Keep iTunes and LimeWire Organized

It takes a little bit of knowledge and maintenance to keep iTunes organized, and even then, it gets a little confusing.

When you download a song using LimeWire the mp3 file itself gets copied into LimeWire's default directory somewhere. LimeWire can add it directly to iTunes, if you configure LimeWire properly.

Open LimeWire, click Tools, Options:

Now you can see, and/or modify where LimeWire songs go to. Plus, you can check the box that says "Add audio files I downloaded from LimeWire to iTunes" Now Your LimeWire downloads should appear immediately in your iTunes library. You need to do this step only once.

You also need to teach iTunes to manage your files better. You can find these setting in iTunes . Click Edit, Preferences, and select the Advanced tab. On this tab you can modify where iTunes keeps your music, but more importantly, you can tell iTunes to keep your iTunes media folder organized, and for iTunes to automatically copy files that are added to your library into the iTunes media folder when adding to library. Make sure both of these boxes are checked.

Now iTunes is set up to be your one stop shopping center for music organization and management.

But wait! There is one more important step that you need to accomplish once in a while, and at least once right now: You need to tell iTunes to copy the audio files from wherever they currently are directly into the iTunes library. This step is sort of optional, but it really helps to keep iTunes organized and prevents lost files and such.

Open iTunes and click File, Library, Organize Library:

Check the box that says Consolidate files and click OK. It will copy any orphaned MP3 files from wherever they are into the iTunes media folder. Setting up LimeWire and iTunes as per the previous steps should make this step unnecessary, but I find that once in a while a song sneaks by my best laid plans.

When you click OK, iTunes copies the MP3 from wherever it is on you disk into the iTunes media folder. The box then resets to being unchecked so it's ready for the next time.

When all else fails, contact me at support@spftechnology.com!