I am now a mac user...and need some help

[Teluog]

Got a used Mac with OS X 10.6. So I'm in the process of transferring files from my PC with ran Windows XP.

Right now I'm trying to move music over to the music folder under the home folder. Thing is, all these files seem to have come from nowhere.

On my PC, I used Windows Media player version 11 ( I think, the version with the album covers) as my default player, and had it set to automatically add mp3s that I download or add or copy to the library. Usually I would right click on the album cover and pick "update" album info automatically or manually, which would grab the album info off of Amazon so that the song titles, song order, and album cover would be proper.

I also stored my mp3s in My Music, and I noticed that after updating the album info in the media player that it automatically organized the files in My Music as well. It would organize the files by artist, and each file had the mp3s in them and had the album cover attached to the artist file. So I copied the entire My Music folder onto my flashdrive and then onto my dad's computer for the time being, which runs MS XP as well. Then when I was ready, I moved the My Music folder back onto the flashdrive and plugged it into my mac.

But when I looked at the files in the folder, it has all these extra files. On XP, the My Music folder just had folders for each artist, followed by album folders for each album, followed by the mp3 files for each individual album. On the mac, there is a small and large .jpg album cover for each album separately outside of the artist folders, and a couple other files that I have no clue about: Desktop.ini and Folder.jpg and Thumbs.db.

Then there are the artist folders. Each artist file has that Desktop.ini or Thumbs.db or both files. Then within each album folder are the same large and small .jpg album covers that are outside the album folders, as well as anotherAlbumArtSmall.jpg file on top of that in each album folder.

What am I supposed to do with all these album covers and those other files? And how do I organize them? Do I move each mp3 into the iTunes Music and all of the album covers to the iTunes Album Cover?

[Tickle Me Mercury]

Those files you are seeing are essentially "hidden" files that Windows Explorer uses to do background processes and to store data. Windows knows not to show those to you, and updates, creates, and deletes them as necessary. Since the Finder in Mac stores information a different way, it doesn't know to hide those files from you. (OSX has its own set of files that you never see, but will see if you look at the folder in Windows, for the same reason).

The Thumbs.db file can be safely deleted. That's where Explorer saves the thumbnails of each file for looking at in thumbnail mode.

Windows Media player used that Folder.jpg, and the small/large .jpg for each album are where Windows Media player keep the album cover art. You can use those to update the album cover art when you add the music to iTunes.

iTunes has a similar "auto organize" feature, where it will organize your music by Artist/Album/Songs within your specified music folder. The default is ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music, and I would leave it there unless you plan on keeping your library on an external disk. Open up iTunes and press Command+, to open the preferences, and click on the "Advanced" tab:

Attachment 73771

Make sure the "Keep iTunes Music Folder Organized" and "Copy files to iTunes Media folder..." are checked. This way, whenever you make changes in iTunes to an Artist, Album, or Track name iTunes will update the Folders/Files to reflect the change. If you don't have the second box checked, iTunes will NOT have all your music in your ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music folder, it will just create a pointer to wherever you're dragging your music from, even if that's your Desktop or Downloads folder, which will be messy. This way, you drag the music in, it creates copies, and you can delete the originals.

Drag the music files, or folders, directly into the "Library" section:
Attachment 73772

As for the album artwork, unless someone savvy out there has some script for you, you'll have to just do it manually. Highlight the album, press Command+i and click on the "info" tab. Drag the art file you want to use into the "Artwork" section it will attach it to all the tracks on the album.

PROTIP: Instead of just dragging your files into your "Library" section, you can create a new playlist titled "New Music" or something like that, and drag your new music directly into that playlist, this will add the music to your library as normal AND put the track on that playlist. I do this because often the metadata for a file (which is what iTunes uses to do all its organization) is not correct, so the files you drag into your library won't be under the artist/album heading you think they should be. This way, the new tracks will be right there, and if you need to edit the information you won't have to go searching through your library.

Also, I believe you can safely delete and "Desktop.ini" files. Those are windows files that OSX doesn't use for anything.

[Dee Dee Warren]

If the artwork is embedded in the mp3 file, it will come with the music, no? For instance when I create my podcast in mp3 format, and I sent you the file, it has the album artwork embedded right in it.

another way to clear up a bunch of artwork is to highlight the tracks, right click, and select "get album artwork" and if it matches the iTunes database it will pull in artwork. There are always freeware and shareware programs that will do that as well using different databases.

[Dee Dee Warren]

Oh, and you probably aren't retarded like am, but in case you are, be sure to figure out spring-loaded folders right up front. I was doing things the stupid way for about six months until cir explained that to me.

[Tickle Me Mercury]

If the artwork is embedded in the mp3 file, it will come with the music, no? For instance when I create my podcast in mp3 format, and I sent you the file, it has the album artwork embedded right in it.

another way to clear up a bunch of artwork is to highlight the tracks, right click, and select "get album artwork" and if it matches the iTunes database it will pull in artwork. There are always freeware and shareware programs that will do that as well using different databases.

That's right, forgot about the Get Artwork in iTunes. That will probably take care of a good 90% of his albums up front.

I don't think Windows Media Player embeds album artwork the way you're describing. iTunes does when you manually add artwork, and any tracks purchased from the Amazon mp3 store have it embedded, but I think WMP uses pointers to external .jpg files for that (same way iTunes does/did for music from its store).

I almost never use the spring loaded folders. I think because I default Finder to "column" view, where the functionality isn't as necessary.

[Seasanctuary]

That's right, forgot about the Get Artwork in iTunes. That will probably take care of a good 90% of his albums up front.

I don't think Windows Media Player embeds album artwork the way you're describing. iTunes does when you manually add artwork, and any tracks purchased from the Amazon mp3 store have it embedded, but I think WMP uses pointers to external .jpg files for that (same way iTunes does/did for music from its store).

Right. Most sources don't embed album art. I like doing so in iTunes manually because:

* Frontrow and similar features work more reliably.

* I can put all mp3s from the same artist in one folder and still have the right art on every album.

* Pulling single mp3s out of my collection for use elsewhere will still have the right art.

* Finder will display the art on every mp3 icon. (I usually have to reboot or something to make Finder look at the files again after freshly embedding art.)

I grab the album cover off Amazon or something. Sometimes other countries have cooler designs for the same album. Worth checking!

P.S. - I've never used 'Get Artwork' because I don't intend to sign up for an iTunes account. I just like the app as a music player.

[Tickle Me Mercury]

Right. Most sources don't embed album art. I like doing so in iTunes manually because:

* Frontrow and similar features work more reliably.

* I can put all mp3s from the same artist in one folder and still have the right art on every album.

* Pulling single mp3s out of my collection for use elsewhere will still have the right art.

* Finder will display the art on every mp3 icon. (I usually have to reboot or something to make Finder look at the files again after freshly embedding art.)

I grab the album cover off Amazon or something. Sometimes other countries have cooler designs for the same album. Worth checking!

P.S. - I've never used 'Get Artwork' because I don't intend to sign up for an iTunes account. I just like the app as a music player.

All that too, definitely. The get artwork function is good for if someone is starting from scratch, though. I don't think you need an iTunes account to use it, since you don't have to have purchased the music from the iTunes store for the program to get the artwork.

[Seasanctuary]

"Getting album artwork requires you to have an iTunes Store account. Please go to the iTunes Store and sign in or create a new account."

[Teluog]

Okay, so before I get into this "get artwork" stuff, would should I do to actually get all of the My Music stuff onto the mac to begin with?

I have the My Music folder, with all of its hidden album cover files and all that jazz, on my USB stick. When I stick it into the mac, what should I do first? Use iTunes and "add to library"? Move files into Music/iTunes/iTunes Music? Move files just to the music folder? Where?

[Tickle Me Mercury]

"Getting album artwork requires you to have an iTunes Store account. Please go to the iTunes Store and sign in or create a new account."

That's odd. Dumb actually, since if you can get artwork for any files as long as the metadata matches. Guessing it's just a *nudge* to get people to sign up. Either way, you can sign up and just never buy anything. As far as online music stores go, iTunes and Amazon are as good as it gets, IMO.

Okay, so before I get into this "get artwork" stuff, would should I do to actually get all of the My Music stuff onto the mac to begin with?

I have the My Music folder, with all of its hidden album cover files and all that jazz, on my USB stick. When I stick it into the mac, what should I do first? Use iTunes and "add to library"? Move files into Music/iTunes/iTunes Music? Move files just to the music folder? Where?

I would follow the steps I outlined above: open iTunes, make sure your preferences are set correctly, and just drag the files directly from your flash drive either into a playlist (for sorting) or right into the "Library" section on the left. iTunes will copy the files to the correct directory in your hard drive. When you're done you can go to the Music/iTunes/iTunes Music folder in your home folder, and make sure your files are copied there.

[Teluog]

I would follow the steps I outlined above: open iTunes, make sure your preferences are set correctly, and just drag the files directly from your flash drive either into a playlist (for sorting) or right into the "Library" section on the left. iTunes will copy the files to the correct directory in your hard drive. When you're done you can go to the Music/iTunes/iTunes Music folder in your home folder, and make sure your files are copied there.

Okay, and will that sort out the mp3s from the album covers for me, or do I have to do some manual labour with that?

[Tickle Me Mercury]

Okay, and will that sort out the mp3s from the album covers for me, or do I have to do some manual labour with that?

From my experience, it will only copy the audio files, and ignore anything else (including the .jpgs).

EDITED TO ADD: Just to be safe, since you're new to both iTunes and OSX, I would definitely not erase anything from your flash drive until you are sure your iTunes is all set up right.

[Teluog]

Okay so I just dragged the My Music folder from my flashdrive into the iTunes window and it copied all of the music. For some reason a few of the albums have covers; the rest don't. Also, I don't see the files in the music folder on the mac. It just has the iTunes folder, which has two iTunes library files, and an album artwork file, which breaks down into all these other subfiles labelled by number, but I don't see any jpgs anywhere.

So now what?

[Tickle Me Mercury]

Okay so I just dragged the My Music folder from my flashdrive into the iTunes window and it copied all of the music. For some reason a few of the albums have covers; the rest don't. Also, I don't see the files in the music folder on the mac. It just has the iTunes folder, which has two iTunes library files, and an album artwork file, which breaks down into all these other subfiles labelled by number, but I don't see any jpgs anywhere.

So now what?

Yeah, the .jpgs are embedded into the .mp3 files, or kept in an "Album Artwork" folder. They aren't stored just as .jpgs though.

Now, if you have an iTunes account, you can go through your albums that are missing artwork, right click, and choose "get album artwork".

OR, you can do what Seasanctuary said: find the artwork either online or in the folder on your flash drive where you said it was, and attach the file manually (I described how to do that in my first post).

[Dee Dee Warren]

He raises a good question. I hadn't needed to go track down my music in a long time, but it is no longer obviously in the music folder. Something must have changed with the latest version of iTunes. Where precisely is it now?