Exporting playlist and audio files to iTunes

[JerryandLois]

Hi all.

I'm fairly new to MB, liking what I've seen thus far!

I have my music library (some 60 gig or so) on a network shared folder seen by two different computers both running Win7/64.

MB is installed on Machine 'A', which is used for all my listening.  Machine 'B' has iTunes, strictly for managing my iPhones and iPad devices.  I absolutely don't want iTunes on 'A'...  iTunes sees some but not all of the contents of the library (which I don't understand).

Here's the issue.

I have a playlist created in MB consisting of about 70 songs or so.  I only have a select number of albums on my iPhone, not the entire music collection (some 60 gig).

I want to COPY all the audio files in my playlist from my library to iTunes, and have my iPhone show these as a playlist.  Said differently, I want my iPhone to have a playlist identical to what I see in MB, but don't want to have to copy the entire music library to get this done (and it certainly won't fit!).

I have almost zero experience in iTunes, just enough to sync and manage content on my iPhone, but not much more.  Don't use it as a player on machine 'B', etc.

How do I copy both the playlist AND the corresponding audio files to my iPhone (and avoid copying all the rest of my music library)?

Really hoping you can help.  I've spent enough hours looking at this that I going blind

Thanks!!!
Jerry

[redwing]

This is what I'm doing all the time. For me, iTunes is merely a syncing utility to my iPhone.

- Just like MB, iTunes is by default not auto-organizing your music files, only referencing them from their original location. Make sure the top two options under iTunes main menu> Edit> Preferences> Advanced are not ticked. Then it won't copy or move your music files. Also tick "prevent auto sync" option under Preferences> Devices.
- Delete all tracks from iTunes' library. You don't need to have any tracks under iTunes' media folder. iTunes should only reference your music files without keeping any of them in its own folder.
- Open MB, right click on the playlist> Edit playlist > tick "automatically export a static copy" option.
- From iTunes, File> Library> Import playlist, and select the exported playlist from MB's library folder. Then only tracks in the playlist will be imported to iTunes library without copying or moving of actual files.
- Now you can sync your iTunes music library to your iDevices.
- Whenever you're using a new playlist, repeat the steps above by deleting all tracks from iTunes library.  

[JerryandLois]

Hello, and thanks for the quick reply (really really!)

I followed the steps mentioned (hopefully accurately).

But after doing this:

- From iTunes, File> Library> Import playlist, and select the exported playlist from MB's library folder. Then only tracks in the playlist will be imported to iTunes library without copying or moving of actual files.
- Now you can sync your iTunes music library to your iDevices.

Things didn't work.  After (a) deleting all the music entries in iTunes (and confirming the actual music folders remain intact and untouched), I told iTunes to import the playlist which it found w/o issue.

However, no music was added to iTunes, nor was anything then added to my iPhone after manually syncing.  And somewhat expectedly, the albums that I already had on my iPhone were deleted (since iTunes itself has no music listed).

Is there a step I missed here? 
And...  there are some 20 or so albums in the music library that I *DO* want on my iPhone.  What steps to I take to get those back in, please?

Both iTunes and MB are current versions, FWIW.

Thanks again!
Jerry

[JerryandLois]

Two additional comments:

1. Totally agreed about the "proper" use on iTunes.  A way to sync to my phones and iPads... 

2. I had to install MB on the same machine that also runs iTunes.  I didn't see from your notes how to follow your suggestions with MB on one computer, and iTunes on another.  Easiest solution was simply to install and config MB on the other box (and then copied all the playlist folder contents from the original to the new box as well).

Thanks!

[redwing]

And...  there are some 20 or so albums in the music library that I *DO* want on my iPhone.  What steps to I take to get those back in, please?

What?? I didn't take that into account in my instructions. You will need to restore from your backup to get those songs back in. You have your iCloud backup, right? Then follow these instructions: https://support.apple.com/kb/ph12521

[redwing]

2. I had to install MB on the same machine that also runs iTunes.  I didn't see from your notes how to follow your suggestions with MB on one computer, and iTunes on another.  Easiest solution was simply to install and config MB on the other box (and then copied all the playlist folder contents from the original to the new box as well).

A-ha, actually I forgot about that point. Couldn't iTunes access the other machine and read/import your playlist and music? If it can't, you might want to consider installing another iTunes on the same machine with MB, just for syncing purpose. Then, you don't have to copy etc.

[redwing]

Also you can use ReplayGain values in place of iTunes's inaccurate SoundCheck values: http://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=9600.0
Then iTunes won't do volume analysis while importing tracks from MB, and your iPhone's playback volume will be more accurately normalized.

[JerryandLois]

Hmmm - not sure I followed you on this.

So my scenario is this:

My music library is intact, no songs were deleted.
The machine that has iTunes on it is also the machine that has the hard disk with the music library (so no network/share is involved).
The machine that has both iTunes and the music library now also has MB installed.
Thus - ignore the network related comments;  all this is on one single machine now.

Having said all that, iTunes has no music in it whatsoever.  I can make it rescan the music library, but my concern is that it may convert all my WMA files into Apple format which I certainly do NOT want.  At least I don't think I want that (unless MB can play that format also).

I could restore my iTunes library with one of my current backups, but I thought you'd said to delete all the song entries from iTunes (which I did).

So - not sure how to proceed.

I am interested in getting the gain sorted out, as my iPhone volume doesn't seem right for my music...  But we'll tackle that after figuring out how to get my playlist, and the associated songs onto my iPhone

Thanks!

[redwing]

I thought you had deleted some songs in your iPhone during syncing and wanted to get them back in your iPhone.
But you're saying you meant your iTunes library on your machine?

[redwing]

If you have no songs lost from your iPhone, then forget about the restoring part. Of course, no need to restore your iTunes at all.

If that's a single machine, then my original instructions would work.

[JerryandLois]

When I deleted all the songs from iTunes, and then sync'd my phone, all the music on the phone went away.

iTunes is still completely empty, and I still haven't been able to get the playlist from MB to show up (with the associated songs) in iTunes.

I should also clarify - I never use the cloud for sync'ing.  I only sync my phone via USB cable back to the machine running iTunes.

So, at this point I'm still not sure what to do next, since the original instructions haven't yet put the playlist+associated songs on my iPhone.

Hope that helps clarify...

Thanks!
Jerry

PS - what part of the world are you in?  I'm in Seattle, WA, USA...

[redwing]

Then try adding any music files folder to iTunes library (File> Add folder to library) to see if it works.

[JerryandLois]

I know that'll work for my albums.

But what of the playlist?  This has some 70+ songs, spanning some 40+ different albums and artists.  Do I have to import all those into iTunes as well (i.e. manually)?

Or, import the entire music catalog into iTunes, and then attempt just the playlist?

Thx!

[redwing]

If adding a folder works, adding a playlist should work as well.
What's the file type of the playlist? Is it M3U? If not, you need to configure it from MB's Preferences> Library> exported playlists setting.

[JerryandLois]

The playlist was created with and by MB.

So, to make sure I understand...

1. You suggested I delete all the music from the iTunes library (which I did).  Syncing the phone then made albums that had been there disappear.

2. Now you're suggesting that I add it all back in, and that after that, importing the playlist created by MB will work?

Just wanting to make sure I'm following you, as adding this all back in will be a very time-consuming process (over 60 gig of songs).

Can you please spell the steps out very carefully for me so I know <for sure> what I should be doing?

Thanks,
Jerry