{"id":7042,"date":"2004-11-08T10:12:55","date_gmt":"2004-11-08T17:12:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2004\/11\/08\/your-itunes-for-windows-tip-o-the-week.html"},"modified":"2004-11-08T10:12:55","modified_gmt":"2004-11-08T17:12:55","slug":"your_itunes_for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/11\/08\/your_itunes_for.html","title":{"rendered":"Your iTunes for Windows Tip o’ the Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

If a CD rip into Apple iTunes aborts for some reason, crashing iTunes (yes, it happens), the tracks already successfully copied over remain in the appropriate directory, but unused and invisible to iTunes. This can, of course, add multi-megabytes of unwanted\/unused duplicate files, only visible if you actually go into the My Music\\iTunes\\iTunes Music<\/em> directory.<\/p>\n

How to easily get rid of them? Well, there is no easy way, but the biggest trick is identifying which of the files sitting out there are orphans and which are actually in use with iTunes.<\/p>\n

Three methods:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. This was recommended by a site I found last night but have since lost. Go into iTunes and change the iTunes directory (e.g., to My Music\\My iTunes<\/em> or something. iTunes will then copy over everything it’s using into that new directory tree. You can then delete the old directory tree.\n

    Pros: Minimal labor.<\/p>\n

    Cons: Huge amount of duplicate disk storage needed.<\/p>\n

  2. Use Windows Explorer to look in each artist\\album directory to spot where there are dupes. When you find them, go into iTunes, find that album, and right-click Show Song File<\/em>. This will open up another Explorer window with the song file highlighted. Do this a couple of times in the album (to be safe), then delete everything but that pattern of files.<\/p>\n

    E.g., you might have “Music Track Name.mp3,” “Music Track Name 1.mp3,” and “Music Track Name 2.mp3.” You quickly discover that all the in-use song files for that album are the ones with the “2” suffix, so you delete the extras in that pattern.<\/p>\n

    Pros: Well, it works.<\/p>\n

    Cons: Labor-intensive; makes a few assumptions; easy to delete the wrong file(s).<\/p>\n

  3. This is the current method I’m using, since I don’t have the disk space for #1 nor the patience and accuracy for #2. Use Windows Explorer as in #2 to find an artist\\album directory that has dupes. Go into iTunes, select all the tracks in the album, and do a right-click Get Info<\/em>. Rename the album (fix some spelling, make it consistent, or just add an “x” to the end). iTunes will automatically create a new artist\\album directory with just the files its using. Delete the old artist\\album directory (since none of those files are in use). Rename (if necessary) the album again.<\/p>\n

    Pros: Lets iTunes do the work of identifying the right files; gives you an excuse to clean up your album names<\/p>\n

    Cons: More labor-intensive than #1<\/ol>\n<\/p>\n

    Hope this saves you some time and effort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    If a CD rip into Apple iTunes aborts for some reason, crashing iTunes (yes, it happens), the tracks already successfully copied over remain in the appropriate directory, but unused and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hi-tech"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":27236,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/03\/23\/well-i-think-i-managed-to-get-my-itunes-library-recreated-after-the-pc-move-which.html","url_meta":{"origin":7042,"position":0},"title":"Well, I think I managed to get my iTunes library recreated after the PC move (which…","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 23-Mar-12 5:01pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, I think I managed to get my iTunes library recreated after the PC move (which changed the path to the files, which frelled things up something awful), though with far more effort than it should have taken. Some resources that were of use (in close to this sequence, since\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13911,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/02\/25\/moving-itunes-to-an-external-hard-drive.html","url_meta":{"origin":7042,"position":1},"title":"Moving iTunes to an external hard drive","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 25-Feb-09 9:36am","format":false,"excerpt":"I finally found some instructions for doing something I'd been wanting to do for some time --- shift my 25Gb iTunes library from my notebook hard drive to an external hard drive. The instructions were actually official Apple notes.\u00a0I went through the steps, very straightforwardly, and left it all running\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Music"","block_context":{"text":"Music","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-music"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/imagesjukebox.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":16453,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/12\/21\/tweets-from-2009-12-21-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":7042,"position":2},"title":"Tweets from 2009-12-21","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 21-Dec-09 11:30pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Grrr. So pissed at iTunes. So I have to do a full pre-upgrade backup of my music library (beyond my DR backup) in case it zaps my files? # At orthopod: M getting staples out of leg, can leave brace off most of time, can shower, should start doing light\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9302,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/29\/bt06_music_soft.html","url_meta":{"origin":7042,"position":3},"title":"BT06 – Music Software, Hark!","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 29-Jul-06 3:36pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Speaking of music (I know we weren't speaking of music, but I was in the next post to last, and that created a thought process.\u00a0 And I might as well...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogathon"","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16449,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/12\/20\/tweets-from-2009-12-20.html","url_meta":{"origin":7042,"position":4},"title":"Tweets from 2009-12-20","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 20-Dec-09 11:30pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Even the best party isn't as much fun without Margie. # Everyone up. Everyone not sick. Everyone doing well. Waiting for the other shoe to drop. # To do in next wk: xmas letter, cards, gift wrap, '09 photo albums. Plus usual range of social hobnobbing. Doomed ... # Good\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7198,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/10\/11\/do_the_computer.html","url_meta":{"origin":7042,"position":5},"title":"Do the computer shuffle","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 11-Oct-04 8:07am","format":false,"excerpt":"The PC tech has gotten my old PC (the ThinkPad A31p) up and running again with the replacement drive and the more recent data, and has handed it back to...","rel":"","context":"In "My Computer"","block_context":{"text":"My Computer","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/my-computer"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7042\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}