SD Card & Bolero Unit

[Brijo]

... Incidentally when you copy mp3 files does the Bolero store them by Album or by individual track? Before I had to make a new folder on the desktop then create a folder for each album within the folder and copy the individual tracks to the album folder, then copy each album folder to the SD card. That way I could see the album names on the Bolero and by selecting the "album" then see the individual tracks.

Can Bolero actually store files? AFAIK it simply reads the card. I set up the album/file tree on the PC, copy/paste to the card and this info is available for display/selection on the screen. No other files there.

[KBPhoto]

I have now upgraded to the latest iMac running OS 10.8.3 (Mountain Lion) so should be okay to copy mp3 files direct from iTunes to SD card without getting all the superfluous files I got before.

Have you got any info on this (web links for example)? As this would be one less reason for me to keep the Windows laptop running.

[KBPhoto]

The Bolero doesn't store them, it just reads the folder structure off the SD card. (The Columbus can store them as it has a HD built in.)

You should be able to copy the folder structure direct from iTunes to the SD card as long as the files are MP3 files.

This will give you: Artist > Album > Track name which is pretty organised.

[ernieb]

You do get the album, artist and track info on the Bolero. With the Columbus you can transfer the SD data onto the the internal hard drive about 20Gb If I remember correctly and then still use a 32Gb SDHC card.

[Expatman]

The Bolero doesn't store them, it just reads the folder structure off the SD card. (The Columbus can store them as it has a HD built in.)

You should be able to copy the folder structure direct from iTunes to the SD card as long as the files are MP3 files.

This will give you: Artist > Album > Track name which is pretty organised.

What do you copy from iTunes to the SD card to achieve this hierarchy? Previously I had to set up a separate folder for each Album then add the songs to that Album folder before copying it to an SD card. Is there a simpler way I am missing?

[ernieb]

I just copy the folders from iTunes. So the format is an Artist folder then sub folders with each album and then in that each track. But honestly I just drag the folders to the SDHC card and plug it into the car.

e.g.

FOLDER Dire Straits

FOLDER Alchemy (Disc 1)

FILE 1-01 Once Upon A Time In The West.mp3

FILE 1-02 Expresso Love.mp3

FILE 1-03 Romeo And Juliet.mp3

FILE 1-04 Love Over Gold.mp3

FILE 1-05 Private Investigations.mp3

FILE 1-06 Sultans Of Swing.mp3

FOLDER Alchemy (Disc 2)

FILE 2-01 Two Young Lovers Intro_ The Car.mp3

FILE 2-02 Tunnel Of Love.mp3

FILE 2-03 Telegraph Road.mp3

FILE 2-04 Solid Rock.mp3

FILE 2-05 Going Home - Theme From 'Local.mp3

FILE Dire_Straits_-_Alchemy_Dire_Straits_Live.jpg

FOLDER Brothers In Arms

FILE 01 So Far Away.mp3

FILE 02 Money For Nothing.mp3

FILE 03 Walk Of Life.mp3

FILE 04 Your Latest Trick.mp3

FILE 05 Why Worry.mp3

FILE 06 Ride Across The River.mp3

FILE 07 The Man's Too Strong.mp3

FILE 08 One World.mp3

FILE 09 Brothers In Arms.mp3

[KBPhoto]

Just drag the artist name folder from in iTunes to the SD card and it will bring the albums and songs with it.

As long as they are MP3's...

[Expatman]

Just drag the artist name folder from in iTunes to the SD card and it will bring the albums and songs with it.

As long as they are MP3's...

Sorry to be thick, but where do you find the Artist Name Folder?

[KBPhoto]

Probably slightly different on Windows as I use Macs (so I won't quote this bit) but go to your iTunes library then into 'Music' folder. You should see the first folders are artist names.

Within each of these are the album titles and within that the songs.

[Expatman]

Probably slightly different on Windows as I use Macs (so I won't quote this bit) but go to your iTunes library then into 'Music' folder. You should see the first folders are artist names.

Within each of these are the album titles and within that the songs.

Thanks - I also use Mac's (2013 iMac). I didn't think to go into the Library - duhh - so can see now the way to do it. All my files are in AAC format so I guess I will have to convert to mp3 before copying to SD card then open SD card and delete all the AAC files! Don't want to lose AAC files so guess I will delete mp3 files files once converted. I am not sure if I could convert to MP3 then delete AAC files then copy to SD card then reconvert to AAC file format?? Or maybe convert to MP3, delete AAC then copy files to SD card and then use Time Machine to replace the mp3 file library with AAC library?

[KBPhoto]

Use iTunes to create a duplicate file of the albums you want in MP3 format, then locate these and use Cmd + drag the MP3 files to the SD card. You'll have to create the folder structure manually on the SD doing it this way though.

[Expatman]

Use iTunes to create a duplicate file of the albums you want in MP3 format, then locate these and use Cmd + drag the MP3 files to the SD card. You'll have to create the folder structure manually on the SD doing it this way though.

Thinking about it in more detail I think the easiest method is by using iTunes to create duplicate mp3 files, then delete the aac files so iTunes only has mp3 files in library. Then use your system of copying artist from library so bringing over albums, songs etc in mp3 format to SD card. Then after that use Time Machine to replace the iTunes library with a back up from before I convert to mp3.

[beej]

There are many reasons I'm glad to have zero interaction with iTunes, and indeed Apple products, in general. Reading this thread reaffirms this gladness.

The one thing I will offer up to anyone having problems getting correct artist, track or album information to show up on their Bolero is that by using Winamp (on a PC ... no idea how well this software works on a Mac), you can use the AutoTag feature to automatically update the ID3v1 & ID3v2 tags with the correct information obtained from the interwebs.

I found that a few of the albums on my SD card were missing information. The solution was just just select my entire library (back on my PC), right click, Send To -> AutoTag. Took a while, but once I re-sync'd my SD card with my library and put the card back in my Bolero, all was good for every track.

[KBPhoto]

I've had zero problems with a Mac (aside from the extra files which I've now sorted).

[KBPhoto]

Thinking about it in more detail I think the easiest method is by using iTunes to create duplicate mp3 files, then delete the aac files so iTunes only has mp3 files in library. Then use your system of copying artist from library so bringing over albums, songs etc in mp3 format to SD card. Then after that use Time Machine to replace the iTunes library with a back up from before I convert to mp3.

Sounds like a very long winded and time consuming process to me...

Why not create the MP3's, copy the whole lot to SD card (AAC & MP3). Then delete the MP3 from your library & the AAC from your SD card.

Deleting is much quicker than creating new ones or restoring old ones.

[shrops_paul]

I used a product called dbpoweramp which will convert most music formats. Just slide the SD card into my laptop reader, and it will convert the files to mp3 keeping all the ID tag data and write them to the card all in one. Easy-peasy.

http://dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm

[KBPhoto]

I used a product called dbpoweramp which will convert most music formats. Just slide the SD card into my laptop reader, and it will convert the files to mp3 keeping all the ID tag data and write them to the card all in one. Easy-peasy.

http://dbpoweramp.com/dmc.htm

Doesn't appear to be compatible with a Mac system though....

I'm going to try this one later this week.

[webweasel]

This is amazing, worked like a dream.  Thank you so much for this!

 

As promised, here's how to make your SD card more Bolero/Amundsen+ friendly when using a Mac.

Start the Terminal which can be found at: Applications / Utilities / Terminal

For the purposes of these instructions our SD card is called 'barney'.

Type: cd /volumes/barney (and press Enter). You will see something similar to the following:

[computer name]:BARNEY [username$]

We'll start by removing all of the hidden folders:

Type: rm -dr .* (Enter)

You may get the following message: rm: "." and ".." may not be removed
And: override rwxrwxrwx [username]/staff hidden for ._.Trashes?

Type y and press Enter

You may see the following: rm: ._.Trashes: No such file or directory

Just ignore it.

Now type: touch .Trashes (Enter)
And then: touch .metadata_never_index (Enter)
Followed by: mkdir .fseventsd (Enter)
Finishing with: touch .fseventsd/no_log (Enter)

What you've just done is create a file called .Trashes which stops the trashcan from working on the SD card. The next line stops the Mac from trying to index the SD card (creating all of these hidden files in the first place). We then create a directory which is related to the file system events log. The final bit stops the Mac from actually filling this directory with these log events.

You'll still be left with some detritus. To dump all of the .DS_Store files (you'll find one in every directory) do this:

Type: sudo find /volumes/barney -name ".DS_Store" -depth -exec rm {} \; (Enter)

You will be asked for your login password so type in now and the .DS_Store files will disappear.

Type: sudo find /volumes/barney -name "._*" -depth -exec rm {} \; (Enter)

This line deletes all files that start with a dot underscore. You may be asked to enter your user password again.

Finally we need to use the dot_clean command to remove all of the ._xxxxxx files which is the whole point of this thread. I think the line above deletes them all but use the following command too just to make sure.

Type: dot_clean -mn /volumes/barney (Enter)

Now I couldn't actually find any of these files on my SD card to try this out on but hopefully I've got the syntax of this command right. It can't do any harm if I've got it wrong so don't panic.

Once you've done all of this quit the Terminal.