Hi All,
My long battle with iTunes is over. I figured out the secret formula to managing my 5000+ track library of iTunes and non-iTunes tracks which has the following benefits:
- Makes it easy to manage your library as you upgrade from one Apple device to another.
- Avoid the dashed circle problem in iTunes and the duplicate tracks that appear and disappear on my iOS device when syncing in iTunes.
- Easily fix the tags and album art in all my tracks.
1) Like most people, my collection of albums has both iTunes and non-iTunes content. My advice is to keep these libraries in separate folders on your PC, and I'll explain why shortly.
2) If you're seeing a lot of dashed circles in the iTunes "On My Device" Music library, you may have tried to sync the same track to your device from different iTunes libraries, or perhaps by deleting and re-adding the same track two or more times from your iTunes library and syncing it multiple times to your device. iOS seems to keep track of each time a track is synced to your device. During the sync process, you may notice multiple instances of the same track in an album for example. iTunes eventually deletes all the duplicates, but it makes the sync process take much, much longer. Also, if your sync process is interrupted, it may result in duplicate or even missing tracks on your device. (Duplicate tracks can be manually deleted providing you set the right option in your device, but it is a pain because they will re-appear after you Sync again). It is possible to avoid all of these problems by following a few simple steps.
3) Go into your iTunes library C:\Users\yourname\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music and see what you have. Use file explorer to select all the album folders copy your entire library to a different directory.
4) Uninstall iTunes completely from your PC. Go into the C:\Users\yourname\Music\iTunes and delete it completely (the uninstall process leaves it behind).
5) Make sure you have backed up your device to iCloud. Re-set your device, deleting all content and resetting it to factory settings.
6) Restore your device from iCloud and go through and set it all up again like you would if it was a new device. Notice that iOS restores all the iTunes content perfectly to your device with no duplicates, all the track and album art is in place. Its nice and clean at this point because Apple does a good job keeping all of the meta-tags and album art pristine for the content it sells. Let it finish syncing everything you purchased over WiFi.
7) Install a clean copy of iTunes. Notice that after you log in (if prompted), your iTunes music library will also have every track and album (and music videos, movies, etc), that you have ever purchased (provided, of course, you haven't hidden purchases in your account. This is a separate topic, but you can fix that under your Apple account in ITunes in "Account Information"). Until you play a track or album, iTunes displays a little cloud in the corner of the album. This means it is purchased content that hasn't been downloaded. Don't worry about it, because we're going to overwrite that content from your device which has the exact same set of content at this point. Don't connect your device yet!
8) This is very important. Go into Preferences, Advanced. Check "Keep iTunes Media folder organized". Uncheck "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library".
9) Connect your device. Click on the little iPhone icon and look at the Summary page under Settings, Summary on the left. Leave all options under Options unchecked, including "Manually manage music and videos".
10) Click the Sync button. You will be prompted with a message that says your device has a different library than your iTunes library and would you like to transfer your purchases, etc. Click the affirmative option. After the sync process is complete, your iTunes library will be the same as the library on your device. Both your iTunes library and the library on your device has everything you purchased in the iTunes store and nothing more. No more duplicates, dashed circles, or any other artifacts. Nice and clean.
11) Next, go into that backup library you created that probably contains all of your previous iTunes content, plus all of your personal tracks and albums which did not come from iTunes. Create another directory which will only contain your NON-iTunes content.
12) This can be tricky. If you have a lot of albums like me, it can be hard to remember which was previously purchased from iTunes or which was obtained from a CD or other source. Open up several file explorers and refer to your iTunes Music folders as a reference to what is purchased. Create that clean directory from your back up and make sure it doesn't have any of your iTunes tracks.
13) Next, take this time to clean up the meta-tags on your non-iTunes content. I use a great program called MusicBrainz Picard. I know it sounds funny, but its a great, non-fussy tool that makes it easy to fix your tags automatically. Use it to fix any of your tracks that have missing title or artist info. Add files to it, scan, and click save to automatically fix the tags and download the correct album art. This really makes your library a lot easier to use once it is loaded into iTunes and device.
14) OK, now that you have a separate directory with all of your non-iTunes tracks which have been cleaned up with MusicBrainz or whatever utility you use, you're ready to carefully add your non-iTunes content into your iTunes library.
15) Remember, you have previously unchecked the option "Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library" (double check this option now). Go into iTunes and click Add Files to Library. Navigate to your non-iTunes library and add each album to iTunes ONE BY ONE. I know this is a pain, but it seems to be the only way to do it. Your iTunes library will be pointing to iTunes content under the iTunes folder structure and everything else in a separate folders structure from where you just added it.
16) One option that is available to add tracks to your library is to copy them into a folder in your iTunes folder called "Automatically Add to iTunes". When iTunes sees content there, it moves it into your library. Don't do this! The problem is, you are adding iTunes and non-iTunes content together in the same folder which is going to be hard to manage if you every need to clean up your library and re-install iTunes. Remember, KEEP YOUR iTunes content separate from your non-iTunes content. This means it is in the same iTunes library, but it is kept in separate folders. Have I mentioned this enough?
17) After adding all the non-iTunes tracks, notice your iTunes library has a clean copy of iTunes and non-iTunes content. You're ready to Sync your device.
18) Sync your device. After this, all your non-iTunes content is nicely co-mingled with your iTunes content. There are no duplicates, no dashed circles in iTunes. Life is great!
19) As you browse your device library, you may run across some content which has not been downloaded. It will display a little cloud with an arrow. Simply click the cloud to re-download the missing tracks and they should stay put.
Remember, keeping your non-iTunes folder structure separate from your iTunes folder structure will make it easy to re-install iTunes later if needed and avoid getting duplicate tracks registered to your device.
