Question abt iTunes

[novetan]

2 Questions

I have a habit of downloading songs into a folder and than transfer to iTunes using my own category to name. Because very often when download straight to iTunes, sometimes I cannot retrieve the songs, either search by artist, album, songs or whats not. It just not able to turn up. Do you guys have such experience? How do you finally search it?

The size of music in my folder is abt 50GB and I'd have thought no memory is taken up when transferring to iTunes. But I'm wrong. I realised it took up another 45GB in additional. Can someone explain where is this so.

Tks.

 

[ftaok]

I think this is what you're asking.

1. You've downloaded some songs to your computer and they reside in some folder. Then, you import these song files into iTunes. Now, in iTunes, you want to update the tags, sort the new songs, or just want to listen, BUT you can't find them.

OK, if that's the question, this is easily solved by making a new Smart Playlist with the "Date Added" criteria set to your personal preference. Set the Date Added to "last week", "last month", whatever.

2. You've downloaded 50 GB worth of songs, and you've imported 45GB of them into iTunes. Now, 95GB of hard drive space is taken up with songs.

What has happened is that your iTunes is set to copy files into the iTunes library. This is the normal default behavior for iTunes. You can set it so that songs are not copied into the iTunes library folder and the iTunes database records the location of where the song files reside. Just be careful not to move the files or change folder names and stuff like that.

I hope this helps you.

ft

 

[Gjwilly]

2. You've downloaded 50 GB worth of songs, and you've imported 45GB of them into iTunes. Now, 95GB of hard drive space is taken up with songs.

What has happened is that your iTunes is set to copy files into the iTunes library. This is the normal default behavior for iTunes. You can set it so that songs are not copied into the iTunes library folder and the iTunes database records the location of where the song files reside. Just be careful not to move the files or change folder names and stuff like that.

OP can also leave the setting at default and then simply delete the original unsorted songs once iTunes has finished copying and sorting them.

 

[novetan]

I think this is what you're asking.

1. You've downloaded some songs to your computer and they reside in some folder. Then, you import these song files into iTunes. Now, in iTunes, you want to update the tags, sort the new songs, or just want to listen, BUT you can't find them.
ft

Sorry, my question could hv some confusion.

After inserting the disc, iTune asked whether to copy into its library. I click YES. So I did a few downloads direct to iTunes library. After downloading, problem is I'm not able to trace some of the songs, either search by artist, album, songs, composer, playlist etc etc. Why? Has it gone to some strange dissimilar genre? Eg. a pop song went to Christian genre.

You said tag it with dates, nth etc. Is this practical? After a year, no one would able to remember which year or nth you did the downloads.

It is for abv reason that I download the song to reside it in a folder first instead of a direct download to iTunes, than copy again into iTunes by way of tagging it. This way I hv control but at the expense of almost doubling the time.

 

[Tomorrow]

Are these songs part of a compilation? I've found that iTunes is pretty wonky with albums that it deems to be compilations - makes it hard to search by album or artist.

 

[Jessica Lares]

In Safari, go to Preferences, and uncheck Open "safe" files after downloading.



Your problem is that when you download a single song, it'll pull it into iTunes. If it's an archive (ZIP, RAR, etc) it just uncompresses it into a folder - Which is what you prefer to begin with. If you uncheck that, it'll just leave the files in the Download folder for you to import whenever.

 

[ftaok]

Sorry, my question could hv some confusion.

After inserting the disc, iTune asked whether to copy into its library. I click YES. So I did a few downloads direct to iTunes library. After downloading, problem is I'm not able to trace some of the songs, either search by artist, album, songs, composer, playlist etc etc. Why? Has it gone to some strange dissimilar genre? Eg. a pop song went to Christian genre.

I think you're using the term "download" incorrectly. Downloading, when referring to mp3's and computers mean that you're copying the file over a network or website. If you're inserting a CD, that implies that you're converting the song from the CD to an MP3 or AAC file. This is called "Ripping".

Anyways, if you insert a CD to your computer and open iTunes, you'll see the CD with all of the tracks. If the CD is popular enough, the tags should be automatically be there (downloaded from the Gracenotes database). At this point, if the tags are correct, when you rip them into iTunes, it should stay correct.

For songs you download from whatever service/network, the tags may not be in the regular iTunes format. So when you import them into iTunes, you would find them (using a smart playlist). After you find them, do a Get Info on them and manually change the tags yourself. At this point, they'll be sortable via the regular methods.

You said tag it with dates, nth etc. Is this practical? After a year, no one would able to remember which year or nth you did the downloads.

I didn't say to tag with dates. I said to create a smart playlist using the Date Added as the sort criteria. The date added field is automatically added to the file when you import into iTunes. Let's say you imported a bunch of songs last Wednesday (23Mar), if your smart playlist is set for "last month", then those songs would show up in that play list. A couple of months from now, it wouldn't, but no sweat because you would have already found the songs and manually changed the tags.

It is for abv reason that I download the song to reside it in a folder first instead of a direct download to iTunes, than copy again into iTunes by way of tagging it. This way I hv control but at the expense of almost doubling the time.

I think, maybe, you are in the habit of tagging your files in the filename itself. iTunes doesn't do it that way. If you're going to use iTunes, you might want to just let iTunes do things the way it wants.

 

[novetan]

I think you're using the term "download" incorrectly. Downloading, when referring to mp3's and computers mean that you're copying the file over a network or website. If you're inserting a CD, that implies that you're converting the song from the CD to an MP3 or AAC file. This is called "Ripping".

Anyways, if you insert a CD to your computer and open iTunes, you'll see the CD with all of the tracks. If the CD is popular enough, the tags should be automatically be there (downloaded from the Gracenotes database). At this point, if the tags are correct, when you rip them into iTunes, it should stay correct.

For songs you download from whatever service/network, the tags may not be in the regular iTunes format. So when you import them into iTunes, you would find them (using a smart playlist). After you find them, do a Get Info on them and manually change the tags yourself. At this point, they'll be sortable via the regular methods.

I didn't say to tag with dates. I said to create a smart playlist using the Date Added as the sort criteria. The date added field is automatically added to the file when you import into iTunes. Let's say you imported a bunch of songs last Wednesday (23Mar), if your smart playlist is set for "last month", then those songs would show up in that play list. A couple of months from now, it wouldn't, but no sweat because you would have already found the songs and manually changed the tags.

I think, maybe, you are in the habit of tagging your files in the filename itself. iTunes doesn't do it that way. If you're going to use iTunes, you might want to just let iTunes do things the way it wants.

Hey tks. Appreciate your comments. OK, its ripping.

Now I know the reason. Tks again.
[doublepost=1459310972][/doublepost]

OP can also leave the setting at default and then simply delete the original unsorted songs once iTunes has finished copying and sorting them.

Tks, I'll just do that.

 

[Gjwilly]

Hey tks. Appreciate your comments. OK, its ripping.

Now I know the reason. Tks again.
[doublepost=1459310972][/doublepost]

Tks, I'll just do that.

And if you are ripping I have had it where the ripping of the first few songs of the album finished before the album was correctly identified by iTunes. On a 12 song album I might have the last 10 songs correctly tagged and filed but the first 2 filed under "unknown artist" or "unknown album". Then I had to go hunt down those songs and fix the tags.
Now when I put a CD in I quickly stop the rip process until I know the CD has been identified and only then do I start ripping again.

 

[ftaok]

HOLY MOLY!

Either you have a super fast computer that rips like crazy, or your internet speed is ridiculously slow.

Anyways, I have my preferences set so that when I insert a CD, it "does nothing".

And if you are ripping I have had it where the ripping of the first few songs of the album finished before the album was correctly identified by iTunes. On a 12 song album I might have the last 10 songs correctly tagged and filed but the first 2 filed under "unknown artist" or "unknown album". Then I had to go hunt down those songs and fix the tags.
Now when I put a CD in I quickly stop the rip process until I know the CD has been identified and only then do I start ripping again.