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Random Applications Support Topic Problem TuneSpan

itunes library is read incompletely or wrong - certainly inconsistently

Ralpheroo shared this problem ago

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When using TuneSpan I noticed that my iTunes Library is read inconsistently. Sometimes Audiobooks are shown - sometimes not (even if I do a Reload Library). And the Music section of the HDD contains only a small part of the music.

When I add certain pieces to the playlists generated by TuneSpan then I can at least influence the appearance of these pieces in TuneSpan. In the instance of my Audiobooks, I needed to span a file back to disc so that the Playlist was generated so I could add the other pieces to that playlist.

Is this a bug?

Is there a way around it? Can I force TuneSpan to read the files from the drives to determine the locations?

Thanks for your help.

The same problem

Replies (3)

Pico Mitchell ●

Thanks for getting in touch.

Could TuneSpan possibly be loading the wrong Library location? Did you ever move your iTunes Library or do you have it library in a custom location?

If you add new media to iTunes, does it show up in TuneSpan?

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Ralpheroo ●

Thanks for your reply.

Regarding location - here is what I find:

TuneSpan: /Users/Ralph/Music/iTunes/iTunes Library.itl

iTunes location of media files: /Volumes/Musik/iTunes Music

This doesn't look right - does it? p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 11.0px 'Helvetica Neue'}

I didn't add new media since I have TuneSpan. The test right now was somehow successful. The new album appears in TuneSpan under Musik/iTunes Music/ with a ? in front.

How do I get this sorted now?

Thanks for your help!

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Pico Mitchell ●

This could be fine. The iTunes Media location is not necessarily the same as the location that the iTunes Library files are stored.

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Ralpheroo ●

I checked the iTunes settings now - and it is using the same library as TuneSpan.

The new album was added to the remote drive in iTunes and TuneSpan shows it with a ? in front of the name.

Actually, I have many albums with a ? in front in TuneSpan on the remote drive.

So, to me, TuneSpan and iTunes load the same library and there is still a problem...

Please help!

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Pico Mitchell ●

Would you mind sending a screenshot of the TuneSpan window you're seeing?

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Ralpheroo ●

No problem. The first screenshot shows the location on my local drive and that iTunes also knows the file is local. The second shot shows that TuneSpan thinks that the first track is local and on the third shot you see that TuneSpan thinks that the other tracks are on the remote drive. Is this it, what you wanted to see?

Files:

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Pico Mitchell ●

Thanks for sending these screenshots. TuneSpan should definitely be displaying the same locations that iTunes knows.

Hmmm... what is the last modification date of your "iTunes Library.xml" (or may be called "iTunes Music Library.xml") file which should be at "/Users/Ralph/Music/iTunes/"?

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Ralpheroo ●

iTunes Library.xml, iTunes Library.itl, iTunes Library Extras.itdb were changed today (when I closed iTunes). I also see the file called "iTunes Music Library.xml" - this was last changed in June 2017.

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Pico Mitchell ●

You can trash the old "iTunes Music Library.xml" file, it is now just a leftover artifact.

Then let's try manually refreshing your current "iTunes Library.xml" by following these steps:

Open the iTunes Preferences and select the Advanced tab.

Uncheck the “Share iTunes Library XML with other applications” checkbox.

Click the “OK” button to save the change.

(Now, wait a moment for iTunes to remove the current iTunes Library XML file.)

Before continuing, go back into your "iTunes" folder and confirm that there is no "iTunes Library.xml" file, if it still exists, please let me know.

Reopen the Advanced iTunes Preferences.

Recheck the “Share iTunes Library XML with other applications” checkbox.

Click the “OK” button again to save the change.

(Now, after a moment, iTunes should create a valid iTunes Library XML for TuneSpan to load.)

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Ralpheroo ●

Hi, I did all this - a new XML file was created and TuneSpan still looks the same to me. Could it be that TuneSpan has a problem when iTunes knows that the file is in a different location than it's standard folder? Like it is already "spanned" but not with TuneSpan?

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Pico Mitchell ●

That is not a problem for TuneSpan. TuneSpan doesn't care how files were moved or where they are located. TuneSpan's interface is simply displaying the contents of the iTunes Library XML.

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Ralpheroo ●

Strange... so what does the ? mean (see Screenshot 3)?

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Pico Mitchell ●

The ?'s shown in TuneSpan mean that the file does not exist at the location that TuneSpan got from the XML.

I wasn't saying there's not still something strange going on here, just was saying that it wouldn't be an issue for TuneSpan if file were already in external locations.

Would you mind emailing me a copy of your XML file so that I can take a look at it first hand?

You can email me directly through the Contact Developer menu item in the Help menu in TuneSpan.

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Ralpheroo ●

I understand. I checked the XML-File and indeed, the XML File shows that the piece is on <key>Location</key><string>file:///Volumes/Musik/iTunes%20Music/Music/ though it is really located on the local drive /Users/Ralph/Music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/ and iTunes knows that (see Screenshot 1). So the XML file is misleading TuneSpan. I once more deleted the XML-file and let iTunes recreate it - still the same mismatch of locations.

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Pico Mitchell ●

Have you tried to Locate Missing Files tool in TuneSpan?

I'd be curious to see if that get's things sorted out in the iTunes database. But, it's no guarantee.

But also, running that will let us know how many files the database has incorrect locations for, so make note of the amount of tracks in the process.

The Locate Missing Files options is in the Tools menu in TuneSpan's menubar.

Please let me know how that goes.

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Ralpheroo ●

It seems it worked - no more ?

Thank you for your help!

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Pico Mitchell ●

Awesome! Sorry I didn't think of suggesting that before... it sounded like some other weird stuff may have been going on.

But, I'm so glad that got things fixed :-)

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Pico Mitchell ●

You had originally said that not all of your media was showing up in TuneSpan. Does it all seem to be showing up now?

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Ralpheroo ●

I need to check that in more detail. Thanks for coming back to the original questions. I'll let you know...

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