Adding only new files to iTunes library

By Josh C., 27 February, 2014

Forum
Windows

I have a couple of questions about my iTunes library.

1. Is there a way to add only new files to my library from a folder? I use Windows Media Player to rip CD's because that's what I'm used to, and I have it set to rip to a folder called Music on a partition on my computer's hard drive. I've already added all the files in the Music folder to my iTunes library once, but if I rip new CD's in WMP then add the Music folder to the iTunes library again, will iTunes make duplicates of the files that are already in the library, or will it only add the new files? Note that adding the whole Music folder every time I rip a CD appears to be the only option for me since I use JAWS, and JAWS seems to have difficulty when I add any subfolder by itself out of the Music folder.

2. Is there any way I can set up iTunes to automaticly add new files from my Music folder so I won't have to manually do it every time? I can set up WMP to do this but I can't find this option in iTunes.

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Comments

By DPinWI on Monday, February 24, 2014 - 05:10

If you add that folder with all the files in it to iTunes again, you will have duplicates. iTunes will happily add files over and over. There is a way to show duplicates and clean them out, it's better to avoid this. One thing you can do is tell iTunes to manage your files, and allow it to move files from where it finds them to its file structure. That way, when you've ripped them to a folder, and then add them to iTunes, it will make copies for itself, and delete them from the folder. The rip folder will then be empty for your use next time. In the iTunes folder structure, you will find a folder called, Automatically Add to iTunes." Anything that is an iTunes compatible ffile format that finds its way to that folder wille be added to your library. You can point Windows Media Player to rip to that location. Once files are ripped to the folder, and then added to the iTunes library, they will be moved to your iTunes library folder and deleted from the Automatically Add to iTunes folder. A better way would be to rip the files into iTunes directly. It may be different than WMP, but it's no harder. You can set the ripping options like bit rate and depth in the Preferences box under the Edit menu.

By Josh C. on Monday, February 24, 2014 - 05:10

Thanks for your reply. It looks like ripping to iTunes and adding only new files in WMP may be the easiest option, since iTunes doesn't have an add only new files option. I use iTunes for syncing my music and ringtones to my iOS devices, and I use WMP to play my music on my computer since I'm more used to it. If I rip in iTunes instead of WMP, do I have the option to change the info before ripping if iTunes retrieves the wrong info from the internet? I can do this in WMP. If not, then I'm back to the drawing board.

By DPinWI on Monday, February 24, 2014 - 05:10

It has been quite a while since I have ripped a CD, but I'm pretty sure you can load the CD into the computer, have its info listed in iTunes, and make adjustments to the file info before ripping. I usually edit info after mporting or ripping, so I'm not totally sure. Sorry.

I'll try it with a CD I haven't ripped to my computer before, and see if I can edit the info before ripping. The problem I'm having with iTunes and JAWS when I try to add a subfolder of the Music folder to my library is that when I go to add another subfolder, either JAWS or iTunes only shows one folder under the Music folder, and the folder it shows is the folder I just added. If I could get iTunes or JAWS to show the whole Music folder and all of it's subfolders every time I add a subfolder, adding new files I ripped in WMP would be much, much easier. Does anyone know of a way to do this?

By DPinWI on Monday, February 24, 2014 - 05:10

Perhaps you need to do a JAWS Key plus ESCAPE to refresh the virtual screen before trying to find the newly ripped files in the newly created folder.

I don't think that refreshing the virtual screen would do any good in my case. The problem I'm having with JAWS is in the file menu when I add a subfolder with files I ripped in WMP, then try to add another. When I try to add the second subfolder, and I browse for a folder, my main Music folder is there, but now it's acting like the subfolder I previously ripped is the only subfolder in the Music folder. Because of this, I can't get to any of the other subfolders! I tried closing everything in the tree view and opening it again, but still nothing. The Up One Level button in iTunes is apparently not accessible with JAWS. I called Apple Accessibility last night, and they told me that the Up One Level button is somewhere at the top of the screen, but I couldn't find it with either the PC or JAWS cursor. The Apple rep told me I could drag and drop the folder I want to add from Windows Explorer, but I don't know if this is possible with JAWS since the JAWS cursor acts weird with iTunes in JAWS 14. I also tried copy and paste from Windows Explorer, but that does absolutely nothing.