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TangyRaptor posted:
Make sure neither has the "Album Artist" tag set.
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Dec 2, 2008 18:35
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TangyRaptor posted:
Select both together using the shift key, hit apple-i for get info, make sure all the information is really the same. You can't see everything in those tags, and there could be something like a trailing spacebar after a name somewhere.
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Dec 2, 2008 18:35
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friendship waffle posted:Select both together using the shift key, hit apple-i for get info, make sure all the information is really the same. You can't see everything in those tags, and there could be something like a trailing spacebar after a name somewhere. gregday posted:Make sure neither has the "Album Artist" tag set.
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Dec 2, 2008 18:40
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TangyRaptor posted:Yeah that's how I was looking at the info. no, I meant select both albums at the same time, using the shift key, and hit apple-i to edit both simultaneously. They can't be different if you do this.
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Dec 2, 2008 18:55
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friendship waffle posted:no, I meant select both albums at the same time, using the shift key, and hit apple-i to edit both simultaneously. They can't be different if you do this. That's exactly what I was doing. All of the fields were filled out (instead of showing up blank which is what would have happened if they differed in even the slightest way) yet they still showed up as separate until I deleted the album artist tag. edit: maybe the ID3 tag was corrupted or something.
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Dec 2, 2008 19:15
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TangyRaptor posted:That's exactly what I was doing. All of the fields were filled out (instead of showing up blank which is what would have happened if they differed in even the slightest way) yet they still showed up as separate until I deleted the album artist tag. Make sure you check the "Sorting" tab, that can cause items to grouped differently 
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Dec 2, 2008 19:21
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Oh wow, this is great, I finally understand how I might use playlists properly. I have a question though. I should have a 4gb Nano arriving in the post soon, and I've been wondering how to store my music on it. Ideally I would like to have a few 'stock' albums on there, which will be pretty much permanent, and then the '1 week' and '4 & 5' playlists on there, which obviously will change dynamically. is it just a case of dragging the playlist across to the nano? Would that then copy across all relevant songs as well and keep it synced? My library is around 30gb, so not huge.
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Dec 2, 2008 19:45
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Lewk posted:Oh wow, this is great, I finally understand how I might use playlists properly.
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Dec 2, 2008 20:04
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One thing I'm noticing about this thread is the lack of consideration of OS. iTunes works on Mac and Windows, and it's easy to forget that. Solutions for one OS don't always work for the other. I don't think this thread is the place to discuss issues between iTunes and the OS (file system, hardware, etc.), but I'm not the original poster. Limiting it to just iTunes, as in interacting with the program itself, seems the right focus for this thread.
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Dec 2, 2008 20:17
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TangyRaptor posted:Select the songs that you updated with Media Monkey or whatever, right click, go to Get Info, leave all check boxes unchecked and click ok. It should rescan the ID3 tags of those files. That's the thing. I shouldn't have to manually tell it to update tags. The Zune software was really good about this; whenever metadata was changed, it would pick up on it automatically and update its database accordingly.
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Dec 2, 2008 20:17
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wolffenstein posted:By default iPods sync automatically, so if you choose a smart playlist to sync, the iPod will automatically copy and delete songs to reflect that smart playlist. It's pretty awesome. lovely, cheers.
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Dec 2, 2008 20:21
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I just came up with another question. I have my music stored on my desktop but I always connect to my library through my laptop. Is there anyway I can modify ratings and such remotely through iTunes? The way I do it now is remote desktop into my desktop, search for the song in iTunes and then change the rating which is a bit of a hassle. Is there any way to simplify this process?
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Dec 2, 2008 20:47
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TangyRaptor posted:I just came up with another question. I have my music stored on my desktop but I always connect to my library through my laptop. Is there anyway I can modify ratings and such remotely through iTunes? The way I do it now is remote desktop into my desktop, search for the song in iTunes and then change the rating which is a bit of a hassle. Is there any way to simplify this process? Share the library file itself, then open it on your laptop? I think it's option-click on Mac, probably alt- or ctrl-click on Windows, when opening iTunes to choose a library to open. A hint: No idea how many people have a similar setup, but it's pretty easy to use the same library in Mac OS and Windows. I have a Vista partition on my MacBook, and a copy of MacDrive. I point iTunes in both to the same library file and, except for a couple songs with funky characters in the filenames, everything shows right up after a brief "updating iTunes database" pause. I've seen others do the same thing using a shared network drive.
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Dec 2, 2008 21:00
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pokeyman posted:Share the library file itself, then open it on your laptop? I think it's option-click on Mac, probably alt- or ctrl-click on Windows, when opening iTunes to choose a library to open. Thanks a lot, I never thought to do that. edit: In case anyone else tries to do this, hold down the shift key in Windows while double clicking on the iTunes icon. TangyRaptor fucked around with this message at 21:20 on Dec 2, 2008 |
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Dec 2, 2008 21:12
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Is there a decent way to use OGG/FLAC in iTunes yet? I'm talking complete with tag support, gapless playback, the works. My collection's about half OGG, half MP3.
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Dec 2, 2008 22:26
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I've gotten iTunes to bend to my will in some complex and interesting ways before, but the best trick I still use to this day is how to make even smarter playlists. So here's how it works. How to make complex smart playlists: Every now and then I'll want to make a playlist that picks music using some sort of complex boolean criteria, because I'm a big programming nerd and I like to make computers do really specific things. Unfortunately, iTunes only allows a smart playlist to match "all" or "any" of the criteria you set, which limits things significantly. Unless, that is, you create smart playlists that references other playlists. That way, you can create a smart playlist that matches criteras A and B, and then make another smart playlist of music that matches criteria C *or* is on the first playlist. The result is you get a more complex boolean playlist "(A and B) or C. Of course, this ends up creating a few extra playlists you never really use, but you can create folders of playlists in iTunes, and I usually create a folder called "extra junk playlists" that I throw all of that stuff into. It's handy too because often playlists I make end up referencing the same extra junk playlist multiple times. Here's some examples: How to make a smart playlist that includes all songs rated 5 stars from multiple music genres: First, make a smart playlist that matches "any" of the criteria, and have them all be something like 'Genre is Rock', 'Genre is Techno', 'Genre is Fusion Funk Disco Jazz' or whatever you want. Then, make a second smart playlist called something like '5 star rock, techno, and weirdo music' or whatever you want, set it to match "all" criteria, make the first one be "rating is 5 stars", and make the second be "playlist is <name of the first playlist>". Presto! This trick is also excellent for creating a smart playlist of a genre of music that's really inconsistent in your library, possibly because it has a stupid number of names for the same sort of thing. For example, that can be a huge pain in the rear end with electronic music, because the songs' genre can be something like "techno", "electronic", "electronica", "idm", "drum and bass", "japanese noise music", or whatever other retarded electronic music genres you have in your library. So just make an 'any' playlist matching all of those genres, and mix and match it with other smart playlists to get it to do cool things. How to make a smart playlist of your favorite music, even if you're lazy and rarely rate your songs: This one only involves one smart playlist, but is intergral for the next thing I'm going to post. Make a smart playlist named "My favorite music" matching 'any' criteria, and set the criteria to 'Rating is 5 stars' and 'Play count is greater than 5'. Obviously adjust those numbers to suit you personally, but the idea is that it not only includes music you went out of your way to rate, but it also includes music you didn't go out of your way to rate but you've listened to it a whole lot so obviously you like it. Here's my all time favorite smart playlist, which expands on the OP's idea of making a smart playlist of music not played recently... How to make a smart playlist of your favorite music you haven't listened to recently: Once you've made the above playlist "My favorite music" playlist, make a new smart playlist matching 'all' criteria, and make the criteria be: - Playlist is "My favorite music" - Last played is not in the last week (or whatever time frame you want) - Last skipped is not in the last 3 days (or whatever time frame you want. This one is optional) Now you have a smart playlist of your favorite music that you haven't listened to in a while, and you haven't skipped. The part about it not being skipped is key, since sometimes when listening to a playlist, especially in party shuffle, a song will keep coming up that you just don't want to listen to. That bit ensures that it won't come up again, but not for too long since it is after all a song you like. This playlist can be expanded even further to include specific genres if you like, using the same technique as mentioned above. I've gotten iTunes to make some sweet smart playlists using this trick. Hopefully one of you reading this is enough of a programming nerd to appreciate this trick.
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Dec 2, 2008 22:44
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On my iTunes, I've reserved the 1 star rating as a flag for remembering to fix that song later on. For example, if I find a song with a misspelled title, or with an annoyingly long silence at the start or beginning that I want to cut off while listening to the song on my iPod, I'll just tag it with one star.
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Dec 2, 2008 22:46
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GuyGizmo posted:How to make a smart playlist of your favorite music you haven't listened to recently: Superb stuff. Can I ask, would both playlists have to be present on the ipod, or just the latter. I'm assuming iTunes and iPods cross talk when synced... Also, as a seperate note, am I being stupid or in the lists the playlists generate is there no way of sorting by track number? I've modded my arrows to take me to the entry rather than the itunes store, and it throws all my albums up in the wrong order, sorted by name, but I can't seem to sort by track number.
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Dec 2, 2008 23:06
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My PIN is 4826 posted:On my iTunes, I've reserved the 1 star rating as a flag for remembering to fix that song later on. For example, if I find a song with a misspelled title, or with an annoyingly long silence at the start or beginning that I want to cut off while listening to the song on my iPod, I'll just tag it with one star. For stars for me, I have a complex system. 3 is generic. Good song, nothing stand out either way. 2 and 4 are "this song is a bad/good song for this album". Finally, 1 and 5 are "this song is awful/awesome in the context of this album, or just in general". Not much stays on my computer if it's 1 starred, unless I have the rest of that album on my computer and I'm keeping it for completion's sake. I also have a bunch of 5s that I don't have the rest of the album on my computer, but those songs were too good to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Lewk posted:Also, as a seperate note, am I being stupid or in the lists the playlists generate is there no way of sorting by track number? I've modded my arrows to take me to the entry rather than the itunes store, and it throws all my albums up in the wrong order, sorted by name, but I can't seem to sort by track number. The way I've observed it, sometimes the only way to get it to sort by track number for the album, is to re-import the album. It seems to want to sort it by date added really. Maybe the "Album by Year" will fix this, I don't know, I just found out that hint.
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Dec 2, 2008 23:09
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Lewk posted:Superb stuff. Can I ask, would both playlists have to be present on the ipod, or just the latter. I'm assuming iTunes and iPods cross talk when synced... I don't own an iPod, so I'm not sure. My guess would be both playlists need to be there, but you can try just syncing one of them and seeing if it works. As for track numbers, I'm pretty sure that when you sort music in any iTunes playlist by artist or album, it'll organize tracks by their track number automatically. If for some reason that doesn't work I guess you can just tell it sort by track number explicitly.
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Dec 2, 2008 23:18
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I'm not sure if most people care about this, but as long as you have any track selected, you can just type in the artist's name and it'll select their first track. This depends on what you sort the library as, so if you sort the library in order by track it'll find the closest track name.
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Dec 2, 2008 23:32
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GuyGizmo posted:As for track numbers, I'm pretty sure that when you sort music in any iTunes playlist by artist or album, it'll organize tracks by their track number automatically. If for some reason that doesn't work I guess you can just tell it sort by track number explicitly. it sorts it by track number if i search in music, it's just if I view it with the three panels up top that it seems to sort by name or whatever you select. It seems very odd that I can't tell it to sort by track number in this way, by clicking the grey bar above each section, ie the column header.
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Dec 2, 2008 23:44
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Maybe someone can comment on the way I just moved my iTunes library after an erase and install of os x (I want to know whether I did it the best way). 1. Copied the iTunes music from the external HD back to the empty iTunes folder. 2. Deselected the 'Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library' option 3. File > Add to Library (85GB of music) 4. Reselected the 'Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library' option (so anything I add in the future is saved to my iTunes Music folder).
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Dec 3, 2008 12:01
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The major gripe I have always had about Smart Playlists is that I have never found a way to make one based on the path of the file. Is it still this way, or is this now possible?
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Dec 3, 2008 15:34
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SmirkingJack posted:The major gripe I have always had about Smart Playlists is that I have never found a way to make one based on the path of the file. Is it still this way, or is this now possible? I don't think there's anyway to do it "the right way", but it's possible if you used an AppleScript or something to put the path of every iTunes song into one of its rarely used metadata fields (maybe 'grouping' or 'comments' or 'sort show' since that'll probably never be used for music) and then making a smart playlist that searches for a path in that field.
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Dec 3, 2008 16:00
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Rock Tumbler posted:I got a GOD drat question
I've always done this, though they could simplify this, I don't think this is overly complicated.
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Dec 3, 2008 16:24
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Thanks for this thread! Currently listening to my new "1 week" playlist 
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Dec 3, 2008 16:56
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unruly posted:Three Steps:
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Dec 3, 2008 17:32
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This is one of my favorite utilities ever: iTunes Library Updater: http://itlu.ownz.ch/wordpress/ It will go through your library and clean out missing files, update track information, etc.
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Dec 3, 2008 18:37
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Here is an issue that I want to try to fix with iTunes. I rarely use cover flow but when I do, there is a certain way that I want it to behave. I have my library set up so that albums are only associated with a song if I have that entire album. Any individual song has the album field empty. This is all good until I view it in cover flow. For each song without an album, there is an entry in cover flow of a blank album. I would prefer for cover flow to not show these unknown albums. Anyone know of a fix to this?
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Dec 3, 2008 19:02
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clayburn posted:Here is an issue that I want to try to fix with iTunes. I rarely use cover flow but when I do, there is a certain way that I want it to behave. I have my library set up so that albums are only associated with a song if I have that entire album. Any individual song has the album field empty. This is all good until I view it in cover flow. For each song without an album, there is an entry in cover flow of a blank album. I would prefer for cover flow to not show these unknown albums. Anyone know of a fix to this? Make a new smart playlist where the Album "is not" and leave it blank. That should do it.
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Dec 3, 2008 19:15
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Another thing you could do is change the sort album field of all those songs to "999999" so that they're always sorted to the end of the list. edit: That's a stupid suggestion because it does this already. The above suggestion is much better.
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Dec 3, 2008 19:54
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chimz posted:1. Yeah, it does. At least, it should. Sometimes it fails and doesn't tell you, usually this is because it the id3 tags are corrupt, if you delete them with another editor it can start working again. I've had files that Itunes would refuse to change the tag info for only to find out the file was set to read only for some unknown reason.
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Dec 3, 2008 19:58
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Is it possible to get an iPod/iPhone to sort compilations by Album Artist rather than Artist? For example, I have Sasha's Involver 2 labelled with each track's actual artist and song title and the Album Artist is Sasha. This is fine in iTunes, but on my iPhone it shits out a bunch of artists with one song and completely ignores the Album Artist field. Is there a way to make it pay attention to the Album Artist? It would make my life so much better.
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Dec 3, 2008 20:16
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Can someone tell me how to change which folders iTunes uses for the library? I have my music backed up on another drives but iTunes has both in its library, which means every album shows 2 copies of the each song  I've googled relentlessly but haven't found a solution to this simple problem..
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Dec 3, 2008 20:41
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Killmaster posted:Can someone tell me how to change which folders iTunes uses for the library? I have my music backed up on another drives but iTunes has both in its library, which means every album shows 2 copies of the each song Preferences > Advanced > iTunes Music folder location is the setting, but it's probably not what you want. Also consider File > Library > Consolidate Library (this will move everything in your library to the aforementioned folder) if that's something you want to do, but it probably isn't. File > Show Duplicates might help.
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Dec 3, 2008 21:15
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ZeeBoi posted:Or: Thanks for this
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Dec 3, 2008 21:20
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pokeyman posted:Preferences > Advanced > iTunes Music folder location is the setting, but it's probably not what you want. All I want to do is remove a folder from the library... basic functionality but I can't find it anywhere. Is Apple really this daft? edit: I tried show duplicates but it doesn't actually remove anything from the library. Instead it just shows all my music, because everything's backed up like it should be. Consolidate library isn't what I want either because my music is already nicely organized thanks to Foobar. The only reason I wanted to use iTunes was to try the Genius function... oh well
Killmaster fucked around with this message at 21:26 on Dec 3, 2008 |
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Dec 3, 2008 21:21
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Killmaster posted:All I want to do is remove a folder from the library... basic functionality but I can't find it anywhere. Is Apple really this daft? Show the duplicates, sort by date or whatever gets most of them on one side of the list, select them, delete them from library. If you're using iTunes to consolidate your library, it will ask you if you just want to remove the files, or delete them from the computer entirely (move them to the trash/recycling bin).
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Dec 3, 2008 21:43
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IUG posted:Show the duplicates, sort by date or whatever gets most of them on one side of the list, select them, delete them from library. If you're using iTunes to consolidate your library, it will ask you if you just want to remove the files, or delete them from the computer entirely (move them to the trash/recycling bin). Got it to work with the "date added" column. Still a pain in the rear end though. Thanks! Now is there any way to get it to recognize the %album artist% field from Foobar? It also doesn't recognize my idv2 tags due to some bug that they haven't fixed, but I know about that...
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Dec 3, 2008 22:09
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