TIP: Your iTunes Match Scheme Leaves Duplicate Files

If you are using iTunes Match to update your music to the higher-quality Store stuff you may run into a duplicate file problem if you don’t Trash the original files first. For example, I’ve got an album of MP3s I ripped in 2002 at 128K and now want the 256K AACs that I can download with iTunes Match. The trick here (explained by Macworld’s Jason Snell) is to delete the tracks and Trash the files from iTunes, but not from the cloud. Then I can click the tracks’ cloud icon to download the new files from the Store. However, if I don’t Trash the files they will remain in my iTunes Media folder heirarchy and when the new AACs are downloaded I’ll have the original MP3s alongside the new AACs.

But, if you get yourself into this situation you can easily find and remove the files that are no longer in your iTunes library (but which are still in your iTunes Media folder) with Music Folder Files Not Added. This app will list the files in your designated iTunes Media folder which are not in your current iTunes library so that you can Trash them (or add them, if you like).

UPDATED: Music Folder Files Not Added v3.0

Music Folder Files Not Added v3.0 is a Cocoa-AppleScript applet that will list the file paths of the audio and video files in your designated “iTunes Media” folder which are not in iTunes’ library.

Additionally, you can select a different parent folder and its contents will be compared to the iTunes library. Includes options to Add a selection of found files to iTunes, move them to the Trash, and—new in this version—export to a text file.

(An earlier version of this script, Music Folder Files Not Added v1.1, runs on pre-10.6 systems. Also, this script replaces the functionality available in List Music Folder Files Not Added.)

UPDATED: Quick Convert 3.0

Quick Convert v3.0 will convert all or just the selected tracks of the selected Playlist using your choice of available iTunes encoders, restoring your Preferences-set encoder afterwards.

Works with importing selected CD tracks, too.

• Choose to delete and/or Trash the original tracks and/or files
• Copy all converted/imported tracks to a new playlist
• Optionally save AAC encoded tracks as M4B “bookmarkable” and re-add the converted files to the Books library

This latest version consolidates all options into a single window and displays progress during track processing.

Quick Convert v3.0 is for OS X 10.6 or 10.7 only. Previous universal version for PowerPC machines available at the entry page.

UPDATED: PDF Adder v4.0

Some smart-guy at Apple thought to include an alias to the iTunes.app in the /Library/PDF Services folder to make it easy to add PDFs to iTunes from the Print Dialog. But then if you want to add tags to the PDF you have to go into iTunes, dig up the track and do a Get Info.

Regular visitors will already be aware of the “Add as PDF to iTunes” PDF Service that is part of my three-script PDF Adder collection. I’ve just updated these as Cocoa-AppleScripts (for OS X 10.6 and 10.7 only).

These three AppleScripts assist with adding PDF files to iTunes as “digital booklet” PDF tracks. Each provides a method for easily supplying Author (artist), Album, Category (genre), Year, Rating and Description tag data which is then applied to the newly-added PDF track:

• Add as PDF to iTunes is a PDF Service workflow that, when installed, will be available in the PDF pop-up menu of the Print Dialog. It allows you to save the current document as a PDF file (from any application that uses the Print Dialog) and add it to iTunes. I describe here how I use it with Safari Reader.
• PDF Adder is an applet that will let you choose an existing PDF file and add it to iTunes. It can be installed in iTunes’ Scripts folder for easy access from iTunes Script menu.
• PDF Dropper is a droplet that lets you add a PDF file to iTunes by drag-and-drop.

PDFs added to iTunes with these scripts will appear in the “Books” library and can sync with the iBooks app on iPhone or iPad.

UPDATED: Convert and Export v2.0

Convert and Export v2.0 converts the files of the selected tracks in iTunes using an encoder of your choice on-the-fly (restoring your Preferences-set encoder afterwards). The newly converted files are then moved to a new location of your choice, and their tracks removed from iTunes.

This latest version is updated to be compatible with OS X 10.7.

UPDATED: Drop to Add and Give Info v2.0

Drop to Add and Give Info v2.0 is a Cocoa-AppleScript Droplet. Drag audio files to its icon in the Finder (or Finder bar) and a multi-edit window will allow you to set many common tags before the script adds the files to iTunes, after which your tag info will be applied to the new tracks. Saves trips to iTunes when batch-adding files. Additionally, tracks can be copied to a new or existing playlist.

For OS X 10.6 or 10.7 only. The previous universal version is available via direct download at the script’s entry page.

Bevy of Updates

I’ve just updated the last batch of scripts most recently posted to account for iTunes’ full-screen mode in Lion. My good friend Kirk McElhearn is a devoted iTunes-in-full-screen-mode user and he describes the situation so elegantly that you might as well read about it at his site.

The latest scripts re-posted with quick updates are: Super Remove Dead Tracks v3.1, Remove n Characters From Front or Back v4.1, Save Album Art to Album Folder v4.1, Save Album Art as folder.jpg v2.1, and Re-Apply Downsized Artwork v2.1.

So, if you picked any of those up in the past couple of days, you may want to re-up to the latest versions.

NEW: Drop to Add and Give Info

I often have to add files to iTunes that I’ve received as mail, iChat, or Skype attachments or from other disparate sources. They’re usually audio files that friends or colleagues have generated and aren’t necessarily song files. They usually don’t have any ID3 Tag info other than the file name/track name. I just drag ‘em to iTunes, select a batch after they’re added and multi-edit their tags. But somehow this workflow doesn’t feel right to me. If I were ripping a CD, I’d enter the tags in the CD tracks before importing. Likewise, when I use PDF Adder I’m obliged to enter any tag info first.

But when I’m importing the files from the Finder I can only edit the tag info after the files are added. Thus, I have to find them in iTunes, select them, press Command-I to get the multi-edit window, and then I can start tag editing. Doesn’t feel right.

So I put together a droplet called Drop to Add and Give Info that launches a GUI for multi-editing after you drop files on it but before the files are added to iTunes:

(more…)

All Those Audio Formats

Via Lifehacker, this How-To Geek article is a great primer on the differences among digital audio formats.

Get a Track Reference from a File Path

Correspondent Wayne B. recently wondered if there is a way to get a reference to a track in iTunes based on its file path. Well, unfortunately, you can’t do something like this:

tell application "iTunes"
	set trackRef  to (get some file track of library playlist 1 whose location is "some/file/path.ext")
end tell

That will generate an error. But you can trick iTunes into giving you the track reference by using the add command–if you are certain the file is already in iTunes’ database. When you add the file iTunes will check its database for the the corresponding library track for you and if it exists will give up the reference–and it won’t re-add it:

set theFile to choose file
-- or however you get the file path

tell application "iTunes"
	try
		set trackRef to (add theFile as alias)
		tell trackRef
			log (get name)
			# and so on...
		end tell
	end try
end tell

But remember that if the file isn’t already in iTunes’ database then iTunes will add the file as a matter of course, which may not be what you want. So this trick may work best only when you know a file is currently in your library.

You will not want to use the open command instead of add, because open will compel iTunes to play the file in addition to any add-housekeeping.