[heavysound]

I have never liked iTunes for the confusing archival sysytem.

Has anyone found a stable alternative yet?

Also, can anyone tell me the best way to empty/copy my iphoto library and just get all the original images without all the aliases and thumbnails that iphoto creates?

It seems I have folders inside of folders, inside of folders, etc...
Also there are duplicate titles in each folder but ther are NOT DUPLICATE images, just duplicte names from different imports. This is making organizing a living hell so far.

Wow.

[PurpleGiant]

Just a question, have you recently switched from Windows?

Many new Mac users try and perform tasks the way they are used to on Windows, and get very frustrated in the process. Some people prefer alternative photo-management apps, but you will find the vast majority here love and use iTunes exclusively.

[mikemako]

Originally Posted by heavysound

I have never liked iTunes for the confusing archival sysytem.

Has anyone found a stable alternative yet?

Also, can anyone tell me the best way to empty/copy my iphoto library and just get all the original images without all the aliases and thumbnails that iphoto creates?

It seems I have folders inside of folders, inside of folders, etc...
Also there are duplicate titles in each folder but ther are NOT DUPLICATE images, just duplicte names from different imports. This is making organizing a living hell so far.

Hmm.. I really don't know of anything better than iTunes, but I can help with your iPhoto question.

While in iPhoto (you should be in the "Library" folder so you can see all the images), choose Edit - Select All. Then Share - Export. Make sure format is Original and size is Full Size Images. Click Export, and create a new folder for your images to be exported into. Then click OK.

This will export ALL your images into the same folder.

[msuper69]

What do you mean by an iTunes archival system?

As for iPhoto, it's purpose is to organize your photos and movies. I use keywords and smart albums. Much easier than mucking about in the Finder trying to organize thousands of photos by hand.

[heavysound]

OOOPS!
Sorry guys I meant to say iPhoto in the first sentence, not iTunes.

Although I am indeed not entirely happy with itunes for other reasons, it is iPhoto that gives me the most headaches currently.

I appreciate the above mentioned idea to "select all" form my library and then export to 1 folder but I wonder how it will place files with the same name but that are actually different photos?

Perhaps I don't understand the digital system or something. Whenever I empty my canon camera into iphoto it always seems to start with IMG17__.jpg. So now if for example I do a search for IMG1731.jpg I will get 5 or 6 (or more) results that are actaully all different images with the same name. They don't conflict in iPhoto because they are all in different subfolders from different dates etc..

ANOTHER gripe I have with iphoto is that sometimes it doesn't import all my images. I don't see any rhyme or reason to this but it has forced me to choose the "keep originals" option and now I am forced to compare every time to see if they actually ALL made it.

Oh yeah and just FYI my main iTunes gripe has always been that the shuffle list is always the same and so the random is not really random. I ONLY use random/shuffle play on my ipod and I hear the same songs every single day. LAME.

[msuper69]

Originally Posted by heavysound

...Oh yeah and just FYI my main iTunes gripe has always been that the shuffle list is always the same and so the random is not really random. I ONLY use random/shuffle play on my ipod and I hear the same songs every single day. LAME.

The Refresh button in the upper right corner of iTunes forces the Party Shuffle to be reseeded. I've been messing with it for a while and it seems pretty random to me. If you don't refresh, it won't change.

[heavysound]

So then to reshuffle my ipod I need to hook it up to my comp every time?

[msuper69]

Originally Posted by heavysound

So then to reshuffle my ipod I need to hook it up to my comp every time?

Shuffle works ok on my iPod Photo. Maybe you could reset your iPod (reload the software). You'll have to reload the music via iTunes but it might work. Dunno what else to suggest.

[heavysound]

Unfortunately I don't think they make what I want, so therefor it may be impossible to find help but I appreciate all the input regardless.

The problem is not that shuffle doesn't work but more that it only shuffles once and then remembers that playlist and proceeds to play it in the same order every time.

Every day I can count on hearing sgt. pepper followed by stairway to heaven exactly. And if I press the back button it will go back in the same order.

What I REALLY WANT is more of a RANDOM I think. That is to say a script (or something) that runs a shuffle after every single song to give the user a TRUE random rather than a predictable list of shuffled songs.

Did I mention my iPhoto woes?

[gadster]

Is your problem with iTunes or iPhoto?

They both use a similar interface metaphor (just like the Finder and Windows Explorer are file system interface metaphors). Why you would be searching for photos by the****ing camera assigned file name, I have no idea.

Just use the iPhoto interface, that's what it was designed for. Don't be poking around in the Finder to access your photos, use iPhoto. It does a much better job of filing and categorising image files than the Finder (or Windows Explorer) could ever do.

Really, this is decade old stuff, the file hierarchy is dead.

[chabig]

Originally Posted by heavysound

The problem is not that shuffle doesn't work but more that it only shuffles once and then remembers that playlist and proceeds to play it in the same order every time.

Every day I can count on hearing sgt. pepper followed by stairway to heaven exactly. And if I press the back button it will go back in the same order.

It actually sounds like you don't have shuffle turned on. Main Menu > Settings > Shuffle > Songs.

Chris

[mpancha]

I have the same problem with shuffle (Party Shuffle) in iTunes, and my fix for it was a Smart Playlist (thanks to advice re: that problem serveral months ago on this forum). basically, my Smart Playlist is a one liner, that only lists songs NOT played in the last 1 day. Then in Party Shuffle, I select that smart playlist, and voila, done.

I don't own an iPod, so I'm not sure if a similar work around can be done on the iPod, but maybe someone with an iPod can try it out.

I whole heartedly agree that iTunes (and probably iPod) shuffle isn't truly shuffle. I loved Steve Jobs' comment a couple keynotes ago when iTunes 6 was introduced about how they added an option to make the shuffle less random when in fact they were merely making it actually be random. But I digress...

[Jerommeke]

To change the order of shuffling when the main library is playing, press alt (the + button changes into a smart playlist icon), and while pressing, press the shuffle button.

[AppleJockey]

quickand easy iPhoto question

how do I stop iphoto from openingautomatically when I attach my camera

[mpancha]

AppleJockey:

Open "Image Capture"
Go to Preferences
Change the option under General > Camera

[AppleJockey]

Originally Posted by mpancha

AppleJockey:

Open "Image Capture"
Go to Preferences
Change the option under General > Camera

wonderful MP

thankls for the screenshot and all

[Person Man]

Originally Posted by heavysound

Oh yeah and just FYI my main iTunes gripe has always been that the shuffle list is always the same and so the random is not really random. I ONLY use random/shuffle play on my ipod and I hear the same songs every single day. LAME.

Go to the playlist that is shuffled. Turn shuffle off, and then back on. You will get a new order, which you will have to resync with your iPod.

[heavysound]

Originally Posted by gadster

Is your problem with iTunes or iPhoto?

They both use a similar interface metaphor (just like the Finder and Windows Explorer are file system interface metaphors). Why you would be searching for photos by the****ing camera assigned file name, I have no idea.

Just use the iPhoto interface, that's what it was designed for. Don't be poking around in the Finder to access your photos, use iPhoto. It does a much better job of filing and categorising image files than the Finder (or Windows Explorer) could ever do.

Really, this is decade old stuff, the file hierarchy is dead.

Did you really think you were helping with that comment?
I think you missed my point entirely. The problem is that I am unorganized. I do not have seperate libraries or folders ie. all my photos are in the main library directory and none of them are named except with the default camera name.

And no I do not search for pics by f****n camera name, that was just an example to better illustrate my problem. I guess you didn't get that.

I have found that naming the file in iPhoto does not change it's name in every location so I never bothered naming any of them and now I have like 3000 photos to organize and name etc..

So FOR EXAMPLE: I want to make a folder for all my CAR pics on my desktop which will later be moved or burned to CD and cleared from iPhoto. So then I start dragging the pics from the iphoto window into the "car" folder and suddenly I have 2 (or more) files with the same name and it won't let me copy unless I retitle etc..

Also when I have a photo selected in iPhoto and I hit DELETE, does it really get deleted everywhere or am I just deleting a thumbnail, alias, or copy?


Also...thanks for the iTunes input but it seems that all suggestions are just temporary work arounds that don't really accomplish what I'm looking for. Re-shuffling the shuffle merely gives you a new memorized playlist and is not possible with just an ipod anyway (right?). My ipod is in my car fulltime unless I'm adding music. It seems that Random and Shuffle are 2 different animals and Im after the Random one.

[msuper69]

Originally Posted by heavysound

Did you really think you were helping with that comment?
I think you missed my point entirely. The problem is that I am unorganized. I do not have seperate libraries or folders ie. all my photos are in the main library directory and none of them are named except with the default camera name.

And no I do not search for pics by f****n camera name, that was just an example to better illustrate my problem. I guess you didn't get that.

I have found that naming the file in iPhoto does not change it's name in every location so I never bothered naming any of them and now I have like 3000 photos to organize and name etc..

So FOR EXAMPLE: I want to make a folder for all my CAR pics on my desktop which will later be moved or burned to CD and cleared from iPhoto. So then I start dragging the pics from the iphoto window into the "car" folder and suddenly I have 2 (or more) files with the same name and it won't let me copy unless I retitle etc..

Also when I have a photo selected in iPhoto and I hit DELETE, does it really get deleted everywhere or am I just deleting a thumbnail, alias, or copy?
...

In iPhoto preferences, add a Keyword called CARS.

In the iPhoto Library window, Command-Click on all your car pictures. Press Command-I. Select the CARS keyword.

Now make a Smart Album and name it CARS. Set the Smart Album filter to all files that contain the keyword CARS.

Now when you add new photos to iPhoto, update them to contain the keyword CARS and they will appear in the CARS Smart Album.

As to what gets deleted when you delete a Photo in iPhoto, the thumbnail and the full sized picture is permanently deleted when you empty the iPhoto trash. They do not show up in the Finder Trash. There is a warning that the deletion cannot be undone.

If you've got a copy of that photo outside of the iPhoto Library, it will not be deleted. iPhoto only manages photos and movies that you have imported into iPhoto.

[albook]

Some iTunes alternatives:
* Cog.
* skiTunes.
* Audion.

They are all free, so try them out...