WANTED: itunes Tutor

Guys, I am simply fedup and frustrated with the itunes software, I have asked many questions on forums and apple support and cannot get answers to very basic questions such as why simply transferring a folder of music into itunes is not working and I cannot get an answer, I can pay someone to help me troubleshoot any problems or answer any questions I may have, anyone interested or can provide any leads which may help me with this please?

Ask as many questions here as you want

For starters, adding a folder of music into the itunes media folder will not add that to iTunes, instead drag the folder into the iTunes app window and import it that way

You'll find everybody very helpful here and you get the answers you are after

Me too, glad to answer iTunes questions.

If you post what you want to do, what you've tried and any messages/responses you get that will help get a swifter answer

@midehende Could you clarify something? I think there is a possible misunderstanding here. Member louishen seems to think that you are dragging a folder of music into the iTunes Media folder. I think that you are dragging the music into the iTunes app window as he is suggesting and it is not working.

I can't explain why this is happening yet but have had a similar problem. For me dragging files into the app window works sometimes and not others. I haven't figured out a pattern except that it seems somwhat more reliable for video than audio, The only solution I have found thus far is to go to the File menu in iTunes, choose Add to Library (Command+O) and import that way.

Ok, thanks guys, first please clarify something for me first for all future purposes then I'll adddres the questions above if ok with you guys? If yes, does it make a difference if I work on itunes on a windows pc as opposed to on a Mac? Reason I'm asking is it's much easier for me to work on my windows desktop pc than on my macbook. please advise?

Just ask away, we'll tell you if there is anything mac specific in our answers

Thanks, ok, let me get this out of the way first? Does it make a difference if I work on itunes on a windows pc as opposed to on a Mac?

mikehende said:

Thanks, ok, let me get this out of the way first? Does it make a difference if I work on itunes on a windows pc as opposed to on a Mac?

Click to expand...

Just ask your questions...and we'll go from there.

This is a Macintosh forum...so folks here will probably have a preference for using their Mac's...but we have folks that use Windows computers as well (and/or use both).

Just ask your questions...and work from the hardware platform that you prefer (Mac or Windows computer).

- Nick

ok, sorry. This is where I got stuck, on my windows pc, I have itunes version 11.0.3.42. I have my music on my HDD in folders categorized in the normal way [Dance, Reggae, Rock e.t.c] and I wish to add one folder at a time into itunes library so I choose go to FILE->Add folder to library, navigate to the folder on my HDD and select one, then I see itunes processing each song at a time and "Determining Audio volume", when that's done, I am not seeing that folder anywhere in the the itunes interface but I am also not seeing a "library" tab anywhere?

If you go to the view menu and show the sidebar, click on music, can you see the tracks you added?

You won't see folders in iTunes. Just the tracks. You sort and group using the meta data in each track (genre, title, album name etc)

Is the "tagging" on your music reasonably complete and accurate? If so you could use Smart Playlists to do what you want. This type playlist uses tag data and rules to generate playlists that do show in iTunes.
I have, for example, a Smart Playlist to show all Blues songs. If I add a blues song it gets added to this playlist automatically. These can be created for genre, artist, album, etc.

Here's a bit of how I use Smart playlists. It includes basics of how to create one. You might also find this building complex playlists info useful.

Alright, let's see if I can make sense of this please:

1] If you cannot import a "folder" into itunes, any idea why that option is there?

2] I think the way I am accustomed to seeing music showing in various DJ softwares like Serato or Virtual DJ may be different with itunes? For example, in Virtual DJ, you simply navigate to the folder of music of your choice on your HDD, select it and it shows in the DJ software's browser, is it different with itunes? If so, then Since you cannot import a folder of songs you can see in itunes, what do you do to both import and see a folder of music in itunes?

iTunes and other music management software don't really categorize or sort the music by the folders they are stored in, but rather by the music themselves, i.e., artist and album.

So you import a folder with music..the way I keep my music is, Albums/Artist/[Year] Album Name/01-15 Songs..

When I import this folder into iTunes, in the library, I will see the Artist and Album Name and Songs. If I choose to sort/view by Artist..it will show all the albums and each song within their respective album. If I choose to view by Album, I only see that album..

It doesn't matter WHAT the folder structure looks like within iTunes. I care only about the artist/album/song I want to listen to. I don't care how it is kept physically on the HDD. Use this mentality and you'll have an easier time with iTunes..

You can import a folder full of tracks. You can't see that folder as a folder in iTunes.

Come at it from a different angle. If you were to bring a cd full of tracks into iTunes there would be no folder. Everything would be grouped by the album name.

iTunes manages the location and structure. You don't need to know what's in which folder and where it is. You can find, group and sort all your tracks without needing that structure. Think of it like a bank. You hand over cash, a cheque a bankers draft, they'll take it all. How they store and keep that doesn't matter so long as its safe and you can access it when you want. That's the interface iTunes presents

So I tried importing a tiny folder of 22 tunes but it only shows 6 tunes and not with the full tags as they are showing as "Unknown Albums" with only the names of the Artists and not the names of the tunes so I am guessing as Slydude pointed out that "the "tagging" on my music may not be reasonably complete and accurate" and this I am sure is due to the fact I have many rare "oldies" which i converted to mp3's which I got from tapes, video's, records and any format I could get them from.

Since importing folders won't work for me in itunes and I will have tagging issues, what would be my best option here please? My aim is to transfer my music as they are categorized and named on my HDD to my iphone via itunes so I am thinking why not create separate playlists in itunes with the names and tunes of my existing categories? If that is possible then how can I create a playlist with a folder of tunes if importing as folder will not work for me?

First get yourself an mp3 tagging app. On windows I swear by mp3tag

How do you know importing a folder isn't working? Go to the recently imported playlist, the import is working but you are seeing the tracks where you expect because of the tagging issues

mrplow said:

How do you know importing a folder isn't working? Go to the recently imported playlist, the import is working but you are seeing the tracks where you expect because of the tagging issues

Click to expand...

This I am not understanding, sorry. If you are saying that the 22 tunes in the folder on my HDD is indeed imported into itunes then how I can view all of them?

Not sure a tagging app will work for me as I have way too many tunes to tag individually?

Alright, I tested with a folder which came from cd's and all are showing in the library as per normal so I guess this means unless I tag each of my tunes with the tag issues one by one there's nothing I can do with itunes, is this right?

That's correct. If your music is missing tags, the iTunes doesn't know what to do and will group them as unknown artist and album.

Programs like TuneUp can go through all of your so files and fix the tags for you. I think the app goes for $15 or so..I imagine it will work with songs of all ages..

You might want to look into something like this as opposed doing it all by hand..

No worries, I'll work on my tunes from cd. Next step, I am attempting to create a playlist for each folder of music I will be importing into itunes so I created a new playlist titles 'test" and imported a test folder with 7 songs from my desktop. I highlighted all 7 songs then dragged them to the test playlist in the left sidebar, when I click the test folder I am seeing the songs, they are also in the library under MUSIC.

Now, I create another playlist to import a second folder from my HDD so I delete all 7 songs which were in the MUSIC listing in the library to empty it so I would then see only the tunes which I will import from the 2nd folder on my HDD but after deleting the 7 tunes from the MUSIC listings, I am now not seeing those 7 tunes in the test playlist anymore so I am guessing that if you delete a tune in the library, it will be also deleted from the the playlist is was assigned to, is this right?

If yes to the above, then how do you import one folder after another into the library and not have problems assigning each imported folder's tunes into their corresponding playlists when you will have all imported tunes mixed together in the library?