Apple Details iTunes Changes Coming in macOS Catalina

allan said:
Apparently in the new Music app in Catalina, the Media folder will always be kept organized (whether you want this or not), and that any new files imported into Music will now always be copied to the media folder (again, whether you want this or not). Is this true? Can anyone here confirm this?

I don't know if I like this idea. If it's true, I hope they add back the option to not keep my Media folder organized and to not copy every new file I import.
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The Music Preferences has an option to "keep music media folder organized." The preference window looks very similar to the current iTunes preferences.
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JohnSFO said:
Can someone check to see if star ratings are still there? And what about the mini player? Thanks.
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There is an option in Music preferences to show star ratings.
[doublepost=1559932167][/doublepost]I noticed something weird with the Music and TV apps. You can add videos to either the Music app or the tv app. The Music app allows you to edit the library to showTV & Movies. Maybe this will change in future releases?
 
TheSkywalker77 said:
And what about Windows? Or older Mac's that can't get Catalina. Will the version of iTunes on those machines still have iTunes Store and Apple Music support?
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I too am wondering what iTunes will become on Windows or will Apple ditch it and iCloud sync client there with their auto update app for both??
 
repete7 said:
So, if I'm trying to import an mp3 audiobook, would I import it into "Books" (since iTunes will be gone) and it will treat it like an audiobook? Not send it off to "Music" because it looks like a music album?
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If the meta data is wrong on it, or if it's got none, it'll definitely got into music. You'll have to change the meta data in there to make it an audiobook where I then assume it'll disappear and appear in the Books app. This is really why I preferred all media being handled by 1 app (iTunes) because it just moved into the other section when you did that rather than disappearing totally in one app to appear in another one - and if you do it by mistake it'll mean having two apps open to fix the meta tag.

There's always a chance that you can right click and force it to open in Music/Books/Podcasts the first time and it'll import it in and apply to correct tag, that'll probably be the easiest way - but a double click on an untagged MP3 file will always open it in Music (unless I guess you change the default app to something else)
 
in iTunes I changed some of my ripped CDs to audiobooks (as they were mp3s relating to a language book) to give better playback options.

These have appeared in Books. However, Books appears to offer no way to edit any metadata so I can't add/correct author information any more, for example.

Plus, it's moved my mp3s from the nicely-named:
~/iTunes/Audiobooks/<author>/<file>
to:
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks/Books/Audiobooks/<e.g. sha1-85399e7c6cfe3eb53649bca4e2ef0b5300072beb>/<file>

Edit: I imported the iBooks/Books directory into Music and I'll just have to live with them being Media type Music. I can't remember why I changed the media type from music to audiobook originally, maybe it was the way iTunes displayed them, or the way playback worked ... ah yes, I think it's because audiobooks could simply continue to the next one whereas music would stop if nothing was queued up. Or the other way around. I forget :)
 
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Shirasaki said:
Only when you have at least one song with star rating. On all Apple store demo machines, no star rating option could be found.
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Untrue. Fresh library, no rating:
Screen Shot 2019-06-11 at 11.36.18.png
 
Shirasaki said:
I say “Apple demo machines”. And being able to see the rating in the list view does not mean you can add or edit it. I did not get the chance to actually try it out. If you can add it, then I am wrong.
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What Apple demo machines? It works just as you'd expect:

Screen Shot 2019-06-11 at 12.48.29.png
 
ErikGrim said:
What Apple Store Macs are running a developer preview? :eek:
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They are not, obviously.
What I want to say here is those Apple store demo Mac has an iTunes library that can only change “like or dislike” for those songs. And I don’t find “show star rating” setting in iTunes setting (macOS Mojave 10.14.5). So I assume I cannot change star rating to a song in the library that has no song with star rating before.
 
Shirasaki said:
They are not, obviously.
What I want to say here is those Apple store demo Mac has an iTunes library that can only change “like or dislike” for those songs. And I don’t find “show star rating” setting in iTunes setting (macOS Mojave 10.14.5). So I assume I cannot change star rating to a song in the library that has no song with star rating before.
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Huh. That's odd. There's both a "Show: Star Ratings" in both iTunes and Music general settings, as well as in the context menu for the columns as shown above.
 
ErikGrim said:
Huh. That's odd. There's both a "Show: Star Ratings" in both iTunes and Music general settings, as well as in the context menu for the columns as shown above.
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I just checked the macOS Mojave in one local apple store today, and I could add/edit star ratings in iTunes. I think what my memory tells to me is on iOS, if a user only has Apple Music library on device, “star rating” cannot be changed from iOS music app. Since I never have Apple Music and I have a sizeable iTunes library, I cannot personally confirm this anymore. Either way, my bad for the wrong info. Sorry.
 
adrianlondon said:
in iTunes I changed some of my ripped CDs to audiobooks (as they were mp3s relating to a language book) to give better playback options.

These have appeared in Books. However, Books appears to offer no way to edit any metadata so I can't add/correct author information any more, for example.

Plus, it's moved my mp3s from the nicely-named:
~/iTunes/Audiobooks/<author>/<file>
to:
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks/Books/Audiobooks/<e.g. sha1-85399e7c6cfe3eb53649bca4e2ef0b5300072beb>/<file>

Edit: I imported the iBooks/Books directory into Music and I'll just have to live with them being Media type Music. I can't remember why I changed the media type from music to audiobook originally, maybe it was the way iTunes displayed them, or the way playback worked ... ah yes, I think it's because audiobooks could simply continue to the next one whereas music would stop if nothing was queued up. Or the other way around. I forget :)
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I hope they will add the option to edit the metadata in Books even if they diddn't do that during the last years. I have more than 2000 audiobooks I ripped from CD or bought from amazon as download and I like to have them in the books app, but I need to edit the metadata somehow. The options to edit the data when creating an audiobook with Audiobook Builder or similar apps are very limited so until today I changed some data after adding it to iTunes...

Is it possible to edit the metadata with other apps once the audiobook is added to the new books app or do I have to do that before adding it?

And is it possible to sync books manually with the new finder-option? There is not enough space on my devices to store all of my audiobooks. And I'm wondering if it's possible to store all audiobooks in iCloud.
 
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I went to the directory ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks/Books/Audiobooks and (re-)imported all the files into the Music app. It automatically changed the media type (from audiobook I assume) to music, and there I could edit the metadata as usual. I've given them all a group name of "Audiobook" and I'll leave them in the Music app. I won't be using the Books app.
 
That's not an option for my case. I don't want to have all those audiobooks mixed with my music...

I'll hope that they will put some more work into the books app for a better audiobooks support.
 
It's not possible to manually change the media type in the new Music app so one workaround *may* be to (1) import audiobooks into Music where it'll change the media type to music (2) edit metadata (3) import back into Books where it changes the media type back to audiobook.

I've no idea if step (3) works. Books isn't handling its own library well at the moment, for example it's not even possible to delete audiobooks. It seems Books has lost all ability to edit its own library. As you say, I expect some changes over the next few betas.
 
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