iTunes Problems from Switching...

[Piarco]

I bought my first Mac in early November last year, and in preparation for moving files over, had backed up my PC based iTunes Music Folder and all of its content. Some of these files were ripped in iTunes, some were ripped with various other MP3 programs as I'd had various other MP3 players before getting an iPod earlier in the year. All files played fine and their information was easily changed. The main important thing for me was the comments field, around which I base the playlists for my mini (i.e. if there is "mini" in the comments fields it goes into the only playlist that gets sync'd with the mini).

But on moving the files over onto the PB, I found that I could only change a fraction of the files information; some looked like they could be altered, but as soon as you exited editting the info it would revert, and others you couldn't even click into the various files - they were effectively "greyed out". The wierd thing is that its not just the pre-iTunes files. Its files I've ripped using iTunes on the PC. Stranger still is that I remember ripping some of my Dads CD's in a single sitting and some of them are affected and some not. Wierd.

And even more annoyingly this means I can't remove the "mini" for some of these files' comment fields - which means I'm stuck with them on the mini!
One workaround I found was to burn an affected album onto CD, delete the files on the Mac, and re-import. This did work.

But not any more 😡 . I bought a Rev D PB last week as I was after a superdrive, and the added spec was attractive. Only now when I try this workaround, I'm told that my permissions for the music folder and files don't allow me to import the CD - even though I've checked the permissions and they're fine!!!

I'm in need of some expert help! Anyone?

 

[Veldek]

This is definitely a permission thing. I had similar problems when I used the same songs with two users. The second user could alter the information of a song, but these new informations weren’t saved. That’s because he didn’t have the right permissions. I’d try one thing: don’t use the iTunes folder you backed up, but reimport all the mp3s in this folder and let iTunes create a new iTunes folder. This way these new files should have all the info you need and they should also be able to be changed. If this works, you can delete the old files.

 

[Piarco]

The only problem there would be the loss of the stuff I've been importing onto Mac's since November, as they won't be in the original DVD backups.
I've just tried to install the iTrip software back into iTunes (new software straight from Griffin) and iTunes won't even let me import that due to permissions! I've yet to try a normal CD, but if that is showing the same thing, surely there must be a problem within iTunes itself? Is there an easy way to re-import everything (I've just renamed the iTunes folder to iTunes original, and made a new blank iTunes folder) as it looks like I have to do everything by Artist....

edit: those albums which are no-changable, seem to be the exactly the same when I want to re-import them... they remain greyed out and can't be imported.....

 

[Veldek]

I think you should start from scratch with iTunes, i.e. delete the preferences and the xml files in your iTunes folder. Renaming the folder was a good idea, but let iTunes create a new folder, don’t do it yourself. Then start iTunes, which should be empty now. Import one of the songs that didn’t work before and see if it works now. I don’t think iTunes saves the permisions from the original file, but if it does, you might have to change the permissions from your files, although you said they’re ok.

I remember someone else on this forum having a similar problem some time ago, but I don’t know if he found a solution. Perhaps a search can find this thread.

 

[Piarco]

Cheers Veldek, will give it a go later tonight!