Hello! Can iTunes produce an organized folder system of my music? I mean, from its current content, can it produce a new, organized folder where all of my music have consistent filenames, and are appropriately placed in folders by artist/albums? I feel that my music collection is tad disorganized. Thanks! Happy New Year too! woot! Edit: I hope it retains all play counts, ratings, and metadata in general. I have searched the site for a similar question but haven't found a solution.
It already does. Did you set your iTunes to reference your music files instead of it copying your files and organize it for you?
bacchus, I didn't know that it can arrange your music folders to a new way. How does this work? I just use the default setting on my library. In which it stores songs by artist>artist album>songs.
I'd like to know too. I've lost songs because for some reasons some songs were moved even if I didn't change anything.
Yeah. I just lately realized there is a checkbox in iTunes about copying the files into the iTunes Music Folder. However, with its current state, can it make a brand new iTunes Music folder?
If you are starting from scratch, place all your music in one folder. Then go to iTunes preferences> Advanced tab> then check both boxes which says "Keep iTunes music organized" and "Copy files to iTunes folder when adding to library". Then in iTunes, click add to library, then add the folder in which you have all your music. iTunes will copy and reorganize it into folders according to artists. Then you can delete the original folder since iTunes copied all your music into its own folder. Important: Go to the Music>iTunes folder first to check if all your music was indeed copied and organized before deleting your original folder containing the music.
I dont have my Macbook with me but there is an menu option Tools > Consolidate Library. If you have disabled iTunes to copu music when you add them and just enabled it now, this option will copy them from their referenced locations to the iTunes library. I actually use this option if I move my library to a different folder/external drive. HTH.
I think this one's the feature I'm looking for. yay. One last question though. Does this copy the tags and play counts as well? thanks!
the tags and play counts are kept in separate files. these can be found in your iTunes folder. check out iLounge for more info: http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/moving-your-itunes-library-to-a-new-hard-drive/
It virtually doesn't do anything to your iTunes library. It just moves the files around. So yeah, you get to keep all metadata (e.g. play count) of your songs.
Here's a cool way to organize your iTunes collection, including missing info, missing cover art and (dirty aka mislabeled) titles. Go to: http://www.tuneupmedia.com/ and download TuneUp. Watch the video to see the features. Good luck!!!
@wolfjazz: The free/trial version is limited to 500 music labels & 50 album covers per month. After that, you need to pay USD11.95/yr or USD19.95 one time payment. I think if your Library is mostly songs ripped from CDs or other sources....this would work for you. Otherwise, a quick look in Wikipedia for album/song info and/or on Amazon for similar info would be a more work-intensive, but free alternative.
Yup, I think the $19.95 might be worth it since my iTunes collection is about 25,580 songs and I don't think I can clean all that up myself. Funny thing is that most these were ripped from original CDs and iTunes/Gracenotes but still missing the cover art. Already tried using "download cover art" from iTunes using my iTunes US account but unfortunately most British/Euro acts don't get updated by iTunes US. ) Still worth a try though.
