January 2024
UPDATED: Assimilate View Options v4.0 (and Some Gripes)
Assimilate View Options takes advantage of the iTunes behavior whereby a newly created playlist has the same visible columns as the Music library playlist. Select a playlist in iTunes and launch the script. That playlist will be re-created with the same columns available in its Songs View as are available in the Music library playlist.
This latest version will only work with iTunes 12.2 or later on OS X 10.10 or later. Because Things Are Different Now. An older version from 2012 is still available that will probably still work with pre-Yosemite/pre-iTunes12.2 versions.
Working on this script exposed me to some funny quirks with the latest version of iTunes. First, programmatically speaking, there is no way to tell the difference between a Genius and Smart playlist. In fact, (programmatically speaking) they appear as identical types. They both have a smart property set to true. Their playlist properties in the XML file both have Smart Info and Smart Criteria; and if this data for a Genius playlist is exported and re-imported, it does not produce a Genius playlist of tracks but just an empty Genius playlist. Buh?
Next, there is likewise no way to tell that a playlist downloaded from Apple Music (which will appear under a "Apple Music Playlists" header inwhat used to be known asthe Source List) is such a thing. And if you duplicate it, the copy will appear with your regular playlists. Don't use Assimilate View Options with these playlists.
And while I'm sort of griping here, must new playlists default to Playlist View as the initial view? I really like Playlist Views as an option and I'm all for cutting down on Preference Pane Clutter, too, but a popup with my favored initial view couldn't take up that much space, could it?
Oh, and Santa? 'Scriptable playlist description?
"10 things that iTunes does right"
Kirk lists ten things iTunes does right at Macworld.
I'm very partial to #10.
NEW: Apps Assist
I'm pleased to announce the debut of Apps Assist, a utility application (it's not a script) that can display the installed, missing and orphaned iOS apps on your Mac.
If you've been an avid downloader of iOS apps over the years and back them up via iTunes to your Mac but never had a look in your Mobile Applications folder, well, I shudder to think how many files you've got in there that may be outdated, duplicated, or abandoned. To my own surprise, I had over twice as many unused versions of apps in there than I had installed apps.
Apps Assist will help you easily determine which apps are viable and which you might consider sending to the Trash. In the screenshot above, the black colored iOS app listings are installed, the gray ones are missing (these appear iconless and gray in iTunes), and the blue ones are orphaned in the Mobile Applications folderthey're just outdated or otherwise not installed. Apps Assist provides tools to filter and sort the apps list, Trash selected files, view selected apps' .ipa files in the Finder, export the apps list as a tab-delimited text file, and more. Probably most handy is being able to see the Filenames and Purchaser IDs for each app.
Apps Assist requires iTunes 12.2 or later running on OS X 10.8 or later. It's free to try with limited functionality and frequent nags urging you to purchase a registration code for $1.99, which will restore full functionality.
Hooray! Sort Of
Apple fixed the drag from Playlist View problem!
But they didn't fix the current track in For You predicament or the drag from Audiobooks setback. So maybe these are not problems at all but just the way it's going to be.
iTunes 12.2.2 Released
Apple has released iTunes 12.2.2 which fixes some Apple Music issues, some issues with sorting and displaying playlists and includes the obligatory improvements to overall stability and performance.
UPDATED: Sort by Artwork Size v1.1
Sort by Artwork Size v1.1 can write the size of a track's artwork (eg: "600x600") to choice of Category, Comments, Description or Episode ID tag (enabling tracks to be sorted by artwork size in a playlist using the chosen tag) and/or copy tracks with artwork less than or greater than a user-entered size to a new discrete playlist.
Note that if choosing the first option, the chosen tag will be re-written so it is best to choose a tag that is not already in use or not typically associated with a track's kind; for example, use the Episode ID tag (a TV Show tag) for music tracks or the Category tag (a Podcasts tag) for videos.
This latest version adds support for OS X 10.11 and accommodates changes in iTunes 12.2 and later.
Free to try for ten days, $1.99 thereafter. More info and download is on this page.
UPDATED: Search Results to Playlist v2.1
Search Results to Playlist can search a chosen category (Library, Music, Movies, etc) or the selected playlist for user-entered text by All, Song, Artist, Album, or Composer tag and copy the track results to a Search Results playlist, which will be created automatically if necessary.
It can optionally re-create or append to the Search Results playlist on each run. Floats over iTunes while active for easy access.
This latest version has some minor fixes for compatibility with iTunes 12.2+ and accommodations for OS X 10.11 beta.
More information and download is on this page.