iTunes oddity

[drcpunk]

So, I've got my music collection on my computer via iTunes. And, I was trying to find a song from The Starlit Jewel, by the group Broceliande.

iTunes has 2 listings for this group, one with a diacritical mark and one without. One has three of the group's CDs. The other shows two. 3 + 2 = 5.

I poked around in Windows Explorer, which has the same two listing in the iTunes music folder. That is, two subfolders for the group, one with the diacritical, one without. Both list the same 4 out of 5 albums. Neither lists The Starlit Jewel.

I highlighted a song on the CD in iTunes and asked iTunes to kindly show me where it lives. iTunes thinks it lives in the group folder with the diacritical, in the iTunes music folder, and it showed me this in Windows Explorer. But, when I open up Windows Explorer on my own, it does not show the album. I have no idea why.

Comments

[tibicina.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing because the CD is currently not allowed to be sold, though soon they will be able to reprint and sell it again. (This happened because of things related to the Tolkein estate as I understand it.)

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

If that's the case, then iTunes has decided it can muck with my file structure even though I bought the CD legitimately.

I was resistant to using iTunes to begin with, and I don't like the way it stores songs. Is there any alternative for the same price (free) that's at least as good?

[tibicina.livejournal.com]

Oh... wait.. it was in your files already. Huh. Okay, in that case, I have no idea. I don't really use iTunes much and tend to rip my songs via Windows Media Player (which is not really any better, and arguably worse, than iTunes. I just got used to doing it that way.)

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

Yep. I used to use the Rio's software for much the same reason.

[jl8e]

No, this doesn't make any sense. iTunes neither knows nor cares about that.

It sounds like the directory's been marked as invisible in Windows, and I don't know whether iTunes or Windows might have done that, nor why, though I'd guess an iTunes bug.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

That could be.

We checked and confirmed that I've long since selected the Show Hidden Files and Folders option for Windows Explorer.

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

It sounds like iTunes is categorizing the artist in several folders. You may want to look in the Various Artists folder for the MP3. Also check the artist's name on that track.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

Alas, no. mnemex talked me through a number of steps.

I did a search on "elvish" as part of a file name, this being part of the title of one of the songs, "Elvish Lullaby". I searched the C: drive, and I found only the WMA file from 2006, back when I used the Rio as my listening device.

mnemex had me open iTunes and click on the song in question. It insisted that it was in a folder named The Starlit Jewel, in the subfolder for the group Broceliande that had the diacritical mark over the i. In fact, because of the confusion about where and whether I had the CD ripped by iTunes, I had 2 copies, one from December 2008, and one from April 2009.

But, when I opened Windows Explorer on its own, it insisted that I did not have the Starlit Jewel folder. And then, when I clicked on the song in iTunes, it now insisted that no such folder existed. I am baffled.

I understand about the different artists methhod of categorizing, having come across it on various convention CDs, but evidence suggests that this isn't what's going on here.