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Apple Music App interferes with XLD CD ripping

L

landshark2

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 18, 2020
44
12
I recently got a Leo Kottke Instrumentals; Best of the Capital Years CD off eBay, and Apple Music could only rip track #1. Every subsequent track that I force it to try, came back with "error; file does not exist." But the CD plays fine in my JVC car deck. Last year I also had this same problem on the expanded Jethro Tull first album's extra disc, with the live concert recording.

Yesterday, after finding a good XLD set up video on Youtube, I still couldn't get the Leo Kottke disc to rip, so I did a test rip with Bill Frisell's Guitar in the Space Age (it loaded into Apple Music just fine a while back). I had to do some mouse dancing to get it going, because Apple Music kept opening, but eventually that disc successfully ripped to one folder in my designated NewRips folder.

After that success, I was still unable to rip the Leo Kottke CD, due to the Apple Music App repeatedly opening up and "occupying" the disc drive. I closed everything and let my M4 Mini sleep while I slept. Then this morning, after a short mouse dance closing Apple Music a few times, XLD seems to have ripped the Leo Kottke, but into 6 different folders, which may be due to that compilation coming from 6 different original albums (didn't check).

So then I tried to XLD rip Steve Vai's Where The Wild Things Are (also successfully loaded into Apple Music recently), but again the Apple Music App always restarts when I hit XLD's extract button, and XLD says it's waiting for the drive. I've done multiple web searches, but I didn't find any way to keep the Apple Music App from opening and "occupying" the disc drive when a CD is in the drive.

I'm hoping that someone here can lead me to the light, so that I can XLD rip hundreds of CD's.
 
It's the M4 Mini in my signature, which I've had for less than 2 months; current on all updates. The Pioneer BDR-XS07S was purchased new from Amazon after Apple Music using my old external Mac Superdrive wouldn't load the live Jethro Tull disc; delivered in June of last year. It also wouldn't load the live Jethro Tull disc via Apple Music.
 
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The solution was an easy one. I had to change the system setting for CD's, from auto open Music to auto open XLD.

Upon inserting a CD into the drive, I was closing Music after it auto-opened and thinking that it would stay closed.

Evidently I thought wrong. But now XLD is extracting Where The Wild Things Are.
 
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Current is macOS 15.3.1 for future reference.

I was wondering if that was the solution as I don't think that setting appears if you don't have a CD or DVD reader or writer attached. That is…I don't see it here on my M3 MacBook Air.
 
Glad to hear that you managed to stop Apple Music from interfering. But your initial problems of ripping certain disks makes it sound like there might be some copy protection schemes present on those discs. There were a number of different ways that discs were produced to allow them time to play correctly on a CD player but fail (or produce artifacts) when ripping them. I've heard of examples where iTunes or Apple Music will fail but XLD will produce a file with defective audio from protected media.
 
headlessmike said:
Glad to hear that you managed to stop Apple Music from interfering. But your initial problems of ripping certain disks makes it sound like there might be some copy protection schemes present on those discs.
Click to expand...
No it's mainly because two apps were trying to access the CD at the same time.

Another possible solution for OP was to uncheck the option to open Music when a CD is inserted, which i think, is annoyingly on by default, as though we're dribbling simpletons and couldn't open the app for ourselves.
 
I may have to start a new thread with a different title. My XLD ripping adventure does not seem to be cut and dry.

Firstly, in full response to BrianBaughn, My Mini OS is 15.3, even after a restart, and no update is indicated.

Anyway, my next rip was Gateway: Homecoming - XLD's initial response was "This CD was not found in the CDDB."

So I opened up Apple Music, which did identify the CD, initiated an Apple Lossless rip, turned off the monitor and went to sleep. Upon awakening, two things showed on screen; the Apple Music rip failed on the last track, and XLD was showing the CD info that it wasn't prior to opening Apple Music.

So I closed Apple Music and hit the Extract button on XLD, which sees to have resulted in a successful XLD rip.

Funny thing is that after I looked at the Homecoming folder in NewRips, XLD's window reverted to the nameless tracks version, and again said "This CD was not found in the CDDB."

My next move will be importing the Leo Kottke folders into Apple Music, consolidating to one album, and listening to it.
 
MajorFubar said:
No it's mainly because two apps were trying to access the CD at the same time.

Another possible solution for OP was to uncheck the option to open Music when a CD is inserted, which i think, is annoyingly on by default, as though we're dribbling simpletons and couldn't open the app for ourselves.
Click to expand...
I meant the problem of not being able to rip with Apple Music.
 
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Well, upon importing the XLD rip of Capital Kottke instrumentals into Apple Music, everything shows as normal, but there is no sound.

The little eq on the left of the track bounces nicely, but no sound comes out of my headphones.

I am now XLD ripping the Chrysalis disc of Kottke instrumentals, to see if that will have sound in Apple Music.
 
It seems to be a hardware issue; this was the first music import session using my new M4 Mini.

After more and more issues, I went back to my old Mac Superdrive and now Apple Music is successfully importing.

For some reason, in Apple Music the less than year young Pioneer disc drive only rips 30 to 45 seconds of the first track, and then aborts the entire process. If I uncheck the first track it just rips 30 to 45 seconds of the second track, and aborts. In XLD, the Pioneer drive creates unusable files.

My prior M1 Mini had a USB port, but now I have to use a hub with the M4 Mini. Perhaps the Pioneer isn't communicating properly through the hub, but the old Mac Superdrive works fine through the hub.

I've gone back to having Apple Music auto open when a CD is inserted in the drive, and I'll probably delete XLD.
 
You can also buy an Apple USB-C to USB-A adapter/dongle for $20 to plug the superdrive into the dongle, into your M1 or M4 USB-C port. I use this on my 2018 Mac Mini when my USB-A ports are filled up, and have to use a Thunderbolt/USB-C port. I can rip used $2 CD’s from Goodwill all day long.
 
The old Mac Superdrive works just fine through the Belkin hub that Apple sold me when I bought my M1 Mini.

I never had to use the Belkin hub with the M1 Mini, because it had a USB port.

Last May I got a new Pioneer BDR-XS07S drive, which worked fine plugged directly into the M1 Mini.

When I finally received the M4 Mini from Amazon, I traded in the M1 Mini (Apple gift card).

I've now installed an Orico MiniDock and have some eBay CD's arriving soon; then I will be able to see if the drives will work through the MiniDock.
 
The Orico MiniDock does allow the Pioneer BDR-XS07S disc drive to rip properly via Apple Music.
 
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