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iTunes problems....... is there a better alternative?

BiikeMike

BiikeMike

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Sep 17, 2005
1,019
1
So iTunes thinks its so smart and knows everything about my music right? well, it doesnt.

The biggest problem I have with iTunes is the fact that I have an external drive with a lot of music on it and when I added it to my library, it now always looks for the music even when the drive is not connected. I get an exclimation point next to the songs, and it stops on them.

Also pertaining to my external drive, all of the stuff I have on my MacBook HD is on the external drive, so everything shows up as doubles. I can't figure out how the heck to get rid of the doubles.

when I was on Windoze, I used Winamp which realized when things weren't there, and had a remove doubles option........ Is there a player like that for OSX?
 
Wow. iTunes doesn't find your music on an external drive, once that is disconnected. Bad, bad program... :rolleyes:

Seriously, I've yet to see a jukebox program that even comes close to iTunes. Try this:

Let iTunes do all the thinking for you, find a nice (and big enough) location for your music and let iTunes take care of everything:

Picture 1.png

If your music is scattered all over, then you need to Consolidate your Library (from the Advanced menu) to your preferred location after choosing location and letting iTunes take care of things...

Ad for taking care of duplicates, go into your Music Library and choose Edit -> Show Duplicate Songs.
 
I'm not saying its bad that it won't find my music, i'm saying its bad that it doesn't realize that I disconnected my harddrive and stops on every song that's on my external.

And I don't have a space big enough on my laptop to keep all of my music, which is why I have an external in the first place.

I have all my music seperated the way I know its seperated so when I go to burn a CD or put it on my MP3 Player, I know where it is.

And as for the show duplicates thing, there is no option to delete them out of your library, it just shows you what they are
 
I use iTunes (of course!) and use an external hard drive and I never have any troubles. Then again, I don't try to play songs when my hard drive is disconnected.
 
BiikeMike said:
And as for the show duplicates thing, there is no option to delete them out of your library, it just shows you what they are
Click to expand...
Yes, and once iTunes has found them for you, mark the ones you want to get rid of and use the delete (backspace) button if you want to delete them (remember to agree to put the files into trash) or just uncheck the ones you don't want playing.

I would be very paranoid if iTunes had a function to (automatically) delete duplicates. That's a feature I want as manual as possible...
 
Mitthrawnuruodo said:
Yes, and once iTunes has found them for you, mark the ones you want to get rid of and use the delete (backspace) button if you want to delete them (remember to agree to put the files into trash) or just uncheck the ones you don't want playing.

I would be very paranoid if iTunes had a function to (automatically) delete duplicates. That's a feature I want as manual as possible...
Click to expand...

In WinAmp, it didn't delete the FILES, it deleted them from playlists. I don't want to delete the files, I just want them to be removed from the playlists.
 
Well if you are hell bent on getting Winamp for mac, here it is.

Whenever I get the exclamation point it just skips that song and starts playing the next song that works. It doesn't stop on that track.
 
Why hasn't anyone come up with an iTunes equivalent of iPhoto Buddy? This would seem to solve the OP's issues, have one library for the internal drive, one for the external.

B
 
BiikeMike said:
In WinAmp, it didn't delete the FILES, it deleted them from playlists. I don't want to delete the files, I just want them to be removed from the playlists.
Click to expand...
Then delete them from the playlists. The files will stay in the Library... :confused:
 
Seems there is an equivalent of iPhoto Buddy. It's called Libra. It would allow you to easily switch from internal to externally hosted libraries...

B
 
Or set up a playlist for the music stored on the Macbook. If the hard drive is disconnected then use that playlist.
 
Tanglewood said:
Well if you are hell bent on getting Winamp for mac, here it is.
Click to expand...

That page doesn't actually have a link to Winamp for the Mac. I did find it a few weeks ago, and I have it on my PowerBook. It runs in classic and looks exactly like Winamp for Windows. I only downloaded it because I was curious. IMO, Winamp is one of the worst designed pieces of software to ever become popular. Horrible, ugly GUI (yes I know it's skinnable), terrible paradigm for media management and nothing to really set it apart from the vast number of other media players available.
 

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I'm having almost the exact same problem. My music won't fit on my MacBook hard drive, so it's all on an external. The problem is, sometimes when the external drive is unplugged, iTunes ends up trying to play stuff anyway and then I've got exclamation points all over the place even once I plug the external drive back in.

So my question is: Is there a quick way to have iTunes re-find all those folders and clear the exclamation points once the external drive is plugged back in. Having them there is not only ugly, but it causes problems for trying to play the files in Front Row.

-Thanks

PS Oh, and Hello. I'm a new Mac User.
 
mduser63 said:
That page doesn't actually have a link to Winamp for the Mac. I did find it a few weeks ago, and I have it on my PowerBook. It runs in classic and looks exactly like Winamp for Windows. I only downloaded it because I was curious. IMO, Winamp is one of the worst designed pieces of software to ever become popular. Horrible, ugly GUI (yes I know it's skinnable), terrible paradigm for media management and nothing to really set it apart from the vast number of other media players available.
Click to expand...


Is there an easy way to get Winamp for Mac. I don't like the interface much either but I love the Milkdrop visualization plugin which I'm not sure you can get for Mac. Is it out there?
 
schwans only said:
I'm having almost the exact same problem. My music won't fit on my MacBook hard drive, so it's all on an external. PS Oh, and Hello. I'm a new Mac User.
Click to expand...

First of all- welcome to the Mac!! (You get props just for spelling Mac correctly!!! Many newbies spell it MAC and then get all kinds of trouble on the forums here- uncalled for trouble, but trouble none-the-less.)

Anyway, so you are saying you have too much music for a MacBook hard drive???:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: Wow, that is a lot of music!! Isn't it a bummer not having music when you use your laptop not connected to your external drive?

I am sorry to say that I don't have an answer to your problem as I have yet to get an external drive- hopefully soon I will.

Obviously this is an issue for more than one user and if there is not a fix then hopefully apple will make one as music libraryies, etc get larger.
 
Why not have 2 libraries. Hold down Option when you start iTunes to be able to create a new library. One for the music only on the macbook, another for music on both.
 
I understand people here are talking about having multiple itunes music foders and locations on separate drives and I can't solve that, but for those who are keeping an organized itunes folder with all their music on an external drive, try this.

Make an alias of the itunes music folder from your external hard drive, put it in the default location for that folder on your main drive (in your itunes folder). That way if the hard drive isn't on, it won't try to rebuild the whole library etc...
 
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