Play Count for Duplicate tracks

Question

Level 1

10 points

Play Count for Duplicate tracks

It will be nice if we can have an option for every track on enabling which if any duplicate of it is played, the 'Play count' of all duplicates is increased by 1..

Otherwise, the minor trouble is .. I love a song (say Here Comes the Sun) and have listened to it hundreds of times and recently got hold of a better Bit Rate version of it. Obviously, I will like to listen to the better bit rate track..but this will start me from 0 play count. This may be a slight bother if one is too fussy about smart playlists...

Or is there a way out..?

Macbook entry level model, Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on Aug 19, 2008 11:17 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 19, 2008 12:04 PM in response to Visceral

Well, there is a way to do it but it's kind of a pain and has to be done one song at a time. If you go into the iTunes Music folder and move the lower bit rate file to the trash, the next time you try to play it, it will ask you if you want to locate the file. Navigate to the higher bit rate file and select it as the missing file. That should preserve all the playcount info and other metadata. I'd verify that everything works before emptying the trash.

Best of luck.

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Answer 2

PT

Level 7

20,894 points

Aug 19, 2008 12:11 PM in response to Visceral

Yep, easy. Go to Doug's Apple Scripts for iTunes...
http://dougscripts.com/itunes/index.php
and there you will find a few for adjusting playcounts. I have a couple I use that work great. The main one I use you pick the track, hit the script, type in the number of counts you want to increase or decrease the track and then hit the PLUS or the MINUS button and it adjusts the track,
So you find Here Comes The Sun in a higher bit rate. You old one say a play count of 27. Select the new track, hit the script, type 27, hit PLUS now the new track says 27. Delete the old track. Tah dah!
😉
Patrick

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Answer 3

Visceral Author

Level 1

10 points

Aug 19, 2008 1:29 PM in response to Visceral

Hey PT, It worked. Though the script I used was for setting a new play count and not for incrementing/decrementing it by a fixed no. Here is the url for future reference of every1 -
http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=newplayedcount

Hi Clair, I think your way will also work..but the trouble is that to test it I will have to even empty my trash as iTunes even plays the songs present in my Trash folder. But thanks nevertheless, didn't knew that metadata may remain intact.

But the basic nature of the problem remains, as the play count will not increment for each duplicate. Have sent the feedback to iTunes.

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Answer 4

Visceral Author

Level 1

10 points

Aug 19, 2008 1:33 PM in response to Visceral

Thanks..the solution is mentioned in the thread.

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Answer 5

Aug 19, 2008 2:27 PM in response to Visceral

Glad you got it worked out! Doug's Scripts is a great resource and I just didn't think of it. Another way to test it would be to zip the files. They won't play that way.

Best of luck.

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