[MichaelHiFi]

Over the course of the life of iTunes, I still cannot understand its library structure. Now, with our new Macbook Pro and Amarra, I'm forced back into what I would call the worst application ever to grace a computer that I've experienced.

It's all so logical in other apps. Directory, folder music. Artist folder then album folder then songs. Media Monkey is a brilliant app. Powerful, logical, never had an issue. But it's a PC based app. The best of the best IMHO.

Enter iTunes. Most folks I've spoken with have absolutely no idea where iTunes music lives. "it just works". Great, on your IPOD but what about your extensive libraries filled with AIFF, MP4, WAV and FLAC. They may be located in different drives but somehow they leak. Some filesin the wrong format sure. But when you start to fix things, that's when things go south in a big hurry. Then you are screwed. Ya I can find users/library yada-yada but in the end the actual library doesn't match "the actual library"! Duplicates abound, but from where? When you have multiple libraries, some FLAC for PC audio, some MP4 and most that come from an external hard drive, you're in major do-do. Why? because iTunes loves to locate songs anywhere it can find them. Now you're hosed. I had to laugh when my son asked what's the problem? He's an expert at iTunes. Really. Really? How all these songs I deleted (FLAC from itunes) still showing up? Itunes still keeps them in it's library. Not possible say's my son. Oh ya, it found them... in the trash! In fact, I have to eject my hard drive to make sure iTunes isn't deleting songs from my backup! In fact, you really can't navigate this interface reliably.

Google searches mirror my feelings of total frustration from so many. Now I have to rethink computer audio tied to this crappy interface.


Well, in the end, at least some of my music actually still plays. 

Rant over?

[JerryM]

Have you smashed and broken anything yet, simply because iTunes sucks so bad? If not, no; the rant isn't over. 

Have fun,

Jerry

[MichaelHiFi]

Have you smashed and broken anything yet, simply because iTunes sucks so bad? If not, no; the rant isn't over. 

Have fun,

Jerry

If I did, there would be nothing left 

[rez]

Looooove the rant!  Helps me to get rid of some vicariously!

[JohnR]

because iTunes loves to locate songs anywhere it can find them.

I'm not sure that I understand exactly what you mean, but perhaps you might fare better if your preferences are set like this:



If you do that, it's pretty manageable (I find so anyway). iTunes is not good at managing multiple libraries. If you really want to manage completely independent libraries, you could restart iTunes with the Option key held down:

[jtwrace]

If you do that, it's pretty manageable (I find so anyway).

I agree.  I've never had an issue as long as the preferences are set as John shows.  In fact, I find it to work flawlessly as long as I don't screw something up.  Other then that, works every time I go and use it.   

[MichaelHiFi]

So I tried again to add songs from my network drive. Itunes tells me there is not enough space on "volume 1". What? Volume 1 is the folder that contains my MP4 files. I'm not copying back to this folder! I want it on the Mac hard drive! WTF? So I watch this piece of crap of a program go through its motions of copying files where it will eventually run out of room. I bring up info windows on the drives both mac HD and volume 1 of my network and watch. But very little is changing on either one. I spent a long time in the middle of this night looking for dupes on my volume 1. I could find none.

I go to users\user\music\itunes\itunes media\music 
The same files I manually added sit there.
I go to iTunes app and say F-it I'll delete everything from there. It's still deleting - something - from someplace - but I'll be damned if I know or even if the program knows from where it's deleting. Probably from someone's else's cloud fing computer. And how can it possibly take so long to delete. I mean WTF?

It's so simple on the outside. I want to run my music files from the local Mac hard drive. I'm comparing qualities of Amarra and Pure Music. I just can't seem to get there. The libraries always seem so broken, half my music is missing and my file structures go all to hell.

Yep still ranting 

[JohnR]

Are you going to keep ranting, or settle down and let people try and help you?

[MichaelHiFi]

I agree.  I've never had an issue as long as the preferences are set as John shows.  In fact, I find it to work flawlessly as long as I don't screw something up.  Other then that, works every time I go and use it.   

I've manually deleted all instances of music from the library folders. Then I deleted all music from the iTunes folder. I used John's preferences and now I'm adding music from my network volume. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on this one.

Thanks for the help.

[toddbagwell]

I've found many straightforward answers to my itunes library behavior questions with a search on an i-specific forum called ilounge.

in short, itunes rearranges your music folder structure for you when you edit things in the itunes program if you have the "keep itunes organized" check box mentioned and pictured above.

when you delete music from itunes, you will be asked if you want itunes to keep the folder/files or send to recycle bin, and obviously if it keeps the files, any re-scan or re-import process will find and add these to the itunes library again.

I generally try not to directly move or delete files from the folder tree, rather using delete within the itunes program itself.

later,
todd

[Crimson]

I generally try not to directly move or delete files from the folder tree, rather using delete within the itunes program itself.

This is extremely important. One should never move, delete, or otherwise modify the library outside of iTunes.

[JohnR]

I've manually deleted all instances of music from the library folders. Then I deleted all music from the iTunes folder. I used John's preferences and now I'm adding music from my network volume. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on this one.

Thanks for the help.

How did it work out?

[pardales]

What is the easiest way to convert all of my lossless (ALAC, AIFF, WAV) files into AAC for use on an iPod?

I have created a different iTunes library for this purpose. Once I convert is there an easy way to get all the new AAC files into the new library?

Thanks for your help. 

[srb]

You don't need a separate library nor do you have to convert them.  iTunes has a feature to synchronize your library to your iPod and convert to AAC on the fly.

With the iPod selected in the leftside column, on the Summary tab under Options just check the checkbox "Convert higher bit rate songs to xxxkbps AAC" and select 128kbps, 192kbps or 256kbps from the dropdown.

Steve

[pardales]

You don't need a separate library nor do you have to convert them.  iTunes has a feature to synchronize your library to your iPod and convert to AAC on the fly.

With the iPod selected in the leftside column, on the Summary tab under Options just check the checkbox "Convert higher bit rate songs to xxxkbps AAC" and select 128kbps, 192kbps or 256kbps from the dropdown.

Steve

Wow. I'll give it a try. Thank you.

[WheelerMK]

This is extremely important. One should never move, delete, or otherwise modify the library outside of iTunes.

I agree with this. If you are deleting from the folder structure and not from within iTunes itself I believe you are just asking for trouble. Keep the Preferences set as previously described.

iTunes has been very stable and consistent for me. That is not to say I have not had problems over the years but always, always they turned out to be self induced and not some magical funk on iTunes part.

[pardales]

Wow. I'll give it a try. Thank you.

It is working! I have lot of music (around 360GB of uncompressed music) so it looks like it will take about 24 hours, but it is more than worth it. So, if I want to do the same thing on another iPod, i'll have to do this again right? The compressed files are not stored anywhere?

[srb]

That's correct, the converted compressed AAC files are only stored on the iPod, so unfortunately you will have to go through the process for each iDevice.  But at least future updates will only take the time required to synch newly added content.

Steve

[toslink]

Yes....and this feature is relatively new to iTunes, but it's one of the best feature changes they've made over the years. It's allowed users (such as myself) to retail their master library in a Lossless format, but move copies of the library on to Apple portable devices in a smaller file size. The only caveat to this feature is the Mac must convert the files you want to send to the device on the fly--and this takes some additional time due to the conversion process. Not a BIG deal, but something to consider if you want to add music to the device quickly.

--david

[WC]

When I got my NAS drive, I wanted to put all the music on the drive. I ended up taking the music from three macs and consolidating it together. Then I opened iTunes and redirected the library to the NAS. I cleared out the duplicates from iTunes.

Just recently I re-ripped all my CDs as ALAC. I put all the ALAC files in a seperate place on the NAS and directed iTunes to look there. I still have the lossy files on the NAS, but I have weeded them out of the iTunes library. Pay attention where you put files and you shouldn't have a problem with iTunes.

What is the best way to handle FLAC files? Convert them to ALAC or leave them as FLAC and play with a seperate player?