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Author Topic: Moving from iTunes to JRiver: Need Advice Please  (Read 661 times)

The Kitten Abides

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Moving from iTunes to JRiver: Need Advice Please
« on: June 14, 2023, 01:34:42 pm »

Happy Wednesday, JRiver Hivemind!

I am a community radio D.J. (now in the Sierra foothills, previously in New Orleans) and for the past 15 years, I've used iTunes to program and broadcast my shows - but in the search for better quality sound, I have now discovered JRiver and would like to move my music library from iTunes to JRiver.

However . . . as my iTunes library is rather large (over 100 GB), I store and run it from an external hard drive.  I'll need to do the same with using JRiver.

What is the best (easiest) way to import my iTunes music library into the cloned JRiver library that I have on my external hard drive, and then connect the JRiver installation on my laptop to it?

Any advice/guidance/help that y'all can share is GREATLY appreciated - thanks!!!

 ;D

Cheers,
Lisa the Kitten
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JimH

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Re: Moving from iTunes to JRiver: Need Advice Please
« Reply #1 on: June 14, 2023, 03:56:06 pm »

Try a Google search for JRiver + iTunes.  Here's an example of what you can find.

https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,121730.0.html
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The Kitten Abides

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Re: Moving from iTunes to JRiver: Need Advice Please
« Reply #2 on: June 14, 2023, 06:07:41 pm »

Thanks, Jim.  I had read that article.  Is this a procedure that I can do using the JRiver interface on my laptop and my iTunes library on my external drive, into the cloned JRiver library on my external drive?
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JimH

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Re: Moving from iTunes to JRiver: Need Advice Please
« Reply #3 on: June 14, 2023, 06:23:49 pm »

I think you'll need to try it.  There's nothing that you can harm.
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The Kitten Abides

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Re: Moving from iTunes to JRiver: Need Advice Please
« Reply #4 on: June 14, 2023, 06:40:21 pm »

Righty-o, Jim!

I tried it and it imported my iTunes playlists - but that only comprises 8085 items out of the 14,982 items in my iTunes library . . . how can I import the rest?

Thanks for your help,
TKA
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JimH

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Re: Moving from iTunes to JRiver: Need Advice Please
« Reply #5 on: June 14, 2023, 06:50:20 pm »

I'm not the expert on this, but the problem may be on what you exported on the Apple side (to the xml file).  You may have to do both playlists and audio files.
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JimH

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The Kitten Abides

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Re: Moving from iTunes to JRiver: Need Advice Please
« Reply #7 on: June 14, 2023, 06:56:41 pm »

Drat!!  You found me!!   ;) ;D
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JimH

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Re: Moving from iTunes to JRiver: Need Advice Please
« Reply #8 on: June 14, 2023, 06:58:13 pm »

Busted.  I'm from Louisiana.
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The Kitten Abides

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Re: Moving from iTunes to JRiver: Need Advice Please
« Reply #9 on: June 14, 2023, 06:59:11 pm »

Aha!  Where from in the Pelican State?
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JimH

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Re: Moving from iTunes to JRiver: Need Advice Please
« Reply #10 on: June 14, 2023, 07:00:51 pm »

Monroe.  My dad was in the Army Air Corps.
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The Kitten Abides

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Re: Moving from iTunes to JRiver: Need Advice Please
« Reply #11 on: June 14, 2023, 07:10:13 pm »

Cool!  We had a very good friend and music festival "family" member who lived in Monroe and who sadly passed a few years ago.

Okay, back to my iTunes import challenge . . . any insight (as I didn't see any via internet search) as to how to import other, older iTunes libraries which might help make up the difference?  I think many of the songs are "ghost" tracks which are actually residing in those other, older iTunes libraries.  ::)
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JimH

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Re: Moving from iTunes to JRiver: Need Advice Please
« Reply #12 on: June 15, 2023, 06:42:25 pm »

Make sure you selected them when you exported from iTunes.  That creates the XML file that JRiver imports.
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timwtheov

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Re: Moving from iTunes to JRiver: Need Advice Please
« Reply #13 on: June 15, 2023, 09:22:42 pm »

One thing to consider in moving from iTunes to JRiver is that the libraries work differently regarding files. If I recall, iTunes forces you to have one folder somewhere that iTunes scans for audio files. JRiver allows you to have files in any folder on any drive. For example, I have many thousands of folders on many, many external hard drives that are all imported into MC.

What I'd do, then, is configure Import (Tools-->Import-->Configure Auto-Import), pick your 100 gb folder + choose any of the options there that you want, and click "Run Auto-Import Now" right underneath "Configure Auto-Import." That should find all the rest of your audio files. Then I'd re-import the playlists and see if they match up to what you had in iTunes (not sure if this will work or not, as all my playlists were created in MC, and I've never tried to import them from another application).

Hope that helps. I remember when I got out of the iTunes world that I had to think differently about how libraries and their files work in different applications. JRiver's A LOT more flexible.
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Mr Swordfish

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Re: Moving from iTunes to JRiver: Need Advice Please
« Reply #14 on: June 21, 2023, 04:32:01 pm »

Can you give a brief explanation of the difference between simply clicking "Import from iTunes" and "Import from iTunes database"?

I understand that you need to export an XML file to use the second option, but does it do anything different than the plain version.

I just used the plain version and while it worked, some things are a little wanky, e.g. missing artwork, compilation albums are imported as a bunch of single-track albums, the "sort by" field for artists didn't come over (I sort artists lastname, firstname but probably won't bother to fix them all up if it doesn't import - no big deal)

It's early enough to just start over and use the XML import method if that does something for me.  Thanks.


Thanks.
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