10 tips to help you love iTunes

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

I think I will not be mistaken if I say that the iTunes media combine is the most disliked Apple software for most users (especially the Windows version). And in vain. ITunes has a variety of features and settings that can easily turn disadvantages into advantages. Here are 10 of the most useful ones.

1. Use the play queue

Playlists are a very handy thing, but sometimes you just want to listen to a few specific tracks according to your mood, and in this case you don't need to bother with creating playlists at all. It is much faster and easier to use the dedicated queue function.

To add tracks to the queue, you need to click the ellipsis icon and select "Add to" Next "". So you can compose a temporary playlist with compositions of several artists (you can add entire albums). The tracks in it will play in the order they were added. If you want to listen to any of the tracks immediately after the current one, without disrupting the playback queue, click in the same menu "Next". You can view the list further by clicking the corresponding icon in the player window (above the scroll bar).

2. Find and delete songs that you never listen to

Over time, the iTunes library grows to completely unimaginable sizes, which has a very negative impact on the use of disk space. Owners of MacBooks with disks of 128 gigabytes or less know firsthand about this problem. Sometimes it's worth spending a few minutes looking for music you don't like and don't listen to. It is very easy.

Switch to the Songs view and add a Skips column that shows how many times you've skipped each track. Now just click on the "Skips" heading and you will see a ranking of your most disliked songs.

3. Use comments as tags

You can add a comment to any content in your library, which will be an additional way of sorting. To do this, select the desired element, press Cmd + I (Ctrl + I) and fill in the "Comments" field.

This is how you can celebrate music, movies, and more. By turning on the "Comments" column, you can sort all items by added comments and view, for example, workout songs or mood-boosting movies.

4. Enable display of video on top of all windows

If you want to entertain yourself during some work that does not require special concentration, you can turn on a TV series or a light film "for the background".

To prevent the player from overlapping the windows of other applications, you just need to enable the corresponding option in the iTunes settings. Just remember that this trick only works for videos running in a separate window.

5. Change movie covers

Those who love order in their media library always make sure that a cover is added to each album. A similar trick can be used to add covers to imported movies and TV shows if iTunes doesn't find or doesn't find the posters that match. The familiar Cmd + I keyboard shortcut will open a file information window, where you can change a lot of data, including the cover. But it only works for your movies. With those purchased in iTunes, this number will not work.

6. Copy tracks to Android devices

iTunes does not work with Android smartphones, but you can still transfer your music to them by simply copying and pasting the tracks you want, just like in the Finder. To do this, you need to connect the device to your computer, open the desired playlist or album, select and copy songs by pressing Cmd + A, Cmd + C (Ctrl + A, Ctrl + C in Windows), and then pasting them into the Android device folder Cmd + V (Ctrl + V) open in Finder or Explorer.

Regardless of the location of the files collected in the playlist, iTunes will copy them to the new location. Of course, this is not an ideal solution, but it is quite suitable for quick transfer in emergency situations.

7. Organize your applications

iOS devices have been operating independently of iTunes for a long time. They may not be connected to a computer at all, but still there is one reason to do this. It is very inconvenient to adjust the arrangement of icons on desktops, especially after a flashing, when a mess is going on there. It is much faster and more convenient to do it through iTunes.

To do this, connect your iPhone or iPad to your computer, switch to the "Devices" section and go to the "Programs" tab. Now we double-click on the desktop, and it is in front of us at a glance: drag the icons, put them in folders, delete. After we press "Apply".

8. Remove duplicates

Duplicate files take up disk space and wreak havoc on your carefully tuned playlists, so it's definitely worth doing something about it. iTunes can find duplicate tracks and display them. This can be done using the menu item of the same name "View" - "Show duplicates".

This will show duplicate songs, for example from compilations and singles. If you want to see completely duplicated tracks, you need to open the same menu by holding Option (Shift in Windows). You can switch to the normal display mode here: select the item "View" - "Show all objects". You will have to repeat this trick for each playlist.

9. Assign Song Ratings

Track ratings aren't just for beauty. This is a very important feature that is used in playlists or when syncing songs to devices. Based on it, you can create smart playlists by including or excluding songs with a certain rating.

By ticking the "Match only marked" box, you can include songs with the assigned rating in the playlist. This will be useful for tracks that you listen to regularly.

10. Manage iTunes directly from iPhone

iTunes supports remote playback control from iPhone and iPad. You can play music on a Mac or PC connected to your home audio system, and, sitting on the couch, switch tracks, playlists, radio stations, fully control your media library using the Remote Control application. To work, you need a connection to one Wi-Fi network and the inclusion of "Home Sharing".

There are also many third-party applications with similar functionality, for example BTT Remote, which can control not only iTunes, but any other application in OS X.

What are your favorite iTunes features and capabilities? If you have any tips or tricks to get the most out of iTunes, share them in the comments.

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