Bad bug with ID3 tags of different case for same artist
My itunes files and music library are on a different drive than my boot drive. It is an internal drive (always on) in my Mac Pro at /Volumes/Media1/iTunes with music library at /Volumes/Media1/iTunes/iTunes Music. iTunes is setup to automatically keep it organized and copy files to the media folder when adding. It has been this way for years, never a problem.
Just recently, and I think this may have coincided (but I'm not sure) with a 10.6.5 Snow Leopard update, my music started disappearing! The entries were still in the library, but with the missing exclamation mark in itunes with it reporting that it couldn't find the files. But only certain artists. After searching my computer, I found the missing files it at the same path, but on my boot drive, at /Media1/iTunes/iTunes Music/<missing artist>!
Trying to add these files back to my library would work briefly, but then they would magically disappear out of /Volumes/Media1/iTunes/iTunes Music and go back to /Media1/iTunes/iTunes Music/
I figured out the one thing the different artists that had this behavior had in common - some of the ID3 tags for the same artist, which are the basis for organization, were in different cases. I think there is a weird case sensitivity bug that is breaking things. When I add back only those songs for an artist with ID3 tags for the artist of the same case, the behaviour stops.
I'm posting less looking for an answer and more to raise visibility and hope this gets a fix.
Example entries from my iTunes Library.xml, notice how the 'k' in OutKast is a different case in the entries.
<key>Artist</key><string>OutKast</string>
<key>Location</key><string> file://localhost/Volumes/Media1/iTunes/iTunes%20Music/OutKast/Speakerboxxx,%20Th e%20Love%20Below%20(Disc%202)/13%20Pink%20&%20Blue.mp3</string>
<key>Artist</key><string>Outkast</string>
<key>Location</key><string> file://localhost/Volumes/Media1/iTunes/iTunes%20Music/Outkast/Aquemini/12%20Spot tieOttieDopaliscious.mp3</string>
Just recently, and I think this may have coincided (but I'm not sure) with a 10.6.5 Snow Leopard update, my music started disappearing! The entries were still in the library, but with the missing exclamation mark in itunes with it reporting that it couldn't find the files. But only certain artists. After searching my computer, I found the missing files it at the same path, but on my boot drive, at /Media1/iTunes/iTunes Music/<missing artist>!
Trying to add these files back to my library would work briefly, but then they would magically disappear out of /Volumes/Media1/iTunes/iTunes Music and go back to /Media1/iTunes/iTunes Music/
I figured out the one thing the different artists that had this behavior had in common - some of the ID3 tags for the same artist, which are the basis for organization, were in different cases. I think there is a weird case sensitivity bug that is breaking things. When I add back only those songs for an artist with ID3 tags for the artist of the same case, the behaviour stops.
I'm posting less looking for an answer and more to raise visibility and hope this gets a fix.
Example entries from my iTunes Library.xml, notice how the 'k' in OutKast is a different case in the entries.
<key>Artist</key><string>OutKast</string>
<key>Location</key><string> file://localhost/Volumes/Media1/iTunes/iTunes%20Music/OutKast/Speakerboxxx,%20Th e%20Love%20Below%20(Disc%202)/13%20Pink%20&%20Blue.mp3</string>
<key>Artist</key><string>Outkast</string>
<key>Location</key><string> file://localhost/Volumes/Media1/iTunes/iTunes%20Music/Outkast/Aquemini/12%20Spot tieOttieDopaliscious.mp3</string>
Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.5), NA