how to join tracks in itunes 11? No more Advanced Menu!

I want to burn them onto a disc or USB thumbdrive sa as to be able to play the audiobook in my vehicle. A Reference Librarian thinks there is a way to accomplish this. I'll be able to speak with him again next week. I'll be doing an extended RV trek later this year and, would like to have a selection of audiobooks to listen to. From what I've been reading online, it seems Apple has complicated tasks that used to be simple.

You cannot burn those 15 tracks onto one cd. It came on 15 CDs because it needed 15 CDs.

How would you play this with a thumb drive?

Chris, I said "DISC" not CD. Some audiobooks are recorded as MP3s, many are not (I guess they're just "regular" audio files). Some books can be encoded so that they could fit onto a CD. Larger books might require a DVD.

I believe the 15 CDs, once converted to MP3 format, gives a file size of just over 1GB, a size that would easily fit onto a DVD-R. As to USB stick, both my Toyota Prius and my Mercedes Benz Sprinter van, have USB inputs on their radios. I've already listened to one audiobook I wrangled onto a USB stick while driving in my Prius. "Wrangling" is a very appropriate word. It was a royal pain; not at all "intuutuve", the way Apple software USED to be. AND, that was before iTunes11!

I know the Pioneer AVIC9115 unit in my Sprinter CAN play DVDs. I'll have to try the standard radio that my Prius has to see if it would handle DVD-R discs. All in all, I think I'd prefer to have these audiobook files on a USB stick. A 64GB thumb drive would hold several audiobooks. Once I've finished a book, the file can be easily deleted and the recovered space be used for the next audiobook. I've already set up an external HD to hold videos that I want to take with me. Again, watch the movie / TV show etc, delete and reuse the space. I then do NOT have 200+GB of temporary files on my MBP's HD possibly slowing it down. I understand that USB sticks use very little power. When I'm boondock camping, keeping power usage to a minimum is important. When regular 110vAC power is available, I load what I might want to watch / listen to onto USB sticks. Later, when I don't have access to 110vAC , I can enjoy what I've pre-loaded and, my MBP's battery lasts much longer because of the extra step I've taken in transferring content from a power hungry device to a power frugal device.

Thank you for solving MY problem. Several of the CDs I have imported have been all chopped up and unlistenable until I implemented your solution.

iTunes 11 = Highlight the tracks from the CD that you want joined - Now, click the "OPTIONS" button over to the right, next to CD Info and the Import CD buttons. There, you will find your "Join CD tracks" selection. In previous iTunes versions, it was under the Edit menu or one of those.... Don't remember.

It did when I tried it. Am also infuriated by Apple, which removed this in the new version of ITunes, day by day they are trading places with Microsoft; one of these days I mighteven go out and buy a PC.

abucohen

abucohen wrote:

It did when I tried it.

What did what when you tried what?

Am also infuriated by Apple, which removed this in the new version of ITunes,

Except Join CD tracks is not removed in this version of iTunes.

Note it will only show up when you have first selected consecutive tracks on the CD.

No consecutive tracks selected on CD.

Win7 - iTunes111 - - Its not listed on mine either, no join anywhere. Followed the instructions to the letter nothing.

Exactly what I get. I have highlighted everthing and even checked that the tracks are consecutive.

I'm sure there are some 3rd party apps that allow you to do what you're trying to do, but if you're on a Windows system, you can do it with a simple DOS command. Open up a command prompt (usually located in the Windows folder under System32\cmd.exe) and navigate to the folder where the files are stored that you're wanting to join. For example, if your files are stored in

C:\Users\yourname\My Music\iTunes\Jodi Picoult\The Storyteller

Then at the command prompt, type in

cd "C:\Users\yourname\My Music\iTunes\Jodi Picoult\The Storyteller"

The quotes are necessary since there are spaces in the folder names. Once you're in the directory where all the files are stored, use the copy /b command to combine the tracks. The files will be joined alphabetically, so be sure they're named in such a way that the first track will come first alphabetically, etc. For example Part 1.mp3, Part 2.mp3, Part 3.mp3, etc. Also be sure there aren't any other mp3 files in the same directory, or they'll be joined too. Once you've checked that, then use the following command to join the tracks:

copy /b *.mp3 "The Storyteller.mp3"

Basically, it says to copy all the mp3 files into one long file called The Storyteller.mp3. The quotes are only necessary if the name of the new file has spaces in it. It doesn't take long for the tracks to join, and you'll see each track name on the screen as it's joined together into one long track called The Storyteller.mp3. Then you can exit the command prompt and import the longer track into iTunes. If you mess up, you can do it again, because the original files stay in tact. You probably want to delete them once you're done though, or they'll be taking up unnecessary space on your hard drive.

Note that this only works on a few file types, mp3 being one of them. I don't believe it will work for m4b, wma, wav, etc. Also, the time stamp on the joined file may be incorrect. For example, the total length of the joined file is 5 hours, but it shows up in iTunes saying it's only 1 hour (the length of the original first track). I've had this happen sometimes, and sometimes not.

Make sure you've sorted by the track NUMBER, not just track name. They may be in order already, but until you sort by TRACK NUMBER, you won't have the option to join the tracks.

Sazkin, thank you that worked perfectly!!!

Do you know why in the column marked "Name" the disc name doesn't show only the chapter number? This started about the same time the join tracks option disappeared.

Deleted

Suzakin wrote:

I am an audio book nerd and I had a LOT of trouble with the new iTunes upgrade and joining tracks. A MUST for audio books, classical music and the like. I have read all the posts and there is one critical piece of information that is not being said. And no, I am not trying to be "one of those"...LOL.

You MUST sort the tracks as someone said earlier. They MUST be in order 1 through whatever. The problem is that you can't sort by track name - you MUST use the track number the first column completely to the left.

I was having the same problem - there was simply NO OPTION to join tracks and it didn't matter whether I selected them all or not. The problem is with many audio books they have strange names (often times imported by Gracenote). So even though they appear to be in order iTunes says they're not.

The minute you sort by the FIRST COLUMN and select all tracks...the Join CD tracks appears! WOO HOO!

Hope this help all of you frustrated folks out there!

This solved my problem, thank you! I too "lost" the "Join CD" option suddenly. Even though I was sorting by track name and they were sorted properly, "Join CD" was not showing up. When I sorted again by track number, the FIRST column in the window, it suddenly worked, even though sorting by track number changed NOTHING about the sort order.

This kind of idiotic stuff is just infuriating. Apple is consistently moving away from making things easier for people, it seems like every update they make creates more confusion and difficulty instead of less. I guess Steve Jobs passing really has had an impact on this once great company.

I don't see it posted but I use a program called Join Together, http://dougscripts.com/itunes/itinfo/jointogether.php.

It exports the the tracks you select in ITunes and joins them together through Quick Time and re-inserts it back into ITunes as 1 track. Great for multi CD audio books.