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brepublican

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 22, 2005
812
0
NY
I am so pissed and just need to vent right now!

I'm running 10.5.1 and iTunes 7.6. Last night I hooked up my iPod to sync with my Library and ran this script that I have that reshuffles my smart playlists. Before you could say "She sells sea shells by the sea shore", iTunes had deleted every entire song from the Library and placed everything in the trash! I am soooo pissed :mad::mad:

I mean, I still have the music files (thank God!) and all, but I make extensive use of playlists and play counts and such, and now I am completely lost (my library has more than 9,000 songs). To add insult to injury, I cant even just simply drag everything back cos I dont have enough disk space on my PowerBook. Gosh. Arrrgggh!!! :mad::mad:

Shame on you Leopard!

</End of rant>

Btw, is this some form of the data loss bug in 10.5?
 

xUKHCx

Administrator emeritus
Jan 15, 2006
12,583
9
The Kop
a.) It sounds like the script was to blame for this
b.) why can't you move them back as they take up the same amount of disk space in the trash as they do in your music library.
 

brepublican

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 22, 2005
812
0
NY
a.) It sounds like the script was to blame for this
b.) why can't you move them back as they take up the same amount of disk space in the trash as they do in your music library.

I dont think its the script. I've been using it for over 2 years now (and about 3months with 10.5) and never had any problems before...

But I can move them back in cos iTunes organises my files, so it'd copy everything in. I have about 5GB left and my music library is ~40GB. Basically, I'll have to go home (4 hrs away) and get my external drive if I want to move them back.
 

xUKHCx

Administrator emeritus
Jan 15, 2006
12,583
9
The Kop
I dont think its the script. I've been using it for over 2 years now (and about 3months with 10.5) and never had any problems before...

But I can move them back in cos iTunes organises my files, so it'd copy everything in. I have about 5GB left and my music library is ~40GB. Basically, I'll have to go home (4 hrs away) and get my external drive if I want to move them back.

By that reasoning it is also not 10.5's fault as you have been using that for 3 months without a problem.

Tell iTunes not to copy the files.
 

ChrisA

macrumors G5
Jan 5, 2006
12,541
1,653
Redondo Beach, California
I...and ran this script that I have that reshuffles my smart playlists.

What script? can you post the code here? I'll bet you a beer that it was not iTunes, not Leopard but whoever wrote your script that you should blame. "It worked in the past" is not a good answer. Bugs can hide. The more subtle bugs involve things like "race condidtions" that are probabilistic in nature. And I've seen code with other problems where the developer took a short cut like not checking return codes from every call. There are many many ways in which software can fail only once in 1,000 times it is run. The cases where it fails every time are "way easy" to find and fix. The 1 in the 1,000 bugs are best found by inspecting the source code or instrumentation at run time. So you have found a 1 in a 1000 bug. Hence my request to post the script.

As I type this I'm working on my own software. I'm currently testing it's ability to handle errors. Gosh this is a slow and tedious process. I'm having to create corrupted files and see if they are detected and reported. I'm simulating a zillion typical user errors and screwing up file permissions to see if they are dealt with. Believe me, no one does this kind of testing unless they are on salary and their boss is willing to fund them for months of work. Freeware authors just skip all of this stuff.

Look at the positive side of this, you have reminded many people here that they need to verify that their backup system does in fact work. Every so often we need to try and recover some files just to prove that we can.
 

brepublican

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 22, 2005
812
0
NY
I'll bet you a beer that it was not iTunes, not Leopard but whoever wrote your script that you should blame.

Get the kegger out, it is the script! Its one of Doug's, and he's recently updated his site with a warning not to run it, otherwise it'll delete your entire library! Well, then, egg on my face? :p

I'm still pissed though. And anyone else who has the script, please dont run it?
(But I take it back Apple. Love youuuu ;))
 

xUKHCx

Administrator emeritus
Jan 15, 2006
12,583
9
The Kop
Get the kegger out, it is the script! Its one of Doug's, and he's recently updated his site with a warning not to run it, otherwise it'll delete your entire library! Well, then, egg on my face? :p

I'm still pissed though. And anyone else who has the script, please dont run it?
(But I take it back Apple. Love youuuu ;))

What is the name of the script? For those who might come across this thread by searching.
 

xUKHCx

Administrator emeritus
Jan 15, 2006
12,583
9
The Kop
It seems as if iTunes changed the definitions of its master library between 7.5 and 7.6, since that is when the problem started happening.

I just modified the script to see which playlists it would've deleted on mine and here is the list

{"Library", "Music", "Movies", "Purchased on iPhone", "Aphexpusher", "AFX", "Aphex Twin"}

Only the last three are smart playlists set up by me.
 
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