iTunes glitchies

iTunes has this function "do you want to consolidate library?" which duplicates all of your sound files, wherever they might reside into one folder called iTunes music (with artist folders inside). Doing that was the mistake, though it seemed reasonable before I knew much about the program. The program does help clean up folders by creating artist-specific ones, but it also has some glitches via computer database that, for example, labels Disc1 of Bob Dylan's greatest hits as an "album" but Disc2 as a "compilation" which goes into a generic folder without artist title. It also sometimes splits an album because songs were recorded earlier on a different album, and doesn't recognize the new album.

But subsequent to "consolidating library", all changes made in iTunes are not reflected in original folders (i.e. you didn't have the album name, but found it and added it via iTunes). Using a standard back-up program doesn't work with the iTunes folder, because it seems the program adds something to each file with data on how many times you've played it or if you've "rated it." So you end up with multiple copies, unless you use the iTunes program to back it up, in which case you can only do it to disks, not hard drive.

So I've got pre-iTunes folders, which probably contain incomplete song info, and I've got post-iTunes folders, which contain many duplicates.

I'm sorting through, and copying anything out of iTunes back into the original folders that was added after iTunes so I can do automated back-ups to hard drive.