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iTunes Tops Out At 32,000 Songs
usr122122121 writes "A Macintouch User has discovered that iTunes maxes out at 32,000 songs." I did test this myself (a one-liner perl script to give each file a unique artist/album/title), and it's apparently true. How much it matters is an exercise left to the reader.
You'd think with all the advanced, nearly brainless programming languages available, we wouldn't have to worry about 16-bit signed integer limits anymore. 32- and 64-bits have been available for just as long, and it's not like the extra two bytes in each address are going to bankrupt a Powermac with 1GB RAM.
It's Y2K all over again. Just more lazy programmers.
I'm sure they'll come out with a patch sometime in the next 12 weeks, 4 days, 21 hours, and 20 minutes.
(Oops, 15 minutes. It took me a few to divide.)
Well, at least the RIAA will be happy...
omnia tua castra sunt nobis
At least I have a goal now... ~1/4 of the way there.
This sig intentionally left justified.
It doesn't, there.
A single iTunes 2 music library can hold 32 000 songs. To accommodate more songs, you can create additional music libraries. Follow these steps;
1. Locate the "iTunes Music Library (2)" file inside the iTunes folder (in Documents).
2. Create a folder called "Backup" and copy the iTunes Music Library (2) file to it. If you make a mistake or change your mind about creating multiple Music Library files, you can go back to using this backup file.
3. Create a folder called "Library 1" and copy the iTunes Music Library (2) file to it.
4. Create a folder called "Library 2" and copy the iTunes Music Library (2) file to it.
5. Repeat for each increment of 32 000 songs. For example, if you have more than 64 000 songs, make two Library folders, if you have more than 96 000 songs, make three Library folders, and so forth.
6. Open iTunes, add, delete, or change the songs in the Music Library for the first 32 000 songs.
7. Quit iTunes, copy "iTunes Music Library (2)" mentioned in step 1 into Library 1.
8. Open iTunes, add, delete, or change the songs in the Music Library for the next 32 000 songs.
9. Quit iTunes, copy "iTunes Music Library (2)" mentioned in step 1 into Library 2.
10. Repeat for each 32 000 increment of unique songs
To access each of the different Music Libraries, copy the respective "iTunes Music Library (2)" file to the iTunes folder (in Documents), replacing the "iTunes Music Library (2)" file that is there. Important: If you accidentally move the file instead of copying it, make sure you move it back to the respective folder, or else you may have to redo some of the setup steps.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=615 85&SaveKCWindowURL=http%3A%2F%2Fkbase.info.apple.c om%2Fcgi-bin%2FWebObjects%2Fkbase.woa%2Fwa%2FSaveK CToHomePage&searchMode=Assisted&kbhost=kbase.info. apple.com&showButton=false&randomValue=100&showSur vey=false&sessionID=anonymous%7C164541794
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." PKD
1981: "640k [RAM] ought to be enough for anybody." (Gates)
2003: "32k [songs] ought to be enough for anybody." (iTunes developers)
FWIW, I have about a little shy of 2300 songs here, all from CDs that I purchased since 1992'ish...
It's a very modest collection, even for one who doesn't download any music illegally at all. Even then, 2300 songs will play continuously without repeats for more than a week.
If someone would enlighten my ignorant mind: what do you actually do with 32000+ songs, which would play continuously for three months?
Heck, even my measly 5GB iPod holds more music than I can use.
It's perhaps off-topic, but are we collecting data for the sake of the collection? Does it matter if it'd take you three months--without sleep--to actually utilize the data?
As it is, I already have more music than I can actually listen to. For fellow legitimate music users, 32000 songs can easily outlast their lifetime, perhaps the MP3 format, and certainly iTunes'.
So, does it really matter?
I guess it does if you are one of those folks who just download whatever's on kazaa/guntella/whatever today, but for the rest of us with honor, and some taste in music, it really doesn't. 32000 is more than we need.
personally, I just keep track of all my MP3s with a big spiral notebook.
Want to listen to Pink Floyd? Just flip over to "P" and look up the filename.
of course, you have to re-do it when you add new songs, but it only takes 3-4 days.
Follow these easy steps to circumvent the problem once you hit 32k songs:
1. Open your favorite MP3 editor.
2. Load the 32,000th song in your collection.
3. Load the 32,001st song (that you wish to add to the collection)
4. Copy the 32,001st song. Switch to the 32,000th song. 5. Paste at the end of song. 6. Save. 7. Repeat for additional songs.
Ladies, form queue here -->
As usual people quoting an Apple KB article URL forget that they're logged in, etc problem. Here's the public URL: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=615 85 Hope that helps!
"True programmers are artists and someday we'll respect programming as self expression and personal effort." - fateswarm
Well, that number not being a true power of 2 (that would make 32,768), we should conclude that the limit was forced by design, not by variable-size.
Now why did they choose put a compiled-in limit below what is possible? To make it possible afterwards to "patch" with a smaller number to comply with a bogus DRM "security measure"?
Respect to pudge for actually taking the time to run a test to verify the story.
Respectable journalism exercised by Slashdot? Is that a pig flying past my window?
Because, gosh darnit, if it were iMovies, I'd have already used up 32,000 slots on porn alone!
social sciences can never use experience to verify their statemen
The more music you have, the more important it is to have random access to that music. It's no great shakes to find a CD you want to listen to if you have 10 or 100 CDs. Not so for > 1000.
I have roughly 1300 CDs, bought since 1985 (so far, 1081 ripped, which is 13,938 songs). Without random access, finding that one CD that I have a hankering to hear is a nightmare - even with the CDs filed in 8-CD sheets in a lateral file cabinet. With those CDs in iTunes, it's a matter of typing a few letters into the music browser. Do I want to hear a random selection of Grateful Dead tunes? No sweat. Pink Floyd from beginning to end? Easy. Yes, including solo projects by its various members? A little more difficult, but I won't break a sweat.
Almost 14000 (or extrapolating for the rest, 18200) is an uncomfortably large percentage of the iTunes limit of 32000. It's not quite large enough that I'm going apeshit about this, but somebody who had only twice as many CDs as I do would be screwed, for no good reason.
(Advice to others with large collections: buy an external Firewire disk and back your library up!!)
"It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
What a KY world you live in...stop slamming people that do or don't pay exactly the same you do for internet access, gasoline, fritos, shoe laces, condoms, vehicle registration, pork rinds, blank video tapes, big gulp refills, stamps, flu shots, Viagra refill co-pays, popcorn, Stone's concert tickets, off-street parking, lip gloss, cordless phone batteries, PVC, CDs, DVDs and sex before bed. What a troll...not even funny any more.
NetJuke ~ But then you have the issue of loading up those four iPods....
(Sheepish grin)
Apologies
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." PKD
Yes, it does matter. Some of us do indeed collect data for the sake of collecting. I have around 24,000 songs or 105GB worth of music at the moment. I collect digital media like anyone else would collect stamps or baseball cards. I have a text library with 27,000 files (saved a good number of bucks not having to buy novels I've found in there) and something on the order of 8,000 works of art -- Monet, Manet, Dali, Renoit, Bosch, Van Goh -- you name it.
Unlike that stamp collection, though, these can actually be useful.
"32K is more than enough for anybody." - Bill Gates
I have found that (while I haven't used iTunes) the random feature on both Winamp and the arbitrary Creative Labs PlayCenter (comes with the Audigy, and won't even support more than a couple thousand songs anyways) is very lacking. I have done enough observation to note that it simply chooses certain songs more than others. Out of around 10k songs on my hard drive, it will "randomly" select the same songs many many more times than others.
I never really understood where the flaw in the feature would be, but it seemed related to some sort of theoretical maximum threshold for random play.
at you, unclench a bit fucko.
I've just got a big HD, so I'm currently ripping the lot in the hope of getting an iPod shortly. (I'm rather hoping it'll be upgraded in the near future.) My big question is: what do you do when there's continuous music across several tracks? I can't find any way to avoid a gap between MP3 tracks. (I've tried iTunes' `Stop Time' feature, but it always gives gaps.) This really spoils stuff like Tubular Bells III, Chilled Ibiza, Jean-Michel Jarre, live albums, &c.
Are the only alternatives really to suffer dropouts, or to combine them into one big track, losing track names and control?
Ceterum censeo subscriptionem esse delendam.
Apple's knowledge base readily admits this. See this link for a workaround:
iTunes 2: How to Overcome 32 000 Song Library Size Limitation
You mean with one earring and a ship? Arrrr, I have a lot of mp3s...arrrr.
Yes, I am an agent of Satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial.
Of course, from programming elegance point of view, I hope that this is not one of those limits that require the entire codebase to be rewritten when it needs to be changed
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
No one will ever need more than 32000 songs.
Is really the DMCA police! - No im completely with you, 8,439 songs as of this morning for 25 days of music and 50 GB of space. So all I need is a 200GB hard drive and 100 days (24 hours a day) to listen to it all once I hit the 32,000 song peak.
Hmmm maybe Apple was looking out for us by putting a peak on it. My iMac and iPod have utterly changed my life for sure, so far I feel in a positive way. And yes, anything worth doing is worth overdoing.... But just maybe Apple knows something that happens to people when they have that much music. Hell, if your listening to your iPod 24/7 you never have a chance to get hit by the Reality Distortion Field.
---- The real Slashdot is still here. You just have to browse at -1 to read the comments.
Arrrrrrr! Big 5 and all other DMCA / RIAA bitches prepeare to be boarded - Hillary Rosen is walking the plank and a scurvy to all you sellout boy-band Top40 record whores. Arrrrrrrr.........
---- The real Slashdot is still here. You just have to browse at -1 to read the comments.
um can i send you some blank DVD's? howabout this, ill send you 2 blank DVD's and a case of Yuengling [ http://www.yuengling.com/ ]!
Honestly - they can shut down Scour.net/Napster/Morpheus/Kazaa all they want. When I can fit 9GB of data/music on one 2 sided DVD and just walk across town - what are they going to do to stop me?
---- The real Slashdot is still here. You just have to browse at -1 to read the comments.
At about 5 MB per song (typical for my library at any rate), 32000 tracks adds up to about 149 GB, using 2^30 for 1GB. I may someday be able to use up 150 GB of HD space for my iTunes library, but it ain't gonna be soon. When it happens, I'll deal with it. If Apple hasn't released an update that raises this limit .. which I doubt will be left alone for long ..
I consider my MP3 collection to be fairly large as collections go, and I'm more likely to run out of disk space on the three drives in my computer (total 320 GB) than to hit 32767 songs.
However, I do consider it to be a problem I will eventually run into. Hopefully Apple will address it in iTunes 4.0.
I found the meaning of life the other day, but I had write-only access.
Unless, of course, they paid for all that music.
Not that I paid for all of mine. Oh no, they're coming to get me!
I found the meaning of life the other day, but I had write-only access.
Wait Wait Wait..
Nope, Still don't care.
Blah Blah Blah.
Create a new smart playlist
Go to the advanced tab
"My Rating" "Is greater then" "2 stars" click plus symbol for new line
"Genre" "Is not" "whatever" click plus symbol for another line
"Genre" "Is not "whatever else" keep clicking plus symbls till all your conditions are meet.
32,000 songs should be enough for anyone.
Heh heh
Co-founder and designer at Music Nearby: http://musicnearby.com
If the average length of a track is 3 minutes, 32,000 tracks gives you 96,000 minutes, or 1,600 hours, of tunes. If you play your tunes 8 hours/day, you can go for 200 days without hearing any tune twice.
How likely is it that anyone actually wants or needs to do this? Probably not very.
If the 32,000 song limit actually affects anyone, it's probably because they're ripping a lot of tracks that they'll never listen to even once. Even if you do own 1,000 CD's, how many of those have you actually listened to in the past 12 months, and do you really need to rip every single track of every CD you own?
I fully understand and agree with the point that it's nice to have random access to your music. But it makes sense to use a little discretion and not waste both time and disk space ripping a lot of tracks that you'll never listen to.
It's easy to set up a play list in iTunes that lists all the tracks which, say, were added more than a year ago and never played. Use that to chuck your dead wood.
No biggie. It is a lot of work getting a "clean" URL from most web sites nowadays.
0 98 not only is this a clean url most of the links in it pointing to other articles are also clean.
The trick with Apple's is to track down the KB article # and append it to the end of a url you know is clean.
You can find a clean url by going to an article that contains a link to other articles and using those links as a base.
Take this url for example:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75
"True programmers are artists and someday we'll respect programming as self expression and personal effort." - fateswarm
Does it matter if you're in OSX or OS9, or does it max out the same in both?
I thought I was doing pretty good with about 5400 mp3's...
32.000 shouldn't really be considered that small a number. After all, iPhoto gets painfully slow (one minute just to start up?) at 800 or so photos.
So 32.000 songs sounds ok to me...
Remember that iTunes is clearly targeted at the casual user.
"...but it is entirely another thing when an ad agency calls you looking for just the right sound for a commercial."
If a person is capable of running a profitable business using only free software provided by Apple, more power to them. I don't advocate spending money where you don't have to. But (I hope) you wouldn't use iMovie as the basis for your video production house. You'd use Final Cut Pro, or some other powerful, made-for-professionals tool.
iTunes is a great "end-user" music player. I've never gotten the impression that it was attempting to be any more than that.
Reasonable limits aren't.