Is there an easy way to reimport all songs in my itunes folder?

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Level 1

4 points

Is there an easy way to reimport all songs in my itunes folder?

This may sound like a weird question but here goes... When I bring up my iTunes I have 8731 files (mostly music) that come to about 41.33G's but when I right click on my iTunes Music folder and select properties there are 8809 files and a total of 48.5G's. I am trying to free up some disk space and can't figure out why there is such a difference. I had issues with Norton 360 and removed it but I had to restore my music files from an external drive and when I did so I lost the links for music that I added after my last back-up. I noticed that TV shows I bought from Apple were not in my iTunes but I was able to locate them in the folder, and import them back into iTunes. I have a feeling there are music files in my folders that are not linked to iTunes but can't figure out how to import them without going through all 8800+ files. Is there an easy way to import all the files without losing the current playcounts or a way to figure out which files may be duplicated in my iTunes Music folder. Seems like I am wasting 7G somewhere that I would like to recover. I already went through the duplicate songs and that didn't help. Any suggestions would be great...

hp pc m260n Windows XP media center

Posted on Jun 4, 2007 6:36 AM

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Answer 1

polydorus

Level 6

11,967 points

Jun 4, 2007 7:50 AM in response to rmunoz274

I have a feeling there are music files in my folders that are not linked to iTunes but can't figure out how to import them without going through all 8800+ files. Is there an easy way to import all the files without losing the current playcounts

AFIK there isn't an easy way of linking up to a lot of dead tracks and retaining play counts etc, except by finding the dead tracks and repairing each link individually. The only exception to this is if there is a simple error in the path that can be fixed by a search and replace on the xml library file, then rebuilding the library. However it doesn't sound as though that would be a solution for you.

This MacMuse tip has a way of finding dead tracks if that helps.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=121967

It is much simpler to sacrifice the playcount information and just reimport your iTunes Music folder. Then you can eliminate the dead tracks with a script. One of the forum members has written one that you can find here:
http://home.comcast.net/~teridon73/itunesscripts/

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Answer 2

rmunoz274 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jun 6, 2007 8:52 AM in response to rmunoz274

I don't have dead tracks in my itunes so the first suggestion doesn't really apply.

I looked the the scripts in your 2nd link but I'm not sure which one you think will work for my issue. I'm not real great with computers so I don't want to download a script that will make things worse...

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Answer 3

polydorus

Level 6

11,967 points

Jun 6, 2007 9:26 AM in response to rmunoz274

Ah, I misunderstood you, I thought when you said your tracks weren't linked in iTunes, that you meant dead tracks - i.e. tracks with an excalmation mark next to them. If you don't have that disregard what I said about scripts.

If you have some tracks in your iTunes Music folder which don't show up in your library, you can add them by simply adding the whole music folder. This doesn't create duplicates for the tracks that are already in the library.

But now I am not sure if I understood your question at all.

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Answer 4

rmunoz274 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jun 14, 2007 4:49 AM in response to rmunoz274

I guess that is what I am trying to do. How do I add the entire music folder without opening each artist, album, and song? I have no exclamation marks in tunes but my music folder is about 7 gigs larger that the total in itunes. I'm guessing I have some files (maybe video files) saved in two different folders and I'm trying to find the double saved files to delete them and free up some disk space.

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Answer 5

polydorus

Level 6

11,967 points

Jun 14, 2007 5:06 AM in response to rmunoz274

You can simply add your entire iTunes Music folder, this doesn't create duplicate entries of items already in the iTunes library. It also doen't add significantly to the space used.

If you are adding files outside the iTunes Music folder and you have Copy Files to Itunes Music folder when adding to library checked in Edit>Preferences>Advanced>General, then copies are made and more space is used. If the checkbox is not checked then iTunes just adds a poiter to the files and doesn't copy them.

It is probably easier to locate duplicate enties once you have your files in your iTunes library.

The iTunes script site I referred you to earlier also has a duplicate file removing script. But you can also get iTUnes to list duplicate entries ( an option on the View Menu)

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Answer 6

rmunoz274 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jun 14, 2007 8:15 AM in response to rmunoz274

OK I re-added my itunes music folder but only about 6 songs were added to my itunes. When I right click then select properties on my itunes music folder I have 48.5 G and 8814 files but there are only 8741 files in my itunes (41.37G) is there an easy way to figure out what I have saved twice in my itunes music folder?

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Answer 7

polydorus

Level 6

11,967 points

Jun 14, 2007 9:23 AM in response to rmunoz274

I am not sure why you think this discprepancy means iTunes has saved files twice in your music folder.

It looks like some files ahve not been imported by iTunes, possible reasons for this include a format iTunes can't play or files that are corrupt or damaged in some way.

Finding them though may be tricky, in fact I can't think of a simple way just now. Perhaps someone else can. 🙂

It is easy to Export a list of your library as a text file which contains all the files with their paths. But you also need a list of all the files in the iTunes Music folder in a form that can be compared with the list from the library and examined for files that are not in both - the kind of thing you could use Access to do.

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