iTunes folder structure help

[mykalberta]

So I have decided to upguage from my 1GB shuffle to something bigger to move my audio books and full music collection to other than workout songs.

Is there a way to force Itunes to use your folder structure for the music other than searching for album names etc?

Example if I have something like this folder structure

Rock > Metal/Hard/Alternative/MykMixMetal/MykMixHard/MykMixAltrernative ...

How do I get it so that the Ipod will show that - or will it on a normal ipod.

What I want to be able to do is to to say TopMixMetal and just click play and it will play the songs in that folder.

I dont care about Album name, Art etc. I have handled all that in my own folder structure.

thank you.

[Russic]

Would you be able to just dump everything in MykMixAlternative into a playlist?

[Barnes]

No, there isn't.

We know you spent all this time organizing all your folders but metadata is what's best. Get your metadata up to snuff and start using some sweet multi statement smart playlists.

You could create a playlist and drag and drop the files onto it from the directory.

[mykalberta]

Do playlists show up on an ipod, I guess I could import each folder individually and then move those songs to a playlist.

Is there a way to just copy the folder from the computer to the ipod without syncing itunes?

[Russic]

Originally Posted by mykalberta

Do playlists show up on an ipod, I guess I could import each folder individually and then move those songs to a playlist.

Is there a way to just copy the folder from the computer to the ipod without syncing itunes?

I think you can drag directly to the ipod (in itunes) and it won't put the music into your itunes library. Don't quote me on that though ... I know it works for tv shows, so I'm only assuming it works for music too.

Yes, playlists will show up on an ipod.

[Burninator]

Does everyone "allow iTunes to organize folders"? What exactly does iTunes do?

[Barnes]

iTunes>iTunes Music>Artist>Album>xxx.mp3

[FanIn80]

My music folder is still the one thing I refuse to give Apple control over. I have too many nightmares from the early days of accidentally clicking on iTunes in my start menu, only to have it fire up and start reorganizing all my folders.

I imagine it's a lot better now, but it's the one thing I still can't bring myself to let go of.

[llama64]

Originally Posted by Barnes

iTunes>iTunes Music>Artist>Album>xxx.mp3

I don't get the complaints over this structure. Isn't this how most people would organize their music?

The only change I make is to move the iTunes music folder out of my home directory and onto a separate harddrive (eg: g:/music)

[Rathji]

I used to be anal about letting iTunes handle my music but I have since realized that I really don't care. Back in the day when 90% of my music was not of legal origin there would be hassles with tagging and everything but now that all my music is legal (and ripped with iTunes) it is properly tagged and there is never an issue about where iTunes decides to put it.

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by llama64

I don't get the complaints over this structure. Isn't this how most people would organize their music?

The only change I make is to move the iTunes music folder out of my home directory and onto a separate harddrive (eg: g:/music)

I use /Artist/(Year) Title/Number Track.m4a

Example: /Korn/(1996) Life Is Peachy/01 Twist.m4a

That way all my album folders are sorted chronologically. The problem with letting iTunes organize everything, is that I would have to re-tag all my files to have the year in the album title... and that creates issues with other media devices.

Back in the early days, when I was downloading everything (instead of buying CDs like I do now), tags would be all over the place, and I could never find anything after letting iTunes do its thing. I could also never find a decent tagging program that would let me tag a bunch of stuff all at once.

It's not that big of a deal, though. It doesn't take any time for me to organize things. I just use Media Rage (Mac) or Easy CD-DA (Windows) to tag and organize things how I like and then just dump the folder in my iTunes dir.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by Rathji

I used to be anal about letting iTunes handle my music but I have since realized that I really don't care. Back in the day when 90% of my music was not of legal origin there would be hassles with tagging and everything but now that all my music is legal (and ripped with iTunes) it is properly tagged and there is never an issue about where iTunes decides to put it.

Yeah, if stuff is tagged correctly, who cares where it goes. Has Google taught us nothing? It’s about being able to search quickly and efficiently for what you need, not acting like a squirrel constantly stuffing files in little holes in the file system.

Get Pollux, get tagged, and be done with it forever.

[llama64]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

Get Pollux, get tagged, and be done with it forever.

Damn straight!

Any media device that can't organize using ID3 isn't a device worth purchasing IMO.

[Bill Bumface]

I let iTunes organize my music and I just went on a tag fixing rampage. Do I have to do anything to have it reorganize the folders accordingly? Or is that automatic?

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

I let iTunes organize my music and I just went on a tag fixing rampage. Do I have to do anything to have it reorganize the folders accordingly? Or is that automatic?

Not sure. I assume it would dynamically do it.

However to be sure I think you would only need to click off "Let itunes organize my music" then shutdown itunes. Open it up again and click.

[Burninator]

This is kind of off topic for this thread, but I figured it wasn't worth starting a new thread for.

I've ripped all my TV shows and brought them into iTunes but I am unable to change the album art work for them. After I try to change it the the icon of the TV show turns to a blank TV show icon then back to a randomly chosen screen shot from the show. The art work doesn't stick. Anyone else had this problem or know how to fix it?

I have the latest iTunes and Windows 7.

[Russic]

Originally Posted by Burninator

This is kind of off topic for this thread, but I figured it wasn't worth starting a new thread for.

I've ripped all my TV shows and brought them into iTunes but I am unable to change the album art work for them. After I try to change it the the icon of the TV show turns to a blank TV show icon then back to a randomly chosen screen shot from the show. The art work doesn't stick. Anyone else had this problem or know how to fix it?

I have the latest iTunes and Windows 7.

Where are you trying to add the artwork? There are 2 different places and I've found better luck with one over the other. I click on tv shows in the left-side pane and then right click on the show (or entire season) and add them under the "artwork" tab. I know you can double click on the show and add them individually to the episodes, but it doesn't always work for me.

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by Russic

Where are you trying to add the artwork? There are 2 different places and I've found better luck with one over the other. I click on tv shows in the left-side pane and then right click on the show (or entire season) and add them under the "artwork" tab. I know you can double click on the show and add them individually to the episodes, but it doesn't always work for me.

I've tried both ways. Same result. I've right clicked the whole season and individuals shows and gone into the "Get Info" menu and browsed the artwork there and tried to apply it. As well as the selected items artwork preview box in the bottom left hand corner and tried pasting it into there will no luck either. I bought a season of a TV show from iTunes and the artwork works just fine for that.

[Barnes]

Originally Posted by Burninator

I've tried both ways. Same result. I've right clicked the whole season and individuals shows and gone into the "Get Info" menu and browsed the artwork there and tried to apply it. As well as the selected items artwork preview box in the bottom left hand corner and tried pasting it into there will no luck either. I bought a season of a TV show from iTunes and the artwork works just fine for that.

You may have some luck if you get info and delete the artwork before adding the one you want. It's kind of buggy anyways. Adding artwork on one of my Macbooks will hang iTunes if I touch anything after clicking okay but my other Macbook works fine. Probably a borked itdb file.