[iTunes] Replacing/Updating Songs While Maintaining Stats/Info

2010-04-03 23:23:06

#1

mtb0minime: minimember; +2,418|6913

inb4itunessucks. stfu, it's what I use, gtfo please.

I'm going to be re-ripping some CDs using higher bitrates and I want to import these new files into my library and overwrite the old ones. The big concern here is that I want to keep the tags the same, and all other information the same (like Play Count). Now, I've done this before, but all I did was rip the CD with iTunes and choose to "overwrite existing".

This time, I'm going to be ripping with Exact Audio Copy (iTunes rips with 'meh' quality and frequently gives me fucked-up songs with "scratches" if I import more than one CD an hour ). One option I thought of is to remove the old files, put in the new ones, then try opening the song in the library and have to manually point iTunes to where the file is (even though it's in the exact same location); but that's very tedious. Another option would be to copy the current xml file with all the track information, delete the old files, put in the new ones, then replace the "new" xml file with the original one; but I'm not sure what effects that could have, or if it would even work at all.

I'll be updating a lot of these from 192kbps to 320.
inb4flac. I don't have the storage space for that, I want mp3 files so I can play them on my phone/psp/other computers easily, I'm not a major audiophile, V0 or 320 is good enough for me.

So... any suggestions on what I should do?

Thanks! <3

2010-04-21 12:44:34

#2

mtb0minime: minimember; +2,418|6913

Bumpity bump. Anyone? I need to get started on this.

2010-04-21 12:58:32

#3

presidentsheep: Back to the Fuhrer; +208|6220|Places 'n such

Only thing I could think would be ripping them from wherever (CD I assume) using another program and then placing them in the Itunes folder overwriting the pre-existing song, using the same name etc ofc.
Might work?

I'd type my pc specs out all fancy again but teh mods would remove it. Again.

2010-04-21 13:18:09

#4

VicktorVauhn: Member; +319|6650|Southern California

I would just copy replace the xml file...

Dunno what this could mess up, but I bet not much. Open it up in notepad first, xml files are usually fairly close to real English, so see what all it refers to.

2010-04-21 13:30:37

#5

mtb0minime: minimember; +2,418|6913

By doing either of those, I'm worried that if I don't have all the parameters of the file exactly the same, iTunes will think it's an entirely new file instead of one I'm trying to replace.

I suppose what I could do is import the new versions to the library, open the xml file and copy the stats/parameters to the new versions, then go into the library and delete the old ones.

2010-04-21 14:14:45

#6

CammRobb: Banned; +1,510|6389|Carnoustie MASSIF

does it matter what you rip them in? iTunes changes it to the same crap anyway

2010-04-21 14:17:50

#7

mtb0minime: minimember; +2,418|6913

If I rip it with iTunes, it will automatically replace the current files, while still maintaining the information and statistics associated with each track.

If I rip it with an outside program, I'll have to import the songs manually to iTunes, and even then it will think that I have duplicates, and won't replace the current files, but show me with two sets of them.

2010-04-22 00:19:33

#8

CammRobb: Banned; +1,510|6389|Carnoustie MASSIF

mtb0minime wrote:
If I rip it with iTunes, it will automatically replace the current files, while still maintaining the information and statistics associated with each track.

If I rip it with an outside program, I'll have to import the songs manually to iTunes, and even then it will think that I have duplicates, and won't replace the current files, but show me with two sets of them.

Ahh, I see. So ripping it with iTunes doesn't change the bitrate?

2010-04-22 00:42:00

#9

mtb0minime: minimember; +2,418|6913

CammRobb wrote:
mtb0minime wrote:
If I rip it with iTunes, it will automatically replace the current files, while still maintaining the information and statistics associated with each track.

If I rip it with an outside program, I'll have to import the songs manually to iTunes, and even then it will think that I have duplicates, and won't replace the current files, but show me with two sets of them.
Ahh, I see. So ripping it with iTunes doesn't change the bitrate?

No it does. It's just that I've ripped a bunch of stuff with iTunes and it's spotty at best. I listen to the music and later find out that some of the songs are messed up. It's not too bad if I rip a CD here and there, but if I have a whole bunch to rip in a row, then some of them will wind up screwing up because iTunes can't slow down and make sure everything's ok.

I could rip all this with iTunes and do a CD an hour or something, but that's ridiculous. I'd rather just do it all at once.

2010-04-22 00:43:26

#10

Jaekus: I'm the matchstick that you'll never lose; +957|5437|Sydney

Whatever you do, DON'T let iTunes organise your music folders.

Did this once, took me two days to get everything back in order.

2010-04-22 00:53:40

#11

mtb0minime: minimember; +2,418|6913

I did, and have for the past however many years. It actually works most of the time. I just drag and drop music in, or rip it from a CD. Got everything nicely sorted in my music folder by artist -> album, and a separate folder for compilations (various artists).

However, there are a few empty folders from when I've renamed albums and have reformatted or reinstalled Windows. But the music is still all there. (All ~110 GBs of it). How much do you have? Might've overwhelmed it

2010-04-22 00:54:51

#12

Jaekus: I'm the matchstick that you'll never lose; +957|5437|Sydney

I certainly don't have 110Gb, I just delete stuff if I'm not going to listen to it, so I only have about 15G.

2010-04-22 04:52:00

#13

CammRobb: Banned; +1,510|6389|Carnoustie MASSIF

I've got 22gb, and the problem is, when you put it in to iTunes, then say, MediaMonkey, MediaMonkey picks up the standard file, and the iTunes file...pisses me off so much

2010-04-22 04:57:32

#14

mcminty: Moderating your content for the Australian Govt.; +879|6980|Sydney, Australia

CammRobb wrote:
I've got 22gb, and the problem is, when you put it in to iTunes, then say, MediaMonkey, MediaMonkey picks up the standard file, and the iTunes file...pisses me off so much

Huh? Why would you have two copies of each track?

2010-04-22 05:18:26

#15

Cybargs: Moderated; +2,285|6975

mcminty wrote:
CammRobb wrote:
I've got 22gb, and the problem is, when you put it in to iTunes, then say, MediaMonkey, MediaMonkey picks up the standard file, and the iTunes file...pisses me off so much
Huh? Why would you have two copies of each track?

He lit a condom on his face so idk that tells me something about his intelligence.

https://cache.www.gametracker.com/server_info/203.46.105.23:21300/b_350_20_692108_381007_FFFFFF_000000.png

2010-04-22 12:35:25

#16

mtb0minime: minimember; +2,418|6913

Yeah, why 2 copies? I've got my library all on one harddrive. I'll download music onto my main drive, and then iTunes will automatically copy it over and organize it when I add it to the library. Then I can delete the original that I downloaded. That's if I don't just rip the CD, of course.

2010-04-22 12:42:48

#17

liquidat0r: wtf.; +2,223|6886|UK

Try it with one album first, I suppose

- Rip album to 320 mp3
- Rename the files so that they're identical to the current files that iTunes has indexed in your library
- Set all the ID3 tags to the same as the files that iTunes has
- Overwrite current iTunes files with new rip

It may work, but I suspect that iTunes will notice the difference in the files (as they're most definitely not identical - even though you've made them seem identical) and remove the now missing entries from your library and add the newly ripped music.

Also, I suspect that's quite a lengthy process.

And I suppose it doesn't really solve your problem of wanting to keep the tags the same - as you're gonna have to tag them yourself.

2010-04-22 12:47:25

#18

mtb0minime: minimember; +2,418|6913

It's sad but I think I'm making this more trouble than it's worth. All I'm really wanting to do is preserve play counts for the songs. But when I've got auto playlists set up for it (e.g. Music I really enjoy, or Music I haven't listened to yet)...

Well, what I'm gonna do right now (just finished ripping a CD in 320 with EAC) is similar:

- Rip album to 320mp3
- Import into iTunes library; will have 2 copies of the tracks
- Copy the tags over and make sure they are mostly the same
- Open iTunes xml file and manually change the playcount of the new songs from 0 to # of the first copy
- Delete lower bitrate files
- Profit??? Hopefully

2010-04-22 12:53:46

#19

liquidat0r: wtf.; +2,223|6886|UK

Sounds like it might work. Gonna be a rather lengthy process though - if you have any more than, erm, one album to rip.

Also, for tagging files (if EAC doesn't manage to get the data from freedb) then I recommend using Mp3tag to tag the files before importing to iTunes - you can lookup tags using Amazon/discogs/musicbrainz. Unless iTunes is accomplished at fetching tags ... I presume it might be because of the iTunes Store, but dunno - I've never really used iTunes. Anyway, might save you some time ...

2010-04-22 14:33:26

#20

mtb0minime: minimember; +2,418|6913

Well, for what it's worth, here's what I wound up doing, and what I will do for the rest of the albums I'm re-ripping.

- Rip into 320 mp3 Joint Stereo using Lame3.98 with EAC
- Import higher-bitrate files into iTunes
- Match tags and info of higher-bitrate files to original (lower-bitrate files)
- (since opening the xml file and manually changing those entries, after searching through the giant file of course, takes too much time) ** Show play count of the files and new duplicates in iTunes and skip to the very end of the song (0:00 remaining) to add a play count.
- Once new files match the old files, delete the old ones from computer

Ugh but in the process of doing this, I'm also changing the "last played" date Whatever. Can't have it both ways. When it comes to these statistics, I'm more concerned about "play count" than "date last played".

And yes, this is going to take a while, but it seems this is the quickest way, while still maintaining a high-quality rip without errors. (No way am I using iTunes to rip all this, even if it means I get to keep the statistics I'm so worried about).

2010-04-23 01:36:39

#21

Jaekus: I'm the matchstick that you'll never lose; +957|5437|Sydney

Just out of curiosity, why do you want to preserve the play count?

2010-04-23 01:40:54

#22

mtb0minime: minimember; +2,418|6913

I've got playlists that are set up based on play count. Songs with 0 playcount are "Not yet played" 25+ is "top tunes" or something like that.

But I also want to keep the last played and imported dates. Just for interest's sake. Oh and I do have a "recently added" playlist which is stuff added in the last week or so.

And since my little method for upping the play count I posted earlier resets the last played date to today, and re-importing the new songs resets the date added... Looks like I will be doing some xml editing.

2010-04-23 01:51:15

#23

Jaekus: I'm the matchstick that you'll never lose; +957|5437|Sydney

Hmmm, so would it be a bit simple to suggest just making playlists with those songs you have already as "top tunes", importing the new files and then linking them up to the ones in the playlist?

2010-04-23 01:53:30

#24

mtb0minime: minimember; +2,418|6913

I could do that, but auto/smart playlists are so much more convenient

Plus I like having the stats available. Being able to see when I last listened to something, or when I first listened to it, or what I've listened to the most. I enjoy having all that information available, I'm a music geek.

EDIT (of a way old post instead of a revive): For future reference; delete the originals (lower bitrate) in their respective folder and place the newer ones (higher bitrate) in the folder. Try playing the songs in iTunes and it'll ask you to locate them, so point it to the new location. The tags might change though, if they're different, so be sure to check them and change anything back that needs to be. Stats will all be retained, aside from the Date Modified, which is expected.

Last edited by mtb0minime (2010-06-03 22:51:23)

BF2S Forums [iTunes] Replacing/Updating Songs While Maintaining Stats/Info

mtb0minime wrote:

CammRobb wrote:

mtb0minime wrote:

CammRobb wrote:

mcminty wrote:

CammRobb wrote:

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