Ripping on a PC and changing filenames

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Level 1

4 points

Ripping on a PC and changing filenames

Until recently I was holding all of my iTunes/Apple Music files on a 2013 iMac that I received from its owner who no longer wanted it in 2015. Up until this point, I'd always been a Windows user. I didn't use the iMac for my daily computing - it just held my iTunes/Apple Music files that I regularly updated with CD and Apple purchases and which I'd add to or remove from my iPhone and stream to three Sonos speakers around my house.

I've now got rid of the iMac as it was getting old and gone back to a PC.

I - and I'm sure millions of others around the world - still love buying CDs so it's criminal that there's no option to import a CD on the Windows version of Apple Music.

I've found a workaround for this that involves downloading iTunes for Windows, importing a CD as usual, finding the ripped content in Windows Explorer and using 'Add to Library' in Apple Music. It's cumbersome but it'll allow me to continue my hobby and listen to the music I have bought in the way I'd like to.

However, when I transferred the files from the iMac to the PC, I took the opportunity to really tidy up my file structures and names and so on. I spent a good few days changing file names in Windows Explorer so that they were all consistent and my library was in the best shape it had been in for years.

I then dragged them into Apple Music > Media > Music and clicked 'Add to Library'. When they came through, they're all in the format they were previously. None of the changes I made have followed through.

I realise now that I should have amended the files in Apple Music. But before I start doing this, is there any way that the changes I made in Windows Explorer can be replicated in Apple Music so my work hasn't been in vain?

Also, I'm very nervous about plugging my phone into the Windows PC for the first time. Will I lose any content from there, because I don't think I've brought the 'Apple Music Library' file with me.

Thanks for any help.

Windows, Windows 10

Posted on Nov 24, 2024 4:16 AM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

274,564 points

Nov 24, 2024 6:17 AM in response to jamesinbury

Hi James,

If you want more control over the layout in which your files are stored, or the ability to rip media directly to the library without additional steps, then remove Apple Music, Apple Devices, and Apple TV, so that iTunes will work as it is supposed to. Editing metadata should be done in iTunes/Music rather than Windows Explorer. If Keep organized is selected then filenames and folders get updated to reflect the changed properties. If you're really keen on also taking fine-grained control of where files end up I have a script that works with iTunes called CustomRenamer. As yet Apple Music for Windows doesn't have any scripting support, another demerit for it.

I have another script called TagFromFilename that again works with iTunes and can potentially import details such as artist, album, track name & number from the filepath, but it expects files to be in the standard ..\<AlbumArtist>\<Album>\[D-]## <Name>.<Ext> layout that iTunes uses, which might not be what you've done, or your adjustments may have been undone when you added the items to the library.

Updating or syncing an iPhone to a new (to it) computer will normally result in iTunes/Music/Finder/Devices/whatever wanting to remove existing media from the device so that it can replace it with whatever is stored in the local library. Make sure you have all of your content transferred over, added to your library, which should also be backed up for security, before you try syncing.

See also Move your iTunes library to a new computer - Apple Community.

tt2

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Answer 2

jamesinbury Author

Level 1

4 points

Nov 24, 2024 11:49 AM in response to turingtest2

Thanks for your reply, tt2.

Surely I wouldn't be able to manage my iPhone XR in iTunes, would I?

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