Losing song play data in iTunes 11

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Losing song play data in iTunes 11

After updating to iTunes 11, I noticed that some of the songs that I have certainly played suddenly had no play count, even though they still had a last played date. I could not determine any rhyme or reason as to which songs were affected. I was willing to let it go, but suddenly I noticed that two songs that had not been previously affected lost data right before my eyes! I made no changes to them, and suddenly their play count was set back to nothing. They show that I've played them this month.

This is really making me quite grumpy. This problem has spanned two iPods now, as I just traded in my old 3G Touch for a new 5G Touch. So this problem is with iTunes.

Not only do I happen to be perhaps overly preoccupied with getting accurate play counts, but this is also messing up smart playlists based on last played and most/least played.

Why is this happening! Anyone else?

...I'm also having a problem where song plays won't update when I sync my iPod, but it seems there is a host of problems with iTunes-iOS 6.

Windows 7

Posted on Jan 27, 2013 3:33 AM

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Answer 1

turingtest2

Level 10

272,949 points

Jan 27, 2013 4:20 AM in response to ameliadz

Seen it, not sure exactly what the cause is, but it may help to disable Sync playback information across devices under Edit > Preferences > Store.

Share details about your library with Apple may also be implicated in unexpected changes to genres. I recently wrote a script called ExportImport which lets you temporarilly restore an older library, export the stats from it, then restore the "current" library and import those stats. For playcounts I've set it up to keep the current value if greater than or equal to the old one, otherwise the two values are added together. Details in this thread. I'm happy to discuss how to add support for other properties.

If you want to bring forward tag-based properties that have been "corrected" and saved back to the tag, e.g. Genre, then the following steps would work.

Close iTunes.
Temporarily rename the media folder to say iTunes Media (Temp) so that iTunes cannot access the files inside during the export phase.
Backup the current iTunes Library.itl database (move and/or rename it).
Restore an older database which is an earlier version of the same library.
Run iTunes. Select the playlist or tracks you want to save data for and run the script to export the data. This creates a plain text file in the main iTunes folder called iTunes Metadata.txt.
Close iTunes. Put a copy of the current library database back in place (use a copy in case of problems) and restore the media folder name.
Run iTunes. Drag & drop the archived data onto the script to import the saved properties into the active library.

If you only want to bring forward stats that aren't stored in tags, ratings, playcounts etc. then you can skip the renaming of the media folder.

tt2

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Answer 2

nycedigz

Level 1

0 points

Feb 10, 2013 3:12 PM in response to turingtest2

Thanks; I haven't tried this yet, but it looks like it will be a lifesaver. The hardest part will be identifying a somewhat correct play count. Some that were zeroed out now have a few plays before I noticed. The has been unpleasant, but the upside is that I have become aware of the Apple discussion boards, and have learned a few tricks along the way. And met a few helpful users. Thanks again.

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Answer 3

turingtest2

Level 10

272,949 points

Feb 10, 2013 3:33 PM in response to nycedigz

The way I've set things up is that if the "current" playcount is less than the historic value then the two will be added together. If the old value is smaller we assumes that the play count wasn't reset so the current value is used. In other words if you use the process above you don't need to try to work it out. Restore your previous library, export the playcounts, restore the active library, import the playcounts. It still won't necessarily be perfect but is, I think, the best that can be achieved.

tt2

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