A Way to Refresh iTunes's Library?

[Squibbles]

For instance if I delete a folder or songs from my library through Windows Explorer, how do I get the iTunes's library to refresh and recognize that an "X" amount of songs and folders are gone? For instance, in Media Center 9, F5 refreshes the library. iTunes doesn't have this.

Do I have to delete it manually from my library?

Any ideas?
Thanks.

[msimla]

you're "supposed" to let iTunes manage your music, because, obviously, apple knows best.

I'd love to see a tool for refreshing the itunes database just like you described.

[Niello]

I also am interested in some sort of Refresh functionality. I organize my music in folders by genre to make it easy for me (and others) to find what they're looking for and I end up shifting music quite a bit.

[Mudskipper]

All my music is stored in sub folders in a main folder called 'iTunes', whenever I add or delete anything I just drag and drop that folder into the library. It automatically figures out any changes, i.e it doesn't re-import every single file.

Note, I do not let iTunes manage my files or let it make copies of them when i import.

[Squibbles]

Does it delete files not in the folder from the library?

Everytime I delete something using Explorer, I go to File --> Add Folder which should be the same thing as Drag and Drop right? But even after resyncing the folder into iTunes, iTunes still displays the deleted files, but now it has an "X" or something to the left of the file. I'd like it to be able to refresh and make corrections as needed.

[bighairy]

Select the missing files in the library window and right click and choose "clear". Don't know why apple can't call it delete, but there you are.

Graeme

[ashawley]

Originally posted by bighairy
Select the missing files in the library window and right click and choose "clear". Don't know why apple can't call it delete, but there you are.

Graeme

hehe, because they have to "think different". :D

That always bugged me too. Not intuitive at all.

Adam

[Squibbles]

Ahh. So I really do have to go in and manually clear/delete them. That's too bad.

[sparks9]

Ephpod has the refresh feature too.
Apple should add this to iTunes.

[wmc]

Open the file menu, click on 'Add Folder to Library' - highlight your iTunes folder and hit OK. This will refresh the library.

It is not difficult but a one click Refresh would be nice.

[RickSchultz]

I've seen this "way of refreshing"(go to add folder to this library and select the itunes folder which contains the files) but it's not refreshing for me. I actually have to play the song or review the info in order for it to chage within my Itunes library...maybe it's a setting I need to change or something but I can't figure it out.

[Squibbles]

Originally posted by wmc
Open the file menu, click on 'Add Folder to Library' - highlight your iTunes folder and hit OK. This will refresh the library.

It is not difficult but a one click Refresh would be nice.

Nope. It doesn't clear deleted files.

[Fundex]

I think the idea that there is no refresh is that apple expects with its app itunes that all the music going it to it is legal meaning you own the cd's so you put a cd in your computer and you rip it with itunes it gets add to itunes, then you play it in itunes. For download music apple expects it to be downloaded from itunes music store through itunes.

When you want refreshing, the songs that you have added, are they illegal downloaded by kazaa or the like so they wont be automaticly added to itunes - or that you have ripped them in another program MM or EAC/ LAME,

I guess just put them in itunes, but i see your point if you own the tunes and have ripped them with another program, it would be easier to drag them to the folder and hit one button.

[RickSchultz]

Well, the obvious answer here is legal. : ) I've been collecting music long before Apple and ITunes and I've got discs that are 15 years old that I've ripped along time ago and now want to simply add to my ITunes library without having to rerip. I'm figuring it out but it's a slow process so far...I'm sure that once I start adding things in the future it will be easier but they didn't make it easy for start-up.

[Razinni]

It appears to me that folks believe that if you go to the top level folder and click add that iTunes will refresh the entire library correct? Are you sure I won't get a ton of duplicates? I've already had an issue where it finds the same file in the same location twice and I end up deleting the original.

Why you may ask? Like others I've been doing MP3 for years I've got a different external (turtle beach) device that plays mp3 on my stereo and I have far more mp3's then my iPod will hold. I'd like to use some other tools but am tired of trying to remember which new folders I've added.

iTunes when you install it searchs for new titles. Why isn't that feature available?

[Galley]

RealPlayer 10.5 has a "remove missing files" feature. Beg Apple to add that to iTunes.

[jraggio]

Originally posted by Galley
RealPlayer 10.5 has a "remove missing files" feature. Beg Apple to add that to iTunes.


I saw this thread that lead me to a nice way to remove dead tracks form the library. http://forums.ipodlounge.com/showth...&threadid=23973

It worked like a charm. It even worked if the files were not yet marked with an exclamation mark.

John

[Vasant56]

Hmm.. dead link? I would really love that tool.

On a side note, how do I physically delete a file from itunes? I press delete, but it just removes it from the list, and not in a physical sense.

[dlegros]

If it's what I think it is, it's not really a tool, but a workaround.

Select every file in your library.

Open "Get Info"

Set the BPM to 999

In the library window, add in the BPM column by right clicking on a column header and clicking on "Beats per Minute"

Click on the header for the newly added BPM column, you'll find all the missing files haven't been changed as the file can't be found, so they will be grouped together.

Delete them in a block.

Select the whole library, and reset the BPM to blank in Get Info.

Done deal.

[Scaevola]

I do all my mp3 tagging with musicmatch...(4,500) songs...i went to refresh the libray by deleting all the files in my itunes libray..don't do WHAT i did. i know have like 1700 songs managed to recover some w/ norton unerase(1st time it was ever useful)....and 1.2 gigs now....

how can you refresh itunes library w/o earsing mp3s ..if you don't have itunes managing your library??

@#$@#$@$!!!!

[Vasant56]

Thanks, that sounds as if it will work, but Itunes really should have that feature already built in.

[kyussmondo]

Originally posted by Vasant56
On a side note, how do I physically delete a file from itunes? I press delete, but it just removes it from the list, and not in a physical sense.

For iTunes to delete files from the hard disk you must have them in the iTunes set folder...e.g. mine is My Music -> iTunes Music, thats where iTunes organises all my music through consolidation and ripping CDs. If it is in the place iTunes says it should be then right clicking and clicking clear should bring up the option of sending it to your recycle bin. I assume you are a Windows use being in the iTunes Windows forum ;).

Yes, this is annoying that iTunes doesn't scan for dead files. This feature would be useful. At the moment I am just very careful with all my tags and where I locate the files, any files I delete I will go and remove them from iTunes immediately otherwise dead files and crap MP3 tags will just get lost in thousands of songs. Just be disciplined and remember to follow a few steps with iTunes and the iPod, it took me ages to get my ID3 tags all nice and how I wanted them, now I always follow the same rules whenever adding or removing music which I regularly backup. It is better being safe and efficient otherwise iTunes is very unforgiving.

[fysmd]

google for ITLU (iTunes Library Updater), I've used this for a long time now and it does exactly what your asking for, adds new tracks, removes iTunes DB entries which no longer exist and even lets you sync multiple source folders. I love it.

BUT

I defected and bought a Mac. Anybody know of a similar tool for the Mac?

[bwh79]

It appears to me that folks believe that if you go to the top level folder and click add that iTunes will refresh the entire library correct? Are you sure I won't get a ton of duplicates? I've already had an issue where it finds the same file in the same location twice and I end up deleting the original.

Why you may ask? Like others I've been doing MP3 for years I've got a different external (turtle beach) device that plays mp3 on my stereo and I have far more mp3's then my iPod will hold. I'd like to use some other tools but am tired of trying to remember which new folders I've added.

iTunes when you install it searchs for new titles. Why isn't that feature available?
Importing your "iTunes Music" folder will not cause duplicate songs to show up in your library. That's how I got my stuff back when I accidentally deleted half my library. I accidentally sent half my library to the recycle bin because I had highlighted a playlist instead of just a single track (oops!). So I went to the bin and restored all the files, which put them back in the proper folders, but they were still missing from the iTunes library, so I imported the whole folder. iTunes left the files alone that were already in the library, and imported the ones that weren't. Aside from having 1,000 songs that all say they were added within 2 minutes of each other, at least I have my music back without having to re-rip everything.