Help needed importing WAV files without tags into iTunes library

By Josh C., 11 March, 2014

Forum
Windows

I have several WAV files I want to import into my iTunes library so that I can sync them to my iPod Touch. None of these files have tags such as artist, album, etc, and I have no way to edit the tags until I get them into iTunes. Since there are no tags, iTunes makes the files hard to find in my library. Is there any easy way to find all of the newly imported WAV files in iTunes 11 for Windows so that I can edit the tags? Thanks.

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Comments

By DPinWI on Friday, March 21, 2014 - 21:26

I'm not sure if newer installations of iTunes still have it, but there used to be a newly added items smart playlist as part of the default configureation. If there isn't one, you can either create one, or, sort the main listing by the Date Added field. I've yet to find an easy way to get JAWS to the column headers, so I prefer the smart playlist method. When creating a smart playlist, you can choose the Date Added field, and tell it to show you stuff added in the last day, week, or whatever works for you.

The Recently Added playlist isn't any use because it shows every single song in my library. I created a smart playlist, and all the files are there, but iTunes won't let me delete any of the files from the playlist view. I need to delete some of the files and reimport them because some of the files in the folder I imported were MP3 files with incorrect tags which I completely forgot about, and I need to edit the tags for those first so I can tell what they are. Any idea how to delete newly imported songs?

By DPinWI on Friday, March 21, 2014 - 21:26

As you've learned, you cannot delete an item from your library, by way of a playlist. You need to find the item in the main listing, and then delete it from there. You can however change the tag information from a playlist. You could change the name or artist to something you know will be easy to find. and then use the search box to find only those items in the main listing. The Recently Added play list may list all of your library since the library is new and all files are recent additions. I would have expected it to be set to sort by Date Added, but perhaps not. You could have edited the playlist to only include the most recent, or limit it to a certain number of files. I'm glad you solved your selection situation with a Smart playlist. With all the quirks and patience trying aspects of iTunes, its Smart playlist feature is a really powerful tool that almost makes it all worthwhile. Ha.

By Josh C. on Friday, March 21, 2014 - 21:26

Thanks a bunch for your help. I really appreciate it. I just went on ahead and deleted all songs from my library and started fresh. It was much easier than digging through hundreds of files to find the ones I wanted to delete. Today I edited the tags for the MP3's that had the wrong tags, and I plan on reimporting them either today or tomorrow. Most of an MP3's tags can be edited in Windows Explorer, and you can edit multiple items at the same time, but Windows Explorer, at least in XP, won't let you edit any tags in a WAV file, and even if tags are there, it doesn't show them. I should have created the tags for the WAV files when I saved them in Audacity...Lesson learned.