The PC I used to save countless CD's using iTucrashed. Recovered the HD and copied to an external HD. How do I recover the downloaded CD files? After 3 calls Apple admits the iTunes no longer supports transferring CD files when the PC is replaced.

Mark2@live wrote:

After 3 calls Apple admits the iTunes no longer supports transferring CD files when the PC is replaced.

Huh?

It sounds to me as though quite a lot has been lost in translation.

First of all:

• you are not copying, recovering or transferring CD files, they are simply files (or digital music files). Perhaps that was enough to confuse the Apple employees to whom you spoke
• iTunes can still be used to copy from a CD in to iTunes. Not sure why any Apple employee would tell you otherwise
• digital music files can be moved, copied etc. into an iTunes Library and then copied onto iPods, iPhone etc.

Once you have installed iTunes on your replacement computer, you need to copy (make sure you do use copy, not "move") the music files from your external drive onto your computer. The external drive can be your back up for the next time this happens.

Where to copy to?

(Good question, I'm glad you asked...)

On your computer, in your Music folder, you should find a sub-folder named iTunes, and in that another folder named iTunes Media. Copy your music into the iTunes Media folder. In theory, the music on your external drive will still be in the layout used by iTunes, and you should use this same layout now. That is:

• • a folder for each artist, which contains a folder for each album, which contains the songs for that album
  • a folder named Compilations, which will have all the Various Artists albums, in folders named with the album title

That is:

• • • iTunes Media/<artist name>/<album title>/<song names>. This folder also contains Greatest Hits "compilations" by an individual artist
    • iTunes Media/Compilations/<album title>/<song names>

The next step is to add those stored files to your iTunes Library. If you have a large Library (more than a couple of thousand songs), I recommend that you add a few folders at a time. Otherwise you may think iTunes has gone to sleep while it tries adding everything. Read through the next few steps (before trying them) so that you understand what the procedure is. Then you will be able to add exactly what you want and when you want it. Once you have the music arranged like that, go into your iTunes and:

• to add a folder full of songs, click on File/Add Folder to Library (which is on iTunes' top bar menu), navigate to the folder, select it (do not go into it) and click on Select Folder. You can select an artist folder, which will then add all the content of that folder, so every album by that artist will be added by this one selection. Yes, they will still be correctly separated in your iTunes Library (providing the song's tags are correct of course!)
• you can select multiple folders at once, using the standard Windows procedure of
  • click first folder, shift-click last folder, which selects all folders in between
  • CTRL-click each individual folder, which adds only the folders you select
• don't forget to add the Compilations folder. You can probably add this folder as one selection
• to add individual songs, click on File/Add File to Library, navigate to the individual song and click on Open

That's it, except for a bit of tidying up in your Library.

Oh! I forgot to add:

If you select a folder to add to your Library, that contains songs you have already added, those songs will be added again. You will end up will multiple entries for songs.

Use Add Folder to Library with that fact deeply embedded in your head.

You're welcome.

A couple of things about tidying up.

Compilation albums:

To ensure that albums appear correctly on portable devices (iPods etc), it's important to note that as far as iTunes is concerned, only various artist albums are "compilations". A "greatest hits" album, by your favourite artist is not a "compilation". Likewise, guest artists on an artist's songs, should not be regarded as compilations. More about guest artists below

However, it's possible that the two tags that fully identify a compilation may have lost that information in the work you've been doing. If you inspect one or two compilation albums to check, you can then decide whether the information has been retained and therefore you don't need to check them all or, if the information is not present, check each compilation album

• • select all songs on a compilation album
  • click on Edit/Get info
  • ensure that all songs on the album have
    • compilation flag ticked (checked)
    • the text Various Artists in the Album Artist field (make sure it's the Album Artist field, not the Artist field)

Guest artists:

when a guest artist is featured on one song on an album, that artists's name will appear in the artist field, which will cause tracks on the album to separate, even in iTunes. The fix is to select all the songs on that album and add the prime artist's name to the Album Artist field (tag). In the example below, guest artists feature on several tracks on this Nelly Furtado album, so the Artist field says Mixed. in order to keep the whole album together, type Nelly Furtado into the Album Artist field: