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30 Most Recent RSS FeedAppleScript
NEW: Search Amazon UK MP3
Search Amazon UK MP3 uses terms from the selected iTunes track as the basis for a search of the Amazon UK's MP3 site.
NEW: Reset Tracks Start-Stop
Reset Tracks Start-Stop will reset the Start and (optionally) the Stop Time of the selected tracks--or all the tracks of the selected playlist--to "0:00" and (optionally) their entire duration, respectively. (Erg, that could have been written better.)
UPDATED: Reset Bookmarks to Start v2.0
(Formerly "Reset Bookmarks".) Reset Bookmarks to Start will reset the bookmark of each selected track to its Start Time, effectively clearing the bookmark from its position later in the track. Tracks which have been set to "remember playback position" or which are "M4B" types will have a bookmark position.
UPDATED: Gather Up the One-Hits v2.2
Gather Up the One-Hits had a persistent problem for some users whereby only a single track would be copied to the "One Hits" playlist. I believe I have fixed the problem, albeit at a cost of some speed; but it should only take a few seconds rather than a few moments to run.
Another Reprieve
Dan Frakes emailed me with a vote for maintaining Set Video Kind of Selected:
"One that I'd like to see kept alive, so to speak, in some
fashion is Set Video Kind of Selected. Although iTunes 8 does let you
bulk-edit many of these fields, Set Video Kind of Selected has one unique feature that's very
useful: sequential episode numbering."
I had forgotten about that feature. Make Video Tags also has sequential track, episode ID, and episode numbering.
Genius 4010 Error
This Apple forums discussion post describes an error that many iTunes 8 users are getting:
"iTunes 8.0 gathers data about my music library well enough and sends it to Apple too; but then 10-15 seconds into 'processing' by Apple, iTunes stops and reports that 'Genius results can't be updated right now. An unknown error occurred (4010)'. I thought it might be overloaded servers and tried several more times in the hope of squeezing my request in between those of everyone else; but that didn't work; plus if it were a server issue I'd expect to see postings here from others with the same problems, and I'm not."
Several posters have tried removing dead tracks--tracks whose files cannot be located as designated with the encircled exclamation point--from the library using the script Super Remove Dead Tracks and trying again, and although this didn't work for everybody, several posters did get things working correctly afterwards.
Retired, Not Euthanized
I got several fretful emails regarding yesterday's post about the retirement of several scripts which iTunes 8 has rendered unnecessary. Of particular concern was the appearance of Make Bookmarkable on the list. This is somewhat typical:
"Just a quick note to vote for preserving Make Bookmarkable. Although the ability to change the Media Kind to Audiobook in iTunes 8 has been added to preferences, it is NOT possible to change the Media Kind of podcasts -- despite the fact that the majority of podcasts are MP3s. I listen to dozens of podcasts and most of them are spoken word audio. Many benefit from the ability to speed them up. Until Apple allows for regular MP3s to be sped up I will continue to use Make-Bookmarkable."
Additionally, changing the Media Kind of a track does not change its file's file type, so changing an MP3's Media Kind to "Audiobook" does not make the MP3 an AAC. It just allows it to be listed in the Audiobooks library playlist (by some hidden mechanism; AppleScript cannot emulate it). So, in consideration of the cases where one actually wants to change the file type with Make Bookmarkable, I suppose it will remain un-retired and updated when necessary.
As for the other scripts on the list, they will still be available on the site, just out to pasture in the Retro Scripts section.
Retiring Some AppleScripts
Here is a list of AppleScripts which have been rendered "Old-And-In-The-Way" by virtue of new features in iTunes 8, particularly the new multi-edit features:
- Batch Set Tracks Sorting Tags
- Make Video Tags
- Set Video Kind of Selected
- Make Bookmarkable
- Make UN-Bookmarkable
- Selected Tracks Bookmarkable
- Set Selected Tracks Shuffle
- Enter Description Text for Selected
- Enter Long Description Text for Selected
I will most likely move these to the Retro Scripts category once I positively determine that their utility is superfluous with iTunes 8.
iTunes 8 and Genius Incompatibilities
As I hinted at yesterday Genius playlists are a new "species" of playlist. Several scripts are affected by their inability to correctly distinguish Genius playlists from other playlist types. I will be working on fixes for them in the coming days. I think, in fact, that you can pretty much attribute any failings of AppleScripts that did work before iTunes 8 to the appearance of one or more Genius playlists. You may want to verify this by shutting Genius off and trying the errant script again. While some AppleScript behaviors have been updated/fixed in iTunes 8, I have not (yet) noticed any new AppleScript features that would otherwise cause scripts to error.
UPDATED: Quick Convert v2.8
Quick Convert 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.
Additionally, you can:
- copy all converted/imported tracks to a new playlist
- choose to remove and/or delete the original tracks and/or files
- if you have selected the AAC encoder you can choose to make the tracks "bookmarkable" and re-add the converted files to the Audiobooks library
Latest version is compatible with iTunes 7.7.1 and accounts for DOS-formatted drives during M4B conversion.
