Do not try and copy your files from within the itunes application itself. Close itunes after running the artwork embedding script outlined in one of my previous posts. Just locate the itunes folder on your c drive and copy the whole folder across to your USB hard drive. Inside that folder should be all your music folders and all that other itunes only database stuff. I am assuming that your itunes folder has folders within it somewhere which are one folder for each artist. Inside an artist’s folder are more folders with each being for a particular album. Inside each album folder are the actual song files. Mine are all aac or mp3 format.
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Thanks for the update info. So far so good. All the tracks now show the artwork when playing. Now I’m trying to create some playlists. I’ve tried to use iTunes to create one, but it won’t accept tracks from the USB drive. I’ve also tried using Playlist Creator, but it won’t accept them either. Actually, I can’t get Playlist Creator to accept tracks even directly from iTunes.
Have you had any luck with playlist creation?
Forget Playlist Creator. I used a program called iTunesExport which worked perfectly. It placed a copy of all my itunes playlists on my external hard drive I use with my WD TV Live. Get it here: http://www.ericdaugherty.com/dev/itunesexport
On my external hard drive I have a folder called Music. Inside that folder is a folder called iTunes. Inside that folder is a folder called iTunes Music. This iTunes Music folder contains all my music, in folders labelled by artist. iTunesExport works in tandem with iTunes. I set it to export the playlists to my iTunes folder, that is, my playlists now sit on my external hard drive as files which are at the same level as my iTunes Music folder, not inside it. iTunesExport will create playlists in different formats; I used the default format called m3u. I also have jpgs labelled identically to my playlist files in my iTunes folder, so my playlists show as a nice picture and not just a generic file icon. I hope this helps you.
Now for some advice I need: I currently run firmware version 1.01.00 and everything seems to be running well; especially playing iso movie files. But I cannot see any artwork for my music when viewing music by Album, just those boring folders! I know that this issue is supposedly fixed in firmware 1.01.11. Is it? And will this 1.01.11 muck up my iso movies which are all good now? Some users report video shudder, whatever that really means, with 1.01.11. I like the old ‘don’t fix it if it ain’t broken’ approach and firmware 1.01.00 does most things fine, except I want to see my music albums as artwork. Any opinions out there?
Paul
Many thanks for your continuing advice. I followed your latest instructions to the letter regarding playlists. First I created a test PL in iTunes on my computer. Then I ran the iTunes Export program, and exported the test PL to the external USB drive, in exactly the folder, iTunes, that you suggested. Then I hooked the USB drive to the WD Live. I can find the PL no problem, it’s an M3U file.
But when I try to play it, I get the ‘There’s no media in the current folder’ msg.
I’ve read and re-read your instructions, but can’t seem to find the problem. As always, any help will be appreciated.
Maybe something not quite right with your test playlist. Try using one of the ‘built-in’ iTunes playlists like ‘Recently Played’ or ‘90’s Music’ and see if these work. Of course, actually open iTunes first and make sure that these suggested playlists do contain some songs.
I assume from your message that the rest of your FLAC album art works fine - is that right? Reason I’m asking is that I’m thinking of buying one but need to make sure that it will display the album art of me large FLAC music collection.
Thx.
I don’t have any FLAC format music. All mp3 or aac format only. Album art for these formats works fine.
