[X-Apps] What does the Import menu item do in iTunes? [LONG]

[Gretchen Hayman]

On Saturday, May 3, 2003, at 22:58 US/Central, Jim MacCormaic wrote:
> All of which brings me back to where I began -- what does Import do in 
> iTunes?

Hi Jim,

I use Import to import playlists.

For example, I create a playlist for every music CD I burn, as well as 
other "listening only" playlists.  Once I've set a playlist, I "export 
playlist" from iTunes and keep it in a folder that gets backed up.  (I 
don't backup my mp3s as they take up too much space; I can always 
re-rip them from CDs if I had to.)  If I create a playlist on one Mac, 
then decide that I want to listen to it on my laptop while on the road 
or something, I can just copy the playlist over and have the same 
playlist on my laptop without having to drag&drop create it from 
scratch.  This presumes that you have the same music in both locations, 
though.  If you import a playlist and iTunes can't find a song, it will 
tell you so and that song will be missing from the playlist.

Import is also really handy if your iTunes Music preferences are nuked 
somehow--or your hard drive dies--and you don't want to try to recreate 
your playlists from scratch.  All you have to do is Import the 
(previously exported) playlists and away you go!

You can also use Import in conjunction with the Export Libary command.  
Export Libary will create an xml file with the data about your iTunes 
Library in it.  You can then use Import to import that xml file into 
iTunes.  Again, useful if your hard drive or preferences go south and 
you want to make sure you have your appropriate ratings, play count, 
comments, etc. for each song.  Probably not much of a time saver if you 
only have a few albums in iTunes, but if you have many GB of mp3s to 
which you've added comments, for example, Import can save your day.

Well, that's what I use Import in iTunes for.  There may be something 
else for which I should be using it, but I've found this to be handy 
when I need it.

Gretchen