why can't I add songs to iTunes library on my MacBook?

DONJ67 wrote:

I ripped my CD's and loaded the playlists onto my Mac, but still no luck. I looked at the file extension, they are WMA. You mention ACC OR MP3, could this be the problem. I'm going to go back and see if I can rip ACC or MP3, or maybe convert WMA to one of the two.

Thanks 🙂

Yes, that is the problem. iTunes for Mac cannot do anything with WMA files.

If you want to convert the WMA files to MP3 or AAC, you can use a third-party conversion program such as Switch:

http://nch.com.au/

But it is probably better to re-rip the CDs if possible. For best results, use iTunes on the old computer; this will guarantee that the resulting audio files are compatible with iTunes.

For details, see:

iTunes for Windows: Import songs from CDs

I use my old desk top, because it has a cd player and burner, to download my cd's onto a flash drive and then load onto my MacBook Air.

Don,

You skipped a step.

On the desktop computer you must use a program to rip the CDs. iTunes would be a good choice for this. The ripping process creates audio files in a valid audio format, such as AAC or MP3. Each track of the CD will result in one audio file.

Copy the audio files to the USB flash drive, and load them onto the MacBook.

DONJ67 wrote:

My old desktop is old old. So I have an old laptop 32bit Vista system which is no longer supported. I messed with it, haven't used it for more than two years, it has a cd/dvd/rw. I finally got it to download an older version of iTunes for Vista, took several tries, I had to download chrome and it finally downloaded correctly so I could use it. Then I had to disable windows update service to free up CPU. I ripped a couple CD's using iTunes and transferred files via flash drive to my MacBook Air. copied files to Music, iTunes/Media. Still not able to "Add to Library"? Checked file extensions and find that they are .m4a files. I used iTunes to rip, shouldn't these file be compatible with newest version of iTunes?

Don,

Pretty resourceful. Assuming you left iTunes with the default importing settings, the process would create AAC audio files with a .m4a extension, so that looks good. Now make sure you do all of the following:

• Rip a CD using iTunes, per the guide linked above. When it is done, remove the CD from the computer's drive and verify all the following: the songs have entries in the iTunes library, they play correctly, and you can see their corresponding audio files from iTunes via right-click > Show in Windows Explorer.
• If above is OK, copy the audio files from the old machine to a flash drive, and then from the flash drive to the desktop of the Mac. After copying, remove the flash drive from the Mac.
• While iTunes is open. drag the audio files from the desktop into the "Automatically Add to iTunes" folder. This will add them to your new iTunes library on the Mac.

Do not skip any of the above. Pls let us know how it goes. Good luck!

DONJ67 wrote:

Ed,

The instructions you gave worked, other than I downloaded files from flash drive into the Music folder in Finder then to auto add to iTunes folder. They were added to iTunes library where I was able to add to new playlists. I also ripped cd's after changing iTunes settings from AAC files to MP3 files and followed the same procedure to add to iTunes library.

Thank You so much for your help. After using iTunes for a bit I found it easy to get around in and use.

Don - Great news! Glad it helped.

Now my next project is to figure out how to convert my old 33 albums and 45's from my turntable to iTunes. I probably have 200 or more of each.

Be aware that ripping from vinyl is much more time-consuming than ripping from CD. But if you want to do it, set up with a USB connection to your turntable and go for it.

Don't get rid of the CDs. You are not supposed to have a copy of the music on the computer if you get it from a CD but also get rid of the CD. The CD is quasi your license to have a copy on the computer. Some people rip their CDs and then sell the CDs not realizing in doing so they are essentially making their collection a pirated collection.

How did you "download" (what you actually needed to do was "rip" with a ripping tool since downloading is something you do with files on one computer to another computer)? Which format file did you specify?

Did you look in your recently added playlist? Depending upon the format to which you saved the CD it may not have been saved with any file information other than "Track 1" etc.