iTunes: possible to replace/upgrade a song file while keeping existing play count?

[jk73]

Let's say I have two different versions of the same song, both of which have been matched by iTunes Match, and one of which is higher quality (i.e., better audio). I want to replace the lower-quality version with the higher-quality version, but I've listened to the lower-quality version 200 times and want to keep the play count. Is there a relatively easy way to do this without screwing up my iTunes library? Thanks.

 

[dZp]

Replace the lower-quality track with the higher-quality one.
Set the play count of the higher-quality track by using the following AppleScript in Script Editor:

tell application "iTunes"
  activate
  set played count of track named "[I]higher-quality track[/I]" to 200
  return
end tell

 

[jk73]

Replace the lower-quality track with the higher-quality one.
Set the play count of the higher-quality track by using the following AppleScript in Script Editor:

tell application "iTunes"
  activate
  set played count of track named "[I]higher-quality track[/I]" to 200
  return
end tell

Interesting. Thanks. Do I use the file name or the iTunes song name?

 

[dZp]

The iTunes song name.

Or select the track(s) and use the following AppleScript:

tell application "iTunes"
	activate
	set played count of selection to 200
	return
end tell

The side effect of setting the play count like this is that you'll get a funky 'last played' date way back in time. So to avoid this and if you prefer a script with an interface for doing so, have a look at Doug's New Last Played Date v4.0

http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=newlastplayed

Set Last Played/Last Skipped date of selected tracks to a new date, with option to increase or decrease Plays/Skips, or set to no date and no Plays/Skips.

 

[mgroot]

Let's say I have two different versions of the same song, both of which have been matched by iTunes Match, and one of which is higher quality (i.e., better audio). I want to replace the lower-quality version with the higher-quality version, but I've listened to the lower-quality version 200 times and want to keep the play count. Is there a relatively easy way to do this without screwing up my iTunes library? Thanks.

Before you do all this, make sure to have a good backup!!!

• Make sure you have downloaded the lower quality version to your machine
• Open 2 finder windows (or tabs) and put the bad quality folder in one and the good one in the other
• Make sure the filename and metadata of the better quality ones are the same as the bad ones
• Copy the good files over the bad ones and if you do an info on the song in iTunes you'll see the updated bitrate for the songs

I've been using this method to put back the lossless rips I have into iTunes without losing all that info (I messed up with a timemachine backup where I had stupidly unchecked the music folder so I lost all the lossless files in the iTunes library from the TM backup, I had them stored on an external as well)

 

[jk73]

Before you do all this, make sure to have a good backup!!!

• Make sure you have downloaded the lower quality version to your machine
• Open 2 finder windows (or tabs) and put the bad quality folder in one and the good one in the other
• Make sure the filename and metadata of the better quality ones are the same as the bad ones
• Copy the good files over the bad ones and if you do an info on the song in iTunes you'll see the updated bitrate for the songs

I've been using this method to put back the lossless rips I have into iTunes without losing all that info (I messed up with a timemachine backup where I had stupidly unchecked the music folder so I lost all the lossless files in the iTunes library from the TM backup, I had them stored on an external as well)

Thanks for the info. Does this work if I have iTunes Match enabled? In other words, if I do the above, does iTunes Match re-match the song or does it recognize the higher-quality song as an already-matched song, with a different play count?

 

[mgroot]

Thanks for the info. Does this work if I have iTunes Match enabled? In other words, if I do the above, does iTunes Match re-match the song or does it recognize the higher-quality song as an already-matched song, with a different play count?

I've got no idea. I would think it'll update it if it's better than the one it has stored (any matched songs won't get updated since they're already on the match servers in the highest quality it stores). Just tell it to update match and see what happens.

All the songs I replaced seem to now be matched

 

[jk73]

I've got no idea. I would think it'll update it if it's better than the one it has stored (any matched songs won't get updated since they're already on the match servers in the highest quality it stores). Just tell it to update match and see what happens.

All the songs I replaced seem to now be matched

Okay, thanks. It seems like your method sort of "tricks" iTunes; I'm wondering if iTunes Match is similarly tricked or if it recognizes that a file is different and updates the match accordingly. Thanks again.