Sorting music files in Finder

I download music from several sources I subscribe to - all MP3 files.
I download them to my music folder with separate sub-folders for each album I download.
In the finder view, I can sort on file name, the date and a couple others.
These mp3 files also have the track number encoded.
I want to sort on the track number and not alphabetically by song title or chronologically by date.
I can't figure out how to get finder to do this. All this info is in ID3 coding. Doesn't finder automatically recognize mp3 as a music file? If so, why doesn't Finder provide the ability to display music files in any order I choose, whether it's the artist, song title, year, genre, etc?
Thanks Vince.

Go to the Finder - use the keys: command-F
When that 'search' window opens, use the pull-downs to search on:
• kind: music
...then look on the right and hit the '+' icon to add another filter/attribute for the search. Use the menu that appears for 'other' (sorted alphabetically) to select 'Track number' -- Hit [√] to place this attribute in the pull-down menu.
Search for all music files with track number of whatever - or just use track number...your choice.
Go back and add or subtract filters from the 'other' list as required and then save your crafted search in the sidebar.
You're now using the Finder to search on track number for MP3s.

Similar Messages

How I can sort music files (audiobook) in music player on iPhone by file name, not by title name?

I have audiobook of abt.500 files, all titles are the name of the book. iPhone music player does not understand sorting by file names, but by title, hterfore it plays files chaotic. So, how I can sort audiobook files in music player by file name, not by title name?

I have the same problem.
I've went through the pains of merging all chapters into one big file for each and every audiobook, so that at least the chapters don't get played in random order. Month and month of work….. In iTunes 12.01. I can now order my audiobooks by title or by author.
But once they're uploaded to my blo*dy expensive iPhone 6Plus 128 (which I bought especially to have all my music and my audiobooks on one device) my audiobooks are NOT sorted by author, but by Title.
So, let's say I have 15 books by Ken Follet, they don't appear as Ken Follet > Title of the book but they are sorted alphabetically with all the other titles of other authors.
iPods where originally designed for music and audiobooks, but each and every version of iOS makes handling your music and especially your audiobooks harder and harder….
I am very disappointed and after so many years of using apple, I am considering to move on to android devices.

NOT SHOWING CUSTOMISED ICONS OF PICS AND MUSIC FILES IN FINDER

HEY GUYS I M GOIN THROUGH SOME PROBLEM WITH MY MACBOOK. RECENTLY I HVE INSTALLED ONYX 2.2.2 FOR CLEARING CACHES AND COOKIES. BUT SINCE I HVE RUN IT ONCE SOME PROBLEM OCCURED WITH MY LAPTOP. ACTUALLY WHEN I M OPENIN FILES IN FINDER THEN ICONS ARE NOT SHOWIN PICS AND ARTWORKS BUT ITS JST SHOWIN PREVIEW ICON AS IN APPLICATION FOLDER.
PLZ HELP ME!!!!

i did wht u said but its not working. right now i hve saved two file on my desktop but its jst showing as a preview icon. but on clickin them its gettin opened. but at the same time if i m opting for quick review by pressin spacebar key then its displayin "loading".

Sorting pdf files in FINDER according to date or name

Hi. I don't know much about apple computers I am contemplating buying a macbook, which I will use to store and view about 15,000 pdf files/articles (total memory ~ 15 gigs).
On windows explorer it is easy to sort by the date the file was created or by the name. Is this easy with Finder?
Thanks.

Very easy, especially by name.
You can do it in all different Finder views, adjust icons and texts sizes as you wish, choose a faster option with or without "preview" etc, very easy to set.
As for sorting by date:
As easy as by name,
except when file was not created by yourself: then it's often you'll have to use the sorting as the file was originally created.
Also:
Still as easily as the rest, there are also some other kinds of Finder sorting: by kind, by size, by label...
Welcome to the world of Macs!

I recently got a new computer and reinstalled iTunes. I restored my files from a Norton backup. How do I get iTunes to find my music files?

How do I get iTunes to search my hard drive for my music files?

Find the location of iTunes Media folder from Advanced tab in iTunes' Preferences on your computer. Then copy the music from the Norton backup to the iTunes Media folder on the computer.
Thanks!
Harry
Norton Support

ITunes on macbook pro - resetting music file path when not on my network

Hi there!
I suspect I know the answer to this already, but I hope I'm wrong! :-D
I have my macbook a while now, but I've only recently started using iTunes properly.
I have a home network, which consists of my macbook pro, a dell laptop running XP, a Nintendo Wii, a Sumvision Netbox NAS 1TB drive and a Logitech Squeezebox Boom.
I'm using the NAS as my music storage, iTunes rips music and stores it here.
This is all good.
The Squeezebox Boom (for anyone who doesn't know) is a neat little Wifi radio/mp3 player, it streams radio from the web, and also music from the NAS.
The software that controls it is called the Squeeze center.
At the moment I have this software linked to iTunes, so when I add music to my library via iTunes the squeeze center automatically scans the music library and updates itself taking in music details, play lists, art work and all, it's a great system.
The problem I have is when I take my laptop anywhere, iTunes changes the iTunes music folder location automatically to the internal hard drive, which means when I get home again I have to reset the file path and iTunes then has to scan the folder and organise everything again.
not only that, as soon as the squeeze center sees the file path has changed it points at the new location (on the macbook hard drive) and looses the library.
so when I reset iTunes, the squeeze center has to rescan everything again also.
It's quite annoying.
I have a work around in that I can tell the squeezecenter not to look at iTunes and hard wire it to the location, but I'd rather not do that.
Is it possible to get iTunes to keep the NAS music folder as the iTunes Music folder location even when the macbook isn't on the network?
Or will it always change the folder when I leave the network.
Many thanks for your help.
Paul.

I've had this problem for ages, only now it seems as though iTunes is no longer restoring my music folder to the NAS if I start it when the NAS is connected. This is proving a pain in the a** because I keep forgetting about it, going online and buying a load of music from the store and then I find I've got a gig to consolidate when I realise my music folder has filled up! Funnily enough, I've downloaded and edited an applescript that automatically checks every half hour whether or not I'm on my home network, if I am it mounts my network drive for me. I really miss the airport disk utility's automatic mount feature. What I think I'l do is create another one for iTunes, to serve as a shortcut to iTunes, but when it's run it will check to see if you're on your home network, if so mount the NAS (if it isn't already), if not, or if it can't mount it will ask you whether you want to run iTunes after warning you that your NAS isn't connected. The only potential problem I could see is when iTunes runs as a result of you opening a music file in Finder. However I'm sure we could associate the applescript 'shortcut' with music instead of iTunes? I'll post here if and when I'm successful.

Music files in the Finder: File Names Obscured

OS X 10.10.2.
When I search for music in the Finder, it returns metadata titles instead of the file names.
The reason I do a music search in the finder is to sort and edit the actual file names. Not happy.
General, Finder and Spotlight preferences just shrug at me.
Any ideas?

BeeblePete wrote:
If so, that's really unfortunate. It means I can't use search to see and resolve duplicate or inconsistent file names. It kind of dilutes the Finder's role as a file manager, when there's already an app for managing the metadata (iTunes).
Well, in Apple's world, you don't manage files. You manage Music, and Photos, etc.
If you just open a Finder window without searching, you can manage the files as files.
The best solution I can think of for the duplicates is to turn on the status bar. If you create a search folder for kind:music and sort by name, you'll see all the duplicate titles. When you select one, it will show the path at the bottom of the window, including file name. You can arrow between the files to determine where you have duplicates and delete or move as desired.

How to make i-tunes find moved music files on my laptop

I organized my music files and itunes does not see them how to make i-tunes find them and add them again

When you move files around in Windows Explorer, or rename them, itunes loses the file path to them.
You can drag the new folder back into the itunes window. You don't need to add them back one-by-one, in other words. This will give you duplicates, probably - the old ones will have ! next to them. You can sort your library by Date Added and get rid of the old ones.

Sorting Files in Finder eg. Artists, Album etc.

Hi, is there an option where i can arrange my files by artists or albums like in windows? I'd like to browse my music files easily without using itunes as im only editing the metadata.
In Windows -
Choosing sorting options: http://img.technospot.net/group-by-more-options.gif
Into: http://s3.amazonaws.com/satisfaction-production/s3images/21365/Picture_7inline.png
I've found an app called FileBrowse that sorts files in special folders? but it just doesn't makes sense to pay for such a function.
Help will be most appreciated.

If I'm reading your description correctly, this is exactly the same setup I use. I use a directory structure like this: genre/artist/album/tracks. Anything whose metadata and/or filenames I haven't fixed yet goes into a temp folder until I'm ready to process it. I then fix the folder and filenames, and move the item from the temp folder into its permanent location before I add it to iTunes. (Obviously, I don't let iTunes manage my collection, but do it manually myself.) You can change the metadata all you want and iTunes will still find the referenced files as long as you don't change the directory names or the filenames. If I want to move a directory or change the filenames for some reason, I just remove it from iTunes first and then add it again after I'm done making changes. Finder doesn't really enter into it, since it doesn't display metadata. What it comes down to is that iTunes doesn't care much about filenames as long as it knows where the file is, and Finder doesn't care about metadata.

How do I find, at-a-glance, the sample size used in several music files?

How do I find, at-a-glance, the sample size used in several music files?
Of all the fields available in a FInder Search, "Sample Size" is not available. Finder does offer a "Bits per Sample" field, but it only recognized graphic files and not music files.
Running 10.8.5 on an iMac i5.
I did search through a couple of communities but came up empty.
Thank you,
Craig

C-squared,
There is no View Option to allow display of a column of sample size.
For WAV or Apple Lossless files, it is available on the Summary tab (one song at a time, as you know). For MP3 and AAC it is not available at all.
You can roughly infer it from the files that are larger than expected for their time.
99% of the music we use is at the CD standard of 16-bit, so I can guess that displaying it has never been a priority. However, if you want to make a suggestion to Apple, use this link:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/itunesapp.html

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.

Moved iTunes library to Vista PC but iTunes 'can't find music files'. Help!

I'm running iTunes 7.1.1 on a new Vista PC and I followed the instructions on this support site for transferring the library using an iPod.
All songs (with artwork) are showing in the new PC's iTunes library, BUT all have a '!' symbol to the left and refuse to play. It offers to let me find them, but this would take hours for the thousands of tracks. I've tried consolidating but to no effect. All the music files are in the iTunes library folder, so why can't iTunes access them?
Can anyone help?

I'm running iTunes 7.1.1 on a new Vista PC and I
followed the instructions on this support site for
transferring the library using an iPod.
All songs (with artwork) are showing in the new PC's
iTunes library, BUT all have a '!' symbol to the left
and refuse to play. It offers to let me find them,
but this would take hours for the thousands of
tracks. I've tried consolidating but to no effect.
All the music files are in the iTunes library folder,
so why can't iTunes access them?
Can anyone help?
hi i to have a similar problem, i moved my music file for another problem i had and now it has removed all my files from itunes, albums and playlists as well, they are still on the pc and i have moved them back but i seem to have to start again, this will take weeks to do, i hope someone can help us.

Since upgrading to version 8.1, iTunes "can't find original music files".

I've been building an extensive music file since the first iPod. It's about 110 GB large and for about three years I've stored it on an external drive with absolutely no problems. Now, within hours of upgrading to iTunes 8.1, every listed item on my iTunes library has an exclamation mark next to it and the message *"The song "whatever" could not be used because the original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it?"* Of course I can show iTunes where the song is and then it will play it but I'm not gonna do that for 110 GB's worth of music! And yes, I've gone into iTunes preferences and told it again and again where the iTunes library is located but that doesn't work. Does anyone have a fix for this? And oh by the way, I will NEVER AGAIN let Software Update sway me into upgrading to a new version of iTunes until it's been up and running without bugs for at least three months!

Have you tried, importing the music into iTunes again? So delete the music from iTunes only not the system, & then import to see if it finds your musics?

ITunes update corrupted some of my music files so iTunes can't find the file, nor music I bought from the iTunes store.

After an iTunes generated update of iTunes, some of my music can't be accesed any more. When I try to play the file, iTunes says it can't find the link. This also happens with music I purchase from the iTunes store, so I've lost all this music; do I have to re-buy the purchased music again? My iTunes program is on my C drive, and the music library is on my D drive. In iTunes, I've set the ripped music to be placed in my D drive. The lost links are on some music files, but not others which do play music. Some compilation music files were split up into individual files, usually without LP art attached. Some album art was placed on wrong albums as well. Music with lost links have a ! mark beside the song name. File info says the link is on my C drive, but I can't find it there. Any ideas on how to get these lost files back. Thanks, Moizy.

Try this...
Empty/corrupt library after upgrade/crash
Hopefully it's not been too long since you last upgraded iTunes, in fact if you get an empty/incomplete library immediately after upgrading then with the following steps you shouldn't lose a thing or need to do any further housekeeping. In the Previous iTunes Libraries folder should be a number of dated iTunes Library files. Take the most recent of these and copy it into the iTunes folder. Rename iTunes Library.itl as iTunes Library (Corrupt).itl and then rename the restored file as iTunes Library.itl. Start iTunes. Should all be good, bar any recent additions to or deletions from your library.
See iTunes Folder Watch for a tool to catch up with any changes since the backup file was created.
When you get it all working make a backup!
tt2

HT3842 Does iTunes store the original music file and copy it into a separate folder? If i delete the original file from finder will it remove it from my iTunes library?

Hi, on my last PC when transferring music to my new MacBook Pro i noticed i had about 6 duplicated of each song in every album i took hours in removing them.
I Just wondered Does iTunes store the original music file and then copy it into a separate folder?
If i delete the original file from finder will it remove it from my iTunes library or vice versa. I didnt want to lose any music like i have some how managed to on my old computer.
Or should i keep both files of it in the Music folder and also iTunes library folder?
Which is best ?

DrewPowell wrote:
I Just wondered Does iTunes store the original music file and then copy it into a separate folder?
It does both at the same time.
When you add files to iTunes, it copies them into /Music/iTunes/iTunes media/ folder. The original file remains where it was.
You can drag a file to /Music/iTunes/iTunes media/Automatically add to iTunes/ folder.
This will add to iTunes and move it to /Music/iTunes/iTunes media/.
I keep a shortcut of this folder on my desktop then simply drag files to the shortcut to add to iTunes.
Then there are no "extra" files around.

Sorting music files in Finder

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for