iTunes gone mad

[semente]

I'm running iTunes 12.7.2 on OS 10.11.6 in a MacBook Pro, and I keep my 8 iTunes libraries in a NAS. There's no connection to the internet in this network.

 

Yesterday as I was importing some ripped CD files into the library and initially the files were copied into a library that was not active at that moment.

I then quit and restarted iTunes and after re-importing the files some of the songs were placed inside "/Volumes/MUSIC/Classical, Romantic & Modern/iTunes Media" in folders with the name of the CD and other tracks from the same CD were placed in folders with the name of the CD in the right "/Volumes/MUSIC/Classical, Romantic & Modern/iTunes Media/Music" folder.

I tried to re-import the misplaced files into "/Volumes/MUSIC/Classical, Romantic & Modern/iTunes Media/Music" but was not successful.

What's going on here?

Has "post Steve Jobs" Apple lost the plot?

 

I've ended up moving the "Music" folder into "/Volumes/MUSIC", deleted the "Classical, Romantic & Modern" library folder and created a new one into which I am importing everything back. It takes ages.

 

I have been trying out the "iTunes - HQPlayer" and the "Proper English Title Capitalization v3.6" scripts but I doubt this was the cause of such a mess...

"iTunes - HQPlayer" doesn't work properly so I have removed it from the "Scripts" folder.

 

 

Has anyone had something similar happen to them?

[kirkmc]

This sounds like a permissions issue. If you're using a NAS, it's possible it got the permissions messed up, and couldn't write to a folder. Why it wrote to another library is a bit odd, but perhaps in reverted back to the previous library.

 

I'm at a loss to imagine managing eight iTunes libraries; why do you have your music split like that? How many tracks do you have total?

[semente]

4 hours ago, kirkmc said:

This sounds like a permissions issue. If you're using a NAS, it's possible it got the permissions messed up, and couldn't write to a folder. Why it wrote to another library is a bit odd, but perhaps in reverted back to the previous library.

 

I'm at a loss to imagine managing eight iTunes libraries; why do you have your music split like that? How many tracks do you have total?

 

I don't want to mix classical with jazz nor jazz with rock, nor rock with minimal and I want ethnic/traditional separate too. Later I ended up splitting the classical library into four libraries:

 

Ancient, renaissance and baroque

Classical, romantic and modern

Opera

Sacra

[semente]

5 hours ago, kirkmc said:

This sounds like a permissions issue. If you're using a NAS, it's possible it got the permissions messed up, and couldn't write to a folder. Why it wrote to another library is a bit odd, but perhaps in reverted back to the previous library.

 

I've been using this workflow for years without problems. I don't understand what happened...

[kirkmc]

Sure, there's tons of things I've done for years that broke. Did your NAS have a software update? Your router? 

[DavidL]

16 hours ago, semente said:

 

I've been using this workflow for years without problems. I don't understand what happened...

Unfortunately I can't suggest any solution to your current difficulties but I faced the same decision as you about 10 years ago: how to separate classical music from jazz etc in iTunes. I solved the problem by (1) adding many new genres to my iTunes library (e.g. classical-classical, classical-romantic, classical-modern, classical-contemporary etc), (2) sticking with the basic iTunes library file structure (Artist/Album/Tracks) and (3) moving ALL the iTunes related folders to my NAS . I only run iTunes when I wish to add to the library or curate its contents. When I've had computer glitches (power cuts etc) the music library integrity has not been affected, unless I happen to be in the middle of an edit of the metadata.

Perhaps worth noting the independence of the physical file structure from the view of the music library provided by server and player software. My approach was to keep the physical file structure as simple as possible and tailor the GUI in the software to provide the display and control options I preferred. Only downside of this is that it can require extra computing in the NAS or control device, particularly for a large library (94k tracks).

[semente]

2 hours ago, DavidL said:

Unfortunately I can't suggest any solution to your current difficulties but I faced the same decision as you about 10 years ago: how to separate classical music from jazz etc in iTunes. I solved the problem by (1) adding many new genres to my iTunes library (e.g. classical-classical, classical-romantic, classical-modern, classical-contemporary etc), (2) sticking with the basic iTunes library file structure (Artist/Album/Tracks) and (3) moving ALL the iTunes related folders to my NAS . I only run iTunes when I wish to add to the library or curate its contents. When I've had computer glitches (power cuts etc) the music library integrity has not been affected, unless I happen to be in the middle of an edit of the metadata.

Perhaps worth noting the independence of the physical file structure from the view of the music library provided by server and player software. My approach was to keep the physical file structure as simple as possible and tailor the GUI in the software to provide the display and control options I preferred. Only downside of this is that it can require extra computing in the NAS or control device, particularly for a large library (94k tracks).

 

Thanks for letting me know about your experience. The Genre-SubGenre tagging is quite an interesting idea.

 

I use iTunes for library management and tagging, but also for browsing and selecting what I am going to play. I then drag and drop the files into HQPlayer. I have yet to see a music browser that is more pleasant and effective to use than iTunes.

[kirkmc]

I, too, use multiple genres, such as Classical: Keyboard, etc. I had two libraries for a long time - classical and non-classical - but it became too much of a headache to manage. I never recommend that anyone use multiple libraries, unless they have a second one for, say DJing or for archives; situations where there is a clear difference in usage. 

 

Re iTunes as a browser; if you have tagged your music correctly, the column browser is the Absolute Best Way to go through your library. 

[semente]

6 hours ago, kirkmc said:

Re iTunes as a browser; if you have tagged your music correctly, the column browser is the Absolute Best Way to go through your library. 

 

Indeed!

 

[Ralf11]

or just let the genie-uis find and play stuff similar to one track