Music Files Appearing as Kind = PDF

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Music Files Appearing as Kind = PDF

SUPER WEIRD thing happening to my local music library: just discovered nearly 3k tracks that somehow now appear as PDFs in the "Kind" column of the Music interface. All of them were encoded as music files (almost all ALAC), and they actually play (at least so far) but what could the explanation for this craziness be? An even crazier aspect is that every single track from artists following the "Various Artists" designation to the end of the alphabet (symbols/numbers) reads as file-type PDF, but it doesn't appear anywhere else prior to "Various Artists." When I look in the drive where the actual files are stored they're all still M4A (or mp3, or whatever) and there's not a PDF in sight (spotlight search doesn't bring up any of the impacted tracks). So why is the Music program looking at these files and seeing them as PDFs and how can I get it to stop? Thanks in advance.

Posted on Jan 3, 2022 12:43 PM

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Answer 1

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turingtest2

Level 10

278,015 points

Jan 5, 2022 11:00 AM in response to dunderhead

My guess would be some kind of corruption when, presumably, your iTunes library was updated to Music. If you still have an iTunes Library.itl file kicking around you could option-start-Music, open the .itl file, and save the converted library on a new path. See if it also has the PDF issue. If not it might be easier to bring this version of the library up to date with the contents of your media folder than repair the old one. Alternatively you can switch back if there is no improvement.

tt2

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

278,015 points

Jan 3, 2022 1:37 PM in response to dunderhead

Try holding down option+command as you launch Music to open it in safe mode. This might potentially fix such issues.

tt2

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

278,015 points

Jan 5, 2022 4:02 AM in response to dunderhead

When did you first notice this issue? Is it possible to restore an older version of the library from Time Machine? If you recently upgraded to Catalina or later from something earlier you could possibly reopen and convert your old iTunes Library.itl file.

tt2

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Answer 4

turingtest2

Level 10

278,015 points

Jan 5, 2022 11:15 AM in response to dunderhead

File > Add to Library > {select media folder} should import any new tracks not already known to the library. You might have to redo recent changes to metadata or playlists.

tt2

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Answer 5

dunderhead Author

Level 1

10 points

Jan 5, 2022 10:51 AM in response to turingtest2

I just noticed it so I'm unsure when it appeared, and there's no real way to tell since I can't look at the Music interface to find when it changed in TM as far as I know. Assuming the issue is relatively old and I've just seen it, I don't want to lose all the changes that have taken place in the library over that timeframe.

But as a bona fide expert in iTunes/Music (you've helped me greatly in the past), is this just a weird glitch? Why is it seeing files this way (and only this particular section of the artist alphabet) when Music doesn't even recognize PDF as a music file kind? I seem to recall that there was a "repair library" feature that's no longer there, but can I use the organize/consolidate feature without duplicating everything to maybe reconnect the library with the actual file? It's not a huge deal b/c everything plays and the original files haven't been changed but I'm concerned that it's a symptom of some deeper corruption and if it starts to eat my library I'll go insane.

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