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[submeg]

Hello all,

I have been using iTunes for many years now and in that time have amassed a sizeable collection that is sorted into playlists and correctly tagged, rated and so on. Due to the recent decisions by Apple (discontinuing the classic iPod, no more headphone jack) I want to move away from their products completely.

I was using iTunes on a Macbook Pro, but am converting to JRiver on a Windows machine. I exported my main library as an .xml file and imported it; it picked up all my groupings, play counts and ratings, but it couldn't find the files as the file structure on a Mac is in the form:

/Volumes/ITUNES/iPod Library

where as on the PC it is:

E:\iPod Library

I used the Rename, Move and Copy files tool to change the /Volumes/ITUNES/iPod Library to:

C:\Users\Submeg\Music

just to get the slashes and filepath correct. Now I'm trying to update the file structures to:

E:\iPod Library\Artist Name\Album Name\song title.m4a

but it means I have to do it album by album, which is rather tedious. Is there a faster way/ some form of plugin or better way to import my playlist so that I:

1. retain all the metadata
2. Don't have to redirect all the files to the correct file location?

Any information would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Matt]

You should just be able to use [Artist]\[Album] in the rename tool and do all your files at once if I'm following.

[blgentry]

I would use a text editor on the XML file.  I would do find and replace to substitute the new path for the old one.  Then I'd use F&R again to replace the slashes with backslashes.  Finally, I'd import this XML into a new MC library.

I think that will work, but I haven't tested it.

Brian.

[submeg]

Hi people, so I remember that I did an extra step in there....

1. Exported my entire iTunes library as an .xml file.
2. Loaded it into JRiver (on the Mac). This preserved all my meta data and was linking correctly and able to playback.
3. Exported the entire library from JRiver as an .xml file.
4. Imported that playlist into the Windows version of JRiver (my final location).

Then I was messing around with the filepath. So, I have gone back and repeated steps 1 and 2. I have an xml file from JRiver that has data that looks as follows:

<Item>
<Field Name="Filename">/Volumes/ITUNES/iPod Library/Bonfanti/DOWNLOAD/11 Ambiente Elegante.m4a</Field>
<Field Name="Name">Ambiente Elegante</Field>
<Field Name="Artist">Bonfanti</Field>
...
...
</Item>

Should I update the filename before or after trying to import into MC?

[blgentry]

I would do it before hand personally.

It might get a little tricky.  Since you also need to convert / to \ but there are lots of / characters in the file already.  It can be done.  It's just a little tricky.

Brian.

[submeg]

I would do it before hand personally.

It might get a little tricky.  Since you also need to convert / to \ but there are lots of / characters in the file already.  It can be done.  It's just a little tricky.

Brian.

That was what I was thinking too, but there will be thousands...oh well. Cheers for the tips.

[submeg]

Okay, I had a bit of a think about it, and realised I could open the .xml file in Excel and create a vba script to do the conversion automatically (a whole library of 35,000+ songs took about 20 minutes). However, I am now trying to export the file back into the original .xml layout. Any idea how to export back into the correct xml format?

 The code is as below:

Code: [Select]

Sub SlashSwap()

Dim LastRow As Long

Dim FilePath As String
Dim FilePathEdit As String

LastRow = 0

FilePath = ""
FilePathEdit = ""

'First, find ensure your library is filtered to display only the filepaths.
'Second, find the length of this list.

Range("A1").Select
Selection.End(xlDown).Select

LastRow = ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Row

'Next, begin the loop.

Range("D2").Select

Do While ActiveCell.Row < LastRow

    'Ensure that the row is not filtered.
    If Not ActiveCell.Rows.Hidden Then

          FilePath = ActiveCell.Value
          'Check to see if the string has any "/" slashes.

          Do While InStr(1, ActiveCell.Value, "/") <> 0
                 'Replace all the "/" with "\".
                 FilePathEdit = Replace(FilePath, "/", "\", 1)
                 ActiveCell.Value = FilePathEdit

         Loop
     
    End If

    FilePath = ""
    FilePathEdit = ""
    ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Select

Loop
End Sub


[submeg]

After a bit of searching, I discovered that I CAN export as an .xml file, however, because excel doesn't know the layout of the .xml file, it spits it out in a completely different format (in columns, similar to the excel file itself).

However, that requires you create a XML Mapping Schema (a.k.a an xml template). This in itself was challenging (found an explanation HERE) but once I tinkered around a bit, I understood how it was working. I applied that idea to a MC xml file. Was able to get the schema to build, load it into an excel file and then load a subset of my library into it for testing.

My final hurdle is to export it as an .xml file...there is an option in Save As in excel which is "XML Data", but when I try to save the file, it pops up with the msgbox - " Cannot save or export XML data. The XML maps in this workbook are not exportable."

Any ideas on saving .xml data file from excel?

[blgentry]

It's (seemingly) much easier than this.  Essentially just these steps:

1.  Find and Replace your prefix directory.  I.E. Find /Volumes/Old Disk/ and Replace with C:\New\Music\Location .
2.  Replace all / characters with \ characters.
3.  Now correct the XML tags that you broke by replacing the / with \.  That should only be the sequence:

Code: [Select]

<\so find and replace that back to :

Code: [Select]

</
You might need to do some experimentation.  Good luck!

Brian.

[submeg]

It's (seemingly) much easier than this.  Essentially just these steps:

1.  Find and Replace your prefix directory.  I.E. Find /Volumes/Old Disk/ and Replace with C:\New\Music\Location .
2.  Replace all / characters with \ characters.
3.  Now correct the XML tags that you broke by replacing the / with \.  That should only be the sequence:

Code: [Select]

<\so find and replace that back to :

Code: [Select]

</
You might need to do some experimentation.  Good luck!

Brian.

Hi Brian,

I have actually coded my way out of this now.

So the steps that I have are as follows:

1. Export from iTunes (on Mac) the entire library as an .xml file.
2. Import that xml file into JRiver (on Mac).
3. Wait for JRiver to load everything, then export as an .xml file.
4. On Windows PC, create the .xml schema and load into an excel workbook.
5. Import the library.xml file into workbook.
6. Run code to update the filepaths and rebuild the xml file (to avoid an export error).
7. Import the rebuilt xml into JRiver on PC.

I am now on Step 7; how do you get JRiver to recognise the xml file? I choose File > Import Playlist... but after a wait, all that shows up is the "Library.xml" file, NOT the songs contained within the file. Is there a way to get JRiver to recognise the xml file?

EDIT: In regards to the "find and replace", I cannot see any of the songs in the library (see step 7 above).

Submeg

[submeg]

So, I had ANOTHER think about it and realised - why not do a library backup from the Mac version of JRiver and import that into the Windows version?

2 steps! All files, all meta transferred across. However...

The filepath is in the wrong structure (the initial issue). So I can use the codes I developed in excel to fix it easily, HOWEVER I need to work out how to import the xml file back into JRiver, OR if it's possible to work with the JRiver backup file in a similar way?

EDIT: Now that the songs are found in JRiver, I can simply use the "Rename, Move & Copy Files..." tool. Settings:

- Select: "Update database to point to new location (no file rename, move, or copy)
- Find & Replace: Selected.
- Find What: \Volumes\ITUNES\iPod Library\
- Replace With: E:\iPod Library\
- Select: "Replace slashes in expressions"

DONE.

Submeg