder. The link is lost forever. I will have to re import it. I usually copy all Music into Finder and then import to itunes. So with that habit, I should be ok... but on other hand there might be cdases when I directly import to itunes and if i delete stuff in the itunes folder, I lose it forever.

BTW side question.. would you know how to set the background color in the finder window? I did this once and now can't figure it out for the life of me. Many thanks

 

[Gee]

BTW side question.. would you know how to set the background color in the finder window? I did this once and now can't figure it out for the life of me. Many thanks

Open a finder window (such as by double clicking your hard disk). Then do View > Show View Options from the Finder menubar at the top of the screen. Options for colors and pics at the bottom of the menu that opens.

 

[parrothead]

Dotina,

You're aboslutely correct. As soon as I posted my last response, I boldly went ahead and deleted the entire heirarchy of iTunes folders... I didn't see how I needed two copes if the same song. But you're right. I have thus risked losing any song that is not in "My Music" folder. The link is lost forever. I will have to re import it. I usually copy all Music into Finder and then import to itunes. So with that habit, I should be ok... but on other hand there might be cdases when I directly import to itunes and if i delete stuff in the itunes folder, I lose it forever.

BTW side question.. would you know how to set the background color in the finder window? I did this once and now can't figure it out for the life of me. Many thanks

I used to organize all the music folders myself and not let iTunes do it for me. (A hold over from when I had a small HD and half my music was on the external HD) This generated many problems for me because when I deleted a song from my iTunes library it still remained on my HD in my self-organized folder. Recently I realized that I was making it really hard on myself and set iTunes to oranize my music for me. Anyway If you delete music from the iTunes folder, the next time you go to play a song, even if there is a copy of it elsewhere, you will have to re-map it in iTunes. This can be a HUGE pain if you have lots of music. So my advice is to leave the copy songs to iTunes library setting on, and just remember to delet the extra copy that is not in the iTunes folder.

 

[Nermal]

If you're importing similar CDs in the future, the easiest thing to do is to insert the CD, highlight all the MP3s, and drag them to the iTunes icon in the Dock. They will automatically be copied to your HD and put in the organised iTunes Music folder.