Step 1: make sure your metadata is written from the MC database out to music files.
You will want to make sure the tag info and cover art is written into the music file so that it can pass through the converter and so that it will be seen by ITunes when you point it at your music files. By default, mc keeps cover art you brought in and tag information you updated in the database rather than in the file. However, when you migrate a file to a new format it won’t know that the new file is really the same as the old file only a different format and extension. It will appear as if the tags and album art are lost. Songs that used to appear as one album may become multiple albums. To avoid this we need to make sure all the information is in the music file so it can pass through the converter and be in the converted music file. By setting up MC to always keep tag and album art in the music file we will also ensure that ITunes has all of the tag information and cover art since it only sees what’s in the music file.
To do this set Tools > Options > General > Save cover art inside tags when possible and Tools>Options>General> Update tags when file info changes. Then select all your files right click>library tools>update your tags (from library). Particularly for classical where you typically will do a lot of tag editing after import it’s important to move the data from the library to the tags if you want the conversion to work smoothly. You may want to do this in chunks because if you’ve provided much of the cover art the process seems to drag to a halt and click away from and then back to MC17 the dialog that counts what tags have been written disappears and you can’t tell if MC 17 is just slowly chugging along or dead. But while it may take a day or so it is typically chugging along. It’s never actually crashed on me.
If you need to migrate lossless files the I would also suggest making sure all of music files are in one library such as my music or public. If you want to keep your music in multiple libraries then you’ll need to run step 3 against each library.
Step 2: Move your music library to one (or less) lossless file format. Apple compatible if you intend to go to step 3 with one set of music files. Probably FLAC if you intend to go to step 3 alternate with one set of music files for MC and a second set of .mp3 files for itunes.
If everything is in MP3 then great. You’re apple compatible and have no lossless file formats. Go straight to the step 3 or 3 alternate.
If you have multiple lossless file formats or you have non apple compatible formats that you need to move to apple compatible then you’ll need to migrate some files to new formats. Below are the instructions for switching from WMA lossless and FLAC to ALAC. If you’re just trying to go from many lossless formats to a single non apple format such as FLAC it’s basically the same process. You convert the files in place, search and replace the file extensions in your play lists, and then delete the originals.
If you’ve got a lot of music you may want to start by creating a test library with your different music types and a couple of play lists in it and running through the process a couple of times. Cleaning up and moving a full library is a lot of cpu chugging, possibly days of chugging, so redoing a step because you got it wrong can be time consuming.
1. Make sure you’ve written metadata and album art out from the database to the music file tags.
2. Make a backup copy of your music in a backup folder. If you need it you’ll be glad you have it.
3. Next we’re going to convert the lossless files you want to convert, leaving them in the same directory as the originals and with the same name but with a new format and a new extension. To do this buy a copy of dbpoweramp, install the wma codec if you’re converting wma files, and be sure you get the reference version. I’m sure other programs work but I used dbpoweramp and it works. If it’s not finding the wma files then you didn’t install the WMA codec yet. When you are selecting files for conversion, use the filter button to exclude mp3’s (and all lossy apple compatible formats you have ) since there is no reason to convert those to lossless. To make it easy to modify your playlists to work with the new formats you want the directory structure and files names to be just like the old ones only with a different extension. To do this during conversion with DBPOWERAMP set the output folder to your music directory and then set output folder to dynamic and use the following string: \[origpath]\[orgfilename]. This option will be greyed out if you didn’t buy the reference version. This should put the converted file in the same directory as the original and with the same name but a different extension. You can check if it’s working by setting it up and checking with the List/Rename button in dpboweramp.
4. Next import all the new files into MC. Do this by either importing your music directory with \file\library\library manager\import or making sure auto import is on by setting Tools\options\library and folders\auto import to your music directory.
5. To update your playlists bring up MC and go to each playlist, select all the files, right click and go to library tools/search and replace, check the file extension and file name, and replace the old extensions (say wma) with the new extension (m4a if you moved to ALAC). If you are migrating a couple of file types you will need to do one search for each file type. Answer Yes when MC asks you if you really want to update the tags.
6. You can check that the conversion worked by looking at each album that was lossless. Each song should be in there twice. Once in the original format and once in the new format. Alternatively, you can wait until we delete all the original format copies and count the files in your music directory and compare that to the file count in your backup copy. If they are different then you can walk down the directories to find the folder where the file counts in your music directories are different from the ones in your backup directories.
7. To delete the original lossless files go to audio\files, make sure file type is in the display bar, and sort on the file type. Select your old lossless files and delete them. Be sure to do this after you’ve updated your playlists to the new lossless format files or MC will automatically delete the songs from your playlists.
8. You should now be back to the same music library and playlists you had but with new formats.
Step 3: Setting up MC and ITunes to use the same apple compatible music directory
Once you have your jriver files and playlists as you want them and once you have your new music directory in an apple compatible format then use MCiS from
http://www.misterpete.co.uk/mcis.html (see also
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=51734.0 )to sync the itunes and the jriver databases. It’s fairly easy to set up just by looking at the dialogs that come up when you run it but it’s worth it to read the accompanying pdf file. It’s a short read.
Step 3 Alternate: Setting up MC to output a set of MP3’s and playlists for ITunes to use from a non apple compatible collection of music
If you want to sync the output then get the document that comes with the MCiS synchronizer software from
http://www.misterpete.co.uk/mcis.html When you upack the zip you’ll find a pdf called ZxsixsGuideToSyncingLossless.pdf that describes in good detail how to do it. It works pretty well.
Alternately, if you want to put a few songs on your iphone there is a less onerous option that doesn’t require that you move your MC library to apple compatible formats or set up complicated synching. It's the method above that uses export to itunes in MC on a device that is really a hard drive.
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Topic: Help me understand the best-use relationship between Media Center/iTunes/iPhone (Read 27658 times)