ID3 tags taking So long to write
I am hopign someone can help figure this one out. I'm using iTunes 11 on an iMac running Mt. Lion but had the same experience on Snow Leopard. I have a bunch of music files that are about 2-hours each in length - all DJ sets from a BBC Radio show. In order to keep them organized the way I want, I have added them to iTunes by creating new playlists based on years, each one with 50-70 tracks. I then select all of a playlist and edit a tag (Album and Album Artist specifically). I am putting the year into the Album Artist field so that I can then click "Keep iTunes Media folder organized" and everything will be sorted by year on my drive. That may not be relevant but thought I would explain for some context. The strange thing is this: When I select 60 files and try to change the tags on anything prior to 2005, it takes forever to finish. I mean like 20 minutes or so. When I do the same thing on files dated more recently, the process is finished instantly. I thought maybe it has to do with the type/version of ID3 tag used on older files versus the newer ones but cannot seem to figure out which type iTunes 11 workes best with. Why would the same process take so long on certain files while being almost instant with others? I hope this makes sense.
Set the default startup disk.
Similar Messages
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I recently received a disc from a friend, the disc had 16 songs on it, with no ID3 Tag info. I went through and added the missing info manually using the "Get Info" option from the file in iTunes & hit OK, but when I was done, the files look complete in iTunes, but the original file copied to the hard drive was unchanged. When I used iTunes 10, it used to rewrite the ID tags for the file on my hard drive with the changed info via iTunes. I double checked to make sure that I "Let iTunes Organize" my files and folders. I've looked through threads, googled, etc, and I have NO clue what to do, or even if I did something. Help!
On a side note, where is the "Power Search" in the iTunes Store? That seems to be a never ending question floating around the threads as well.i'd normally think about access permissions as iTunes will fail silently if it can't write out the updated tag however the fact that Winamp can manage it suggests another problem.
It may be that the files have multiple tags. It used to be common to add both a v1.x & v2.x tag and in theory multiple tags can be used to support different languages. iTunes likes a single tag and may silently fail when it tries to write the data back to the track, thus doing nothing without reporting an error. Next time you access the file the library will update to reflect the true values in the tag. For what it's worth I believe it's recommended to use ID3v2.3 tags with iTunes.
MP3Validator may be all you need, but if not try using the iTunes option *Convert ID3 Tags... > None* say 3 times in a row, then *Convert ID3 Tags... > v2.3* to see if that creates a situation in which your edits can hold.
tt2 -
Hi gang. Odd problem. Just very recently noticed it.
With some files, but not all, when I go to bounce them, it won't let me write ID3 tags.
I click the Bounce icon. The bounce box comes up.
I overtype the file name at the top.
I select destination MP3. Stereo mode is joint stereo. Write ID3 tags is ticked, so are use best encoding, filter frequencies below 10Hz , mode offline and include audio tail. Bit rate mono is 80kbps. Bit rate stereo is 160kps. Bit rate VBR is not ticked.
I click ID3 settings. The Bounce box goes out and then after a very short moment comes back set back to the PCM destination with the file name missing.
I go through the whole routine again. This time the bounce box goes out and stays out.
The only way it will bounce is without changing the ID3 tags. It flatly refused to edit them. Just no way, I can't get at them, that's it.
Version is 9.1.5 (1 7 0 0.9) 32 bit. Yes I have tried saving the file, shutting the program down and restarting it, it still does it. Once a file starts doing this, that's it, it always does it.
The only thing that's changed recently is DwellClick. Every file created after that seems to have the problem. Every one before it is still OK, even with DwellClick running. However, if I create a new project now, the problem doesn't happen, it's fine. Something must be happening during the project that stops the ID3 tag dialogue box being accessible.
Is this a software incompatibility? a software bug? suggestions??Hi
Erm, excuse me asking a really stupid question, but how would I do that?
and why is it affecting some files but not others? The latest file here does not seem affected. If it was a global preferences issue would it not affect all files? is it not more likely that it is the project itself that has the issue?
I notice that the project file can be examined as a package which apparently contains a folder LgDoc, which itself contains
displayState, which appears to contain coding instructions and data
documentData, which is mostly unintelligible coding with odd bits in clear text
windowImage.jpg, which is just the graphic for the icon.
This for example is a displayState file from a project that does not allow access to the ID3 tags:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>displayDataVersion</key>
<integer>1</integer>
<key>docPreferences</key>
<dict>
<key>EXSEditorGlobalPersistency</key>
<dict/>
</dict>
<key>screenVisibleFrames</key>
<array>
<string>{{0, 97}, {1440, 781}}</string>
</array>
<key>screensetCurrSlot</key>
<integer>1</integer>
<key>screensetDictArray</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>layoutDictArray</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>docwWindowState</key>
<dict>
<key>currentDocwListID</key>
<integer>1</integer>
<key>docwEditorTabIndex</key>
<integer>-1</integer>
<key>docwListTabIndex_events</key>
<integer>0</integer>
<key>docwListTabIndex_media</key>
<integer>1</integer>
<key>docwListTabIndex_notes</key>
<integer>0</integer>
<key>focusedElement</key>
<integer>0</integer>
<key>inspectorIsVisible</key>
<true/>
<key>listsAreVisible</key>
<false/>
<key>markerTextIsExpanded</key>
<true/>
<key>markerTextSplitPosition</key>
<real>33.333000183105469</real>
<key>mediaListIsCurrent</key>
<true/>
<key>screenSpaceRect</key>
<string>0 97 1440 781/0 0 1440 900 0 97 1440 781</string>
<key>tabViewPercentMixer</key>
<real>100</real>
<key>tabViewPercentOther</key>
<real>76.597442626953125</real>
<key>toolbarIsVisible</key>
<true/>
<key>transportBarIsVisible</key>
<true/>
<key>transportLayoutDict</key>
<dict>
<key>CLgTransportBtnsDisplay</key>
<array>
<integer>18</integer>
<integer>19</integer>
<integer>21</integer>
<integer>22</integer>
<integer>23</integer>
<integer>24</integer>
</array>
<key>CLgTransportBtnsModus</key>
<array>
<integer>29</integer>
<integer>38</integer>
<integer>39</integer>
<integer>42</integer>
<integer>43</integer>
<integer>45</integer>
<integer>30</integer>
</array>
<key>CLgTransportBtnsTransport</key>
<array>
<integer>6</integer>
<integer>5</integer>
<integer>11</integer>
<integer>12</integer>
<integer>13</integer>
<integer>14</integer>
<integer>15</integer>
<integer>16</integer>
</array>
</dict>
<key>udataArrange</key>
<data>
HAFJcASnAgA4AQAAAADdBEUCAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADbACcA
SXAAAAAABACAAAAAAAAAAIARAAAA
AQoAIADbAI+IAAAAAAAAgAAAAAAB
AQAAAABAAAAAAAAAAADkAAAAAAAA
AMaYAAAAAAAAAAB43/+/8HwAAAAA
tACAAQAAAAAAAAMAAAACAAAADA5/
cQBjFgBXADAAQAAWABYAGwAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AQQDBgUCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
ACBCAAC4QQAAAAA=
</data>
<key>udataBin</key>
<data>
HAEVEABAAgCdAQAAAABlARUCAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACZABEA
FRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEgAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAABAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AMaYAAAAAAAAAADY7f+/8HwAAAAA
9AGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADAD/
AABjFgAbABYAFgAWABYAGwAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AQQDBgUCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AJBBAAAAAAAAAAA=
</data>
<key>udataMixer</key>
<data>
HAEhIFjyAgCMAQAAAADdBOEBAAAA
ACMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAfAAAA
ISAAAAAABAAAAAAAAAAAAAATAAAA
AAAAAAAAAPCvEBgAAAAAABgAAAAS
EgAAAABAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
0QGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADAD/
AABjFgAbABYAFgAWABYAGwAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AQQDBgUCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AABAAACAPwAAAAA=
</data>
<key>udataPianoRoll</key>
<data>
HAFCcFjyAgDpAQAAAABxA5wB4i4A
ADYBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABCACcA
QnAAAAAABAAAAA4A//2AAAQVAAAA
AAoAIAAAAPz/UAAAAAAAuAAAAA4p
KQAAAABAAAAAAAAAAABRAQAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQAAAAAA
ZQGAAQAAAAAAAAMAAAACAAAADAD/
AABjFgAbABYAFgAWABYAGwAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AQQDBgUCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABI
4RJCAAAgQQAAAAA=
</data>
<key>udataTransport</key>
<data>
HAEKAAAAAgACAQAAAAAlAigAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
CgAAAAAABAAAAAAAAAAiAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAqAJgADQAAAAAA
AAAAAABAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AMaYAAAAAAAAAADo3/+/8HwAAAAA
GACAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADAD/
AABjFgAbABYAFgAWABYAGwAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AQQDBgUCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AABBAAAAAAAAAAA=
</data>
<key>windowFrame</key>
<string>0 143 1440 735 0 0 1440 878 </string>
<key>windowIsZoomed</key>
<true/>
</dict>
<key>docwWindowType</key>
<integer>1</integer>
</dict>
</array>
<key>screensetLocked</key>
<false/>
<key>screensetName</key>
<string></string>
<key>screensetSlot</key>
<integer>1</integer>
</dict>
</array>
</dict>
</plist>
Question - is this corrupt, or is the other (mostly unintelligible one) corrupt? -
Can iTunes write corrected ID3 tags to the main files?
I'm sure this has been posted somewhere already, but I can't find it, so here goes.
I have changed several hundred ID3 tags by editing the files in iTunes. Titles, artists, album, etc. The problem is, the main files aren't updating. SO if I change an entire album's ID3 info in iTunes, then delete it from iTunbes, then import it again, it's not updated. Is there a way iTunes can transfer whatever information I have changed within the application to the main files? I tried using the "Convert ID3 Tags" inside of iTunes and it didn't work.villenuv27 wrote:
It does for most fields, but it won't change the song title.
I still don't understand what you mean by "main files" or why you are deleting and re-importing. Sorry, but without more information, I don't have any suggestions. iTunes writes tags just fine for me but I allow iTunes to organize all my music. My iTunes files are my only music files. -
BUG: iTunes writes invalid id3 tags. This is unacceptable.
Hi there,
I'm a developer on a large opensource media player (XBoxMediaCenter) and have recently encountered a number of completely invalid id3v2 tags written by iTunes.
For instance, TCP and TCMP frames have been written (in the case of compilations) where these are not defined by the spec, and thus any spec-compliant tag reader should rightly fail at any such frame.
iTunes should instead be writing TXXX tags or PRIV tags to do this.
Furthermore, it's also writing application specific data to a COMM (comment) frame. This also should be in PRIV or TXXX tags.
You just don't make up your own frames when there is already mechanisms in place (TXXX tags for instance) to deal with application specific data.
The ID3 tag specification is available free to all. It would be useful if iTunes could obey it!While the feedback page is OK, developers such as yourself should do the following to submit a bug report:
1. If you don't have one already, get an ADC account (http://developer.apple.com/products/). The "ADC Online" (http://connect.apple.com/) accounts are free.
2. Submit a bug report at http://bugreport.apple.com -
Bug or Feature? iTunes doesn't write ID3 Tags when you recorded in VBR mode
When you record music from a CD with iTunes (6.0.4 and 6.0.5) using higher bit rates (High Quality) together with VBR, then the iTunes database initialy shows a correct entry. But if you check the created mp3-files with the Finder application you will see that there is no id3-tag in the file.
When you later move your iTunes music folder, iTunes asks you to modfify everything concerning the embedded infos (id3 tags). If you then say "yes" your database is gone.
I saw a couple of postings where users complain about that iTunes loses the id3 tag when they burn a CD. I think that there has never been a physical ID3-Tag although the iTunes database shows a correct entry.
Is some kind of a bug fix out there or should I use Musicmatch within Parallels Desktop for Mac in order to properly record in VBR mode?Odysseas,
"But if you check the created mp3-files with the Finder application you will see that there is no id3-tag in the file."
You can't see ID3 tags in the Finder. The data is imbedded in the song file itself.
Regular, commercially produced CDs do not support ID3 tag information. When you insert a CD and it opens in iTunes, the application will go out on the internet and look up the track information in the Gracenote (CDDB) database.
Then, when you rip the CD to an MP3 or AAC etc. the track information is then incorporated into the encoded song file. Using VBR shouldn't prevent the ID3 tag information from being transfered.
However, if you then burn a music CD from that file, the ID3 tag information is lost.
Matt -
After converting mp3s to AAC, does itunes write id3 tags?
I'm on OSX 10.3.9 and running iTunes 5.0.1. I just recently converted a lot of music which was on mp3 format to AAC at 128kbps (saved about 30% space with no loss of quality).
Now when I'm running iTunes, it lags and a small window comes up sporadically saying "Writing ID3 Tags."
Is this for the files I converted to AAC recently, or what's this all about?out of interest how did you do the conversion ?
Make an intelligent playlist, with the setings, "kind is" - "MPEG"
Check that your "convert to" setting is AAC.
In your MPEG playlist, press command and a keys together (or Edit > Select All, from the menu bar) and choose Advanced > Convert to AAC.
When you are done, use Select All then option and delete keys together in the playlist, to remove the MPEGs from your library. -
Itunes, ID3 tags, & hard drive corruption
My wife is having a strange problem with her iMac, and it’s got me a bit mystified. I’m hoping someone here can shed some light on what might be going on. I apologize in advance for the long post.
The problem is that when she plays some songs in iTunes, and entirely different (wrong) song plays instead. Most songs play fine, but some just play entirely different songs (or sections of a song or podcast). All of the tracks are MP3 (either 192 kbps or 256 kbps) and almost all of them were encoded using Windows Media Player on an XP machine. Initially, I copied the music over from an NTFS drive to a newly formatted (Mac OS/HFS+) drive on the Mac, then I ran iTunes and created the library. At that point, everything seemed fine. All the meta data (song title, album title, artist, album artist, genre, album art) showed up in iTunes, and everything played correctly.
Now we’re getting this weird behavior where we play some songs and get the wrong music. At first I thought the iTunes library files (ITL and/or XML) had been corrupted, but it seems on closer inspection that the entire hard drive has been corrupted. When I look at the files on Mac hard drive via the Finder, all seems ok – the directory structure is intact, the file names and sizes are all correct, and a Get Info on any MP3 file shows that the ID3 data is all there and seems accurate. This is true even for the songs that play wrong, but if I play one of those songs using the little mini player in the Get Info dialog, the wrong song plays (the same wrong song as in iTunes). So now I’m getting the behavior straight off the drive, with iTunes closed and the iTunes library completely out of the equation.
Some other interesting clues/evidence:
* This has happened before. When her first hard drive got corrupted (in the same way), I was mystified but chalked it up as a bad hard drive and got her a new one. Then we started over with a clean HFS+ formatted drive and clean music files and built a new iTunes library. And now the same thing has happened again. So I don’t think it’s just a bad hard drive.
* It seems to be progressive. That is, everything was fine in the beginning, but over time more and more files get messed up. We know this because we have a backup that’s about a month old on which we can locate files that are fine (on the backup) but that are messed up on her connected day-to-day drive. So it seems like some activity on the drive is causing problems that are growing over time.
* There is some weird meta data (ID3) behavior. I copied a few hundred MP3 files from the Mac drive back to the PC (over our home network) and looked at them in the Windows Explorer. The first thing I saw was that the same (wrong) music played for the bad tracks as had on the Mac. And I also saw that a lot of ID3 tags were not showing on the Windows side. Lots of tracks have no ID3 data (album, artist, genre, etc. is missing) when I look at them on the PC. There are many albums where tags show up correctly for some of the tracks but not for others. In fact, the number of files where the ID3 tags aren’t visible on the PC far exceeds the number of songs that play incorrectly on the Mac. When I look back on the Mac at the songs that have no ID3 data on the PC and do a Get Info, I see the ID3 data.
* Often, though I can’t say always for sure, the wrong music that plays on the Mac is stuff that has been recently added. Either podcasts or music that my wife has added since the initial library was established.
My best guess (though still full of holes):
Something is confusing the Mac OS into writing on top of occupied space on the hard drive or into mapping files incorrectly in the drive’s allocation table, and chaos results. The Mac doesn’t think anything is wrong, and it shows everything as being clean in the Finder. So I started thinking about the kind of reads & writes my wife is doing on that drive. She rips new CDs to add to the library, she downloads new Podcasts and deletes old ones, and she changes ID3 tags.
I’m focusing on the changing ID3 tag activity. My wife doesn’t like the way I tag genre. I like big broad categories, an she likes smaller, more specific categories. So she has gone through the initial library of 42K+ songs and changed the genre on thousands of songs. She’s change some from Pop to Power Pop or from Pop to Indie Pop or from Rock to Indie Rock, etc. Both WMP (where the tags were created) and iTunes support ID3v2.3, and so these two programs ought to be able to change tags in a totally interchangeable and safe way. But what if iTunes writes its new genre tags in a way that’s slightly different from WMP? Could iTunes be writing to memory/disk locations that are outside the boundaries of the file and thus creating some kind of buffer overrun?
It really doesn’t make a lot of sense, but it does tie back to the evidence that this has something to do with meta data, gets worse over time, happened on more than one disk, and seems to be a file allocation table issue.
Even if I get to the bottom of this, I think my wife’s HD is toast for sure. Here’s what I think I will do: I’ll reformat the drive, re-copy the music over from the PC, and build a new iTunes library. Then, first thing, I’ll open iTunes, select all the songs in the new library, and run “Convert ID3 Tags” to ID3v2.4. If that works and everything behaves correctly, I’ll try to change some genre tags and test the results. The problem is that the library is so large that problems can go undetected for a long time, so maybe I should do this first with a small subset of the music as a trial run.
The thing I want to avoid is having to do this (ever) again, so I’d feel more comfortable if I understood the bug/problem before just following this guess (which feels like a roll of the dice). If anyone has seem similar behavior or has heard of any IDS incompatibilities between WMP 11 and iTunes 7, I’d love to hear about it. Any help is appreciated.
JimWow, that was a long and detailed post. I haven't the energy to reply in equal fervor, but I will just say that lately these boards have been peppered with posts from people whose MP3s are being eaten alive by iTunes. What I don't get is why you suspect the hard drive is at fault. Unless the rest of the system is caving in, I don't think there's any reason to suspect a failing drive. Check the S.M.A.R.T. status in Disk Utility if you haven't already, and perform whatever maintenance you believe is in order.
For the most reliable ID3 tag editing, I'd certainly recommend using foobar2000 on a Windows PC (or a Mac with Windows installed) or MP3Tag. I would definitely, at least for the time being, not put your huge music collection at risk by doing any further editing of the tags in iTunes. -
Can not edit id3 tags since upgrade to iTunes 8.1: permissions problem (?)
Hi all,
I am angry at myself for having upgraded to 8.1 before I knew that it's ok, and angry at Apple releasing this update with too many problems. Here is my list:
(1) I cannot change ID3 tags within iTunes for certain tracks. I usually click on one or several tracks, press Command+i for information, then change the desired tags (e.g. genre, album, etc.) and click ok. Only that iTunes won't let me write anything. I found that I have no longer write permission to exactly these tracks (my music is on an external LaCie Firewire800 HD). What I did so far:
- I tried to run "Repair permissions" on the internal HD.
- I clicked on the iTunes music folder on the external hard drive, opened the information window and changed under "Sharing & Permissions" the rights to read&write for my user account. I clicked on "Apply to enclosed items", which should set the permissions to all elements within the folder.
Any ideas? My system is freshly installed (~3weeks old), everything is updated.
(2) Probably related to (1): certain files and documents on my internal hard drive have wrong permissions. Firefox for example is locked as read only, and I cannot update it via the "Check for update" in the help menu. I know there is an update available, as I am using 3.0.6 and the newest is 3.0.8. Repair permissions did not help. See the screen shot for the grayed out "Check for updates" menu entry.
http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/6567/picture2rxl.png
(3) In iTunes, I have a smart playlist in which all songs rated with four or more stars are gathered. I found songs in this list that I did not rate yet, and they all have odd "empty" stars in comparison to the songs I rated myself. What's up with that? See screenshot, some of the songs of the album "I love Jazz" have these odd stars:
http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/8702/picture1zkg.pngThat's exactly what I did, it took ~20sec to complete the "apply to enclosed items" command (there was heavy disk access), but it does not improve. The permissions stay the same for the files/folders in question. It's very odd, have a look at the screenshot:
Some folders have correct permissions, others (to which I have no access through iTunes) show "admin" twice as the only user who is allowed to write. Repair permission does not help. I have hundreds of files/folders where permissions are wrong, only since the upgrade recently.
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/33/permission.png
Message was edited by: JJulian (added screenshot) -
ITunes Slow Writing ID3 Tags From External Drive
When adding files (music) located on my WD External Hardrive, and upon trying to add the album art, the process slows down... a lot. As opposed to when I add filed on my internal hardrive (from my laptop directly), which is a lot faster (seconds whereas from the External takes about 2-3 minutes per album of 12-16 songs)
It takes FOREVER to write these ID3 tags. Is there a way to speed this up? What gives?Sorry, where is the file iTunes Library.itl? If you're not certain and don't know how to find out use this script: iTunesXMLPath
External drives take longer to process file operations than internal drives. Every operation in iTunes causes the database to be updated so if this is on a sluggish drive you will notice.
May help to exclude the library & media folders from any anti-virus scans. iTunes also slows up as you increase the number of playlists and the size of the library.
Are you certain your computer is running USB 2.0? What happens if you power down the computer and remove all USB devices except keyboard, mouse and external drive? (Of course this might be your usual config.) Is iTunes any faster? Are you connected to the front USB ports or the rear? The drive should not be connected through an external USB hub.
tt2 -
Export Ratings to ID3 Tag? iTunes Macro?
I've got a reasonably large music collection, and decided to get it a bit more organised by using ratings to create dynamic playlists, rather than manually creating playlists only occasionally.
All of my music is in my own folder structure, with its own file names, etc - and I want to keep it like that. I'm a little concerned therefore with the idea of spending a long time rating songs in iTunes since if I later have to rename tracks or move folders, as I understand it iTunes will lost those songs and when they're re-imported will lose my ratings!
So, what i'd like to do is to be able to export ratings from iTunes to the ID3 tag (all of my music is MP3), and i'll also need to be able to do the same in reverse, ie import the tracks and automatically set the rating based on what is in the tags.
One thought was that I could just use the "Year" field (which is empty on all of my tracks), however i'd rather keep using the proper ratings field in iTunes so that I can change ratings on my iPod directly.
Is there such a thing as an iTunes Macro? Is there another way to do what I want? I'd happily settle for a function that could copy the ratings (1-5) into the Year or Comments field, and back again.Whilst I take your point about the information not really belonging in the files metadata, I would still like the option somewhere in iTunes to store this information within the file thus removing the dependency on the library.
The information is representative of the file, and my listening habits. I don't share my files with anybody so the information isn't describing anybody elses musical tastes.
My main problem, other than losing information if I forget to backup my iTunes libary is that if I were to import the files into a different player, WMP or Windows MCE for example, I loose the information.
I will keep on searching for a suitable utility - before I have to write one myself!! -
Archiving cds and why do i need id3 tags
here comes another one of those questions looking at which codec to use to store music.....i also have tag questions.....
i'm about to (re-)rip my cd collection and looking at some info re codecs and id3 tags
now.....i believe i understand the benefits of alac (lower file sizes, keeping id3 tags, lossless compression) v wav(no compression)
however (and for some out there) if we just entertain the fact that wav may have some minute benefit for me depending on my questions and answers given.....and yes i know wav and alac will sound the same to the human ear - i accept that as a given of lossless compression ......
points i'd like to outline:
i am looking to rip my cds, firstly and mostly, for an archiving purpose!! purpose numero uno!!
i could well want to re-create cds with these archived records in the future
size of files is of no concern to me at all
i'm using a mac nowadays
i will convert most of these files, where needed, to use with a portable music player (i'm not bothered with having, say a wav file and then also converting and having an alac file, as crazy as that sounds)
this is where i ask for info re the benefits of embedded tags that are found in alac:
are these tags that important?
where do they come into play in ripping and later converting music?
are these uses just bells and whistles that have no benefit to my needs?
if i rip cds to wav (or aiff), say, using itunes, will cd info and track listings be available on the downloading database (eg itunes) to name these wav files?
if i then ensure these song files are kept under the album's folder, have i just done what tags do? surely not. that is all i have needed in the past.
this is where i feel i may be really missing what id tags (can) do
are tags more than just managing song files and where they belong and where they have come from?
is it just a convenience of not personally managing your song files (as per previous paragraph)?
(in the past i had ripped cds to mp3 codec. i think i used "cd rip" or something like that on my pc.
my mp3 files were individually named and sorted and kept under album folders under artist name folders.
apart form the very odd occasion all track and album info i needed was found on a database that was attached to the ripping software.
i never had a problem managing/maintaining these files and folders.)
i welcome some enlightenment on some of my questions above and other info that may be relevant
and yes, i understand that music will sound the same as a wav file or alac file - but humour me re using wav and tell me why i need id3 tags
i guess the crux of it is:
why do i need id3 tags?
does my managing of my song file in the album folder do what tags do?
what problems/shortcomings/headaches may i encounter by not having those tags if i use wav as opposed to alac?
what do i not know about these little buggers?
what codec is best for my purpose of archiving and re creating of cds (for playing in cd players)
thanks in advance for your input and any clarity that i may experience through this
peter t
excuse my long windedness (i have spent some time editing this entry)Crows2012 wrote:
as mentioned earlier if i just have songs (wav) in album folders, when i import these albums into itunes, do you know if these will come up under AN album with their file names purely using my filename setup (but with no artwork)?
Yes, iTunes will read the filename, such as "Track 1" or something else and display it. But nothing else. No Album or Artist.
so the tracks will remain grouped as an album based on their initial folder and the albums and tracks as per file name?
Crows2012 wrote:
also, does aiff have limitations (apart from the full size of the file)?
I'm not sure I understand what you mean. For all practical purposes AIFF and WAV are exactly the same thing. They're just file containers.
i thought that i had read somewhere that aiff tags could run into some issues with its tags - ie may not always be transferred 100% accurately with certain players (or hardware maybe)
Crows2012 wrote:
and how do these codecs work re-creating an album for the purposes of playing in a cd player? - this is a crucial question for the purpose of my archiving/backup of CDs THEMSELVES
That's actually going to depend on what burning software you use. Once you rip the tracks to whatever file container you choose (WAV/AIFF/ALAC) you'll never really exactly re-create the album. But for archiving purposes all three file containers will do what you want, which is to create a lossless archive. AIFF has the advantage of supporting embedded ID3, which ALAC has the additional advantage of the files also being about half the size of AIFF/WAV files.
i was thinking that maybe wav was able to recreate an album (in effect duplicate one) if my cd was lost or damaged in the future. i was thinking this IF when ripping to wav everything is unchanged (unless there is other data on the original cd). and maybe only possible with wav. the purpose for this would be to play recreated cds on my cd player
any idea on this one?
(i havent looked too thoroughly on this angle but i'll keep googling on this one)
much appreciate all info thus far
peter t -
MP3 song information not retained after iTunes 7.0 - ID3 tags at fault?
I'm having some strange problems with track information in iTunes. I first noticed it when I tried to copy some mp3's from my Mac to my mobile phone: certain tracks did not retain the song information, like artist, album etc., while others did.
A similar problem has been discussed in this post:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=3698498
However, my problem seems to be a little bit more specific.
If I look at the music in my library in iTunes, all the track information is there. However, for MP3's encoded after 16th October last year, the "Imported With" field, using Get Info, is shown as "Unknown". Before this date, it is shown as "iTunes v7.0". For all MP3's the ID3 version is v2.2.
I believe that I must have upgraded to iTunes 7.0.1 around this time, since I have a number of Apple Lossless audio files which have also been imported and don't show this problem.
The main problem is with the file ID3 tag information (I think). If I select one of the problem tracks, find the original file, open it up in Quicktime and "Get Info", no track/album/artist/composer information is displayed. This is NOT true for 1) MP3's encoded before 16th October 2006 and 2) Apple Lossless files encoded at any time.
In other words, the track information for songs encoded with iTunes 7.0.1 and later is either encoded in a way that no other application can read, OR is only being stored in the iTunes playlist, NOT the file itself. I can see all the track information for these problem files on my iPod, but NOT my mobile phone (where I have to manually copy them over), even if I drag and drop them directly from iTunes.
I have this problem with Quicktime, my mobile phone music player and RealPlayer, so I'm assuming it's "system wide". It even occurs if I copy a problem file out of my music folder and onto the the Desktop, then manually add the track to iTunes: all the song information has disappeared.
I have all my music stored on an external hard disk - 160GB Freecom ToughDrive formatted as HFS+. Previously it was stored on an external disk formatted as FAT32, but copying the files over to the new disk didn't change the problem.
I considered using the "convert ID3 tags" option to see if it would make a difference, but both the good and bad files are listed as using v2.2. I also don't understand enough about them to feel confident converting them to something different - perhaps to v2.3 or v2.4 - just to see if it makes a difference.
Any information on how to "recover" the missing information (for anything other than iTunes) would be greatly appreciated!
MacBook Pro 17" 2.16 GHz 2GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.9) iTunes 7.1.1Okay, some more information as I try and track down the source of the problem.
By using an id3 tag editing program - ID3 Editor - I was able to view the song information for each track, even though all the other music players I had tried would not show it. If I then chose to modify and update the ID3 information, this would somehow modify the tags in such a way that they become readable in all other programs.
I tried using the "Convert ID3" tags option in iTunes, just on a whim, but without any success. Saving the song information in ID3 Editor doesn't change the version of the ID3 tag - it's still listed as v2.2 in iTunes - but it DOES make it readable in other programs. I also tried the various text conversion options, again without any success.
This looks to me like a bug in iTunes. While its possible for me to get around it, in an extremely long winded way, I still can't understand why iTunes would be writing ID3 information that other Apple programs cannot read.
Any suggestions? Should I be posting this question in a different forum perhaps? -
Database open (recovery) taking too long
Hi,
Ive been using your awesome BerkeleyDB Java Edition for a couple of years, and have been very happy with it.
I am currently facing an issue with trying to open the database after a disk-full issue (which resulted in the database being unable to write, and hence not closed properly).
While recovery seems to be operating, it has been taking an inordinate amount of time - 16 hours so far. My database has data of around 200GB, which inflated to over 450GB during deletion of entries, hence gobbling up all free space on disk.
My questions are:
* Should i continue to wait for recovery?
* Is there any chance that recovery is looping?
* Is there an easier way (DBDump?) to extract data from the database without having to perform recovery?
Some other information that may help:
* The recovery has decreased the size of the last significant file, and created 3 new files since it started running.
* I have been monitoring the open files (using lsof), and they change every now and then to other files, though a good amount of its time is spent near the end of the database.
Thus, i feel like recovery is running normally, just taking too long. Please let me know your opinion.
A few other things i should mention regarding my issue:
* The database was, till yesterday, running on bdb java 3.3.75. After running several hours of recovery, i upgraded to 4.1.10 (since i read about a possible recovery looping bug in one of the versions)
* Once 4.1.10 started recovery, it spat out errors regarding the last 2 files. Only on deleting those 2 files (the last being 0 bytes, the 2nd-last being about 5k) did the recovery start. Note that the older 3.3.75's recovery never complained about those files. I can post the errors here if relevant.
* Some of the jdb files (about 500 files out of the 47,000 files that make up the database) are 100 MB files, since i had experimented with larger sized files for a few days, then reverted the setting.
Would any of these above affect a successful recovery?
My setup is:
OS:Linux CentOS 5.2, 64-bit, kernel 2.6.18-92.el5
JVM: Sun Java 1.6.0_20, 64-bit
Memory: 16 GB RAM, of which 8 GB is allocated to the java process (-Xmx8000M -Xms8000M)
BDB cache set to use 6GB RAM (envconfig.setCacheSize(6000000000))
Only the BDB basic API is being used (Environment, database, cursors). We do not use DPL, or HA features.
Awaiting your kind response,
Sushant AHi Sushant,
* Should i continue to wait for recovery?* Is there any chance that recovery is looping?>
I'm not aware of a bug that would cause recovery to loop, however, you may want to take thread dumps to see if it is progressing. It isn't easy to tell, however, since each phase of recovery is in fact a loop. What you can tell easily from the thread dumps is whether recovery is blocked (completely stopped) for some reason. I don't know of a bug that would cause this, but it's something I would check for.
Assuming it is not blocked, I suggest that you leave recovery running, and additionally (in parallel) try to obtain some information about your log. While recovery is running you can run the DbPrintLog utility, which does not itself run recovery. I suggest running the following command, which will tell us in general what your log looks like and in particular how far apart the checkpoints are:
java -jar je-x.y.z.jar DbPrintLog -h <envHome> -S > <output>Please post the output.
If checkpoints are not running in your application for some reason, or they are running very infrequently, this can cause VERY long recoveries. Unfortunately, you may have such a problem in your app and not be aware of it, until you crash and have to recover. To guard against this sort of thing in the future, you should keep an eye on the checkpoint frequency. EnvironmentStats.getNCheckpoints and getEndOfLog can together be used to tell how much log is written between checkpoints. We will also be able to see this from the DbPrintLog -S output.
* Is there an easier way (DBDump?) to extract data from the database without having to perform recovery?DbDump normally runs recovery. DbDump with the -r or -R option does not run recovery, but has other drawbacks. With -r, a large amount of memory may be necessary to dump an accurate representation of your data set. If this fails because you run out of memory, -R can be used, but this will dump multiple versions of each record and it will be up to you to interpret the output.
If regular recovery does not succeed, then DbDump -r is the next thing to try.
Would any of these above affect a successful recovery?No, I don't believe so.
--mark -
ID3 Tags and multiple Libraries
I think I really have 2 separate questions here.
1) I have an external hard drive at work with all my music files on it. I use iTunes to listen to these songs at work. I have spent a lot of time adding song ratings, and album art, and cleaning up some of the album titles, song names, etc. on these songs. I copied all of these music files to my hard drive on my home computer. I don't listen to music on my home computer very often. Is there a way to copy over all of the updated song information to the library on my home computer?
2) I assume that much of the information about a song (artist, album, etc.) is stored in the ID3 tags. Is there any way to write ID3 information to a file from iTunes?Some, but not all of the information is stored in the ID3 tag. Examples of information not stored included (but are not limited to): ratings, play counts, date added, and last played.
If you want to transfer information about some songs, you can put those songs into a playlist, then export it as a text file (select the playlist, then File..Export). On the other computer, you can then import it. NOTE: if the path (folder) of the song is different on the two computers, you will need to edit the text file before importing it on the second computer.
Also note that the exported playlist still does not contain all of the iTunes information. But it does have the rating, play count, and some other stuff not stored in the ID3 tag.
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