Permanently Rename Music Files

[stacybear23]

My apologies in advance if this question has been asked. I was unable to find an answer to this particular question elsewhere on the forum.

I am currently downsizing my physical CD collection and copying all of my music onto my Mac (OS X Version 10.5.8). Some of the CDs are not downloading the song titles from the internet and are going into an Unknown Artists, Unknown Album folder. I do not change it directly from iTunes, but access the files from my user folder, then Music - iTunes - iTunes Music - Unknown Artists - Unknown Album. I rename the files appropriately, (from Track 1, etc, to Artist name and Song Title), and moved some of them into an appropriate folder with other songs by that artist. Easy, right?

But when I click on the file to play the track, the name changes back to the default name from when it was ripped from the CD, and the file automatically moves back to the Unknown Artist, Unknown Album folder. Having ten tracks named "Track 1" is kind of not helpful, and it's rather frustrating to rename and move your files just to have them change on you. I've never had this problem with other types of files. Any ideas? Is there some proper and permanent way to do this that I'm missing? Thanks in advance for any assistance!

 

[zhenya]

The problem you have is with the files id3 tags which are how the details of the files are stored. The names of the files themselves have nothing to do with this. There are third-party programs that claim to fix the tags automatically, but unless I didn't really care THAT much about accuracy, I'd be wary.

Try to make sure the files are tagged properly before ripping, as that's the easiest and most accurate way. What program are you using to rip?

 

[samh]

The problem you have is with the files id3 tags which are how the details of the files are stored. The names of the files themselves have nothing to do with this. There are third-party programs that claim to fix the tags automatically, but unless I didn't really care THAT much about accuracy, I'd be wary.

Try to make sure the files are tagged properly before ripping, as that's the easiest and most accurate way. What program are you using to rip?

That is the better way. The answer to the OP's problem is that iTunes is set to rename files according to the ID3 tags. In iTunes Preferences > Advanced, uncheck the option to have iTunes automatically reorganize music.

 

[Night Spring]

That is the better way. The answer to the OP's problem is that iTunes is set to rename files according to the ID3 tags. In iTunes Preferences > Advanced, uncheck the option to have iTunes automatically reorganize music.

But isn't it better to just edit the ID3 tags? Because if you don't, then every time you play the music, it will show as playing unknown song by unknown artist. Also, if you ever want to play the files from an iPod or iPhone, again, unless you edit the ID3 tags, the music will all be unknown songs by unknown artists on the device.

So either get an mp3 tag editor you like, or edit the song info through iTunes.