GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 654556
Cannot transfer folders and sub-folders containing MP3 files to iPod.
Last modified: 2011-07-14 22:47:46 UTC
Hi I would like to use Rhythmbox as my permanent iTunes replacement, however I have noticed that it lacks the ability to transfer folders and subfolders containing MP3 files. It can however successfully transfer several individual MP3 files simultaneously if they are selected. This is a show stopper for me, as I often back my music purchases up to MP3 files and separate albums into different folders. I will then periodically, every month or so add my latest music purchases to my iPod. The file structure I use is /artist/album/songs.mp3. The ability to transfer several MP3 files is OK, but it's not practical if maybe you have 10, or 12 albums to transfer (as it is very time consuming), and entirely impractical if you are trying to restore your entire music collection from a back-up, which I have also had to do recently. $0 gigs, one album at a time is no fun at all. iTunes does have the ability to transfer not only a group of MP3's, but several folders and their respective subfolders simultaneously. It seems like a very basic functionality and it is striking by it's omission in Rhythmbox. I am currently (and literally) forced to boot into Windows, just so I can use iTunes to be able to do this. PS I am using Ubuntu.
I'm not sure what you mean by "folders and subfolders", since the filesystem is not exposed in rhythmbox UI. Are you talking about the Genre/Artists/Albums lists at the top of rhythmbox GUI? If yes, what I'm doing is that I select the various artists I'm interesting in (you can use ctrl to do that), and then I go to the song list and use ctrl+a to select everything, and then I copy this to the iPod. If you're trying to do something else, can you be more specific?
Hi, I'm not sure how much more specific I can be. I want to transfer several folders containing MP3's at the same time. Try this if you like. Highlight several different folders from within your music folder and drag these folders to the music folder on your iPod in Rhythmbox. They won't copy.
As nor will any sub-folders these folders contain.
Well, I have no idea what you mean by "folders" and "subfolders" in the context of Rhythmbox UI, so being more specific here would be to explain in more details what steps you are following to drag these "folders", where you are clicking, ...
I am lost dude? You don't know what a folder or a sub-folder is? You're not making any sense, lol. Go to your music folder on your desktop in Gnome. Highlight several folders within your music folder. Presumably if you are like the vast majority of people, you will have several different albums in your music folder. Once you have selected several different albums, drag and drop these to your iPod on the left hand pane in Rhythmbox. Your albums will not copy. I'll try to make a video if you still don't understand.
Dude, if you had mentioned *once* that you try to drag and drop folders/subfolders *from your file manager* to Rhythmbox, this bug report would have been much more obvious... Ok, I understand what you want to achieve now. One way to do this is to import the songs in rhythmbox, and then do the copy from RB.
I don't use the 'music library' feature in gnome, with 60+ gigs of music I don't really have the space for it on my laptop, so my iPod pretty much is my music library. But this is fine, as I can plug my iPod directly into my home stereo system. What this means is that drag and drop from the *file manager* pretty much is my only option. In any case even if I can import them into RB first, not being able to drag and drop folders from the file manager is a bit of a ... drag... Lol. You can drag and drop a group of MP3's this way, but not a group of folders and their subfolders. At least we're on the same page now it seems! Thanks for responding so quickly anyway and sorry for my frustration.
Maybe I should point out that this is normal behaviour in iTunes and has been present in that application for as long as I can remember. (Since iTunes was first released I think), hence why most users would consider it an expected behaviour in RB too.
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 550995 ***
I don't think this is a dupe. What the guy in bug 550995 wants to do is already possible. You can drag several MP3 files from your file manager (Gnome/Nautilus) and dump them directly into your iPod. (At least I can.) You cannot however select several folders containing MP3's from your file manager and transfer these in the same way. Bug 550995 should therefore be marked as 'resolved'. This bug however is not resolved. To transfer files in the way I have suggested is simply much faster. I don't use the music library, so deleting the files after import is unnecessarily time consuming.
eh, whatever. this isn't going to happen.
Why on Earth would you mark it Won't fix? Surely it's down to other users to come along and confirm it as a bug? Could you at least explain your rational for not fixing - other than that there was an initial misunderstanding of what the bug entailed, for which I apologised? I should have been clearer. How would I (for example) go about restoring my entire music collection from a back-up, without needing to import everything into the library first? This simply doubles the length of time needed in order to transfer files to an iPod, or other similar device. The same applies to transferring several albums. You have a one step process instead of two. Surely the rational for fixing is significantly stronger for fixing than not fixing?
Why on Earth would you mark it Won't fix? Surely it's down to other users to come along and confirm it as a bug? Could you at least explain your rational for not fixing - other than that there was an initial misunderstanding of what the bug entailed, for which I apologised? I should have been clearer. How would I (for example) go about restoring my entire music collection from a back-up, without needing to import everything into the library first? This simply doubles the length of time needed in order to transfer files to an iPod, or other similar device. The same applies to transferring several albums. You have a one step process instead of two. Surely the rational is significantly stronger for fixing than not fixing?
Rhythmbox isn't a tool for transferring things to ipods. It has the ability to transfer parts of your music library to an ipod. Once you start adding conditions like "without needing to import everything into the library first", you're not using it the way it's meant to be used, so I'm not going to add code to deal with that. You're looking for some other piece of software.
This just seems rather obstinate and a typical case of developers prescribing to users how they should use applications, rather than working with them to ensure usability is present in a way that seems most natural to them. OSS is full of this, half-assed, half-implemented ideas that simply reflect a developers preference rather than those of their users. There is of course no motivation and little incentive to change anything, because quite simply why should you? You are clearly in this to exclusively reflect your own interests, and no one is paying you to change these. That's why I think users often come as an afterthought in the world of OSS. But yeah, I can dig it. No worries. It's clear you would rather, or you would rather have your users, spend twice as long in achieving a task that could I suspect be accomplished much more readily and quickly. I understand what you have said about RB not being an application for transferring music to an iPod, but this rather begs the question of if not RB, then what is? The bargain basement basic gtkpod, in all it's Win95 UI style glory? If it's not meant to be used this way then why have it there at all? Also if it's not meant to be used this way, why enable exactly this feature for single, or a group of MP3 files, but not for folders containing MP3 files? If anything it seems like a glaring inconsistency, which is why I reported it as a bug. Doing things outside of RB is already achievable, which clearly rather breaks your principle that this shouldn't be possible. Also if iPods and other media players are to receive no formal, or only very limited attention within Gnome and within RB (since RB is the default music player in most Gnome implementations), then unfortunately it is evident that this represents a severe setback and limitation for Gnome. Indeed it seems positively primitive that Gnome (and by definition RB), is unable to recognise the significance and prevalence of media players like this in the 21'st century. I don't mean to seem confrontational but my frustration (as a Linux user for over 10 years plus) is born out of the unfortunate reality of having to still keep Windows around even after all of this time, to achieve what often seem like very simple and basic tasks. I also think you are being rather illogical by insisting that something that can already be done (although to a limited degree), should not be fully implemented and also because you appear to be inferring that simply because it is your preference, you would prefer if users spent significantly longer in achieving a task than should strictly be necessary. I am braced for the usual response of 'if you don't like it fix it yourself.' But that is just another common put-down for users. Not everyone in the world can be programmers. I am however a doctor by profession in real life and I can't quite imagine a scenario where I would tell any of my patients if they have a problem, that the only way to fix it is my way or the highway. However I do hope you don't find yourself in need of my expertise at any time. To say you won't fix something simply because it doesn't suit you to fix it, is amateurish at best. But fair enough. Like I said, you're the boss. Clearly you have your reasons, even if they may not be immediately clear to anyone else.