Large digital music library management

[el_chode]

I've got a library of around 22,000 songs that I need to sync with 2 ipods and an iphone. The problem is that iTunes seems to not be able to handle the large library and will occasionally "lose" random files or sometimes whole albums. Most of the time, the songs are there, in the directory, with the rest of the songs in the album (or with the rest of the discography of the band), and somehow the location in the library gets corrupted or something. Sometimes, the actual file disappears (example: the first track to Black Crowes' Southern Harmony went missing). I own the CDs, and they're basically just an archive of my actual albums that I store in my parents' basement to save space.

Is there a program, for mac, that can (a) synch to iPods (b) manage a large library of files & podcasts (c) that works for the mac and (d) can automatically map itself to a network-attached drive?

Or am I just asking too much? How do you all handle your music libraries? I know a bunch of you probably have catalogs of bands on top of MMJ, both live and studio.

[mjkoehler]

I NEVER sync. I hate that it's the default to Ipods/Itunes. Turn it off and switch to manually manage music. It's easier and you do not have to keep the files on your computer. I have all my stuff on an external HD and pull in what I need, when I need it. When you are dragging larges bunches of songs over, it takes forever. Do it in small batches and you are less likely to lose anything.

[el_chode]

I NEVER sync. I hate that it's the default to Ipods/Itunes. Turn it off and switch to manually manage music. It's easier and you do not have to keep the files on your computer. I have all my stuff on an external HD and pull in what I need, when I need it. When you are dragging larges bunches of songs over, it takes forever. Do it in small batches and you are less likely to lose anything.

THe problem isn't with the sync of the external devices like the ipod, I only mention that because all my research seems to turn up some options that don't support ipods.

Here's what happened last night:

I plug in my ipod to charge (not to sync) and it tells me the entire "Chapter 1 – The Sandworm Cometh and Early Recordings" is missing and takes it OFF my ipod. Now, I keep all my music on a 500 GB external HD. The album was still there, it never moved, but iTunes "forgot" where it was.

Then I look for other "missing" stuff, and it turns out "Sting Me" by the Crowes was missing. So I go to look for it, and the MP3 itself is gone. The rest of the album is there though.

The thing is that it does this randomly, like a few songs every time I start up iTunes will be "forgotten". Usually they're not deleted.

It's just frustrating because I constantly have to re-build a library and it slows down my iTunes.

[Jbones72]

I was actually getting ready to address this problem myself. My computer is filled up and I just got a ext HD to add the rest of my cd's.

I have 4,100 songs on my ipod now, that's about half my library. So the best thing is to just keep the music on the ext HD all the time and not on itunes on my computer? What I should do is just copy the cd with itunes then move the files to the HD and add it to the ipod when you manually add songs? Also will the album artwork stay when I move the files to the ext HD?

Sorry if my questions and explanations of my situation sound off, this is about as tech savvy as I get.

[Sassbox]

Be careful if you're using an external as your sole storage spot (as opposed to backup).  Get a second external as backup if you have to move music off your computer.  Take it from someone who lost years and years of music and photos recently.  :'(

[el_chode]

Be careful if you're using an external as your sole storage spot (as opposed to backup).  Get a second external as backup if you have to move music off your computer.  Take it from someone who lost years and years of music and photos recently.  :'(

The music I'm not TOO concerned with since for all of it, it's redundant in many ways: most of it is either from Archive.org or a CD I own, the pirated stuff wasn't good enough to buy so I don't care if I lose it, and the good stuff is all on my iPod as well. And every couple of months I backup all my photos to a DVD.

But yeah, this was a big concern of mine too.

[el_chode]

I was actually getting ready to address this problem myself. My computer is filled up and I just got a ext HD to add the rest of my cd's.

I have 4,100 songs on my ipod now, that's about half my library. So the best thing is to just keep the music on the ext HD all the time and not on itunes on my computer? What I should do is just copy the cd with itunes then move the files to the HD and add it to the ipod when you manually add songs? Also will the album artwork stay when I move the files to the ext HD?

Sorry if my questions and explanations of my situation sound off, this is about as tech savvy as I get.

Here's what I've done:

I purchased a very inexpensive NAS (Network Attached Storage) drive by Buffalo. It acts as an iTunes server so if you're just wanting to play music, you don't have to do anything because your computer will detect it just by being on your network and you can stream. It also acts as a torrent server and remote FTP if you really want it.

If you're looking to manage it a bit more like I do, it is best to keep ALL your music in one location if you're anal about its organization. That is, if you have your iTunes prefs set to keep things organized and all in one folder, you'll want to keep it all on one drive. IF not, then keep them spread out and it won't affect you at all.

I have it so when my computer boots up, it automatically loads my network drive. My fiance and I both have separate music libraries on the thing. The library is different than the music folder. The music folder saves all our tunes, but when she starts her itunes up it shows her shiatty taste in music and not my superior one (the day Lady GaGa appears in my library, you can shoot me through the internets). Every time I open my iTunes, it loads my library and excludes all the shitty music on the drive so I see what I want to see.

And when i only had like 8k songs, it wasn't an issue. I noticed the songs really started to go missing once I exceeded 80 GB of music.

I was going to post a blog about setting up the network drive and what not but never did it. If you'd like more advice for it, feel free to send me a PM.

My problem has nothign to do with how I store the files, it's iTunes that's being a pain

[Sassbox]

Be careful if you're using an external as your sole storage spot (as opposed to backup).  Get a second external as backup if you have to move music off your computer.  Take it from someone who lost years and years of music and photos recently.  :'(

The music I'm not TOO concerned with since for all of it, it's redundant in many ways: most of it is either from Archive.org or a CD I own, the pirated stuff wasn't good enough to buy so I don't care if I lose it, and the good stuff is all on my iPod as well. And every couple of months I backup all my photos to a DVD.

But yeah, this was a big concern of mine too.

Yup, I owned about 98% of what was on my drive, but it's still a major hassle to get it all loaded again.  And the pictures... :'( :'( :'(

[el_chode]

Be careful if you're using an external as your sole storage spot (as opposed to backup).  Get a second external as backup if you have to move music off your computer.  Take it from someone who lost years and years of music and photos recently.  :'(

The music I'm not TOO concerned with since for all of it, it's redundant in many ways: most of it is either from Archive.org or a CD I own, the pirated stuff wasn't good enough to buy so I don't care if I lose it, and the good stuff is all on my iPod as well. And every couple of months I backup all my photos to a DVD.

But yeah, this was a big concern of mine too.

Yup, I owned about 98% of what was on my drive, but it's still a major hassle to get it all loaded again.  And the pictures... :'( :'( :'(

The pics would really kill me. I take a ton of them, so for me its fairly easy to fill up a DVD every couple of months just to have them archived.

[Jbones72]

Thanks for the reply's, I pretty much get what your saying. I do have a computer repair guy I've used in the past. I think I'll end up having him come to my apt and set it up for me. I'll show him your reply, that seems like they way I want to have mine set up as well.

Has anyone used those file back up services that I hear advertised on the radio? They charge like $50.00 a year to back up your computer files online. I figure if they are good I can use that as a second  back up.

[el_chode]

Here's my general setup:

1 Mac book
1 super-old PC tower I use for torrents
1 XBOX 1st gen hacked with XBMC so I can stream my audio and video library through my home stereo
1 XBOX360
1 Laptop (Fiancee's)

all this going through a router, and the router is wired into a Buffalo Linkstation Live 500GB NAS. It's not the best, but it is one of the cheapest.