Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Juliana]

Yeah, exactly.  He doesn't get that pop-up question because his "keep iTunes Music folder 'organized'" is not checked.

I too, have iTunes organize my folder.  Mostly because they already screwed me on that long ago and re-arranged my file structure iTunes-style.  Now it's just easier to stick with it than to change it back, and I guess I really don't have too much objection to the way iTunes does it anyway.  And other players do it just as arbitrarily and badly.

Plus its' just too much of a pain in the ass to *not* have them organize it.  I tried it for awhile, but it was too much bs to keep up with.  iTunes was a baby about it.

[Kwyjibo]

Says the person that doesn't know the first thing about organizing ANYTHING.

[Dan]

You guys are correct in that I don't want iTunes to organize anything for me. I hate iTunes with a passion ... it's just that it's the option my work allows us to use.

I've been organizing my files for a few years and yes, it used to do that pop-up where it asked me if I wanted iTunes to delete the song from my harddrive, too. I think I accidentally hit "no" at the same time I was checking the "do this always for this action and don't ask again" box. And now I'm screwed or something? I was hoping someone knew how to get it back.

I know I can just hit the "show file in Windows Explorer" and then delete from both iTunes and do the manual delete. But I was hoping I didn't have to.

[Buzzstein]

I just tried it and I can't delete any songs in iTunes either!  You used to be able to right-click on a song and select "delete" and it would give you the option of deleting it from your hard drive.  Maybe that option was removed from the recent version of iTunes.  Stupid.

[Kwyjibo]

Are you in a playlist?  It never would let you delete from a playlist, you have to be in your library.

[Buzzstein]

No, I was in the library window anyway.

[Dan]

Nope, main library.

But maybe Buzz is on to something... maybe I'm in a newer version of iTunes where it's permanently disabled? I did get a new CPU in November, so that's very possible.

[rva]

You can probably to into your Windows registry and hack the setting somewhere.  Or maybe delete iTunes from the computer (hoping it does a full, clean uninstall and delete) and then re-install.

Short of that, I think the only way is to have iTunes manage your files and folders.

[Dan]

Gotcha. I can't do the windows registry thing or the re-install b/c it's my companies computer. So I'm doomed.

Thanks for the help folks.

[matt]

OK...  big long stoy here, mainly a frustrated vent, but I do have a couple of questions at the end...

Today, I decided I was going to start up my gym routine again and create a new playlist for my 1st-gen Shuffle ( I normally use WinAmp instead of iTunes, because I can't freaking STAND iTunes, but WinAmp couldn't locate the iPod for some reason).  I removed it from the USB and turned it on to play it, to make sure the battery was fine or if it would play.  Nothing.  I looked at it and noticed the yellow & green light was alternating back and forth, an indication something was wrong.  I haven't used iTunes or the Shuffle in nearly a year & haven't ever used iPod on this new computer since I got it last May.  Vista and WinAmp wouldn't recognize the iPod, so I got out the install disc and and loaded it onto the computer.  After installing the start-up disc, I still couldn't get Vista or WinAmp to find it for some reason.  I let it charge for about an hour or so, disconnected it, but the lights were still flashing & it wouldn't play.  The Apple support site suggested that it might need to have the most recent software upgrade or something and gave instructions on how to verify it through iTunes, so I started up iTunes.  Support instructions then said that I needed to have the latest version of iTunes to verify the most recent iPod software, so I installed the latest iTunes.  When it finished installing, I verified that the Shuffle has the most recent update.  Support said that if it had the most recent update and still wouldn't play, that the Shuffle might need to be reset.  So, I reset it, 120 songs wiped out, but they're backed up so no big deal.  This cured the yellow/green light issue.  I loaded up a partial playlist in iTunes to test it, and it played back fine with a happy little green light.  So, I loaded up the full playlist and it works like a charm now.  No clue really why or what caused it not to play after sitting on a shelf for a year, but whatever.  It works now.

Here's the questions part:

1.  I still can't get Vista or WinAmp to locate the iPod.  When I say "not find", I mean that it will not show up in the computer directory like the other hard drives, CD/DVD burners, etc.

2.  I updated to the latest version of iTunes.  When it was complete, I had it load the new music from my computer that haven't been loaded since the last time I used iTunes (probably since last summer sometime).  I figured it would take a while, so I let it load while I went to the gym and ran some errands for a couple of hours.  6 hours later, I sit back down at the computer to check on it, figuring it would be done.  Nope.  Still loading.  OK, guess I have a LOT more music than I thought, but it looked like it was just about though loading everything.  As it finished up, I started scrolling through the library and noticed just about every other song was a duplicate and had an exclamation point on the left on each duplicate track.  I clicked on several of those duplicates without the exclamations played just fine.  All of the ones with an exclamation bring back an error that says:

"The song (name of duplicate song) could not be used because the original file could not be found.  Would you like to locate it?"

Since there is a duplicate track that works just fine, I figure there is no need to have a duplicate entry in my iTunes library, so you can right click/delete the line.  No problem there, but... I don't want to go through and manually right click/delete 42978 songs, 117.7 days or 232.65GB worth of music one track at a time.  Does anyone know if there is a way that you can sort and delete all of these unnecessary dupliactes at once?

[Buzzstein]

Since there is a duplicate track that works just fine, I figure there is no need to have a duplicate entry in my iTunes library, so you can right click/delete the line.  No problem there, but... I don't want to go through and manually right click/delete 42978 songs, 117.7 days or 232.65GB worth of music one track at a time.  Does anyone know if there is a way that you can sort and delete all of these unnecessary dupliactes at once?

Man, if you ever figure that one out please let me know.

[rva]

Yeah, you know what iTunes did?  It "organized" your files.  The reason why it took iTunes so long to make your library was because it manually took every file you had, copied it somewhere, and then deleted the original.

So, first thing I'd do is check your music files and see if they're still arranged like you want.  If that is okay, I'd go to "views" and add "date added" or "date modified" and then do a sort.  If you're lucky, all the bad files will have their original date of creation and all the good files will have been added today.  So all your exclamation point dupes will be at the top.  Then you can do a shift-click select and hopefully delete them all in one go.

If that doesn't work, I'd uninstall iTunes, then re-install it.  Then I'd uncheck the "Have iTunes 'manage' my library" option.  Then go back and have iTunes search your music folder for songs.  That's how you get iTunes to add the songs to the library without moving any files to trying to "organize" them.

[matt]

You know what's strange... I posted that last night & went to bed.  Didn't do anything else until a few minutes ago when I read this and pulled up iTunes to give your suggestion a shot.  When iTunes comes up - no duplicates with exclamations.  It's almost as if iTunes/Apple swiped a copy of all the music I uploaded and tried to hide it.

[rva]

I'd still check your music folders, because iTunes definitely moved all your files.  Maybe you're lucky and it simply "moved" all the files exactly back to where they were in the first place. 

[Ella Minnow Pea]

Here's my problem - iTunes won't play selected songs. For example, I wanted to listen to the God Help the Girl album, which I downloaded from eMusic. I imported it into iTunes. So far, I'd only listened to one track. When I press play (either using the command button at the top of the application or using the spacebar), nothing happens.

I'm currently listening to the album via my Soundbridge - so the files aren't corrupt.

I can listen to other tracks that I've added to iTunes since this album.

Any thoughts?