Use Text Edit to make changes to iTunes library?

A better way would be to create a Smart Playlist for the specific genre you wish to change. Then, highlight all of the songs, and do a Get Info on them. That way you can change all of the genres within iTunes.

The reason the TextEdit method didn't work was because most of the information is likely stored in ID3 tags in the music file itself.

-Ryan

While standard tag information is stored in the file, not all the information iTunes tracks is contained in tags. Also, although tags are stored in files, iTunes still needs a way to keep track of playlists - both the simple kind and the conditions for smart playlists. Keeping all the information in one place makes it easier for iTunes to sort through everything and not have to go to every individual file to grab tag info when, for example, you create, modify, or delete playlists. There is a bit of redundancy, but that redundancy leads to a quicker response from iTunes when you do something.

I like the way Tom phrased it about why iTunes creates the XML file, so I'll leave it at that 🙂

Thanks for the helpful star!
-Ryan

Ryan has the elegant, iTunes way to do the job. But, RQ, I don't see why your method didn't work. I've done it myself a couple of times--editing the .xml file, throwing out the library file, opening iTunes and letting it build a new library file by importing the edited .xml file. That sounds like what you described, but I guess the devil is in the details.

For the sake of discussion, I think the purpose of the .xml file is to allow data transfer from iTunes to other programs. I cannot think of a practical example off the top of my head; maybe others will know. The iTunes Library file is the all-important database file for the iTunes application. The .xml file is a real time mirror of the library file, only in .xml format. iTunes can function perfectly well in the absence of the .xml file but can do nothing without the library file. I agree that there is some tag information in the music files themselves, and that probably is available to all compatible music players. iTunes appears to maintain those tags, but it relies on its "proprietary" database, the iTunes Library, for its own operations. Just my take.

I wrote:

the .xml file is to allow data transfer from iTunes
to other programs. I cannot think of a practical
example off the top of my head; maybe others will

Duh. One purpose of the .xml file is allow you to import another user's iTunes library into your own. You can't directly import someone else's library file, but you can do the equivalent using the .xml file. Importing a library using its .xml file preserves all of the metadata. Adding the same set of songs through Add to Library does not.

I still can't figure out how to effect changes in the
iTunes library by editing the xml file. I tried a
couple approaches and both seem to confirm that the
library overwrites the xml file.

Yes, that's true.

1. Removed the library and restarted iTunes: A new
library was created, empty of course, and the xml
file reflected this i.e. it was also empty (except
for the headers, etc.)

2. Removed the library, edited and re-saved the xml,
then dragged the library back in: The xml file
reverted to its pre-edit state.

It seems the xml file is simply a reflection of the
iTunes library, and as such changes to song info,
playlists, etc can only be made using iTunes.

Yes, right, again. I don't think you've done quite what I have in mind yet.

Try it this way. Close iTunes. Drag the library file somewhere else for safekeeping. Edit the XML file. Open iTunes. It will be empty, as you saw in your trial #1. Now, Import the edited XML file. That will populate your iTunes library with the contents of the edited XML file.

I hope this works for you. I've used this method for a couple of chores. I will say that I ran into unexpected results once, with iTunes not being able to find some songs listed in the XML file at Import, even though I had not touched the song files or the song entries in the XML file. It feels like iTunes-iTunesLibrary-XMLfile-Finder integration can mysteriously intervene at times.

But as long as you keep your original library file somewhere and don't move the song files around, it's easy to restore the previous state, so there's no big risk in trying this out.



iMac G4 17; iBook G4 1.33 Mhz 14; iPod 3G 20GB Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Everything I've ever wanted to do as far as editing song info has been done successfuly within iTunes. I have corrected album titles, artist name spellings, genre, disc number and added comments on multiple songs at one time. The only thing I've ever done eith the .xml file was import it into Excel to make a spread sheet of my library (for my DJ business). Don't make it more difficult than it needs to be.

If you want to change genre, click on the genre column to arrange by genre, then click on the first title and shift/click on the last to highlight all the songs with the genre you want to change. The CMD/I to open the edit window and there you go. It couldn't be easier.

Tracy