Itunes File Organising

I have many albums that have featured artists, when I import these to Itunes it automaticall breaks the album up to compilations and the ones just by the main artist it puts them in the main artist folder, I would prefer to have them all under the main artist, can I do this?
Also some albums are filed under for example 'Charlatans' and 'The Charlatans' when I would prefer them all to be in one folder, can I move these files about???
Thanks
Jo

Generally all you need to do is fill in an appropriate Album Artist. For more details see my article on Grouping Tracks Into Albums, in particular the topic One album, too many covers.
Assuming you let iTunes manage the files it will update their positions as you update the tags. Don't move things by hand in Explorer as iTunes will just lose track of them.
The database that iTunes uses isn't entirely consistent when it comes to capitalization or bands that begin with "The". You'll have to impose consistency yourself...
tt2

Similar Messages

Restoring iTunes files after hard drive problems

HI.
I recently had hard drive problems and since the recovery of the data I have lost all my files from iTunes. The sogs I have put on to the Mac via CD's are all still there but all the iTunes downloads have disapeared. This is probably because I didn't back up!
I also have numerous duplications, which I eventually removed from itunes but I know the majority of which will return if I drag my music folder across.
This will be a hige taks again to remove the duplications.
I want to use this unfortunate incident to my advantage though and now have a clear out of my unwanted files and keep my iTunes nicely organised.
I also lost my playlists, which is a major pain.
By looking at the support threads it seems that I can use my ipod to put my library back as it should be. Will this also replace my downloaded songs? My other issue is that some of my iTunes downloads, downloaded with some problems, which are obviously on my ipod. How do I go about getting the songs repaired?
Thanks for any help.

[Zevoneer's detailed instructions on getting music off an iPod|http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=9053179#9053179]
[Wired's How To: Get Your Music Off of Your iPod|http://howto.wired.com/wiki/GetYour_Music_Off_of_YouriPod]
[http://www.metaphoriclabs.com/articles/5-ways-to-copy-music-off-your-ipod-windo ws-mac-os-x>
I imagine if the files exist on the ipod you can get them transferred over. if they don't exist, they are gone.
As for the corrupt files you would need to provide more information on the issues.

Not "Keeping files organised"

Although this can't be a new problem, a search didn't give me an answer.
I do not want iTines to organise my music, in particular I do not want it in sub folders. I want to keep it all in one folder.
I used to have two main music folders, and when I added something to the original one, I'd then Add File into the iTunes one.
Following iPod hardware problems around Christmas (new iPod :))I de-installed iPod & iTunes software, deleted the iTunes library and started over.
Everyhing looked fine. 1 library, can sort, search, play etc in iTunes and use the library in other applications too.
Today I went Add Folder to Library. My iTunes library is set to the same library as my main library, and the folder I wanted to copy in was called Downloads. I carefully checked that "Keep iTunes library organised" was unchecked and Added the folder.
However, iTunes has copied all the new files into the usual iTunes folder structure. I really don't want this...
Does anyone have any idea:
Why?
How I can stop it doing it?
Thanks in advance

If iTunes is creating the file, for any reason, it will use its own folder structure. This means that if you rip the songs from CD using iTunes, it will create those folders. If you use the "copy files" function, it will create those folders.
The "keep my files organized" actually just tells iTunes whether or not to organize those files into those folders when you change something, like a song title or an artist name, and so on.
If you want to keep your files in a flat structure, then you can't use the copy files option. You have to manage your files yourself, completely, if you don't want to use the folder layout iTunes wants to use.

IPhoto file organising

hello,
I was just wondering if it is possible to turn off the file organising that iPhoto uses (like you can in itunes)... Because i have already organised my photos into files, and named the files... and i like to be able to browse through the folders and files, as they are.
However when i import pictures into iPhoto it seems to copy them into another directory... which really frustrates me, and it changes the file names too.
But i do like to use iPhoto, and some of its features.
Is it possible to over ride the file organising so that my file's and folders stay the same, but are also able to be viewed in iPhoto?
Right now, to fix the problem, i have my manual file/folder system with the photos, as well as a directory of copies that iPhoto has made, in its file system.
I hope that made some sence, and someone can help me

Hi damian,
No it is not possible. iPhoto has it's own way f organizing that cannot be changed.
Two Apple kbs for you to read
Don't tamper with files in the iPhoto library folder
About the iPhoto Library folder
iPhoto does not change the file names though. Whatever file name they were imported as stays the same in the iPhoto Library folder in the Finder.
You can certainly keep your own system and not use iPhoto to organize your images. If you want to use any of those images for a slideshow, book, you can then import just those images into iPhoto.
iPhoto is not for all people. Many Windows users are used to their way of organizing and don't want to change. There is nothing wrong with that, but iPhoto doesn't work that way. There are other programs that do. iViewMedia and iViewMediaPro is just one program that lets you keep your own file system of organization.
Lori

I moved itunes file to external hard drive and want to move the file on my pc to recycle bin. When I move i get an error message that it cannot delete ituneshelper.dll access is denied. Can I move that file to the recycle bin?

I am trying to free up space on my pc and moving itunes files to external hard drive. I have followed instructions and believe I have file copied to new drive, but I am having trouble moving file to recycle bin as the instructions say. I am getting the following error message: cannot delete ituneshelper.dll:access denied, make sure disk is not full or write protected and file not in use. I know the file is not in use when trying to move. Any help would be most appreciated. I am on Windows XP.

Yes. And you should not have moved that folder. Put it back. To move your iTunes library move the folder from User's Music.
tt2

Moving iTunes files from PC to Mac

I have most of my iTunes files on my iMac and want to copy them into iTunes on my PC. I thought about moving them from the iMac onto a thumb drive and them importing them into iTunes on the PC, but don't know if the thumb drive can be used on both Mac and PC. If not, any other suggestions to move 4 GB of files the easiest way possible?

Format your thumb drive as fat32 and it will be read by both PC and Mac. If you have less than 4GB of music then you should be fine

My purchased itunes files will not show up on my ipod after a virus Help!!!

I got a virus. I took my comptuer to a computer store, and got it fixed. They backed up my itunes files, and put them on a new hard drive. Everything shows up in itunes, but my purchased files from itunes wont sync to my ipod. They still play in itunes. Is there way to get them to sync? Help please!!!

They backed up the files but you need to authorize the computer again.

I received a gift card and when I redeemed it an error message said that I had some itunes files missing and that I needed to reinstall itunes. Will I still have all my credits when I download itunes?

I received an online gift card for Father's Day. When I tried to redeem the gift then I received a error message saying I had some itune files missing and I needed to reinstall/download itunes. Will I still have my previous purchase credits after downloading and reistalling itunes?

You will, because the credited funds are on your iTunes account, not the application. When you reinstall iTunes just configure it with your old iTunes account and your credits will be there waiting for you.

TS3212 Still unable to download itunes to my pc. Tried with IE, Mozilla and Google Chrome. Keep getting an error message :"Windows cannot open itunes.exe the file is corrupt contact support."previous itunes files were wipped out by "disk cleaner." Any hel

Still unable to download itunes to my pc. Tried with IE, Mozilla and Google Chrome. Keep getting an error message :"Windows cannot open itunes.exe the file is corrupt contact support."previous itunes files were wipped out by "disk cleaner." Any help??
Please!
Thanks!

If anyone is reading this still looking for what caused the issue and how to fix it here is what I discovered.
The antivirus program our company uses, Bitdefender Antivirus Plus, was causing some of the PDF files not to open. After troubleshooting the different modules and settings the culprit was..
Scan SSL in Privacy Control Settings. Turning it OFF solved the problem and all the PDF files that previously would not open now open just fine. This issue has been sent to Bitdefender for them to review. If you use a different antivirus program and are having this issue try locating the Scan SSL setting and see if turning it off solves the problem.

I want to transfer my iTunes files to a separate hard drive

I have iTunes stored on my desktop PC. It is the one that I have, so far, stored all iTunes music on. I wanted to transfer these songs to a separate hard drive to free up space on my computer's hard drive. I felt I needed to install iTunes on the separate hard drive which I did today. I then thought I could just find the same type of folder on the separate hard drive that was on the PC but that was not the case so I created a "regular" folder on the hard drive and copied all of the files over. It appears that the files successfully got copied but the screen display does not look the same as it does when I open my PC iTunes and open a music folder from there.
What is the best way for me to copy the files over so I can then delete them from my PC with the assurity that I will not have done something that I will later regret ... such as rendering these copied files as ones I cannot burn to a disc, etc.

Changing the setting as to where to store media will indeed put the media files (but not the rest of the iTunes library files) on the external drive as long as the user also selects to organize the media to the NAS. If you don't do that, iTunes will only store new media there from that time on.
I would not recommend keeping only media on the NAS. As I said, NAS can have issues with iTunes and some of the longest topics I have seen here are how to rebuild a library after for some reason the library file on the Mac computer has lost the link information to the media files stored on a NAS. Some things such as date added, play count, and ratings are only stored in the library file and may be lost if you have to rebuild your library file.
I guess for me the only iTunes reason for having a NAS would be to do direct sharing of the library rather than having to use Home Sharing. Direct sharing of the library intact requires placing all the iTunes files on the NAS. If you're going to do Home Sharing you might as well opt for a a cheaper, more stable, plain external hard drive.

Bought a MBA and am trying to keep iTunes files on an external hard drive. Having problems.

Hi, I bought a MBA 13" and want to keep my iTunes files on an external hard drive to save space.However, I keep running into problems. I can't get the iTunes Media folder to stay on the folder in my external hard drive. Whenever I unplug it, regardless if iTunes is open or not, it changes back to the media file on the MBA. I tried renaming the media folder and deleting it, but the computer just makes another if I do that and then ends up deleting my whole library, forcing me to load it all back from my hard drive. Can anyone help me out on this? Thanks.

In iTunes 11 uncheck the preferences setting in in the iTunes Preferences panel "Advanced > Copy Files to iTunes Media folder when adding to Library"

Error message when trying to open iTunes files.

I just began having the problem of an error message appearing...
... if I double-click on an iTunes audio file mp3, m4a, etc. or even drag the file directly on to the iTunes application icon.
I did a rebuild of LaunchServices and rebooted but the message still will appear unless the file is opened from an iTunes playlist.
Yet the file plays in iTunes... but the error message is still there and has to be dismissed.
Whereas if I open the same file(s) via the playlist... I get no error message and the file(s) play fine.
Also if I drag the files on to QuickTime 10.0 they play fine without displaying an error message.
Though the error message indicates it's a link problem... from the above... I don't see how it can possibly be since even dragging an audio file directly on to the iTunes application icon still results in the error message appearing.
I only discovered this today when downloading Piezo and I attempted to open the m4a files it saved. So I then tried to open other iTunes files in Finder windows rather than the iTunes playlist window and had the error message appear again.
I don't want to have to add every audio file to an iTunes playlist in order to open it without the error message so can someone please suggest a fix?
Thanks for any suggestions.
Ron
27" iMac, OSX 10.6.7, iTunes 10.5.2

Well I solved my problem.
What still doesn't make sense though is that dragging iTune audio files directly on to the iTunes application icon gave me the error message... which is why I originally discounted it as being a potential link problem. If I had been able to get files to open normally (i.e. without an error message) I would have known it was a simple link problem. Strange.
Anyway... relinking my folder of audio files did the trick.
If you don't already know how here are the steps...
iTunes > Preferences > Advanced > click on the "Change" button and browse to the folder that contains all of your iTunes audio files... that's it.

How do I back up my Itunes files?

My computer hard drive is crashing and I really need to back up my itunes files. How do I do this??? I put the music on my flash drive, but it is not big enough to hold anything else... I have other places I can save stuff... How do I save apps and other stuff and how do I know that everything in my Itunes is safely backed up? And how do I get it all back into Itunes when my new hard drive is installed? Any and all help is apprieciated. Thank you!

The easiest way is to just copy your entire iTunes folder (in My Music in your user's folder) to some other place. Then you can just copy it back to the same location when your drive is replaced and Windows reinstalled and set up.
Regards.

I have a MacBook Pro, I want to copy Itunes files to an SD card to play in my car, the SD Card doesn't appear in Itunes when I insert it, and I don't know how to convert the files to the correct format, can anyone help?

I have a MacBook Pro, I want to copy Itunes files to an SD card to play in my car, the SD Card doesn't appear in Itunes when I insert it, and I don't know how to convert the files to the correct format, can anyone help?
Thank you

So it seems from reading the COMMAND manual that my first issue is that I used a 16GB SD card, and the manual says it will only recogize up to a 2GB SD card. I did use my MB Air's SD card slot and crated a folder and dragged the music files to it, then to the card. So I am going to get a 2GB card and try that next. Otherwise just stick with the iPOD connected. At least that is 8GB

Can you have two separate iTunes files on one computer?

I gave my daughters each an old iPOD. One is 20 GB and the other is 60 GB. I take an iBOOK laptop with me when I visit so I can update them. In the past, they shared the 20 GB iPOD only. Now I have a problem as one iPOD can store a lot more than the other. Is there any way to have two separate iTUNES files on one iBOOK computer, one with the songs for the 20 GB iPOD, and the other for the 60 GB iPOD?

The problem with making separate accounts is that this is a laptop, so likely not a huge hard drive, and if the three iTunes libraries need to have a lot of the same music (because everyone or two or three like some of the same stuff) you end up with double or triplicate copies of the music on the hard drive eating up drive space. Since they don't use his laptop normally, creating more accounts (with all the associated files and drive space usage each account would eat up) it probably isn't worth it.
Instead, the best approach is like Chris said, to make playlists for the girls in the main library and then set up the various iPod to either sync everything (if big enough) or sync only specific playlists (if not big enough).
Alternatively, they can set their iPods to manual syncing and then when Dad is visiting they can hook up their iPods and "shop" the library and drag in whatever they want to add to the iPods and delete what they no longer want.
Patrick

Itunes File Organising

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for