Hey Esther,
A sound theory, but unfortunately not the right one. I know this because I
picked a particular album to work on to try and solve the problem. I
removed that album from the library, trashed the actual mp3 files, emptied
trash just to be totally sure, and then re-imported just that album on its
own from the original folder but with only one set of ID3 tags enabled. No
joy though unfortunately.
It does bring to mind another question though. Does anyone know if there's
a way of stopping iTunes adding everything I open to the library by default?
As things stand now, I use VLC for my default player if its just a random
thing I probably won't want to keep. It all goes back to my hangup about
tidy libraries lol.
Any more thoughts on the import issue still appreciated of course
Scott
----- Original Message -----
From: "Esther" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS X by
theblind" <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, December 02, 2007 11:33 PM
Subject: Re: Itunes and how it organizes files
Hi Scott,
You wrote:
I have 2 of each song
listed in the library, and 2 of each actual mp3 in the itunes music folder,
the 2nd of each song having a number after it.
The 2nd of each song with a number after it is the clue that the same
song was imported into iTunes twice. If I had to guess, what probably
happened is that you clicked on or otherwise opened one your duplicate
songs, and since the default mp3 player is probably set to be iTunes,
that opened iTunes in order to play it. But in order for iTunes to play it,
it had to add it to it's library, and so, since you had the default
preferences
set to "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library", iTunes
put a copy of the mp3 file into its library. Then, when you added all these
files with Command-O (or the File Add to Library Command), another
version of the file got created, and a version number got tacked on the
end to distinguish it. You could check this by looking at the creation
dates of the files with Get Info either in iTunes or in Finder. The easy
way to check this (for all your files) is to make sure that "Date Added"
is turned on in your View options menu. I don't remember if it is
by default, but if it isn't, use Command-J in iTunes to show what
View Options are checked, and check which of the approximately
three dozen fields are "checked" by using VO-keys down arrow through
the alphabetical list. VO-keys space to check "Date Added" if it wasn't
checked and carriage return when you're finished.
Now, when you go to the Songs Outline there should be a column
giving the Date Added.
Hope this makes sense. Enjoy your music.
Cheers,
Esther
On Dec 02, 2007, at 01:07PM, Scott Chesworth wrote:
Hi Ester,
Yep, I've checked it out, and these are exact duplicates in terms of
filesize bitrate album and most importantly of course the song itself is
identical. To take an Incubus album for example, I have 2 of each song
listed in the library, and 2 of each actual mp3 in the itunes music folder,
the 2nd of each song having a number after it. previously to me importing
it, there was only one version of each song in the folder which seemed to
transfer to an iPod with no problem.
I'm not sure if i understood you right about the mp3 tags being the
problem,
because on this album I've removed the ID3V1 tags, so there should only be
ID3V2 tags left. Am I barking up the wrong tree here? and if I'm not,
anymore ideas to try?
Cheers
Scott
----- Original Message -----
From: "Esther" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS X by
theblind" <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, December 02, 2007 10:38 PM
Subject: Re: Itunes and how it organizes files
Hi Scott,
It could be the mp3 tag versions that are the problem, because in principle
multiple copies of the same tag information can be written with the ID3
version formats into these fields, and players might only use/read the
last set. That doesn't mean that having the different bits of information
written several times in the same header field can't cause you problems.
There's a command under the iTunes View menu to "Show Duplicates".
It only finds items with the same Song name, so you need to check whether
these aren't different versions of the same song --- a live concert
version
on one album and a studio recorded version on another, or multiple
versions that show up in a collection album, for example. You can do
that with the summary information page when you Get Info (command-i)
on a selected track and read its file location. I find it easier sometimes
to use Command-R, which will open a finder window with that track
selected. Then you can check the album/folder you're in.
I'd check that these weren't multiple library entries pointing to the same
track. If so, you should be safe deleting extra entries, as long as you
don't delete the actual song file by saying that you also want to move
it to the trash.
One other limitation of the "Show Duplicates" command -- you can't yet
accessibly get back to a view where you show all, to my knowledge,
If I select "Music" in the Source Outline, do VO-keys+M, arrow to the
View Menu, and Down Arrow to "Show Duplicates" my Songs outline
will be left showing only the duplicates for me to check, but I can't
click the button that returns the view to all Music. I have to quit iTunes
and restart it.
Hope this helps
Esther
On Dec 02, 2007, at 11:40AM, Scott Chesworth wrote:
Hey all - I have a related problem that hopefully someone can shed some
light on.
So, picture the scene. I've just got my MBP, seen accessible iTunes for
the
first time, accessible frontrow for the first time, and i'm in a state of
pure joy. At that moment, this machine is just a glorified talking iPod
with a remote to me haha! I then decide to import a load of albums stored
in an artist/album/track number/song title.mp3 format from my pc where I
usually use winamp. For the most part iTunes handles this well and
reorganises the files perfectly where I've deviated from the usual folder
structure, because the ID tags are accurate on all this stuff.
But, here's the issue. With some albums I'm importing, I'm getting what
seem to be duplicates of every track, usually in groups of 2 but
ocasionally
I've seen 3 for each song. This is strange to me, because the same albums
had previously gone over to my iPod which relies on ID tags with no
issues.
My first suspicion was that it would be because ID3V1 and ID3V2 tags were
both enabled for the songs, but after using winamp to disable the ID3V1
tags
for the affected albums, the problem still occurs. Don't get me wrong I
can
go and tidy this stuff up manually, but i'd prefer not too, its a fairly
big
library and in an ideal world I'd like it obsessively tidy.
Thanks in advance if anybody can help with this...
Scott
