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Metadata Not Sticking to MP3s? Might Be AirPlay and AppleTV
Over the past few months, probably since the release of Mojave and iTunes 12.9, I've occasionally received queries from Correspondents concerning a problem with changing the tags of MP3 tracks. The changes wouldn't be written to the MP3 files' metadata or would revert back to what they had been before the change. It affects MP3s only, not M4As.
I was not seeing this myself nor was I able to replicate it, but, as I say, I was asked if I knew about it a few times.
This post at Apple Support Communities appears to have discovered a factor involved: AirPlaying to AppleTV. When AirPlay to AppleTV is turned off tags would be written correctly to the associated MP3 files.
I'm wondering if this could be related to another MP3 issue I have heard about recently. And this is weird. Whenever a script of mine is used that applies artwork data to an MP3, the file is mangled in such a way that the last several seconds of audio is copied and added to the end of the audio file (I said it was weird). I could not replicate this either.
EPPC and AirPlay Bug?
A Correspondent alerted me to an issue he is seeing, and that I can verify, using the EPPC protocol to access the AirPlay device property via iTunes on a remote machine. For example, with Remote Apple Events enabled on a remote machine, a script like this—that up until recently worked—will fail:
tell application "iTunes" of machine "eppc://user:password@Remote-Machine.local"
set apDevices to (get name of every AirPlay device)
end tell
In this example, you would expect to get a list of the names of the AirPlay devices available on the remote machine. But instead, the script trips up on the word "AirPlay" with the error "Expected class name but found identifier". "AirPlay device" is a class name. Other conventional iTunes/Remote Apple Events routines work as expected.
Our Correspondent reports that this sort of script worked happily in the past; sounds like he uses it to control iTunes like a server on the remote machine. There have been EPPC-related bugs in the past that were introduced with Security Updates so I'm hoping this is one of those sorts of things and not a deliberate "security feature". File a bug if you can.
AirPlay Scripting Bug Fixed in 11.1.2
The bug affecting AirPlay scripting has been fixed in iTunes 11.1.2.
AirPlay Scripting Workaround
As previously noted, you can't do this without getting -1728 errors:
tell application "iTunes"
set apDevices to (get AirPlay devices)
end tell
But you can do this:
tell application "iTunes"
set apDevices to (get a reference to AirPlay devices)
-- see?
log (get name of apDevices)
-- or
repeat with aDevice in apDevices
log (get aDevice's name)
end repeat
-- or
repeat with aDevice in AirPlay devices
log (get aDevice's name)
end repeat
end tell
That's if you need to do that.
iTunes 11.1 Breaks Some Airplay scripting
[UPDATE: iTunes 11.1.2 addresses and fixes this issue.]
The latest version of iTunes breaks some scripts I posted when Airplay scripting was introduced back in the Spring.
Specifically, an error will be generated doing something as simple as this:
tell application "iTunes"
set apDevices to (get AirPlay devices)
end tell
Come on. It's gotta be a bug, right? You can still get properties of AirPlay devices and set the current AirPlay devices property by device name:
tell application "iTunes"
set apDevices to (get name of AirPlay devices)
--> {"Computer", "Doug's AirPort Express"}
set current AirPlay devices to AirPlay device "Computer"
end tell
Waiting to see how this evolves.
Project: Change AirPlay Speakers, Change EQ
I don't fiddle much with iTunes EQ settings. I most frequently send audio to a receiver and, if necessary, tweak the tone settings there. But I realised that if you're using AirPlay, you may want a different EQ setting for a selected AirPlay device. If you don't mind firing a script whenever you want to change AirPlay speakers—and you don't mind doing some of the script-writing yourself—here's a simple way to acomplish that.
And I do mean simple. This script is pretty basic and could be finessed much more thoroughly. It will only allow you to select a single AirPlay device (I don't believe there can be a different EQ for each active AirPlay device simultaneously) but it'll get the job done.
Here's the script. Open it in AppleScript Editor:
tell application "iTunes"
set listOfAirPlayNames to (get name of every AirPlay device)
set chosenAirPlayName to (choose from list listOfAirPlayNames with prompt "Change AirPlay Speakers to:")
if chosenAirPlayName is false then return -- user pressed Cancel
set chosenAirPlayName to (chosenAirPlayName as text) -- coerce to text from list
# This is the part you have to code:
if chosenAirPlayName is "Computer" then set chosenEQName to "Rock"
if chosenAirPlayName is "Apple TV" then set chosenEQName to "My Customized EQ"
if chosenAirPlayName is "Bedroom Airport Express" then set chosenEQName to "Classical"
# and so on...
# apply the changes
set current AirPlay devices to AirPlay device chosenAirPlayName
set current EQ preset to EQ preset chosenEQName
end tell
You will have to supply the names of your AirPlay devices and the name of the EQ setting you want to use with each. The latter is easy, just use the name of an EQ preset as it's displayed in the Equalizer Window. To get the accurate names of the Airplay devices, just run the script from AppleScript Editor and then right away click the "Cancel" button in the choose list dialog. In the AppleScript Editor Event Log window you'll see the names listed. Use these names in each of the repeating lines of code in the script. You may have fewer or more than the three example lines in the original script. Edit accordingly.
When those edits have been made, "Save" the script as "Script" and named whatever you like and saved in your [home]/Library/iTunes/Scripts/ folder. And, like my Mom always says, add a keyboard shortcut to launch it.
Remember: if you manually change your AirPlay speakers in iTunes, without using the script, the EQ will not change. That only happens when you run the script.
So also: smarties can probably figure out how to set a discrete volume for each chosen device using the Airplay device sound volume property.
UPDATE: Just to be clear, it is the main iTunes EQ setting that is changed, not the EQ setting for individual tracks.
More Airplay stuff
Earlier, I posted a way to hardcode the Airplay devices in a script. But if you only have one computer, AirPort Express, or Apple TV kind of Airplay device you can forego using the name property and do something like this, which sets my lone Apple TV as the current Airplay device:
tell application "iTunes"
set current AirPlay devices to (get AirPlay devices whose kind is Apple TV)
end tell
Even though there is only a single item result from Airplay devices whose kind is Apple TV, it's returned as a list which is what current AirPlay devices takes.
The other kind values, AirPlay device and unknown, are too generic to use this way—unless you know you only have one of them.
Hardcode Airplay Device Speakers
Correspondent Matt Stevens sent the following, which illustrates how to hard code your Airplay device names:
tell application "iTunes"
set computerSpeaker to (first AirPlay device whose name = "Computer")
set kitchenSpeaker to (first AirPlay device whose name = "Kitchen")
set current AirPlay devices to {computerSpeaker, kitchenSpeaker}
end tell
The current AirPlay devices application property accepts a list—even if the list is only one item.
Airplay device properties
These are the new Airplay device properties accessible via AppleScript:
active (boolean, r/o) : is the device currently being played to?
available (boolean, r/o) : is the device currently available?
kind (computer/AirPort Express/Apple TV/AirPlay device/unknown, r/o) : the kind of the device
network address (text, r/o) : the network (MAC) address of the device
protected (boolean, r/o) : is the device password- or passcode-protected?
selected (boolean) : is the device currently selected?
supports audio (boolean, r/o) : does the device support audio playback?
supports video (boolean, r/o) : does the device support video playback?
sound volume (integer) : the output volume for the device (0 = minimum, 100 = maximum)
Notice that all the properties are read-only (r/o) except for selected and sound volume, meaning only those two properties can be changed; the others can only be polled.
Basic Airplay script
This is a pretty basic use of the new Airplay stuff. Select and set your Airplay devices:
tell application "iTunes"
set apNames to (get name of AirPlay devices)
set apDevices to (get AirPlay devices)
set rez to choose from list apNames with prompt "Select Airplay:" with multiple selections allowed
if rez is false then return
set apPlays to {}
repeat with i from 1 to length of apNames
if item i of apNames is in rez then set end of apPlays to item i of apDevices
end repeat
set current AirPlay devices to apPlays
end tell
