What are /r/ITunes' favorite Products & Services?

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With Family Sharing coming later this year with iOS 8, I would keep the libraries separate. Multiple libraries can exist on the same machine. On a Mac, hold down the Option key when launching iTunes and you get the option to choose which library you want to access (user permissions are taken into account of course).

https://www.apple.com/ios/ios8/family-sharing/

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1589?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

This is assuming that the ID tags have the track numbers

• Select all of the tracks (click the top one, hold Shift and click the bottom one)
• Right-click and select Get info
• Go to Options
• Check Part of a compilation and select Yes

Also make sure you have the sorting set to "Album by title", "Album by Artist" or "Album by artist/year" (I recommend the last setting).

If the ID tags do not have the track numbers. Try downloading a program that can write ID tags based off of the filename (MP3 Tag Tools is a good one) and then reimport the tracks to iTunes.

howdy dylanthepiguy2,

i found the items below via a web search for "mac osx merge aac tracks". they look like what you are seeking.

iTunesJoin
- http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/17999/itunesjoin

Join Together
- http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/21391/join-together

hope that helps,
lee

Thank you for your reply, Eric.

I searched online and I found a solution to this problem.: > Windows Audio Session or Direct Sound under Edit - Preferences - Playback. It was set to Windows Audio Session, I changed it to Direct Sound and now I can transition my playback devices seamlessly on ITunes.

I'm not sure if this is the actual cause for its behaviour, but it certainly changes the audio output device for itunes like any other program. This option was apparently added in 11.0.2 > Play Audio Using - To allow system sounds from your computer to be heard while listening to audio, choose Direct Sound. To turn off system sounds during playback, choose Windows Audio Session.

Someone explains his subjective opinion on this here.

Since I change my audio quite often remotely using a hotkey I prefer to be able to have everything transition flawlessly.

Yeah, that's been a problem with the new update. One solution is to go online and find the individual components that make up the iTunes .exe file and install them separately. Or you can use this site: https://ninite.com/. It has a stable version listed and I used it to install iTunes on my son's laptop.

howdy jerhms,

you could try something like virtualbox and then install the "just for giggles" version in that. there is a mac version of it.

Oracle VM VirtualBox
- https://www.virtualbox.org/

plus, i presume there are other ways to run a virtual machine on the mac. i simply chose the one i already knew of. [grin]

take care,
lee

howdy sadfishbird,

i use CALibre on windows. it's available for most OSs ...

calibre - Download calibre
— https://calibre-ebook.com/download

hope that helps,
lee

I have three applications for this on my Mac. The first is DeTune, however my version cannot be updated and the owner's site has disappeared - it likely isn't compatible, but I can send you a copy if it comes to that. You say you have a pc, so this might mean you are running Windows anyway.

Next is iTools. The version I have is old now, and it appears Mac is no longer supported, but Windows is. The English page is here: http://pro.itools.cn/itools3_en

Finally there is iFunBox. I was able to update this one, so it appears to still support Mac. It's also for Windows and can be found here: http://www.i-funbox.com

I remember that iFunBox worked well for me in the past.

The database you want to use is ChaptersDB. It's user contributed, so there are many versions of the same video to choose from (dvd, special edition, etc.). I find it has an unforgiving search, though—make sure things are spelled exact.

Once you have your .txt file, you want the app Subler. This little app is amazing. It can mux video (better than encoding), tag videos (with iTunes Store metadata), and "edit" layers in the video container, including adding subtitle and chapter files.

P.S. When you add chapter files, it will even make chapter thumbnails.

You can tag this with a tagger like mp3tag or any other that can edit MP4 metadata fields. Not from within iTunes itself, unfortunately.

Technical background: this info can only be tagged in MP4 files (AAC, Apple Lossless), not mp3 files. The MP4 metadata atoms are ownr and purd, more info here.

howdy highwayball,

while it's kinda overkill, foobar2k has a BPM component. you didn't mention your OS, but if it's windows, you may wanna try foobar2k.

foobar2000
- http://www.foobar2000.org/

foobar2000: Components Repository - BPM Analyser
- http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_bpm

take care,
lee

I don't know how to simply strip the metadata. I open the file in Audacity, then Export to .wav. Then I add the .wav files to iTunes, select them, and go to File > Convert > Create Apples Lossless Version. It's tedious, but that's the only way I know of.

I think tklovett wants the the whole list to be limited to 9GB; not only the most-Played-List.

PS: I suggest that you cut screenshots like this manually. All that album covers a lot of visual clutter when you just want to show the smart-playlist-settings. I have only tried one tool, but ShareX does the trick for me.

I do this with my iTunes library and Samsung phone. You need iSyncr by JRT Studio. I use this in conjunction with their Rocket Music Player, which works far better than the music app that was bundled with my phone, and has a 10-band equalizer. In my case, Rocket Player is also great because it allows me to play my Apple Lossless tracks.

One caveat about isyncr is that it will show playlists to choose from, but you can't distinguish between playlists and playlist folders. Also, if there is more than one playlist with the same name, even if they are in different folders, and you select just one of them for syncing, they will all be synced to the phone. I sent feedback on this, so hopefully it will be fixed at some point.

In my case, there are times when I need to stop and restart the sync process several times because the process hangs. This may be unique to my having a Samsung device, or it might be because I have a large collection of music to sync, but I think it's because Android interferes with other music apps organization. My old Android devices did this as well.

It helps if you make sure iSyncr is up to date on your phone and iTunes machine. If it hangs a lot, check for updates. That's helped me a few times.

You will need a third party app to "reverse sync" your iPhone to iTunes, as iTunes will only transfer your iTunes store purchases, as detailed here https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201272

TouchCopy is the app I used used to copy all my iPhone content to my new computer. You can get it to look for songs on your iPhone which are not in iTunes and only copy the missing ones, more here https://www.wideanglesoftware.com/touchcopy/

Once you've copied your iPhone music to iTunes, you can safely re-sync your new iPhone with iTunes to add all the music to it.

According to the Apple Support Page you might need to reset your hosts file.

Alternatively, assuming the iPod is an iPod Touch and you wish to update it, you can download the update directly and apply it using this OS X Daily guide.

You might wanna try using a program to search for duplicates.

Duplicate Cleaner from DigitalVolcano seems to be a good candidate. It has a special audio mode that lets you search for duplicates by ID3 tags and it's free.

filehippo keeps old versions archived. You gotta uninstall itunes than install the older version.

Just to let you know, unless you saved your library.itl files from an older version you'll have to add your files all over again.

You'll also have an issue buying & downloading from the store. I don't use the store anymore so it's not an issue to me. Would be best to have 11 or 12 on another computer if you want to continue store downloads.

Absolutely. FileHippo is usually a good place to look for older versions of widely used software. You can find iTunes 7 here: https://filehippo.com/download_itunes/history/10/

Enjoy!

You should be OK when importing your songs to a new computer and iTunes does have some built-in, but limited duplicate song removal functions. I personally prefer a program called Tune Sweeper, which automatically finds and removes duplicates, as well as downloading missing album art, fixing track data, etc. Check it out here http://www.wideanglesoftware.com/tunesweeper/

You think that's bad try ringtone management. I know most people don't give a fuck about a ringtone anymore but itunes is terrible about it. You can add an m4r file (why the fuck does it need to be some bullshit obscure file format) as a ringtone by dragging it into your device in itunes. That works fine. But you are FUCKED if you try to delete it but don't do it exactly the right way because it stays on your device but vanishes from itunes. Then if you decide to add it back its all greyed out because itunes thinks its not on the device even though it is so it cant be added. So you end up with lots of unremoveable bullshit on your phone. Fuck this broken piece of shit software.

/Rant Over

Try ifunbox

When you add music files into an iTunes library, iTunes copies the music file in the iTunes/iTunes Media/Music folder. If a file with the same name already exists there, it will add a number to it. I assume the Music app in Mac OS Catalina works similarly, but I've never used it so I don't know.

If it's adding duplicate songs by mistake, even when they're identical, use the Show Duplicate Items function to delete duplicates, and select "move to trash" when it asks.

Don't worry about the numbers in the music file names. If you rename those files, iTunes will no longer recognize them, so you have to delete those from your library too and re-add them.

If you feel you have too many duplicate files in your computer (not in iTunes/Music app), you can find them with the app dupeGuru.

Oh, if you have the music all on your PC, you should be able to upload the files to your Android phone fairly easily then. Maybe try this: https://www.android.com/filetransfer/

Keep in mind, if they are protected files (DRM) you probably won't be able to use them on Android, period.

If Apple Music is available in your country, you might be able to use that, but that's the only program Apple has made for Android as far as I know.

iTunes on OSX is not bad. The upcoming iTunes 12 update is only more improvements too. The only thing it's missing is FLAC support really. If you use an iOS device it's pretty much your only option too. I don't like how it can only read album art from embedded ID3 tags too. Seems kind of dumb.

If you did want to swap, I'd highly recommend Enqueue. It supports FLAC natively (and other odd, open source formats), and native Scrobbling to Last.FM. You may find it more lightweight than iTunes too because it doesn't carry all the store front end bloat, which is essentially a really shitty web browser. No QuickTime shit having to load either (think videos/trailers, it loads even though you may only be listening to music as far as I know). The only thing it won't do is sync to a modern iOS device. There's nothing that can really other than iTunes. Apple keeps that shit locked down.

So it's up to you really.

You can transfer your iTunes store purchased apps and music directly from your iPhone as detailed here https://support.apple.com/kb/PH20509

If you have music ripped from CDs or downloaded elsewhere, you will need to use third party software. I've used in the past TouchCopy to transfer all my iPhone content to my new computer, worked very well... http://www.wideanglesoftware.com/touchcopy/

Are you asking about organizing within iTunes, or organizing tags in songs?

Are you trying to organize music purchased directly from iTunes, or music you obtained elsewhere? (In rare occurrences, iTunes purchased music is poorly tagged)

If you are looking to do this for one album, read this:

Select a song from one of the pairings, and right click -> get info. Select a song from the other group, and right ciick -> get info. Compare the information from the two groups and see where the discrepancy is. Otherwise just copy and paste the information about the album from one to the other, and see if they then merge. (There may be a white space character somewhere preventing the merge).

This should merge them for free.

If you are looking to perform this for lots of entries, read below:

If you are trying to get the tags to match up like they would within iTunes, you will want to use the Gracenote database - which is the same database iTunes references.

I'm guessing what you are looking for is a program like this: http://www.tuneupmedia.com/

It isn't free, but it matches all your music up to the exact same database as iTunes (it uses the Gracenote database, which isn't free to access).

Alternatively, iTunes Match may do the same thing if all your music is already offered on the iTunes store. I just can't remember though if iTunes Match actually alters the tags associated with your files.

On a Mac, my favorite iTunes alternative is the Swinsian application, it does not sync ipods at all however. But it's otherwise a very iTunes-like (circa 2006) application and has a free trial, then a one time $25 fee for the full version. It's regularly updated and Catalina ready.

I gave up on ipods when my third or fourth ipod hard-drive died of the "click of death", glad to be done with them. I've gotten used to using drag-n-drop mp3 players like Sansa Clip, an off brand Chinese player (Dodocool HiFi player), and Android devices primarily. My work phone is an iphone however, and that brought me back to using an Apple device to listen to music sometimes.

Besides iTunes, I like to use the music player Swinsian , which works well with the mac. I've had it for a year or two. It's like a modernized version of iTunes from 2007 or so, when all iTunes primarily did was organize your music (but without the store). It also does podcasts and a lot of features I never use. It has a trial version available to try out.

Tbh I love iTunes on Mac. I haven’t upgraded my personal computer just to not lose it to the Apple Music app. IMO there is no better app to handle and organize large music libraries but that’s just me

In the past I enjoyed VOX but they went for the subscription model so I stopped using their apps

https://vox.rocks/mac-music-player

No, but there is an iTunes alternative, Swinsian, which does support .flac.

Personally, I use XLD to convert .flac to .alac. XLD automatically adds the converted files to iTunes.

If you import using ALAC (Apple Lossless), yes. You're correct.

If you're generally interested in backing up CDs correctly, you should look up a bit of software called EAC. There is a slight learning curve, but it's documented well here.

howdy 7mmza,

take a look here ...

iTunes - Apple
— https://www.apple.com/itunes/

scroll down a tad and check out the Looking for other versions? line. ignore the REPEATED MSStore in-your-face rot and grab the real download.

take care,
lee

I think it means that Apple used the master recording of this album to upload it to their iTunes servers. I think a lot of new/recent and famous albums have it. Otherwise, they’d have to make requests to many different entities (music labels and such) for access to their master recordings, so that Apple could then upload them. I believe they offer this as well for all Apple Music users, so long as you have a minimum-required internet connection speed.

Here’s more information on this from Apple themselves.

https://www.apple.com/itunes/docs/apple-digital-masters.pdf

howdy undistraculated,

go here ...

iTunes - Apple
— https://www.apple.com/itunes/

... and then scroll down to the Looking for other versions? line. next, click on the windows link. at that point the MSStore link otta be replaced with an apple link for the version that matches your OS.

i run win7x64 ... and it linked to the win64 download.

take care,
lee

howdy nocturn-e,

take a look at these ...
foobar2000
- http://www.foobar2000.org/
MusicBee - The Ultimate Music Manager and Player
- http://getmusicbee.com/

musicbee is prettier, foobar2000 is more configurable. otherwise, they do pretty darned much the same stuff - and ALMOST all of what you mentioned.

take care,
lee

When you restored your iPhone, you shouldn't have set it up as a new one. Regardless, when you re-connected it to iTunes and it did an empty backup, it should have archived the older one because it can detect that it's a different iOS installation.

Open the iTunes preferences, go to Devices, and see what kinds of backups there are. There should be your new empty backup (e.g. "User's iPhone") and your archived one that will have a date and time attached (e.g. "User's iPhone - October 15, 2020, 12:34"). The latter is what you'll want to restore. In the iTunes window, click "Restore Backup" and choose the older backup. Or restore your iPhone again, and connect it to your computer before setting it up. iTunes should show a welcome screen asking which backup you want to restore, so you can choose the older backup in the drop-down menu.

If you only see one backup, right click on it and select "Show in Finder" or "Show in Explorer". If it's the one that takes up 60 GB, it's the one that should have your data.

As a last resort you may want to try the app iMazing (free version is fine). Don't do any new backups, only use it to try restoring your existing one.

You should be able to make a backup of your iPod anyway and copy the music to your pc. From there re-create your library.

Here is a great list of software that can help in the recovery process along with some good explanations how iTunes/Backups/Recovery works in iTunes.

AFAIK there are more solutions on macOS so if you have a mac as well you can take a look at iMazing. You should be able to pair your iPod with your computer without deleting any music. Then create a backup and access that.

The advice from the store would only copy the physical data, so apps or new purchases won't be synced/updated. But can be moved in it's entire, data and the xml library files (not sure which OS you're using?) once those are copied iTunes will open all your stuff identical to the other computer.

There's family sharing, which sounds perfect since you're his son/daughter. Guide: https://www.apple.com/icloud/family-sharing/

iTunes will have created a backup of you wife's iPhone the last time she synced her iPhone to iTunes. You may be able to restore the iPhone from that backup through iTunes, but then she'll lose the latest messages and files. Alternatively, you could try and browse the iTunes backup with an app like iBackup extractor, and only retrieve the files you need from the backup.

Check out TouchCopy, it does transfer your song meta data, so if you copy directly to iTunes rather than your hard drive, you should be OK. In any case, the demo version on the site below copies 100 songs free, so you should be able to see if it does work for you. https://www.wideanglesoftware.com/touchcopy/

By design, your iPod will only sync with one computer at a time. However, there are programs out there that will show you the difference between content on your iPod and iTunes and let you copy it over from your iPod to the other computer. TouchCopy is a good one to try - can be used on 3 computers https://www.wideanglesoftware.com/touchcopy/

Once you transferred your iPod content over, you can change the computer it syncs to or stick with the original one.

You may need to check if the Apple Mobile Device Service is running on your computer. Follow these steps...

1. Press the "Windows" button and type "Services".
2. Select "Services" from the search results.
3. Find "Apple Mobile Device" in the list of displayed services.
4. If it does not say "Started" or "Running" next to it, right click the service and select "Start".

Detailed steps here https://www.wideanglesoftware.com/support/touchcopy/how-to-ensure-apple-mobile-device-service-is-running.php

You should be able to import these songs from your iPhone to iTunes on your computer using a program such as TouchCopy and then re-sync your iPhone. There's a free demo here https://www.wideanglesoftware.com/touchcopy/

Don't think iTunes will copy home made songs or songs ripped from CDs to your computer. You will need to use third party software for this. TouchCopy is the one recommended to me on Apple Support Comnunities. Should be able to do this with the free demo here https://www.wideanglesoftware.com/touchcopy/

That's a third party seller. No idea why they jack the prices so high, but of course no one buys music at that price.

I found a cheaper used copy here: https://www.amazon.com/KARMA-KOKIA/dp/B001TRXSBG/ref=sr_1_1 but I don't know if you should buy it.

It might be available? On Amazon, but I’m not certain if it’s the actual ost soundtrack I’m looking at, or just the opening song. Either way, 969 USD is wayyyy to much for me just for one song or cd.