Support NeoGAF

[EmSeta]

I'm sick and tired of iTunes and all it's limitations. I want to copy my huge mp3 collection to my gen 4 iPod, inluding subfolders, without having to wade through the damn iTunes process.

Is there any hope for doing this? I've tried XPlay, but it's limited and doesn't allow usage of subfolders. Besides, it's bug-ridden to hell.

 

[fausty]

Not trolling or picking a fight, but what limitations? What's the iTunes process that sucks so much? I have over 90 gigs of music, and this is the first program I've used that allows me to sort them in a clean and "easy to use" manner, plus I love the pod synching options. What exactly are you trying to do?

 

[Phoenix]

I too would be interested to find out because I now have about 20GB of songs and iTunes doesn't cause me any hassle at all.

 

[EmSeta]

Yeah, but it presumes that you're using iTunes for all your music. I just want to drag and drop all my mp3 files, including subfolders.

 

[hanzo]

Anapod explorer

 

[fausty]

Yeah, but it presumes that you're using iTunes for all your music. I just want to drag and drop all my mp3 files, including subfolders.

This isn't what you're looking for (and it likely doesn't fix the problem you're having), but you can drag and drop all your music into the iTunes Library folder, then just have your ipod synch with everything.

A good reason to do this is it allows you to easily add new music to your ipod without taking any additional steps (as long as you have room on your player, it'll just grab anything new you have in the Library).

 

[StrikerObi]

Move all your music to the iTunes music folder, and tell iTunes to manage your library for you. It'll automatically folder everything for you based on ID3 tag information.

 

[3rdman]

I use J. River Media Center. No problem at all...hell I never even installed iTunes.

 

[DECK'ARD]

Embrace iTunes

Once you've got imported your library into iTunes, the auto-sync will ensure you always have an exact copy of your music collection on your iPod without having to do anything, even down to playlists etc.

Far *less* hassle than constantly dragging and dropping when you want to add some new music ...

 

[mrklaw]

this is probably me being an idiot, but can you organise your music by artist/album etc? That seems really easy in WMP10, but iTunes just seems to want to have a big long list of all tracks.

I don't have, or plan to get, an iPod, so I just want the best (non winamp) way of organising my music.

 

[DECK'ARD]

this is probably me being an idiot, but can you organise your music by artist/album etc? That seems really easy in WMP10, but iTunes just seems to want to have a big long list of all tracks.

I don't have, or plan to get, an iPod, so I just want the best (non winamp) way of organising my music.

Yep, you click the 'Browse' button, and the display splits into 3 - one window for artist, one for album, and one for songs. Works really well - click the name of an artist and you see only their albums+songs, click on an album and you only see the songs on that album.

 

[Sriram]

To order your tracks by artist/album/genre click the browse button whilst viewing the library or press ctrl+b.

Damnit, beaten by 1 minute!

 

[EmSeta]

I'm talking about MOVING the folders to the iPod without losing the folder information.. is it possible? The iRiver can do it..

 

[DECK'ARD]

Yep, go to Preferences/Advanced and turn off the options 'Keep iTunes music folder organised' and 'Copy files to iTunes Music Library when adding to library'

Then just use the Add To Library function on the folder your music is in. That will leave your folders intact, while adding all the mp3's to your iTunes library and therefore copying it all to the iPod as well.

You could also drag folders into the 'Source' window in iTunes and that will add the mp3's to the library while also creating a Playlist for that folder so you could list the contents of that folder on the iPod.

If your mp3's are currently in artist and album folders, then you might as well let iTunes take care of everything though, because that is how it organises stuff anyway.

 

[Dilbert]

I'm talking about MOVING the folders to the iPod without losing the folder information.. is it possible? The iRiver can do it..

I really don't understand what you need.

If you leave your source MP3s in their current subfolders, and add them to your iTunes library with the "Keep iTunes music library organized" option off, then a) all of your music is on your iPod and b) you haven't messed with your original file structure.

If you simply want to use the iPod as a portable disk drive so that you can copy your MP3 collection to another machine, you should be able to drag and drop the folders onto the iPod as data, then drag the data off the iPod onto the destination machine. This operation would not involve iTunes at all. You couldn't play the music on your iPod since it would be stored as data, but moving your MP3s around would be a one-time deal. Once you were done, you could clear up the space and sync the MP3s onto your iPod so you could listen to them.

Can you please explain what your GOAL is in clear terms so that people can help you?

 

[Celicar]

I know I'm dragging up an old thread, but I was looking for a quick answer. I currently have itunes set to manually update songs and playlists, but now I've decided it would be much easier to just have it automatically sync with itunes.

The problem is I've deleted a bunch of mp3s on my computer and I know if I sync it with itunes, it will delete the songs off my ipod as well. How can I copy my ipod library to itunes? I don't even need to copy the mp3s, just the information.

 

[Midas]

iPods is based on id3 tags, and creats a database with all info about the mp3's. You cant do it the folder way - unfortunately

 

[Celicar]

So I'm screwed?

 

[Midas]

Aah, I just read the question EmSeta asked, sorry.

Don't really know how to fix your problem. I've never used iTunes so I don't have any problems with things like that.

 

[Anthropic]

You can copy songs from an iPod to your computer with any number of programs such as SharePod or iPod Agent. There are probably better programs to, but those are just the ones of the top of my head.

 

[ArcadeStickMonk]

I wouldn't call it bug-ridden, but I dragged folders and sub-folders onto my iPod with the original XPlay before I switched to iTunes.

And EmSeta's dissatisfaction with iTunes probably stem from volitilty, both with his library and what he wants on the Pod. If you had a big library, with frequent additions, then you'd want a quick way to shoehorn your most recent additions onto the Pod. iTunes can do it, but not with out the foreplay of adding the folder to its library and shuffling playlists around.



edit: one flubbed contaction turned my whole tone around

 

[Celicar]

I guess I could copy the songs from my ipod, but that'll take soooo long. I just want to copy the information. Is this not possible? Itunes does suck!

 

[Anthropic]

How do you want the information copied? Like, in a text file or something?

 

[Celicar]

Yeah. I guess I don't make any sense. I'll just copy the mp3s.