How do I import music into a sensible folder path??

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Hi, I'm trying to get used to how Apple does things, but when it comes to music (and pics), I really like things organized a certain way. Apple seems to be screwing with me. When I import a CD via iTunes, I want the .mp3 files going to "users/pete/music/my music" there appears to be no way for me to import them to this file path.

My MBP (Yosemite) has the following path "users/pete/music" the "music" folder shows up on the left hand pane in Find so I assume that's the parent folder for all music. Within "music" there are several folders such as "itunes", "garageband", "automatically add to itunes", and "audio music apps". It makes sense so far. All I need to do is add a "my music" folder under "music" and tell iTunes thats where to rip my CDs to. At least I would think.

Within iTunes I can tell it what my iTunes file path is. But here's the problem.

1) If I tell it the path is "users/pete/music" then it imports the CD (ie. Pentatonix) directly under "music". I will end up with all the band name folders at the same level as "garageband", etc. ie. "users/pete/music/pentatonix" This is not what I want though since all my CDs will be at the same level as the "garageband", etc. folders. I want all my CDs under a single folder "my music" without any other folders in it. Easy to do? Not so far.

2) So I create a "my music" folder under "music" and tell iTunes the path is: "users/pete/music/my music". Except now when I import the CD, Apple creates another new folder called "music" within "my music" and then creates the "pentatonix" folder within that. ie. "users/pete/music/my music/music/pentatonix"

Why is it creating this secondary folder which I do not need or want? How do I simply get all my CDs to import into a folder called "my music"

yes, I know this is a Windows-like approach, but it's what I've used for years, I can copy the whole library with ease to other pen drives, and makes more sense to me than what it's doing.

is there something I'm not doing or need to do?

Craftydad
 

bobtomay

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There is nothing you can do. If you are going to leave the 'Keep iTunes Media Folder Organized' checked, then you need to stay out of the folder and let iTunes do it. If you want control of how things are organized, then you need to uncheck that box and probably uncheck the box 'Copy to iTunes Media folder' when you're importing and do it all manually.

iTunes does that because while all you may have in iTunes is music, iTunes is not a "music" manager, it is a "media" manager. It keeps separate folders for Music, Movies, TV Shows, iOS apps, Audiobooks, Podcasts, etc. and will create a folder for each of those items when you add something in one of those categories to the folder you have designated as the location for your iTunes media.

edit:
It really should be in your top level Music folder if you're going to keep your music on the internal drive, it should be under a subfolder of Music called iTunes Media. That would have been the default folder before you started playing with it. Then when iTunes creates the folder "Music", it is not duplicating one you have created and the iTunes Media is at the same level as Garageband, etc. with your 'Music' folder (created by iTunes) inside iTunes Media.

The folder path would then be Music/iTunes Media/Music. - with that 2nd Music folder created by iTunes, not you - The path in iTunes preferences would be the iTunes Media folder.

edit2:
While putting the "My" in front a folder name is surely a Windows thing, if this is your computer, do you really need to call the folder "My Music" instead of "Music"? Who else would the music belong to if not you?

edit 3:
Had to do some more editing to hopefully make it clearer. I think I'm done now.
 
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Actually, folders is a thing of the past.
The app. should take care of where data is stored, not the user.
It's like manually trying to manage an Oracle database yourself :)

My 2 cents and apologies for hijacking this thread.

Cheers ... McBie
 
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ok I understand everything that's been said. And I agree "my music" is a windows thing and may not be needed. But! If I change the folder name to 'music', Apple *still* creates another 'music' folder within my 'music'. If I designate my itunes path as "users/pete/music" then my music path becomes "users/pete/music/music". I agree, I should probably just let iTunes do it's thing, but I have a fone that Apple will not allow to connect. And I have many pen drives that I use in the cars (hers, mine, Christmas, etc' pen drives. It's just easier for me (who has always worked at the folder/manual level) to just do it this way.

And what's wrong with managing an oracle database yourself if you know how? Having been an IBMer for 34 yrs and having worked with DB2, I guess I'm twisted a little differently. lol But I get the point. Let the apps do everything for you... until you really want to just copy a portion of your media to a pen drive - then I'll have to figure out how to get the app to do it for me. :)
 
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I do have a question based on your reply.... If I change iTunes preferences for the path to the default setting, it sets it to:

/Users/pete/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media

So, it's putting all the different iTunes media under a top folder called Music. I'll have an iTune structure like Music... iTunes ... and then music, movies, etc. yes? All under Music. ?? See, this makes no sense to me.

Craftydad
 

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We've found that new Apple users (and ex Windows users) will either "love or hate" the way iTunes does things. The old love, hate relationship. :) Just go ahead and set things up the way you want if you're more comfortable with doing it that way. Be sure though to follow moderator bobtomay's recommendation to setup iTunes:
If you want control of how things are organized, then you need to uncheck that box and probably uncheck the box 'Copy to iTunes Media folder' when you're importing and do it all manually.

Same advice above applies to iPhoto or Photos. ;D
 
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chas_m

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I know some people get an obsessive joy out of micro-managing each individual file on their computer, but as for me -- I bought a computer to do that for me. :)

Yes, I'm enough of a nerd that I *looked* at how iTunes organizes its database internally, but what I saw there was that it did it precisely the way I would do it by hand:

Artist -> Album -> Song

And so I let it handle that. Like all good databases (and that's really what iTunes -- and Photos/iPhoto, and indeed the Finder -- really are), it let's me re-arrange the VIEWING of these files in nearly any way one might find important, from year purchased to beats per minute (though 99.7 percent of people sort by "artist" or "album" or alphabetical "name"). This is precisely what I bought a computer *for* -- so that I don't have to do that.

Coming from PC-land, I can understand why some people are reluctant to "let go" of the micro-management, but really for most things it is just not necessary with a Mac -- unless you're dealing with a compulsion, and that's a comment on the user, not the platform.
 

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back in my PC days I was that way also. When I first got a Mac with OSX 10.2 Jaguar, I did it manually at first till one day I realized if you just let apple do it for you, it works out great and there has never been any issues. I know where and how Apple stores the files so if I ever needed to go there I could but find I just do it all through iTunes and iPhoto (Now Photos). I started letting Apple manage it all after I purchased 10.3 Panther when it first was released.
 
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Well, I just tried to let Apple do it all for me.... and now I'm about to delete everything. I told it to import my whole music directory (standalone hard drive I used to use as backup to my netbook), in mp3 format... at least 1 album that is in the backup folder is in wma format and never even got imported. Others it seems are now in m4a or something format (could be from earlier attempts when I 1st got the MBP)... which is an apple format.. which won't play in our cars nor our non apple ipods and fones.

I did find out that I should be able to drag/drop my whole directory onto the MBP right where I want it, and just drag them to iTunes without copying all the files into iTunes - which is what is stated way above... I thought I tried it early on and it didn't work. I'll try it again.

and since I keep all my Christmas music under a different main folder, it appears I can create a second iTunes library for it. The Help led me to that little tidbit.

First I'll make sure the whole directory is in mp3 format with no wma files (I which thought I did long ago). If it works, great. If not, :-( I really cannot allow Apple to rule my ipods, cars and fones... they require mp3 or wma, though for some reason I needed to convert everything to mp3 at some point in the past - can't recall why.

I guess my need is to be able to copy all non-xmas *or* xmas files to pen drives, fones, or an non apple ipod without a lot of post deleting, and have them play. I still need MS to get to the fones cuz Apple won't recognize them.

I'll figure it out, thanks for all your advice. :)
 
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chas_m

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Well, I just tried to let Apple do it all for me.... and now I'm about to delete everything. I told it to import my whole music directory (standalone hard drive I used to use as backup to my netbook), in mp3 format... at least 1 album that is in the backup folder is in wma format and never even got imported.

That's correct. WMA is a proprietary format and iTunes can't convert on the Mac because MS doesn't license that. You could have converted it on the PC to something standard, like MP3.

Others it seems are now in m4a or something format (could be from earlier attempts when I 1st got the MBP)... which is an apple format.. which won't play in our cars nor our non apple ipods and fones.

There's no such thing as a non-Apple iPod, so I can see why that's a problem. Only very, very old car infotainment systems should have any problem with MP4s, but you can convert any MP4 file in iTunes to MP3 by just changing the settings, and right-clicking on the song and choosing "convert to".

As for the "smart" phones you have, unless they're not very "smart" they should be able to play MP4 format just fine ... it hasn't been an issue for any of my Android- and Windows Phone-using friends thus far.


and since I keep all my Christmas music under a different main folder, it appears I can create a second iTunes library for it. The Help led me to that little tidbit.

Yes, you can have multiple iTunes libraries, stored almost anywhere you like, and separating the xmas music from the real music is a HECK of a great idea!

I guess my need is to be able to copy all non-xmas *or* xmas files to pen drives, fones, or an non apple ipod without a lot of post deleting, and have them play.

Without more detail about the infotainment system, can't help you there. Any modern infotainment system should be able to plug in from the smartphone and play the music files stored on it, since any modern smartphone can play MP4s or MP3s or WAVs. Forget about/convert your WMA files ... that format's a lost cause and doesn't work well with anything, unless you have Zune lying around.
 
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Christmas music is all fixed and in the end, YES, I'm letting Apple do everything. Solution was having multiple libraries, and doing a lot of clean up work using "get info" for the xmas CDs that have multiple artists on them and multiple genres.

ok, how about *small portable audio listening devices that are NOT made by Apple but are similar to ipods so they are ipod-like*? lol And my flip, non-smart cell fones which can play music but do not connect to the web will only play .mp3 or .wma. The cars, a 2011 Honda Civic EX-L and 2015 Honda Odyssey Touring will read mp3 and wma. I didn't try m4a (files were not mp4 in iTunes, they were m4a). They may play, but the since the fones certainly won't, it's best to use .mp3 all around.

Thanks all for the help. Time to work on getting the rest of my music organized.

Craftydad
 
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chas_m

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Old cell phones and old infotainment systems (irrespective of the age of the cars the are in) will have problems with anything other than MP3, so yes that's probably a wise move to standardize on that format until you get more modern infortainment systems or just a way to plug a smartphone in directly, which bypasses the limitations. As for flip phones and old non-Apple "fauxPods," they might not even work with all MP3 or WMA file if you've cavalierly used more than eight letters/digits in the filename! :)

Glad you got it sorted out, sounds like you've earned your handle this week! :)
 
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Thanks, though I don't know if my infotainment systems are old. The Odyssey is a 2015 top of the line system by Alpine - it has it's own 15gb hard drive that will auto-rip a CD, and plays WMA and mp3, and reads KML and CSV files so you can load in your own POIs on the Navigation system. Do any auto infotainment system out there read Apple formats? DOesn't really matter, like you said mp3 is pretty much universally accepted.

I do have an old fone though. lol Gotta upgrade after the new year.

Yep, I just need to rip some CDs I have and I'm all done with the music. hehehe then I need to tackle my nightmare of pics. lol They're all over the place... and I have dups too. Think I'll get to know Photos well before I attempt to load/sort rename them all.

craftydad
 
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chas_m

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I haven't researched all systems, and I'm sure most of them rely on MP3s as a universal standard, but considering how widespread and popular M4A/MP4s are, it just wouldn't make sense for it to not understand the format. I've seen some postings in the Crutchfield forums that suggests it does handle aac (ie the iTunes format aka m4a) however.
 

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