Ipod Question?

[magicbeatle]

Hi Everyone,

The option 'Join CD Tracks' on my itunes is not highlighted so I cannot use it to join tracks together on albums such as 'Abbey Road', in order to get rid of that annoying second gap that shouldnt be there. Any idea why this is, and how I can highlight it?

[kags]

The option is only available when when you insert a cd to copy to itunes. Highlight the tracks you want to join then press "control" and left click - the "join cd tracks" option is then available. It copies the joined tracks as one track, so you lose the gaps but also lose the ability to play the tracks individually.

[kags]

ps - you could always try copying the cd twice, once as individual tracks and once joined up so you have the option of listening to individual tracks or the whole album.

[magicbeatle]

Hi Kags, Done what you said. Put in CD and highlighted two adjacent songs, but the 'Join CD Tracks' option is still unhighlighted. Do you have to purchase this option seperately from itunes?

[kags]

Left click on the first track, then press control and at the same time highlight the other tracks you want to join with it, they should all stay highlighted and the join cd option should become available. You then get a line joining all the tracks together. I haven't purchased anything extra from itunes, just the standard downloadable version so I am not sure why it isn't working for you. Have you got the latest version?

[kags]

Just a thought - apologies if this is really obvious - but you must be highlighting the tracks on the actual cd, not the tracks you previously imported to itunes. You then re-import the tracks joined together, rather than joining the tracks already on your hard drive.

[magicbeatle]

Cheers Kags. Still dosent work though! If I have a go at downloading a newer version of itunes, will it scrap the songs I have on my current version or will they be transferred to the new one?

[kags]

if you download the latest version it should just transfer everything to the new version. Are you running on a Mac or Windows? I read somewhere that itunes has a few problems on Macs.

[kags]

(which seems a little ironic!)

[magicbeatle]

Hi Kags, Im on a pc. I will try it now and let you know within half an hour what happens. Cheers!

[kags]

good luck! I checked with a friend who uses itunes a lot and he had no problem with the join tracks function. Seems you are just unlucky, and Abbey Road is definitely one of those albums where you don't want gaps.

[magicbeatle]

Just tried to install the latest version (version 6) of itunes directly off the itunes website. When I run it, it came up with 'quicktime failed to initialize (error -2093)'. What shall I do, I am worried that I have lost my library now!

[kags]

well your music is still on your hard-drive so don't panic! this has never happened to me, but I googled the error and it came up with loads of information, most of which is way over my head. The problem seems to be the interaction with other programs. Some people seem to be suggesting you install the Quicktime stand alone version

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/standalone.html

but this is not something I can advise you on, as it isn't something I have ever had to do. I feel terrible now - I have been using itunes since it was made available for windows, and updating it without ever having any problems.

[magicbeatle]

Hi Kags, I have got Itunes back ( I had to uninstall it all and reinstall it again ) but I have lost all my songs. I had nearly 2000 on there. It's my own fault, please dont feel guilty as you never held a gun to my head. You said dont panic as the music is still on my hard drive. Is there a way of getting it all back on Itunes quickly and easily? Cheers!

[kags]

Yes - in "file" click on "add folder to library" and select the folder your music is in. You will probably have to redo any renamings of tracks . I hope to goodness the join tracks function works now after all this!

[kags]

Did you manage to get your library back????

[magicbeatle]

Hi Kags, no I didnt. I tried doing what you said and it worked. Only, I ended up with 1500 songs more than I had before, because I had more than one itunes music folder. I ended up with loads of duplicate songs. I couldnt work out how to get rid of just the duplicates so in the end I wiped all the itunes folders from the computer so I can start again from scratch. At least I know now that if I ever have to reinstall my songs again, there will only be the one folder and therefore no duplicate songs. As I have nothing on there at the moment I thought I would try to sort out the 'Join CD tracks' again, but alas still no avail!

[kags]

well I suppose something positive will come of this if you are able to tidy up your music files. Mine are a mess, when I clear a track from itunes I never bother to delete it from the folder so there are loads of duplicated tracks, and general rubbish!

You could alway try itunes support on the website to ask why the join tracks option is not working for you. How frustrating.

All the best

[magicbeatle]

Thanks for all your help Kags anyway. I will get there in the end, even if it kills me! Cheers mate!