iTunes metadata and artwork

I had archived a number of things you helped me out with. (turingtest2). One was "exportimport" script. I tried clicking the link in an old posting and it comes up with a 404 error. Is there a way that could be reposted here?

Also had help in trying to maintain the metadata and album art when replacing files in itunes. I got a few different scripts ( Create Folder Art, Update Tag Info, Sort Date Added and then a few different Date Arranger scripts). I had instructions on the order of how to make sure the album art stays on the file but my notes appear to be incomplete as I don't recall the order/steps necessary for that. I believe it was the create folder art script but the sequence of that is what I've forgotten.

I know itunes is not viable much these days but what I am trying to do is replace all the existing titles in my library that are mp3 160 baud with either 320, or even wav, AIFF or FLAC (perhaps AAC).

It seems no matter what I do, I cannot get it to work properly despite all the wonderful guidance you provided. So here's the gist of what I'm attempting.

Use the newer, high quality versions of the same song for all the songs in the library.
Keep all the same information already on the file. This includes the rating, genre, album art, comments, composer, etc. All the metadata that's on the original file.

So each song will just be the newer, better quality version. My plan is to use AIFF or FLAC files as technology seems to be improved to handle these. But if AAC Apple Lossless is the better option, I can do that. But I do want the best possible quality as space is no issue these days (hard-drives).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Posted on Aug 27, 2020 1:15 PM

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turingtest2

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Posted on Sep 1, 2020 3:49 PM

Hi,

I've updated ExportImport to capture artwork. This is the easier tweak. When running in export mode an image is created for each unique album and saved in same folder as the script in the form <Artist> - <Album>.jpg and another line is added to the exported information for that track. In the import phase the current file is checked to see it it has art, and if not, and if there is an image at the saved path, then it is inserted. As a test I used the script to export data for 27 tracks from three albums. I then removed the artwork and used the import mode to restore the artwork.

So step by step:

Select some tracks that you want to upgrade in iTunes.
Run the ExportImport script.
Replace the low resolution files with your higher rate conversions, in the same file format, and at the same paths.
Drag and drop the Export Import [<Date> <Time>].txt file that was created onto the ExportImport script.
Review the updated files in the library and Explorer to check that all the properties have been restored, artwork embedded, etc.

After reviewing the code for the script I've seen how you can use it to upgrade, for example, mp3 to Apple Lossless. Step 3.1 would be to edit the exported data file in a text editor and perform a search and replace operation to change .mp3 to .m4a before saving the file. As long as you've removed the .mp3 files the script will attempt to relink iTunes to the path specified in the text file.

I should be able to add in something more elegant during the import phase that checks for the existence of a file at the location noted during export of <path>.ext and, if it isn't there, looks to see if there is a file with another valid extension from the list <path>.aif, <path>.mp3, <path>.m4a, <path>.wav, etc. If a potential match is found the script can then relink iTunes to that file before restoring the other properties.

tt2

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Oct 1, 2020 10:20 AM in response to turingtest2

Terrific. It cleared up about 20GB of memory on my SSD C: drive.

I also tested CustomRenamer on a song file where I can't upsample the audio. That worked. And BTW, it also put the album on it properly (when it was on the other new MUSIC Drive).

A quick question for you; I assume the movies I have in iTunes will work in the same manner? I can just create a MOVIES folder and use CR for those as well as the script is run? No upsampling to be done obviously and there's no album to speak of. I'm not sure what is the right naming structure for that but perhaps you have some ideas. For example, I could put album titles on all the Seinfeld episodes I burned. Make another folder for all the Perry Mason episodes and so forth and these would reside under the main MOVIES folder on the new Drive? Seems to make sense?

I'm going to clean out some artwork today and, time permitting, might also run the EmbedArtwork script.

I'm also organizing all the folders so I have a plan on those needing converting and those that don't. Luckily, like I said, at least those I can't upsampled are in same-folders so I shouldn't have to do too much work there either.

Next would be to start the conversions into ALAC and I should be seeing light at the end of the tunnel. Wow, the work you have saved me and the guidance along the way is just spectacular.

If you have any thoughts here on this, please let me know. Thanks!

turingtest2

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Oct 2, 2020 3:12 AM in response to William Richards3

William Richards3 wrote:

An update on the folder naming structure, this is from the Plex website on proper naming structure.

<snip>

Would love your input. Thanks!

Hopefully all addressed in the previous post.

tt2

Oct 2, 2020 9:21 AM in response to turingtest2

Thank you for that input. I was able to see the proper album covers expected:

And I checked naming of the files and all look consistent to me. See if you notice something that maybe I missed. I didn't change anything today yet.

As for repairing security permissions, I had a question. I have gone to this spot and wondered if I should set full control to both of the first two on the list. Also the checkbox you point out in the article is available for me to check. Once you confirm what to do here, I will do accordingly. You'll notice administrators shows full control as well.

turingtest2

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Oct 2, 2020 10:27 AM in response to William Richards3

William Richards3 wrote:

YOU SAID: You should really be able to process the entire drive in one hit once you're happy with the script's behaviour. No need to work one folder at a time.

ME: I'm not clear on this. Are you saying that if all the folders are located within, say the "I" drive, that I can just click the I drive as the location when the script first ones and it will go through all the folders one after another? Sorry, I'm not totally clear.

Precisely so. You pick a top level folder and run the script. It recursively scans all the subfolders of that folder, going deepest first so that if it cleans out all unwanted art from a given folder leaving nothing useful behind it can remove the folder too. As it goes back up the tree it can clean up any other folders that become empty so that at the end you only have those folders that contain media, or something other than artwork, all empty folders are removed, as are all WMP style images, Thumbs.db, .DS_Store or ._* files.

As for the MusicBrainz tagger, I've not used obviously. I may try it and see how it works (I'll test on the other test computer). I'm with you, I usually try to do it on my own.

And BTW, back to those few Cheech & Chong files that the artwork didn't show in Windows; once I do any adjustment on the permissions, should I run the script again? Makes sense. I was just seeing what to do there.

Yes, should you find that you or SYSTEM don't have full access then grant that, and make sure they're not marked as read only. Might be worth checking iTunes > Get Info > Options tab and seeing what the id3 tag is declared as.

tt2

turingtest2

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Oct 2, 2020 6:17 PM in response to William Richards3

William Richards3 wrote:

YOU SAID: Yes, should you find that you or SYSTEM don't have full access then grant that, and make sure they're not marked as read only. Might be worth checking iTunes > Get Info > Options tab and seeing what the id3 tag is declared as.

ME: Do you mean I should do this if - after running EmbedArtwork and the image doesn't show up - I should see what id3 tag it is? Or do you mean something else. Most I'm seeing are V2.3. I see some v2.2, but just in skipping around randomly, most seem to be v2.3. Is there a way to view this, much like turning on the description column? And is there anything I need to do with this?

If after using EmbediTunesArt again you notice that selected tracks that should have art added have not then it would be worth checking permissions on individual files and ensuring that id3 tag is not none. Also make sure not to be using AirPlay when updating tags. See how you get on, and should it be an ongoing issue I'll make some tweaks to the code so that it might check for successful image insertion and report a problem if it failed.

tt2

turingtest2

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Oct 2, 2020 6:42 PM in response to William Richards3

William Richards3 wrote:

Related to Plex and the naming structure for folders/files - as I believe I mentioned, I still haven't done that DateArranger script you provided during our last time together back in early 2000. With Plex or any of these things I'm doing, would you advise changing that up still? Currently I have all "comments" where I've input chart peak position as

mm-dd-yyyy

Let me know. Have a terrific weekend and thank you again so much!!

Oh wow, 2011, that was some time ago! When I export a playlist and then open in… - Apple Community. Entirely up to you as to whether that script still does anything useful for you. I haven't gone back over the whole thread but a quick peek at the script suggests that it only impacts data in your comments field, so it is going to be independent of the things we've been talking about here.

tt2

Oct 3, 2020 2:01 PM in response to turingtest2

YOU SAID: You're showing the multiple item dialog so some fields aren't shown. You should not fill in Track Number, Episode ID, or Episode Number in this mode.

ME: What do you mean by my showing the multiple item dialog? Sorry. I'm not sure what mode you're referring to.

YOU SAID: Personally on the Info tab I would set Album as Seinfeld rather than Season 1 (and Album Artist too). If I was going all in, which I might not do if I only have a few episodes or a single season, then I probably refer to a Wikipedia episode guide like this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Seinfeld_episodes to make sure I have all of the details correct. With that in mind for the first episode I'd enter the name on the Info tab as The Seinfeld Chronicles and also enter the track number as 1 of 180 and the disc number as 1 of 9. On the Video tab the Episode ID would be s01e001 and the Episode Number would be 1.

ME: So if there are only say 10-12 episodes in a season (like Seinfeld), I would still use S01e001 - allowing for 999 theoretically?

YOU SAID: I'd enter the name on the Info tab as The Seinfeld Chronicle

ME: You mean the name, like the name of a song I suspect, right? Just making sure.

What about a movie? Did you see my question(s) on that?

Thanks so much as always!

turingtest2

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Oct 3, 2020 2:37 PM in response to William Richards3

William Richards3 wrote:

ME: The iTunes Match thing is another $25 (not a big deal). The concern I have there is I read (I thought) that, much like Google and Amazon did - if you have a song, they just use their version, and then down-sample the quality (not sure I'm right of course). When I burned all my CDs, I used software where I eliminated trailing silence. Nothing bothers me more than having a song end and having a few seconds before the actual file ends. Trimming the trailing silence using the software I used, allows the song to end and the next one plays, like you'd hear on a radio station. So that's another concern of mine. Am I right about that? I want MY music, period. :)

As long as you maintain local copies of all your own content there isn't much to fear from iTunes Match, or Apple Music, provided they add something that you actually want. I have a primary library with all my content, and a secondary iCloud library with Apple Music that lets me access all of that library on my iPhone, iPad, HomePods, and Apple TV (albeit in some cases I may get Apple's 256k version of my track rather than my own on that device). The iCloud library is kept in sync automatically across three computers, and because I'm using Apple Music I can also add in almost anything from the iTunes Store on demand, which can be fun. Without Apple Music it would be harder (but certainly not impossible) to listen to my ripped music on my HomePods. I wouldn't be able to simply ask Siri to play anything whether from my ripped music, or content I've not even got in my library, which is what I can do now.

YOU SAID: Apple TV can access your purchase history or your iCloud Music Library if you have Apple Music or iTunes Match. The computers app can also be used to access a Home Sharing library running on a computer.

ME: On my Apple TV, I can see my purchased music and nothing more as I said. I haven't found a way to access a home share - which is how I have my itunes set up (share my library on my local network). But I don't know how to get that to show on Apple TV/iTunes Music. Again, I think it comes back to that code I mentioned?

See Use Home Sharing to share media from a computer to other devices - Apple Support. I don't think two-factor authentication is required for Home Sharing, but I could be wrong. That said iTunes 10.7 is too old to talk to the iTunes Store properly (TLS 1.0 is no longer supported) so it might that which stops you setting up Home Sharing.

tt2

turingtest2

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Oct 3, 2020 2:59 PM in response to William Richards3

William Richards3 wrote:

YOU SAID: You're showing the multiple item dialog so some fields aren't shown. You should not fill in Track Number, Episode ID, or Episode Number in this mode.

ME: What do you mean by my showing the multiple item dialog? Sorry. I'm not sure what mode you're referring to.

With multiple items selected entering Track Number, Episode ID or Episode Number is likely to set multiple items to the same value when that isn't what you really want to happen.

YOU SAID: Personally on the Info tab I would set Album as Seinfeld rather than Season 1 (and Album Artist too). If I was going all in, which I might not do if I only have a few episodes or a single season, then I probably refer to a Wikipedia episode guide like this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Seinfeld_episodes to make sure I have all of the details correct. With that in mind for the first episode I'd enter the name on the Info tab as The Seinfeld Chronicles and also enter the track number as 1 of 180 and the disc number as 1 of 9. On the Video tab the Episode ID would be s01e001 and the Episode Number would be 1.

ME: So if there are only say 10-12 episodes in a season (like Seinfeld), I would still use S01e001 - allowing for 999 theoretically?

There are 180 episodes of Seinfeld altogether, and I like to number them using the overall numbers rather than the number within that season. (I take the same approach with multi-disc albums.) The convention is to use the pattern s01e01 even when there are fewer than 10 seasons or 10 episodes within a season. These conventions lead to episodes being in order when sorted by episode ID, or filename if the filename begins with the episode ID.

YOU SAID: I'd enter the name on the Info tab as The Seinfeld Chronicle

ME: You mean the name, like the name of a song I suspect, right? Just making sure.

Yes, for TV Shows Name should be the episode title.

What about a movie? Did you see my question(s) on that?

I think so.

tt2

Oct 3, 2020 3:51 PM in response to turingtest2

YOU SAID: CleanDeadArt preserves Folder.jpg images in folder that have media items. This is also why I use a structure that has one album, movie, TV show, audiobook, etc. per folder. I get a visual representation of what a folder contains.

ME: The folder.jpg image was removed from each folder as I ran that script Thursday. On some folders, where I had so few titles, I could go through and delete on my own, I did that. I thought I remembered you saying I could delete those as well. And as the CleanDeadArt was removing them, I did as well. So should I go through all the folders and put that back in? Won't be that big of a deal. Or are you referring to just movies, audiobooks or TV shows?

Oct 3, 2020 4:05 PM in response to turingtest2

YOU SAID: With multiple items selected entering Track Number, Episode ID or Episode Number is likely to set multiple items to the same value when that isn't what you really want to happen. With multiple items selected entering Track Number, Episode ID or Episode Number is likely to set multiple items to the same value when that isn't what you really want to happen.

ME: That must be version 12 thing? I don't see that on 10.7. (I just shut off the other computer. I can look later). And if it's not related to version 12, I'm not seeing how that shows up. And not sure I understand the multiple items to the same value (though in general I know what you mean - I'm just not exactly sure how I'd get there by mistake).

YOU SAID: There are 180 episodes of Seinfeld altogether, and I like to number them using the overall numbers rather than the number within that season. (I take the same approach with multi-disc albums.) The convention is to use the pattern s01e01 even when there are fewer than 10 seasons or 10 episodes within a season. These conventions lead to episodes being in order when sorted by episode ID, or filename if the filename begins with the episode ID.

ME: Oh I see, I understand what you mean. That makes total sense. I like that approach.

THANKS!

turingtest2

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Oct 3, 2020 4:42 PM in response to William Richards3

Siri can work on your iPhone to call up content. Smart speakers are obviously a different thing. I don't think Amazon's or Google's devices integrate with iTunes. Unless you're thinking of getting into HomePod I don't think you need to worry about Apple Music or iTunes Match at this stage. I'd just focus on your upsampling project.

tt2

Oct 6, 2020 5:21 PM in response to turingtest2

In this particular case, I used a file that had been converted a few years ago at least. And this wasn't the CustomRenamer script. I just wanted to exchange one 160 file with a different one. I used ExportImport script(s).

Does my flow look okay?

Oct 6, 2020 5:23 PM in response to turingtest2

By the way, somewhere in our exchange in the past couple of months, I reported this same type of error I think. It would take quite a while to go through to find. Maybe you have a way that's easier on your end though I doubt that matters.

Thanks as always.

Oct 7, 2020 9:19 AM in response to turingtest2

I tried this again today. I think I know what I might have done wrong yesterday. It worked fine today.

I'm working my way through pruning the library. I have so many versions of songs in some instances. For example, I have/had 10 versions of The Beatles - Get Back between the various releases. Not sure you're a fan, but that's the kind of thing that just became so diluted in my library so I'm painfully going through that process. Also same thing for several other artists with alternate versions. I'm trying to use just those versions that make the most sense. While I could have an alternate library in those cases perhaps, it's not worth the effort frankly.

Anyway, all was good with the Export/Import today. Thanks!

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iTunes metadata and artwork