Can You Help Please

[heavenly doddy]

Hello all could do with some help. This is the score, i am ripping my cds & going with the dual format of Flac & Mp3. The latter going onto the Ipod. This seemed the most common "best way to do it". I am really pleased with DP & the sound on the ipod with the mp3 format is great.
Now the annoying problem. When i rip cds i transfer into a master Flac & Mp3 library, the Mp3 i then drag into Itunes. Then i place them onto my ipod. They seem to go straight onto the ipod with no sound issues yet when i go back into the itunes library & click onto the album i get " ! " cant find destination file, do you want to loocate it ?. This comes up when i double click to play the tune. So then i delete album from itunes then drag it back in from the master library & some are fine on the second "drag In " or some may take 2/3 re Drags ( hope you like my techy talk !!).
What am i doing wrong, it is begining to get me down & it is taking ages.
If someone could find time to assist i would appreciate it.
Cheers
Heavenly.

[eboyer93]

Re: Can You Help Please

Did you trying add your files to itunes using file-add folder to library- see if that works.

[Wayne]

Re: Can You Help Please

Are the files on a local (internal) harddrive? If on an external drive is your drive letter changing?

I haven't had any problems adding ripped tracks to iTunes either by drag & drop or by using the method suggested by eboyer93.

When this happens have you attempted to select the Get Info option against one of these files to see where iTunes thinks it should be.

[heavenly doddy]

Re: Can You Help Please

Thanks for the response guys. Ok first i have never brought the albums over using itunes File add. However i have just tried this way & it did seem to work with no probs. i will monitor this !!. Really hope this works.
Next i am ripping to the hard drive on the laptop ( internal ). Next i have gone down the Get Info route & yes it did ask me to locate it & then when i did this & went through the whole album it worked fine. I just found it quicker to delete album from itunes library & then drag in again, it almost seems to need 2 imports & then its happy its there.
On the harddrive note i am awaiting delivery of an external due to laptop getting clogged up & slow, so i was going to put all the music related stuff on this & just plug in when i need to. Is this going to cause problems or will this be straight forward ?.
Again thank you & if you have any more ideas let me know.

[eboyer93]

Re: Can You Help Please

You should put all your music on your external hard drive and then add to iTunes and every time you open iTunes make sure the hard drive is plugged in.

Also make sure it has the same drive letter every time you plug the external in and it should work fine

[heavenly doddy]

Re: Can You Help Please

Thank you for the external tip, do you also put your itunes on the external & leave the laptop free ?.
Unfortunately the Folder Add from Itunes did not work just tried the ones i added yesterday & the "!" cant find is back :vmad:
I must have the set up wrong somewhere, just strange why it works normally after the 2nd drag in. Spoon if your able to shed light on this please do !!, someone must have experienced this before.
Cheers
Heavenly.

[garym]

Re: Can You Help Please

You're missing something in the process as it should be very easy and not require multiple "adds". A few things:
1. make sure you set the music library in itunes to the location you want it to be. If this is an external drive, it is important that it be plugged in BEFORE you open ITUNES or it ITUNES will revert to its default music folder location. Also, use disk management in your computer to assign a specific drive letter to your external drive so that it will always be the same (E: or F: etc.)

2. Make sure your files are somewhere in the folder you've identified as your music folder.

3. In ITUNES, select FILE> ADD FOLDER and then select your music folder (at the top level). At this point ITUNES should add everything, scan for gapless info, and if turned on, try to calculate soundcheck values. If you have a lot of files, this can take a while. Just let it run.

If you're doing all this, I can't understand why itunes is not finding your files. I rip/convert files in dbpoweramp all the time and add them to ITUNES with no issues whatsoever. I'm just afraid there is some simple step you're missing or some minor thing you're doing wrong.

[heavenly doddy]

Re: Can You Help Please

Hi garym
thanks for your input, still awaiting the external so not really worrying about that at the mo just trying to get straight how i set it up.
With your other bits, i have the music folder set, also tried the add folder, it all works fine does the gapless check & puts it on the itunes, i can then play it on itunes straight away & also put it straight onto the ipod with no probs.
Then i will go back to it & i get the "!" could not be used because original file could not be found. Would you like to locate it...?.
You said with regards to the latter "at the top level" what did you mean by that. I have definately done something wrong because it does it with every disc however after deleting & then putting in again from the music folder... no probs just so time consuming.

[heavenly doddy]

Re: Can You Help Please

Hi guys
i hope i may have sussed it. Would this happen due to this ?.
When i rip flac & mp3 dual on dp, they go into 2 seperate folders. The mp3 folder in my music i tag arrange & then transfer to itunes. However i have just noticed that the itunes folder in my music for podcasts, downloaded vids & all other itunes music is seperate hope that makes sense, i wont change anything until someone checks this over !!.
Thanks

[eboyer93]

Re: Can You Help Please

You should ask this same question on this forum Hydrogen Audio

You will get better answers there.

[garym]

Re: Can You Help Please

Hi guys
i hope i may have sussed it. Would this happen due to this ?.
When i rip flac & mp3 dual on dp, they go into 2 seperate folders. The mp3 folder in my music i tag arrange & then transfer to itunes. However i have just noticed that the itunes folder in my music for podcasts, downloaded vids & all other itunes music is seperate hope that makes sense, i wont change anything until someone checks this over !!.
Thanks

that may be your problem. Make sure that the itunes music folder that is set in itunes preferences is the same exact folder that you copy the music files into. And it is from the folder that you add the folder to itunes. By top level, i mean, for example:

c:\music\The Beatles\Abbey Road

The "top level" folder is "c:\music" this would be your music folder location in itunes.

But again, I'm puzzled. Something very simple is off, because somehow when you leave itunes and turn it back on, itunes is not finding all those files you added. When ITUNES is recognizing your files, please right click, find info, and determine the directory location of your file. Is this directory where you think it should be? Is it the same as your itunes music folder?

[heavenly doddy]

Re: Can You Help Please

Hi Garym
thanks so much got it sorted, still strange how it allowed to play & find first then when i went back it could not.
Anyway it was the itunes folder, because i was putting it in from the mp3 folder not the itunes master folder. Really grateful for your responses.
Before you go i got my external delivered would you put the whole lot on & free up the laptop or would you keep itunes on & just transfer all the ripped flac & mp3 files. I just read in one forum to get it all on the external ?.
Again thanks even managed to delete whole library & add via the folder option... all worked ( how chuffed am I !!)
see ya.

[garym]

Re: Can You Help Please

I personally keep the ITUNES program files on my C: drive (my laptop). I then keep all music files (mp3, aac, flac, etc.) on my external 1TB harddrive. A couple of key points to remember. If you start up ITUNES without the external drive being connected, ITUNES will revert to its default music folder location (on C:\). Then when you try to play music it will think it is missing. So you need to remember to have the external drive connected and recognized as a drive BEFORE you startup ITUNES. If you forget, just exit ITUNES, plug in drive, then go back into ITUNES. Most times it will remember the correct music drive location automatically, but if it doesn't simply go back into itunes preferences and reset the music directory to your external drive. If you do this, it might ask if you want to copy all your music to this new location. You can simply say no because your music is already there. By the way, it sounds like you may have been less than careful about the various locations of your music files. Before you move all your music files over to the new disk, you may want to use ITUNES options to "consolidate" your music library (as this will put all your music files into the same library, your "music directory" you've selected).

Also, it is best to give your external drive a permanent letter address other than D or E. Just pick something higher and assign it. Right click on "My COMPUTER" then select "manage" from drop down menu, then click on disk management, then somehow from there you can assign a letter to that drive it will always use.

[eboyer93]

Re: Can You Help Please

I agree with garym just put the mp3 files and flac on the external. Or you can do what I do, I put my flac files on the external hard disk then I keep the mp3s on my local disk c. This makes it a lot easier because then you don't have to plug the external in every time you open up iTunes. Having those flac files on your local disk c is taking up the most space and you'll still free up a lot of space on the hard drive doing it the way I do it.

[garym]

Re: Can You Help Please

I would agree with this if your mp3 library is relatively small. I have almost 2TB of music files (about 160,000 tracks), so this is not a possibility for me.

I agree with garym just put the mp3 files and flac on the external. Or you can do what I do, I put my flac files on the external hard disk then I keep the mp3s on my local disk c. This makes it a lot easier because then you don't have to plug the external in every time you open up iTunes. Having those flac files on your local disk c is taking up the most space and you'll still free up a lot of space on the hard drive doing it the way I do it.