MP3 Transfer Aggravation!!!

[Drpepper99uk]

Hello,

I have been recently attempting to transfer some of my music stored in iTunes to my USB dongle based MP3 player as well as my Sony Ericsson K750i Mobile phone. Upon finding the albums I want to transfer over, I just drag and drop the folder itself to the specified area(in this particular case my mp3 player) and it begins transferring the mp3 files which were made using the iTunes ripping program built in. Oh lovely I thought, until after spending about nearly an hour transferring over quite a few albums I found out that it has somehow been duplicating each song twice-one is playable(1st) the other is not(2nd). This meant that out of 2GB available, half was totally unplayable!!!!

This is what I seem to get:

01- Message In A Bottle.mp3(this one plays)

.-01 Message In A Bottle.mp3(this one will not play at all and it's always named after the one above which plays, it just says invalid format. I have tried another mp3 player and the same thing happens, so then I tried using a different mp3 ripping program(Audion 3) and that seems to do the same thing as well, does the .- mean anything?

Michael.

 

[Fleetwood Mac]

What's the filesize of the file that doesn't play?

 

[balamw]

Aren't those just the companion files (resource forks) Finder uses to remember where the file is placed, etc... when a Mac file is copied to a Windows drive?

There's a setting to stop them from being created. Let me see if I can find it.

B

 

[trainguy77]

Yeah the . means it should be invisible and it is probably just the resource file. Its not required for the other file to play.

 

[Drpepper99uk]

Hello,

Many thanks for your replies. I hope that a solution can be found somewhere as deleting 100+ companion files(or whatever there called) is time consuming to say the least

I've tried doing a google search but nothing has surfaced directing me to being able to solve the problem.

Michael.

 

[72930]

Hello,

Many thanks for your replies. I hope that a solution can be found somewhere as deleting 100+ companion files(or whatever there called) is time consuming to say the least

I've tried doing a google search but nothing has surfaced directing me to being able to solve the problem.

Michael.

You could always spotlight search .- on the drive, and delete the files that come up

 

[mad jew]

Check out this hint, and its associated posts.

 

[Drpepper99uk]

Hello again,

Thanks ever so much for your continued replies. Just out of interest, how would I go about doing a search for them in spotlight and I can only see where it specify's certain s area's within OS X? Also would using an Apple ipod player resolve this issue in where I can rip cd albums using iTunes etc and then transfer them over without having duplicate files appearing.

From reading that link you posted up, it seem's like it's a common problem that lies within OS X with no real easy solution.

Michael.

 

[mgguy]

Don't bother using Spotlight. There is a free software application called FinderCleaner that will strip off all of these useless files before you copy the songs to phone or phone data card. Do a Google search and you will find where to get the download of the software. This software and its use for this purpose was discussed in another MR post, so you may want to do a search for it here too. I was having the exact same problem writing MP3 files from iTunes to a data card for my LG VX8300 phone, and this software solved my problem beautifully. Good luck and happy listening without all the junk.

 

[mad jew]

...And yes, an iPod won't result in these duplicate files.

 

[Drpepper99uk]

Hello,

Thanks for the replies(once again I might add)

Mgguy, top man!!! Thanks for directing me to that program, It worked a treat!!! I managed to find another one called Kopycat, but I couldn't work out what was what with that program.

Big rep for you!!! ;-)

Thanks to everyone else who posted.

Michael.