I have songs in folders organized by artists in folders. How can i expand all of these songs into one folder?

Question

It will take a long time for me to drag all of the files individually.

It will take a long time for me to drag all of the files individually.

ALSO this is a portable device

Answer 1

Search your computer for all MP3 Files,

inf your on windows go start>search/find

Type in " ***.mp3 ".. the * is a wild card it will find any and every MP3 on your computer, or just search by "picture, music, video" and hit search it will find all

from the search results, Copy and paste them all into the folder you wish to put them in

Hope this helps

Answer 2

good mouse click on the folder ...nd elect seek. elect photos,music,video otion. Then elect Audio purely...nd hit seek..u'll get a catalogue of all the songs in tht folder. elect all the songs...nd then gorgeous and paste all the chosen songs to diffrent folder...you will get all the songs in one million folder now.Do a belongings examine on the flder b4 u delete it.If 0 thn u have transafered all the archives.in any different case do greater seek via giving extension call like .mp3 or .wma desire the 1st will help u.

Answer 3

Create a new folder, go to your artists folder, Edit-> Select All, open the new folder and Edit-> Paste. Then delete the old folders.

Answer 4

yeah, copy all of them to 1 folder u will be still seeing organised all of them by artists whe press on the top of the window with artist sort

Answer 5

Hold the shift key then select all then copy or cut then past

Answer 6

What Thorson B said,.......perfect answer!

Answer 7

This is the default folder structure of Windows. It is set to copy data into certain folders such as documents which can actually hold a slew of different formats, not just .doc, .txt, .pdf, etc. Your Documents folder can also contain files with every format available, including music, video, and photos.

When you use Windows Media Player, or other such players, to copy music from CDs, or download music from Online music clubs, such a Rhapsody, the folder structure, by default is:

Artist-Album-tracts

One folder is the Artist, and it can contain multiple subfolders titled by the individual works of that artist, and each individual works (usually a CD) will contain multiple tracts.

You can manually remove the subfolders, and place all the music into one main folder, or even simply do so in your Music folder by a number of methods.

The easiest and simpliest method is to open your entire folder structure via Start-Programs-Accessories-Windows Explorer. Make sure it is in Folder View by clicking on the View menu, pointing your cursor to Explorer Bar, and seeing if a check mark is in front of Folders. If not, check it, and make sure no check marks are in front of the other options.

Now, you can drag and drop files starting from the lowest subfolders. You will need to open each subfolder one by one, and then select all the files inside the folder by holding down Cntr+A.

Once every file in the folder is selected, you right click on one and drag to the main folder you wish to move them to. When you let up on the right mouse button, a shortcut menu appears, and you then select "Move Here". That moves the files while deleting them from the subfolder at the same time. Otherwise you would have to go back and delete all the files you just copied.

Don't get confused over a copy verses a move. Move Here moves the item, while Copy simply makes a copy, leaving the original alone. It is best to get in the habit of using the right click to move or copy items, because depending on WHERE you copy or move an item will determine different outcomes. I won't get into those now, but trust me when I say it is best to use the right click and drag and drop, then select the ultimate outcome you want, copy or move.

Now, before you begin moving you need to open your folder stucture to the point where you have the ability to view the destination folder and have the subfolder(s) contents open.

In this scenario, you would open C-Documents and Settings, Your Name, then Music. You can create a subfolder within the Music folder as your destination folder for your Music, or you can even put your music folder onto your desktop.

However, as many programs use your default folders in their Open/Save dialog boxes, I would use a default folder and perhaps a subfolder. In addition, you will need to go into any Media Players you use as they also use this folder structure when copying music into a users profile.

So, you can move all the files you wish in this manner, but until and unless you go into the preferences of each Media Player and change both the default folder where music files are copied to, and the default folders where they "watch" for music, in order for you to be able to search your hard disk, and folders for music, you will have to repeat this process each and every time you add music files to your profile.

In Windows Media Player, you can go into Options to set preferences. Depending upon the version you are using, you access this menu in a couple of manners. In WMP 11, click the small arrow under Rip tab, then select More Options. The Options dialog box appears with the Rip Music tab open.

At the very top of this window, under Rip Music to this location, lists the current location all ripped/copied (from CD/DVDs) will be sent to. To change the location, click on the button beside this path, Change. Use the Browse for Folder dialog box to locate the folder you wish to be the default location to rip music tracts too.

The button under Change, called File Name you use to set what format you want each tract to be named in the folder. You can also set which one comes first, second, third, etc.

You will need to locate simular options in each Media Player you use on your system and configure your new folder structure to be the one where music is stored on default.

Summery, in order to change which folder your music is in, you will need to use Windows Explorer in Folders View. In this view you will open each subfolder, hit Ctrl+A, then right click on one file, and drag and then drop onto the name of the folder you wish for them to reside in. Once you let go of the mouse button, a shortcut menu appears, select Move Here.

Once all the files are out of the subfolder, and you can see it is indeed empty, then go up one folder, select the empty folder, and hit the Delete button on your keyboard, OR, when you click, Right Click it, then in the shortcut menu select Delete.

Do this for each folder which you wish to move files into another. If you don't delete the empty folders, you will simply have a load of empty folders sitting in your folder tree, which just clogs up the entire system. It isn't that they take up much memory, but when you need to use Explorer to search for an item, you will see all these empty folders, only you won't know they are empty until you click on them.

*note* Don't go through your entire folder structure deleting apparent empty folders. Many of these empty folders are intended for a use and setup during an applications instalation. You could mess stuff up if you delete folders you did not create, and are unsure of what they are for.

Once you have placed all your music in the order you wish, and in the folder you wish, you need to go into your Media Players and configure options for your ripped music folders.

You can also change which folders are "watched" or "monitored" for addition of music within the players. If you download music when you have changed the default location, the music may wind up somewhere you can't locate, such as a temp folder. You can easily use the Search feature in most players to search throughout your entire hard drive(s), for music you have misplaced or lost.

Personally, I wouldn't mess with the default music folder system. It is set up for the easiest and simplist functions of the media players. As the default folder structure is pretty much a well known fact, most media player developers use it as the means of adding and playing files.

*note* Once you change the location of your ripped music in WMP, you will need to click Apply, and then click on the Library tab. In the Library tab, at the bottom, select both Rename music files using rip music settings, and, Rearrange music in Rip music folder, using rip music settings. This will ensure all ripped music goes into your new prefered customized music folder. You will also need to look for such settings in other media players you currently use, or if you use any in the future.

If you attempt this procedure by simply "searching" for mp3 files, you will be left with a mess.

There are many other music formatts than mp3. In fact, there are dozens of music formats. The mp3 format is often attained by altering the original format when ripping files. The original file format of a CD is .cda. This is what you will find on any CD you purchase at a store. Most download stores also use different formats than mp3 for music they provide. For example, iTunes uses .aac, and Raphsody uses .wma and others.

As you can see, simply searching for *mp3 will net you only a very small portion of your music files.

In addition, all the folders will still have those files in them. When you perform a search, and then copy them somewhere else, the files still stay in their original folders, leaving you with double the amount of diskspace used. You would then need to go into every music folder you have and locate all tracts with a different file extension, move it, then delete the folder, which is what I explained from the start, only with a whole lot less work.