My iTunes preferences/media folder location keeps going to default

William Richards3 wrote:

Hi!

I noticed that songs that were unchecked in my iTunes library (so they don't copy to my iPod or play in my library) ended up on Plex. Do you know how I might keep those from getting onto Plex?

An example might be a song that's the same but one might have a different mix, or is better quality, but that I don't want to delete from my library.

Let me know your thoughts on my other few posts when time permits. As always, it's greatly appreciated!

Given that Plex doesn't appear to take notice of the checked/unchecked status you might have to use this method to make it ignore certain content: https://support.plex.tv/articles/201381883-special-keyword-file-folder-exclusion/. For example I use a .plexignore file to get Plex to ignore my iTunes DRM protected movies that Plex cannot play. You could potentially create a file that will get Plex to ignore specific files in particular folders such as your alternate versions, but that is going to require a fair bit of manual effort. Alternatively they mention that you can put a global ignore file in the root of the media folder. It might be possible to create a playlist of unchecked files in iTunes, export that as say a .m3u file, and then manipulate that to create a workable .plexignore file.

tt2

William Richards3 wrote:

Quick question, if I want to use Apple Music in a car down the road (I don't have a car with it yet), will it change all my music to lower baud as I've read? Will it replace my versions with theirs if same artist/title? I worked hard to edit the silence out of the ends of songs so I don't have the 2-3 (or more sometimes) silence at the end of tracks. My music fades and then it is immediately over - no waiting for the song to end in silence. Are there ways around this?

I have two iTunes libraries right now: 1) My "Y" mapped drive and 2) The volume1 NAS one. Can I use the mapped drive for Apple Music?

Any other things I should be aware of? How can I best protect MY music but get into that world such as Apple TV with that on it for example?

Thanks!!!

A subscription to Apple Music shouldn't cause any changes in your locally stored media. That said I do recall an occasional issue with purchases where the store version of metadata can reassert itself over local changes. The solution there is to hide the purchase from your purchase history and then your local matched/uploaded version of the metadata will rule. When working with a synced copy of the library on another computer or device you may occasionally find that matching is imperfect, e.g. the secondary library gets a clean copy of what was originally an explicit track.

Before starting a subscription you should take a complete backup of your library. You might want to test the waters with Apple Music by creating a separate library (which will initially include all of your purchases) and then selectively add content to that library. In my case I have an Apple Music library with about 10,000 tracks that syncs automatically between five computers, my iPhone and iPad, and is available to my Apple TVs and HomePods. I have a seperate primary library with about 65,000 tracks that includes content that I don't need to have everywhere such as alternate versions, dupes, interview tracks, stuff with missing/incomplete metadata, etc. As and when I feel the need I will add content from my primary library to the cloud library, and the cloud library also includes any Apple Music content that will stop working when I decide to cease my subscription.

When you have a subscription to Apple Music any content downloaded from the service goes into <Media Folder>\Apple Music. Apart from that it all works as normal. Each individual .itl file is optionally enabled for Apple Music/iCloud Music Library.

tt2

turingtest2 wrote:

... When working with a synced copy of the library on another computer or device you may occasionally find that matching is imperfect, e.g. the secondary library gets a clean copy of what was originally an explicit track.

Secondary libraries also typically get content in 256K AAC format, although potentially uploaded tracks might be delivered in the original format.

tt2

William Richards3 wrote:

<snip>

I missed that last sentence. After editing my XML file, I've been saving it simply as "iTunes Library.xml" or "iTunes Library (COPY).xml. Do you think it's critical that I name it as you indicate? Or don't you think it matters? As I was able to import playlists, I don't think that would or should matter but I wanted to ask you. And can you save a file with slashes in it? I tried doing so within the XML and also a Word document and it won't take it.

Now in Plex select the settings wrench, then Plugins and in the space for iTunes library XML path type in volume1/music1/iTunes Library.xml and save changes.

The actual name of the XML file is up to you, but it must correspond to the path you select in the Plex plugin screen if it is going to get imported by Plex.

You cannot use slash or backslash as characters within a filename as they are used as folder separator characters. Which one is in use depends on the file system.

tt2

William Richards3 wrote:

With so many album titles missing, I went back to the original MP3 files which I used to change over to the ALAC files. Using Export/Import, the data should have been carried over. I'm noticing that many of the album titles are on the original MP3 files but not on the ALAC files. I'm wondering how/why that happened? And if there's anything that can be done. I went to look at about ten files that Plex show as missing (and are missing on ALAC) and nearly every one had the album on the MP3 file ID3.

Is there a way to get the data onto these files. I'm up to the "K's" for artist's albums missing the name. It sure would be helpful if this data had stayed on the files. But because it didn't, Plex isn't seeing it either which makes sense.

Are the files in the correct album folder for each album, or have they ended up in an Unknown Album folder? If they are in the right folders you could potentially use the TagFromFilename script to restore the missing data, although that perhaps won't work so well if you have a custom naming scheme which I think you have. It might be possible to tweak the script so that it only tries to correct the album title.

Any script or other that you can think of that could be run? Plex shows 72 artists left with unknown album titles. Sometimes there are several within an artist which makes it quite a bit of work.

I also noticed some genres and ratings missing as well that were on the MP3s before I used Export/Import which didn't make it onto the ALAC in Windows. That said, the data for the artists/songs I'm checking is populating in iTunes on the ALAC so it did carry over there, it just didn't on the actual Windows files. And remember, the data was there before running the script so it should have carried over, right?

Any help here would be greatly appreciated!

I don't know of any way to do this except to go one-by-one in Plex. I'm wondering if I should do the same on the ALAC files now being utilized in my library.

No point making the edits in Plex, they don't get written back the file and the data may go missing next time you refresh the library. Fix it in iTunes, and it should carry over into Plex.

See the multiple tags section of Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows - Apple Community for a possible explanation. When there are multiple tags it is possible that some data is visible in Explorer, and even shown correctly in iTunes, but might be lost when editing or exporting metadata if a particular subroutine accesses the alternate tag. I cannot say for certain if that is what happened, but offhand is the only plausible mechanism that comes to mind.

tt2

William Richards3 wrote:

Adding to that, perhaps it is the CustomRenamer script where some metadata was lost?

Not that we can do anything about it, but I just mention because maybe it wasn't the E/I script?

CustomRenamer shouldn't change any metadata. It selectively moves files that aren't in the desired pattern and then relinks the library to the relocated files. I suppose if there was an existing discrepancy between the tag and the information in the library there is a small chance that iTunes would refresh its metadata after being reconnected, but I don't think that is how it works.

tt2

William Richards3 wrote:

Thanks for the input. It sounds like a lot more work than merits given that we're not talking about a lot of songs. I think I'll just find the duplicates in Plex and delete it that way - although maybe they'll get back into Plex each time I update the XML.

You could perhaps have a playlist in iTunes that notes what all this excluded content is, so that you can select and remove it from Plex after doing an import of the media folder and updating the playlists.

tt2

William Richards3 wrote:

Did I not post this next question? I thought I did but I'm not seeing it. Weird.

I have about 100 titles I purchased in iTunes store. They are in 128 AAC. I recall that iTunes removed the DRM from those songs and gave users the opportunity to get 256 AAC files (same songs) without charge, and with DRM removed. Am I right about that? I never did and now when I try to download any, it's saying I don't have any to download.

Do you know where/how I could get those upgraded fidelity files if, indeed iTunes/Apple allowed users to do it?

Is there a way I can remove the DRM from the 128 if not? I've done it by creating playlists and burning to CD and then making lossless version from there. They won't go on Plex with DRM as you know. So I've done that on all 100 or so songs but I'm much more interested in the improved fidelity.

Please let me know.

THANKS!

The iTunes Store stopped applying DRM in late 2009 if I recall correctly. Content purchased before that date remains in your purchase history unless removed by the rights holders. It will still be delivered in 128K protected AAC format. You can burn that to audio CD and rip back for a small loss of quality. For a while there was an upgrade scheme that allowed you to pay a fee to upgrade to 256K DRM-free versions but that no longer exists. Those with an iTunes Match subscription can have their purchases matched, remove the local copies, then download a 256K DRM-free version of the previously purchased tracks. These copies can be freely used thereafter but don't upgrade the copy in the purchase history. I've replaced all of mine where possible and then hidden the original purchases to avoid confusion. The odd track I couldn't replace that way I burned to CD and ripped back.

tt2

William Richards3 wrote:

<snip> (5000 char limit)

I was first working in Plex and was updating the missing album titles and had made my way through about 3/4ths of them - at which point I went into Windows Explorer and added the missing albums there (using ID3 tagging program). Then I would go to Plex and pick "update metadata" for the particular album and it would pick it up. So that saved me some time as I only had to enter it in one area.

As noted previously Plex does not write data back to tags. The corrections should be made in iTunes which does update the tag, then the updated content can be refreshed in Plex.

. Once I finished that work up, I then noticed quite a number of missing entries in Windows Explorer such as "Composer, Genre, Album Artist etc." Specifically I was working on "Composer" entries on songs in Windows Explorer AND in iTunes. (I use Composer field for my "seasonal" entries - Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall). What I noticed is that if I edited the songs in iTunes (Get Info), and put the entry on a song(s) there, it would come through into the Windows Explorer without my having to do that manually.

Again, update in iTunes, this should then show in Windows Explorer and when refreshed in Plex. In the unlikely event that updates to metadata in iTunes for mp3 files aren't reflected in Windows Explorer see my notes on multiple tags in Repair security permissions for iTunes for Windows - Apple Community.

I bring those two things up because Windows is picking changes up on missing fields not entered already in iTunes. Plex is picking up entries I make in Windows Exp. if I do "Refresh Metadata". So I'm wondering if there isn't some script that could force the information from iTunes (where the data DOES exist but hasn't come through to Windows) so I don't have to go through the arduous, and painfully slow task of manually doing editing as described above (Artist/Album/Song-by-song for any missing data). Think of it as Plex's "Refresh Metadata" kind of thing?

I tested this just now to prove whether this worked. I had a song with composer entry of "Spring." I had this open in Windows Exp. I then went to iTunes and edited it, changing Spring to "Winter." Windows Exp. picked it up without me having to do anything. So it now shows "Winter" in the ID tagging in Windows Exp.

So if Windows Exp. picks up a change I make like that, shouldn't there be a way to have a script that could take all the fields in iTunes and map it or carry it over to Windows Exp.?

If this could be done it would save me potentially weeks of time. What I can't understand is how one artist can have all the albums and songs there with 100% of the info from the ID tags I want on the songs, while another artist is missing everything but Artist and Title and not chart data, genre, etc., or missing even everything. If the data is in the XML file which I believe it is, could that be utilized in some manner? (I checked several Billy Joel songs as that was one artist who was missing all the chart data, composer, comment, genre, etc. but it was all there in the XML file).

Is this doable? I know you've mentioned that Repair Registry script which I've never used for one reason or another. My gut is telling me that isn't the solution here but maybe it is. If so, could you explain that again?

I'd sure appreciate it if this could be done. Perhaps taking the Export/Import in some fashion but tweaking it so songs stay but data is copied again onto the songs?

ExportImport can be used on the same set of songs the data was exported from without replacing them, although it shouldn't normally be necessary. It is only mp3 files with multiple tags, or no tag at all, where updating in iTunes might not get reflected in Windows Explorer.

tt2