ITunes Advanced Preferences options

Roger H shared this question 10 years ago
Answered

Asking again as my first try seems to have got lost somewhere ...


Please explain the interaction between TuneSpan operation and the iTunes Advanced Preferences options for keeping the media folder organised and for copying files into the media folder. I have them both set but am about to start using TuneSpan

Replies (3)

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Thanks for getting in touch. So sorry if I missed a previous email from you.


TuneSpan does not affect any iTunes settings. The only thing TuneSpan does to iTunes is update specific track locations via a basic AppleScript command.


So, any iTunes options you have set such as keeping the media folder organized, and having newly added media copied to the media folder will stay exactly as they are after using TuneSpan.


If you want newly added media to go to your Span Location, you can change the media location in those iTunes Preferences, but TuneSpan won't change anything for you.


I prefer to keep my default iTunes Media folder, and copy settings so that new music is always local and available.


The logical extension to this question is about "Smart Spanning" or something like that, like having TuneSpan automatically span certain things based on some criteria to preset locations. It's been a highly requested feature. I want to add something like this to TuneSpan for sure, but it will take time, I'm still in the planning phases. There have been a lot of benchmarks I wanted to hit in TuneSpan development before worrying about some sort of automated setup.


Anyway, please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any other questions or run into anything once you start using TuneSpan.

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Many thanks for the prompt reply. I guess my first question went missing in the sign-up process. I understand now the difference between adding new media to iTunes and subsequently moving it with TuneSpan. I will have to get used to this two-step process.

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Yep, it'll always two step process.


Even when I add some automation to TuneSpan, your iTunes setting still won't be affected. New media will be added to your default media folder.


With the automation, you would prompted to span whatever new media has been added based on the preset criteria.


So, in that case, the second step would be launch TuneSpan, and tell it to go.


It's a bit more involved now, but just a few drag and drops really. You don't need to worry about adding media you've already spanned to the Spanning Queue, it won't be included in the span if it doesn't need to be moved.


So, if you want all your TV Shows or Movies always on an external, when you add new stuff, you can just drag straight from the media type button, into the Spanning Queue and click "Span", just your newly added files will be moved.


Having TuneSpan separated in this way is a bit of a limitation, but in my eyes its an important feature. TuneSpan does not take over iTunes in any way. You can use TuneSpan once, and then trash it without your iTunes setup being fundamentally changed, or dependent on TuneSpan in some way.


Anything more integrated like having files immediately copied to some different locations when added would have to be done on Apples side, within iTunes. If they chose to do that, it'd probably be the end of TuneSpan being useful, but I'm sure there would be a lot of happy iTunes users. That's why I made TuneSpan in the first place :-)

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