Convert MP4 to MP3

I see what you mean; the iTunes music folder on the HD is quite a bit larger than what is shown in iTunes Music. Is it necessary to keep duplicates of the same albums on the HD and in the iTunes Music folder?

woodshed1 wrote:

Is it necessary to keep duplicates of the same albums on the HD and in the iTunes Music folder?

The iTunes Music folder is on the HD.

No, you don't need to keep duplicates of anything (though you should maintain regualr backups).

When you add files to iTunes, iTunes will make a copy of the file in the iTunes Media folder (specified in iTunes prefs > Advanced). After you add to iTunes, you can delete the original.

If you move the file to the /Automatically add to iTunes/ folder inside the /iTunes media/ folder, iTune will move (not copy) the file. Then the original file is not simply taking up space.

I keep a shortcut to this folder on my desktop then move stuff here and let iTunes take care of it.

On iTunes 11.0.5, it's Option + Right Click to get Convert to MP3 to show. 🙂

Um, not really. It's actually Control+Click.

Another method you can use is sorting iTunes by "Date Added" and deleting the .mp3 versions you created.

To do this with a OS X:

'control' click on the column bar in iTunes and check "Date Added" then click on "Date Added" to sort by most recently added songs first. Go to the top of the list and delete the .mp3 versions of the songs that you just created and added to your iTunes account.

Just use
RealPlayer to covert the files, I have the same problem where I don't have the option in Itunes

RealPlayer worked for me

use Realplayer

or go to View [menu] > Show View Options, and select "Kind" ... then click Kind column header to sort your list by Kind, which arranges all mp3 files together for easy bulk selection

HI;

Hopefully you can assist.

How do I do this, i.e. copy mp3 or aac converted files to an SD card and keep the file structure intact? I want to have the artist folder that then contains the album, that then contains the converted songs.

Following your playlist instructions to copy to my SD card, all of the songs copy over in the root directory. The file structure is lost.

I am trying to do this on a mac, where I have all my CD ripped files to apple lossless.

My car uses an SD card and will not play apple lossless. I need to convert to AAC, mp3, or some other format.

Thanks in advance

I have tried all the steps in these hints to convert mp4 to mp3 and have concluded that my PPC version of iTunes simply must not allow the conversion between the two formats. The option to "Create mp3 version" is there and will work with other audio files but not what it considers "video" files like mp4. Anyhow, I too use free third party tools, specifically the readily available "Movie Tools" bundle at ecamm-dot-com. They are handly little drag-n-drop tools that will convert a variety of different format into a variety of other formats. The make copies, leaving the originals intact. They use System software to do it too. I wish someone had recommended these to me a long time ago.

maine_moof wrote:

I have tried all the steps in these hints to convert mp4 to mp3 and have concluded that my PPC version of iTunes simply must not allow the conversion between the two formats.

It does allow conversion between formats.

The option to "Create mp3 version" is there and will work with other audio files but not what it considers "video" files like mp4.

Correct. MP3 cannot and does not contain video so you cannot convert videos to MP3.

Anyhow, I too use free third party tools, specifically the readily available "Movie Tools"

Movie Tools sends only the audio from videos to iTunes and iTunes and converts to MP3.

Chris CA wrote:

Anyhow, I too use free third party tools, specifically the readily available "Movie Tools"

Movie Tools sends only the audio from videos to iTunes and iTunes and converts to MP3.

Which is precisely the result that I, as well as many others in this thread (including the OP I suspect), have been looking for.

Why don't you just use quicktime video player and export as mp3.Its easy.

Click on music file, Go to File>Get info and in "Name and extension" simply delete .MP4 and type .mp3. It will ask you to save it as as MP3 so confirm and thats it.

Brendinho wrote:

Click on music file, Go to File>Get info and in "Name and extension" simply delete .MP4 and type .mp3. It will ask you to save it as as MP3 so confirm and thats it.

Great!

and then it will not work.

MP3 and AAC are not the same type of file.

Changing the file extension will simply mess it up.