How to show only music in the iTunes Library view

Oct 21, '05 05:46:00AM

Contributed by: Anonymous

Starting with iTunes 5, all podcasts are shown in the Library together with music files. With iTunes 6, video files will show up there too, together with podcasts, audiobooks, and of course, music. If you dig in the Preferences, you'll notice there is no way to go back to iTunes 4.9 behaviour, where only music files where shown in the Library.

While for podcasts and videos there are separate entries in the Source column (Podcasts and Videos) you can select to view only those, there isn't one predefined for music only. Of course, you can always create a Smart Playlist which shows only music files, but there is a quicker way to do it.

If you want to use the Library in the same way you did in iTunes 4.9, you can click on the Library tab, and then choose Show Search Bar from the Edit menu, and then click Music on the bar itself. The Library will then show only music files.

This bar is convenient to rapidly switch between views of only music, only podcasts (ungrouped, including podvideos), only videos (all, including podvideos), only audiobooks, and only booklets.

The good news is that the chosen configuration will stick even if you relaunch iTunes, so you can have the iTunes Library tab always behave like in iTunes 4.9. Finally, the Search Bar works in any tab in the Source pane, including Smart and Normal Playlists. For Videos, the bar is always on.

What unfortunately doesn't seem possible is to be able to select more than one button, i.e. to show music and audiobooks.

Comments (7)


Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20051018031900508