export from mp3tag to b2

[Todd Lefkowitz]

Hi all

I am still trying to figure out the best way to get the contents of an old iPod onto my B2.  I found a 2016 backup of the iTunes on a network drive.  I used mp3tag to edit the tracks down to album-artist-track only.  How do I next get this edited info into the b2?

Thanks

Todd

[PMB]

Hi Todd,

Have a look online for 'how to make a copy of iTunes library to a USB device' (or similar). The USB device will be a HDD, SSD or memory stick and will need to be FAT32 formatted to work with the B2.

Or if you have the collection stored off iTunes, copy it to the USB - make a top level folder called 'music' (no ' ') and put all the Artist folders into it.

music

          Artist #1

                       Album #1

                                      Track 1

                                      etc

                       Album #2

                                      etc

         Artist #2

                       etc

Make the copy, plug the USB device into a USB port on the B2 and use the 'Import USB C (or A)' option in the USB Functions menu.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Mark Fishman]

mp3tag can "rename" the music files using the tag info, which will also move them into the correct directory structure. Let's say that you have your music currently under a directory called "OldiPodMusic". If all the tracks have been tagged with names for artist, album, and track (and I hope track numbers), you can use mp3tag's "tag to filename" action with a format string like this to move them into the directory structure that the B2 expects:

\B2music\%artist%\%album%\$num(%track%,2) %title%

Note that this example format string tries to create and use a top level directory at the root of the drive (\B2music), so if you would want to put them somewhere else you would change the first part of the format string.

Once you have everything in the correct layout, just copy the whole directory tree to a USB drive and use the "Import" function on the B2 to copy them in.

[Mark Fishman]

received following from Todd in private message:

On Tue, Feb 15, 2022 at 12:17 PM Todd Lefkowitz <...> wrote:

Thanks Paul and Mark

I have the OSX version of Mp3tag...here is what my screen looks like after processing and editing:

I like the way it looks ...what would be the next step to xfer this info to an ext USB drive?

Todd

[Mark Fishman]

You have to transfer the FILES to the B2, in the correct (for the B2) directory structure. You can't transfer just the tags. Your tags looks fine; what is the directory structure of the files?

On your USB drive, which must be formatted as FAT32, you can create a top-level "music" directory. Under that you will need a directory that has ONLY directories in it: those should have the "artist" names that you want the B2 to use. Each of the artist directories should have ONLY directories in them: those should have the "album" names that you want the B2 to use. Each of the album directories should have ONLY individual music tracks -- files, not directories.

Thus (using Mac syntax):

/music/artist-subdirs/album-subdirs/track-files

If your files are not already in that structure, that is why I suggested using the mp3tag tag-to-filename action, with the kind of string I provided. That will create the right structure.

Then you could just drag the top-level directory onto the USB and everything below it will copy also.

[Daniel Taylor]

Within the Album folder, you can also have cover art.  It can be a JPG file named coverart.jpg.  I think that is not necessarily a restriction or a requirement, but it works.