Why doesn't iTunes copy all my files, and how do I know which it left out?

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Why doesn't iTunes copy all my files, and how do I know which it left out?

Hello,

I had iTunes on my old PC, and when I installed it on my new one (Vista Home Premium), it very helpfully deleted everything off my iPod and copied it all back again! As it happens, the only files on the iPod were from the iTunes library, so it didn't matter, but it was annoying.

Anyway, now it has (supposedly) synched my library and iPod, if I look at the library, it shows 1164 songs. If I look at my iPod, it only shows 1157 songs.

How do I know which songs iTunes didn't copy over? More to the point, anyone any idea why it didn't just copy all of them?

Thanks for any help.

Windows Vista

Posted on Jun 25, 2009 7:58 AM

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Answer 1

Mr Yossu Author

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Jun 28, 2009 9:21 AM in response to Mr Yossu

Anyone?

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Answer 2

MedBill

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Jun 29, 2009 5:45 AM in response to Mr Yossu

I don't have a clue, I'm having trouble even getting My itunes to play the music that I know is on My computer, because they all play just fine om My media player. So, I feel your frustration

Lady T

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Answer 3

ed2345

Level 9

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Jun 29, 2009 5:09 PM in response to Mr Yossu

Mr Yossu wrote:
Hello,

Anyway, now it has (supposedly) synched my library and iPod, if I look at the library, it shows 1164 songs. If I look at my iPod, it only shows 1157 songs.

How do I know which songs iTunes didn't copy over? More to the point, anyone any idea why it didn't just copy all of them?

iTunes is supposed to give an error message when there is a file in the library that it cannot copy to the iPod. Apparently it didn't.

There is not an easy way to know what songs didn't transfer. What I would do (and you might hate this idea) is create 12 playlists of 100 songs each (except the last will only have 64) and sync the iPod. Look at which playlists in the iPod don't have the right number and from there narrow down which ones didn't transfer.

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Answer 4

Mr Yossu Author

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Jun 30, 2009 10:38 AM in response to ed2345

Hello,

Thanks for the reply.

I did what you suggested, and it gave me 11 playlists of 100 songs, and one of 64. At that point I noticed that one of the songs was in there twice, so I deleted the second. this left me with 1163 songs in itunes.

I connected the ipod and it synched it. oddly enough, it told me it was copying/updating 32 songs! don't know what it did, but when it had finished, all 12 playlists were on the ipod, 11 with 100 songs and one with 63. Unfortunately, the ipod still only has 1156 songs, so there are still 7 missing!

Thanks again, any other ideas?

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Answer 5

hmacross

Level 3

780 points

Jun 30, 2009 11:31 AM in response to Mr Yossu

If you have duplicates in your library, the duplicate won't copy to your ipod. Only the duplicates where it is actually the same file (has been added twice) are affected by this.

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Answer 6

Chris CA

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Jun 30, 2009 12:11 PM in response to Mr Yossu

, the ipod still only has 1156 songs

Where are you seeing this number?
If you are on the iPod in *Shuffle all*, songs that are marked *Skip while shuffling*, will not be counted.

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Answer 7

Mr Yossu Author

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Jul 1, 2009 11:07 AM in response to Chris CA

OK, thanks for all the replies.

hmacross: I have checked for duplicates, and there were some there. This was because when I installed iTunes, it insisted on scanning my entire hard disk and adding every audio file it could find, even though I didn't want it to. I only wanted it to add ones in my Music folder. I had to do a fair amount of work to clean this up! Anyway, I just checked again, and there aren't any duplicates in my iTunes library.

Chris: If I look in my iTunes library, and show all the audio files as a big list, at the bottom it gives me the total number of files, and the total play length. If I look at the iPod, I see similar numbers.

After some tidying up, the iTunes library shows 1149 songs, and the iPod shows 1147 songs, so there's still a discrepancy. I have double checked for duplicates, so that's not the issue.

Thanks again. Any further help would be appreciated.

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Answer 8

Mr Yossu Author

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Jul 1, 2009 11:08 AM in response to Mr Yossu

Forgot to mention, I don't have "skip while shuffling" checked on any of the files.

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Answer 9

Mr Yossu Author

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Jul 5, 2009 9:49 AM in response to Mr Yossu

Anyone able to help?

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Answer 10

ed2345

Level 9

62,486 points

Jul 6, 2009 8:16 PM in response to Mr Yossu

Mr Yossu wrote:
Hello,

Thanks for the reply.

I did what you suggested, and it gave me 11 playlists of 100 songs, and one of 64. At that point I noticed that one of the songs was in there twice, so I deleted the second. this left me with 1163 songs in itunes.

I connected the ipod and it synched it. oddly enough, it told me it was copying/updating 32 songs! don't know what it did, but when it had finished, all 12 playlists were on the ipod, 11 with 100 songs and one with 63. Unfortunately, the ipod still only has 1156 songs, so there are still 7 missing!

As Chris notes, the 1156 can be affected by other factors. It sounds like there is only one song missing, and it is in the last playlist. Go down the list of the 64 songs in iTunes versus the 63 in the iPod and find the one that is missing.

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