Itunes for dummies

[Chris]

Someone once said a little English is a very dangerous thing, well I reckon a little itunes/Mac wotsit is reet deadly
I bought myself an ipod and a MacBook quite recently and for whatever reason; age: lack of time or enthusiasm: impatience etc. I just can´t get my head around itunes as a program, assuming it is such a thing.
What do I mean ? I hear you all say, it´s a piece of p***.

Well, can anyone suggest a book or forum or whatever, preferably in baby-talk that might be of some help to an IT ignoramus, rather along the lines of the good old "wizard" assistant to Office programs. All I want is to become conversant in copying backward and forwards from/to my HD library to my MacBook library to my ipod. At present I have all my music in my external HD as a sort of back-up and would love to know how to "copy" from there to my newly created MacBook library those albums that I wish to sync on to my ipod so that I don´t need to have my HD with me and connected at all times. What pisses me off is that, under windows, you suck it and see and eventually get there after putting your foot in it several times and then retracing your steps to undo said mistakes in a gradual learning process but with itunes/Mac......... it just doesn´t seem to work out that way.

Why doesn´t itunes tell you in which library you are at any one time - it all seems to be mixed up and I just can´t grasp a root>>/sub-directory logic to it at all.
Example: In itunes there is an option under "file" called ADD TO LIBRARY. So I hit it and in my pathetic windows-bred ignorance, the next step should be a question asking "which library do you want to add to" , then "where from..." etc. etc. in logical steps as in any self respecting "assistant" but no, you are expected to know which library you are in ´cos if not the shit is going to hit the fan and as far as I can see, there is nothing on-screen to tell you. It then offers you an open button which you hit and all hell breaks loose, copying god-knows what to god knows where. Only yesterday I had to retrieve quite a few albums from the trash and I am certainly not conscious of having sent them there at any time (even though a good few of them might well deserve it).
Any ideas, anyone ?

[BajaGringo]

I share your frustration and which is why I don't use iTunes as my default music player. Drove me absolutely crazy, and I am usually pretty good at these things. I am convinced that the designers of iTunes don't actually play music off their computer.

[Filterlab]

All I want is to become conversant in copying backward and forwards from/to my HD library to my MacBook library to my ipod. At present I have all my music in my external HD as a sort of back-up and would love to know how to "copy" from there to my newly created MacBook library those albums that I wish to sync on to my ipod so that I don´t need to have my HD with me and connected at all times. What pisses me off is that, under windows, you suck it and see and eventually get there after putting your foot in it several times and then retracing your steps to undo said mistakes in a gradual learning process but with itunes/Mac......... it just doesn´t seem to work out that way.

Why doesn´t itunes tell you in which library you are at any one time - it all seems to be mixed up and I just can´t grasp a root>>/sub-directory logic to it at all.
Example: In itunes there is an option under "file" called ADD TO LIBRARY. So I hit it and in my pathetic windows-bred ignorance, the next step should be a question asking "which library do you want to add to" , then "where from..." etc. etc. in logical steps as in any self respecting "assistant" but no, you are expected to know which library you are in ´cos if not the shit is going to hit the fan and as far as I can see, there is nothing on-screen to tell you. It then offers you an open button which you hit and all hell breaks loose, copying god-knows what to god knows where. Only yesterday I had to retrieve quite a few albums from the trash and I am certainly not conscious of having sent them there at any time (even though a good few of them might well deserve it).
Any ideas, anyone ?

If I'm understanding your requirement correctly, then this simple procedure should sort it out.

1. Create a folder on the desktop that you want to store music in when your hard drive isn't connected - call it 'Temp Music Folder'.

2. Slide the music from your HD that you want to have available when your HD isn't connected into the 'Temp Music Folder'.

3. Slide the music from your 'Temp Music Folder' into iTunes.

By doing this iTunes will refer to the music on the local drive (i.e. in the 'Temp Music Folder') first, if it's not in that folder (because you haven't copied it) it'll look in any other location specified. Since the iPod gets all its files directly from wherever iTunes refers, there's no more work needed.

If you want to see where your iTunes is looking, simply press '⌘' & ',' simultaneously, click the 'advanced' tab and under general it will show you ANY drive that iTunes is referring to. Should look like this:



Mine just happens to look at one drive only; namely 'Filterdrive320', the folder within I've named iTunes Master. Simple!

[Filterlab]

Remember, iTunes is only a 'referral' application, it itself doesn't store any files, it only points at the files. Why? Because if Apple make huge revisions to iTunes at any point, it in no way corrupts any of the music data - the files stay separate an unaffected by software changes. Also by the software being referral it completely avoids unnecessary duplication of vast files for no reason; this makes hard drive space more efficient and reduces search times when looking for music.

Consequently a lot of folk get quite muddled particularly when copying as most seem to fall into the trap that their music is stored by iTunes. In most copying circumstance a lot of users delete their music without realising that it's not copied by iTunes.

It's all in the help pages on iTunes.

[Filterlab]

If referral sounds odd, think of it this way:

If you have a record and wish to play it on two systems, you simply use the same record on both systems. Nobody in their right mind would buy two copies of the same record to play in two different places.

[Chris]

Thanks Filterlab. I haven´t understood a bloody word but I shall get there. What do you mean by "slide" ? Is it the same as "drag" ?

[Filterlab]

Yeah, sorry! Slide is the same as drag.

[Filterlab]

Basically put, create a folder of your favourite music on the built in drive and slide/drag it into iTunes.

[Chris]

By God, I think I´ve got it - the rain in Spain......

No sorry, I´m not sitting at my Mac right now but I shall be back to the red light district.

[Filterlab]

What on earth?!