Apple Lossless Format

[shem]

I recently bought a 500G hardrive moved my music to it and ripped most the rest of all of my CDs (~85G), which was brutal. I've been using iTunes, but have become weary of it. It's constantly moving an renaming the files etc. Songs have been disappearing on me (they're listed in the library, but won't play). Now it can't even locate most of my music, which is all in one location (it asks me to locate the files, but I can't go through that process for 20,000 songs, I have some bad repetative stress issues--even going to the album folders and opening all the files in an album at once seems like too much).

Anyway, Can someone give me some guidance in organizing my music and finding a nice, simple, cheap (or free) application for replaying it and ripping in lossless format?

Thanks

[botrytis]

There are many different lossless formats, unfortunately if you have an iPOD - Apple lossless is it. Look at FLAC and monkey audio to name a couple.

Dave

[jcmjrt]

I've been using iTunes for years now and haven't experienced anything like that. It has been totally stable. I will say that I'm running it on a Mac computer and you didn't say what you are using...which also might make it harder for people to make a meaningful recommendation for software.

Thoughts include....are you actually having hard drive issues? Have you tried running a disk utility to check that? Or tried using your back-up drive for a primary to see if problems persist? Are you running the correct version of iTunes for your hardware? Maybe a software reinstall?

[shem]

I'm running on a Mac (powerbook).

I googled the problem and others have had it. I think it's a bug in the most recent updates. The problem occurs when using an external drive. For some reason the library data base isn't pointing to the song files. It'd probably be an easy fix if apple was more forthcoming with how iTunes operates.

[shem]

I'd be happy keeping iTunes. I should be comfortable with simply keeping my music backed up.

However. In trying to fix this, I resorted to reinstalling iTunes. When I did this, iTunes didn't import any of my music into the library. Know any simple ways to get it there? (right now I open the the album in finder, select all the files and open them, this moves them into the library, but I have a few hundred albums--though, actually, for songs, I think I only have around 6,000, not the 20,000 I said before).

[CarlV]

I am just being honest here. If I did have a Mac, I would have a second PC computer for music. itunes is such a nightmare compared to the pc software that is out there and there is nothing else to use within reason. Everything pc related in software is cheap or free and you do not need a latest greatest to do most any task in 16 bit. A garage sale one for cheap would set you up nicely. Other than music, a Mac does kick a**.



Carl

[jcmjrt]

I chose Mac/iTunes for my music and have been quite happy with it. Easy to use and zero problems. Sorry that you are having a different experience.

I will say that I tend not to run the absolute latest in OSs so that I don't have to deal with many bugs. I'm running 10.3.9 and just now considering moving to 10.4. iTunes is 7.1.1 which I believe is the latest.
Have you tried searching/posting on the Apple iTunes forum to see about similar problems/what others have done to correct it?

As far as moving files this is what I got from the help menu:

Changing where your iTunes files are stored
By default, songs and other files you import into iTunes are stored here:

[Your Home Folder]/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music

To change the default location of imported files:
In iTunes, choose iTunes > Preferences.
Click Advanced and then click General.
Click Change and select a new location for your files.
From now on, new songs and other items you import will be stored in the new location. Songs you've already imported stay in their current location.

To restore the iTunes Music folder as the default storage location, click Reset (in the Advanced pane of iTunes preferences).

You can move already-imported files to a new location (for example, a different folder on your hard disk, or a different computer) by dragging the iTunes Music folder. For information, click one of the links below. To automatically have future imported files stored in the same place, follow the steps above.

Related Topics
Finding where your iTunes files are stored
Copying all your iTunes files to one location
Go to
Apple Service & Support article: "Moving your iTunes Music folder"
Apple Service & Support article: "How to copy music between authorized computers"

You may also find the "copying all your iTunes files to one location" to be helpful.

[shem]

Thanks, sounds like everything I've already done, but I'll take another look at apple site again.

I'll try moving all files to a new location, but I also have several backup so I have to be careful not to end up of duplicates of all my songs in one location.

Thing is when I point to a folder where my songs are now (using preference etc as above), they don't show up in iTunes.

[zenith2134]

I like FLAC files but prefer APE because they seem more dynamic. I realize this is extremely subjective, but a flac sounds more like an mp3 to my ears, using the same playback software and very similar compression schemes. Then again, what do i know, I am still really new to digital and compression

[jrsh92]

I'd be happy keeping iTunes. I should be comfortable with simply keeping my music backed up.

However. In trying to fix this, I resorted to reinstalling iTunes. When I did this, iTunes didn't import any of my music into the library. Know any simple ways to get it there? (right now I open the the album in finder, select all the files and open them, this moves them into the library, but I have a few hundred albums--though, actually, for songs, I think I only have around 6,000, not the 20,000 I said before).
Drop the entire iTunes music folder into iTunes (the one located inside your user's "music" folder).