Krutsch

Q: iTunes movie genres reverting?

I have a growing collection of iTunes movies from both iTunes store purchases, as well as digital downloads bundled with discs.

 

Apple likes to categorize just about everythign into "Action & Adventure".  I have changed the genre on some of the purchased movies to things like "Kids & Family", "Thriller" or "Sci-Fi & Fantasy".

 

Every once in a while, I will restart iTunes on my Mac Mini and notice that genres have reverted back to (probably) their defaults.  When I look at the "Get Info" data for a reverted video, I notice that the genre I've changed it to (e.g. "Kids & Family") is correctly listed there, but the movie is grouped into the "Action & Adventure" genre within iTunes.  Interestingly, I will change nothing in the Get Info dialog, click on OK and the movie magically appears in the genre category I "moved it to".

 

Music tracks do this, as well, but let's just focus on Movies; does anyone know of a work around to stop this annoying behavior from iTunes?

 

Thanks, in advance.

Posted on May 25, 2014 10:46 PM

Close

Q: iTunes movie genres reverting?

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

Previous Page 2
  • by Limnos,Solvedanswer

    Limnos Limnos Jun 10, 2014 11:04 PM in response to Krutsch
    Level 9 (54,543 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 10, 2014 11:04 PM in response to Krutsch

    Slow for large batches of files but automated:

     

    AppleScript: Refresh Selected iTunes Tags - http://marv.kordix.com/archives/000860.html

  • by Krutsch,Helpful

    Krutsch Krutsch Jun 11, 2014 6:24 AM in response to Limnos
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Jun 11, 2014 6:24 AM in response to Limnos

    Limnos wrote:

     

    Slow for large batches of files but automated:

     

    AppleScript: Refresh Selected iTunes Tags - http://marv.kordix.com/archives/000860.html

     

    Nice!  That works, great!  So, after installing the above script, one would create a Smart Playlist to show all purchased movies:

     

    Untitled-1.png

     

    Then, simply select all (COMMAND-a) and run the above script.  It *is* slow, but it works and when it's finished, your meta data is back to whatever you changed it to beforehand.

     

    I have a similar playlist of iTunes purchased music and this will work there, as well.

     

    Thanks a lot, Limnos (fellow Minnesooootan)

  • by Limnos,

    Limnos Limnos Jun 11, 2014 7:54 AM in response to Krutsch
    Level 9 (54,543 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jun 11, 2014 7:54 AM in response to Krutsch

    It's good the edited tags are still in the media files but it will be intersting to see if the library file somehow still reverts to the original.  The iTunes Store and or some service you are using is the only place I can think could provide those.  Keep track of your activities and if it reverts you might be able to catch what is doing it.

  • by Krutsch,

    Krutsch Krutsch Jun 11, 2014 2:46 PM in response to Limnos
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Jun 11, 2014 2:46 PM in response to Limnos

    I am very confident that the "reverted" data is coming from iTunes cloud/store; I can look at these files using MediaInfo and the data is as I edited it (i.e. with my manual changes).

     

    I had to reboot my Mac Mini last night and, surprise, surprise, the same movies reverted when I restarted iTunes. Running the script against the Smart Playlist took care of things, but it's clear that periodically, iTunes is re-fetching the movie attributes from the cloud and storing them in the iTunes Library (overwriting my edits and what is stored in the files themselves).

     

    That's OK.  I am almost finished extracting myself from "The Walled Garden" for music and I have a work-around for movies and TV shows.

  • by Krutsch,

    Krutsch Krutsch Jun 23, 2014 8:02 PM in response to Krutsch
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Jun 23, 2014 8:02 PM in response to Krutsch

    I guess today was 'revert meta data day' as I restarted iTunes and I am (again) running the scrip above to fix my movies.

     

    This has been the last straw for me; I am leaving the walled garden.  Good-bye lemmings!

  • by Krutsch,

    Krutsch Krutsch Jul 22, 2014 6:06 PM in response to Krutsch
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Jul 22, 2014 6:06 PM in response to Krutsch

    OK, so it wan't the last straw

     

    One more data point: I've noticed that in addition to rebooting my Mac Mini, purchasing anything from the iTunes store also triggers a revert of meta data.

     

    I've learned to just periodically re-run the script on my two smart playlists (one for movies and one for music).  However, I've noticed that since I set all purchased music to 'Hidden', the songs retain my custom genre selections.

  • by Krutsch,

    Krutsch Krutsch Sep 25, 2014 7:52 AM in response to Krutsch
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Sep 25, 2014 7:52 AM in response to Krutsch

    Update: I've hidden my iTunes music (all of it) and nothing reverts (yeah!), with respect to music genre, artist, album artist, et al.  I had to unhide an album from The Roots so I could re-download tracks that became corrupted; sure enough, the Composer field reverted a few days later.  I tend to remove the Composer tags from non-Classical music so I can actually USE the composer sorting function in iTunes.  I removed Composer tags from The Root "How I Got Over" and a few days later they magically reappeared.  I've now re-hidden that album...

     

    I am still buying TV shows on iTunes and every time a new episode comes out, or just when Apple feels like it, my Movie tags revert.

     

    I have a Smart Playlist that collects together all of my purchased movies (or ones that came as digital downloads from Blu-ray purchases, which is most of them) and I re-run the Doug's Scripts script to "Refresh Selected Tags" on the movies and it restores the metadata that is actually in the files.

     

    I guess my next step is to hide all of my movies in iCloud and see what happens; I am tired of going through this ritual every couple of days on my movies.

  • by turingtest2,

    turingtest2 turingtest2 Oct 9, 2014 12:01 PM in response to Krutsch
    Level 10 (87,806 points)
    Apple TV
    Oct 9, 2014 12:01 PM in response to Krutsch

    Go to iTunes > Preferences > Store and turn off

    • Show iTunes in the Cloud purchases
    • Share details about your library with Apple

    On any iOS device go to Settings > Music and turn off

    • Show All Music

    Close and reopen iTunes and/or reset any device and you should see your version of the metadata for each track rather than the original store data, if not your changes should revert as you play through content.

     

    tt2

  • by Krutsch,

    Krutsch Krutsch Oct 9, 2014 12:38 PM in response to turingtest2
    Level 1 (9 points)
    Oct 9, 2014 12:38 PM in response to turingtest2

    That's interesting.  I've already done most of those things, except for disabling:

    • Share details about your library with Apple

    ...never occurred to me to disable that setting.  I will try that.  I've solved the music problem by just hiding all of my tracks; however, I will try that last setting and see if it has any effect on metadata changes with movies.

     

    Thanks for the tip!

  • by turingtest2,Helpful

    turingtest2 turingtest2 Oct 9, 2014 12:44 PM in response to Krutsch
    Level 10 (87,806 points)
    Apple TV
    Oct 9, 2014 12:44 PM in response to Krutsch

    You're welcome.

     

    tt2

  • by Mike Stitzer,

    Mike Stitzer Mike Stitzer Jan 25, 2015 3:57 PM in response to Krutsch
    Level 1 (55 points)
    Jan 25, 2015 3:57 PM in response to Krutsch

    Any final update on disabling "Share details" and fixing this? I'm very sick of all my metadata on purchased files getting jumbled by Apple every so often!

Previous Page 2