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72930

Retired
Original poster
May 16, 2006
9,060
4
All my music is sorted in my playlists. Recently my collection got too big for my iPod. It seemed odd that everything worked with all playlists selected in manual select. It turns out that loads of songs are not in playlists, is there any way I can find out which ones without hours and hours of pain?
 

killmoms

macrumors 68040
Jun 23, 2003
3,754
55
Durham, NC
I'd just like to ask... why? Why bother making playlists for everything? Just tag well and Browse. :confused:

I'd assume you could make a playlist whose contents were everything that's not in any of your playlists, but that'd take almost as long to make as... Yeah, I'm still stuck on the WHY THE HELL part of this.
 

72930

Retired
Original poster
May 16, 2006
9,060
4
I'd just like to ask... why? Why bother making playlists for everything? Just tag well and Browse. :confused:

I'd assume you could make a playlist whose contents were everything that's not in any of your playlists, but that'd take almost as long to make as... Yeah, I'm still stuck on the WHY THE HELL part of this.

I have my playlists for artists' albums I have, which makes it much quicker to browse on the iPod. E.g. 50 Cent at the top (with all his albums I have) then Amateur transplants (with all their albums)...

Sorting by artist on the iPod takes forever to find things as:

1) 'A ft B' is not in the same selection as 'A'
2) My compilations are held in playlists of their own
 

72930

Retired
Original poster
May 16, 2006
9,060
4
I'd just like to ask... why? Why bother making playlists for everything? Just tag well and Browse. :confused:

I'd assume you could make a playlist whose contents were everything that's not in any of your playlists
, but that'd take almost as long to make as... Yeah, I'm still stuck on the WHY THE HELL part of this.

I just want iTunes to give me a list of songs not in playlists (like it does with duplicates). I'll try to be clearer next time.
 

PlaceofDis

macrumors Core
Jan 6, 2004
19,241
6
I have my playlists for artists' albums I have, which makes it much quicker to browse on the iPod. E.g. 50 Cent at the top (with all his albums I have) then Amateur transplants (with all their albums)...

Sorting by artist on the iPod takes forever to find things as:

1) 'A ft B' is not in the same selection as 'A'
2) My compilations are held in playlists of their own

i'm not sure i'm following your example. i understand making your complilations into your own playlists but your first example i don't quite understand. on my ipod i usually just browse by artist...
 

72930

Retired
Original poster
May 16, 2006
9,060
4
i'm not sure i'm following your example. i understand making your complilations into your own playlists but your first example i don't quite understand. on my ipod i usually just browse by artist...

For example my Jack Johnson album includes a song 'Free' by Jack Johnson and Donavon Frankreister (or someone like that). If I arrange by artist then this song is separated from the rest of Jack Johnson's songs, and if I sort by album, then I can't get all my Jack Johnson songs together.
 

PlaceofDis

macrumors Core
Jan 6, 2004
19,241
6
For example my Jack Johnson album includes a song 'Free' by Jack Johnson and Donavon Frankreister (or someone like that). If I arrange by artist then this song is separated from the rest of Jack Johnson's songs, and if I sort by album, then I can't get all my Jack Johnson songs together.

gotcha.

i hate this too. for iTunes Apple has implemented the Album Artist feature which is nice, yes, but not available on the iPod yet (if ever).

Personally my solution to such issues is to edit the tag info for such songs. in this case i would edit the Arist to Jack Johnson and the song title to Free (feat. Danavon Frankreister). but thats my personal solution, and it is a pain, but it is a possible work around perhaps for you.
 

killmoms

macrumors 68040
Jun 23, 2003
3,754
55
Durham, NC
I just want iTunes to give me a list of songs not in playlists (like it does with duplicates). I'll try to be clearer next time.

Sorry, I left out a word. What I meant to say was "a smart playlist comprised of all songs that were NOT in your other playlists." But, like I also said, that'd be almost as hard to put together as anything else.

iTunes has never been predicated on the use of playlists to do the bulk of managing your music. Mostly, for the things you've mentioned, I create compilations or add (feat. Whoever) on the end of the title of a song. Since nearly all the compilations in my library are soundtracks of some sort (movie, anime, or game), I usually just get to them on my iPod by doing Genres > Soundtracks > All, and the picking the album I want.
 

72930

Retired
Original poster
May 16, 2006
9,060
4
gotcha.

i hate this too. for iTunes Apple has implemented the Album Artist feature which is nice, yes, but not available on the iPod yet (if ever).

Personally my solution to such issues is to edit the tag info for such songs. in this case i would edit the Arist to Jack Johnson and the song title to Free (feat. Danavon Frankreister). but thats my personal solution, and it is a pain, but it is a possible work around perhaps for you.

Mmm..but that's why I use playlists. Back to my original question, is there any way to get iTunes to give me a list of songs in my library but not in playlists?
 

PlaceofDis

macrumors Core
Jan 6, 2004
19,241
6
Mmm..but that's why I use playlists. Back to my original question, is there any way to get iTunes to give me a list of songs in my library but not in playlists?

yes, but basically what you would have to do is create a smart playlist that excludes items that are not each playlist. i believe you'd have to create a line for every playlist you have telling it to exlcude said playlist. time consuming and daunting because it might not work. but its worth a shot.
 
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