iTunes re-arranged my entire mp3 collection. Can it be restored?

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iTunes re-arranged my entire mp3 collection. Can it be restored?

Let me start by saying that I don't own an ipod yet. I wanted to use iTunes for downloading and for playing my mp3's. I loaded my entire mp3 collection into iTunes. Over 19,000 mp3's. It listed them into one massive folder making it almost impossible to sort through. While trying to find a way of listing them in folders as they are on my hard drive, I found the option to organize them. I chose to do this and it ripped all of my mp3's from their folders and reorganized them into new folders on my hard drive. It did nothing to what I was seeing on the screen. It only re-arranged my hard drive. All of my Beatles, RHCP, Doors, etc. album folders are empty and all mp3's are now placed into new folders named 01, 02, etc. or new folder and I'm physically ill thinking of trying to manually fix this problem. Can anyone suggest anything that might restore them to their proper folders automatically? And why wasn't there a great big warning, telling me that I was about to re-arrange my hard drive? Any help would be greatly appreciatted. - Al

Pentium 4 Windows XP Pro

Pentium 4 Windows XP Pro

Posted on Dec 29, 2006 6:50 PM

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Answer 1

rudawg

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Dec 29, 2006 7:11 PM in response to alfalfa63

Me too....And if I didn't find your post, I wouldn't be able to even ask for help. I can't for the life of me figure out how to post a new message into these forums.

I have an ipod and I use itunes. Today I updated itunes and it rearranged my entire directory as well. It had not done this before. Why now and why no warning is beyond me. There has got to be a way to fix this. I too am physically ill. I have approx 14,000 mp3's that are in total disarray now. Does anyone have a suggestion?. I imagine with VBA code this problem can be corrected but what a pain in the ......

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Answer 2

pac_80

Level 6

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Dec 29, 2006 7:15 PM in response to rudawg

Rudawg,

TO post your own question, you select the catagory that best fits your issue and hit "Post new Topic". For example you goto iTUnes for windows>Using iTUnes for windows and there you will see a link saying "Post new topic"

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Answer 3

rudawg

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Dec 29, 2006 7:18 PM in response to pac_80

I see it there now...but unless I am crazy, it was not an option before I posted a reply to the previous post. All indications are that I am crazy but i swear I didn't see that icon.

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Answer 4

pac_80

Level 6

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Dec 29, 2006 7:18 PM in response to alfalfa63

Alfalfa63,

you will most likly have to manually fix this thru itunes so music is not lost. What option did you do consolidate or go into preferences and check "Keep music folder organized"?

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Answer 5

rudawg

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Dec 29, 2006 7:22 PM in response to pac_80

I hope I am still crazy but are you saying that this can't be undone? Why would itunes rearrange a directory? Say it aint so!!!!

Is apple that arrogant??

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Answer 6

Chris CA

Level 10

82,513 points

Dec 29, 2006 7:36 PM in response to alfalfa63

When you add songs to iTunes, it does not mess with the original folder. It copies them over into the iTunes music folder.
All you songs should still be in the original place.

Did all your songs have the correct info ID3 tags?
If so, they are probably not in the correct ID3 format.
Select all the songs in iTunes.
Go to iTunes menu Advanced - Convert ID3 tags.
Select ID3 Tag version V2.2.
Go to iTunes prefs -> Advanced - Importing and check Kepp iTunes music folder organized.

iTunes names the files and folders according to the Artist, Album and song title

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Answer 7

alfalfa63 Author

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Dec 29, 2006 7:46 PM in response to Chris CA

No, it re-arranged nearly everything and made it's own folders with names like 01, 02, 03, etc. and it also pulled folders out of folders and put them in the root folder for instance: A folder named Jazz which contained 25 other folders with names such as Ella Fitzgerald with Folders inside this with the names of each album have now all been moved to the root MP3 folder and each of these folders is now empty and the songs placed into new folder which it made itself. I know it sounds crazy but I know what I had and I know what I now have and it is just blowing my brain. Years of work basically destroyed! I have folders now named with numbers in which there are folders with names like UNKNOWN ARTIST in which there's a folder called UNKNOWN ALBUM and in that folder there is one mp3 with a name I don't recognise. I must now play the song and hope I know who it is, and then put it in a folder and try to figure out what album it came from. It will be impossible to fix this completely. I'm going to lose an unbelievable collection because of iTunes.

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Answer 8

alfalfa63 Author

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Dec 29, 2006 7:50 PM in response to rudawg

I hope I am still crazy but are you saying that this
can't be undone? Why would itunes rearrange a
directory? Say it aint so!!!!

Is apple that arrogant??

Dude, you're just as crazy as me now! I wish you didn't live so far from me so we could get together and shoot each other!! (Oh, just kidding. It aint that crazy. But it is incredibly F'd Up!)

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Answer 9

alfalfa63 Author

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Dec 29, 2006 7:52 PM in response to Chris CA

When you add songs to iTunes, it does not mess with
the original folder. It copies them over into the
iTunes music folder.
All you songs should still be in the original place.

Did all your songs have the correct info ID3 tags?
If so, they are probably not in the correct ID3
format.
Select all the songs in iTunes.
Go to iTunes menu Advanced - Convert ID3 tags.
Select ID3 Tag version V2.2.
Go to iTunes prefs -> Advanced - Importing and check
Kepp iTunes music folder organized.

iTunes names the files and folders according to the
Artist, Album and song title

I will try what you say AFTER I see some more responses because iTunes can and did "mess" with my original folder. Messed it up real good!

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Answer 10

Chris CA

Level 10

82,513 points

Dec 29, 2006 8:04 PM in response to alfalfa63

No, it can't be undone.

How did you get the songs into iTunes to begin with?
I have never heard of iTunes messing with anything outside of the iTunes music folder.

Did you have all the ID3 tag information (album/artist/title) correct? Doesn't sound like you had much/any of it correct.

Make a copy of the music folder and try the suggestion above.

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Answer 11

alfalfa63 Author

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Dec 29, 2006 8:02 PM in response to pac_80

Alfalfa63,

you will most likly have to manually fix this thru
itunes so music is not lost. What option did you do
consolidate or go into preferences and check "Keep
music folder organized"?

I don't know exactly what I did. I was just searching through things trying to find a way to show my mp3's on the screen the way they are on my hard drive. In folders. I clicked something and it asked if I would like to organize my files into folders. (Or something similar to this. I didn't think my world was gonna come crashing down and I would need to know exact wording.) When I said yes, my hard drive went for about 10 minutes and everything still looked the same. I didn't notice any changes until I went into my mp3 folder and saw that everything had been screwed up.
Also, I immediately removed my library from iTunes with the option to keep the files. I then moved just a few songs back into the library and renamed them and added the Artist and Album info, hoping to re-organize them this way and it seems to have erased them from the hard drive. I don't know where they went but I cant find them. They will play through iTunes but I have no clue where they are on the hard drive.

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Answer 12

rudawg

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Dec 29, 2006 8:05 PM in response to alfalfa63

I agree with alfalfa. itunes took control of my external drive and renamed and refiled nearly everything. I had two folders, Full Albums and Incomplete Albums. In the full albums folder I had sub folders which were the artists names. In the artists names folder I had subfolders which were the album names. In the album names folder were the tracks from the original cd. In the Incomplete Albums folder, I had just a list of songs either with or without the album name associated with them.

Now what I have is entirely different. Needless to say, I don't like what I have now. If I wanted it grouped this way, I could have done so myself. I have not fully come to grips with this yet but I have to say all the hype about apple being superior to PC's is crap. This might be worse than any worm, virus or anything else in the PC world. Primarily because I trusted apple. In my opinion this is malicious on Apples part. Someone please tell me why apple would program itunes to do this

Thanks

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Answer 13

rudawg

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Dec 29, 2006 8:11 PM in response to alfalfa63

I had "keep itunes organized" checked. I have since unchecked it.

What is an id3 tag? is this the file properties or is this an apple invention? I had the file properties all set (or mostly all set) In fact I've spent countless hours organizing the directory. Windows Media player had no problems. Album artwork and all...

When did I authorize apple to rearrange my hard drive? I want to throw my ipod through the screen of my laptop.....

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Answer 14

Chris CA

Level 10

82,513 points

Dec 29, 2006 8:13 PM in response to alfalfa63

iTunes copies the music to My Documents -> My Music -> iTunes -> iTunes music.
In this folder, the music is copied into Artist(folder) -> Album(folder) -> Song(file).
It uses the info in the ID3 tags to create these folder and file names.
If the artist or album fields are empty, it puts them in Unknown Artist or Unknown album

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Answer 15

alfalfa63 Author

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Dec 29, 2006 8:13 PM in response to Chris CA

No, it can't be undone.

How did you get the songs into iTunes to begin with?
I have never heard of iTunes messing with anything
outside of the iTunes music folder.

Did you have all the ID3 tag information
(album/artist/title) correct? Doesn't sound like you
had much/any of it correct.

Make a copy of the music folder and try the
suggestion above.

Well, not knowing that ID3 tags need to be correct, (I saw no warnings or even suggestions concerning this.) I simply went up to file, then chose "Add folder to library"' then pointed to my mp3 folder. It put everything into one very large list. Read my other rants and you'll see what hapened next. I am extremely upset but not at anyone here, of couse. I am greatful for any suggestions, even if my problem is irreversable. After smoke stops coming out of my ears, I will make a special folder up and try to duplicate my actions so that I can warn other what NOT to do. I just feel bad that rudawg and I have to have the honors of being the first to trash their collection. 19,065 mp3's just strewn about like Paris Hilton's panties after a night of bar hopping!

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