Moving to Apple lossless, impact on playlists

I am considering a move to Apple Lossless (instead of mp3). My concern is that I have a lot of playlists that specifically address the mp3 file names. This brings me to my questions: (1) Is there any way to swap the Apple Lossless format files for the mp3 ones (identical song), leaving all playlists with updated file addresses? (2) If not, is there a way to search playlists to see where a particular song is located? I could then manually replace each song before deleting the mp3). (3) Any other suggestions on how I can make this swap between mp3 and Apple lossless files?

There are two types of playlist that iTunes uses.
Ones where you drag tacks manually in to them
Ones where you define rules so that tracks are automatically added to them - so called 'smart playlists'.
For the former, if you re-import your tracks in a different format (in this case Apple Lossless) you would have to drag them again to the playlist and remove the old MP3 ones from the playlist. The later is easy as you can sort by 'kind' and select all the MP3 tracks in one go and remove them from the playlist.
For the 'smart' playlist, you can check the rules and they may already pickup the desired tracks, or you can edit the rules. For example your rule might say something like -
for this playlist add all tracks of Genre 'Country and Western'
you could add an additional rule to this to make
for this playlist add all tracks of Genre 'Country and Western'
and that are of kind 'Apple Lossless'

Similar Messages

Converting to Apple Lossless and making playlist?

I've noticed that in order to convert Wav files that are already on my computer to Apple Lossless I need to do this in the library and it can't be done in a playlist. The problem is that if I try and create a playlist from the new lossless files I can't. Itunes creates the playlist from the origonal WAV files. Is there now way to bring a wav playlist into Itunes and make it into a apple lossless playlist?
Gerry

Yes, Apple Lossless is roughly 45% smaller than pure WAV PCM files.
Once converted, iTunes will place the Apple Lossless files in your music directory, under the correct artist/album folder. There should be new entries in your library that refer to the Apple Lossless files, and the old ones that refer to the WAV files should remain untouched. If you check your "Added recently" playlist, or sort your library using the "Date Added" category, you should find the Apple Lossless entries.

What is the most convenient way to downgrade tons of Apple lossless tracks?

I have many thousands of songs encoded in Apple lossless. Since it's eating up my hard disk space I stopped importing CD's that way, however I'm stuck with thousands of huge files I'd like to batch downgrade. Also, I have most of those in playlists and would like to automate the process of convertion, moving to the correct playlist and deletion of the old files. I was searching for an app or plugin but found nothing. Any ideas. Anybody. Please.

Check the Dougscripts web site. There may be one that does that. iTunes will, of course, convert, but it won't add it to a playlist.

Converting "Apple Lossless" back to "AAC" - More than 1 track at a time...

Hello,
Short version: I have hundreds of tracks that need to "Create AAC Version", and I can't right-click 8,536 songs in my library one at a time to find them all. Is there a method to sweep the entire library and convert all songs to this format if they are not already?
The problem with this is it still creates a duplicate of the song and the other original needs to be deleted.
Note - the file name changing (it appends a "1" on the M4A file), the "tag" displayed in iTunes retains the song name.
Thanks!,
Joseph
Long version: For the benefit of people facing the same problem and combing the forums for help, here's the rest of the story...
I'm not entirely sure when this changed (and I've reset my Import settings back to AAC 128-bit now), but I've managed to import a good number of CDs at this higher quality "Apple Lossless" format. Essentially, that's overkill - I listen to an iPod classic with headphones the majority of the time (98%) and I won't hear the difference.
CHECK: Edit | Preferences | "General" tab | "Import Settings" button
Essentially my hard-drive space has been disappearing at a rapid rate. I downloaded a tool (WinDarStat) and found my iTunes folder is 50% of my 200GB used. (Yes, I'm on an older laptop -- HD=220GB -- and am getting the 'out of space' warnings.) I found some folders for recent CDs were over 1GB alone and started digging.
I happend to have REM's studio "Man on the Moon" on here twice. The IN TIME version is AAC 128-bit and only 4.9MB in size, whereas the PART LIES version is Apple Lossless 1068-bit and 8x's larger at 39.9MB.
If you right-click a track, it provides option to "Create [other] version.", depending on going to/from ACC to Lossless or vice-versa.
Once I did this for "Man on the Moon", I got 75% of the song's space back ... from approximately 40MB to 11MB.
It does create a second copy of the song, so the original has to be deleted - be certain to "Move the song to the Recycle Bin" when warned.
A better option - all be it more time consuming - is to re-import the CDs.

For backup see this user tip.
The Create <Format> version tool uses whatever the current import settings are.
You can create a playlist of things that need converting as Ed says above.
To ease the conversion process, and keep your current ratings, playcounts, and playlist membership, plus recyle the old files automatically see my script ConvertFormat. Test on say a single album first to make sure it works as you expect/need.
tt2

Can't access my apple lossless files on external hard drive after reinstalling windows 8.1

Hi guys
New to this. I reinstalled windows 8.1 after windows continually asking me to change my password after not recognising it despite it being the right one. All my apple lossless tunes are on my external hard drive. Windows keeps saying 'I don't have access to this file currently'. I tried right clicking on hard drive, clicked properties, and tried assigning administrator rights to everyone but still no luck. Contacted windows who said it was an apple issue so here I am.
Can anyone help. I've got 900 albums on this hard drive and the thought of ripping them all again is stressing me.
Thanks guys
Stuart

Changing the path to the media folder doesn't change which database iTunes opens. If your original database is on the external drive then shift-start-iTunes and use the choose option to open it. If you no longer have access to the original database shift-start-iTunes and create a new empty library at X:\iTunes, where X: is the external drive letter, ensure the media folder is set to X:\iTunes\iTunes Media, move all of your content inside X:\iTunes\iTunes Media, use File > Add Folder to Library > X:\iTunes\iTunes Media. See also Recover your iTunes library from your iPod or iOS device. There are some scripts near the end that can extract ratings, play counts and playlists from your device and the rest of the tip explains how you backup and restore the device with the new library to avoid losing data.
tt2

160 Gb Classic - Audio dropouts, gaps on gapless albums with apple lossless

Dear All,
Since getting my new iPod Classic 160 Gb iPod Classic, I am experiencing audio dropouts that last between one and two seconds. They aren't frequent, occurring maybe one every hour or two of audio playback. They appear to be very random. If I play back the same track after having a dropout, it plays fine and doesn't happen again in the same place. This doesn't appear to be connected to my moving or shaking the iPod around, as it will happen when I am sitting down and perfectly stationary. Also, I don't think it is related to a bad earphone connection, as I a have played the iPod with several pairs of new and/or high quality earphones. More info: Most of my files are Apple Lossless and content is primarily regular music albums. Of note, this is the second 160 Gb iPod I've had with the same problems! The first one I brought down to the Apple Store in Ginza, Tokyo and they replaced it in the blink of an eye after I explained the same as above.
Prior to the 160 Gb Classic, I have owned 1st, 3rd and 5th generation iPods (plus a 2nd gen. Nano and shuffle). The 5th gen. 60 Gb was playing the exact same audio files and never had any dropouts.
I have reset the Classic and reinstalled all my music files (with the most recent ipod software 1.0.2 and running iTunes 7.5) twice now, but the problem remains. I am now thinking of taking one of two possible routes of action. a) go back down to the Apple Store and try to get another iPod replacement (and hope and pray that it doesn't experience this problem) or, b) change all my music files to something like 192 kbps and hope (and pray!) the iPod can handle the smaller file size without the dropouts. At the moment, I am leaning towards going down to the Apple Store as it would actually be the less time consuming of the two for me.
What do you wise people out there think? Exchange iPod or downsize my audio files? Or, does anyone have another suggestion or recommendation on how to resolve this issue? Thanks for any assistance.
To add to this, I have also noticed that several of my gapless albums (DJ mix CD's like those by Global Underground), no longer play consistently "gapless". Sometimes it will pass smoothly between tracks and other times there will be a small pause/gap. No doubt, I have checked the gapless album box and selected yes, in the album get info section for all of these albums, but still problems remain. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Again, my previous iPod, 5th gen. 60 Gb had none of these problems with the same files. I am really happy with the 160 Gb capacity of my new classic but feel a bit let down with these problems I'm having.
Regards,
Peter B.

Thank heaven! I thought I might be the only one.
My situation almost exactly mirrors your own. My first 160GB classic suffered from sudden dropouts, apparently random and almost impossible to replicate in any predictable fashion. For example, I'd start playing an album and would hear a one or two second dropout in the second track, but in attempting to replicate the situation exactly (as in, powering down the iPod, powering it back up and starting over from the first track of the album) I'd find that the fault didn't recur. Restoring and reloading made no difference at all.
So I took it in to the Apple Store and had it replaced, loaded the replacement up with music and was dismayed to discover myself facing the same problem. I too have had several iPods which were loaded off this same library, and none of them ever gave trouble in this fashion.
I think the issue might just be the size of the files in our libraries. The bulk of my files are at 320kbps, and you mentioned yours were mostly Lossless - could it be that the classic has problems dealing with large files? It's a very frustrating issue, since the audio quality of my classic is so much better to my ears than that of my previous iPod 5G.
I recommend that you take the iPod in and take them to task about it. That's certainly what I'm going to do - I really don't want to re-encode all my music, especially considering that I bought this iPod due to the burgeoning size of my library, and re-encoding would defeat the point. Plus, since it has better sound it sort of deserves to be loaded with larger files. I just hope this isn't an irremediable issue, which I'm starting to suspect it might be, since your iPods were obtained in Japan and mine in the UK. I'll continue posting as this unfolds, and I hope you'll do the same.

Want to replace Wav Files with Apple Lossless in the same folder...Scripts?

Hello!
I have about 4,000 wav files (wow) that I digitized from Vinyl. I organize my media folder myself (I have the organize option unchecked in preferences) and most of the songs are not properly tagged. I would love to convert the wav files to apple lossless and have Itunes save the file in the same folder from where it originated. I havent found a way to do this yet. Its weird to me that I can select a song in a playlist and hit "Show in Finder" and it knows exactly where it is yet when I convert files to apple lossless they end up in the "unknown artist-unknown album" folder. Anyone have any ideas or is there any scripts that can do this for me ? thanks so much!!
I had found one script that deletes the original wav files but still the new apple lossless are still put in the unknown album folder.....
Zeke

When iTunes converts a file, it does not allow you to direct the location of the output file, but rather places it according to the Artist/Album tags, which in your case are unknown.
Almost every other conversion tool allows you to direct the location of the output. There are not a huge choice that run on the Mac and support Apple Lossless, but a good one is Max.

Apple Lossless hiccups/drop outs/pauses

Hi
Has anyone tried Apple Lossless files with the Shuffle 3G yet? Does it choke on them, i.e. hiccup/drop out/pause a few seconds into a song, like the Nano 3G did?
I'd like to know before buying, as this was a major irritation for me, and this is the first shuffle to supposedly support lossless.
TIA

Hi I'm wondering what you tried. I have a 3G Shuffle that "stutters" during playback for my Apple Lossless songs also.
I loaded them using sync "checked music" to select the playlist that would sync.
When I let iTunes drop the bit rate down to 128 AAC and sync the same selection of checked playlist there is no skipping. I have tried this on 2 different computer and using 2 different Shuffles. I get the same results consistently. The skips happen in the same songs every time. Lastly, it does not happen with every Apple Losses song.
The songs play back fine on the computers, my 1G Touch and my 120 GB Classic. I haven't tried this on any Nanos yet. But this feels specific to the Shuffle

Control Button not working for Apple Lossless Music

I have a brand new black iPod shuffle and the control button in the middle has been problematic, at best, with my Apple Lossless music that I had on my PC.
When I push the control button, I get nothing. Only the female voice telling me what that track name is. I've attempted different "button pushing" methods such as once, twice, three times, as well as durations, 250 ms, 500 ms, 1 second. Nothing seems to work, I don't have any 128 kbps (garbage in my opinion) to try it out on.
Suggestions?

Thanks for the response, couple of questions...
1. Do you have the "Manual Music Manage" or similar button checked on your 3G shuffle?
2. Did you put the lossless CD tracks in a playlist, or just "heap" them in a giant list (like I have, I don't do playlists)?
3. Did you use iTunes (8.1.x) to do the ripping, or an older version. These lossless tracks are quite old, I don't even think that I had v8 when I originally did them.
Message was edited by: NKS Guy

Syncing Apple Lossless Files As Something Else

Hi all,
I am a proud new iPod Touch owner with 60+GB of lossless music in my itunes library, automatically organised, in ALAC (Apple Lossless) format. As my new iPod only holds 8GB, I would like to sync (as much as possible of) my music to the ipod in 192 or 256kbps, whilst keeping the lossless files as well for playing off my computer. Apart from having two computers with two identical yet distinct libraries, one Lossless and the other not, is this at all possible?
Thanks,
Ross

On-the-fly conversion is only available on the iPod shuffle. The iPod shuffle (probably because of it's limited capacity) has the option to "Convert higher bit rate songs to 128 kbps AAC". This option is not available for any other model iPod. For the larger iPods the files have to be converted in iTunes first or indeed have to have been imported in a compressed format prior to transfer. so if you want to keep your files in lossless format you would need to make a separate copy of those files in another compressed format if you want to sync those to your iPod. You could use either a separate library to sync the iPod or sync it from a distinct playlist of compressed songs within your existing library:
Using multiple iTunes libraries -Windows
iPod - Syncing Music

Converting from Apple Lossless to MP3: loss of quality?

Hi,
I have made the "mistake" of importing dozens and dozens of CD's using the Apple Lossless encoder. Nothing bad about the encoder, on the contrary. But my iPod is now full.
Is there a way I can convert all these tracks to MP3? Will there be a loss of quality from the re-conversion beside the one inherent to MP3? (since we are not starting from the original CD) And will I have to re-create my playlists?
Mmmhhh... doesn't sound too good, right?
Xavier.

Go to Preferences in iTunes. Then go to advanced and importing. In importing change the import using to MP3 encoder.
Quit out of this menu. On the top tool bar you have Advanced and under here you have convert option. If you select the songs that you want to convert and use this convert option they will go to MP3s

IPod Shuffle Does Not Support Apple LossLess?

i ripped some songs in apple lossless from my cd collections. then i tried to upload those songs to my old iPod Shuffle. But it was denied, and i have to check the "covert higher bit rate songs to 128kbps" check box.
so ipod shuffle doesn't not support apple lossless?
thanks.

so what's the difference between a play list and a smart play list?
A playlist you need to add songs to it yourself by dragging songs to it.
A smart playlist selects songs based on the criteria you set. You cannot drag songs to a smart playlist.
do i create a play list for each of the albums?
No.
i have 4000+ songs, can i just add 1 play list and convert all of them to 192kbps?
Yes.
File -> New smart playlist.
Match All rules:
Kind is AAC
Bit Rate is 192 {or whatever you select in iTunes prefs -> Import settings}
Songs will be added to this playlist automatically after they get converted.

Nano won't recognize Apple LossLess files

So some of my music is in the Apple Lossless format and everytime I try to put those particular songs on my iPod, I get a message saying: "some of the songs from iTunes such as the file "insert name" were not copied to the iPod "insert name" because they cannot be played on this iPod". Now last time I checked Apple Lossless formats where supported by iPods, so I went and downloaded the newest iPod updater only to find that I was already up to date on my software. I would convert the songs to another format, but for some reason these few songs when converted to AAC become 2x as long and play at half speed, so I really just want to be able to put Apple LossLess files on my nano. Any one know why I can't play them on my iPod, or how to make it play them? Thanks.
-Blake

Is the podcast playlist configured to sync to your iPod from under your iPod's Podcast configuration tab? To access this tab, plug your iPod in and when it appears in iTunes, click on its name from under the Devices section in the left hand pane. This will bring you to the Summary tab.
Locate the podcast tab and click on it. Here you can configure your iPod to sync podcast playlists.
B-rock

Apple Lossless extension

If I import an aiff file to Apple Lossless, the file extension is m4a and the "Kind" is MPEG-4, same as AAC.
Is that correct and can someone explain why?

The encoding is done in iTunes. I create a new playlist in iTunes. I drag an AIFF file from the Finder window into the empty playlist window. I set the iTunes Preferences to "Import Using Apple Lossless Encoder." Then, under the Advanced menu, I select "Convert Selection to Apple Lossless." iTunes places the resulting file in a folder named Unknown Album (within an Unknown Artist folder). I then repeat the process with the new compressed file, that is, I add the file to an iTunes playlist, change the Preferences to "Import Using AIFF" and select "Convert Selection to AIFF" under the Advanced menu. I Then compare the 2 AIFF files with the Finder's Get Info menu item. The file sizes are different as I indicated above.
If you have a small AIFF file handy, try it yourself and tell me what you get.

FLAC vs Apple Lossless file sizes

I've been looking into moving up to lossless audio files. From what I've been able to discover, FLAC and Apple Lossless should be roughly the same file size, but I downloaded a 24-bit/44.1kHz FLAC from the Bowers & Wilkins site (about half-way down the page - search for Portico) which is 35MB. I transcoded it to Apple Lossless using Max and the resulting file is 62MB - 77% larger!!
Does this seem right? Is the compression level variable for FLAC and/or Apple Lossless (as there is for ZIP for example)? There's no such option in Max.

Hmm, interesting. MediaInfo reports the following:
Apple Lossless:
Audio
ID : 1
Format : ALAC
Codec ID : alac
Codec ID/Info : Apple Lossless Audio Codec
Duration : 5mn 34s
Duration_LastFrame : -49ms
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 1 484 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Bit depth : 24 bits
Stream size : 59.1 MiB (100%)
Language : English
Encoded date : UTC 2037-05-12 23:52:44
Tagged date : UTC 2037-05-12 23:52:44
FLAC
Audio
Format : FLAC
Format/Info : Free Lossless Audio Codec
Duration : 5mn 34s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 840 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 44.1 KHz
Bit depth : 24 bits
Stream size : 33.4 MiB (100%)
Writing library : libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)
So, same bit depth and sampling rate, but the bit-rate for the Apple Lossless is much higher than the FLAC.
In XLD I have "same as original" for bit-rate and sample frequency.
I've found some more free FLAC download samples at NaimLabel (panel on the right about half way down) and when I transcode these to Apple Lossless the files are the same size as the FLACs, give or take, so I guess these aren't as compressed?

Moving to Apple lossless, impact on playlists

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