My mp3 files on hard drive & iTunes

Hi,
I just purchased my first ipod and am extremely excited. I have been playing with iTunes, and I am a little confused.
I currently have all of my mp3's in a folder in their own partitioned drive, so 'G:\music'. How to I get all of the mp3's into iTunes (and let them stay where they currently are? Also, when I receive new mp3's, I clean up the tags and then move them into the G:\music folder...so can iTunes be set up to keep track of the folder and update whenever new files are added? Or do I need to add them manually into iTunes everytime? That would be a pain.
Sorry...I have scanned the help files to no avail. Thanks in advance.
Mike

Well, your first question is very easy...
On the menu bar, go to "Edit>Preferences..." and a dialog (a window thingie) will display letting you manage the settings in iTunes. There, on the "Advanced" tab, in the "General" subtab, you will see a CheckBox with "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library". Make sure that is unchecked. That way, when you add new tunes to your library, you won't copy them to your iTunes Music folder (probably at "C:\Document and Settings\[your user name]\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music".
As to the second question, I am not sure if you will be able to automatically add the tunes to your library when you add files to the folder. You might want to take a look on the web for any programs that do this, since iTunes has an interface for programmers to write extensions to the behavior of iTunes. Some bored coder might have had this problem already and has published a solution.
Dell Inspiron 9200 Notebook Windows XP Pro P-M 745 2GB RAM 17" WUXGA

Similar Messages

11.1.3 crashes when importing an mp3 file from hard drive

When I try to 'add file' from my hard drive to iTunes 11.1.3 the program crashes. The file is not added. Until updating to 11.1.3 I could add one or more files with no problem. Windows 7.
Is this a glitch in the update or specific to my machine and how could I tell?

Hi Tawney Mazek!
In order to troubleshoot this issue and find the cause of it, you may need to use the following article:
iTunes for Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8: Fix unexpected quits or launch issues
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1717
Thanks for being a part of the Apple Support Communities!
Regards,
Braden

Can I delete files from Hard Drive (Itunes) without autodeletion from Ipod?

I have limited hard drive space and from what I can tell Itunes autoupdate will automatically delete music from my IPOD as I delete it off of my computer hard drive. Is this true?
Thanks in advance.

Thanks for the link. The music I want to delete is for CDs I own and have no need to keep on my hard drive. I'm hoping I can delete the music file and the library file will keep the title on it.

How can I move mp3 files from trash to iTunes?

I accidently moved a group of MP3 files (songs) from my iTunes to the trash. After doing a little research, I saw the suggestion of creating a folder on my desktop and dragging them from the trash to the new desktop folder. So, I did that, and as far as I can tell, the songs are all there, sitting in the folder. But when I tried to drag the songs from the desktop folder to iTunes, I got this message:
"Attempting to copy the disk Macintosh HD failed. You do not have enough access privaleges for this operation."
This makes no sense to me. This is my private computer so I should have all the privaleges I need to do anything, right? And I'm not trying to copy the "disk Macintosh HD", right?
Anyway, can you help me move the songs back into iTunes--or to the podcast so I can then move them to iTunes? FYI, the songs have names like, "download 124.mp3" and the Kind is "mp3 Audio." I originally got these songs via a podcast from a radio station (KCRW). I have iTunes 11.1.1.
Thanks!

ed2345,
Thanks! I did that and the songs are now back in my iTunes. Some of the songs went back to the podcast and some went to the playlist.
UNFORTUNATELY, the songs did some sort of massive duplicating so that there are now over 100 duplicates of every episode/song (the podcast now has almost 36,000 episodes/songs and the playlist now has over 24,000 episodes/songs), and iTunes is viery slow/sluggish (spinning beach ball). Can you tell me how to eleminate all of the duplicates?

I have some mp3 files not purchased from itunes on my ipod nano; recently got a new laptop - how can i transfer now those mp3 to itunes?

i try to transfer mp3 files; not purchased from itunes, from my ipod nano to my new laptop/itunes/itouch. i dont have the original files/cd;s anymore and no backup! can somebody help please

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1329 How to use your iPod to move your music to a new computer

How to convert .MP3 files into .AAC with iTunes 10.5.2

Im running a Mac OS X 10.5.8, and my iTunes version is 10.5.2.
I want to convert .MP3 files into .AAC using iTunes, but no option is given for me. What should I do?

im not going to change all my songs into AAC, I was experiementing around with making ringtones for my iphone. I can open a song in Garageband, and export it as an AAC file to my itunes, but it is very annoying. I remember older versions of itunes having a "Convert to AAC" option, but i can't find it anymore on this current version of itunes.
Basically, I want to convert a couple songs into AAC to create ringtones out of them.

How can I copy outlook files to hard drive

How can I copy large outlook files to the external hard drive with out formatting it?
I currently have Macbook Pro Version OS X 10.9.5.
I tried all the ways copying outlook files, but it says larger files cannot be transferred. My outlook file is about 16gb.
Also tried trough Time Machine...Can anyone list of the steps here to copy these files to my hard drive?
Later, I want to copy these files from hard drive to the new Macbook Pro.....need urgent help please !!!

If your external drive is FAT32 (MS-DOS) format, it won't take file larger than 4GB. There's no way around that, I'm afraid.
Matt

Mp3 files wont import into itunes from external hard drive

I just switched from PC to Mac and have the new aluminium mac book.For my PC I had all my music stored on my external hard drive.I have begun transferring most of it to itunes,but some of the files since hooking my external hard drive to my Mac book have turned into 'Apple Files' which appear to be document files as opposed to music files.Is there a way that i can convert them into the itunes format?
Message was edited by: KatesM

WMA is not supported directly by iTunes. In iTunes for Windows, you can convert (but not play) these files, as long as they're not copy protected, to an iTunes-supported format.
Short of running Windows on your new Mac and handling this with iTunes for Windows, or using another (your old?) PC to convert the WMA files to another format (I would suggest using Apple Lossless, as otherwise you will lose some sound quality unnecessarily--unless the WMAs are WMA Lossless...), your only other option would be to play the files with software for OS X other than iTunes. In that case, you might consider VLC, which is handy for almost countless other audio and video files anyway.

HT203167 I have just installed itunes on my new comp. and searched for mp3 on the hard drive but it has not found all of them. There are 2000+ missing, is there any way to re-search the hard drive?

Is there any way to re-search my hard drive for mp3s which have been missed on the initial search?

If you've just moved the drive between systems then see Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows just in case that reveals the missing files. Apply to a single album folder first as a test. Otherwise, if you've not done too much with the drive since things went missing, an undelete tool might recover the lost media. FreeRecover looks promising... Select the drive, use the options to get file paths and check file integrity, then, presumably, you can restore anything that has been deleted that looks recoverable. Backup to another drive when you're done.
tt2

Help: How do I mass point iTunes to all my original mp3 files on e: drive?

This seems pretty straight forward but I can't seem to figure this out. When I try to play a song on my iTunes library I get a "The song XXX could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?" The source is on my external hard drive on E:. But I have over 3,000 songs and most of which now require I locate the source individually. Is there a way that I can point iTunes to look for all songs on my e:drive? The songs are categorized and separated in folders by artist and album name. This makes it harder to point in mass. Looking for some answers here?

I just did this myself with my 6000-odd MP3 files.
First, make a new Library - hold down "Shift" as you launch iTunes and you'll get a dialog box that says "Choose Library / make New Library". Make a new library and call it "All MP3s from E:" or something you'll remember. iTunes will launch with a BLANK playlist.
Then, go to "File -> Add Folder To Library" and select the master folder that all your MP3s are in. When you say "OK" iTunes should scan all your files and add them to this new, blank library. So long as you do not tell iTunes to "Consolidate Library" all your files should remain in their current location (Consolidating seems to copy all your files into the iTunes Music folder which will take up extra hard drive space). KEEP IN MIND that if the E: drive is a remote hard drive that it must be switched on and connected to the PC or the link to the song in the Library will break (perhaps this is what's happening to your current library list)?
When you re-launch iTunes it should automaticallly re-load your newly made Library file - see "Using Multiple Libraries" in the iTunes Help area for info on how to restore the default Library if you ever need to.
Let me know if this works - it did for me anyway.
Message was edited by: ImagoX

Trying to back up iPad to external hard drive, "iTunes library file cannot be saved. The disk you are attempting to use is full."

This issue is somewhat complex so I will try to explain it as clearly as I can. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
It all began when I kept getting popups from my iPad saying that I had not backed up since May. I realized that was pretty dangerous so I decided to finally try syncing it to iTunes, though I had avoided doing so for so long because I knew that when I tried there was no room on the computer. I then remembered that I have an external hard drive with plenty of storage space, so I got that out and set it up with a folder to move iTunes and the backup into.
On iTunes I went to the Advanced Preferences and changed iTunes Media Folder Location to the G: folder, with the keep organized box checked. I also copied the previous backups from the original C: drive to G: so that I could delete the ones on C:.
I used Junction Link Magic to link my now empty MobileSync backup on C: to a new (JLM would not work unless it was empty) backup folder on external hard drive G:.
I plugged in my iPad to iTunes to sync it, and while it was backing up I checked the new folder on G: to make sure that the backup was being put there. It was.
However, about halfway through I got the message "iTunes library file cannot be saved. The disk you are attempting to use is full."
My question is Why? If it is being made in a 1.5 terabyte hard drive now, and not the computer, why is there no disk space? My guess is that it must still somehow be saving to the computer. But how? And how can I get it to save solely on the G: drive where there is enough room?
I am running Windows XP and the latest version of iTunes.
An additional but not as crucial issue:
Much of my music has been lost, with the being displayed next to the songs in the iTunes library, and only 50 (purchased) songs remain on my iPad. This was because those missing songs were stored on a different external hard drive ( I:). However, I copied many of the music folders on I: over to G: so that everything could be together. I am wondering if it is possible for me to get these songs back onto my iPad. But this is not my most important issue right now, because I believe that once I get the first issue solved I can simply plug in I: and G: at the same time while syncing the iPad, and get the songs back.
Note: I have come to realize the iTunes program itself is still under Program Files in the C: drive. Does this have to do with anything?

Short term, free up some disk space. Long term, move the library to a bigger drive.
tt2

ITunes Match is duplicating files on hard drive

Almost every song/album I have ever purchased and downloaded will not play from the local file, but instead insists or 'redownloading' from the Music Match Cloud.
Eg: The album "Communards" by "The communards". As you can see iTunes is under the impression that this album is 'not' stored locally and has the 'cloud' icon, ready for me to download.
The only way these songs will play is to click them, at which point iTunes downloads the song and saves in my iTunes library.
The tracks then no longer have the 'cloud' icon on them and I can play them from the local file.
All tracks that I have done this with now have 'Display in Wiindows Explorer' in their context menu.
Any tracks that I have not gone through this process with do NOT have 'display in Windpws Explorer' in the menu but only have 'download'.
When I 'view in Window Explorer', the whole album is there - All the songs that have the iCloud icon on them are there and all song that do not are in there twice.
i.e. I end up with the original file and also the one that iTunes has insisted that I download.
There is not even an option to 'locate on my hard drive' which would enable me to point iTunes to the local file.
Why is this happening and how do I fix it?
That fact that iTunes downloads these 'cloud' files and stores them in the very same directory as the files I aready have means iTunes knows what folder to look in for this album, it simply refuses too.

I do seem to have a few duplicates.
26 tracks to a page (13 duplicates) x 17 pages = 221 duplicates.
I have 3,331 tracks in total.

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.

MOVING mp3-files from external drive into iTunes automatically

Hi all,
for historical reasons (mainly because I was coming from Windows years ago) I have stored all my mp3-Files (audiobooks, songs, etc) on an external harddrive. My iTunes library is stored on the external drive, too and all media content in my iTunes library is manually linked to the external drive. Today the option iTunes >Setting >"Let iTunes manage your library" ias well as "Copy filed to iTunes Media folders" is UNchecked.
In my iTunes library there is only a subset of all mp3-files included.
Now, I would love to get my library moved to the mac as well as the audio and video-files, and let iTunes manage the storage of the library!
As far as I know once I move the library (manul or automatic) to the Mac and check the option to let iTunes manage the and copy content, then iTunes will COPY the medial files to the Mac.
Given that I have only included a subset of my entire repository in iTunes I will then end up with a mess of mediafiles on my external drive where some are doublicated while others aren't. I will be impossible to figure out afterwards what is included in iTunes and what isn't.
Hence the perfect process would be if iTunes could, while executing the import following the automation-Option (see above) and MOVE the files from the whereever and bring it to the place it want's it to be.
Is there any way to get this automated and get iTunes MOVE the files instad of copying?
That would be a tremendous help!
Many Thanks for your thoughts!
Mattthias

Hi mradvanyi,
For help with adding music files to iTunes I would suggest looking over the steps in this article -
iTunes: About the Add to Library, Import, and Convert functions
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1347
If this does not help, please respond and we will see what else can be done.
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Brett L

ITunes 7.1.1 deletes music files on hard drive

After updating iTunes to 7.1.1, I discovered that my playlist for "alternative" music had dissappeared. OK, no problem, the music files must still be in "music/itunes". Searched through this folder, but ALL the "alternative" music files were gone from the hard drive - all the music burned from CDs, even those purchased from iTunes! Used "find" in various ways, no luck. They are truly deleted.
After hours and hours of reinstalling all the "alternative" music from backups, all was back as before. I shut my Mac down for the night. The next day I opened iTunes and the "alternative" playlist was gone again - and the music I had put back onto my hard drive had been erased again!
I've tried starting iTunes from an old library - the playlists come back, but the music is not, just shows question marks. I've even done a virus check of the whole HD.
As any ideas as to why this is happening, and what to do?
Now I'm worried that other playlists, and their actual music files will be unpredictably wiped.
Has this happened to anyone else's "Alternative" music files and/or playlists?
I can't believe my music files have been erased off my hard drive - twice!
Hard to trust iTunes now.
G4 Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Thanks for the reply, it's appreciated.
I usually turn off the computer each night. After updating to 7.1.1, just the "alternative" playlist and music files were gone from my HD. I re-installed the music files from a backup HD.
To test things, I quit iTunes and then opened it again and looked in the music file on the HD, a number of times. The replaced music was still there.
The next morning, I turned on the computer [Of course, I know that an off computer can do nothing ]. When it came time to open iTunes, again the music files were gone. I didn't check to see if the files were there before I opened iTunes, unfortunately.
I did use Norton, but only AFTER I discovered the files were gone ...
At the mo' I'm trying to recreate the problem to see if I can further narrow it down. Putting just one song into the Alternatives playlist, shutting down, starting up, etc. See if it's there. Repairing permissions with Disk Utility, etc etc.
Again, thanks for trying to help!

My mp3 files on hard drive & iTunes

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for