About to add all my (125 GB) music collection into iTunes - best practise?

OCdude

OCdude

OCdude

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I've decided to 'take the plunge' and add my ~750 albums into iTunes. I've properly tagged all my albums as far as making sure the 'part of a compilation' tags are used, as well as album artists, album art, track number etc. So i don't have any worries about 'how' the music is going to show post-import, however I do have a few quick questions:

1) I'll be pointing iTunes to a single directory where all my music is. Will iTunes 'see' when i've added a new album in a new directory, or will I have to re-add the folder to the library, so it scans the directory again?

2) Does iTunes actually make any additional files/folders within any of the album folders? Assuming i've already fully tagged my albums - will it also modify the files in away? (I'm just paranoid about iTunes trashing years worth of music lol)

3) Will it be okay to just go ahead and add the full 125 GB in one go? (I realise it'll take forever to add it, but i think i'll just be leaving my PC alone for the day!) lol

4) Would it be better if I moved the iTunes directory (where it keeps the database files) onto the same drive where the actual music is, or is that irrelivant?)

5) Once i've added everything, what can i backup, so that i don't need to repeat the process if I decide to reinstall / move PC etc?

I think that's about it!

Thanks in advance for any pointers/help :)
 
OCdude said:
1) I'll be pointing iTunes to a single directory where all my music is. Will iTunes 'see' when i've added a new album in a new directory, or will I have to re-add the folder to the library, so it scans the directory again
Click to expand...

You'll have to add the folder yourself, iTunes doesn't have live folder scanning.

OCdude said:
2) Does iTunes actually make any additional files/folders within any of the album folders? Assuming i've already fully tagged my albums - will it also modify the files in away? (I'm just paranoid about iTunes trashing years worth of music lol)
Click to expand...

POSSIBLY. I would backup your music as it is now should iTunes decide to reorganise anything.

OCdude said:
3) Will it be okay to just go ahead and add the full 125 GB in one go? (I realise it'll take forever to add it, but i think i'll just be leaving my PC alone for the day!) lol
Click to expand...

Shouldn't take that long. It depends whether you keep the files where they are or select iTunes to copy them to the 'iTunes' folder within 'My Music'

4) Would it be better if I moved the iTunes directory (where it keeps the database files) onto the same drive where the actual music is, or is that irrelivant?)
Click to expand...

Probably, that will prevent the music being copied when importing.

5) Once i've added everything, what can i backup, so that i don't need to repeat the process if I decide to reinstall / move PC etc?
Click to expand...

Simply back up your iTunes folder, that will backup everything.

I think that's about it!

Thanks in advance for any pointers/help :)[/QUOTE]
 
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To be honest if you have gone to that much time and trouble to sort out and tag your files already then the number one thing I'd do is make a backup of your existing files and directories.

Not bashing iTunes but if something does screw up when you are importing, which ever way you do it, then I certainly wouldn't want to have to sort it all out again.
 
You can make itunes not touch the music. Tell it you'll be organising the folders and everything.
 
The main reason i'm going with iTunes is the 'pretty' way it can arrange albums (I'm tired of trying to pick an album by scrolling through directories in Explorer!).

Also, Genius is a good way of playing random tracks I would have never thought of otherwise listening to :D

Also, I might make the effort and start rating my music.

I have a regular backup, so i'm not too scared of iTunes screwing anything up really (just don't want to faff around restoring things).

Regarding the 'no live folder scanning' - if i point it back to the main folder, to find the 1-2 albums i've added - will it quickly scan through the ones it's already got added, or is it going to sit there thrashing my HDD to bits while it scans it ALL again? :0
 
OCdude said:
Regarding the 'no live folder scanning' - if i point it back to the main folder, to find the 1-2 albums i've added - will it quickly scan through the ones it's already got added, or is it going to sit there thrashing my HDD to bits while it scans it ALL again? :0
Click to expand...

Why not just point it directly at the folders you've added, instead of the main folder? Then it will just add the new stuff and not re-scan anything else...

Also, current versions of iTunes do have live folder scanning, but only in one subfolder of the main iTunes directory (called "Automatically Add to iTunes"), and I believe you have to allow iTunes to organise your music folder to enable it. Just thought it's worth a mention though.
 
Hey,
I can add a bit here. I had my music collection all nicely organised as the OP has and was worried about adding it all into iTunes.

Basically, before doing it, open iTunes preferences and go through it and make sure that any options iTunes has to do auto organising or stuff like that is 100% disabled. Then drag all your collection in the iTunes window and it basically will import it all. It will all stay where it is. Basically, what you see in iTunes is a reference to the actual file living elsewhere on your hard disk.

If you add more music to your collection, make sure to just drag it into iTunes. You DO NOT need to import it all, all over again

If you want to modify the tags of a track or tracks already present in iTunes, just highlight them in iTunes and delete them/it. This only deletes iTunes' reference of the file and not the file itself. You are then free to alter the tags using MP3Tag or similar and once complete, drag the track or tracks back in the iTunes window and Voila!

The reason it is best to alter tags outside of iTunes instead of within the right click "get Info" window, is that normally the info in there is just updated and written in iTunes' reference database file instead of embedding the info into the file itself. If you tag the file itself then the tracks will be perfect if you use other media player or device in the future.

I hope this is all correct. It all works like this for me so it should do for you.

Thanks

Neil
 
Thanks for the extra info :)

Interesting what you're saying about iTunes not updating tag info. I'm hoping it 'does' update tags contained within the files themselves (mostly for ratings etc).

If you tell iTunes to manage the files, will it do what it does on the actual iPod and put them into 'cryptic' folders and rename the mp3 files to meaningless numbers?
 
Hey, I think I confused you a bit, when you drag a file or files from windows explorer to itunes, the tags contained in the file itself, populates itunes own reference database so you're fine there. Only when you update the tag from within itunes, I don;t think that will add the same tag into the file itself which is why i recommended you delete the song from itunes, alter the tag in mp3tag or whatever, then drag it back in and it'll be perfect!

Apologies for not explaining that very well

About how the ipods store the files, I have no idea but I expect the ipods will still deal with the files as it has always done but that's not a big deal unless you access your ipod songs via usb from a strange device that does not have proper ipod compatibility.
 
Personally my approach with this would be to
1) turn off letting it organise the folder
2) point it to a new folder
3) add albums in an artist at a time, check they are properly imported and normally i fixup any tags there and then, especially album artist where you have tracks that are like 'eminem ft. dido' since they make the artist list a mess. or setting the compilation flag on compilations
4) once its all done, enable the thing to let it self-organise
5) run the organise library and set it to consolidate the whole lot (it will copy not move the files)
6) tell it to get album art
7) if your happy delete the original copy

The actual itunes folder structure on the PC is tidy enough for my liking, see link for example of what you will end up with > http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/4430/itunesxp.png
 
Tbh I've never had any problems with iTunes x64 (touch wood). As long as you turn OFF the option for iTunes to organise it, you'll be fine.

I've got ~170gb of Music, when I'm formatting - I just copy it from my external HD into the W7 music folder. And add my old iTunes library file (.xml one I think) and it re-adds all my music to iTunes, still keeping my number of plays etc.
 
All good info above. I tried using iTunes for my collection (about 2500 albums) but found it too slow. Now using AlbumPlayer. I find it faster, and has built in touch screen support for my future jukebox project.
 
The Windows version of iTunes is such garbage software, so sluggish and clunky. Doesn't even support FLAC. :/

One of the reasons I'm switching to Android next year is so I don't have to use iTunes. (currently iPhone user)
 
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