I've figured out how to make my shared folder automatically send the downloaded songs into iTunes, but I have a question.

Do I really need to THEN convert each file to Apple's proprietary format, AAC? It takes forever to make the conversion on each song. And, furthermore, it scatters the downloaded songs so I have to look for them and then convert. It's very messy.

Do I have to go through the conversion process at all. Can I just download from Limewire (automatically imported into iTunes) and sync them directly to my ipod?

try changing the iTunes import preferences

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What does that do?

And

Where do I change the import preferences on a windows machine?

Why are you posting in the mac section if your questions are about windows? On mac, go to iTunes Preferences>Advanced & tick both 1st 2 options about organisation & Copy to iTunes Music folder when adding to library. Do the same for Windows iTunes except the Preferences are found under the Edit menu.

For Windows LW will not copy the songs directly to iTunes so to get the songs into iTunes see: http://www.gnutellaforums.com/showth...threadid=36230

Only when you add uncompressed music such as wav or aiff or songs from a CD to iTunes will it encode them!!! BUT you need to tell it to 1st: iTunes menu>Advanced>Convert selection to... So that's when the importing options of encoding make a difference.

Normally when you add a song to iTunes, iTunes will copy the song to its own music folder. See the images here for an example of what I mean: Albumwrap/iTunes ie: iTunes will organise them into artist & albums.

Ok, so songs downloaded from Limewire don't need to be encoded in AAC format? They are fine to play as MP3s?

Yeah I read that post you linked to ...

Add folder to Library -> Select Limewire folder

Then each song that shows up in iTunes (that was in the Limewire folder) needs to be encoded or else they won't stay in your library ...

See, the trouble is in selecting each song and encoding it. Even if you get 1,000 songs off limewire and consolidate library in bulk ... you still have to delete all the duplicates ...

And it's difficult if you want to add new songs from Limewire. It gets messy

I'm just wondering if there's an automated way to do it.

No yo don't need to encode them. You can add any type of audio file to iTUnes such as mp3, m4a, aiff, wav, etc, so long as iTunes recognises that format. You would normally only encode it if you have an aiff or wav file or a cd & which to encode them as mp3 or m4a, etc. or vice versa such as converting an mp3 to aiff. Adding files to iTunes does not require encoding unless that's what you want to do.

For apple: iTunes will not import all mp3 types; eg: ogg vorbis, rm files. (So I use Audion which is now free to play those.) Thus you may find some files you downlded are not within iTunes library. So you may wish to double-check them thru cross-referencing. Even if you disable iTunes auto-importing, if you manually add the songs to iTunes you will end up with 2 copies.

Only alternative I can think of is that you move these songs to a special folder, add them to iTunes ... but under iTunes preferences>Advanced you disable the option to copy the files to iTunes library when adding files. This way the files will stay where they are & there will be no 2nd copy. Later you could use the consolidate command to 'move' them to the iTunes music library if you wanted them all together but that'd be optional.

For windows: Well there is no auto-importing from LW. lol You need to add them. To add many at a time simply use the SHIFT key so you can select multiples in one go (after selecting Control & O keys.) You select the 1st song then hold the shift key & select the last on the list & all will be selected.

Can you click on the limewire folder that opens on itunes with songs and upload them to your ipod? Or do they have to be stored in Itunes library?

Are you using OS 9 or OSX. If you are using OSX & have iTunes importing enabled in LW's prefs then all songs will import into iTunes anyway. I don't think iPod can access files that are not actually in iTunes music library folder. And since OSX LW's playlist save function doesn't work we can forget about that option. lol So you'd need to add them. http://www.kapsi.de/files/itunes.html (adding songs to iTunes)

OK i'm getting a ipod... so whats the whole thing about getting songs on there from limewire. I'm confused.... there supposed to be in a WAV or AAC... how do oyu do that? O ya this is for a XP... not mac.

k well xp is a different section b/c there's some differences in the way LW works with iTunes.
As soon as you connect your iPod to your comop it will update the playlists. I would recommend you update it manually. In the following link it has links to iPod tutorial which shows you how to do this & other things. There's also an iTunes tutorial & a link to iPod forum. Also there's some simple explanations & samples about how to get songs properly imported from LW to iTunes whilst using windows. See My iPod & iTunes importing (click on link)

Thanks to Stief 4 identifying the link error.