dougscripts.com

Managing Files

August 17 2008 - 9:58 am

UPDATED: Lossless to AAC Workflow v2.1

Lossless to AAC Workflow is a set of two scripts which assist with importing/managing Apple Lossless audio files and sending converted AAC copies to a mounted iPod set to "manually manage songs and videos".

Lossless to AAC Workflow (CD->iPod):

  • Imports each enabled CD track as an Apple Lossless file
  • Makes a converted AAC copy of each imported Lossless file
  • Adds the AAC file to iPod, deleting the original AAC from iTunes.

Lossless to AAC Workflow (iTunes->iPod):

  • Makes a converted AAC copy of each Lossless track selected in iTunes
  • Adds the AAC file to iPod, deleting the original AAC from iTunes.

In this way you can keep archived Lossless files on your hard drive, and manageable AAC files on your iPod.

This latest version fixes an issue with intermittent copying.

August 17 2008 - 9:54 am

UPDATED: Rip to iPod v2.1

Rip To iPod v2.1 will import each enabled (checkmarked) CD track to iTunes and immediately copy it to iPod, removing the track from the iTunes library and deleting the original file, thus giving the appearance of seamless CD-to-iPod importing. You can also change your encoder on-the-fly and your Preferences-set encoder will be restored after the rip. Requires that iPod be set to "Manually manage music and videos". iPods set to sync are ignored.

This latest version fixes an issue with intermittent copying.

August 13 2008 - 11:40 am

NEW: Add from Amazon MP3 Folder v1.0

Is it just that the Amazon MP3 Downloader application won't automatically add downloads to my iTunes or is this a Windows-only feature? Didn't bother to find out for myself because I decided to have a script do it instead. Add from Amazon MP3 Folder will let you choose the Album folders from your "Amazon MP3" downloads folder and add their files to iTunes. Optionally, if you allow iTunes to "Copy files to iTunes Music folder when adding to library", you can choose to move the original folder(s) and files out of the "Amazon MP3" download folder and to the Trash after they're added to iTunes. Saves a few keystrokes.

It occurred to me to make this a Folder Action--so that files get added as soon as they hit the "Amazon MP3" downloads folder--but Folder Actions can be dicey when working with internet-downloading files. So, you've got to run this from the iTunes Script menu.

I've also included the script "Open Amazon MP3 Folder" that will open your Amazon MP3 downloads folder and make it the frontmost window in the Finder. This script can be run from iTunes' Script menu as well.

August 6 2008 - 9:19 am

UPDATED: Re-Add Selected Tracks as Podcast v1.2

Re-Add Selected Tracks as Podcast will re-add the files of the selected tracks to iTunes as if they were a Podcast subscription. The files will then appear in the Podcasts playlist and "behave" as though they are a group of Podcast episodes. Requires Web Sharing be activated.

This newest version is compatible with iTunes 7.7.1.

Also, I should note that there is a known Leopard/Apache bug that may prevent Web Sharing from working correctly. Many users facing this problem have had success using information from this Apple discussions link and item 5 from this macosxhints forums link. I do not know the status of this bug other than what I have read in the posts cited above.

August 6 2008 - 9:12 am

UPDATED: Make Bookmarkable v2.5

The popular Make Bookmarkable has been updated to v2.5 and is now compatible with iTunes 7.7.1. Make Bookmarkable will change the file type of the selected AAC tracks to "M4B " and file extension to ".m4b", thus making them bookmarkable. Additionally, when used with iTunes 7 or better, deletes and re-adds each track so it will appear in the Audiobooks Library. Ratings, play count, last played date, skip count, and skipped date are preserved.

May 30 2008 - 11:06 am

UPDATED: Lossless to AAC Workflow v2.0

I've been wanting to update Lossless to AAC Workflow with some improvements for a while and finally got around to it. As a matter of fact, they were mentioned on a recent Mac Geek Gab Podcast . This is a collection of two scripts that assists with importing/converting Apple Lossless tracks and sending AAC copies to iPod such that you can keep archived Lossless files on your hard drive and manageable AAC files on your iPod. The newest version of the scripts run as universal binary and, in general, has performance fixes and enhancements.

May 20 2008 - 9:54 am

UPDATED: Set Video Kind of Selected v3.0

If you have visited recently, you may have noticed that I have been updating some of the more popular offerings to universal binary, so that scripts run natively on both PPC and Intel Macs. Set Video Kind of Selected v3.0 gets the UB treatment, as well as some performance fixes. In lieu of iTunes' ability to batch-edit video properties for videos, this script will change the video kind property of the selected tracks to your choice of "Movie", "Music Video" or "TV Show". Additionally, "Show Name", "Season Number", and "Episode Number" can also be set or cleared for each selected track.

April 25 2008 - 7:41 am

Automatically Download Available iTunes Purchases

If you subscribe to any TV Shows from the iTunes Store Apple can send an email notifying you when the latest episode is available. Then you can go to iTunes' "Store" menu, click "Check for Purchases...", and the download will commence.

A while back I had posted a script called Check For Purchases which used GUI scripting to automate this process. It required that you hardcode your iTunes Store user name and password in the script and also have GUI scripting enabled. Yuck. These are two of my least favorite--if not my most least favorite--techniques for using a script. But, it turns out, there's an even simpler and better way to accomplish this...

April 23 2008 - 10:09 am

UPDATED: Make Bookmarkable v2.4

The newest version of Make Bookmarkable fixes a problem with files not being re-added to iTunes. Listen:

Recently, I had been seeing some reports of Make Bookmarkable mysteriously not working correctly for some users. The changing of the file type and extension of the selected tracks' files would go all right, but the file would not be re-added to iTunes' Audiobooks Library. After some investigation, the common thread of the problem was that the files were located on a MS-DOS FAT32 formatted external drive. Normally, Macs can deal with this. However, AppleScript cannot follow aliases of a file on such a drive unless the alias is the literal path. Make Bookmarkable changes the extension of files; such that an alias that earlier pointed to musicfile.m4a on a MS-DOS FAT32 drive doesn't recognize it when its name is changed to musicfile.m4b--unless you update the path of the alias to point to it. Do you follow?

Here's the thing: with an increasing number of Windows users switching to Mac and more Mac users working in Windows it's not out of the realm of possibility that they just plug their MS-DOS external drive into their Macs without re-formatting it. Also, as hard drive prices have gotten cheaper, users may be more apt to purchase a drive pre-formatted as MS-DOS. I know I've gotten a cheaper deals on MS-DOS formatted drives than Mac formatted, but, of course, I always reformat to HFS+. Considering this, I suspect I will be seeing this alias anomaly more in the future.

April 4 2008 - 10:39 am

UPDATED: Make Bookmarkable v2.3

Make Bookmarkable changes the file type of the selected AAC tracks to "M4B " and file extension to ".m4b", thus making them "natively" bookmarkable. Additionally, deletes and re-adds each converted track so each will appear in the Audiobooks Library. Ratings, play count, last played date, skip count, and skipped date are preserved. Latest version is universal binary.

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