How does iTune work?

[Sunnz]

Well why does it have to copy files into its own library?? Can't it just play them?

I frequently does recordings and my music library in iTune is just going to grow exponentially... how is iTune suppose to manage that when you have like over 1000 songs in the iTune library?

I know that I can make playlists and stuff... but you can't delete songs in the playlist, even if you remove them it is still in the library...

Let's say I have all songs well organised in different playlists, but I want to delete some of them, if the library has like over 1000 songs, how am I suppose to go search for them?

 

[symphonix]

Well why does it have to copy files into its own library?? Can't it just play them?

Yes, it can. Go into iTunes -> Preferences -> Advanced. Untick the option "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library".

Let's say I have all songs well organised in different playlists, but I want to delete some of them, if the library has like over 1000 songs, how am I suppose to go search for them?

This is not really a task that iTunes is designed for, but the easiest way is just to select the songs you want to delete, press Cmd-I to bring up the info, and change the artist name to "DELETE". Do this for all the different songs in different playlists that you want to get rid of. Then, just go to library view, sort by artist, select all the ones by "DELETE" and press the delete key.

Its roundabout, but it works.

 

[Sunnz]

Cool.

However, when you have more than 10 lists and want to delete about 5 songs from each list, you would want to just shift click them and delete, instead of renaming 50 individual songs...

May I ask what is iTune design for then, it has libraries and such so it should be a tool to manage your collection, right?

 

[fryke]

Yeah. But quite often, people coming from their own continuum don't want to bother with how iTunes arranges stuff for you. iTunes works like this: You let iTunes do the work.

I agree that the unability to *really* delete songs from within playlists is a drag. (There should be an option. Like "Opt-Backspace" or something.) But your question on how to _search_ for the songs... Well iTunes' search facility is pretty brilliant in my opinion. You could abuse song-ratings for this task as well, don't have to go into the name field or anything. (You can search for ratings.)

 

[lbj]

If I'm not mistaken, using option-delete within a playlist will remove that song from the library. There will be a dialog box or two to deal with the first time (are you sure?) but it can be done. iTunes handles my 13000 songs without a hiccup. As for finding something, the search window in the upper right is super fast for me. And you've already been given the tip about how not to import songs into the library if you don't want to.