How many songs in iTunes before it blows up?

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I've got close to 13,000 songs in iTunes now and the program has started to become really sluggish. Spinning beach ball, general lag while scrolling etc. I suppose it could be my computer but it worked fine when there were only 9000 songs so i can't image 3500 more would make a big difference. Anyone else experience the same thing?

― biznotic, Wednesday, 5 January 2005 07:21 (twenty years ago)

I've got thirty three thousand tracks in Itunes and "sluggish" is an understatement.
I attribute that to needing to get more RAM, tho.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 07:24 (twenty years ago)

Does iTunes regularly misplace tracks? I only noticed when i emptied my iPod then refilled it again. After selecting a hundred or so tracks at a time, i'd get the exlamation point notifying me that iTunes couldn't locate the file. Quitting the program and reopening it usually did the trick but then others would go missing. Sound familiar? 33,000 is a shitload of tunes. I tried to keep mine to music i wouldn't skip if it came on random but even with 13,000 i have to skip one now and then.

― biznotic, Wednesday, 5 January 2005 07:34 (twenty years ago)

you could always try running "repair permissions" from the "disk utility" program (i'm assuming we're talking about mac os x here, 'cos of the beachball reference). chicken-bone-shaking, yeh, but it's solved problems for me in the past.

failing that: reinstall iTunes? that should create a shiny new copy of your library file.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 11:41 (twenty years ago)

The limit used to be reported as just over 32000 tracks (on a mac, anyway):

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=20216

If you google itunes library 32k you should get some stuff. There are bits of software you can download that allow you manage multiple libraries, to get around the problem.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 11:43 (twenty years ago)

(and yes, I once had the disappearing tracks problem too. I just deleted those 'missing' exclamation mark tracks from the library and the problem didn't seem to reoccur.)

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 11:45 (twenty years ago)

Btw, I only have about 6000 tracks in mine but with a 2 and half year old low-end eMac with 256MB RAM, it's much more sluggish than it used to be. I deleted a few automatically updating Smart Playlists and that seemed to make a difference, though maybe I was imagining it.

If you haven't already done so, turn off Sound Enhancer and Sound Check in preferences, as they hog RAM.

And yeah, run Repair Permissions if you haven't in a while. Also download the free MacJanitor and run its housekeeping routines.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 11:52 (twenty years ago)

I wish I could follow what the problem is with this stuff. I've got 17,000 tunes in Windows Media Player and it's reasonably sluggish; not too bad, but not super quick either. What's the problem I wonder! 17,000 isn't a big number for a computer! 17 billion is!

― KeithW (kmw), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 11:58 (twenty years ago)

aren't you still using an amstrad cpc464, though, keith?

;)

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 12:08 (twenty years ago)

I think he added an expansion pack though.

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 12:10 (twenty years ago)

the visual effects sure look fine on that green-screen monitor, though.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 12:12 (twenty years ago)

I am running iTunes on my 64k Acorn Electron and it plays both the tracks I can fit into its memory just fine.

― alext (alext), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 12:14 (twenty years ago)

What bitrate are they encoded at??

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 12:17 (twenty years ago)

(hang on a minute - there was never a 64K Acorn Electron)

― Alba (Alba), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 12:18 (twenty years ago)

Simon, I had an Amstrad CPC6128, never a 464.

Alex... Nick is right - do you have a "rampack"?

― KeithW (kmw), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 12:24 (twenty years ago)

It's an Electron +3. Honest.

32k RAM and 32k ROM = 64k. Its name is Wendy.

― alext (alext), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 12:29 (twenty years ago)

Wow. Named after any particular Wendy? Wendy Carlos?

Actually, as a matter of fact, in 1987, I did get my Amstrad 6128 to sample the riff from INXS's "Need you Tonight", which was very exciting at the time.

You could only get 3 or 4 seconds. 128K true, but banked into 16K lumps, since it had only a 16 bit memory address register.

― KeithW (kmw), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 12:31 (twenty years ago)

http://www.sean.co.uk/books/amstrad/gfx/envdef.gif

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 13:41 (twenty years ago)

hang on, woah. you were still using a 6128 in 1987, keith? i had you pegged as a 16-bit pioneer. i can picture you with a gleaming white atari ST.

(which, btw, was infinitely better than the sodding amiga, no matter what anyone says.)

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 13:58 (twenty years ago)

Simon, I did get an Atari ST, but not, I believe until 1988/89. A bloke at school had an ST in '86 or '87, but they were megaexpensive. I think it was "only" 300 squid when I go one.

― KeithW (kmw), Wednesday, 5 January 2005 15:12 (twenty years ago)

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