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organising my music on my pc


pete_inthehills

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Hi

what's the best way of organising all my tunes on my pc and then linking them to itunes to put on my ipod?

I've got music scattered around the place and half of it doesn't seem to be in my itunes library any more.

Should I put all my tunes in one place, delete my itunes library and then add everything back? How will this effect my podcasts?

Can I use an external drive as the source of my tunes? will itunes then make a copy and stick them in my docs/my music/ipod?

pete

inthehills

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Yo,

Go to Edit>Preferences>Advanced in iTunes, are the "Keep iTunes Media Folder Organised" or "Copy files to iTunes Media Folder...." options selected?

Basically, if the latter IS ticked then you'll already have two copies of everything, so if you delete it all from your iTunes Library (keeping files) then re-add everything you'll end up with duplicates ahoy.

Best thing to do is if you've got the time, ignore the iTunes Library for now, bung all the actual files in one place (on an external HD would do it, extra bonus of a backup) if you're completely certain you have everything, delete your iTunes Library in iTunes (select all your music, hit Del, keep files when it asks) then go and delete the contents of your iTunes Music folder (if you wanna save podcasts, they live in that folder, in a folder called Podcasts, so dont delete it if you wanna save downloading again).

Now you're clear of your library and all your stuff is safe, either untick both those selections i mentioned above, then just File>Add to library>choose folder containing all music.

OR

Slightly more complicated but you could create a folder called iTunes (or whatever you fancy) on your external HD, make it your "iTunes media folder location" under the advanced tab mentioned earlier, tick both those aforementioned buttons then add all the music to your library. Then it will copy it all and arrange it all into some kind of order whilst keeping it on your HD away from your computer, and every time you add music going forward it will copy it and organise it in the iTunes folder. - Only bugger with this one i found was if you unplug your Hard Drive on a regular basis and it gives it a different drive letter, it wont be able to find where your Library's stored and ALL your music will come up with the wee "could not find" exclamation mark. Pain in the ass.

Yeah, i get a bit Trinny and/or Suzanna with my Music Library.

Hope you get it sorted!

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Something went wonky with my perfectly organised iTunes ( :'( ) and it made heaps of duplicates, with all the original files having that annoying exclamation mark. If I delete the "file not found" files will it also delete my artwork? I fear I'm going to have to add all the artwork again, which will be a royal pain in the arse.

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