I solved the problem by myself. It took some investigation, coding and debugging. I try to explain what I have done:
First of all some advice:
- Don't try this, if you can't code. It's better to ask someone to help you in front of your machine.
- Don't assume, that I can help you if something does not work. It's necessary to look at the results and the files and I can't do that.
- Try it step by step and of course backup your system and the iTunes-folder at first.
Now to the solution:
The key for the solution is the XML-tag Database ID in the file iTunes Music Library.xml.
I wrote a shell script with AWK and PERL to extract the Database ID and Location Key and saved them into a simple CSV-file.
shell-skript parseiTunesXML.sh:------------------------------------------------------------- ----
#!/bin/sh
if [ "$1" = "" ] ; then
echo "parseiTunesXML.sh: scans iTunes-XML-Files for IDs and location of tracks"
else
if [ "$1" = "all" ] ;then
MyInputfile='/Users/<USERNAME>/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music Library.xml'
else
MyInputfile=$1
fi
if [ "$2" = "" ] ; then
awk -f parseiTunesXML.txt "$MyInputfile"
else
MyOutputFile=$2
echo awk -f parseiTunesXML.txt "$MyInputfile" >$MyOutputFile
awk -f parseiTunesXML.txt "$MyInputfile" >$MyOutputFile.tmp
cat $MyOutputFile.tmp | perl -pe 's/%([0-9a-f]{2})/chr(hex($1))/eig' >$MyOutputFile
rm $MyOutputFile.tmp
fi
fi
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The skipt is envoked in Terminal with
./parseiTunesXML.sh all out.csv
It parses the iTunes Music Library.xml in the music folder of the user <USERNAME> (you have to change that, of course) with the AWK-file parseiTunesXML.txt. The location is urlencoded which is decoded through the following perl-command. I encountered some more problems with filenames having an ampersand '&' oder a semicolon ';'. I left these file out an first (I come back to them later).
The following AWK-file does the extraction of the files with one of theOldPath-constants in their location. You need to adapt these constants to your situation. But pay attention these constants are urlencoded-constants. So if you've got some umlauts in your old path you have to use the encoded version of your path. Take a look at your iTunes Music Library.xml - for example with TextEdit. Then you will see the different versions of the path's and you can easily adapt theOldPath-constants.
The AWK-script does not only the extraction of the OldPath. It exchanges the part of theOldPath with theNewPath-constant. Therefore the content of the out.csv is the should-be state.
awk-file parseiTunesXML.txt:-----------------------------------------------------
BEGIN {
locTrackID = 0;
locName = "undefined";
locArtist = "undefined";
locLocation = "unknown";
OFS = ";";
theOldPath1 = "file://localhost//Nas/audio/";
theOldPath2 = "file://localhost//nas/audio/";
theOldPath3 = "file://localhost//Nas/doc/";
theNewPath = "/Volumes/audio/";
}
END{}
function skipThisFile( path ) {
found = index(path, "&"); # ampersand
found = found + index(path, "%3B"); # semicolon
return found;
}
function getXMLValue( name, string ){
localValue = "";
leftPos = index( string, "<" name ">" );
if (leftPos >= 1) {
rightPos = index( string, "</" name ">" );
leftPos += length( name ) + 2;
localValue = substr(string, leftPos, rightPos-leftPos);
}
return localValue;
}
function getInteger( string ){
localValue = getXMLValue("integer", string);
return localValue;
}
function getString( string ){
localValue = getXMLValue("string", string);
return localValue;
}
function getKey( string ){
localValue = getXMLValue("key", string);
return localValue;
}
getKey($0)=="Track ID" { locTrackID = getInteger($0); }
getKey($0)=="Name" { locName = getString($0); }
getKey($0)=="Artist" { locArtist = getString($0); }
getKey($0)=="Location" {
locString = getString($0);
hit = gsub(theOldPath3, theNewPath , locString);
if (hit == 0) {
hit = gsub(theOldPath2, theNewPath , locString);
}
if (hit == 0) {
hit = gsub(theOldPath1, theNewPath , locString);
}
if (hit < 1) {
next;
} else {
ignore = skipThisFile( locString );
if (ignore > 0) {
# to speed up the search, we leave the records to ignore in the file
print locTrackID OFS locString ;
} else {
# we do the urldecode via a tiny perl statement
locLocation = locString;
print locTrackID OFS locLocation ;
}
}
}
{
}
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Some caveats:
⚠ I got the impression, that iTunes changes the Database ID when started. (I don't know why they call it an ID, but what the heck...) So be sure iTunes is running when you use the following apple-Skript to set the location of the files.
⚠ The following AppleScript scans for each file through the whole OUT.CSV until the Database ID is found. This can be very time consuming. I found out, that the Database ID is in the consecutive order in which the file where added to iTunes. So you will speed up the search when you order the track in the iTunes Windows by the Date Added.
⚠ The code in this article is not beautiful, it is not fast and it is of course presented as it is - with no warranties whatsoever. It just worked for me
So having extracted all the wrong tracks with their Databse ID and their new Location. We can start to change the location of the wrong files. I wrote another script - now using AppleScript - to tell iTunes to walk through its musicfiles (aka tracks), tests their location and set them if they are missing.
The filepath-variable contains the location of the out.csv (I used /Users/<USERNAME>/Documents/workspace/bin/iTunes) and should be adapted.
The script scans all selected files in the first iTunes window. If a path is missing the script searches with the Database ID of the current track in the out.csv for the new location. The it checks if the location is a correct file and sets the attribute of the track.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------
global unknownTrack-- as Track
tell application "iTunes"
set error_msg to false
activate
display dialog "This script will relocate tracks, whose corresponding file is missing" & return & return & ¬
"This action cannot be undone." & return & ¬
"Search missing tracks in:" buttons {"Selection", "Cancel"} default button 2 with icon 2
copy the result as list to button_returned
set counter to 0
set the stored_setting to fixed indexing
set fixed indexing to true
set filepath to (((path to documents folder) as text) & "workspace:bin:iTunes:out.csv")
if button_returned as text = "Selection" then
set these_tracks to the selection of browser window 1
if these_tracks is {} then error "No tracks are selected in the front window."
display dialog "Beginning process." & return & return & ¬
"One moment…" buttons {"•"} default button 1 giving up after 1
set changeAll to false
-- this is just the part that moves the tracks =)
repeat with this_track in these_tracks
try
if the location of this_track is missing value then
set unknownTrack to this_track
set theTitle to name of unknownTrack as text
set newpath to my getfilepath(database ID of unknownTrack as text, filepath)
if not changeAll then
display dialog "Shall I change the location of the song '" & theTitle & "' to " & return & return & newpath & "'" buttons {"Yes", "All", "Cancel"} default button 3 with icon 2
copy the result as list to button_returned
logbutton_returned as text
if button_returned as text = "All" then
set changeAll to true
end if
end if
if (button_returned as text = "Yes") or changeAll then
set HFSLocation to POSIX file newpath as alias
-- log HFSLocation as text
set location of this_track to HFSLocation
end if
if button_returned as text = "Cancel" then
log "STOPPED"
error number -128
return
end if
set counter to counter + 1
else
log database ID of this_track as text
set HFSLocation to location of this_track
logHFSLocation as text
set posixLocation to POSIX path of HFSLocation
logposixLocation as text
end if
on error
logoldPath
lognewpath
logHFSLocation as text
end try
end repeat
end if
set fixed indexing to the stored_setting
log "Process complete. " & (counter as string) & " tracks were relocated."
display dialog "Process complete. " & return & return & ¬
(counter as string) & " tracks were relocated." buttons {"OK"} default button 1
end tell
on getfilepath(trackId, csvfilepath) -- integer, filepath
set returnvalue to "NotFound"
try
set csvData to read file csvfilepath as «class utf8»
set csvEntries to paragraphs of csvData
set theAmount to countcsvEntries
set done to false
set i to 1
repeat until done
set {theId, thePath} to parseCsvEntry(csvEntries's itemi)
if (trackId is theId) then
set done to true
set returnvalue to thePath as text
end if
set i to i + 1
if i > theAmount then
set done to true
end if
end repeat
return returnvalue
on error
log trackId as text
logcsvfilepath as text
log "ERROR"
return returnvalue
end try
end getfilepath
to parseCsvEntry(csvEntry)
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ";"
set {theId, thePath} to csvEntry's text items
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {""}
return {theId, thePath}
end parseCsvEntry
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Now to the files with ampersand (maybe the are other characers I didn't come across): after having migrated most of my iTunes library I modified the AWK-file so that the path's with ampersands are now written into the OUT.CSV.
Replace
ignore = skipThisFile( locString );
with
ignore = 0;
and edit the resulting file for example with TextEdit and replace all occurences of & with &. The run the Apple Script again.
I did not find a solution for files with semicolon in their filenames. I pointed iTunes manually to their new position. Another posibility would have been to change their filenames and use the "ampersand-method" to set their location. If there are a lot of semicolon-filenames a coder could use the OUT.CSV to build a shell-script with move (mv) commands to rename the files by a script.
And to check if everything is ok right now, I wrote another Apple Script which scans the iTunes library if there are still missing files and if so to write their Database ID, the artist, the album and their title into another CSV-file:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------
global unknownTrack-- as Track
tell application "iTunes"
set error_msg to false
activate
display dialog "This script will scan the iTunes Library and dump those entries, whose corresponding file is missing" & return & return & ¬
"iTunes should remain unchanged." & return & ¬
"Search missing tracks in:" buttons {"Library", "Selection", "Cancel"} default button 3 with icon 2
copy the result as list to button_returned
set counter to 0
set filepath to (((path to documents folder) as text) & "workspace:bin:iTunes:iTunesScan.csv")
set theString to "Database ID ; Artist ; Album ; Title" & return
set theResult to my writeTo(filepath, theString, «class utf8», false)
if button_returned as text = "Library" then
display dialog "Beginning process." & return & return & ¬
"One moment…" buttons {"•"} default button 1 giving up after 1
set sourcename to name of source 1
tell sourcesourcename
set libname to name of playlist 1
tell playlist libname
repeat with i from the (count of tracks) to 1 by -1
try
if the location of track i is missing value then
set unknownTrack to track i
set theTitle to name of unknownTrack as text
set theartist to artist of unknownTrack as text
set theAlbum to album of unknownTrack as text
set theId to database ID of unknownTrack as text
logtheTitle & theartist & theAlbum & theId
set x to my createCsvEntry(filepath, theId, theartist, theAlbum, theTitle)
set the counter to the counter + 1
end if
end try
end repeat
end tell
end tell
else
set these_tracks to the selection of browser window 1
if these_tracks is {} then error "No tracks are selected in the front window."
display dialog "Beginning process." & return & return & ¬
"One moment…" buttons {"•"} default button 1 giving up after 1
repeat with this_track in these_tracks
try
if the location of this_track is missing value then
set unknownTrack to this_track
set theTitle to name of unknownTrack as text
set theartist to artist of unknownTrack as text
set theAlbum to album of unknownTrack as text
set theId to database ID of unknownTrack as text
logtheTitle & theartist & theAlbum & theId
set x to my createCsvEntry(filepath, theId, theartist, theAlbum, theTitle)
set the counter to the counter + 1
end if
end try
end repeat
end if
log "Process complete. " & (counter as string) & " tracks were identified."
display dialog "Process complete. " & return & return & ¬
(counter as string) & " tracks were identified." buttons {"OK"} default button 1
end tell
on writeTo(targetFile, theData, dataType, apendData)
-- targetFile is the path to the file you want to write
-- theData is the data you want in the file.
-- dataType is the data type of theData and it can be text, list, record etc.
-- apendData is true to append theData to the end of the current contents of the file or false to overwrite it
try
set targetFile to targetFile as text
set openFile to (open for accessfiletargetFile with write permission)
if apendData is false then set eof of openFile to 0
writetheDatatoopenFilestarting ateofasdataType
close accessopenFile
return true
on error
try
close accessfiletargetFile
end try
return false
end try
end writeTo
to createCsvEntry(filepath, theId, theartist, theAlbum, theTitle)
set theString to theId & "; \"" & theartist & "\"; \"" & theAlbum & "\"; \"" & theTitle & "\"" & return
set theResult to writeTo(filepath, theString, «class utf8», true)
if not theResult then display dialog "There was an error writing the data!"
return theResult
end createCsvEntry
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You might want to test this last script on some of your tracks before start. But be aware on the amount of data it produces if let it run on your whole iTunes library
Al last, good luck!
