Join Together FAQ & Support
Bug reports, questions, comments can be emailed to support AT dougscripts DOT com. Include "Join Together" in your subject line. A response will be sent ASAP. Before emailing, be sure your topic is not already covered here or in the documentation in Join Together's Help Menu.
Bug reports should contain precise details. If possible check Console.app for any Join Together-related error messages. In case you don't know, Console.app is located in Applications/Utilities/. Launch Console.app. If messages from Join Together are not immediately visible in the right-side list, try typing "Join Together" in the search field of Console's toolbar and then press the Return key. You will see very many informational entries but error messages will be of significant interest.
Go to the Join Together product page for information and download.
Current Issues
Version 8.1.0 released January 3, 2020.
You didn't get your registration code?
Please email me at support AT dougscripts DOT com and I will re-send.
Notable issues with macOS 10.15 Catalina beta
- Music currently has sketchy artwork support
- Items cannot be dragged from the Books app
iTunes 12.2 - "Share iTunes Library XML with other applications" Preferences setting
"Share iTunes Library XML with other applications" is a setting in iTunes > Preferences... > Advanced (v12.2 and later). It gives other applications permission to access the current iTunes library's XML file [screenshot]. Join Together needs to access this file to get information about the tracks and playlists in your library. Please be sure this setting is checkmarked ON. Otherwise, Join Together will alert you about being unable to access your iTunes library information.
A bug in iTunes prevents tracks from being dragged to Join Together from the Audiobooks library.
Apple has fixed this bug in iTunes 12.7. The workaround is to place Audiobook tracks in a new playlist and then drag them to Join Together from the new playlist. This is no longer necessary as of iTunes 12.7.
General Topics
Are there file size limits?
I've successfully tested joining files up to twenty-two hours in length (the final file size of which is ridiculously large; it was literally a "Moby Dick" audiobook). Things may get a little bumpy during the "Finishing Export" stage on very long joins. Your mileage may vary. I don't recommend exporting hours of audio as a single ALAC, which will be encoded at a higher bit rate and create a commensurately larger file.
Downcoding and Upcoding Recommendations
You should never upcode—that is, don't think you can get higher-quality audio by setting the Output Settings' Bit Rate higher than the source tracks' bit rates. Try to stay near the same bit rate or lower.
Limited audio formats
Currently, only MP3, AAC, Apple Lossless, WAV and AIFF (and AIFC) formatted audio files can be joined. Future updates may accomodate additional formats.
Cloud Music Library
Audiobook files do not sync to Cloud Music Library. If you want the files you create with Join Together to sync across your Cloud Music Library devices, export them as "Music". Additionally, the media kind of your current Audiobook tracks can be changed to "Music" via the track's Get Info > Options > media kind setting. They will appear in the "Music" library and, if eligible (files must be encoded at 96kbps or higher and be no larger than 200MB or two hours in length), will be Uploaded to the cloud.
Monitoring and Trouble-Shooting With Console Logs
Join Together logs status, progress and error messages to Console.app. It gives a pretty good picture of what goes on so checking Console.app even while the app is running can be helpful.
CD Tracks Take A Long Time to Join
Yes. AIFF files from a CD are very big and data on physical CD media takes longer to access than data on a hard drive.
Joining ABJ (Already-Been-Joined) Files
You could try, but I can't enthusiastically recommend it because the additional encoding may result in audio degradation. On the other hand, this may not be as much of a consideration for voice recordings as it might be for music.
