Select music files

I'd like to synchronize on my ipad just the files I want, I check the square into the library, anyway in the synchronization section itunes just allows me to synchronize all files or by author, genre and so on.
Isn't there a way to synchronize one single file?

The file is just left where it was when it was connected to the library. Typically:
<User>/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/<Artist>/<Album>/## <Name>.<Ext>
If you want to add it back just drag it into iTunes. If you want to cull the files you kept previously add the entire iTunes Media folder back into iTunes (or use one of Doug's scripts that has the same effect), then delete (and don't keep) the recent additions.
Note that warning/prompt is only issued when the files you are removing are located inside the designated iTunes Media folder.
tt2

Similar Messages

I want to transfer select music from my Mac to my Iphone 5 manually Do not want to use synch

I want to transfer select music files FROM my Mac Air (OSX Ver 10.9.2) to my Iphone 5 and do not want to synch my devices. I really do not
want to utilize itunes. I'm a new apple user and I am finding very simple tasks on the Mac and Apple devices very ridged. I do
need help in the music area.
thank you very much for your help. It will be greatly appreciated.

You very well may be correct but I find it hard to believe that everything on my iphone is automatically copied to my Mac and vise versa. I know there are apps out there that allow specific files on the Iphone to be copies to the Mac or PC without going through itunes. (I have one on the Mac and Iphone for trsf of Photo's) This app is a quick 1,2,3 process, no itunes involvement and they drop where I want in the file that I chose.
I'm now in the process of finding the same type of app for music that by-passes the old antiquated itune platform.
Again you may be 100% correct, and I do appreciate your comment, but I am still hopeful someone is aware of another cleaner approach.
thankyou

I would like to use GarageBand to remaster downloaded music files that are in iTunes. Poorly mastered files keep clipping and damaging my speakers. When I try to use an iTunes file as a new project, it greys out the iTunes songs so I can't select them.

I would like to use GarageBand to remaster downloaded music files that are in iTunes. Poorly mastered files keep clipping and damaging my speakers. When I try to use an iTunes file as a new project, it greys out the iTunes songs so I can't select them. Any ideas?

As I said - look whether your original file is damaged or not. If not, I wouldn't change it and find out what in your system makes it sound like it's clipping.
Good sound file, with volume maxed out. No need to change anything.
The same song clipped - no chance to repair.

Selected from my iphone "Buy more ringtones"and it has dowloaded as a music file how do i get it to be a ring tone which is what should have happened. Any ideas on how to fix this?

selected from my iphone "Buy more ringtones"and it has dowloaded as a music file and is now in itunes on my laptop and in music on my iphone. How do i get it to be a ring tone which is what should have happened in the first place. Any ideas on how to fix this? As in itunes I cannot see how to a) change it to a ring or b) drag across to the right area...
I simply followed the prompts on my iphone 4s and would have expected it to end up as a ring tone.. any help, guidance, advice welcome...

selected from my iphone "Buy more ringtones"and it has dowloaded as a music file and is now in itunes on my laptop and in music on my iphone. How do i get it to be a ring tone which is what should have happened in the first place. Any ideas on how to fix this? As in itunes I cannot see how to a) change it to a ring or b) drag across to the right area...
I simply followed the prompts on my iphone 4s and would have expected it to end up as a ring tone.. any help, guidance, advice welcome...

HT1660 when deleting music files from iTunes and you select Keep File, where is that file stored and how it is retireved?

when deleting music files from iTunes and you select Keep File, where is that file stored and how it is retrieved?

The file is just left where it was when it was connected to the library. Typically:
<User>/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/<Artist>/<Album>/## <Name>.<Ext>
If you want to add it back just drag it into iTunes. If you want to cull the files you kept previously add the entire iTunes Media folder back into iTunes (or use one of Doug's scripts that has the same effect), then delete (and don't keep) the recent additions.
Note that warning/prompt is only issued when the files you are removing are located inside the designated iTunes Media folder.
tt2

Adding selective music and files to touch

Hi
I just got a new iPod touch 32 GB. I also have an iPod classic 120 GB. I want to know how can I selectively add different music to each of my iPod touch and classic. To be more specific, for classic I add everything that there in my library but for touch I don't want to add everything, only selected music and playlists. There might be some manual for this, but I could not track it... sorry. Can someone pls help.

hi,
take a look at
iPod 101
and
http://manuals.info.apple.com/enUS/iPod_touch_3.0_UserGuide.pdf
and
http://www.libraries.iub.edu/secure/defiles/iPodtouch_FeaturesGuide.pdf
Message was edited by: Jolly Giant

How do I use one external HD for two Macs to play music files?

I have an External HD linked to my iMac with all my music files. I want to use that same portable Ext HD to use with my MacBook.
Changing the location from MacBook/iTunes Preferences doesn't work, nor does File>Library>Organize Library. The music files don't show up in iTunes. I'm on iTunes 10.6.1.

On each computer:
Open iTunes. Select Preferences from the iTunes menu and click on the Advanced icon in the toolbar. At the top you will see a box showing the path to your iTunes library. Click on the Change button, navigate to the location for the library on your external drive, select it and click on the Open button. Note this permanently changes the library's location on that computer. That means you cannot access your music unless the external drive is connected.
If you don't want a permanent change, then press the OPTION key and hold it down while you launch iTunes. iTunes will then prompt you to select the library you wish to open for that session.

Music files missing? Seems like iTunes bug...

I recently noticed that many of my music files are missing, and that the selection appears to be somewhat random. They are retained in iTunes, but have the ! next to them. So, doing the logical thing, I tried to locate them, and the files themselves are missing, but their iTunes link is preserved.
In an effort to continue to do the logical thing, I then systematically went through my CD library, re-loading all the missing material back into iTunes. This was extremely tedious, but appeared to fix most of the issues (obviously, the ones were the CD case was mysteriously empty were left unfixed). The files played fine at that time. Then I carried the computer upstairs to my home office, where I proceeded to plug it in to do a time machine backup on the newly transferred files.
Now here's where it gets really strange... The time machine backup went swimmingly without hitches, to a relatively new USB 3.0 drive. I then set about organizing the music, so that it would all be in the iTunes music folder (User(me)/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/ directory, the one automatically made by iTunes on installation). Many of the songs linked perfectly, and I didn't have to re-link the songs to their new location, as one might expect. So, I then thought I would sit down to enjoy this new library that I had spent a day bringing up to speed and organizing again. And, low and behold, songs are missing--again. Not just the ones that I couldn't replace, but some of the newly replaced ones. For example, Track 12 of an album might be missing, but the files for Tracks 1-11 and 13+ are all present.
As other people who have experienced this problem previously have noted, there does seem to be a slight preference for songs whose artist and/or title include accented characters, although my detection ability is more limited now, as I have since lost many of these original CDs, and so the songs were not replaced within the library. But, while they account for about 5-10% of my overall library, they accounted for about 50% of the songs missing at the beginning of yesterday's overhaul.
And what makes matters really strange is that when I tried to look up the missing files--which I know myself to have imported yesterday--in the fresh time machine backup I made right after importing all that music, they are all missing.
So, it appears that iTunes is systematically deleting files at random. While I'm tempted to try to put the missing ones back on (fewer are "re-missing" than I was able to replace, so it's a little better), this doesn't exactly seem fruitful, given the fresh deletions.
The original music files were encoded a long time ago, and have been copied and re-copied (and recopied... ad infinitium). It appears that everything that I encoded on the really old system (before iTunes really became popular for this sort of thing) were preserved; however, the issue seems to temporally localize around the time I started using iTunes for most of my music encoding needs (except, of course, for the little issue about files that were imported less than 24 hours ago).
A few other notes:
- I did not delete these files accidentally. I'm more careful than that.
- The files are not there (they're not just hidden--I already checked for this).
- iTunes has retained the link to where it believes the file should be.
- The issue appears to have originally arisen quite some time ago, as these files are systemically missing from all backups made by time machine. However, it wasn't all that long ago that I deleted my entire library and started over (about 2 years, so the files should have been natively present on 2 of my macs) by re-importing all the files in my music folder. This newly created library has since become the "master" library that is propigated to all my other computers (although I don't trust iCloud for obvious reasons, given this fiasco--Thanks, Apple...)
- I have not elected to have iTunes manage my music folder, or automatically copy things to the iTunes music folder when importing (although this is the default destination, so they are imported there, but not duplicated there when imported from elsewhere on the hard drive).
- I am currently running OS X 10.6.8 on an Intel Mac (yeah, yeah, I'd upgrade the OS, but software that cost more than the computer isn't 10.8--or even 10.7--compatible).
If anyone has any thoughts on how to prevent this issue in the future, I'd really appreciate it. I think the music files themselves are just... gone. But, I would like to be able to have them stick around for a bit when I get around to dedicating another day to trying to import them from their CD.
Does anyone know a piece of third party software that allows you to sync and update iDevices? Hopefully one that doesn't take over my music library and decide to delete things of its own accord?

I was lucky to be able to use a PC, that after trying numerous times actually read the external hdd, I quickly copied all files over to a backup hdd and recovered all files. After that I ended up in contact with Western Digital about the incident and they recommended to completely erase (7-pass erase) of the hdd, which ended up taking over 5 days to do. They gave me no reason as to "Why" it would have happened but if I erase and reformatted of the hdd and the problem reoccurred they recommended to get the unit replaced.
I was lucky to recover all my files.....keep trying on different computers if you can, and copy what you can get hold of. The 7-pass erase will delete pretty much every trace of information on the hdd with no chance of recovery.
So far since the incident its been running ok but I not longer trust the hdd to be stable. Not a simple nor quick process / solution I'm afraid.
Good luck!
Once you have recovered your files (or as many as you can get hold of) and ready to erase the hdd:
(THIS WILL ERASE ALL YOUR DATA, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A BACKUP BEFORE PROCEEDING)
Connect the drive directly to the Mac, open Disk Utility.
Select the drive and click on the "Erase" tab Select the "7-times zeros" to completely erase the drive.
Once the erase have completed format the drive to your selection.

ITunes 6.0.3 destroyed my music files (mp3 and m4a).

iTunes 6.0.1 has destroyed a significant amount of my 35,000 song library. Not just the library, but the SONG FILES. Take a look:
http://riggswerks.com/itunes/diy_gaps.gif
This is an mp3 file that has been opened in Peak. See all those gaps? They were added by iTunes.
What happens is when a song that has been damaged like this goes to play, iTunes will only play it till its first gap (in the case of the screenshot song, about 2 seconds). Once it hits the gap, it moves on to the next song in the playlist. For some reason, iTunes is adding the gaps and duplicating small portions of the song in between the gaps, cutting off several seconds of the song ending, etc. So, it wouldn't be as simple as cutting out the gaps in a sound editing program, because song data has been added as well. The files are useless. I tried to upload one, but my ftp client wouldn't allow a file that severely damaged to be moved.
Two questions:
a) Is iTunes 6.0.1 safe to use? I'm scared to death that it will end up trashing more of my music, so I reverted to version 5, and locked my dedicated 250GB music hard drive. Anyone out there that can help explain what's going on would be tremendously helpful.
and
b) It seems that once there is a screwed up song in the iTunes library, it forces any overwritten file for the bad songs to adopt the gaps and characteristics of the previous version. For example, I reburned a couple of these bad songs from the original CD and selected for iTunes to replace the songs as they burned (after unlocking the hard drive)- when I went to play it, the new song- ripped straight from CD minutes before- had the same gapping problems. How can I reimport my good versions of these files if iTunes adopts the gaps and errors? I'm stuck.
For further reference (others have had similar/same issues):
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=1308126#1308126
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=1308121#1308121
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=1308060#1308060
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=1307909#1307909
For those who may know how to help- here's my set up:
PowerMac G5 Quad running 10.4.3
iTunes 6.0.1 (reverted back to iTunes 5 now)
TIA. core4

hiya!
hmmm. okay, here's a user tip on moving your music files to a different drive. can you spot anything you might have missed on the first attempt?
MacMuse: Move iTunes music/Library to new drive
love, b

I have multiple libraries on an external drive. Somehow all the iTunes library files i.e. iTunes Library.itl, xml, itdb, Media folder, etc disappeared! Only the music files remain. Now when I start iTunes w/option it can't find any of the old libraries!

Help! I 'm using an old G4 powerbook, Mac OSX 10.5.8, iTunes ver 10. I have multiple iTunes libraries on an external drive. Everything was fine for a while, then all of the iTunes library files, i.e. iTunes Library.itl, xml, itdb, artwork folder, Media folder, etc mysteriously disappeared! Only the music files remain (thank god) So now when I start iTunes w/option key to choose a library, I can't choose any of them because iTunes won't recognize them. Because all the library stuff is missing. So can I re-create the library files? (I don't care if I lose my ratings)
Or should I create a new empty library on the external drive, then manually move all the music files to the Media folder in the new library?
I tried some stupid ideas like creating a new library just to start iTunes, then going into prefs and advanced, then under iTunes Media folder location, selecting the location of the old library on the external, to see if iTunes would then find all the music which is still there, but no workee.
I'm out of ideas, and I searched the archives.
Help! anyone?
Scott

I don't know if this is me adding files to iTunes when the external wasn't connected
it is.
is it OK to just keep deleting that library on the Air?
i wouldn't - at least not until i
mount the external
point iTunes media folder location back to the external via preferences > advanced
consolidate my library via file > library > organize library
The ntfs hasn't seem to be causing any problems, but I've always wanted to know.
in order for your Mac to write to NTFS drives, it needs some help by installing e.g. the NTFS 3G driver. apparently that or something similar is installed on your Mac already. preferably, it would be formatted for Mac but then windows machines would need to have e.g. MacDrive installed to recognize the drive.

I had to install a new hard drive because my old hard drives boot files became corrupted, and i want to get all of my music files off the old hard drive and regain all my play counts/ratings/playlists

Greetings everyone
as the title says, ive had to install a new hard drive and i want to transfer my old itunes library onto the new drive, maintaining all playlists/play counts/ratings etc, album artwork if possible. The old hard drive is installed as a slave drive and is completely acessible, but due to the boot files being corrupted i cannot use it as the main drive and therefore operate my old itunes. Also, my ipod no longer contains my music library as itunes synced without my permission and wiped it.
The only thing i have tried is copying all of my old music files from the old drive by selecting 'add folder to library' and then the old drive, then replacing the new itunes library.itl file with the one from my old itunes. This restores all my playlists and playcounts but when i try to play any of the songs it says that the files could not be found, and i dont fancy locating 8500 music files individually!
Thankyou for taking the time to read my post, any help will be greatly appreciated.

Ah, my reply was based on the assumption that you had a default installation of iTunes.
i.e you had all your music in the iTunes media folder inside your iTunes folder.
If your iTunes folder is so small compared to the amount of music you have, you must have a different arrangement.
This complicates you situation considerably.
iTunes can cope with moving around as long as all the music is in the iTunes media folder, not not if it isn't.
Your first step should be to get iTunes working on the old drive. This will involve editing the xml library file so that the drive letter is correct and then rebuilding the library from the xml file.
Then you will need to consolidate your library which moves everything into the iTunes media fodler. After that you will be able to use my first suggestion.
Step 1
Find the iTunes folder on the old drive and copy the two library files somewhere else so you can find them again. That's iTunes Library.itl and iTunes Library.xml.
Now open the copy of iTunes Library.xml with WordPad.
Look for lines starting:
Location
These contain the paths to tracks.
You will need to use a find/replace to change the drive letter so that it is correct.
Make sure that you include enough in the "find" so that you only change the right thing.
Maybe /c:/ and replace with /d:/ or whatever.
After that, tell iTunes to use the library on the old drive with a shift key start.
Hold down the shift key and start iTunes, keep holding the shift key until you are prompted to choose a library. Navigate to the iTunes folder on the old drive and choose iTunes Library.itl.
Then use the method in the following article to rebuild your library;
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1451
Unfortunately the date added will be today for all tracks.
If iTunes works correctly after this, consolidate your library
File>>Library>>Organize>>consolidate
This copies all tracks into to iTunes media folder and could create a problem if you do not have disk space so don't do it if you are unsure about free disk space.
Check that iTunes works OK and then use the first method.
Message was edited by: polydorus

ITunes changes links to music files to the wrong (and random) location

Recently, I've noticed that iTunes (8.2) skips certain songs in my iTunes library. No ! shows up to indicate it cannot find the file. Rather, the file link is to a completely random location on my harddrive where no music files exist. I'll link to a photo a previous poster put on the web which has the same odd file links. http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3459/327398302018d78347a5o.jpg
Two questions:
1. How do I stop this?
2. How can I fix this short of reimporting each file and deleting the improper one?
Thanks in advance for any insights.
Dan

Remove the compilations indicator from the tracks and iTunes should relocated the files for you. Make a playlist to pick up all the tracks in the album, highlight all the songs and right click on the selection, choose Get Info and when you are asked if you want to edit multiple items say yes, In the box that opens change Compilation to "No" and press OK.

How do i make it so iTunes plays the music files from where i have chosen to store them?

how do i make it so iTunes plays the music files from where i have chosen to store them as opposed to it scattering copies of my files into a myriad different folders based on the albums they came from when i'm not even interested in keeping whole albums?
I recently converted myself to mac after having been a windows formatted person since the beginning of time. I use last.fm and the client scrobbler only supports iTunes on the mac (scobbling since Nov 06 and i'm now heavily dependant upon it as a means of discovering new music) - if you don't know what that means then take it for granted i have no option other than to use iTunes as my media player whn using the mac. And almost immediately upon using iTunes i was filled with horror.
My tale of woe as follows: I copy all my mp3 files to folder X on my new mac. I copy my simple playlist in to that same folder X. The simple playlist simply lists all the files in folder X in the order i want to hear them in... simple right? And what happens the moment i start playing my simple list? Well you probably all ready know; itunes throws copies of all those files in to the air, scatters them to the four winds so each of them fall into a little folder of their own representing the album they might once have come from. I don't keep whole albums. For me the 'album experience' is a ruse to trick one into listening to weaker material. I only keep the concentrated goodness. I only put up with albums in a previous lifetime because in the days of vinyl i had no other choice apart from spending hours compiling mix tapes. Now i am liberated from these restrictions and have been for the 15 or so years i've been using a computer to listen to music. Until along comes iTunes forcing me backwards in time, frog marching me back into the past.
That simple list i mentioned is my one and only playlist. This single playlist has been evolving for 15 years as tracks are added and removed and their position in the list changes because that song sounds amazing when heard after that other song whereas hearing this song after that song would be like pouring custard over your sausages (for me shuffling is an abomination). And so here is how i've managed this list and managed synchronization of said list and listed files with my mp3 player (currently a Zen).
Adding a new file: After deciding that song is a keeper i will copy it into that simple folder that holds all my music and drop it in to a position on the list i deem most suited for it. Incidentally over this entire 15 year (i'm pretty sure it's been around that long) my media player has been winamp but for the reason previously mentioned i am unable to use winamp in mac world.
Removing a file: fortunately winamp has an option to simultaneously remove a file from the list and the hard drive. And naturally so because after all if i no longer like a song then i want it expunged completely from life or at least from my hard drive and playlist. In the brave new world of iTunes i have to remove from the list there then delete the file from where iTunes copied it from and then the place iTunes copied it to.
Editing the list: drag an item in the list to it's preferred location and select to save it as i would for any other file using any other application... well desktop type application as opposed to one that uses a database as its primary means of storage.
Syncing with the mp3 player: copy drag drop playlist file from the simple folder on the hard drive to the simple folder on the mp3 player as i would for any other file. And then also copy drag drop the most recently created files from simple folder on hard drive to simple folder on player after having ordered them by creation date so as to make it easier to select the most recently created. After a while the mp3 player will fill up with the files no longer on the list so i will delete all files from player then re-copy all flies from simple folder on hard drive to simple folder on mp3 player.
I do not make changes to the list on the mp3 player so synchronization needs only to go one way: from laptop to player.
So all very simple. Apart from editing the positions of files in the list everything is managed by copy drag dropping and deleting files using windows explorer.
But i'm in a mac and circumstances have forced me in to the corner of using iTunes. And this whole iTunes situation is terrifying for me as over the years i've heard horror stories about it deleting all of someone's music files. Perhaps this may have been by using the software incorrectly but even so, the very fact that it appears possible for this to happen simply by using the software incorrectly and the fact that it happens with some degree of frequency given the number of reports of this happening that i have heard of over the years on music discussion forums fills me with dread that i have to now use this software. And given the software's blatant disregard for the user's choice as to where to store his/her files it's no surprise that this happens. The software is pointlessly doing dangerous things with my data. Please make it stop.
Please can i just at the very least make iTunes play the music from the folder i have chosen to put my files in and not copy those files here there and everywhere without my say so? Thankyou.

option discovered in preferences. Really this and any feature that moves deletes or edits a users data should as far as possible be OFF BY DEFAULT. It shouldn't by default and without the users specific say do this dangerous and unnecessary thing without even letting the user know what it's doing!!! And then cause me a few hours (as i'm new to mac) searching for the option so as to switch it off. If i hadn't noticed the status cage declaring that it was copying files then i might never have twigged that this insane thing was occurring. And if i hadn't of noticed i would have been left maintaining the contents of the folder i copied the files to, the folder which as far as i was informed and so believed was also the location of the music files i was playing. How does Apple justify this 'genius' piece of software non-design? Surely it will hurt no one if this was off by default for new users - overall at least i dare say it would cause a lot less distress in the future for the unsuspecting public at large. Thanks for the support.

Adding music files to iDVD project

Hello All,
Sorry if this has been asked before... I didn't seem to find anything in my "search" of past posts...
A friend of mine recently passed away & I am (trying to) putting together a dvd to send to his brother that includes some home video of us ..... and I would like to include some music (files) from an old band he was in.... (he did a hme made cd)...
I'd like his songs to be in a separate folder and be able to select from them with the menu (like Toast sets up a "music dvd)...
All I have been able to figure to do is to include an iTunes playlist but that way one cannot jump from song to song... I even tried to do a seperate iMovie project with chapters for each song then export into iDVD & that (sort of) worked but I then couldn't figure out how to "combine" those "scenes" into my main project with the movies too...
Now I am going the looong way around and saving out individual clips of each song as full quality dv and then will try to add them into a folder in my main project....
My short question to all this long wind is:
is there a way to create a "slide show" of individual music files the same way that slide show of photos works... so that you can move around between them with the menu.... all I have found is that a play list can be added into the sound "well" but then you cna't skip from song to song like you can with a what Toast does when it sets up a music dvd
any ideas?
thanks & regards to all for a great holiday
from the coast of Maine
-Larry

Well...I'm not sure if my suggestion or ideas will help, but you could certainly use iMovie to organize and edit the movie portion of your DVD, then for the music portion, first add your songs to iTunes, then go back to your iMovie project, select the songs you want to add to your DVD project, and drag each song into the timeline. Now, you can add chapter markers at the beginning of each song. This might not give you a separate folder to open (folders are for data DVDs), but at least your audience will be able to see each song title and skip through the songs as neededce they are chapters. Other than this, you might want to wander over to the Toast discussion forum on the Roxio.com site where users of Toast may have a suggestion. With Toast, you might be able to drag your video and audio portions of your project into Toast separately, that way you only have two chapters: Video and Audio.

How can i make sure all of the files in my music file are on my itunes??

I copied all of my itunes music via usb drive (crappy process) onto my mac in my music folder.. but it too several times due to the small size of the usb drive.. anyways..
When you add music to your music folder.. it doesn't go onto your itunes playlist until you choose that specific song..
can itunes perform a search to make sure you have a copy of every music file on your itunes?

iTunes menu File -> Add to library and select the \Music\iTunes\iTunes music\ folder.
FYI: If you are using iTunes 9, go to \Music\iTunes\iTunes media\ folder.
Make an alias on the desktop of the *Automatically add to iTunes* folder. Then drag songs to the is folder and they will automatically get added to iTunes and moved to the correct folder.

Select music files

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