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30 Most Recent RSS FeedUPDATED: List MIAs v4.0
List MIAs v4.0 will check your entire iTunes library for missing and presumed dead tracks—those tracks that iTunes is unable to associate with a file and which are listed in iTunes with a "!"—and can create a text file listing these tracks by alleged File Path (if available), Song Name, Artist and Album, which you can view using TextEdit.
This latest version has additional support for OS X 10.10 Yosemite/iTunes 12, drops support for pre-OS X 10.8, adds a "Check for Update" menu command, and tweaks to improve performance.
By the way, to actually remove dead tracks from iTunes use Super Remove Dead Tracks or TrackSift 2.
More info and download is here.
UPDATED: Music Folder Files Not Added v4.1
Music Folder Files Not Added v4.1 will list the file paths of the files in your designated "iTunes Media" folder which are not in iTunes' track library. Additionally, you can select a different parent folder and its contents will be compared to the iTunes library. Includes options to Add a selection of found files to iTunes, move them to the Trash, and export a text file listing the file paths.
This latest version has additional support for OS X 10.10 Yosemite.
See the video on YouTube.
Duplicate Purchases Syncing Bug in iTunes and iOS 8
Rob Griffiths (of Many Tricks and founder of Mac OS X Hints) had a rough couple of days this past weekend trying to get his new iPhone 6 to sync with his iTunes library. It just wouldn't. He writes about the ordeal in "An iPhone 6, (no) movies, and me".
It turns out, as Rob reports in a follow-up, "A nasty little iTunes/iOS bug may be causing media sync issues", that there's a bug in the pipeline between the current versions of iTunes and iOS 8. The syncing may stop if you have duplicates of purchased media files.
At first, Rob tried using iTunes' "Show Duplicates" tool to locate any duplicates. But it didn't find every duplicate track entry (it's not very rigorous, even using "Show Exact Duplicates"). He then turned to my duplicate managing app Dupin and was able to find the dupes by jiggering the Criteria settings to find album tracks with the same track number—matching using the name of the tracks failed because the duplicates had slightly different titles. (I'm pretty sure iTunes' "Show Duplicates" always considers the name of the tracks.) Once he eliminated the duplicates the syncing went fine.
I must admit, this doesn't affect me and I hadn't even heard about this issue until now. Of course, it's still early days with iOS 8 adoption.
UPDATED: Needle Drop v5.0
Needle Drop v5.0 will play each track in the selected iTunes playlist for a set time interval optionally starting at a set number of seconds into each track, beginning with the selected track. Handy for 'scoping playlists.
The latest version adds support for OS X 10.10 Yosemite and iTunes 12 and has other minor tweaks.
More information and download is here.
UPDATED: Save Album Art to Album Folder v5.0
Save Album Art to Album Folder v5.0 will export the artwork of the selected tracks (or the tracks in a selected playlist) as an image file to the folder which contains each selected track's file—presumably the track's Album folder—or a single user-selected folder.
Version 5.0 adds support for OS X 10.10 Yosemite and iTunes 12 (dropping support for pre-10.8), adds "Replace existing image file" toggle, adds "Check for Update" menu command, and has some minor maintenance tweaks.
More information and download is here.
UPDATED: Save Album Art as folder.jpg v3.0
Save Album Art as folder.jpg v3.0 will export the artwork of the selected tracks or tracks in the selected playlist as a JPEG image file named folder.jpg to the folder which contains each selected track's file--presumably the track's Album folder. Many third-party music players and systems (Sonos, for example) may look for a "folder.jpg" here to use as display artwork.
Version 5.0 adds support for OS X 10.10 Yosemite and iTunes 12 (dropping support for pre-10.8), adds "Check for Update" menu command, and has some minor maintenance tweaks.
More information and download is here.
UPDATED: Append to Selected Tag v4.0
Append to Selected Tag v4.0 can append the same user-entered text to the beginning or ending of the existing text in the chosen tag (Song Name, Artist, Album Artist, Album, Composer, Comments, Genre, Grouping or Show Name, and their Sort siblings) in each selected track.
For tags other than "Song Name" and "Show Name", this script may be just slightly less involved than performing a multi-edit on the selected tracks. On the other hand, unlike using the modal "Get Info" panel in iTunes, tracks remain accessible and selectable.
This latest version adds support for OS X 10.10 Yosemite and iTunes 12 (and drops support for pre-Mountain Lion), provides a "Check for Update" menu command, and has other minor tweaks.
More information and download is here.
UPDATED: M3Unify v1.1.0
M3Unify v1.1.0 is an app that will assist with adding files from iTunes to portable media, such as a USB thumb drive or SD card (watch the YouTube video I put together) or copying files to another location on yer Mac. Just drag and drop tracks from iTunes, arrange the tracks and the use M3Unify's Export Settings to configure how you want the files copied (or converted) to a new location.
Flexible options let you export files the way you and your audio player want.
The latest version of M3Unify now applies basic meta-data tags to converted AAC files (Name, Artist, Album, Genre, Track Number/Count and Disc Number/Count); adds a keyboard shortcut to the "Clear" menu command; fixes an issue converting some types of single-channel MP3s; adds additional support for OS X 10.10 Yosemite and iTunes 12.
For OS X 10.8 and later. M3Unify is $5.00 but you can try it out in Demo Mode which limits the number of tracks that can be used at a time to fifteen. This version is a free update for registered users.
Thanks for all the feedback on v1.0.0. I'm thrilled that some users really like this app. ;)
OS X 10.9.5 and Gatekeeper Security
You may be aware of the Gatekeeper security feature introduced with OS X 10.7.5. It prevents potential malware from being run inadvertently on your machine by checking downloaded apps for a developer signature. Most modern applets from this site are "codesigned" with my Developer ID which is registered with Apple. You are therefore assured that my apps are not malware. (It would be pretty dumb of me to release malware in any case.)
Apple has updated the way Gatekeeper signatures are recognized on OS X 10.9.5 and Yosemite. Gatekeeper on those systems (and later) will now look for a new version 2 signature, which can only be implemented by a developer on OS X 10.9 and later. The v2 signature is fully backward compatible on earlier systems. But v1 signatures have been obsoleted and will not be recognized on OS X 10.9.5 or Yosemite.
Codesigned applets that were last updated on Mountain Lion or earlier will have a v1 signature.
I've spent the Summer working on updating v1-codesigned scripts and apps so they will be compatible with Yosemite when it arrives in the Fall. However, I haven't yet updated all codesigned applets with a v2 signature.
If you download an applet signed with a v1 signature on OS X 10.9.5 or Yosemite you may see an alert that advises you that the app is from an unknown developer. If so, you can override Gatekeeper security by Right-clicking/Control-clicking the applet's icon in the Finder and selecting "Open" from the contextual menu.
I hope to have all affected apps updated with v2 signatures over the next few weeks in time for the official release of OS X 10.10.
UPDATE: ArsTechnica has more.
Apple Releases iTunes 11.4
Apple has released iTunes 11.4 with support for iOS 8, which is due for release on September 17.
