AAAARGHHHH Itunes woes!! Sort out entire itunes library

john1000000boy

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:help: :roll: Had my macbook "cleaned up" by a local service centre some time ago. My iTunes are in a real mess. Looks like i am going to have to rip all my cds again... :doh: Approx 500 albums.... There are albums there but most of them are missing a number of tracks..

Tempted to start completely from scratch again. Get everything the way i like it..

What is the best apple friendly highest resolution i should rip in?? Apple Lossless? I have the below equipment and will be copying all iTunes to my NAS for the home network in the future.

How many albums have people lost or misplaced in the past? Did you all start from scratch again??

Will i get my downloaded music back again??

Thanks

John
 

MajorFubar

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To answer your last question first, you can re-download all your purchased music for free via the store. Currently I'm not sat in front of a computer with iTunes on it so I can't recall how, but you can put your mind at rest there.

Apple Lossless would be the best format to re-rip your CDs but make absolutely sure you need to. Use Spotlight to make sure your missing tracks haven't just been moved. It's a long, laborious job ripping CDs, I ripped about 650 over a period of six months and I never ever want to do it again for the rest of my life. Hence why I have a backup.
 

Trefor Patten

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:) 8) It's far simpler than that if your files are still on your drive but have been 'lost". In iTunes, go to File (top bar), Library, select organise library. This will copy all the media files on your computer and any attached drive into your iTunes folder. Copy, not move. So then you can use a clean-up program to search for duplicates and delete them. If you have the space, I would always suggest ripping CDs in AIFF (the full-fat version) you can always make a compressed version either lossless (ALAC, FLAC etc) or lossy (MP3, AAC, WMA etc) from this. In essence, you can always take quality away but once gone you cannot put it back. In theory a lossless file could be converted to AIFF or WAV but some reports suggest this can leave artifacts behind. Storage is cheap these days. I have an archive of around 3,000 albums in AIFF, I copy them to my iPod (iTunes will do this automatically) in 256 AAC to save space. If you are still in doubt, there are plenty of walk-throughs on Apple fan sites and the boys and girls at your local Apple store will also be willing to show you how.
 

john1000000boy

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Thanks Major that is less of a blow... I think I have maybe 400 CDs in storage boxes. I asked the engineer to copy everything across onto a USB hard drive. Perhaps the missing tracks will be on there.. Finding them all maybe a bigger job than its worth so ripping the whole lot again and starting from fresh maybe the cleanest option, then deleting all the iTunes from USB hd and backing up again to it.

Would like to go to the best lossless format as I have 64gb iPad and the 1.5tb nas

I guess we are all spoilt by spotify to an extent now. Your music library is all in there organised. Just make up a playlist and that is you.

Thanks
 

john1000000boy

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Trefor Patten said:
:) 8) It's far simpler than that if your files are still on your drive but have been 'lost". In iTunes, go to File (top bar), Library, select organise library. This will copy all the media files on your computer and any attached drive into your iTunes folder. Copy, not move. So then you can use a clean-up program to search for duplicates and delete them. If you have the space, I would always suggest ripping CDs in AIFF (the full-fat version) you can always make a compressed version either lossless (ALAC, FLAC etc) or lossy (MP3, AAC, WMA etc) from this. In essence, you can always take quality away but once gone you cannot put it back. In theory a lossless file could be converted to AIFF or WAV but some reports suggest this can leave artifacts behind. Storage is cheap these days. I have an archive of around 3,000 albums in AIFF, I copy them to my iPod (iTunes will do this automatically) in 256 AAC to save space. If you are still in doubt, there are plenty of walk-throughs on Apple fan sites and the boys and girls at your local Apple store will also be willing to show you how.

Thanks Trefor, will have a look for the organise library tab. Seems to be a lot of duplicates on my initial look into my iTunes.

As you say, storage is cheap now so going to AIFF in the 1st place maybe the best course of action. Using lossless for portable music.

I have not used iTunes in quite some time now as most of my listening to music is done iPad to headphones. My Philips fidelio AirPlay speaker is on the blink too. This allowed me to listen in dining room at breakfast/dinner. Hoping it's the power cable but need to take the unit to my sisters and try her plug 1st or the whole lot will be destined for the bin.

Regards

John
 

MajorFubar

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Your choice of course but you might find Apple Lossless is very memory-hungry on your portable devices. All my CDs are ripped as Apple Lossless to a 3TB Lacie NAS, which also hosts nearly 100 ripped DVDs and serves as a Time Machine to two Mac Minis and an iMac. When I sync albums and playlists to my iPhone, I let iTunes copy them as 256k AAC . By and large, played on an iPhone, the resulting AAC files are audibly indistinguishable from their lossless counterparts and save huge amounts of memory.

As for the differences between uncompressed AIFF and Apple Lossless (ALAC), there are absolutely no qualitative differences. An ALAC file uncompresses on the fly to replicate the raw file bit for bit. The clue is in the name.
 

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