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[mjkinorbit]

I generally keep all of my music files is a single folder on my laptop. So when I installed MC, the Library added all of the music from my iTunes folder. which is a sub folder located in a Music folder.  I have about 88,000 songs and most of the artists have played with different back up bands.  Each time I ripped a CD, iTunes created a new folder based upon the back up band.  For example, I love Elvis Costello, so within my iTunes library there are  these artist folders:

Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello and the Attractions
Elvis Costello and the Confederates
Elvis Costello and Steve Nieve..................  You get the idea.

I have several questions (which I think are simple to answer) regarding changing this set up.    I am currently using MC Version 19.

     1.  Can I safely remove the iTunes software?

     2.  Can I consolidate a single artist (who has several folders) into a single folder, for instance create one master Elvis Costello folder?  I also have
          several Beatles folders (i.e.  Beatles, The Beatles, The_Beatles.....)?  Basically I would like one Beatles folder containing all of their albums,
          including bootlegs, which are often mislabeled.

     3.  Once consolidated, can I move all of my music folders into another folder either on a hard drive or an external drive.  In other words, eliminate all of
          iTunes sub folders,  Currently my structure is "Music - iTunes - iTunes Media - Music" and I would like a single Music folder containing artist
          sub folders

     4.  If I consolidate and move these folders, is MC capable of easily identifying the new folders in the reconfigured Library?  I tried consolidating folders  
          in iTunes  in the past, and iTunes was unable to locate the music after it was moved.  

     5.    Should I move the folders through MC or through windows?

Thanks for any help.

[~OHM~]

Hello

there are several ways to achieve your requests. My set up is similar to what you want to do. 1. a master folder and inside of that folder lies the folders for each artist and inside each artist folder is a folder named for> Year and the album....now one must decide how to handle artists such as Elvis Costello and the attractions, confederates....

alot of this can be handled by the "tags"...my Elvis Costello folder looks like this...1977 My Aim Is True....all the way to.... 2013... 2013 Wise Up Ghost and Other Songs......now any albums in between that may be with the attractions or confederates will show up in MC as such, as long as the "tags" are correct....

so before you begin read the wiki section about tags....

when your ready to make your changes (you will get many telling you to use MC rename copy and move) but i find it don't move all types of files nor will it delete the folder so i do this in windows.

Clear your old Library and Point MC to your new folder structure for auto update.

[mjkinorbit]

Thank you very much for your answer.   I will read the tags wiki and then begin consolidating my library.

[mjkinorbit]

Hello,

So I read the "Wiki section on tags" numerous times and am even more confused with more questions:

1. Do I need to review and change the tag for every album in my library, or can I do it from "Tools >Options> Library and Folders > Manage Library Fields"? If this is the case, how do I set the hierarchical order?  Do I then run a "tag change on the entire library?  

2. Can I accomplish the same result by going into windows, creating an artist folder and then "drag and drop" each album in to the master artist folder?     This would seem to be the easiest method.

3. If I use the method in #2 and point MC to the new modified library, will it accept my changes or remove the albums based upon the existing tag structure?




UPDATE:   I had two Adam and the Ants Master Folders (Adam and the Ants and Adam &the Ants).   Within windows, I consolidated the 2 files, but when I looked at my library in MC there were still 2 Adam and the Ants folders. So clearly modifying folders within windows does not work.

I am sorry if I seem dense, but the Wiki explanation is very confusing and doesn't seem to address the specific reorganization I would like to attempt.

  

[Listener]

My answers in bold  follow your questions.

JRiver MC normally works with the Tag values in your files rather than with folders and file names.  iTunes did too but you just weren't aware of that.

You should learn a bit about tag values and how MC uses them.  You can probably leave your music files where they are now and edit tag values.

You should not try to change the folder and file names of your files until you understand more about how MC uses tags.

So I read the "Wiki section on tags" numerous times and am even more confused with more questions:

1. Do I need to review and change the tag for every album in my library, or can I do it from "Tools >Options> Library and Folders > Manage Library Fields"?

You can make a change to a number of files at once.  For example, if you wanted to change Artist tag values so that Elvis Costello appeared in one way as "Elvis Costello" in stead of

Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello and the Attractions
Elvis Costello and the Confederates
Elvis Costello and Steve Nieve..

,you could accomplish this in one short sequence of steps:

1. select all the Artist names like "Elvis Costello..."
2. If the Tag window is not visible,  Click on "Edit" in the menu line and then click on "Tag".
3. Click in the entry field beside the word "Artist"
4. Type "Elvis Costello" and press return. (Don't type the quotes.)

Overall, you could scan through the list of artists, looking for duplicates, misspellings and alternames names such as your Elvis Costello list.  When you find a situation where you want to consolidate these variants into one Artist name, follow the steps I just described.  You are only changing tag values that need to be changed and you don't have to rearrange any files on your hard drive.  Even if you have a number of changes to make, the process can proceed quite fast.

Before you try this out, stop and think about what you want in the Artist tag.  If you simply replace all those Elvis Costello variants with a simple form, you will lose the information about who played with Elvis Costello on an individual album. If you wanted to keep thqat information, you might want to create a custom field storing that information.  Then copy the contents of the SArtist Tag before you change any Artist Tag values.

There may be other ways to accomplish what you want but the first step is to understand very clearly what you want.

"Tools >Options> Library and Folders > Manage Library Fields"

This is not for changing values of tags.  It is for viewing existing database fields where MC stores Tag values it found in music files and for creating new fields for custom tags.

If this is the case, how do I set the hierarchical order?  

You don't set a hierarchical order in the tags.  A view may use the information in the tags in a hierarchical way.
For example, an Artist-Album view first displays a list of Artist.  When you select one or more Artists, MC displays the Album names (with the cover art above the name).

You are thinking in terms of a hierarchy of folder names.

Do I then run a "tag change on the entire library?  

Make your Tag changes in MC.  If the "Update Tags when file info changes" option is checked (in Tools/Options/General) and if the definition of a database field specifies that "Save in file tags (when possible)" is checked,  editing tags in MC causes the new values to be written back to in the music files.

2. Can I accomplish the same result by going into windows, creating an artist folder and then "drag and drop" each album in to the master artist folder?     This would seem to be the easiest method.

Do not do this.  If you did not delete the files for the MC library, MC still thinks the files are at the old location. You can recover but you will just make things more complicated changes folder and file names outside MC.  That is the last thing you need right now.

You need to forget about folder and file names until you understand how MC uses Tags.

3. If I use the method in #2 and point MC to the new modified library, will it accept my changes or remove the albums based upon the existing tag structure?

If you change the folder and file names and do not change the tag values in the files, MC will see the same tag values as before.


UPDATE:   I had two Adam and the Ants Master Folders (Adam and the Ants and Adam &the Ants).   Within windows, I consolidated the 2 files, but when I looked at my library in MC there were still 2 Adam and the Ants folders. So clearly modifying folders within windows does not work.

As I said above.  If you don't change the tag values before you import the files, MC will not show anything different.

I am sorry if I seem dense, but the Wiki explanation is very confusing and doesn't seem to address the specific reorganization I would like to attempt.

The Wiki could certainly provide a very basic tutorial on how it organizes files and presents the information it found.  Much of the Wiki is written with the assumption that the reader has some basic understanding of the concepts it and most other music player software is based on.  I'm somewhat amazed that you have used iTunes and have no idea about how it works.  Things will get easier once you have a basic understanding.
  

[Listener]

I have several questions (which I think are simple to answer) regarding changing this set up.    I am currently using MC Version 19.

     1.  Can I safely remove the iTunes software?

Yes, if you are sure you are through with it.  If you leave your files where iTunes had them, there is some risk that iTunes might move files or revferse some tag changes.


     2.  Can I consolidate a single artist (who has several folders) into a single folder, for instance create one master Elvis Costello folder?  I also have
          several Beatles folders (i.e.  Beatles, The Beatles, The_Beatles.....)?  Basically I would like one Beatles folder containing all of their albums,
          including bootlegs, which are often mislabeled.

You can consolidate the variant tag values into one as I explaine din my other post.

     3.  Once consolidated, can I move all of my music folders into another folder either on a hard drive or an external drive.  In other words, eliminate all of
          iTunes sub folders,  Currently my structure is "Music - iTunes - iTunes Media - Music" and I would like a single Music folder containing artist
          sub folders

Yes, but keep in mind that MC doesn't really care about the folder structure.  You really don't have to rearrance the folder structure.

     4.  If I consolidate and move these folders, is MC capable of easily identifying the new folders in the reconfigured Library?  I tried consolidating folders  
          in iTunes  in the past, and iTunes was unable to locate the music after it was moved.

MC will not automatically find out that you moved the files either.  There are several ways to move files so that MC finds them in the new location.  You'll need a better understanding of how things work to do that successfully. You are better off leaving that for later.  

     5.    Should I move the folders through MC or through windows?

First let's get you up to speed on understanding how MC uses tag values and do the changes you want to make.

[mjkinorbit]

Listener,

A very belated thank you for your help.  I have been involved in an ongoing crisis and have not had time to revisit my music library until now.