iTunes Issues/Learning Curve

[John Picard]

In the span of about 5 days I've managed to import all 130 of my CD's to iTunes on my Mac. I have some issues that have come to light.

1. Even though a complete album has been imported, some of them have "Play Selected" rather than "Play Album" displayed
2. When playing an album, the first song plays repeatedly
3. On a few albums, the album art won't download or I get the incorrect album art (ie For Motley Crue's Dr Feelgood I'm getting the artwork for Shout at the Devil)
4. I have a Roberta Flack compilation album where she has some duets. The duets split off into separate album entries. How do I merge them all into one album
5. How do I split everything into separate libraries? I want to put all of my movie soundtracks into one library, Heavy Metal into another, Adult Contemporary into another, etc.

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[Shaw]

I'm not that skilled at iTunes stuff, but hopefully this will help...

1. Even though a complete album has been imported, some of them have "Play Selected" rather than "Play Album" displayed

The one way I know of to select an album to be played from my library is to view my library in browse mode... which shows you Genres, Artists and Albums. Without the browse mode your library is just one massive list of music.

2. When playing an album, the first song plays repeatedly

Are you playing the album while importing? Is the repeat one button in the bottom left corner pushed? That button toggles between no repeat, repeat all and repeat one.

3. On a few albums, the album art won't download or I get the incorrect album art (ie For Motley Crue's Dr Feelgood I'm getting the artwork for Shout at the Devil)

While in browse mode you can select an album and go to File down to Get Info... where you can make changes to the whole albums information (including album cover art).

4. I have a Roberta Flack compilation album where she has some duets. The duets split off into separate album entries. How do I merge them all into one album

In browse mode if you don't select an artist but do select an album you'll get all the songs displayed together. If you select a single artist first and then the album you'll end up with only that artist contributions.

5. How do I split everything into separate libraries? I want to put all of my movie soundtracks into one library, Heavy Metal into another, Adult Contemporary into another, etc.

You can change (or create) Genres in the Get Info panel... If Heavy Metal isn't there, add it to the list and change the info on all your Heavy Metal music. Then when in browse mode while looking at your library you can select the genre Heavy Metal and only the artist and albums of that genre will be displayed.

 

[John Picard]

I'm not that skilled at iTunes stuff, but hopefully this will help...

1. Even though a complete album has been imported, some of them have "Play Selected" rather than "Play Album" displayed

The one way I know of to select an album to be played from my library is to view my library in browse mode... which shows you Genres, Artists and Albums. Without the browse mode your library is just one massive list of music.

Right now, I'm playing them from the Recently Added view.

2. When playing an album, the first song plays repeatedly

Are you playing the album while importing? Is the repeat one button in the bottom left corner pushed? That button toggles between no repeat, repeat all and repeat one.

No, I am not playing albums while they are being imported. It's while in the Recently Added view. Also, it's not with every album.

While in browse mode you can select an album and go to File down to Get Info... where you can make changes to the whole albums information (including album cover art).

OK, I will try that.

4. I have a Roberta Flack compilation album where she has some duets. The duets split off into separate album entries. How do I merge them all into one album

In browse mode if you don't select an artist but do select an album you'll get all the songs displayed together. If you select a single artist first and then the album you'll end up with only that artist contributions.

Hmm, OK.

5. How do I split everything into separate libraries? I want to put all of my movie soundtracks into one library, Heavy Metal into another, Adult Contemporary into another, etc.

You can change (or create) Genres in the Get Info panel... If Heavy Metal isn't there, add it to the list and change the info on all your Heavy Metal music. Then when in browse mode while looking at your library you can select the genre Heavy Metal and only the artist and albums of that genre will be displayed.

I'll give that a shot. Thanks!

 

[DonIago]

This is reminding me why I use MediaMonkey to sync music on my iPod...

 

[Shaw]

I don't recall the default configuration, but when you select your Music from the sidebar you should be shown your music library. If you go to View down to Show Browser you should end up with something that looks like this...

Of course in my case I'm working off the shared library of a completely different system as I don't store music on this one... but the browse mode is the important aspect of the image.

 

[Sean Aaron]

1. I have a Roberta Flack compilation album where she has some duets. The duets split off into separate album entries. How do I merge them all into one album

This could be because the album isn't defined as a compilation (or because it is, I cannot remember which setting does this), so try unticking (or ticking) that box to see if it merges everything again.

 

[Sean Aaron]

1. How do I split everything into separate libraries? I want to put all of my movie soundtracks into one library, Heavy Metal into another, Adult Contemporary into another, etc.

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Also worth doing after creating your new genres and ensuring all your music fits into the correct ones is to create smart playlists built around the genres so you can easily have a playlist of all Heavy Metal or whatever. I do this and I also create separate smart playlists around artist names for artists by whom I have more than one album.

 

[John Picard]

1. How do I split everything into separate libraries? I want to put all of my movie soundtracks into one library, Heavy Metal into another, Adult Contemporary into another, etc.

​

Also worth doing after creating your new genres and ensuring all your music fits into the correct ones is to create smart playlists built around the genres so you can easily have a playlist of all Heavy Metal or whatever. I do this and I also create separate smart playlists around artist names for artists by whom I have more than one album.

Thanks, Sean. I will try that and let you know.