How to get iTunes to STOP organizing my songs in folders?

Question

Level 1

9 points

How to get iTunes to STOP organizing my songs in folders?

Unlike many people, it seems, I DON'T want my imported songs organized into folders. I keep that option UNCHECKED in iTunes, but it seems that whenever I download from either Amazon or iTunes, the tracks are always organized into folders, and I just want them dumped into my general iTunes Music folder, instead of having to manually transfer them and delete the created subdirectories each time I download. What else do I need to do besides leaving the option unchecked, as I already am doing? Thanks.

HP Compaq 2510p, Windows XP

Posted on Mar 12, 2011 6:18 AM

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Answer 1

polydorus

Level 6

11,967 points

Mar 12, 2011 7:18 AM in response to Leo Jay

Unchecking "Keep iTunes media folder organised" in preferences will stop iTunes organising the files in the iTunes media folder.
How ever if you purchase music from the iTunes store iTunes will organise them how it wants. If you put folders into to iTunes media folder yourself and then add them to iTunes, they should not be reorganised with the above option unchecked.

If you add tracks from outside the iTunes media folder with "Copy to iTunes media folder..." checked in preferences, iTunes will copy the files and organise them how it wants.

If you do not have the "copy to" option checked, iTunes will simply record the location of files outside the media folder without copying or organising them.

Does that help?

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Answer 2

Leo Jay Author

Level 1

9 points

Mar 14, 2011 7:26 PM in response to polydorus

Ah, thanks very much. So basically, any tunes that get imported into iTunes when purchased from Amazon or the iTunes store will get organized.

I tend to purchase from Amazon more than iTunes; I'm going to experiment with having Amazon download to a folder other than my iTunes folder -- to see if that prevents the organizing -- and then manually drag the files into iTunes after the fact. A bit of an annoyance, but easier than extracting organized tunes from the created artist/album folders. Thanks much!

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Answer 3

polydorus

Level 6

11,967 points

Mar 15, 2011 1:48 AM in response to Leo Jay

Yes, iTunes will never reorganise files that are not in the iTunes media folder.
It will organise files that start off outside the iTunes media folder and are then added using iTunes. However if "keep files organised" is not checked, it will not reorganise files that are copied into the iTunes media folder using windows explorer and then adding them to iTunes.

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Answer 4

Bedgee

Level 1

0 points

Apr 20, 2011 6:40 AM in response to Leo Jay

Hi Guys,

Thought I might bump this post up.

I am pulling my hair out. I have no idea why, although iTunes is reorganising my music folder and I never had the options checked in iTunes to do so.

I downloaded the second last software release that just came out a month or so ago, and all **** broke loose. I have had to make a copy of all of my music on my desktop, just to hide it from iTunes!

Basically, it's the same problem. I am using Windows 7, it is creating artist folders, and then sub folders and sticking music in there. I also went to great length to rename all my indervidual track file names a little while ago, and it has changed 50% of the file names to something else semi random.

I have deleted iTunes, reinstalled it .. it will not stop creating the folders - no matter what I do. I've tried moving things around .. so and so forth.

Please help! This is SO frustrating. 😠

Thank you!

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Answer 5

shokol8

Level 1

10 points

Jan 22, 2017 5:21 AM in response to Leo Jay

OMG it was working fine before. Now the uncheck tick is useless. That is so annoying because everytime I need to copy my library to another location I need to trick finder to get my song files. It was working fine before, I could keep these file there and use them for traktor (DJ Software). RIP Steve Jobs

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