FixLinks - an AppleScript to repair broken links in Music

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Rinco11 Author

Level 1

4 points

FixLinks - an AppleScript to repair broken links in Music

I am using this script by @turingtest2 to rebuild my music library after my drive /+ time machines failed.

FixLinks - an AppleScript to repair broke… - Apple Community

Current status my end:

I have salvaged the .musiclibrary file.

I have salvaged my music although It is from a USB that has been processed in another software. Therefore on tracks where the album field is blank there is a subfolder called 'unknownalbum'. It also truncates all file names to 48 characters

My iTunes library didn't work this way it expects files to be in the file under the artist name and not one level lower in a folder called 'unknownalbum' and also is looking for the full non truncated name

When I run the script I get a message pop up saying that the media cannot be found although the file path the script has given in the message is now corrected all bar the truncated name

What can I tweak to bypass this message and apply a truncation rule?

Running Catalina 10.15.17

Posted on Oct 15, 2022 1:31 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

turingtest2

Level 10

278,263 points

Oct 15, 2022 2:36 PM in response to Rinco11

Hi,

I'm not quite clear where your Unknown Album tracks are, a folder called UnknownAlbum (without a space) or in the main artist folder? Either way you can adjust this line to match your layout for the first issue, or indeed other special cases with album titles:

if theAlbum = "" then set theAlbum to "Unknown Album"

If there is no separate album folder in the layout at all then this line:

set newPath to theArtist & "/" & theAlbum & "/" & theFile

should be edited to:

set newPath to theArtist & "/" & theFile -- Option for no album folder

To deal with the truncated filenames insert this block:

if length of theFile > 44 then

set theFile to text 1 thru 44 of theFile

end if

immediately before this line:

-- extend this pattern as required

(44 because we're going to add a 4-letter file extension to get to your count of 48, again one could tweak as needed.)

I haven't actually tried out these changes live so it is possible I've missed something. AppleScript isn't the main language I work in. Let me know how you get on and if needs be I'll set things up in parallel here so I can reproduce the conditions properly for testing.

tt2

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Answer 2

turingtest2

Level 10

278,263 points

Oct 22, 2022 11:47 AM in response to Rinco11

Hi,

Following some feedback elsewhere I've updated the script to handle leading/trailing spaces/periods better and added a new maxLen parameter that will be easier to adjust for anyone else with a similar issue to yours, particularly those fixing up a library brought over from Windows.

tt2

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Answer 3

Rinco11 Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 15, 2022 3:02 PM in response to Rinco11

-- Dont worry I found it myself- I set Showmissing to false! :)

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Answer 4

Rinco11 Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 15, 2022 2:57 PM in response to turingtest2

Thanks for the quick reply,

The 'UnknownAlbum' is within the main artist folder. So amended

if theAlbum = "" then set theAlbum to "Unknown Album"

to

if theAlbum = "" then set theAlbum to "UnknownAlbum"

Added the truncate line also and appears to be working like a charm now. Thank you!!

I have a lot of files (5k+) to process through can you tell me the line to decativate the 'file not found at' popup showing as I am getting a few where it can't find the song because I have changed the artist name in music app for whatever reason. I can find these manually afterwards

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Answer 5

turingtest2

Level 10

278,263 points

Oct 15, 2022 3:12 PM in response to Rinco11

Good news. I'm sure we can deal with any other layout quirks if needed in a similar fashion.

Good call on showMissing, though answering No at the prompt should stop it popping up for the rest of the current run.

tt2

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Answer 6

Rinco11 Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 26, 2022 12:14 PM in response to turingtest2

Tried this script, Seems to crash and doesn't like lots of files

https://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=reembedartwork

This script attached works but you have to go one by one! Can't be doing that for 9000 files unless I can make up a script in automator..

https://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=mxcoverscope

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Answer 7

Rinco11 Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 17, 2022 12:01 PM in response to turingtest2

All done the script picked up around 4200 of the mismatches fine. I did the other 800 manually as there were a lot of quirks causing it to trip up. Nice way to spend an afternoon!

Thank you for writing this script tt2 it has saved me weeks of work and pain.

Only issue with the library / music app now is that all album art is showing ok when I select 'get info' but if I'm playing a track it doesn't appear in the top viewer anymore. Nor anywhere else where it is displayed only in 'get info'

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Answer 8

turingtest2

Level 10

278,263 points

Oct 17, 2022 12:25 PM in response to Rinco11

As long as the art shows somewhere you should be able to copy it, then paste back to the track or album to refresh the cache. Might be time for another script. There are a couple of candidates at https://dougscripts.com/ but nothing, I think, that quite covers it in one pass, nor is free to use.

tt2

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Answer 9

turingtest2

Level 10

278,263 points

Oct 26, 2022 2:00 PM in response to Rinco11

Hmm. OK. I might see if I can make one that works more like my Windows version.

tt2

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