Organizing folders with itunes

I have my itunes, on my pc, set as organizer of my music. Itunes used to change my folders if the album is a recopilation/VA moving them to that folder or even the names of the folders changing the artist names, as you all know. I found out that some folders are protected and they cannot be changed. So I have one folder with one song and I cannot gather the album on VA folder. Anyone knows why?
Thank you!
powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Hello goldenchook,
And welcome to Apple Discussions!
Are you sure your playlist *Running List* is not a *Smart Playlist* instead of a regular one? If it's a smart playlist it will have a small gear on the icon next to it's name.
Otherwise, have you tried dragging this purchased music from your main Library onto the playlist instead?
B-rock

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Best way to integrate system Music & Movies folders with iTunes' default folder structure?

I understand that OSX has system folders that can't be moved (Music, Movies, Documents, etc.). These folders are the only ones that get their specialized icons in the sidebar. I like those icons as they make choosing the right folder easier (even though I can read).
MUSIC:
Isn't there something very un-elegant to have my actual music files buried 4 layers deep in OSX's folder structure? By that I mean, I'd like to click on my (system) Music folder and see my music. But OSX and iTunes have schemed to make users have to deal with Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music. It's weird, right?
I am aware that the iTunes library location can be altered via Advanced Prefs, but I like having Music, Podcasts, Movies, etc. be on the same folder level, if that makes sense. If I point iTunes to my (system) Music folder, then my other media will be down below in the iTunes Media folder.
MOVIES:
Likewise, if I let iTunes manage my files, movies go to the Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Movies folder. I don't let iTunes copy everything into the Media folder (as I don't want to eat HD space with duplicates), but that's still where it wants movies to go when it organizes. Similar to the Music folder issue above, how can I make use of my (system) Movies folder given this setup?
I know that I can just remove whatever folders I want from the sidebar and put in the ones that iTunes uses, but then I lose out on the icons and I end up having permanent folders in my Home folder that don't even get directly used for the media files they're supposed to hold.
Thoughts?

first of all, to get rid of the duplicates, you tell iTunes to consolidate Library.
I think you may be missing the idea of what iTunes does for you. If you have content, like music, that you want to find the file of, you right click the name of the file in itunes and then "show in finder" . For things like iChat, you can simply drag and drop your music into the chat window from itunes, just like it was finder. iTunes organizes your media for you so you don't have to go looking for it.
The same thing goes with videos.
There is no reason to have two of the same files on your computer. Think of iTunes like finder, only it plays media too.
Not everyone uses itunes. Things like quicktime player, after you do a recording, will save the content into your videos folder. They're not on itunes but it uses your video folder to save the recordings. This is just one example of how your video sidebar icon folder will still be useful.
Delete the backups you have of your media unless they're in a format the itunes doesn't support, like lossess formats such as Flac, because it is pointless and wasteful to have two of the same files for music and video on your computer.

Organizing music with iTunes Problem

Hi, I had downtime today at work, and I decided to organize my iTunes library. However, some tracks are showing up on the same album, but not grouped together. I have selected every option possible in the Get Info menu. I have done all I can think of, yet these tracks still remain separate
Here are some picture examples:
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/8641/screenshot20101012at456.png
http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/1757/screenshot20101012at454.png
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/8682/screenshot20101012at455.png
http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/8641/screenshot20101012at456.png
Like I've said, I've checked at made sure the tracks for the albums all have the same Get Info information. Help?

Oh, that always works for me. Do you set Album Artist? If not try setting that as well - either to the artist or if a compilation set to, say, 'Various'
Or the site turingtest2 links looks like it'll help

Export my audio from iPod into organized folders with menaninful filenames

Hello,
I want to "export" my audio from the iPod to my hard drive. A mere copy-and-paste (or drag-and-drop) will not do because on my iPod, the music is scattered in special folders and have special names, thanks to iPod's special way of syncing. How can I export my stuff from iPod into nice human-workable folders and filenames, just as things were when I synced audio from my hard drive to the iPod?
If you could recommend FREE software, I'd appreciate it.

Yamipod. This is a free program that transfers music from iPod back to the computer. However, it does not transfer playcounts/ratings etc.
Other free programs are Pod Player, SharePod and Floola and iDump and iPodRobot.
(and I'm assuming here that "other OS" means Windows)

Organized iPod playlists into folders in iTunes, but not showing up when iPod is disconnected. Please help!

I organized my iPod touch playlists into folders in iTunes on my computer (while my iPod was connected to my computer) but when I disconnect and go to use the iPod separately, the playlists that I organized do not show up in the folders they were put into. They're still all jumbled up, rather than in the playlist folders. The folders show up on my iPod, but some are empty and some have a few but not all of the correct playlists in them. How can I fix this?

Freespirit777 wrote:
PLease note that you cannot organise ipod playlists or folders while it is NOT connected to iTunes, as you simply can't see them.
Yes you can.
If I'm not mistaken, this thread was started prior to the release of iTunes 11. iTunes 11 does "hide" Playlists and Playlist Folders, until you turn the Sidebar back on, using CTRL+S. Also, the top menu bar is useful, and that can be turned on with CTRL+B. However, that aside, nothing has changed regarding Playlists, You can (and have always been able to) create, alter and manage Playlists without having an iPod connected to iTunes. You then allow a Sync to synchronise those Playlists to the iPod.
So use CTRL+B and CTRL+S and make sure you have the top menu and the sidebar showing, like so;
Notice the Playlist Folder, that I've named "Test Folder". Inside it is a Smart Playlist ("Rating 1 star") and two regular Playlists ("Dummy list, do not use" & "Test list"). To create new ones of any of these items, click on the + symbol at the bottom of the iTunes Window (I've ringed it). You then see this:
So that sorts out creating and managing them in your iTunes Library.
Freespirit777 wrote:
It looks like ipod doesn't have a folder function which is unhelpful and user unfriendly.
That's not correct. At least, not as far as the Playlist Folders we have been discussing.
Once the Playlists are Synced to the iPod, looking in the Playlists section on my iPod Touch, shows this;
Notice the "Playlist Folder" (named Test Folder) on the list. Delving into that shows the three Playlists that we saw in iTunes. Notice the name of the Playlist Folder at the top, and the three Playlists in it, listed below (in alphabetical order):
One thing that may be of further use to you; while arranging my iPod to get the screenshots, I found that it took two attempts to get the Playlists fully Synced with my iPod (I use "Sync selected playlists" with it). So if your first Sync doesn't put everything onto your iPod, try a second Sync.

My folders disappear when I sync my iPad with iTunes

I have about 290 apps on my iPad - too many for the 11 screens allowed. I organized them into folders in iTunes (took me a couple of hours) so that I could see all my apps and find them more easily. When I synced my iPad with iTunes, they all disappeared. I'm running verion 4.3.5. HELP!!!

Go to your Pictures Folder and find the iPhoto Library there. Right (or Control-) Click on the icon and select 'Show Package Contents'. A finder window will open with the Library exposed.
Look there for the iPod Photo Cache.
Trash it. Start iPhoto and try sync again.
Regards
TD

How do I get all the content on my IPod to sync with itunes after I reinstalled itunes after computer crashed, folders and songs no longer match?

My computer crashed back in Feb or March of this year and I just recently reinstalled itunes on it. Once reinstalled itunes updated software. Once this was all done I noticed that alot of songs on my IPod were no longer in itunes. Also, the folders in itunes no longer matched what are on my IPod. itunes says the computer is active for itunes and many songs on my IPod are on itunes but many are missing. How do I get itunes to just sync and match what is on my IPod to include all songs and folders. Many of the missing songs on my IPod and not in itunes are ones I purchased from itunes so they should have them. I am getting very discouraged with itunes. I tried to do a support call and pay the fee to have them call to address but I am stationed oversees and they would not accept my overseas number as valid.
Any help is greatly appreciated. As stated, I just want the music now on itunes to match with my IPod to include folders. Seems music got lost. Any suggestions how to back up the music so if this happens again I do not have this issue. I figured itunes would have my music or at a min just sync up what is on my IPod.
Thanks gunner

Probably a bit late to help in this thread, but the question is asked & answered frequently.
*Recover media from iPod*
See this post from Zevoneer for options on moving your iPod data back to your computer.
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=7217190#7217190
Some of the tools linked to will only work if the iPod has a valid library. Others can scan the drive independently and some may even be able to rebuild a damaged library. The manual method towards the end should be able to recover your media regardless of the state of the library.
tt2

In Windows 7, how to make music folders open with iTunes??

Ok, here’s my little problem:
In Windows 7, I have iTunes installed with WMP disabled. In the registry, I have added a Windows Explorer right-click shortcut for folders so that I can choose to open/play that folder’s content in iTunes (see image link below).
http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u297/akita11/Explorer.jpg
All well and good, but I’m the lazy type. So what I would like, is when I left-click on a music folder that has audio files (like mp3’s) in it, instead of Windows Explorer opening the folder, for Windows to open/play such a folder in iTunes automatically. But, and that’s the thing I guess, this should only apply to music folders with audio files (like mp3’s) in it, and not to any other folder containing non-audio files.
I know I can go to the Folder Options control panel applet | File types, and edit the advanced settings for “Folder” from ‘Explore’ to ‘Play with iTunes’ as the default. But then this will be applied so that all and any folders open in iTunes, which isn’t exactly what I’m after.
I guess this can be handled via an advanced registry change, just like I added the Windows Explorer right-click shortcut via a simple registry setting. But for the **** of me I can’t figure out how to do it. I did google around a bit, but without any success.
All help and advice would be greatly appreciated. Cheers

You need to place a shortcut to open Firefox in the Start > Programs > Startup folder.<br />
That is basically the same in all Windows versions.

How do I move music folders with individual music files from windows 7 to itunes folder so that they are recognizable and playble?

How do I move music folders with individual music files from windows 7 to the itunes library so the files are usable in itunes?

All of the following programs should work with Vista.
Yamipod. This is a free program that transfers music from iPod back to the computer. However, it does not transfer playcounts/ratings etc.
Another free program is Pod Player.
SharePod is also freeware.

How can I restart with itunes again as I seem to have duplicate folders in Music and Itunes?

I seem to have partially duplicate Music folders on my computer one called Music (/Users/barry) which is 86.9 gb and one called Itunes music (/Users/barry/Music/iTunes) which is 60.9 GB.
I also have a folder of 25GB in /Users/barry/Music/iTunes/iTunes Master Library recreated 29jul2014/iTunes
I am totally confused as to whether these are really duplicates or how to solve this but am desperate to free up some space on my hard drive.
Are all these necessary or can I delete any please?
Can I start with Itunes again without endangering my music collection?
I am using 11.1.5 version of Itunes.
Mac OSX 10.6.8
Many thanks for any advice

iTunes 9 [and later]: Understanding iTunes Media Organization - http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3847
Image of folder structure and explanation of different iTunes versions (turingtest2 post) - https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-7392
You'll have to determine which are actually currently used, either by getting Info on a representative sample and seeing to which file each points, or by deleting the old structure files and seeing if iTunes has a fit.
Back up your computer first and try.

Syncing iTunes folders with iPod Touch

Hi, I am curious if there is a way to sync my iTunes playlist folders with my iPod touch.
A friend with a year-old iPod Classic (forgive me for not knowing generation number...) is able to sort through his playlists with all of his folders included. It would seem to me that a later generation Touch would be able to do so as well. However, all I get is the standard alphabetical order of playlists, without all of my heavily nested and finely crafted folder hierarchies.
Any help would be fantastic.
Thanks.

You are not alone! I've just bought a 2nd gen iPod touch as an upgrade from a 160GB classic, and have discovered to my horror this very problem - rather than having 100+ smart playlists nested in folders properly and referencing one another, when sync'd to the touch, they all break because there are no folders.
It's a seriously bizarre retrograde step - and a quick Google brings up other people who have come across the same problem; perhaps Apple have different teams of software developers for each of the iPod lines, and it takes a while to get consistent functionality? In any case, it's a really useful feature that I really hope makes it into an update soon - without it, my iPod touch is only really useful as a PDA/portable games console... and I may have to carry on using my classic to play my music

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

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?

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

Working with folders and iTunes

Trying to solve the problem that I can't use iTunes to manage my mp3 library because I've got other hardware and apps that use it. So I've got to do it manually...which then leads to iTunes being out of sync.
The mp3's are on my NAS device.
I've gotten so far with an AppleScript to do it but it falls over on a folder with an '&' in the name.
I'm fairly sure its related to posix and properly referencing the folder.
Any guides or tutorials on writing scripts that use network folders?

-- iTunes Folder Sync.applescript
-- iTunes Folder Sync
-- Created by Chris Beach on 28/06/2006.
-- Copyright 2006 All rights reserved.
-- addToLib v 1.1 - An AppleScipt application that adds all files in a given folder to the
-- iTunes Music Library and then (optionally) deletes the files from the source folder
-- Modified from the Add to iTunes Library Desktop Droplet Script by Apple Computer, Inc.
-- Copyright 2004 Ken Barnt <[email protected]>
-- Change Log
-- v 1.0 - original release
-- v 1.1 - fixed bug where sub directories would not be recursed
-- - added support for AAC and Protected AAC files
-- This software is distributed under the Apple Public Source Licence
property myFiletypes : {".mp3", ".aiff", ".aac", ".wav", ".mov"}
global counter, playlist_status, this_playlist
on run
-- set the following variable to the path to the folder whose contents
-- you want to add to the iTunes Music Library
set temp_folder to "MEDIA:Music"
display dialog "Import Folder is: " & temp_folder & " Continue?" buttons {"Cancel", "Ok"} default button 2 with icon 2
if the button returned of the result is "ok" then
processfolder(tempfolder)
--display dialog counter & " items added!"
end if
end run
-- this sub-routine processes folders
on processfolder(thisfolder)
display alert POSIX path of this_folder
set this_folder to the POSIX path of this_folder
set these_items to list folder this_folder without invisibles
repeat with i from 1 to the count of these_items
-- try
set myItem to ((this_folder as string) & ":" & (item i of these_items) as alias)
tell application "Finder" to set IsFolder to (kind of myItem = "Folder")
if IsFolder is true then
processfolder(thisfolder & ":" & (item i of these_items))
else
--check extension
tell application "Finder" to set myExtension to "." & (name extension of myItem) as string
if myFiletypes contains myExtension then
set this_item to myItem as alias
--display alert (myItem as string)
--processitem(thisitem, (path to myItem) as string)
end if
end if
-- end try
end repeat
end process_folder
-- this sub-routine processes files
on processitem(thisitem, item_folder)
try
tell application "iTunes"
launch
set this_track to add this_item to playlist "Library" of source "Library"
if "_Compilations" is in item_folder then set this_track's category to "Compilation"
if "_SoundTracks" is in item_folder then set this_track's category to "Soundtrack"
if "_Classical" is in item_folder then set this_tracks's category to "Classical"
if "_Games" is in item_folder then set this_track's category to "Game"
if "_Singles" is in item_folder then set this_tracks's category to "Single"
if the playlist_status is "OK" then
duplicate this_track to this_playlist
end if
end tell
set counter to counter + 1
end try
end process_item
you can see where i've been playing with posix!

Problems with syncing Ipad with ITunes: apps won't appear on Ipad and organizing icons won't save

I have a new Ipad 4 for three weeks. Yesterday I start having some problems with syncing my Ipad with ITunes (earlier all was without troubles):
- downloaded in ITunes on PC apps won't transfer to my Ipad - I press Apply and sync, it goes successfully, but apps won't appear on Ipad.
- I tried organizing icons on Ipad from PC, press Apply and sync, it all goes succesfully, but on Ipad icons won't rearrange. But ITunes shows that they are rearranged...
- also I tried syncing my books adding one new book, press sync all books, and new book won't appear. Only when I've chosen every book separately, they transfered.
I use USB for this.
I tried resetting my Ipad, reinstalling ITunes on PC, deauthorizing and authorizing my computer, but it didn't help.
Apple ID are the same on PC and Ipad.
I hope that I'm not the only one with this problem. And also forgive my mistakes if there are any - English is not my native language. Thank you!

I know that it is time consuming and a bit of a pain in the butt to have to do it, but I would backup the iPad, restore to factory settings and then restore from the backup, and sync everything back to the device. It's going to take a while because you have a ton of music on the iPad, but IMO, that would be your best option now.
You could try unsyncing all of the music, and then resync it all again, but that takes time as well. If you are going to spend that much time trying to fix it, you may as well restore the device ...IMO once again.
Use iTunes to restore your iOS device to factory settings

My Ipod will not sync with Itunes - PLEASE HELP

I have a bunch of songs on my ipod that I have from my previous computer and they will not sync with Itunes on my new computer. I have authorized the computer, I have also selected the "transfer purchases from ipod" option, I have spent the last day reading through FAQs but have found no solution. How do I fix the problem? Thanks in advance for your help.

The transfer purchases option only works with music purchased from iTunes and you don't say if this is the case.
Here's some other option for Windows users.
First, try this method which works on some Windows PCs.
Enable your iPod for disk use.
See: iPod Disk Use.
Open iTunes and select edit/preferences/advanced/general. Put a check mark in the box marked "copy files to iTunes music folder when adding to library" and also "keep iTunes music folder organized", then click 'ok'.
Connect the iPod whilst holding down the shift/ctrl keys to prevent any auto sync, and if you see the dialogue window asking if you want to sync to this itunes library, click 'no'.
Then go to file/add folder, open 'my computer', select your iPod and click 'ok'.
The music files should transfer to your iTunes.
If this doesn't work (and it may not because officially it's not supposed to), check out the instructions/suggestions here.
Music from iPod to computer (using option 2). This a manual method using "hidden folders" and although it works, it can be messy.
Much easier ways are to use one of the many 3rd party programs that copy music from the iPod to the computer.
One of the most recommended is Yamipod. This is a free program that transfers music from iPod back to the computer. However, it does not transfer playcounts/ratings etc.
Another free program is Pod Player.

Organizing folders with itunes

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