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30 Most Recent RSS FeediTunes 12.4
NEW: Loved Playlists v1.0
The only time you can see if a Playlist has been Loved is to view it in Playlist View, whereby a heart icon will appear in the upper right corner of the browser window. So here's an applet, Loved Playlists, that will list all the "loveable" playlists (plain, Smart and Folder) and display the appropriate icon (it will also accommodate the Dislike feature available in iTunes 12.5, currently in beta.):
As you probably have noticed, there is also an option to batch-edit these settings for one or more selected playlists.
Loved Playlists is free to download, with a donation requested. It is for OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) and later only.
Hassle-Free Playlist Description
One of the neat things that Apple added to iTunes not so long ago is the user-editable description that is available for regular Playlists (Smart, Folder, Genius and Master library playlists do not have this option) and is visible when the Playlist is in Playlist View. You can edit this description by clicking the Playlist's "Edit Playlist" button. But when you do this, the iTunes interface changes: a column appears at the right edge of iTunes listing the current tracks in the playlist to which you can drag tracks. It also will change the (now center column) browser window to display the full Music library, which totally discombobulates me.
I do not always care for this when I just want to edit the Playlist's description. I'd prefer to do so without shaking up the interface. This script will do it:
tell application "iTunes"
try
set thisPlaylist to (get view of front browser window)
tell thisPlaylist
if special kind is not none or smart or genius or shared then error
end tell
on error
beep
return
end try
set defaultAnswer to (get thisPlaylist's description)
if defaultAnswer is missing value then set defaultAnswer to ""
set newDescription to text returned of ¬
(display dialog "Enter the description text for the playlist" & return ¬
& thisPlaylist's name default answer defaultAnswer)
try
set thisPlaylist's description to newDescription
end try
end tell
Save this named whatever you like to your [home]/Library/iTunes/Scripts/ folder so that it will appear in the iTunes Script menu. Select a playlist and launch the script by selecting it from the Script menu. It will quit if the selected playlist is the wrong kind. It will display the current description for the playlist if it exists, otherwise the text field will be blank. Enter up to 255 characters, which is the most that the description can accept, and then click "OK".
Give this a keyboard shortcut to maximize your quality of life.
Revisiting Reset Plays
The iTunes faithful may remember that iTunes 12.4 removed the "Reset Plays" option. This command would zero the Plays and Skips of a track.
AppleScript to the rescue: I posted a script, Reset Plays, that replicated this feature and additionally deleted the Last Played Date and Last Skipped Date, turned off "Remember Playback Position", and set the played property to false; essentially, rendering a track as "never played".
Whether due to user clamor or by design, the "Reset Plays" feature was restored in iTunes 12.4.1 and I figured the script was obsolete.
Today, I got around to trying iTunes' native "Reset Plays" in v12.4.3 (it is not something I would normally use at all). While the Plays and Skips are set to zero as expected, surprisingly, the Last Played Date and Last Skipped Date remain; such that a Smart Playlist filtering by the date a track was last played (or skipped) will not realise that these "reset" tracks were supposed to appear as never played.
So, Reset Plays may actually still be useful.
iTunes 12.4.3 Released
Apple has released an update to iTunes. Version 12.4.3 "resolves an issue where playlist changes made on other devices may not appear in iTunes." I'm wondering if this addresses the played count problem. More as it develops.
iTunes 12.4.2 Released
Apple released iTunes 12.4.2 today (along with updates to all current OS) which addresses a play back issue with short songs in Up Next. More if it develops.
The player position Bug Fixed
This bug that prevented setting the player position while the player state is paused is fixed in iTunes 12.4.1
iTunes 12.4.1 Released
Apple has released iTunes 12.4.1 which fixes the Crossfade bug, problems with Voice Over and Up Next, and restores the Reset Plays and Convert ID3 Tags features.
Can't Replace "Convert ID3 Tags"
Apple has removed the "Convert ID3 Tags" command in iTunes 12.4. I don't know why. I didn't use it much myself but many users needed to convert the metadata ID3 Tag version so MP3 files imported or converted with iTunes would be compatible with other players.
There is no AppleScript command or property for iTunes that is related to this so no purely-AppleScript workaround is possible. Interestingly, SoundJam's AppleScript dictionary had a property to read—and possibly write, don't recall now—the default ID3 Tag version. It didn't make the trip to iTunes.
[UPDATE: the Convert ID3 Tags feature has been restored in iTunes 12.4.1.]
Did I Forget to Mention This?
The selection property will contain references to tracks selected in Apple Music. You can get properties of these URL tracks, but you can't set them. That would be dumb*.
I neglected to note this earlier because I was falling all over myself about current track and current playlist also being able to reference Apple Music items.
{UPDATE: *I stand corrected. You can set the loved property of the tracks in a selection of Apple Music tracks.]
EQ window No No
The EQ window inherits full screen from window now, but setting full screen of EQ window to true will error.
Of course I tried it. Thought it'd be fun to see a full screen-sized EQ window.
Slightly disappointed.
