Recently made the switch and am trying to get used to OS X. I have about 2k mp3s that I moved from my windows machine. However, I tossed about 500 dupes that got onto my mac. The problem is that I locked them when they were on my windows machine so that the names et al could not be changed. On windows, I would highlight all the files at once and open properties. Then I could lock all the files with one click. How can I unlock all the files on OS X? I "right click" and chose more info. It gives me the option to lock/unlock but only for 1 file at a time. I cannot delete the dupes until I unlock the files.
Got a tip for us?
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Change multiple files at once in OS X
- Thread starter wdschrank
- Start date
Ah too bad.. in Panther you could select a buncha file and Get Info on them and end up with all of them bunched together for this. Unfortunately, this was changed in Tiger back to the way it was in Jaguar, and now each file opens individually, so the easy way is blocked off.
Hopefully this will work:
I hope all your MP3s are in one single directory, I'm not sure how to make this recursive for multiple subdirectories.
Instead, you'll have to use an XCode tool to fix it.. If you haven't installed XCode, the you will have to. Then you will have to open the Terminal.app and do/type this:
sudo /Developers/Tools/SetFile -a L /Path/To/Your/MP3s/*.mp3
Where naturally, "/Path/To/Your/MP3s/" is replaced by the actual path to your mp3s. Something along the lines of: ~/Music/Moved_MP3s/*.mp3
The easiest way, if you're unfamiliar with the Terminal, will be to do this part "sudo /Developers/Tools/SetFile -a L " (note: there's an important space after the capital L), and then drag the folder containing your locked mp3s into the Terminal window, and it will automatically fill in the correct path, you just need to make sure you add "*.mp3" to the end so it will only set the L flag (or unset if it's already set) on mp3s.
There may be an easier/better way, but I'm not familar with it, so you might want to wait and see if someone chimes in with a better idea.
Hopefully this will work:
I hope all your MP3s are in one single directory, I'm not sure how to make this recursive for multiple subdirectories.
Instead, you'll have to use an XCode tool to fix it.. If you haven't installed XCode, the you will have to. Then you will have to open the Terminal.app and do/type this:
sudo /Developers/Tools/SetFile -a L /Path/To/Your/MP3s/*.mp3
Where naturally, "/Path/To/Your/MP3s/" is replaced by the actual path to your mp3s. Something along the lines of: ~/Music/Moved_MP3s/*.mp3
The easiest way, if you're unfamiliar with the Terminal, will be to do this part "sudo /Developers/Tools/SetFile -a L " (note: there's an important space after the capital L), and then drag the folder containing your locked mp3s into the Terminal window, and it will automatically fill in the correct path, you just need to make sure you add "*.mp3" to the end so it will only set the L flag (or unset if it's already set) on mp3s.
There may be an easier/better way, but I'm not familar with it, so you might want to wait and see if someone chimes in with a better idea.
There's a couple of GUIfied apps that will supposedly do the same thing for you. I don't know if they are Tiger aware/functional, and I've never used any of them, so I cannot say if they are good/useful/non-breaky..
In no particular order:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/12657
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/20751
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/22566
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/24782
In no particular order:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/12657
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/20751
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/22566
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/24782
When you have marked all the files you want to unlock, press option-cmd-I (not just cmd-I) and you should get one single Multiple File Info window, where you should be able to unlock them with the Locked checkbox under General.
thank you. i can certainly tackle that this weekend. had hoped there may be an easier way to do that using automator or applescript or whichever program you can make do repetitive tasks. surprised they would do away with that feature.
Mitthrawnuruodo said:
Heeeeeeyy, sweet! I didn't know that. Wish they'd thrown that in the File pull-down menu, though I see the menu changes now if you hit the Option key while it's open. Well, that's my "official" learned-thing-of-the-day!
Thanks Mitth!
wdschrank: skip all that other crap I spoted.. go with Cmd-Opt-I and then unlock all at once, it's much easier/safer.
You're welcome...yellow said:
Also: They do, in a way, have it in the File menu, too. Just pull down the menu and hit the option key. Some things change ever so slightly...
