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30 Most Recent RSS FeedRe: Scripting Bug with iTunes 9.2.1?
Apple may be aware of the issue. This Discussions thread discusses the issue and RoyB suggests re-downloading and re-installing iTunes 9.2.1(5)—you may have 9.2.1(4)—as a solution. (Thanks Tom R.)
Update: I forgot to mention that Software Update will not report v9.2.1(5) as a newer version if you have 9.2.1(4). You must download iTunes from this page at Apple and install it from the disk image.
Scripting Bug with iTunes 9.2.1?
I have received two reports over the past couple of days of some unusual behavior that occurs with iTunes 9.2.1 and some AppleScripts. After running a script that changes the track name tag, the track's Genre tag is replaced with a number in parentheses, eg, "(10)". In such cases, it appears that this is a number representing the specific Genre, such that Rock = 30, Jazz = 10, and so on. Like this:
Each report involved a different script which until now presented no problems. Experience suggests that this is not an issue with the scripts (since nothing about the script has changed) but with iTunes.
I have not seen this behavior myself, but I have not yet done any rigorous testing. Since I have only received two reports at this point my guess is that this may be a problem with something else and iTunes; a misconfigured plug-in or background app. But that may be wishful thinking and the problem may indeed just belong to iTunes.
If you have seen any behavior like this please let me know as soon as you can. I'd like as much information as possible before I test and eventually report this to Apple.
[UPDATE: see here for the fix.]
PDF Adder and Safari Reader
I hadn't realized this until giving it a shot this morning, and I haven't seen this mentioned elsewhere: I've been taking advantage of Safari Reader mostly for reading long form stuff (Esquire magazine has a lot of their classic articles on line, for example). For laughs, while the Reader window was open, I hit Safari's Print button to see if the Reader formatting is what gets recognized, rather than the original page. Perhaps not so surprisingly, it is!
Now it's a simple matter of using the "Add as PDF to iTunes" PDF Service in the PDF Adder collection to add the Reader-formatted page to iTunes' Books category and from there sync to iBooks. Of course, I've been PDFing stuff like this from Safari for awhile, but hadn't thought to try it with Safari Reader. Neat!
iTunes 9.2.1 Released
Apple has released iTunes 9.2.1 and it looks like there's a nice batch of fixes there. I won't have time to check tonight, but I'll report any AppleScript-related stuff as soon as I can.
Short URLs Added
For convenience I have provided a short URL for each script for easy bookmaring, link copying, Twitter posting, and what have you. So instead of having to copy (or even type) something like this:
https://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=removedeadsuper
...you only need this:
https://dougscripts.com/212
Gee, that's about half the length now that I see it like that.
The short URL can be found in the script's entry listed in the "Info" section. And the title of the entry is also a link using its short URL. The permalink for each entry is, of course, still viable, but I hope you'll use the short URL when possible.
NEW: Have a Quick Look v1.0
Inspired by this recent Mac OS X Hint, I've posted Have a Quick Look. This script uses the UNIX qlmanage command to display a Quick Look window of the selected iTunes track(s), which can be audio, video, and, perhaps most usefully, PDF, whereby Preview.app is not necessary. Need I add that a keyboard shortcut makes this very handy.
Spins Ranks Your Most-Played Tracks
Spins analyzes your iTunes library and displays rankings of your most-played tracks. You can configure Spins to show rankers and breakouts based on spins by Song, Artist, Album; rankings can be filtered by Rating, Genre, and Year; see rankings for the entire library or a single playlist. Spins can monitor iTunes and display ranking information updates for the current track. You'll find that Spins is easy to configure and even fun to use.
Give Spins a spin...check out the demo and see what you've been spinning. If you like Spins, $10 unlocks the full-featured version.
UPDATED: PDF Adder v3.1
Since mentioning PDF Adder in the last post I have confirmed that a PDF added using the PDF Services script defaults to a Media Kind of "Book". This means that these PDFs will automatically go to the "Books" library in iTunes, and will then sync with the iBooks app on the iPhone.
As an example of how cool this is: my wife and daughter are traveling to France in July. My wife "printed" a ton of itinerary and Google maps as PDFs to iTunes. They are now easily accessible from her iPhone's iBooks app for offline perusing (essential when avoiding online roaming charges in Europe).
As a result, I decided to update the PDF Adder scripts so that a Category can be entered (the genre tag). I also changed "Artist" labels to "Author".
Assistance with PDFs, iBooks and iTunes
Now that iOS 4 and iBooks allow you to sync PDFs to your iPhone you may be interested in using iTunes as a PDF manager. And if so, may I recommend PDF Adder. This set of scripts assist with adding PDF files to iTunes as "digital booklet" PDF tracks. Each provides a method for easily supplying Artist and Album tag data which is then applied to the newly-added PDF track:
- Add as PDF to iTunes is a PDF Service workflow that, when installed, will be available in the PDF pop-up menu of the Print Dialog. It allows you to save the current document as a PDF file (from any application that uses the Print Dialog) and add it to iTunes.
- PDF Adder is an applet that will let you choose an existing PDF file and add it to iTunes. It can be installed in iTunes' Scripts folder for easy access from iTunes Script menu.
- PDF Dropper is a droplet that lets you add a PDF file to iTunes by drag-and-drop.
The only thing these scripts can't do is change the track's "Media Kind" to "Book", which may be necessary in order for PDFs to sync to the iBooks app. (This is a limitation of iTunes' AppleScript architecture, not a limitation of the scripts.)
iTunes 9.2 Now Available
Apple has made iTunes 9.2 available via Software Update. If you have the pre-release beta version that was released for devs a couple of weeks ago then you'll have to get the official 9.2 from Apple's iTunes download page.
