iTunes has already sorted all my music into various folders by artist and then album. Is there any way possible to change this set up so that the songs are sorted only by the Artist?
For reference, I am using iTunes on a Windows PC, using version 11.2.2.3.
No, or at least not if iTunes is managing your media folder. Generally the physical layout on the drive isn't important as applications like iTunes use the metadata in the tags to organize content within the application. What would you gain by using a flatter folder structure? It can be done with third party tools, but is likely to be more effort than it is worth. You either need to remove and then reimport the media from its new locations, or manually fix every broken link, or create/adapt a tool for that task that can move the files and then update the links, and then every time you use iTunes to rip or purchase media you would need to fix up the new additions.
tt2
I want to be able to navigate my folders easier. I don't care what album a song came from. I don't need 1,000 songs in their own folder. Being able to click on a folder of an artist and seeing all their songs, instead of 10 folders, some with a song, and some that are empty. My way also makes it easier to move my songs to other media selectively, since I can't drag a song from the iTunes program into the MP3 player.
You should be able to drag and drop from iTunes into any open Windows Explorer window, iTunes should copy the files directly into that folder.
Do you have ratings, play counts and playlists you care about? How many files are we talking about? I have a file reorganising tool that could be tweaked for your needs, or you could use a third party tool such as MediaMonkey to establish your desired folder structure and either use another of my scripts to repair the broken links, or wipe the library and reload it.
BTW, would you expect to discard the leading track number too?
tt2
Thanks! That work around fixed moving the files. I cannot transfer it from iTunes to the MP3 player. I can put the files I want from iTunes into a folder, then move the folder to the phone.
How do you organize the iTunes folder so it sorts only by Artist, and not Album?
