Well i finally gave in but i hate Itunes, i need help!!!

[nfpgasmask]

If you are talking about ID3 tags, there is software available that will pull the ID3 tag from the filename...

I don't have an IPOD (because I hate Itunes as well) but I have a Creative Labs Zen Micro 8GIG and it reads the mp3 ID3 tags also. I have 40 thousand MP3s on my PC, so you could imagine how difficult this might have been, but I found a program called ID3-TagIT and this helped me rename all my MP3's ID3 tags in one swoop. Now I am good to go!

Bart

[transio]

I have a Video iPod and a Rio Carbon 5 gig and a Windows Mobile MP3 phone, and I use the same music files for all of them. With a little practice, you'll find a way to synchronize everything perfectly.

If you rip music files from CDs or buy them off the Internet, the files have all the album, artist, and track info in the MP3 file. However, if you steal music off the internet, it often comes without this info.

If your iTunes isn't detecting all your music, just manually add it by folder. I think it's [File -> Add Folder] or something. I store all my music in the "My Music" folder, and so it's easy to add it all to iTunes just by selecting the top-level folder. If you have any WMA music, iTunes will convert it to MP4. I suggest afterwards, that you delete whatever WMA originals you have and replace them with the relocated MP4s. This will make your library "universal".

[kobie]

Transio is right... Add the folders to your library in ITunes and it will find your music after a few minutes. Sometimes I have to add the folder again later after new music is added.
I have grown accustomed to using Windows Media player. It found all my music and the interface isn't as difficult to use as it initially seems. It syncs to most devices (even phones!) and will convert between mp3 and wma.

[tbigity]

one caveat: use it for music only. I used my 60gig 5g as more of a mobile hard drive. I transferred a 3 gig directory back and forth daily as a back up...it crapped out very quickly. Got the "sick ipod" graphic...now it wont even turn on and my computer wont recognize it as being there so I cant reformat it. I loved it when it worked, but it ended up being a $500 paper weight. To get the problem fixed, you have to swap it out at an apple store...there is no apple store here, I live in freaking oklahoma and the city is nearly 2 hours away.

Long story short, get a different piece of hardware for music, and a mobile hard drive for that purpose

[nfpgasmask]

(in the words of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog)

....FOR ME TO POOP ON!

I don't understand why everyone just automatically buys an iPod, there are several other brands that imho are way better....

The only nice thing about the iPod is that there are assloads of accessories for it, but other than that, I do not think it is the best product, and iTunes is simply horrible. Any computer product that forces me to use a proprietary file type or program to listen to my media, is no good in my book...

But then again, I am not your average MP3 listener....I have nearly 3 GIGs of music and to have to convert all of that to work with an iPod is plain crazy. I just bought my first portable MP3 player myself, an 8 GIG Creative Zen Micro Photo. It totally rocks, hooks right up to my AUX in jack on my JVC car stereo, and basically works via drag-and-drop with Windows Explorer. The only software needed was a driver. I love it.

Maybe I just like to be different...after all, I am driving a VX!

Bart

[JAFO]

I too have a 2GB iPod Nano. I have over 60GB of MP3s loaded on to iTunes. And I haven't purchased anything from iTunes Store yet.

A lot of what I have I picked up of the Internet pre-Napster shut down. I have only have one or two music files that would not load due to the file extension not being compatable with iTunes.

I used Music Match previously but like iTunes better.

Also if you use software to rip MP3s off your CDs then you will want to make sure that it is setup to generate the ID3 tags for you. If you use iTunes to rip your cds, it will get all of the CD information (artist, song title, genre, album, etc) automatically from the Internet and automatically generate the ID3 tag.

When I first installed iTunes I told it to manage my MP3 for me and to copy them to the iTunes music folder. So all of my music is in one central location. When I drag and drop an mp3 to iTunes it automatically copies the file and adds it to the library. Like transio and kobie said if you have an mp3 that does not have the ID3 tag set up then iTunes does not know what to fill in the fields with. I'd say 75 to 80 percent of the songs that I have downloaded had the ID3 tags setup.

This is not something unique to iTunes, any other MP3 players would have the same problem.

Also just a side note since I have way more music than my Nano can hold I kept getting the "can't update iPod, not enough space" error. To correct this you can do one of two things, if you go to the settings menu, iPod, tab you can tell it to only download checked files from the "Library". I tried this but if you also listen to music out of the "Library" while at your PC, iTunes only plays the checked songs. So I did not like that because I wanted to listen to everything not just what was synced to my iPod.

The other option is to create a playlist or lists, then in the settings specify the iPod to only download those playlists. You can check the files in the playlist to designate that the file is to be downloaded to the iPod. Files checked in the playlist are independent of the "Library" therefore it will not interfear when you play songs on the library. This works much better for me.

Also iTunes will sync with other MP3 players not just limited to iPods.

[transio]

Ty, yipes I have much of my work backed up on my ipod with no other backups!!!

I better work on getting another backup!