iTunes Conversion a nightmare.. help!

[Neo Mike]

Hey Guys!
I used to run a PC Hard drive on my PC specifically for mp3s. It has about 86 gigs of mp3s on it.

Anyways, I recently purchased an external lacie drive with the hopes of transferring these files to the lacie. What I did was use iTunes > add to library command over the network, and let the mp3s get transferred that way.

Things seemed to work fine, but now when I look at my files in iTunes, i have thousands of dupes, and the folder on the lacie drive with the mp3s is about 25gig bigger than my original PC drive.

How is that possible? I've erased the lacie, and started over, yet I get the same results? I've checked the PC over and over again, and none of these dupes exist on the pc... What is going on?

Here's an example:
on the pc I only have
15 Lay Down Sally.mp3

On the lacie I now have
15 Lay Down Sally.mp3
15 Lay Down Sally 1.mp3

It looks like iTunes is adding " 1.mp3" on all the dupes.

What is my best bet for removing the dupes from the drive now? When I go to show duplicates in iTunes I see 13,000 songs, which is definately too large for me to sift through and manually delete.

I downloaded a program called iDupe, but thats not helping either. It is showing the dupes, but I don't see an option to delete the copies only.

Thoughts? Comments?

Help!

 

[shadowmoses]

I did the same thing but luckily didnt have a very large library only 3-4gigs so i deleted the duplicates manually....Sorry dont know a workaround...

Maybe you could spotlight all the .MP3 's and delete them...

ShadOW

 

[AJ Muni]

Hey Guys!
I used to run a PC Hard drive on my PC specifically for mp3s. It has about 86 gigs of mp3s on it.

Anyways, I recently purchased an external lacie drive with the hopes of transferring these files to the lacie. What I did was use iTunes > add to library command over the network, and let the mp3s get transferred that way.

Things seemed to work fine, but now when I look at my files in iTunes, i have thousands of dupes, and the folder on the lacie drive with the mp3s is about 25gig bigger than my original PC drive.

How is that possible? I've erased the lacie, and started over, yet I get the same results? I've checked the PC over and over again, and none of these dupes exist on the pc... What is going on?

Here's an example:
on the pc I only have
15 Lay Down Sally.mp3

On the lacie I now have
15 Lay Down Sally.mp3
15 Lay Down Sally 1.mp3

It looks like iTunes is adding " 1.mp3" on all the dupes.

What is my best bet for removing the dupes from the drive now? When I go to show duplicates in iTunes I see 13,000 songs, which is definately too large for me to sift through and manually delete.

I downloaded a program called iDupe, but thats not helping either. It is showing the dupes, but I don't see an option to delete the copies only.

Thoughts? Comments?

Help!

stop using a pc, and get a mac... ...if not just add lil by lil, and delete them manually slowly....DAM 86 gigs, do u listen to all that shizzle?? and how many ipods do u have???

 

[Neo Mike]

Yeah I thought of that, but then i will lose some songs that legitimately end in " 1.mp3" i.e. off the top of my head, "Another Brick in the Wall Part 1.mp3"

Sigh.

 

[AJ Muni]

Maybe you could spotlight all the .MP3 's and delete them...

I did'nt kno WINDOWS had spotlight....darn, i would of never switched!!!!!

Neo Mike....check out ipodlounge.com, and ask the same question...ive READ some people having the same problem as you....

 

[Neo Mike]

Yeah, the reason I bought the Lacie is because I bought a Powerbook, so i'm getting everything off the PC... I'm running itunes from the Mac, over the network, grabbing mp3s from the pc drive...

 

[AJ Muni]

Yeah, the reason I bought the Lacie is because I bought a Powerbook, so i'm getting everything off the PC... I'm running itunes from the Mac, over the network, grabbing mp3s from the pc drive...

oh i didnt kno u had a mac, cuz u didnt mention it.....if u have an ipod, use the ipod as a HARD DRIVE, and transfer them like that...OR..what i do also...is that i have an HP (yuck) that originally had all my mp3's...about 15gb...and i used an ethernet cable to plug from my ibook to the pc. i created a network, created a folder on my pc desktop (named it mp3s for mac)...shared the folder on the network....and got it into my ibook. DO A SEARCH to see how to network like that.

nevermind the search...here ya go https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/54704/

 

[Neo Mike]

Ok what about if I tried this:

Instead of adding to the library and copying at same time, what abuot if I copied the files manually to the lacie first, then let iTunes organize?

THoughts?

 

[Neo Mike]

oh i didnt kno u had a mac, cuz u didnt mention it.....if u have an ipod, use the ipod as a HARD DRIVE, and transfer them like that...OR..what i do also...is that i have an HP (yuck) that originally had all my mp3's...about 15gb...and i used an ethernet cable to plug from my ibook to the pc. i created a network, created a folder on my pc desktop (named it mp3s for mac)...shared the folder on the network....and got it into my ibook. DO A SEARCH to see how to network like that.

nevermind the search...here ya go https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/54704/

Yeah i already have them networked, thats not the issue at all. I'm adding to the itunes library by using "Add files to library" and navigating to the PC from the mac. That is how im getting the duplicates though...

 

[faintember]

Ok what about if I tried this:

Instead of adding to the library and copying at same time, what abuot if I copied the files manually to the lacie first, then let iTunes organize?

THoughts?

I would say it is worth a try, that is if you have the time to let 86gigs of music first copy to your hd, then import them into itunes. Also check your import settings to make sure that everything looks correct.

Good luck!

 

[AJ Muni]

Ok what about if I tried this:

Instead of adding to the library and copying at same time, what abuot if I copied the files manually to the lacie first, then let iTunes organize?

THoughts?

Bingo!@ let me kno if it worked....

 

[Neo Mike]

On it now, thanks!

 

[balamw]

Watch out for M3U playlists!

Though I have yet to move my iTunes library to the Mac [not enough space on the iBook], i have found that "add folder to library" will create often duplicate entries if the directory has playlist files in the same folders as your MP3. Use "add file to library" and add either the playlist or the MP3s, but not both.

Anyone have any tips on how to make sure my ratings are preserved if/when I migrate the library to the Mac?

B

 

[rainman::|:|]

Here's your solution...

Yes, the problem is that you're also importing playlists, which cause duplications. Make sure all non-mp3 files are gone (like m3u or xml or anything) because iTunes will read those and grab the MP3s they represent again. Conversely, you could just import the playlist file and it should bring all the MP3s with it. Just don't import both the playlist and the files.

 

[Neo Mike]

Yes, the problem is that you're also importing playlists, which cause duplications. Make sure all non-mp3 files are gone (like m3u or xml or anything) because iTunes will read those and grab the MP3s they represent again. Conversely, you could just import the playlist file and it should bring all the MP3s with it. Just don't import both the playlist and the files.

Aha. Maybe that is the issue. Ok, so i will definately remove all .m3u files before I let iTunes organize.

 

[balamw]

Just don't import both the playlist and the files.

Is there an echo in here?

What I don't get is why (at least on Windows) the duplication created this way seems less than perfect. I occasionally saw cases where only 80% of the files were duplicated. This seemed to go hand in hand with times when the files were not renamed upon import into the library.

B