Raging Over iTunes Right Now - Help!

Zappit · Oct 20, 2017

I set up a new computer last weekend. I attempted to transfer my old itunes files from my previous computer over via a Seagate backup unit. Didn't seem to work. The songs were all grey and ghosted when I tried to add them to my phone. Damn thing even ghosted out my CD-based songs, and when I tried to play a song for my kids, it told me to connect to Wi-Fi.

Now here's the raging part. I wiped all things itunes from the new computer and uninstalled.

I ran the damn installation with compatibility mode, since I was on Windows 7 before. The phone syncs, but I ran a test. I deleted a song, drag and dropped it back into my phone, putting it back on.

I disconnected, turned off my phone's Wi-fi, and tried to play that song. Told me to connect to Wi-Fi.

What. The. Fuck!?! Does iTunes now not work without Wi-Fi? Can I just not physically store the data on the phone now? Jesus, what do I have to do here, because I use audio files a lot in my classroom.

Help...

PatrThom · Oct 20, 2017

Did you subscribe to iTunes Music or iTunes Match? If you did, then you can't actually move songs on/off your phone any more, you have to get them all from iTunes via download. It will ignore syncing the songs on your computer BUT it will still use them as a list to know what songs you "own" and can therefore get from iTunes. The other possibility is that you never consolidated your library, which is something Windows users often forget to do first because the default on Windows is for this to be turned off for some reason (maybe because it replicates the legacy WinAmp behavior or something), which means all the music files aren't actually inside the iTunes folder, and so they don't get transferred. I don't know why this is, I can't think of any reason why I wouldn't want my music to automatically be organized, but that's how it is.

If you're ever moving your iTunes library from one computer to another, it's stone simple to do. Just copy the folder named "iTunes" from inside your music folder and stick it right in the music folder on your new computer. Doesn't even matter if you're going Win->Mac or vice versa. Everything that was in it will still be there UNLESS your library started on Windows and was not consolidated as mentioned above.

--Patrick

Zappit · Oct 21, 2017

PatrThom said:
Did you subscribe to iTunes Music or iTunes Match? If you did, then you can't actually move songs on/off your phone any more, you have to get them all from iTunes via download. It will ignore syncing the songs on your computer BUT it will still use them as a list to know what songs you "own" and can therefore get from iTunes. The other possibility is that you never consolidated your library, which is something Windows users often forget to do first because the default on Windows is for this to be turned off for some reason (maybe because it replicates the legacy WinAmp behavior or something), which means all the music files aren't actually inside the iTunes folder, and so they don't get transferred. I don't know why this is, I can't think of any reason why I wouldn't want my music to automatically be organized, but that's how it is.

If you're ever moving your iTunes library from one computer to another, it's stone simple to do. Just copy the folder named "iTunes" from inside your music folder and stick it right in the music folder on your new computer. Doesn't even matter if you're going Win->Mac or vice versa. Everything that was in it will still be there UNLESS your library started on Windows and was not consolidated as mentioned above.

--Patrick

No iTunes music or Match.

It's got to be something like that. I did just move over the iTunes files, but I'm starting to think they got corrupted during the backup before the move. It moved about 150 gigs of files over, and it took quite a while to do it, but they didn't work, and syncing my phone wiped out any CD-based music. It was listed, but couldn't load when I tapped those songs.

I just decided to screw it. I wiped the old iTunes folder, uninstalled/reinstalled iTunes, used my account to re-download my digital purchases, and I'm just importing all my CDs again. It will take time, but I've already confirmed this has things working properly again.

At least all the other old documents survived the move. Losing those would have sucked a thousand times worse.

mikerc · Oct 21, 2017

What type of phone are you using? My iTouch has refused to sync properly with iTunes ever since I moved to a new PC. I've got around it by using Copy Trans to transfer files but I think that only works with iDevices.

Gruebeard · Oct 21, 2017

PatrThom said:
I can't think of any reason why I wouldn't want my music to automatically be organized, but that's how it is.

iTunes didn't like that I renamed that Zeppelin album "The Elvish One."

It didn't like what I did when I moved "What You're Doing" from Chronicles to its rightful spot on All the World's a Stage.

And it misplaced all the rescued bonus songs the early era of CDs hid behind 5 minutes of silence on the final track.

PatrThom · Oct 21, 2017

mikerc said:
My iTouch has refused to sync properly with iTunes ever since I moved to a new PC. I've got around it by using Copy Trans to transfer files but I think that only works with iDevices.

Sometimes the USB drivers don't get installed properly and the PC doesn't realize you've plugged in an iDevice. Other times the version of iOS on the iDevice gets updated but iTunes on the computer does not, and eventually they stop talking because the older iTunes on the computer doesn't know how to talk to the latest, greatest iOS. This is something that usually bites people who have hung on to XP/Vista longer than they should've.

Gruebeard said:
iTunes didn't like that I renamed that Zeppelin album "The Elvish One."

It didn't like what I did when I moved "What You're Doing" from Chronicles to its rightful spot on All the World's a Stage.

And it misplaced all the rescued bonus songs the early era of CDs hid behind 5 minutes of silence on the final track.

I don't mean the names/artists/etc, I mean all together in the same place on the hard drive.

--Patrick

Gruebeard · Oct 21, 2017

PatrThom said:
I don't mean the names/artists/etc, I mean all together in the same place on the hard drive.

--Patrick

And I mean I don't trust Apple to organize anything for me.

PatrThom · Oct 21, 2017

Gruebeard said:
And I mean I don't trust Apple to organize anything for me.

You wouldn't be the first.
Nor probably even the twenty-first.

--Patrick

Zappit · Oct 21, 2017

I've got an iPhone 6s. The new PC recognized it as a phone, it synced, and started charging. The issue was those transferred files.

Things are working now. I can move music into the phone, and all my digital purchases are fine. I just need to import all the CDs over again. Between my collection and those of the rest of my family...it's a few hundred...

PatrThom · Oct 21, 2017

Zappit said:
I've got an iPhone 6s. The new PC recognized it as a phone, it synced, and started charging. The issue was those transferred files.

Things are working now. I can move music into the phone, and all my digital purchases are fine. I just need to import all the CDs over again. Between my collection and those of the rest of my family...it's a few hundred...

Make sure you go into the preferences:advanced and check the "keep my stuff organized" before you embark on this journey. Future you may appreciate it.

--Patrick

strawman · Oct 22, 2017

Also make sure iTunes is ripping to mp3 so you don’t have to rip the music ever again. And if iTunes gives you any guff later on you can switch to some other system (I’m using amazon and googles music services and haven’t decided which one to go with yet).

But I’m not going to try going back to iTunes and apples music system. Way too annoying to deal with and too many gotchas.

PatrThom · Oct 22, 2017

stienman said:
I’m not going to try going back to iTunes and apples music system. Way too annoying to deal with and too many gotchas.

For people who want something else to handle all the organization, it's great. But if you have your own ideas on how things should be arranged, and try to do anything else, it'll fight you.

--Patrick

Gruebeard · Oct 22, 2017

PatrThom said:
For people who want something else to handle all the organization, it's great. But if you have your own ideas on how things should be arranged, and try to do anything else, it'll fight you.

--Patrick

That's what I was ~~saying~~ implying![DOUBLEPOST=1508697924,1508697761][/DOUBLEPOST]

stienman said:
Also make sure iTunes is ripping to mp3 so you don’t have to rip the music ever again.

and make a duplicate of everything you ripped - and keep that archive away from anywhere iTunes can find it!