WANTED: itunes Tutor

[mrplow]

Do you have any tracks tagged with "Jackie Wilson" as the Artist?

 

[mikehende]

when you say "tagged", do you mean if I physically entered info into the tags of this Artist's tunes? If that is what you mean then NO, the 7 tunes I am testing with come directly from CD into my HDD so whatever tag info the Smart playlist needs to filter info is in there or am I missing something?

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Forget the smart playlist for a moment..

Go to the Music section which lists ALL songs in your library. Do you see songs there by Jackie Wilson with the album name and the name of each of the songs from the CD you imported?

No? Then the smart playlist isn't going to be able to find it either.

Everything here is based on the MP3 ID information that's stored in the file to get them organized and rated.

If you have a CD and import directly from within iTunes, iTunes will use the CD TEXT to figure out the relevant information and import them with the right MP3 ID's and also grab the artwork from Google or Amazon..

 

[mrplow]

For fear of treading the same ground that's been covered iTunes uses the meta data stored in each track.

Without that you are going to struggle

 

[mikehende]

Forget the smart playlist for a moment..

Go to the Music section which lists ALL songs in your library. Do you see songs there by Jackie Wilson with the album name and the name of each of the songs from the CD you imported?

No? Then the smart playlist isn't going to be able to find it either.

.

Yes, all tunes are showing in the Music section. If I understand you guys now, the smart playlist will work only when I rip from cd using itunes or download via itunes so itunes will pick up all the tag info while processing but will NOT pick up the info from songs on my HDD which were not ripped or downloaded using itunes, is this correct?

 

[mrplow]

It will pickup any tracks that have meta data in them. So iTunes bought tracks do, CDs imported in iTunes where it's pulled in info does and any tracks you've manually added meta data/map3tag data too.

The source is irrelevant. The tracks, one way or another need to be tagged/have meta data in them

 

[Raz0rEdge]

In the end there are two way of going about what you are trying to do. Ensure that all of your songs you choose to import to iTunes (or any decent music management system) has the necessary meta data to make organization a possibility..

OR..

Use a simple program like VLC to just dump the folder you want to create a playlist and play them in order without worrying about meta data. Here you could create playlists based on the folders of music..

 

[Slydude]

Are you typing the name into the empty field in the sidebar (area where test1) appears in your screenshot or in the box where it says Artist and contains? The sidebar area is the name you use to help you remember the content of the list. It's the content of the dialog box that creates the rule used to select the songs.

Create Smart Playlists - Video

 

[mikehende]

Let me finish the Recently Added issue first before I move on to tagging issues please, so I searched the net and found the answer on how to see a Recently AAdded playlist in itunes 11 and found this:

How To Add 'Recently Added' Playlist To iTunes/ iPod - YouTube

So I now have that and started over again. I import my first folder [test] and drag all tunes in into a playlist with the same name, I then do the same procedure then the other [test2], problem is, both folder's tunes are now showing in the recently added, the "time" parameter in the smart playlist is set to "1 day" so if I import folder after folder "today", they all will show, my question to this, is there a way to set the parameters so each time I import a folder, I will only see the last folder in the Recently Added playlist?

 

[mrplow]

Sorry but the 'answer' was in the posts I and others made earlier.

You can see the options that you have for selecting tracks. There is no way to see just what you've added in the particular way you describe. Perhaps I don't understand why

problem is, both folder's tunes are now showing in the recently added,

this is a problem?

The whole purpose of directing you to the Recently added list was because you didn't think folders of music were being added. I suggested looking in recently added to prove they were there just not tagged properly.

Why do you need to only see the last track or tracks imported?

 

[mikehende]

Somehow I am not seeing things the way you guys are explaining it, just miscommunication between us. To answer your question, I would need to start again, starting from scratch, I import my first folder of music into itunes, this folder's name is "test". I drag all tunes showing in the Music section to a playlist with the same name, I can now switch between the test playlist and the music section so that's done. Now I wish to add another folder of music into itunes and add that new folder to a second playlist which I names "test2" but when I look in the Music category, the 2nd folder of tunes I had just imported is now mixed in with the first folder's songs so it's hard for me to see and select only the songs from the second folder to drag to the 2nd playlist. This is the problem.

So I "my" thinking regarding the Recently added playlist's purpose would be to see ONLY each newly imported folder of music which I can select all then drag and drop into the corresponding playlist. Now if the Recently added feature will not show me only the last folder of songs imported into itunes then how do I solve the problem mentioned above for every folder of music I will be importing into itunes? Truly sorry guys if I have not explained this any better now than I have before and I do really appreciate your patience with me and this issue.
my only purpose for the recently added list i

 

[mrplow]

I think you're right. I just can't see the value in creating a playlist for every folder. But that's not to say you can't.

Look at the headings on your last screenshot. If you click any of those headings it will sort the tracks using that criteria. Right-click one of these headings and you can see a list of possible other column headings. Select date added (it includes the time too). You can now sort (by clicking the date added column). This will put them in the order they were added. You can now select them (click on the first track required, hold shift, click on the last track required) now go to the File menu and choose to create playlist from selection

 

[mikehende]

I just can't see the value in creating a playlist for every folder. But that's not to say you can't.

You've hit the nail on the head!! Those were the words I should have used from the beginning "creating a playlist for every folder" [sorry] and that is why the idea of myself using the Smart playlist option was throwing me for a loop as I could not see how that would benefit me for "my" purpose BUT I am glad we went through this all because I learned a lot today about itunes. Also, while myself may never have need for the smart playlist, I am sure one of my friends or relatives will need this so I will address this at that time.

I think I may have exhausted you guys today so I will quit for now and resume tomorrow but thank you all for your help and patience!

 

[mrplow]

At least we're getting somewhere

 

[mikehende]

Yes we are. Well, only one final issue on this first part of my itunes questions, may as well ask now? I did as you suggested selecting the "Date Added" which shows the time of import. I imported first folder at 3.45 and the next at 4.14 but of course both folders are still mixed in together in the view so for most of my folders which have thousands of songs in each this still will not do so my option right now, seeing that the parameter's least time option is only "1 day", this means if I wait until 24 hours have expired then import a new folder then I will only see that folder's tunes so very easy to add to it's playlist. If the parameter had an option where I could only see "last folder imported" as an example then there would be no issues with this.

So is there is a way to sort the view which will show only last folder imported or any workaround? If not, I'll simply wait until the 24 hours have expired and do one folder each day.

 

[mrplow]

Re-read my post please. Click the date added heading and the tracks will be sorted so in your example you'll have the first folders worth of tracks followed by the next folders worth of tracks after it.

One after another. Not mixed up

 

[mikehende]

Oh, sorry, yes, I now see the time in order of import, ok so that settles that. I have a Radio Automation software I use which has an "Uncategorized" feature so I can add a folder of tunes and it will show in the Uncat window, I simply select all then assign then to their category and the Uncat window is now empty so whenever I import another folder, only that newly imported folder's tunes will show in that window and so on. That is the feature basically I was hoping itunes would have or something similar.

 

[Slydude]

Yes. That is a feature that often gets overlooked. I was just about to check to make sure it worked that way. If things are sorted by date added here's how I often handle the situation you're in perhaps it will help explain things.

1. As part of importing the first folder I notice that it has say 20 tracks. When the import is finished I select those tracks, right click and choose New Playlist from selection.
2. Import second folder which I notice has say 15 tracks. Those tracks are now the first 15 tracks in the list. if they are not click that column heading to reverse the sort order, select the appropriate number of tracks, right click and select new playlist from selection.
3. Lather, rinse, repat

There are two things to remember about this process:
1. If you have to click the column heading to get most recent tracks to the top of the list you only have to do this once.
2. This generates a regular playlist. In other words that playlist shows the folder as it is today. If you add something new to the folder it is not reflected in the playlist unless you re-import the files.

I use this for some things where I don't want the content of the playlist to change automatically such as special albums I want in separate playlist rather than mixed in with other albums by the same artist.

I see in the time it took to write my answer the problem has been solved. @OP Nice going your solution is a bit more elegant than mine.

 

[mrplow]

That's fundamentally acting like a smart folder.

E.g if you added tracks to the library with no artist info iTunes would mark it 'unknown artist'
If you had a smart playlist looking 'unknown artist' you see them in that playlist until you added artist info then they'd disappear from that list

 

[mikehende]

Hey guys, sorry I took so long to get back to this, will try the transferring of the tunes from itunes to iphone later this evening. Right now, I added one folder of tunes from my HDD into itunes, it shows 1722 songs in that folder but when I click on Recently added, it is showing only 25 songs? Any ideas why please?