Tidy Up iTunes MP3 Collection - Fix ID3 Tags And More
Step 2 - Re-import to iTunes
(a) iTunes unfortunately manages its own tag database so it won’t immediately pick up the new information. This can be fixed by:
- highlighting all tracks in the library, right clicking and selecting ‘Get Info’
- Then click “OK” (BE SURE NOT TO CHECK ANY OF THE FIELDS OR YOU WILL LOSE THE VALUE FOR EVERY FILE).
After doing this, the files are all processed and the tag changes will be picked up, and your playcounts and playlists will remain the same.
(b) I had some problems with the above method as iTunes seemed to get a bit confused and wouldn’t find the modifed tracks so what I ended up doing was going into my iTunes folder, deleting the iTunes music library files, and re-importing my music folder which picked up all the new tag info.
WARNING: THIS WILL DELETE ALL PLAYCOUNTS AND PLAYLISTS
Step 3 - Removing Duplicates
Once you’ve tidied up your tags removing duplicates becomes much easier. iTunes has a ‘Show Duplicate Songs’ command in the Edit menu. It only matches track name, which should be fine if you’ve tidied up your tags. Once you’ve done this it’s just a case of working through the list and deleting duplicates.
Step 4 - Add Album Art
iTunes doesn’t automatically add the artwork from CDs. The iTunes Art Importer solves this problem by adding album images from Amazon to your CDs - very clever.
It’s taken me a few evenings to do all this but it’s been worth the effort as now at least I can find tracks that I want to hear, and I also know now what I’m listening too!
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Pingback by links for 2007-05-22 at LifeParticles.com on 22 May 2007:
[...] Tidy Up iTunes MP3 Collection - Fix ID3 Tags And More | Connected Internet (tags: software music mp3) [...]
Pingback by Getting Vista, Zune Or Another MP3 Player? How To Migrate From iTunes » Connected Internet on 15 January 2007:
[...] iTunes will now whirr away and move all of your mp3 files to one folder for easier management. Stage II - Make Sure All MP3 Files Have ID3 Tags [...]
Comment by Phil on 21 November 2006:
[Comment ID #213 Will Be Quoted Here]
this file if 404′d now. anyone else know this?
Comment by Everton Blair on 25 June 2006:
Thanks for pointing this out Matt. For some reason the file on the server which redirected all my old links to the new site links got deleted. Without this file every external link before the move (including from search engines…) would be broken.
Luckily I made a backup so everything is ok now. thanks again
What don’t you like about the new theme?
Comment by matt kowalski on 25 June 2006:
the link under the article to other itunes article, doesn’t work
http://www.connectedinternet.co.uk/blog/_archives/2005/11/24/1420681.html
ps: new themes … suck a bit
Comment by Everton Blair on 8 June 2006:
I would use mp3tag. You can use it to automatically add tags to files based on how they are stored on your computer e.g. Artist/venue/date and also by the filename.
It will take one minute and then all have to do is just use the usual file/import function in iTunes.
Whole process shouldn’t take longer than 15 minutes.
Comment by Bill on 8 June 2006:
Anyone know how to import home-recorded MP3 files into iTunes? I have 1000’s of home recordings which are all neatly filed in sub-directories by artists, venue, and dates. I would like to script that info to populate this into iTunes.
Comment by Anonymous on 24 May 2006:
If you really want to clean up your mp3 collection use Zortam Mp3 Media Studio. (http://www.zortam.com). I managed all my files within day and left it over night to download lyrics and covers for my iPod.
Comment by dem on 2 May 2006:
im very new silver surfer ,thanks for all the info ,just done the double killer and now on the Music tagger.;35300 tracks and still going a lot of work to get them right
Comment by Geek Habitat on 21 February 2006:
Christmas time brings new iPods and other MP3 players to many, many people — even those of us who've already owned three or more generations of the little white (or now, black) beauties. A new portable music player always seems to make me feel a litt…