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Educate me about iTunes
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 2009-07-01 11:10 AM |
Champion  8766       Evergreen, Colorado |  Subject: Educate me about iTunesOkay, so my iPhone arrived in the mail yesterday. Okay, it arrived Monday and I didn't realize it was sitting outside my door until last night.  Silly me.The instructions tell you to activate it through iTunes. So, first I had to INSTALL iTunes. That was not hard. Then while I was waiting for the phone to charge I decided to add my music to the library. So I told it where my music was and it started doing this massive conversion....and is still going. I had 1800+ songs on my computer and it's taking FOREVER and really slowing down the computer. I swear it said it was going to take 4+ days! All my google searches are a bit vague about converting. WHAT exactly is iTunes doing? 90% of my songs are on my computer as mp3's. A few of them are wma, but the vast majority are mp3. I remember hearing at one time that you can't play mp3's on an iPod...they had to be in some special Apple format. Is it converting them all in my file so I won't be able to use them as mp3's anymore? Or is it just converting them in my library for use in iTunes and on the iPhone and leaving my files alone? If it's doing the latter, won't that mean that I have all my music saved TWICE on my hard drive taking up valuable memory space? Help! I've never even owned an iPod...just an mp3 player, so I am TOTALLY lost! |
| 2009-07-01 11:13 AM in reply to: #2255846 |
Science Nerd 28760 Redwood City, California | Subject: RE: Educate me about iTunes It's converting them to AAC files, which is the standard iTunes song format. iTunes creates a separate folder for the library, so you will have them as mp3s where you originally stored them and aac in your iTunes library. Yes, it is taking up a lot of extra space on your hard drive. I usually only keep them as aac and back up the mp3s to CD or external hard drive, but I pretty much only use iTunes or my iPod as my music players. At least, that's how it's worked on all of my computers. Edited by Artemis 2009-07-01 11:14 AM |
| 2009-07-01 11:21 AM in reply to: #2255846 |
Resident Curmudgeon 25290 The Road Back Gold member | Subject: RE: Educate me about iTunes You would have been better off (duh!) skipping the mass-conversion step and just bring the songs you wanted into itunes. |
| 2009-07-01 11:32 AM in reply to: #2255887 |
Champion 8766 Evergreen, Colorado | Subject: RE: Educate me about iTunes the bear - 2009-07-01 11:21 AM You would have been better off (duh!) skipping the mass-conversion step and just bring the songs you wanted into itunes. I probably COULD have been a bit pickier...but then, I like most of my music! And I kind of figured that if I had to go through it all and pick out songs to convert it would means HOURS sitting in front of the computer. If it just converted ALL of them then I wouldn't have to sit there...it is just running...and running...and running.... Follow up dumb questions: 1. Why DOES it take so long to convert these songs? I mean...FOUR DAYS? Are you KIDDING me? 2. Will iTunes try to load all of the songs onto my iPhone or can I (easily) choose what to put on there? |
| 2009-07-01 11:32 AM in reply to: #2255846 |
Pro 3906 St Charles, IL | Subject: RE: Educate me about iTunes You should really read what you're clicking before you click 'ok' to it. It will try to convert MP3 to AAC if you don't deselect that as an option, but that's not a requirement. iTunes/iPods will happily play MP3s.
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| 2009-07-01 11:37 AM in reply to: #2255931 |
Science Nerd 28760 Redwood City, California | Subject: RE: Educate me about iTunes jldicarlo - 2009-07-01 12:32 PM 2. Will iTunes try to load all of the songs onto my iPhone or can I (easily) choose what to put on there? You can either have it sync all of your music or put it on yourself. I put it on myself. All you do is drag the song (or multiple selected songs) onto the iPhone on the left side of iTunes. |
| 2009-07-01 11:37 AM in reply to: #2255846 |
Champion 11989 Philly 'burbs | Subject: RE: Educate me about iTunes jldicarlo - 2009-07-01 12:10 PM WHAT exactly is iTunes doing? Trying to take control of all audio and video content on your computer. |
| 2009-07-01 11:48 AM in reply to: #2255934 |
Champion 8766 Evergreen, Colorado | Subject: RE: Educate me about iTunes coredump - 2009-07-01 11:32 AM You should really read what you're clicking before you click 'ok' to it. It will try to convert MP3 to AAC if you don't deselect that as an option, but that's not a requirement. iTunes/iPods will happily play MP3s.
What???? So, Mr. Mac lover...how do I reverse this process when I get home and keep all my stuff happily as Mp3!!!!! |
| 2009-07-01 11:56 AM in reply to: #2255846 |
| Veteran 738 | Subject: RE: Educate me about iTunes It is too late. Mac has already taken over your multimedia life. Actually, on the contract, you sign over your rights to anything multimedia formatted on your computer.  Turns off your video players in favor of Quicktime. Ugh. Mac is a bunch of hackers. But I do love my iPod touch and iTunes. Why is it taking so long? You have 1800+ songs that's why. It took me something like 10 straight hours to convert 140 CDs to AAC. Fun times. Now I only buy 1 song at a time on iTunes and haven't purchased a CD is like 4 years. Edited by crazyyella 2009-07-01 11:57 AM |
| 2009-07-01 12:06 PM in reply to: #2255981 |
| Pro 4054 yep, | Subject: RE: Educate me about iTunes jldicarlo - 2009-07-01 12:48 PM coredump - 2009-07-01 11:32 AM You should really read what you're clicking before you click 'ok' to it. It will try to convert MP3 to AAC if you don't deselect that as an option, but that's not a requirement. iTunes/iPods will happily play MP3s.
What???? So, Mr. Mac lover...how do I reverse this process when I get home and keep all my stuff happily as Mp3!!!!!
Do you know exactly where your files are located (mp3 wise) on your machine. For example mine are all on an external hard drive (I have some 19,000 songs). So you can "erase" all of the music from your Itunes. Selecting all the songs and clicking delete. It should give you the option to move to recycle bin or something. IMO I would make a backup or copy of your MP3 just in case something happens during your delete. After you empty the recycle bin again import your music into Itunes but don't convert to AAC.
Good luck. |
| 2009-07-01 12:21 PM in reply to: #2255931 |
Pro 4909 Hailey, ID | Subject: RE: Educate me about iTunes jldicarlo - 2009-07-01 10:32 AM the bear - 2009-07-01 11:21 AM You would have been better off (duh!) skipping the mass-conversion step and just bring the songs you wanted into itunes. I probably COULD have been a bit pickier...but then, I like most of my music! And I kind of figured that if I had to go through it all and pick out songs to convert it would means HOURS sitting in front of the computer. If it just converted ALL of them then I wouldn't have to sit there...it is just running...and running...and running.... Follow up dumb questions: 1. Why DOES it take so long to convert these songs? I mean...FOUR DAYS? Are you KIDDING me? 2. Will iTunes try to load all of the songs onto my iPhone or can I (easily) choose what to put on there? 1. Two things, the amount of songs, and the speed (or lack thereof) of your computer. |
| 2009-07-01 12:53 PM in reply to: #2256056 |
| Veteran 738 | Subject: RE: Educate me about iTunes Do you know exactly where your files are located (mp3 wise) on your machine. For example mine are all on an external hard drive (I have some 19,000 songs). So you can "erase" all of the music from your Itunes. You music wh0r3. Save some for the rest of us.  |
| 2009-07-01 10:56 PM in reply to: #2255846 |
Champion 8766 Evergreen, Colorado | Subject: RE: Educate me about iTunes Okay, I found where iTunes was hiding the stuff it had already converted to some weird format (not aac, m4-something). I discovered that it changed ALL of the songs on my drive into wma instead of mp3.  It must have done that before starting to change stuff to the weird format. How do I fix that? I want them as mp3's. Finally, I tried to change the folder where it pulls my library from so it will show all my songs...and....I can't see them in the library. Heeeeeeeeeellllllllllllllpppppppppppp! |
| 2009-07-01 11:43 PM in reply to: #2255846 |
Pro 4909 Hailey, ID | Subject: RE: Educate me about iTunes In iTunes prefs you can choose the format. Change it from AAC (which it is now, *.mp4) to MP3 at whatever you want. AAC > MP3 as far as quality per meg. Usually iTunes on windows does not move your files, but if it has, check ~\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music Hope that helps. WMA = the devil. |
| 2009-07-02 9:35 AM in reply to: #2257446 |
Champion 8766 Evergreen, Colorado | Subject: RE: Educate me about iTunes bradword - 2009-07-01 11:43 PM In iTunes prefs you can choose the format. Change it from AAC (which it is now, *.mp4) to MP3 at whatever you want. AAC > MP3 as far as quality per meg. Usually iTunes on windows does not move your files, but if it has, check ~\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music Hope that helps. WMA = the devil. I did change the format. And I told it to keep my library in the folder which already has the rest of my music in it. So I thought that would be enough for it to recognize the collection. But it wasn't. Do I need to tell it to add the music to the library again now that I've changed the format under the preferences menu? And will it convert them all back then? I thought Apple stuff was supposed to be simple and intuitive. |
| 2009-07-02 9:41 AM in reply to: #2258015 |
Pro 4909 Hailey, ID | Subject: RE: Educate me about iTunes It is easy, as long as you let it do what it wants ;-). If the music is already in the iTunes library, you'll have to select the problem files, right click and convert to MP3. What is the reason you want to keep them MP3 and not AAC? I'm not saying there isn't a reason, just wondering why. |
| 2009-07-02 10:16 AM in reply to: #2258037 |
Champion 8766 Evergreen, Colorado | Subject: RE: Educate me about iTunes bradword - 2009-07-02 9:41 AM It is easy, as long as you let it do what it wants ;-). If the music is already in the iTunes library, you'll have to select the problem files, right click and convert to MP3. What is the reason you want to keep them MP3 and not AAC? I'm not saying there isn't a reason, just wondering why. It's not showing up in the library even though I told it to use the folder where all my music is. And when I deleted the files it HAD converted (they were duplicates) it didn't remove them from the libary. SO weird! I think I may try to take one of the folders with the .wma files in it and add it to the library. If it is successful and converts them to mp3's I know I have to go ahead and do that with all 1800 songs...*sigh* Hopefully it's faster than the converstion too aac was. As for keeping them in mp3...I do still have an mp3 player that I will use and my truck plays mp3's on cd but I don't know if it would play aac's on cd. So I just want to keep mp3's as long as the iPhone will still play them. Since I doubt my OTHER technology gadgets are "forward compatible". |
| 2009-07-02 10:20 AM in reply to: #2258170 |
Pro 4909 Hailey, ID | Subject: RE: Educate me about iTunes Sounds like a good plan. Delete them out of the itunes library, not the files in your folder. It will ask if you want to remove the files. If you do it the way you did, they will still be in the list, and when you try to play them they will fail. So before converting again (you will have to do the 1800 if they are in wma) remove everything from the itunes library. Good luck. And that is a perfect reason to do MP3 over AAC. |
| 2009-07-02 11:48 AM in reply to: #2258184 |
Champion 8766 Evergreen, Colorado | Subject: RE: Educate me about iTunes bradword - 2009-07-02 10:20 AM Sounds like a good plan. Delete them out of the itunes library, not the files in your folder. It will ask if you want to remove the files. If you do it the way you did, they will still be in the list, and when you try to play them they will fail. So before converting again (you will have to do the 1800 if they are in wma) remove everything from the itunes library. Good luck. And that is a perfect reason to do MP3 over AAC. Oooo...I hadn't seen an option to remove songs from my library...I will have to give that a whirl tonight. Will report back. I did have a friend that said iTunes is a PITA to set up but well worth it in the end...I think I am seenig what she means! |
| 2009-07-02 12:11 PM in reply to: #2255846 |
Pro 4909 Hailey, ID | Subject: RE: Educate me about iTunes I actually found it very easy to setup, but thats if you take the default AAC. Just when you are looking in the library of itunes, select all and then push the delete key on your keyboard. That easy Then start over with the import and MP3. |
| 2009-07-02 3:02 PM in reply to: #2256219 |
| Pro 4054 yep, | Subject: RE: Educate me about iTunes crazyyella - 2009-07-01 1:53 PM Do you know exactly where your files are located (mp3 wise) on your machine. For example mine are all on an external hard drive (I have some 19,000 songs). So you can "erase" all of the music from your Itunes. You music wh0r3. Save some for the rest of us.
Ha I'll do what I can. |
| 2009-07-02 8:11 PM in reply to: #2258563 |
Champion 8766 Evergreen, Colorado | Subject: RE: Educate me about iTunes bradword - 2009-07-02 12:11 PM I actually found it very easy to setup, but thats if you take the default AAC. Just when you are looking in the library of itunes, select all and then push the delete key on your keyboard. That easy Then start over with the import and MP3.Okay...I think I have it figured out. I got the library deleted. I had to temporarily move all the wma's to a different folder so when I imported that folder to my library it will put all the mp3's exactly where I want them. Now it's just chugging away....I have NO idea how long it will take but it's definitely faster than the conversion to .aac. Now, if someone can just help me figure out why iTunes selectively updates my contacts...it's dropping several mobile numbers that I KNOW are labeled as mobile numbers in my Outlook contacts....anyone? anyone? |
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