how do I bulk remove 01, 02 etc preceding Song Names

[hotmilne]

In iTunes, I have a few hundred Song Names preceded by 01,, 02 etc . Presumably these are track numbers.

Can anyone tell me how to remove these numbers without having to individually delete the numbers preceding each Song?
Many thanks

[hotmilne]

In XP, I am even more plagued by having these numbers in my directory listings. Anyone know of a way to get rid of them without doing each one individually?

Many thanks

[hotphil]

Something like MP3 from www.mp3tag.de may suit here. If the track number is duplicated in the tags then you can overwrite it. iTunes should "pick up" the changes.
If the filenames are incorrect however, you can use mp3tag to amend them, but note that iTunes won't pick up the changes and you will have to remove the incorrect library entries and add the new ones.
Personally, I use mp3tag and a program for ripping my CD's called easy cd-da extractor to make sure all my files are properly tagged and named before I let iTunes know about them.

[dethbunny]

Do you have iTunes manage your library?

Go to the "Importing" preferences and un-check "Create filenames with track number." Click Okay, and iTunes will ask you if you want it to fix all your song names.

[indyhouse]

Originally posted by dethbunny
Do you have iTunes manage your library?

Go to the "Importing" preferences and un-check "Create filenames with track number." Click Okay, and iTunes will ask you if you want it to fix all your song names.

Thanks for that tip! Worked great!

Now if there was an easy way to rename all the song names that are enclosed in quotes, since a lot of classical music, for some reason unknown to me, are indexed that way in CDDB.

[hotmilne]

Thanks. I already had unchecked track numbers in iTunes preferences. Going to give mp3tag a whirl now.

Anyone have a fix for removing track numbers before filenames in XP directories?

[indyhouse]

Don't know what you're doing, but the method suggested by dethbunny worked fine. Perhaps if you have it unchecked to begin with and you import them with the track numbers it doesn't remove them...
maybe try checking it, quitting iTunes, restarting and then unchecking it so it goes through and removes them?

This is a suggestion and I don't know what it will do.

[dethbunny]

The big difference is whether you have iTunes set to manage your library or not. A long time ago, I just gave control of all my MP3s to iTunes. I let it sort the files however it saw fit, and iTUnes neatly organizes things for me provided I have accurate ID3 tags.

Unless you have some compelling reason NOT to let iTunes do the job it was born for, then go ahead and leave that feature off - but I find it amazingly useful.

If you don't have iTunes managing your files, then it won't take responsibility for naming and rearranging them when you change the tags or preferences such as the "track number" pref i mentioned earlier.

The problem comes when you start renaming files outside of iTunes - it will lose the songs you re-named. You'll see song entries with exclaimation points next to them, because iTunes doesn't know to look for the re-named files. You'll have to re-add the renamed songs back into your iTunes library, playing heck with your playlists and all that jazz.