Truncated comments in Get Info

After having added comments in Get Info, upon returning to a song, the comments are truncated. Retyping does not help because the comments are again truncated when returning to a song. Is there an imposed limit on comments? Can this limit be changed to allow longer comments?

Hi, Xotol. The problem is not that the drive won't burn comments to DVDs; it's that you need to use a format for the DVDs that preserves all the Mac file metadata, including those comments. I'm not conversant with all the different DVD formats (I've only ever burned plain data DVDs), but someone who is (or the Toast manual) should be able to tell you whether there's a format you can select that preserves all Mac file metadata. A key factor probably is whether the discs you burn will be usedc only on Macs, or whether they need to be Windoze-compatible and/or play on standard DVD player devices. If either of the latter is true, the Comments field may just not be the right place to put your copyright notice. There's no place in a PC's file system for Mac metadata, and I have no idea whether a standard DVD player can read Mac Comments at all.

Similar Messages

Losing Comments in Get Info

Help!! I keep losing the comments I add to the Get Info window. I read in some thread that deleting .DS_Store files will cause this. I have tons of these files but no comments. How can I stop losing the comments or restore what's in the .DS_Store files?
eMac Mac OS X (10.3.9)
eMac

hi there kimberly--
there is an enlightening commentary in this link. http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2741958&#2741958. it seems the data fork files are not the most reliable, and you cannot expect to count on them. however, you could give some of biovizier's suggestions a try. [ 8 ) ]

"Add Field" in music "Get Info" is gone in latest iTunes version

I use the "Comments" in Get Info in iTunes to capture a lot of information on the artist, music, etc. In earlier versions of iTunes 12, I could click "Add Field" when the comments field was not showing. But "Add Field" is missing from the music "Get Info" screens in iTunes 12.1.2. How do I get it back?

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6812905 - Q: "In iTunes 12.1.0.50 there is no field for track number in the song info pane, is it possible to add this?" A: "It's there... Either scroll down inside the window or enlarge the window so you don't need to scroll. After you enlarge it and close, new Get Info windows will maintain the new size."
April 2015, hhgttg27 tips on metadata editing in iTunes 12.1 - https://discussions.apple.com/message/28155719#28155719 - including availability of particular fields with particular media kinds, and a workaround.
iTunes Help - Customize the iTunes window
https://help.apple.com/itunes/mac/12.1/
Tip for iTunes12.1: This $2 script emulates the old style "Get Info" presentation - http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=multiitemedit

Author metadata separated by semi-colons truncated in file properties and "Get Info"

I'm using Acrobat Professional 9.0 (CS3) for Mac to edit the metadata for a collection of PDFs to be made available on the web. When I enter the data, I am inputting a list of authors separated by commas, like this: Smith J, Watson C, Brown J. If I click on "Additional metadata", the data I've already entered is transposed into the various XMP fields. And the commas separating the author names are changed to semi-colons. I gather that this happens because XMP wants to separate multiple authors with semi-colons, and Acrobat wants the metadata in XMP fields to match the metadata stored for the file properties. Fine.
However, if I save such a PDF and then use Get Info on my Mac (OSX 10.4) to look at the file properties, the list of authors is now truncated where the first semi-colon appears. The list is also truncated in Windows XP if I right-click and select properties. The list is also truncated when I look at the file properties in Preview on my Mac, or if I look at file properties using FoxIT, or using Adobe Acrobat Reader 7 or earlier. The only way a site visitor will actually be able to view the full list of authors in a file saved this way is to use Adobe Reader version 8 or later.
I would like to preserve XMP/Dublin Core/etc metadata in the proper format in the XMP code, but would also like users of standard, popular file viewers to be able to access the full list of authors. Is there a way to do this with Acrobat 9?
Also, once I've saved a file and the XMP metadata has been altered, Acrobat seems to permanently change the way that the authors are listed in the file properties. I cannot manually change those settings any longer without Acrobat overriding my changes and converting commas to semi-colons, or surrounding the entire list of authors in quotation marks. Is there a way to get around these Acrobat overrides and manually take control of my metadata again?
Does Windows Vista read the authors list correctly in the file properties if it is separated by semi-colons?
It seems to me that in an attempt to get XMP metadata working smoothly across the entire CS line, Adobe has jumped the gun somewhat and is now forcing Acrobat users to use "file properties" metadata that is really only fully compatible with Adobe products. Is there a way I can get some backwards compatibility on this?
Thanks for any suggestions or insight anyone can provide to this vexing issue.
Phil.

Bridge has some pretty powerful and helpful features. However, I am unable to figure out how to access the non-XMP "file properties" fields through Bridge, and if I add metadata via Bridge, then I run into the same problem regarding the use of semi-colons to separate authors.
If I had more time, or a larger set of files I might investigate the use of ExtendScript to import all my metadata from an Excel file (where it already exists) into the PDF file properties and XMP metadata.
The best solution for my case though appears to be to use Acrobat 9 and to do the double-edit process for each file. I should be able to just cut-and-paste the metadata from the Excel file, and then if I save the Authors list to the end, I can simply paste it once into the XMP field (through the Advanced metadata button) and then return to the regular file properties page and paste it again in there, where Acrobat will add quotes around it.
Lastly, if anyone else happens to find this post and is looking for similar information, I would recommend searching in the Bridge forum as well as the Acrobat forum.
Phil.

"Spotlight Comments" in Finder Get Info window doesn't accept Clipboard contents

I wanted to paste caption and credit info from a NASA video download into the file's Spotlight Comments in the Get Info window. Done it in the past no problemo. Today it doesn't work.
Tried pasting the copied web page content to TextEdit and converting to plain text, copy again, paste still a no-go. Tried typing in the Spotlight Comments window, that works ok. Looked at the contents of the Clipboard and the text appears there, labeled either as rtf or text depending on where the text was pasted from (web or TextEdit).
Tried copying a couple of letters from the converted text, and they pasted ok into Spotlight Comments.
Suggestions to make the Clipboard contents paste?
Thanks.

On further inspection, it appears that the contents of the old Comments field are carried forward into the Spotlight Comments field.

Put URL of downloaded files in Get Info's Comments field?

I'm using Safari Version 3.0.4 (build 5523.10.6).
I know it is possible to have the url of where a file was originally downloaded to appear in the Get Info’s comments field automaticly.
I know this because it used to do this sometime ago, I remember. Is there a way to get this feature back or are there programs or plug-ins that do this (maybe for Safari)?

DownloadComment is probably what you are looking for:
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/15833

Paste clipboard's contents to selected file's Get Info (Spotlight) comments

Hi,
Could someone please help me in building an AppleScript that would paste the clipboard's current contents to the currently selected (in the Finder) file's Get Info (Spotlight) comments?
I know this can be done with an Automator workflow or Folder Action, but prefer an AppleScript.
Many thanks!

The following script will add (a space and then the clipboard) to the comments of the currently selected file. In case there are several items selected it only deals with the first one, and there is also a dialog to edit the final content:
<pre title="this text can be pasted into the Script Editor" style="font-family: Monaco, 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: 10px; padding: 5px; width: 720px; color: #000000; background-color: #E0E0E0; overflow: auto">set TheClipboard to (get the clipboard)
tell application "Finder" to try
set TheFIle to the first item of (get the selection)
set TheComment to the comment of TheFIle
set TheName to text ((length of (path to home folder as text)) + 1) thru -1 of (TheFIle as text)
if TheName ends with ":" then
set TheType to " folder "
else
set TheType to " file "
end if
display dialog ("Change the comment for the" & TheType & return & quoted form of TheName & "?") with title "Edit Spotlight Comment" default answer (TheComment & space & TheClipboard)
set comment of TheFIle to text returned of the result
end try
</pre>

Spotlight Comments No Showing Up in Get Info

I moved thousands of video files to new folders (Drag & Drop Method). Now the spotlight comments for the files are no longer showing up in the get info window. I'm devastated because the comments contained critical information about the video. Without the comments, the organization of the files is a mess. I have no idea how to fix this problem.

ok, this shows that the spotlight comment "the Kat" is retained in spotlight database as it's recorded in the kMDItemFinderComment field. then the problem is likely corruption of the .DS_store files for the folders containing those files. I really don't know why this happens and what's the proper way of dealing with this but I made the following workaround for the same problem while helping someone else in the past
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10549447
paste the following into AppleScript Editor
<pre style="
font-family: Monaco, 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;
font-size: 10px;
margin: 0px;
padding: 5px;
border: 1px solid #000000;
width: 720px;
color: #000000;
background-color: #ADD8E6;
overflow: auto;"
title="this text can be pasted into the Script Editor">
tell application "Finder"
set mlist to selection
set curfolder to item 1 of mlist
repeat with this_item in entire contents of curfolder
set ppath to quoted form of POSIX path of (this_item as alias)
set comment of this_item to (do shell script "mdls -name kMDItemFinderComment " & ppath & "| awk -F\\\" '{print $2}'")
end repeat
end tell</pre>
select the folder containing all those items (they can be in subfolders) and press 'run" in applescript editor.
Message was edited by: V.K.

Finder get info comments

OK, I am always confused by Applescript's /natural/ syntax -- as opposed to any other script.
All I would like to do -- at the shell, is to simply print the "get info" file comments and or have programmatic access from, say, Perl or Python. Can anybody guide or help solve this issue?
Thank you for your help.
David Green

Thanks for the reply / effort James...
After much research, I have finally found "mdls" -- a Apple shell program which outputs metadata.
I suspect the mdls routine is far simpler and (possibly) more robust.
I shall also follow a link which may show how to update comments from the shell -- if I wish too:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=1259996&#1259996
Thanks again

How can I add to the options automatically appearing in Get Info window?

Can anyone please tell me if there is a way to change the options in the Get Info window to show more of them? For example, as well as Album Name, Artist, Composer, Genre, date I'd like to have Grouping and Comment come up each time. At the moment, for each album I import I have to go to Edit>View Options and then add them. It is getting to be a drag. I tried ticking them in Library>Show Columns but that doesn't seem to bring them up in the Get Info window. And yes, I do regularly want to add the same comment to every track on the album!
Powerbook G4 12 Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Mike,
Thank you, your info has been very helpful and I think I have followed you (wouldn't it be nice if English were less vague?) - selecting multiple items had me a little stumped - do you mean that I go to, say, Library, and highlight an album and then CMD-I means I that exactly all the things I wanted come up? I did this a few times and it works fine. But I'm not sure if that is actually what you meant. Maybe there is another way of selecting multiple items that I haven't yet cottoned on to? You can tell I'm not very good at this, I really appreciate your help.

Can't save images into folders, Get info not detailing either.

Hi,
I'm new to Macs having just moved over 3 months ago from PC's and I'm having trouble with saving images and getting system information. When I click on Go > Utilities > then click the down arrow next to the small cog icon I can easily see my system information starting with Spotlight Comments, General, More Info, Name and Extension, Preview, Sharing and Permissions (which I've set to Read & Write for MartinForbes (Me), staff and everyone).
However when I try Go > Utilities > Martin's iMac > and click on the same down arrow all I get is General, and Preview - and that is it it even though it worked before.
Another thing is happening as well. When I'm trying to save an image from the internet into a specific folder the 'Save' button get greyed out, but it will only work in the most recent folders where I don't want this file to go. To put it into the folder I want , I have to save it into a folder that I DON'T want, then copy and the locate the intended folder and paste it the folder that I had intended. This also is happening when I save a zip file in the 'Downloads' section and try to create a folder in say, my 'Widgets' folder where I can now no longer click on 'New Folder' as this too has been greyed out. I can see that the format after I've right clicked and selected 'Save Image As' is selected as 'Preview Document* and not 'All Files.
Can someone shed some light on what I need to do to get this working please?

When you save an image, how can the browser possibly intuit where you want to save it?
You need to tell it where to save it. To do this just treat it as any Finder window and navigate to the desired folder. But you need to expand the dialogue to allow you click to the place you want to go as per a Finder window.
Then you can navigate to where you want it to be saved, and that position will become the default for next time until it is changed.
As for changing permission and the like, normally that is not required unless you have a permission problem you are trying to fix. Usually your Mac has that already worked out for you.

The "get info" function is broken in iTunes 10 (and in iTunes 9.2)

*Steps to reproduce this iTunes BUG:*
_Step 1._
Edit some track info (the id3 tags) in a third party program.
(I'm a DJ, so I'm using Serato Scratch Live http://serato.com/scratchlive to edit most tags)
_Step 2._
Select all tracks in iTunes and press cmd+I to for the "Get Info" dialog.
_Step 3._
Click the "OK" button in the "Multiple Item Information" dialog.
*Expected Result:*
iTunes scans through all the selected tracks and updates any info that has been change in the 3rd party program. (This is default behavior in iTunes 9.1.1 and below)
*Actual Result:*
iTunes will _no longer scan_ the files for updated info, it will only check if the files are still are available on disk.
*Why this is such a big deal:*
I get new music almost every day. All tracks need to go into the DJ software for BPM analyze and organization. Tracks will then be imported into iTunes and added to several smart lists for syncronization to my iPods. After this function was broken there is no longer an easy way to update my smart lists with the new tracks coming in.
_Extra info:_
Settings "*Keep iTunes Media Folder Organized*" & "*Copy files to iTunes Media Folder when adding to Library*" are turned off. I need to manage my media folders manually.
+This iTunes issue is also logged with Serato Scratch Live Support:+
http://serato.com/forum/discussion/340778

turingtest2,
*Workaround 1:*
This is not productive, I do A LOT of tags in Serato ScratchLIVE (Have about 45.000 songs in my library constantly) I will take a long time just to try to remember what songs I tagged.
*Workaround 2:*
This is even worse, it takes even longer, and you'll most likely loose stuff like playcount, added to library tag will get screwed up etc...
*Workaround 3:*
Id love to see a script like this, I had a look at DougScripts, but no luck yet. (I'm no programmer)
*Basically this is my problem:*
I'm doing quite a lot of work on all of my files regulary. (at least twice a week: fridays before DJ gigs, sundays after, and a probably a few times during the week too.) In short, I go through my tracks in Serato Scratch Live, add the text "3 star" etc, to the comments field (Serato Scratch Live don't read the iTunes star ratings), fix any genre tags (got a pretty extensive systems for those) etc, then rescan in iTunes and add the iTunes star rating as well.
Then there is smart lists in iTunes (based on star ratings, added date, genre etc.) that I sync to my iPods to keep updated on the go. This makes for a VERY efficient system for organizing the top tracks, and weeding out anything I don't want. (i will also do star ratings on the iPod on the go, re-sync to iTunes and add the to the comments field)
If I had to find every track manually in iTunes after doing the "star" comment tag in Serato Scratch Live, it would defeat the purpose. I would never manage to get by. I mean, iTunes only need to check if the file itself has changed since last id-scan, then read any new tag.
Even backup programs like Carbon Copy Cloner can go through 45.000 files in a snap, and only copy the altered ones, so why should it be so hard to rescan tags in iTunes?
To top this off:
I have loads of music ripped to my master archive (about 10.000 album cd's) So I'm always digging for tracks, rediscovering my collection. That's what DJ'ing is about I think, digging for the hidden gems. So yes, I'll never be done tagging all my songs, but at least if the rescan worked like it should, it would make my life "liveable"
After 2 month of neglect Id like to hear anyone from Apple comment on this.
Ive been using Macs for about 15 years, but this kind of thing is really disappointing.

Multiple Dates in Get Info Window

Hello,
We have an iMac running OS 9.2.2.
I just noticed this the other day: I'm finding multiple dates in the Created and Modified fields in the Get Info window. For example, on a document I created today, the date reads: WedWed SepMay 63 20062006
Apparently, Wed May3 2006 is being added to all the Created and Modified fields for all our documents.
Has anyone experienced this or know how to remedy it?
Thanks.

See if rebuilding your desktop helps. Use Techtool Lite or Trash*Desktop (TD may delete Finder comments )to rebuild your desktop w/extensions off. Does a better job than manually & you avoid all the finger gymnatics. You just have to hold down the shift key to shut off extensions.
Restart to turn the extensions back on again.
If you want to rebuild manually, see KB article http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=10182 Rebuilding Desktop File and Icon Recovery.
If rebuilding does not work, then try booting from your system install cd (the one that originally came w/your comp) while holding down the c key & run Disk First Aid from the Utilities folder. Have DFA repair any errors it finds. If unable to repair you will need to run a 3rd party utility cd.

"get info" not recalculating "size" field in iTunes XML database correctly

I have updated some of my mp3 files directly in the iTunes directory. The update changed from CBR to VBR at a higher bit rate. I selected the files and used 'get info' to update the iTunes database with the new bit rate information, which seemed to work fine. The resulting update works fine on the 1G nano, the 3G nano and the 1G iPod (yes, 1G!), but does not work on the iPod 5G (Video 80Gb). On the 5G iPod the changed songs will play for about a minute, then jump to the end of the song.
After much investigation, I found that deleting the song from iTunes and re-adding it solved the problem. When I examined the iTunes database had a different value for the size field. It went from
<key>Size</key><integer>4969036</integer>
to
<key>Size</key><integer>4967106</integer>
There are other changes, but this seems to be the most significant.
Is there any way to force iTunes to re-calculate this field?
Thanks,
Jonathan
PS I will post this on the iPod forum as well.

My own experience with truncated songs on the iPod is that I flag them when they happen. When I get back to iTunes, I resync and pull up the recently played and find those songs. Note the time, which is usually shown as the abbreviated version. If I then double click them to play, iTunes will normally update the time to the correct time. Resyncing to the iPod fixes the problem.
Oh I should mention that I give truncated songs on my iPod a 3-star rating as a tag. So after I "re-play" the song on iTunes to fix the time, I then change the rating back to no-stars. So this also forces an update back to the iPod. So you might have to tweak something after fixing the time to get it to reupdate back to the iPod.
Patrick

Create new line in "Get Info"

When I am in Get Info > Info > Comments, how do I create a new line if I'm typing text and want to see a new line before I word wrap? This CAN be done, because I've cut and pasted text that had new lines entered.

Hello Lon. That's interesting, I never noticed that before. Most database apps will usually "unhighlight" the OK or Done button once you start typing. Thus allowing carriage returns by way of the return/enter key. I'm surprised iTunes doesn't do this.
The only workaround I can suggest is to open Text Edit and type your info in there. Then copy and paste into the Comments section in iTunes. It will save all the formatting (carriage returns, indents) that you did in Text Edit.
-Daryl

Truncated comments in Get Info

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