Windows Media Player to iTunes - help me avoid disaster!

June 2, 2008 11:29 AM

I'm about to switch from Windows Media Player to iTunes (hubby is giving me his iPod Video, yay!). What should I know before making the switch?

I would love any tips and tricks on switching over to iTunes/iPods. Basically, what do you wish you'd known ahead of time? A couple of notes:

- None of my music has DRM, so that's one less thing to worry about.
- I use ratings and play counts quite a bit, so would love to transfer those if possible. If not, it's not the end of the world.

Tips, info, and links are all welcome. Thank you!

posted by CrazyGabby to computers & internet (9 comments total)

I don't know about transfers but there are some settings in iTunes that are important. They're all in the Preferences tab and they annoy me.

First, iTunes by default will copy all files added to the library to your local hard drive. If your music is stored on a network drive, etc. it can quickly fill your hard drive with redundant music files...so turn that off.

Second, everything you play, every MP3, every WAV, etc. will add itself to your iTunes library. This is especially annoying for things you only want to listen to once. I suggest not making iTunes your default to open any type of file because otherwise you'll need a 3rd party app to clean up all the dead links in the library.
posted by arniec at 11:37 AM on June 2

To my knowledge, playcounts and ratings will not transfer, which can be a bummer if you've ever been the type to make playlists based on these. You know there are many third-party apps that are compatable with iPods: including Winamp, Songbird, Foobar, etc... so if you don't like the iTunes experience, don't worry!
posted by tybeet at 11:43 AM on June 2

MusicBridge will do everything you want when transfering/sync'ing music between iTunes and Windows Media Player, and it's free.
posted by blue_beetle at 2:02 PM on June 2

Another thing worth mentioning is that if your music files are WMA, you'll need to convert them to either MP3, AAC, or WAV before they're playable on your iPod. I believe iTunes on Windows can do this for you (if I remember correctly, it will prompt you about that). You can set your conversion preferences in iTunes under the Advanced tab then the Importing tab. Although, doing a conversion from one lossy format to another lossy format will furthur degrade the audio quality of your music. If this is the case, and you care about quality, it might be best to re-rip your CD's.
posted by phrayzee at 2:09 PM on June 2

Another important setting: Turn off automatic iPod syncing on the iPod tab (under Preferences when your iPod is plugged in). Personally, I find it much nicer to be able to pick and choose what goes on the iPod, especially considering I have way too much music to fit on just one. In general, as noted above, the automatic syncing/music-copying capabilities of iTunes can be incredibly annoying/potentially damaging.

Also, while I like iTunes to be my default music player, I always make sure to right-click on any new file I just want to "test out" or listen to briefly and open it in WMP, thus ensuring it doesn't get added to the iTunes library until I deliberately choose to put it in the correct folder and then drag it into iTunes.
posted by limeonaire at 2:54 PM on June 2

In deference to limeonaire's suggestion about turning off automatic synching, you can keep it turned on and use playlists and/or smart playlists to manage a huge library with a tiny iPod. For example, I have a smart playlist that uses the "last played" property to keep unheard songs on my iPod. Whenever my iPod syncs, it dumps the old, already-listened-to stuff and loads up new stuff.

So, I guess another tip would be that if you have an iPod, playlists (especially the smart variety) are your friend.
posted by phrayzee at 6:07 PM on June 2

I have to agree with what others have said... that the best thing I "figured out" about iTunes was to turn OFF all the automatic settings BEFORE importing any music.

True, this means you'll have to manage things by hand.. but it gives you finer control over your file locations, file names, song info and library content. It takes more effort on your part, but the final product (the quality of your library) comes out EXACTLY the way you want it to.

Last but not least - dont get frustrated with iTunes, and call it a bunch of unmentionable names. There will be a learning curve until you get used to the "iTunes way" of doing things. But dont let this dismay you from using it. There are plenty of Google resources to answer pretty much any question you have. Also be aware that there are minor differences between the Windows version of iTunes and the Mac version. Nothing showstopping, but for example, there are a lot of great Apple scripts for Itunes, but only on the Mac version.
posted by jmnugent at 6:44 PM on June 2

I think what people are talking about is that iTunes will manage your music library for you, i.e. create a folder structure in a predetermined location with folders for each of your artists, sub-folders for each of their albums, etc.

If you like spending time organising this folder structure yourself, by all means switch it off. But actually it does a perfectly fine job of doing it for you without you needing to worry about where the files actually reside.

If you need your music files on an external drive, you can change the default location where iTunes creates and manages your music library. In fact, you can specify the root level folder you want it to start in.

My main recommendation would be to launch iTunes and familiarise yourself with the preferences and settings before you transfer or import your existing music. That way you can check the defaults and make any changes you need before switching. There's nothing complex in there, but you might find some specific preferences need modifying for your circumstances.

Enjoy!
posted by Lleyam at 8:04 AM on June 3

I'm going to disagree with most of the people above and recommend you let iTunes manage the library.
This article will explain how the importing options work

One option I would change is the little arrows next to artist/album, you can have these jump to the local library folder rather than the artists iTunes store, just run this command in the OS X terminal:
defaults write com.apple.iTunes invertStoreLinks -bool YES
posted by Lanark at 3:51 PM on June 3