file names, iTunes, organization, etc.

[ScottC12]

Just got my new iPod today, so thank you in advance for your help. I have done a few searches and haven't really seen an exact answer to my issue.

Before I received my iPod, I organized all of my music (MP3 files) in the following format on my drive: Artist Name > Album > Song Title. I was hoping that when I transferred the files to the iPod, that it would be organized in the same mannor; but this doesn't seem to be the case. I have random file names, Artists and Albums. I have figures that SOME of the files can be altered in iTunes, but there is no way that I am going to go through and do all of them in iTunes when I have already done it in Windows. Some of the info cannot even be changed in iTunes. A good example is, I have ripped one of my CDs to my hard drive a few days ago, but iPod/iTunes doesnt recognise him as an artist, his name is not under "artist" I finaly found the song labed as: artist - song name in the iPod.

Lond stry short: is there ANY way to organize the way I want to? Simply move the folders as they are and keep the file names etc.? Another example: I have a Tenacious D song that somehow came up in my iPod as "Mr. Show" It is not labeled that way on my hard drive.

Thanks again!

[djsonic]

Check the Tag info for the songs on your hard drive. iTunes gets it's file info from there. Right click on the file (on your hard drive, click on the summary tab (if you have windows XP), click the advanced button to see all the tag fields)

[djsonic]

If you update the song info in itunes, it will update the tag info for each file. I know there is a program out there ("tag and rename" I think it's called) that apparently helps to make this tediuos job a little easier. I have DL'd the app but have not used it.

[ScottC12]

I wonder which would be better/easier: update the tag info for the file, or update iTunes? Thanks.

[Madkins007]

Updating the tag makes the file name more universal. The iTunes data can be lost in several ways.

Some programs like MusicMonkey can help do this in bulk for you.