why is iTunes so awful

Is it me or is it itunes. Im trying to organise all my music by ripping exisitng cds into itunes. The albums i purchase from itunes are fine and some of my own are OK but most of the songs are scattered al over the place.

When I go to album view i have different songs in different places from the same album and i have worked round this by making the properties the same i.e artist/ album name etc. Thats works fine and then when I go into coverflow view to show off and then back into album view IM BACK TO SQUARE ONE AGAIN.....theyre all over the place again.

Im ripping my hair out instead of ripping music so has anyone got an idea of what im doing wrong or is it simply itunes. Can I get other software to do the job better ????

Is Itunes really that BAD

Is it me or is it itunes. Im trying to organise all my music by ripping exisitng cds into itunes. The albums i purchase from itunes are fine and some of my own are OK but most of the songs are scattered al over the place.

When I go to album view i have different songs in different places from the same album and i have worked round this by making the properties the same i.e artist/ album name etc. Thats works fine and then when I go into coverflow view to show off and then back into album view IM BACK TO SQUARE ONE AGAIN.....theyre all over the place again.

Im ripping my hair out instead of ripping music so has anyone got an idea of what im doing wrong or is it simply itunes. Can I get other software to do the job better ????

Your threads were merged, please don't crosspost.

Are you talking about literally all over the place, meaning spread across the hard drive, or just that they are out of order within itunes? If its the latter, click the artist tab in the lower portion of itunes and it will arrange albums in order a-z.

Here is what I do to try to avoid these kind of things...

Open up iTunes. Insert your disc. When asked if you want to import say no. Look at all the info on all the tracks and make sure they are all the same. If there is on track with So&So artist featuring another artist it will do what you describe. If that is the case, highlight all the tracks. Then select get info. Enter in the artist and album. Don't put anything in title or track number as it is going to change every track. Then hit import and all should be good.

Mr-Fussy,

I'm careful not to let iTunes compile my music. When I import anything, before I hit "Import" I select all the files and go to "Get Info" and make sure it doesn't have "Part of a Compilation" checked. That way, it will put your files where you selected for them to go in "Preferences."

When I started managing my iTunes on my PC, I found it was putting my files somewhere tucked away where I couldn't see them. I had them in a folder of my own choosing, but when I let iTunes do compilations, the files went into a different folder. So I stopped that practice and everything has gone well since. True also in my Macbook...

Noel

Hmm, that's interesting cause I've experience the opposite. I was going to recommend making sure that compilations is checked.

I guess it depends if you have itunes sort your music or if you want to arrange them on the HD yourself. I find it easier to just let itunes copy the music and sort it. It's not really that tucked away, it's in your music folder>itunes>itunes music. Plus you don't have to worry about moving files around and breaking alias'.

The way itunes sort your music is by artist and then album, but on soundtracks and things that have different artists, the only way to keep them in the same album is to turn compilation on.

I just thought of something too while I was playing with itunes. In album view, are you sure you are sorting by Album and not Artist or something else?

Thanks very much guys that should be plenty to get me organized. thanks loads

The album artist tag might also help you out, basically it helps you corral all those artist feat. someone folders back into one album folder

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=101137&highlight=album+artist

Im back again. Im doing as above by making sure the album name and artist name match but I am still getting most albums showing 1 or 2 songs elsewhere and its mostly the first song or two.

This has happened also to a couple of recent albums that i have downloaded. So really i am getting this problem on my recent album downloads.

Some more handouts please ???

Me either I don't like iTunes, but I have another reason! I used it for listening radio only, but there were no possibility to listen radio from all over the world! I choose online radio tuner then! Now no problems

Guys, after all that I feel so silly. I must admit though I am new to itunes. The mistake was all mine. Even after I had tagged the albums with same album & composer I was not doing one final thing ( as mentioned by Aliciaanimation above) and that was to sort the album. God I feel so silly but I hope this helps some newbie. Anyway they are all showing neat and tidy and just ready for the arrival of my ipod touch. Thanks to all.