iTunes metadata and artwork

I got it!  Intuitively, it didn't make sense to drop a file onto a .vbs file that I had just run previously for the song - but that's how it works.  And it did work.  I even tried a track with lyrics and those came in too - as well as the artwork.  BRAVO!

You said I can just remove the artwork from the folder where the script is in.  My question next is, if I do this replacement of the 160's, and get all the new higher quality tracks into  iTunes, my next steps are going to be rebuilding the structure so that they're all Album/Artist instead of being scattered all over. 

So imagine in iTunes that all my music folders are on the "F" drive.  I'll use another drive, call it "H" and will build this proper artist/album structure.  So what I would do is first copy from F to the proper structure in H. 

I hope you can follow along what my next question is.  Once I copy them over to H, I'll delete the files from the "F" drive (where iTunes sees them).  Once I do that, then iTunes won't know where to find them so I'll try to play a song inside iTunes and it will ask if I want to locate it.  I'll say yes and point it to the new file, and it should ask if I want to also locate other missing files.

Will this lose any of the information I've just successfully done (or will have done)?   I can't think of a way to do it into a

Artist/Album structure where I won't have to move the newly minted and EI executed files out of the folder(s) they're in now.

Once I move them iTunes will not see them until I say to point to this new folder location. At that time, should I run the script again when they are in this new location? Or won't that matter? 

Okay, here's the flow I did;

1.     Had my newly converted ALAC conversion done and was located in a different folder.

2.     I ran your EI script while the 160 file was in the itunes library.

3.     I then moved it out.

4.     I then copied the ALAC version into the file the 160 had been located in.

5.     I then dragged and dropped the .txt file that was created and dropped it onto the EI.vbs script. 

6.     It opened up the script (different view that what you showed)

First popup:

Second popup after I clicked Open:

Finally, after l click OK, this popup comes up:

Terrific job.  All the metadata was there in iTunes. Lyrics. Artwork. New higher quality. I checked using different file types as well.

Now I'm doing an album of songs where they're located in different folders.  It was tedious and is going to take me forever, but I moved four songs from an album:  two were in one folder, and the last two were in separate ones, or three total folders. 

Everything worked great as you said.

Confirming that you said I could remove the artwork from the folder where the script is as that was just a placeholder for this process, right?  And I can remove the .txt files as well once it's all done correctly?

Now here's a quandary where I believe you had said earlier something about windows (iTunes? - other programs?) not seeing the metadata if the folder structure or maybe something else isn't right?  I am seeing all the information within iTunes

correctly after doing the steps above. All the data is there.  However, I'm noticing that within Windows, the metadata appears to be missing. I refreshed the folder as well just to make sure.  So is the metadata not there properly?

I highlighted the Ace of Base song. I ran updateTagInfo script. It did nothing in Windows Explorer and it didn't remove anything from iTunes metadata for the song.

I then took the .txt for that Ace of Base song and dragged it on top of the EI script and it ran again. Still no changes in iTunes or in Windows.

So I am still on iTunes 10.7.0.21. I absolutely abhor any version past that. I do have 12.3.2.35 on another computer. I can try these same steps there and see how that works. I have my computers networked together so I can just bring in files but all testing will be done on the different computer that has 12.3 on it - and iTunes music folders. Nothing will be the same. Two totally different computers.

On the computer with 10.7 on it, I have Windows Professional 64bit with an SSD 250 HD. The iTunes music is all on an internal 4 TB hard-drive with about 700 GB left. The files for your scripts and other computer related things resides on another internal 1 TB hard-drive with about 350 GB left.

For conversion, I've used a variety of converters, but the last couple of days I used a new one recommended to me by HD Tracks (hi-resolution site I buy albums from from time-to-time) called dBpower amp. I also have used Media Monkey as well as another tool I have called Creative Audio Converter but that only works for MP3 (and doesn't have any other choices except some WMA codecs).

Here are file choices within the dBpower amp:

And if I choose AIFF I have choices to change parameters but just use the default "sources":

Please let me know your thoughts. We're getting close! You ROCK!

I tried it on the other machine with V12.3.2.35 of iTunes. It didn't make any difference. I then ran the UpdateTagInfo and it didn't matter. I even dragged the .txt of the Ace of Base song in question on top of the TagInfo script (wasn't sure I was supposed to do that in the same way I did the ExportImport worked.

So anyway, at least as far as things working in iTunes - all the artwork and lyrics and chart data and ratings were all there. But, as I reported, that was also the case with your last CFA script version. So if you're right and we need to make sure the data shows up in Windows (which makes total sense so that it gets read properly), then that remains to be solved I guess.

Basically in most people's hard-drive setup and system, they probably house the music and all these files on the C: drive. I don't do that for a variety of reasons. Perhaps there's something where the XML and/or ITL files on my native C MyMusic/iTunes folder is located is making it not match up? I told you I had read that somewhere as it relates to Plex at least, where they suggested putting the .xml file on the same drive the music is (though I do have some store purchased music under MyMusic on C: drive). Or perhaps it's this setup location in iTunes (but I think you said that didn't matter, but I'm just throwing out possible options).

That's all I can do at the moment until I hear back from you. As always, thanks so much.

Okay, I've been doing several things this morning. I noticed a few things:

1. When I ran the script as before, it copied the .txt into the folder where I had the converted song stored temporarily. It also added the script to that same folder.
2. Whereas before I would drag & drop onto the script, that is not working. I must have missed some instruction here.

What steps I took:

1. Highlighted the song in iTunes
2. Ran the script and it created the usual .txt file.
3. I then moved the song out of the folder it was originally in
4. I copied (not moved) the song stored in the converted folder it resided in - and where the script and .txt now reside
5. I tried dragging the .txt onto the script in the folder where your script put these two elements into but nothing happened. I tried running the script again but all it did was create the same .txt file. I then copied the .txt into the folder where I store all your scripts and tried dragging it onto the script there as well. Nothing happened. Before it automatically opened the script as I recall.
6. I did look in Windows but the metadata was not all there as before.
7. I moved the original back in the folder, taking the updated lossless file back out. Then linked it back to iTunes for testing once I get more feedback from you.

So I guess I'm going to have to hold off further testing.

I did have a couple of other thoughts which relate back to cleaning up the artwork.

YOU SAID: Given the inability of iTunes to move artwork around when relocating files, the fact that it uses a maximum of 40 characters for file and folder names, and it uses underscores for all characters that cannot be used in a folder path, I choose long ago not to rely on iTunes to organize my media folder. At first I moved files by hand or used MediaMonkey's FilenameFromTag tool, either fixing broken links or removing and then reimporting the broken items, but that loses all sorts of useful metadata such as rating, play count, and playlist membership as I am sure you are aware. Again to make things easier, consistent, and reliable, I developed another script, a slightly personalized version of CustomRenamer, which I think has better rules, and also manages any folder artwork, so using this to update my files after making changes means I don't have to rely on CleanDeadArt for housekeeping duties. I don't generally recommend this approach to others, but if you're coming from a place where you've certain ideas about the way that you've set out your media then it is worth mentioning. If you're going to use your own layout then I recommend that you at least follow the general structure of one folder per artist, containing one folder per album. Alternatively you can, once your upgrade is complete, make sure that the iTunes Media folder is set to the folder that contains all of your content, turn on Keep iTunes Media folder organized, let iTunes do its thing, and then use CleanDeadArt to clean up.

ME: :  I have a pretty good understanding of what you mean here but am not sure exactly which script to use.  And a question:  My iTunes library has songs purchased from Apple store on my C: drive where iTunes My Music is located.  I also have files on an "I:" drive (eye) that contains all the other music.  So when you say to set iTunes media folder that contains all your content - are you suggesting I move any purchased content to this drive (I:) so it's all on one drive?  So every time I

purchases anything from Apple, I have to then move it as it defaults to the C: My Music folder. 

YOU SAID:  In an earlier post; "I didn't. The script started importing metadata for the original entry in the library, discovered that the 01 Take On Me.mp3 file was no longer in the folder, then looked for other files in the folder of the form 01 Take On Me.<ext> with the options of .m4a, .mp3, .aif, .aiff, and .wav. Once it found a file called 01 Take On Me.m4a it connected iTunes to that, then proceeded to restore the original archived metadata, including lyrics and artwork. This is what you've asked for."

ME: This goes against what I thought I was to do.  What I've been doing is highlighting the 160 track, then moving it out and moving the new track into the folder the 160 was in. Then I run the EI script again by dragging the .txt file onto it.  Are you saying I should add the file(s) to the library so that there would still be two versions in essence: The original 160 will still show (but iTunes won't know where to find it) but when I point to the new version, I then delete the 160 version?

BTW, I did find the script version by opening in Notepad. Thanks.

Weird. I did it again and all worked! The ID3 tag info is all there in both iTunes and Windows. What I did discover - which may have mucked this up earlier today - was that I had left the "same artist/title" Lossless version inside the same folder as

the 160 was (even though I moved the 160 out). But I am 100% certain that I could not drag & drop the .txt file on the script. It did work this time. It took longer to run, which is fine, and more data output was showing afterwards.

The one thing that I did - which may have made a difference - is that I created a new folder and put your updated EI script in in. It was the only item in that folder. When I ran the script, the .txt and jpg were put in there so now there are three items.

Here is the successful outcome in Windows. (no BB in comments simply means there was no "chart data"

for this song, which is what is says in iTunes under the Get Info tab).

And all the proper info remains in iTunes with the new version as well.

So yay! I think you've solved this. CONGRATS!

Okay, so now do I remove the .txt and jpg from that folder (it should be okay, right? I can always replicate if I need to).

The updated, improved version plays fine and everything is there. I have no idea why this wouldn't work earlier today.

And you're right to keep things focused. So we've crossed a MAJOR milestone here. Anxious to get moving.

Hi. I'm following up from last week. I am ready to address all these album artwork/folder issues scattered through all these folders tied to itunes. Here's a reminder of what many of these folders look like:

And many instances where I can see the wrong art inside the folder on a song, even though it's correct in iTunes. So I want to clean out or fix this before I do all the conversions and run your script. I've spent the past week doing all the pruning of my library.

Here's something interesting as well; I had created a wav file on a song I added to the library and then converted it using my ID3 tagging software (perhaps that's been the issue all along?). So here's two instances of that song. Notice how it put a Tom Petty album cover on it, even though - at the time I did the tagging - it didn't have artwork on it yet.

(The reason there's two instances of this is that I had mistakenly put the song title first, followed by the artist. So I redid that is all. Anyway, it doesn't really matter except to say that this happens on several titles - though many have the right ones.

I was hoping you had some time to help me out with that. I deeply appreciate your major awesome help to this point.

Oh, and I did also want to ask you about your playlist script. I believe that likely exports all the playlists at once so you don't have to do them one-at-a-time? I have literally nearly a thousand playlists.

Thanks as always!

Good to hear back from you. I hope all is well.

Thank you for your reply.

Sure, if you could add removing the folder.jpg to your script, that would be good. Let me know when you might have that (as I'll likely wait to run that until you add that?).

It sounds like all these image files can be removed, either by hand or your scripts?

I have some music purchased from iTunes which is on the C: drive (but only a handful of titles). All the other music is on a different internal HD in various folders. Does running the script look at this by "drive" or do you point to specific folder(s)?

I'll download your updated CleanDeadArt script.

Will doing any of this remove art from the existing files (that is correct or not)? I spent the past week updating a ton of files that didn't have album art. I used iTunes Store when available, or just copied or dragged in images from a couple sites that house artist and album info. As I've gone over some songs in various folders, I'll see most have the right art, but every now and then a song has the wrong one - even though the right one shows in iTunes. This is what I'm attempting to clean up as well. Will running the script or removing all these images (not the songs) sitting in folders help the song be associated with the right artwork if you follow?

Fo example, let's say I have a Madonna song in a folder but it's showing a Tom Petty album cover within windows - but in iTunes the Madonna art is correct. If I run your script, when it cleans out the artwork junk sitting in folders, will the Madonna song get the right art showing after all this art is deleted? I'm assuming the Tom Petty artwork is one of those floating in the explorer folder for no reason (one of hundreds depending on the folder). That's just a made up example but it's the situation at hand. (I hope I'm explaining this okay and not confusing you).

You mentioned something earlier about not using art from iTunes Store? I don't recall what you said. Should I not use art from iTunes Store onto songs? I've added hundreds in the past week by using the store.

I'll get to work on this today.

When you have time, I'd really appreciate a reply on your playlist script. My assumption is it exports all of them en masses instead of one at a time as has to be done now?

thanks so much!!! I couldn't be where I am without your help. It's just been amazing!

Hi!

YOU SAID: If you use my other script to upsample your content it is going to ensure that all the new copies have embedded art.

ME: I'm sorry, which script is that, and what do you mean that "all the new copies have embedded art?"

YOU SAID: When iTunes fetches artwork it only downloads an image to store in its cache. That image isn't automatically written to the tag, so iTunes may show the correct image, but Explorer can show a generic icon, or perhaps something unrelated due to the dbPoweramp shell extension. You can copy the image and then paste into the top left corner to embed in the track, or use another of my scripts.

ME: I don't think this is due to the dB shell. You may be right, but I could restore to a time in windows I set before installing and see what that looks like. I'm not sure what you mean on your last sentence. Sorry.

As for dBPoweramp, it does have an option to view ID3 and it's interesting that it doesn't show any album cover here but Windows displays it (you just can't see underneath the layover).

But look what happens when I paste the image into iTunes:

So there is no art associated with iTunes (as you suggest) but it screws up elsewhere when I use Plex for example.

Interesting, there is something funky  going on. I took note on a song that had been gathered by iTunes, the artwork I mean, for a specific song.

I checked the folder and it had a wrong image on it. I then deleted the image in itunes for the song and saved it.  But it is still showing the album art.  I checked the song in windows and it's got the wrong image on it still.

It's almost as though every artwork I used iTunes for as I pruned my library, has the wrong image. But if I drag & dropped from

another source, or copied and pasted into the song, then windows will show the image correctly.

See the image of the Wang Chung.  Here it is in iTunes AFTER I deleted it from the Artwork tab and clicked OK.

Adding more from last post...

And here it is in Windows:

Now, here it is in Windows fter pasting the image - and not using iTunes. 

It removed the association with the wrong album (Aerosmith)

and displays this properly now.  So -

there seems to be a major problem with iTunes as the culprit.  Sad because I've literally grabbed hundreds

and hundreds of images over the past week while pruning the library. 

Just to test, I set up this folder in PLEX and wrong art is

showing up on some titles as well (I used a small, but legitimate folder for

testing). 

I did run your script for the CleanDeadArt and it successfully removed all but the Folder.jpg. (I hadn't seen your update

yet).  However, the images are wrong on many - with one album cover dominating the folder I used to test (backed up

first).  That seems to be the case with many.  In fact, look at this. Look at these songs - they all have the wrong artwork.

I'm at a complete loss as to what to do next. Even if I went to the painstaking task of starting over, the songs in Windows Explorer would still have this bad art on them, wouldn't they?

And running your script did remove a number of elements as intended, but it still left wrong album covers on many of the songs - but those were wrong already in those cases. And this folder is probably 10 years old with the songs in it. Very strange.

What would you advise? Should I run one of your Artwork scripts of some fashion not done yet?  Should I try a third-party tool to update artwork? Is there any way to tell which songs have itunes artwork from non-iTunes? (doubtful I'm sure).

Wow, what a mess.