Re: iTunes and duplicating songs
At 2:13 PM -0500 12/12/2008, Dan wrote: Some of my mp3 tracks are quite old; their volume levels are low etc. And I'm using a better set of speakers... Got tired of bumping the volume level of the speakers for one song, just to have the next blast my ears. Found a Sound Check setting in Preferences. Checked it. ack! iTunes quietly started sucking up 80% of my CPU, *even when not playing anything*! I finally figured out it was going thru each and every track, figuring out what sound levels to use. It took half an hour for it go thru my 800+ tracks. :\ ARG! Apparently, iTunes didn't just go thru my tracks - it modified EVERY FREAKING ONE! My incremental backups took 4+ hours last night, instead of 40 mins! - Dan. -- - Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to g3-5-list-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Re: iTunes and duplicating songs
I meant to get in on this ITunes discussion a while ago. As mentioned before by someone else, iTunes has a Show Duplicates option and I'm mentioning it here in case anyone wants all the advice possible (that I can offer) in one document. The Show Duplicates option is not fully trustworthy because I've tested it and known duplicates did not show up in the list of duplicates. iTunes ONLY looks for dupes by exact name. To PREVENT or resolve duplicates in iTunes: 1. Always import music while connected to the Internet so that Get Info metadata tags for the tracks has a better chance of being accessed 2. ACCEPT the Internet-standardized Get Info metadata tags for the album as iTunes finds them on the Internet or on the CD/DVD, unless it's just plain wrong, because if you start using your own names, you're simply going to have trouble avoiding dupes when merging libraries later. Just GIVE UP on being a control freak and wanting things named your way! If you recording or created the file, that's fine, but not if it's commercially produced and published recordings. You simply should accept the metadata that pops in automatically. You can fill in MISSING data, but don't change album, artist, or track names! 3. LET iTunes manage how your library is ordered- by artist, then album, etc. This will put a lot of people in the unknown folders until you correct the Get Info metadata, but if you try and manage it then you'll have to keep track of everything in your head and trust me you will make mistakes... 4. Let iTunes copy all music into it's main folder- IF you can. Some of my clients leave their iTunes library on an network based iTunes file server because they can't survive without 9 billion songs, one for every starving child in Africa... 5. Keep all of your songs in only ONE FORMAT. Try not to get confused and convert songs twice or into several different formats! If you have to convert a song to mp3 or AAC so that iTunes takes it, then delete the non-iTunes useable version (you can always keep a backup offline somewhere). If you need two file type versions for a song IN iTunes, accept that it will be there appearing like a duplicate. 6. When combining libraries, you can use the iTunes Consolidate Library option under the File menu, or to avoid THAT uncontrollable mystery if it's a big merger, you can do a little extra work: 6a. First combine the iTunes Music folders outside iTunes, in Finder, using a folder comparison utility. For my photos I used, I think, the Developer tool Filecompare which tells me what's on the left and what's on the right and what's on both sides. I also just bought a folder synching tool called YouSync or something like that. 6b. Second, still in Finder, not iTunes, use a duplicate-finding tool like DupeGuru to look for duplicates after the iTunes folders are merged. A good dupe-finding tool will actually look at the binary data in the files and will find duplicates even if they are not named the same! However I did have DupeGuru crash badly a couple of times with a client, so it's not the BEST one! 6c. If you want a really pristine collection, do a final review to make sure that all folder in the iTunes Music library folder REALLY ARE organized by Artist then Album then Track. Correct any obvious situations where the Artist is named inconsistently. For example, correct Four Tops and The Four Tops and Four Tops, The so that there is one folder that best matches how iTunes would find the metadata on the Internet if you import a new cd from that artist (you may have to guess that in this case it would be The Four Tops, or just look on the Apple store to see how the performers are listed)... 6d. Now inside iTunes, Hose/Delete the active iTunes library completely from within iTunes- but before you do it make sure that you set your preferences so that the files themselves are not deleted! KEEP FILES if asked! There are two questions: remove from library? YES. KEEP FILES? YES. You just want to delete the (xml library data file) references to them, not the files! 6e. Now, when you have a pristine iTunes folder without dupes, completely rebuild the iTunes library by using Add to Library under the file menu, and simply add back the WHOLE iTunes Music folder. Don't point to more places and don't SEARCH for media EVER. 7. Once you have a pristine library, TURN OFF the auto-importing of inserted media. You always really want to be there watching when it happens. For one thing you can stop it if everything is coming in as track one etc and unknown artist! Auto-importing seems like it makes life easy but it really poses problems because the process is imperfect and occurs best when manually managed. 8. Now, when adding music later, it's common sense to search for whether the album, the artist, and the songs are already in your library before adding the album because your spouse or roommate or children might have done that even if you didn't. Also,
Re: iTunes and duplicating songs
On Dec 3, 2008, at 12:09 AM, insightinmind wrote: Spent a few hours tonite using iTunes on a peeeceee (XP), fixing a broken library. OMG. I love my Mac. Have I mentioned I love my Mac? Fast new pc laptop file manipulation - moving hundreds of files around etc, was slower than on my 300-MHz Smurf. Mass-changes in iTunes tracks... 1/10 the speed of my trusty Smurf. And everything took extra clicks etc. Did I mention I love my Mac? Just took a shower. I feel better now. I love my Mac. Mac good. - Dan. -- - Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth I'm sorry you had such a traumatic experience. I have a PC (with XP) in the house ... but it has been disemboweled. Should have known better? Warm showers heal even the worst PC Scars ... I love all my Macs. Bill Used bleach but made the scarring worse. Now use forearm high nitrile gloves to prevent windowz contamination . . . Did I say I love my Macs . . . Deaner --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Re: iTunes and duplicating songs
At 7:02 AM -0800 12/3/2008, MIKO's Support, Design and Development Services wrote: The Show Duplicates option is not fully trustworthy because I've tested it and known duplicates did not show up in the list of duplicates. iTunes ONLY looks for dupes by exact name. I noticed that. And it seems to have no mechanism to show which dup is better (higher quality etc). The add to library function is similarly foo; if a track already exists in the library, and I try to add a dup, it ignores it - even when the new one is better quality. It would help if there were a pref that said do what I tell you to, damnit! To PREVENT or resolve duplicates in iTunes: wow. Lots of good stuff here. Thx! 1. Always import music while connected to the Internet so that Get Info metadata tags for the tracks has a better chance of being accessed Um when/how does it do this? I've seen a few album covers show up suddenly. But none of the id3 tags have been modified (I've verified this by sniffing the tracks with other tools before feeding them to iTunes). Is this only when you import off a CD or DVD? (ie, not when you Add an existing file?) 2. ACCEPT the Internet-standardized Get Info metadata tags for the album as iTunes finds them on the Internet or on the CD/DVD, unless it's just plain wrong, because if you start using your own names, you're simply going to have trouble avoiding dupes when merging libraries later. [...] Just GIVE UP on being a control freak and wanting things named your way! Give up?! Now that's the tuff one! There's just too much Adrian Monk in me. 3. LET iTunes manage how your library is ordered- by artist, then album, etc. For the most part, this seems to work ok. But then I noticed a bunch of errors. Some artists were spread across three or four folders. By doing a mass- Get-Info in those tracks, and setting the artist name to be the same (select, copy, paste - no change just putting in the same info), it fixed things. Odd. 4. Let iTunes copy all music into it's main folder- IF you can. I have the copy pref checked. Does that cover it, or are there still instances when I can do an Add that will make it NOT copy things in? 5. Keep all of your songs in only ONE FORMAT. Try not to get confused and convert songs twice or into several different formats! If you have to convert a song to mp3 or AAC so that iTunes takes it, then delete the non-iTunes useable version (you can always keep a backup offline somewhere). If you need two file type versions for a song IN iTunes, accept that it will be there appearing like a duplicate. Yea. This is starting to drive me nutz. I have a lot of stuff in aac but my cheapo mp3 player only does, well, mp3. I have no wish to dump the aac stuff because it's higher quality and useful elsewhere. There's a folder organization issue too. iTunes makes Artist/Album/track and my mp3 player only does somename/Track (ie, one level of folder) Is there a way to make iTunes mass-convert an album to mp3 AND push the results to some other location? Right now, I use the show in finder then manually pull things out. Once I pull things out... How do I tell iTunes to re-reconcile the listing to match what's left in that artist's folder? 6. When combining libraries, you can use the iTunes Consolidate Library option under the File menu, or to avoid THAT uncontrollable mystery if it's a big merger, you can do a little extra work: [snip - detailed instructions to do it in Finder then] 6d. Now inside iTunes, Hose/Delete the active iTunes library completely from within iTunes- but before you do it make sure that you set your preferences so that the files themselves are not deleted! KEEP FILES if asked! There are two questions: remove from library? YES. KEEP FILES? YES. You just want to delete the (xml library data file) references to them, not the files! 6e. Now, when you have a pristine iTunes folder without dupes, completely rebuild the iTunes library by using Add to Library under the file menu, and simply add back the WHOLE iTunes Music folder. Don't point to more places and don't SEARCH for media EVER. Ok. So everything important is in the id3 tags within the music files. The xml stuff is just the iTunes playlist organization? I have a bunch of albums added - they were existing files etc. How do I tell iTunes to go fetch / find the album artwork? Ditto for the other id3 tags? Thanks! - Dan. -- - Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group,
Re: iTunes and duplicating songs
Did anyone even see my post about iTunes and avoiding duplication? I thought I was doing something helpful but I never saw it make the list and never saw any comments... I guess I should just be humorous and political and give up trying to be helpful... On 12/3/08 1:00 PM, Clark Martin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Bruce Johnson wrote: I love my Mac. Have I mentioned I love my Mac? Fast new pc laptop file manipulation - moving hundreds of files around etc, was slower than on my 300-MHz Smurf. Mass-changes in iTunes tracks... 1/10 the speed of my trusty Smurf. And everything took extra clicks etc. Did I mention I love my Mac? Just took a shower. I feel better now. Congratulations. Now you know how I feel on a daily basis.:-P I've had clients ask me to work on windows machines from time to time. I've always been reluctant to because: My skills with Windows are very much less than my Mac skills. I'm not fond of banging my head against the wall. I want to take a shower afterward. In the most recent case the customer was supplied with a windoz laptop by a company they were doing work for. It was to access the company Intranet via VPN. It used both a specialized driver for the WiFi card, an add-on VPN client and several other add on programs which weren't used. All these things added to the complexity of setting things up, even with detailed instructions (which were conflicting and inaccurate. I couldn't see anything that required a windows laptop or the specialized software. The capper is that said company is a well known networking company. Bang, bang, bang Sure, it's money in my pocket but does it offset the aspirin bill. It's a good think I don't drink. --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Re: iTunes and duplicating songs
Howdy, I saw it, but I have no interest in iTunes. It just does not work well enough to merit use. I am responding so you know your message got through. Good day, Ralph On Wed, 2008-12-03 at 15:01 -0800, MIKO's Support, Design and Development Services wrote: Did anyone even see my post about iTunes and avoiding duplication? I thought I was doing something helpful but I never saw it make the list and --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Re: iTunes and duplicating songs
At 3:01 PM -0800 12/3/2008, MIKO's Support, Design and Development Services wrote: Did anyone even see my post about iTunes and avoiding duplication? I thought I was doing something helpful but I never saw it make the list and never saw any comments... I guess I should just be humorous and political and give up trying to be helpful... I replied to it aro 12:33pm local (EST). Maybe Google hasn't passed it on to you yet? I can repost if needed. It was a great missive, and I asked quite a few q's 'cause you seem to have a good grip on iTunesish. - Dan. -- - Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Re: iTunes and duplicating songs
Spent a few hours tonite using iTunes on a peeeceee (XP), fixing a broken library. OMG. I love my Mac. Have I mentioned I love my Mac? Fast new pc laptop file manipulation - moving hundreds of files around etc, was slower than on my 300-MHz Smurf. Mass-changes in iTunes tracks... 1/10 the speed of my trusty Smurf. And everything took extra clicks etc. Did I mention I love my Mac? Just took a shower. I feel better now. I love my Mac. Mac good. - Dan. -- - Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Re: iTunes and duplicating songs
On Dec 2, 2008, at 11:55 PM, Dan wrote: Spent a few hours tonite using iTunes on a peeeceee (XP), fixing a broken library. OMG. I love my Mac. Have I mentioned I love my Mac? Fast new pc laptop file manipulation - moving hundreds of files around etc, was slower than on my 300-MHz Smurf. Mass-changes in iTunes tracks... 1/10 the speed of my trusty Smurf. And everything took extra clicks etc. Did I mention I love my Mac? Just took a shower. I feel better now. I love my Mac. Mac good. - Dan. -- - Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth I'm sorry you had such a traumatic experience. I have a PC (with XP) in the house ... but it has been disemboweled. Should have known better? Warm showers heal even the worst PC Scars ... I love all my Macs. Bill artsite: http://mysite.verizon.net/moonstoneartstudio myspace: http://www.myspace.com/moonstoneartstudio --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Re: iTunes and duplicating songs
On Nov 30, 2008, at 4:54 PM, Dan wrote: From a podcast, I have some nice mp3 tracks. How do I move them from the podcast category to the regular Music area? I don't when to get lost, when I dump the podcast. I tried doing an add on the mp3 file itself, after removing it from the podcast, but it Knew. So it reappeared in the podcast I'm not expert on podcasts or audiobooks, but here is my understanding. In iTunes, I believe at least three different types of files are called MPEG Audio by iTunes under the Kind column when selected in the ViewView Options... preferences menu. These types are: .mp3, .m4a, and .m4b. I believe that normal music is .mp3, while podcasts are .m4a, and audiobooks are .m4b. One of the big differences in these file types is how they handle a Stop command. The .mp3 will stop normally, and upon next play start at the beginning of the track. I believe both the .m4a .m4b work under the assumption that the track is only to be listened to once, and if you use a stop command, upon the next launch they will resume at exactly the same point you previously stopped at. This is really handy for both of these file types. There are program available to convert between these file types, however I've never used any yet (I will soon), but it appears there are many more Windows PC programs than Mac OS X programs for this conversion. You can use iTunes to create a converted version by highlighting the file and selecting Create file type preference Version. The converted Podcast or AudioBook will be converted to the format selected in your iTunesPreferencesImport Settings... window. If the original Podcast or AudioBook has DRM you can't convert it using iTunes. I don't believe there is an easy way to remove DRM from tracks on Macs, it's easier on a PC. You can always re-record the DRM'd track using any suitable recording application. Audio Hijack Pro is one of the best for capturing audio from streams or any audio source on your Mac, but the problem is that it records in real time, meaning that if you have a DRM AudioBook file that takes 32 hours to play, it takes 32 hours to produce the DRM-free audio. Also, remember NEVER to record in a higher bit-rate than the original, otherwise it's a high def copy of a low def file, a complete waste of bits. Often, you may want to convert from .mp3 into .m4a or .m4b. For example, there are many speeches, lectures, and spoken texts available on the internet in .mp3 format. Normally you'd want these to pickup where you last stopped when listening, so if you're a perfectionist, you'd want to convert these spoken language files from .mp3 music files into .m4a or .m4b files. I'm not 100% certain of anything I've said, so PLEASE, correct me if I'm in error on anything. --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Re: iTunes and duplicating songs
At 4:00 AM -0600 12/1/2008, Kris Tilford wrote: On Nov 30, 2008, at 4:54 PM, Dan wrote: From a podcast, I have some nice mp3 tracks. How do I move them from the podcast category to the regular Music area? I don't when to get lost, when I dump the podcast. I tried doing an add on the mp3 file itself, after removing it from the podcast, but it Knew. So it reappeared in the podcast Found it. There are ID tags within the file that make it smell podcastish. I used musorg.app to delete those fields, then the tracks added as music to iTunes. These types are: .mp3, .m4a, and .m4b. I believe that normal music is .mp3, while podcasts are .m4a, and audiobooks are .m4b. MP3 is MPEG-1 Layer 3. M4A is MPEG-4 AAC. M4B is MPEG-4 AAC, used by Apple to mean Audiobook. (as far as I can tell ?so far? there is no encoding diff between m4a and m4b). One of the big differences in these file types is how they handle a Stop command. The .mp3 will stop normally, and upon next play start at the beginning of the track. I believe both the .m4a .m4b work under the assumption that the track is only to be listened to once, and if you use a stop command, upon the next launch they will resume at exactly the same point you previously stopped at. This is really handy for both of these file types. This isn't a function of file type (codec/format). On it's face, it's music vs audiobook classification default in iTunes. Music tracks always start at the beginning. iTunes keeps track of where you were in Audiobook tracks. Really, what's happening is that there's a flag (see the track's get info window) you can set that tells iTunes to remember or not. I don't believe there is an easy way to remove DRM from tracks on Macs I guess Apple's legit method is to burn the tracks to a normal (AIFF) audio CD then to rip it back in. Blech. That has the potential of loosing quality. Yet-another reason to stay away from DRM garbage. (I'll gander at Audio Hijack Pro shortly; looks interesting!) Right now, I'm going nutz adding stuff to my library. Guess I'm starting to trust iTunes more... - Dan. -- - Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Re: iTunes and duplicating songs
At 11:55 PM -0500 11/29/2008, Charles Davis wrote: At 9:59 PM -0800 11/28/2008, Clark Martin wrote: Dan wrote: At 4:57 PM -0800 11/28/2008, Ray wrote: Another odd thing about iTunes is why the default is set to Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library. Every person's Mac that I have looked at has duplicate songs because of this default. Why would you want this fault anyway? Because the opposite setting, having iTunes delete things when it thinks it's ok, is too horrible to imagine. Except that it doesn't, it just uses the file where it is. Isn't this the Expected results IF you are operating in the SAME Partition/HD ??? Um, no. Just tried it. It copied the file into the iTunes/ tree and trashed the original. This would be if the move/copy was to a location on a different partition/ HD The iTunes library AND the folders in which my master copy be are on the same volume. In fact, they're both in ~/Music. iTunes is NOT moving the file. It is making a COPY then disposing of the original. IF that import included a format change, then your original is then GONE. That's why the default is to copy and leave the original - so as to avoid that destruction. - Dan. -- - Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Re: iTunes and duplicating songs
At 2:00 PM -0600 11/30/2008, Kris Tilford wrote: On Nov 30, 2008, at 12:44 PM, Dan wrote: The iTunes library AND the folders in which my master copy be are on the same volume. In fact, they're both in ~/Music. The iTunes library is just a small cataloging file and has no music or music copies in it. It only keeps formatting information, and how to related lyrics and cover art to the actual tracks. Terminology. ok... ~/Music/(various folders) contains my master copies. When I tell iTunes to add or import... it copies the item into: ~/Music/iTunes/(artist name)/(song name) The above is in addition to the iTunes-maintained database files: ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music Library.xml ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Library Genius.itdb ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Library Extras.itdb ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Library ObQuip: Those database files should NOT be stored in ANY normal user area like ~/Music. They should be over in ~/Library/Application Support/iTunes/. Why can't Apple follow their own freaking design guidlines?! You're confusing two different functions of iTunes. Both may be construed as Importing, but they're independent and different, one is importing music, the other is adding music. [snip] Your explanation sounds reasonable. But that copy setting does seem to come into play when converting formats. I'm not deleting the originals, yet they're ending up in the trash, if I have that box unchecked. If I leave that box checked (the default) then things work as you describe. Is there a way to (the opposite of add) files? IOW, after converting a bunch of tracks from AAC to MP3, how can I make iTunes automagically stick 'em in a folder together that I can conveniently copy to my mp3 player? Here is a common problem related to bloating and duplicates in an iTunes library. Say you have a CD that has previously been ripped to some iTunes compatible format, say .mp3, but it was a rare CD, perhaps a local band demo where no track information was available during the rip process. These tracks will have generic names, i.e. track 1, track 2 etc. If you double-click such a track, or add them to iTunes by drag drop, they will COPY into iTunes as Unknown Artist, Unknown Album, track 1. If you then correct these within iTunes to say the real name of the artist and album, the COPIES within iTunes will now change names to have the names you've corrected. However, the original files outside iTunes remain as track 1, 2, etc. Now, your COPIES within iTunes are more correct than the originals, which still have the wrong names, artists, albums associated with the files. Worse, these files now differ, and if you inadvertently double- click an original track 1 file it will be re-copied to iTunes because you've corrected the other copy, and iTunes won't recognize that it already has this track, so you'll get a 3rd copy. This becomes a mess quickly if you keep the originals, *blink* whoa. Um, yes. LOL Now when you change that info on the track within iTunes... it is storing it as tags within that aac/mp3 file or somewhere else? IOW, if those iTunes database files get hozed again, do I loose all the info I've set? ...iTunes is making my brain hurt, but I'm having fun with it. The neighbor kid likes his gift cards. - Dan. -- - Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Re: iTunes and duplicating songs
At 1:36 PM -0700 11/29/2008, Bruce Johnson wrote: On Nov 29, 2008, at 11:09 AM, Dan wrote: I'm guessing once you put a gift card code in, there's no way to undo it. I figured I'd find the stuff I wanted *first* then redeem the cards. At this point, I'm thinking I might be better off just giving 'em to the neighbor's kid. Gift cards put the face amount of money into your Apple account. Then you buy what you want from it. Switching to the browser (list mode) in the store does let me peruse the catalog ok. But that takes me totally away from the specialized display that they're trying to promote. And I still keep coming up against black windows with unreadable text. Way to go Apple. Ok... Well, I ain't going to reward their incompetent design. I've voted with my feet. I'll use the iTunes Store for the free podcast subscriptions but for the rest, Apple can go choke. I gave one of the (smaller) cards to the neighbor's kids and returned the others to the Apple Store. They tried to offer me store credit - I told them (yea, in m'loud voice) that was unacceptable, for $400+, I'd have the person that bought them for me do a chargeback. Then they processed a proper refund. ...Just as well. I've now compared some of Apple's AAC tracks with those from other sources. WOW is there a big difference. The AAC tracks are, as Apple says, tuned to the response of the iPod ear buds. Iffa you no gots those particular ear buds... they sound like crap compared to rips from other sources. - Dan. -- - Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Re: iTunes and duplicating songs
From a podcast, I have some nice mp3 tracks. How do I move them from the podcast category to the regular Music area? I don't when to get lost, when I dump the podcast. I tried doing an add on the mp3 file itself, after removing it from the podcast, but it Knew. So it reappeared in the podcast Thx, - Dan. -- - Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Re: iTunes and duplicating songs
At 9:59 PM -0600 11/28/2008, Kris Tilford wrote: On Nov 28, 2008, at 8:40 PM, Dan wrote: I don't trust apps like iTunes (or iPhoto) to manage my collection permanently, ever. I think iTunes does a near perfect job of cataloging music. In my experience the copies are 100% perfect. Well, I fired up iTunes this morning and saw that six of my albums are AWOL. The entries in the catalog are there but when I try to do anything it says it cannot find the files. Found 'em in the trash. The trash, btw, was emptied before I launched iTunes. A backup of my library is sufficient to keep me happy. Gonna try the File/Library/Backup thingy next. The original copies (I delete anything NOT in my iTunes library) are super easy to find, they're in MusiciTunesiTunes Music Unless they're in the trash. :\ After importing stuff, some of the fields shown in iTunes are wrong. That information comes from the tag fields, within the mp3 or aac file? When I do a Get-Info within iTunes, and change the information... is it storing it in the iTunes library xml or is it putting it in the imported copy of the track (the mp3 or aac file itself)? - Dan. -- - Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Re: iTunes and duplicating songs
At 9:55 PM -0800 11/28/2008, Clark Martin wrote: A good question is why isn't there the option to move music files to the iTunes fulder (in addition to the others). I've done a whole bunch of feature requests and bug reports over the last day+. In addition to the above, I asked for the format conversion to be fully present in the menus directly. Right now you have to change the CD Import preference settings... And if you want to do two different types of conversions (eg: aac to mp3, and mp3 to aac) at the same time -- you can't! -- because the setting comes from the preferences, when you change it you break the conversions already in progress! Of course, if you forget to change them back, then your next CD import is foo too. Very poor unsafe design. - Dan. -- - Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Re: iTunes and duplicating songs
Main iTunes window, list as a Grid, it shows things in a black background with gray text. I find it very difficult to read that tiny low-contrast text. How do I change that to a high-contrast - preferably a white background with larger black text? - Dan. -- - Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Re: iTunes and duplicating songs
How do I get rid of the left-side bar when I'm trying to view stuff in the Store? The Store's layout is so wide that it has to be scrolled left and right all the time. This with the window full-screen on my 17 monitor. - Dan. -- - Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Re: iTunes and duplicating songs
On Nov 29, 2008, at 9:58 AM, Dan wrote: Main iTunes window, list as a Grid, it shows things in a black background with gray text. I find it very difficult to read that tiny low-contrast text. How do I change that to a high-contrast - preferably a white background with larger black text? Changing it to list view will do that, but you don't see the cover art then. You can also change the font size by dragging the size widget in the upper right-hand corner of the grid view. It makes it all larger, but it does increase the size of the fonts. No color changes though. Also in the prefs you can change the source and detail fontsize to large, which affects the coverflow and listviews. -- Bruce Johnson No matter where you go, there you are, B. Banzai --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Re: iTunes and duplicating songs
On Nov 29, 2008, at 11:09 AM, Dan wrote: I'm guessing once you put a gift card code in, there's no way to undo it. I figured I'd find the stuff I wanted *first* then redeem the cards. At this point, I'm thinking I might be better off just giving 'em to the neighbor's kid. Gift cards put the face amount of money into your Apple account. Then you buy what you want from it. Even Pepsi's free songs promotions worked like that, you entered your N winning caps, you had N free songs in your account. -- Bruce Johnson No matter where you go, there you are, B. Banzai --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Re: iTunes and duplicating songs
On Nov 29, 2008, at 11:38 AM, Dan wrote: At 9:59 PM -0800 11/28/2008, Clark Martin wrote: Dan wrote: At 4:57 PM -0800 11/28/2008, Ray wrote: Another odd thing about iTunes is why the default is set to Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library. Every person's Mac that I have looked at has duplicate songs because of this default. Why would you want this fault anyway? Because the opposite setting, having iTunes delete things when it thinks it's ok, is too horrible to imagine. Except that it doesn't, it just uses the file where it is. QUESTION --- Isn't this the Expected results IF you are operating in the SAME Partition/HD ??? Um, no. Just tried it. It copied the file into the iTunes/ tree and trashed the original. This would be if the move/copy was to a location on a different partition/ HD Chuck D. - Dan. -- - Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Re: iTunes and duplicating songs
At 4:57 PM -0800 11/28/2008, Ray wrote: Another odd thing about iTunes is why the default is set to Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library. Every person's Mac that I have looked at has duplicate songs because of this default. Why would you want this fault anyway? Because the opposite setting, having iTunes delete things when it thinks it's ok, is too horrible to imagine. I don't trust apps like iTunes (or iPhoto) to manage my collection permanently, ever. I went to great efforts (time, money) to collect my stuff. If iTunes wants to fool with it, fine - fool with a *copy*. Leave my original ALONE. I don't want some foo update from Apple to hoze me. Ever. That's why. :) Another reason for the copy ... You can set iTunes to import into other formats. That's nice. You end up with our original elsewhere and a converted pile'o'data within iTunes. If you discover the conversion didn't go well, you still have your *untouched* original and can simply trash what's in iTunes... Went thru this today with an irreplaceable mp3 audiobook. To make iTunes recognize it as an audiobook (so it will remember track locations etc), you have to first convert the mp3 files to AAC. THEN you have to *manually* change their file extensions from .m4a to .m4b. THEN you have to re-add them to your iTunes library. What a PITA! And, as I quickly discovered, some of the default settings, which would perhaps be ok for musik, caused the simple mp3 files to BLOAT into a mess that sounded awful and took 3x more storage on the HD. FWIW, - Dan. (Going nutz grabbing the DLing the podcasts from 'KEXP Song of the Day) -- - Psychoceramic Emeritus; South Jersey, USA, Earth --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
Re: iTunes and duplicating songs
On Nov 28, 2008, at 6:57 PM, Ray wrote: Another odd thing about iTunes is why the default is set to Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library. Every person's Mac that I have looked at has duplicate songs because of this default. On Nov 28, 2008, at 8:40 PM, Dan wrote: I don't trust apps like iTunes (or iPhoto) to manage my collection permanently, ever. I think iTunes does a near perfect job of cataloging music. In my experience the copies are 100% perfect. I have a lot of experience with iTunes. A backup of my library is sufficient to keep me happy. The original copies (I delete anything NOT in my iTunes library) are super easy to find, they're in MusiciTunesiTunes Music in alphabetical order by artist unless the album is a compilation, and then they're in the Compilations folder under album title. If there is no Artist they're in the Unknown Artist folder. As long as your catalog has the artists and album fields correctly enter there is zero percent chance of not being able to easily navigate to the originals within the iTunes Music folder. In the case of iPhoto, I have much less experience, but it is completely different. It places the originals into nested folders with #'s as titles, so one set of photos could be buried in a folder called 135 or something similar that gives no information about the contents. Further, the newer iPhoto versions compress the entire library into one big file. I agree, I'd be nervous about storing original photos within iPhoto, but I have no problems with iTunes. The cataloging method iTunes uses is straight forward, easy to learn, and has a perfect record of not screwing up music over many, many updates. One backup is plenty. Having duplicates and duplicate backups is redundant redundancy. --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
