How to stop Windows iTunes from spontaneously creating new folders with duplicate copies of songs, and renaming existing folders?

Question

I've recently started using iTunes regularly to import CDs. Since then, I've found my Windows 'My Music' folder is behaving in bizarre ways.
I like to organise most of my music in folders by Genre --> Album title, without paying attention to Artist. I also like to rename certain album folders (and the Album name in each track's metadata as well, so that each album/folder remains consistent), and also to create customised 'mix tape' album folders. I just want to use Windows Explorer / My Computer to manage this; I don't want to do it via iTunes. I just want to use iTunes for initially getting the music from CD to computer.
Previously, when I was using Windows Media Player to import CDs, if Windows Media Player placed an imported CD under a folder category I don't use, such as Artist, I would just manually move the Album folder and delete the empty parent Artist folder. However these days iTunes is spontaneously creating an entire series of Artist folders, even for tracks and albums that were already on my computer, and is placing duplicate track files into them. Additionally, it's renaming albums for folders and tracks I've customised, turning album titles back into their original values. This is happening even though the destination for newly imported/downloaded iTunes tracks is not the My Music folder itself, but rather another folder within that one. I've had a look at Preferences --> Advanced and the 'Keep iTunes media folder organised' and 'Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library' boxes are already unchecked, so it's not related to that anyway. How do I get iTunes to leave my folders alone?

Answer 1

First off see this user tip so should any further unwanted changes happen you have a chance to revert to your original layout.
It is not unknown for AV software to interfere with iTunes and corrupt its configuration files. If this happens iTunes can revert to the default settings to "Keep..." & "Copy...". Deselecting those options won't return any files to their original paths.
If you have "Show iTunes in the Cloud Purchases" enabled under Edit > Preferences > Store that can lead iTunes to download the original metadata for any of your purchases and show that instead of any edits you may have made to it. Turing that option off and restarting iTunes may reveal your version of the metadata.
There is another option under Edit > Preferences > Store that reads "Share details about your library with Apple" although I don't think that changes metadata in the way that the similar option in Windows Media Player does. Double-check your settings in Windows Media Player (Options > Library) to make sure it isn't set to "Retrieve additional information from the Internet". This is usually the cause of spontaneous tag resetting. WMP can be called into life in the background when visiting certain websites and it has a lazy cache, meaning it can sometimes write out metadata to your media files long after the data was originally acquired.
It is also work noting that mp3 files may contain multiple tags and iTunes, for one, treats these unpredictably. In some cases it may appear to accept and write out a tag change only to later read back the original unchanged data from another copy of the tag.
tt2