# iTunes question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 6, 2005, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-question/315843 "2005-08-06T03:13:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2005, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-question/315843/1 "2005-08-06T03:13:27Z")
Is there any fast way to sort all of my music in iTunes? A lot of it was ripped with other software, and doesn’t even show up in there, and then when it does, I have to go song by song and edit title, artist, album, etc. Any way of just running a bunch of files through it and saying _bam_, you’re all done? For those wondering, I have an iPod on layaway, and I want everything to be organized when I get it for an easier time loading it to my iPod. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Harmonix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonix)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2005, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-question/315843/2 "2005-08-06T03:42:50Z")
Um, Loading songs into Itunes is as simple as click and dragging into the library. You can goto edit --\> preferences --\> advanced and click “Keep itunes music folder organized” and “copy music to itunes folder” options. That’ll copy any song you put into the itunes library to a central folder and sort it based on artist and album if the tags are correctly filled out. It’s not perfect, but you can’t expect Itunes to be psychic. If you’re talking about having a program inspect your files and then suddenly know what song it is, then you’re out of luck, such a program would be damn near impossible to make. ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2005, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-question/315843/3 "2005-08-06T03:46:34Z")
If I’m understanding your problem correctly, you can open iTunes, highlight all of your songs, then (assuming you’re connected to the internet) go to Advanced, then Get CD Track Names. It should access the information in iTunes’ database and fill out the information for you. ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2005, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-question/315843/4 "2005-08-06T03:48:33Z")
Right, I’ve got most of them in my library, except the ones that are .wma, and it says I can’t convert b/c I don’t have a recent enough version of WMP. Which may be true. I reformatted recently, and haven’t gotten around to updating. What I’m talking about is where I have stuff like a filename “Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magic - 01 - The Power of Equality”, I have to go fix the title, then edit the stupid stuff to have the right album name, the right track number, right artist, because there are blanks there. ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2005, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-question/315843/5 "2005-08-06T03:51:28Z")
It says that I can’t get CDDB info for stuff that wasn’t imported using iTunes. No way am I ripping everything again. I’ll sit here and type in Kraftwerk until I turn blue. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Harmonix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonix)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2005, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-question/315843/6 "2005-08-06T03:53:38Z")
Now, thats a problem that a computer can solve. I don’t know of any specific programs that will do it, but basically you’ll need to tell the program that " - " is the parsing character and that the information is Artist, album, track, song. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Harmonix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonix)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2005, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-question/315843/7 "2005-08-06T03:57:04Z")
I found this program. [http://freescene.sourceforge.net/software/iit.html](http://freescene.sourceforge.net/software/iit.html) it LOOKS like it’ll do what you want it to do. Goto custom and input the seperator and then fiddle with the order the computer will expect input. You’ll have to do this probably for every album you have, unless everything follows the same naming convention. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaGirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8491ac/32.png) [@GorillaGirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaGirl)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2005, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-question/315843/8 "2005-08-06T04:10:44Z")
Go [here](http://www.softpointer.com/tr.htm) for Tag & Rename. It has a nifty “Get Tags From File Name” feature that’s exactly what you need. It will also rename files based on your tags. As a bonus, for batch renaming of files, go [here](http://www.renamewiz.com) for Rename Wiz. You can add prefixes & suffixes, change the extension, increment by number, and find & replace. It also has a preview feature so you can try your changes before you apply them. I use both of these to manage my mp3’s and they’re great applications. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2005, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-question/315843/9 "2005-08-06T04:16:39Z")
If you need to put the artist in for a whole bunch of songs by the same artist, just select all the ones that you want to change, right click, choose “Get Info” and enter the correct artist name. All the selected songs will change to that name. This will also work for album name, but obviously not the song titles. ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2005, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-question/315843/10 "2005-08-06T13:28:02Z")
> [@GorillaGirl](#): > > Go [here](http://www.softpointer.com/tr.htm) for Tag & Rename. It has a nifty “Get Tags From File Name” feature that’s exactly what you need. It will also rename files based on your tags. > > As a bonus, for batch renaming of files, go [here](http://www.renamewiz.com) for Rename Wiz. You can add prefixes & suffixes, change the extension, increment by number, and find & replace. It also has a preview feature so you can try your changes before you apply them. > > I use both of these to manage my mp3’s and they’re great applications. After preliminary use, I like it. I’ll have to wait until I get home from work to say more. ---
**Author:** ![sj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@sj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sj2)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2005, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-question/315843/11 "2005-08-06T23:42:54Z")
I just bought Tag&Rename. It is GREAT! 1200 songs, half of which needed to be filled out and in multiple folders. GorillaGirl, you have saved me a great deal of grief…THANKS!!