Best-practice tips for managing, organising, renaming files

[kimhill]

If someone could clue me in on how to embed an image in the post I'd be very grateful.

You need to have your own web hosting for the image (e.g. imagefilexyz.jpg). Once you have a URL for the externally-hosted image, the syntax looks like this, although the URL provided by your host will be more complex:

Code: [Select]

[img]https://www.webhostxyz.com/imagefilexyz.jpg[/img]
You can also specify a pixel dimension if the native display size is unsatisfactory:

Code: [Select]

[img width=350]https://www.webhostxyz.com/imagefilexyz.jpg[/img]

[kimhill]

I use dBpoweramp to rip CDs & Tag Editor to adjust the tags of all my lossless files (wether they be FLAC downloads or the AIFFs from my ripped CDs) & then dBpoweramp's built-in batch converter to to convert the lossless file to lossy version for life on the move.

XLD/Mac is also worth checking out for people who need batch conversion. It's free, well-designed, and very fast.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/xld/

The lossless & lossy versions sit alongside one another in my music folder & the lossy version gets imported to iTunes, where it will sync with my phone.

Looks like you don't use iTunes for your library, but it can do this work for you- there's a setting in iTunes' iPhone panel that will automatically convert higher-bitrate tracks down to AAC (you choose the bitrate) on-the-fly as your music syncs. That way you only need the high quality track in your iTunes library.

[Snowdog]

I do use iTunes. That screenshot is of my iTunes library.

[Snowdog]

If someone could clue me in on how to embed an image in the post I'd be very grateful.

You need to have your own web hosting for the image (e.g. imagefilexyz.jpg). Once you have a URL for the externally-hosted image, the syntax looks like this, although the URL provided by your host will be more complex:

Code: [Select]

[img]https://www.webhostxyz.com/imagefilexyz.jpg[/img]
You can also specify a pixel dimension if the native display size is unsatisfactory:

Code: [Select]

[img width=350]https://www.webhostxyz.com/imagefilexyz.jpg[/img]

Right, thanks. I actually already tried exactly that & it didn't show the picture. Probably user error.

[Snowdog]

In addition to the reply above, it's probably also worth pointing out that I tend to like a hands-on approach to curating my library & am especially loath to let Apple "automate" any processes. Also, I used some steps outlined on the Apple support pages to relocate my iTunes library to a place in my Dropbox folder hierarchy on my desktop, so that it's constantly backed up in the cloud. As you can see from the cloud icon in the screen shot, the lossless version of every album is held in the cloud, where it doesn't take up space on my desktop & the lossy album is kept local.

[kimhill]

I also have a very hands-on approach, which is why I chose iTunes. I wouldn't say that it "automates" my processes- it's just a database interface in lieu of the file system. It gives me very granular control without having to work at the file system level, and ends up reducing errors and facilitating curation.

I can see how splitting your library saves local disk space. It would make me a little nervous, though. Why don't you use Apple lossless instead of AIFF?

[Snowdog]

I also have a very hands-on approach, which is why I chose iTunes. I wouldn't say that it "automates" my processes- it's just a database interface in lieu of the file system. It gives me very granular control without having to work at the file system level, and ends up reducing errors and facilitating curation.

I can see how splitting your library saves local disk space. It would make me a little nervous, though.

Why would it make you nervous? I suppose using a cloud service could always mean you lose everything but people on here are forever saying that yet another hard drive has failed.  Also, I've recently been digitising hundreds of DVDRs (that I used as an archive & back up, as well as a library of things I'd recorded off the telly) & a lot of those are problematic, so that turns out not to have been a 100% successful storage medium, either!

Dropbox (& I assume it's the same as any other similar service) allows me to right click & bring any album down to my desktop so that I can edit it & then send it back up into the cloud. It's a seamless system & I love it! I have a Dropbox Business account, so I have unlimited space (currently at 16 terabytes, I gather) for all my movies, music, work, photos. The whole shebang.

As far as granular control is concerned, I really do like to go in at a system level. I like everything in my iTunes & on my hard drive to match. All the album titles are the same wherever I look at them & I really like that.

Why don't you use Apple lossless instead of AIFF?

AIFF has always been the native format that CDs rip to on a Mac so I've just stuck with it. I don't know about Apple Lossless but I'm loath to use any Apple specific file formats in general. I've always used Apple computers at home & at work, so I'm very comfortable in that ecosystem, in fact, I love it for many, many reasons, but I steer clear of all the things they do to make life simple for people who don't feel the need to be in control. I believe that most of these things are for Apple's benefit, rather than the user. They want you to use Apple Music & TV & they want to be in control of everything you consume so that strive to make it easier for that to happen.

It makes sense as a business strategy but personally, I do need to be in control & I use a lot of third party apps that meet my needs.

They're forever tweaking & changing iTunes &, as a result, I've had to spend endless hours re-tagging things over the years. I shall avoid the temptation to ramble on about it for hours, as that really isn't the point of this thread. Suffice to say I've abandoned sort fields, etc. & have devised a way to let the Album Title & the Album Artist do all the heavy lifting. If I keep it super simple, whatever they decide to change in the background won't affect my filing system & all the key information will be where it needs to be if I go over to a different system one day.

That change kinda led me to a place where I was adding a lot of information into the album title (as you can see from the screen shot above) which I really like. I can see release dates, different versions of the same album & everything sorts the way I like it.

[kimhill]

Why would it make you nervous? I suppose using a cloud service could always mean you lose everything but people on here are forever saying that yet another hard drive has failed.

I'd be nervous because I'd be responsible for keeping the two copies in sync.

The reason I mentioned Apple Lossless/ALAC was because it's lossless like AIFF, but about half the size. Since it's lossless & we have good batch converters, you could switch to other formats at will. You could store all your music in one library locally (as ALAC), and it would actually take much less space than high bitrate lossy + AIFF. That way you'd have all your music both locally AND on DropBox – adding another fully-qualified repository is always good.   You're already syncing to iPhone with iTunes, and iTunes would downsample on-the-fly during the sync, eliminating the need for a lossy dupe library.

[Snowdog]

Well, everything you're saying makes perfect sense, but I have no space issues doing it the way I do it & no need to change the file formats.

I'll definitely bear it in mind, though, if space ever becomes an issue!

[kimhill]

It's very unlikely DropBox would have the kind of failure that threatens your main files, but it's generally considered unwise to have irreplaceable information stored in only one place or system. It's not just a matter of hypothetical disaster at DropBox, either. One can imagine local hacking, malware or software anomalies that could propagate and compromise your DropBox store.

Personally I wouldn't feel comfortable with that. All my important stuff exists in at least three places, in complete form, including automated online backup (Backblaze for me). Three copies is usually considered a best-practices minimum. Plus, I generally have a somewhat stale backup as a worst-case fallback.

[Snowdog]

It's very unlikely DropBox would have the kind of failure that threatens your main files, but it's generally considered unwise to have irreplaceable information stored in only one place or system. It's not just a matter of hypothetical disaster at DropBox, either. One can imagine local hacking, malware or software anomalies that could propagate and compromise your DropBox store.

Personally I wouldn't feel comfortable with that. All my important stuff exists in at least three places, in complete form, including automated online backup (Backblaze for me). Three copies is usually considered a best-practices minimum. Plus, I generally have a somewhat stale backup as a worst-case fallback.

I guess, at 16-20 terabytes, it would be impractical for me to try & back up to physical media. It would, on the other hand, be a very simple matter for me to back up everything two or three times, simply by copying it all to another location on my Dropbox, seeing as I have unlimited space?

I could also separate out the critical files & back those up to physical media.

[kimhill]

I guess, at 16-20 terabytes, it would be impractical for me to try & back up to physical media. It would, on the other hand, be a very simple matter for me to back up everything two or three times, simply by copying it all to another location on my Dropbox, seeing as I have unlimited space?

Re-copying on DropBox – is still DropBox. But it would be great to have as (periodic) static DropBox snapshots that don't sync to your desktop. That way, desktop problems don't propagate back to the only DropBox copy. Doing something like this would be a bare minimum IMHO.

Personally, I wouldn't worry quite as much about movie backups. I can still watch "Inception"/4k HDR anytime, regardless of my backup status. But your music collection, with its extensive curation, is irreplaceable. I would definitely want to have that stored inside my four walls as well (but you still need static snapshots). In ALAC, you'd only need a bit over 2x the local space you *already* dedicate to your lossy files, which are unneeded with that iTunes downsample sync option. No major configuration change needed.

I know I would sleep better… 

[jackie kennedy]

thank you so much for this. will definitely keep an eye on this thread

[heriberto0815]

What do you use for reshaping cover pictures which are photographed from a weird angle?

I use "PhotoFiltre 7" (Windows) and there the filter "Deform" -> Trapezoid/Perspective.

But there must be a more modern better to use tool.

[Snowdog]

What do you use for reshaping cover pictures which are photographed from a weird angle?

I use "PhotoFiltre 7" (Windows) and there the filter "Deform" -> Trapezoid/Perspective.

But there must be a more modern better to use tool.

I use photoshop, but that's what I do for a living, so I have it handy. Which probably isn't much use, really.

(Always happy to square up a cover shot for somebody, though.)