hedgehog

I have just reformatted my PC hard disk. Before doing so I exported my iTunes library. Now being Apple software I didn't really expect it to work and so it came as no shock to find that when I imported the library again it only had about a fifth of my tracks in it and, of course, no sign of my playlists and so on. As usual Apple concentrate on making nice pictures on the screen and software that doesn't really work very well in the real world.

Fine, I've got a G4 running OSX so I know Apple software is far from stable and that they have no concept of system lifecycles. So, now I am dragging and dropping all my music back into iTunes. However, once more I find that iTunes is far from reliable and it occasionally crashes during this process, meaning I have to repeat myself. It also, for some reason, randomly ignores some of the music in the folders and so I have to drag the same folder or set of folders several times to ensure that iTunes sees all my music. I am now starting to drag in music from network shares and have just discovered that this takes a LONG LONG time. Currently it is trying to add about 3,000 tracks and it has been working on this for over an hour. So far this process has taken me about 3 days on and off.

So, does anyone know if it is possible/likely that my exported library is OK but that it just lost 4/5 of the library on import and if so is there a fix for this? Also is there any way I can import my playlists from my iPod back into iTunes? I don't have all my playlists on my iPod but at least it would be a start.

It is a pity that, when they work, iTunes and the iPod work so well for me and so make it worthwhile to bother with what is basically junk software. If anyone has any suggestions for alternatives then I'm listening. It pains me to say it that I'd still recommend an iPod even though Apple are nothing but a joke.

Markus

Podworks will get your playlists from iPod into iTunes (think it's called "recreate playlists in iTunes)

When you say you exported your library, what exactly do you mean? If you mean you select "export Library" from the file menu, I thought this simply exported an XML file which contains a list of all the songs (and other info about them). Same kind of thing if you select "export playlist". The reason I ask is that you don't need to export the library, just using the "Add to Library" command from the file menu will add tracks to iTunes and put them in the Library.

When I've been rebuilding things I usually actaully trash my Library and then Add all the tunes back in (I make sure the "copy song file to library" option is not enabled, don't want duplicate files). Now, this does mean my Playlists go, but then I usually use the "export playlist option" to export them, or, recreate them from my iPod using Podworks).

What version of iTunes are you using?

What I would suggest is that if you're not on the latest (6.0) upgrade, then *before* running iTunes for the first time, locate you current Library files (~/Music/iTunes) and then delete them. You do not need to import your Library file and I'd recommend you don't, I've never had a need to do that myself, especially if starting from scratch.

What I ususally do at that point is go into preferences in iTunes and tell it not to copy a file when added to the Library. This is because all my music is already on my drive so I don't want duplicates. If all your music is not on the local drive, and you want it copied, leave the option alone (this might be why the import from network shares is taking a while, it could be copying a fair ammount of data. It might be easier to manually copy the files down, then add them to the Library, this would make it a local copy rather than a network copy)

As I mentioned earlier, the playlist import from file and possibly the library import from file options are not perfect, it's looking for exact matches in the Libray, if you renamed a track, or changed it's album or artist name in the Library, it won't find it (or it seems that way to me) so it won't add that to the playlist, very annoying as I'd gone through and changed quite a few tracks (track name, album name and such like). So I wrote an applescript to scan the XML files (might work on the Library itself, never tried it though) and then search the Library to try and find a match (based on varying criteria, the final set being song name and track duration in seconds, as that in theory should be the LCD for a match). It might take a while to run through, but it does work.

I'm in a good mood today so I won't have a go at your Apple bashing lol

hedgehog

Thanks for the info Markus, I did the XML export in the hope that it would at least give me my track listing back when i reinsalled. However when i imported it back into iTunes it only brought in about a fifth of my tracks. You'd think Apple would build in a facility for people to export the library and playlist when they are trashing a machine but i've never found them to have any consideration for lifecycle.

As you say i am now doing the "add to library" thing (Actually i started with that but it crashed so much i am actually dragging the folders into iTunes as that seems slightly more reliable) however this is taking a long long time and causes iTunes to crash on a regular basis. Plus when i drag a folder it doesn't always see all the tracks in it and so i have to repeat the process. I tried to add about 3000 tracks from a network share yesterday and it is still in the process of adding them 18 hours later!! I have 20,000 tracks on that share so there is no way i'm going to get them into iTunes.

I have tried several versions of iTunes, just in case that was a factor, but it doesn't seem to make much difference and Apple seem to pump them out at such a speed that i find it hard to keep up with their latest bug fix. I didn't even know there was a version 6, however, i will give it a go now as i really don't think i'm going to get these 3000 files imported in my lifetime so i will just kill the process and see what happens.

It is a pity that Apple can't concentrate on making their software work, rather than on making it the right colour, as i do think they got lucky and produced something that suits my way of working with iTunes and the iPod. They probably need to employ some folks who know about systems lifecycles and the real world rather than dreamers who think that getting the colour right is critical to making something work. I wish they'd hurry up and do it.

angrynorth

FYI The different versions of iTunes are more than bug fixes. For example recently we have seen:

4.8 introduced the ability to play video within the program
4.9 introduced Podcasts
5.0 introduced a brand new music store and a more efficient cataloging system
6.0 introduced the ability to sync Video to the new iPod

I don't know what you are doing to cause the trouble you are having but I do suspect that your problems are more "fault exists between keyboard and chair" than Apple's development abilities.

PS I've been using OSX in the "real world" for a long time now and like millions of other people around the world I have found Apple's software to be much more intuitive and sturdy than other software houses.

hedgehog

Markus you were spot on the money, i put version 6 of iTunes on and since doing so have been able to drag and drop folders into the library without constant crashes and it taking a lifetime. This is very odd as in the past i was certainly able to drag and drop individual folders but i guess it just couldn't cope with a larger volume of material. I will take a look at the Podworks app you mention to see if i can get some of my playlists back.

Clearly adding the ability to sync video to the new iPod also, in some magical Apple way, fixed the fault between the keyboard and the chair which seemed to exist in earlier versions of iTunes. Other users suffering from similar faults should also try the video sync fix to see if it helps them, i wonder can it succecssfully export and import stuff yet? Yeah, too much to ask for and would leave nothing for loyal fans to be impressed by come the next bug fix.

Iain Young

I defence of hedgehog, if he's using the windows version of iTunes then it's not as stable as the mac version. I've installed version 6 on three of my machines, (upgrade from the previous version), and it's crashed during the install at the same place on all three.

Finally got it working by completely uninstalling / removing itunes, then doing a fresh install rather than an upgrade. I've also had itunes 6 itself crash on me a few times over the weekend, (whereas v5 seemed much more stable).

Luckily I don't really use it very much (only use it for transferring stuff to the ipod, and I'm not interested in the podcasts, videos, music store etc) so it's not a major issue for me, but I think Apples Windows programmers need one of two lessons is writing bug free code...

Iain

Markus

Iain,
He's not using the Windows version, he said he's running it on a Mac using OS X. I can understand the windows version being less than perfect.

BTW hedgehog, I forgot to ask, what version of OS X are you running?

Iain Young

Oops, I read that wrong. I saw he'd formatted the PC hard disc, and just assumed he was running iTunes on the same machine

hedgehog

Oops, sorry, I've confused everyone. I'm running iTunes on my PC and 10.3 on the G4. Unfortunately the G4 can't reliably see my network and so iTunes has to run on the PC. Now I know we will have another rush of people telling me that Macs never go wrong but honestly, there is a problem, my G4 can't see the network in any reliable manner and I can't fix it (I started my life writing apps and systems code under unix so I thought it would be simple with OSX) and neither can several current Mac expert friends.

I'd so love to like Apple if only their gear would work for me, though Garage Band is good fun, and I've tried hard buying a G4 etc. etc. However, no matter what I try from Apple it always lets me down in some significant way and I've been trying since they looked like a weird shaped beige keyboard.

In saying that I'd still recommend the iPod to most people as it just works for the way I run my music and, being honest, apart from problems with the fundamental design of the software which seems to fail to export the library, it has been fairly reliable for me on the PC. Version 6 seems to bave an interesting feature whereby the first few seconds of the first track played in it is played at full volume no matter what the volume settings. I haven't eliminated the soundcard driver software, though it is running the same drivers as before I rebuilt it and there wasn't a problem then, but it will give me something else to think about.

Markus

hedgehog,
What version of 10.3? I assume it's 10.3.9 with all the applicable security updates. If not, then upgrade to 10.3.9 (it is free).

Taking this totally OT, what exactly is the network issue you're seeing? what exactly is it that you're trying to connect to from your G4. I'm going to take a guess you're trying to access a PC using SMB? Is the PC a regular workstation or is it a server, if so, what type of server (I ask this as if it's Windows 2000/2003 you could install services for macintosh (SFM) on it and alllow the mac to natively connect via AFP to it, much better than SMB).

If you want to email me (markuswarren@gmail.com) we'll see if we can get it working.