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iPod/iTunes has lost all ID3 tags for 25,000 songs

My external hard drive broke, containing all my music. It wasn't backed up elsewhere - I know, I know. I have spent a month using every software / trick I can find to copy the music from my iPod back into iTunes, but all the ID3 tags are gone. I can see 4-letter file codes, or song titles if I'm lucky. No artist names, no albums, no grouping (therefore no Smart Playlists will work), etc. 25,000 songs!


I've tried using tag-fixing software like Music Brainz Picard, etc. but I can't even find all the folders for the songs that are un-tagged, to fix those tags. I've looked all through the iTunes folder made after re-importing the songs to the app, and I can't find these songs in 'Unknown Artist' or anything, but I know they're in there because iTunes says the correct total number of songs have been imported.


I don't know what to do. I feel like I've just lost my entire music collection. And please DON'T just reply with, 'That's why you should use a cloud.' I get that. I just need genuine help here, if it can be given. I don't know why this would have happened. I can see ALL the information IN the transfer software. It just won't carry across into iTunes.


And years ago, my Mac updated iTunes without my permission and somehow automatically erased all of iTunes and lost all my music then. I used the same sort of software to restore everything from my iPod and all the music imported perfectly with the right tags. Most of that music is the same as it is today. Why would all the tags just have vanished since then?


Getting desperate....


This is an iPod Classic and I'm on a Mac, btw.

iPod classic

Posted on Oct 10, 2018 2:19 PM

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Posted on Oct 18, 2018 8:52 AM

Hello again,


Phase 1.

Download the file ExportMetadata.zip. Open your download folder and extract the contents of the zip file, which is an AppleScript file called ExportMetadata. Connect your iPod to iTunes. Select the Music folder of the iPod in the sidebar. Click anywhere in the right hand pane then use CMD+A to select all tracks. Double-click the ExportMetadata script file to open it in the Script Editor and click the Run button to run it. It should look something like this:


User uploaded file


Phase 2.

The next step of the plan is to copy over all of the recovered files to your PC and import them into an empty iTunes library. I would suggest you create a shared folder on one computer that is visible to the other. E.g. macOS Sierra: Set up a Mac to share files with Windows users. You will also want to copy over the file that has been placed on the desktop.


Phase 3.

Right-click on this link to ExportImportAltKey.vbs and use download or save as to make a copy of the file on your computer. Put it in the same folder as your iTunes Metadata.txt file that you copied from the Mac. Open the iTunes library made from your extracted media files. Drag the file iTunes iTunes Metadata.txt and drop it onto your copy of ExportImportAltKey.vbs. The initial prompt will be something like this:

User uploaded file

This will attempt first to index all of the media in library by file size. There may some instances where two different files have exactly the same size, but hopefully not too many. The imported data is then checked line by line. As long as there is a unique match in size the subsequent properties are updated in the matching track. At the end a report should indicate how many tracks and properties got updated. Where there are duplicate sizes in the library you'll probably have to patch up the details for those tracks by hand, but we can go into that once you know how many there are to worry about.


tt2

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18 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Oct 18, 2018 8:52 AM in response to thymeoperator

Hello again,


Phase 1.

Download the file ExportMetadata.zip. Open your download folder and extract the contents of the zip file, which is an AppleScript file called ExportMetadata. Connect your iPod to iTunes. Select the Music folder of the iPod in the sidebar. Click anywhere in the right hand pane then use CMD+A to select all tracks. Double-click the ExportMetadata script file to open it in the Script Editor and click the Run button to run it. It should look something like this:


User uploaded file


Phase 2.

The next step of the plan is to copy over all of the recovered files to your PC and import them into an empty iTunes library. I would suggest you create a shared folder on one computer that is visible to the other. E.g. macOS Sierra: Set up a Mac to share files with Windows users. You will also want to copy over the file that has been placed on the desktop.


Phase 3.

Right-click on this link to ExportImportAltKey.vbs and use download or save as to make a copy of the file on your computer. Put it in the same folder as your iTunes Metadata.txt file that you copied from the Mac. Open the iTunes library made from your extracted media files. Drag the file iTunes iTunes Metadata.txt and drop it onto your copy of ExportImportAltKey.vbs. The initial prompt will be something like this:

User uploaded file

This will attempt first to index all of the media in library by file size. There may some instances where two different files have exactly the same size, but hopefully not too many. The imported data is then checked line by line. As long as there is a unique match in size the subsequent properties are updated in the matching track. At the end a report should indicate how many tracks and properties got updated. Where there are duplicate sizes in the library you'll probably have to patch up the details for those tracks by hand, but we can go into that once you know how many there are to worry about.


tt2

Oct 11, 2018 7:51 AM in response to thymeoperator

See Recover media from an iPod. In most cases the files on the iPod will have full tag information which isn't necessarily visible in Finder, but should be revealed when the recovered files are used to rebuild an iTunes library. The principle exception to this would files in .wav format which don't carry metadata embedded in a tag, but it is also possible to remove tags from mp3 files, for example, which iTunes and iPod might retain the information that used to be in them. These will be fine until the files are removed and reimported, or added to a different library, when you're down to current filename as a track title, and everything else blank.


So what format are these files in? When you look in your iPod is the metadata still visible there? Do you have access to a Windows computer? I have an existing tool that might help if you do. See IPOD CLASSIC 160GB for the background to it. Building an equivalent in AppleScript might be possible, but isn't something I've tried as yet.


tt2

Oct 11, 2018 8:28 AM in response to thymeoperator

What probably happens when iTunes converts the bit rate is that it makes a file with the 128k AAC audio data in a tag free format, with the metadata stored in the library only. The task of the script is to reconnect the information in the device database with the extracted audio data. As you may have seen I was able to do this, after a few false starts, by linking the file sizes of tracks on the device with those in the recovered collection of media.


Use your Windows notebook to recover the tracks from the device in exactly the way described in Recover media from an iPod. You would then download the SyncStatsPlus.vbs script and use it as described here: Re: IPOD CLASSIC 160GB. Assuming that it can do useful work on one track you can then let it process the rest of the recovered library.


If it isn't pulling in all of the information that you want see the script GetInfo.vbs. A few screenshots of the output of this might be useful if we need to discuss the specifics of what you can see in the library and on the device so I can tweak SyncStatsPlus to make it work better for you.


tt2

Oct 11, 2018 8:06 AM in response to turingtest2

Hi. I'm not sure about the file types. They're definitely not WAV. A lot is stuff I imported directly from CDs, so they should be iTunes default file types. Some, though, are very rare out of print things I downloaded. And I read the links you shared - I did have the iPod set to convert bit rates to 128 kbps, because my iPod was running out of space.


I have a Windows netbook, as well, yes.


I've made all the data in the iPod visible on my Mac and copied all music files that way. But when I added the music back to iTunes, it listed every song by its 4-letter code, not even the song titles.


Some of what you've said about running scripts is a little beyond my tech knowledge, so any very very basic help would be much appreciated.

Oct 14, 2018 2:11 AM in response to 10thumbsup

10thumbsup wrote:


Have you ever tried SharePod? Might want to check it out...


I'm pretty sure that wouldn't help in this case. As far as I am aware this and similar software expects to work with tagged media files, but the files on the iPod that have been recovered don't have tags. My script can read the metadata from the device and attach it to the previously extracted files.


tt2

Oct 14, 2018 5:11 AM in response to thymeoperator

Rats, that a shame. I've just updated the script again to include more details and detect differences properly. It should now be able to import all of the following fields:


Album, AlbumArtist, Artist, Comment, Compilation, Composer, DiscCount, DiscNumber, Genre, Grouping, Name, PlayedCount, PlayedDate, Rating, SkippedCount, SkippedDate, SortAlbum, SortAlbumArtist, SortArtist, SortComposer, SortName, TrackCount, TrackNumber, Year


But it is still designed to run on Windows with a Windows readable iPod.


I'll put my thinking cap on. I don't think I can easily replicate the script in AppleScript, but I might be able to find a way to export the data on a Mac into a text file that could then be imported in Windows.


Don't give up yet. Don't reformat the iPod.


tt2

Oct 14, 2018 2:44 PM in response to thymeoperator

Hi, download this file ExportMetadata.zip and extract the AppleScript file inside it. Select all of the music on the iPod and run the script to create a text file on your desktop. The output will be something a bit like this:


<#>iTunes Metadata - Exported 14/10/2018 22:39:30


<ID>F98B3D82-83C971DC

<AltKey>4331760

<Album>The Best Of Van Morrison

<AlbumArtist>Van Morrison

<Artist>Van Morrison

<Comment>

<Compilation>false

<Composer>Van Morrison

<DiscCount>1

<DiscNumber>1

<Genre>Rock

<Grouping>

<Name>And It Stoned Me

<PlayedCount>164

<PlayedDate>10/10/2018 22:41:40

<Rating>100

<SkippedCount>0

<SortAlbum>Best Of Van Morrison

<SortAlbumArtist>

<SortArtist>

<SortComposer>

<SortName>

<TrackCount>20

<TrackNumber>12

<Year>1990



This is an XML like format that one of my Windows scripts can import, once I've added a twist to use the same linking technique via file sizes that I used in SyncStatsPlus.


tt2

Oct 17, 2018 1:05 PM in response to turingtest2

Hi, I'm off work tomorrow so I will try it then. Just to be clear: I'm running that zip file on my Mac, based on all the data in my connected iPod...and then I have to use the text file to somehow connect that data to all the files I've copied off the iPod into iTunes...? Would I need to do that second step on the PC? I expect I could transfer the files off the external hard drive to the PC via Google Drive.

Oct 17, 2018 2:17 PM in response to thymeoperator

Hi. Yes the import phase will need to be done on the PC. I'm just finishing off and testing the import script. Also found an interesting wrinkle in making sense of the text file that gets transferred between the two so I may need to update the export script slightly. Probably easiest to transfer the data over your local network rather than up and down via DropBox. I'll write up the steps in a little more detail once all of the components are ready.


tt2

Oct 21, 2018 10:35 AM in response to turingtest2

Hi, can't get phase 1 to work, I'm afraid. It won't let me select the songs in Finder - auto-launches iTunes and needs me to select tracks from there. So I thought to open the iPod menu in iTunes and select all the tracks there. That seemed to work...but it was 'running' for many hours and then gave me an error message that said 'Apple Event Timed Out'. Tried it twice, no joy. Would it be worth trying it with batches of selected songs, or does it need to be done all at once? I'm wondering if it just can't handle my 26,000 songs....

Nov 2, 2018 3:35 PM in response to turingtest2

Hi, just an update to say that I've got my PC seeing my Mac files - I've got all the data extracted from my iPod and in numerous alphabetised .txt files - I've installed iTunes on the PC. I'm going to try matching data to tracks next. Just taking some time because of this annoying thing called work, getting in the way...will let you know how it goes.Hi, just an update to say that I've got my PC seeing my Mac files - I've got all the data extracted from my iPod and in numerous alphabetised .txt files - I've installed iTunes on the PC. I'm going to try matching data to tracks next. Just taking some time because of this annoying thing called work, getting in the way...will let you know how it goes.

iPod/iTunes has lost all ID3 tags for 25,000 songs

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