Problem changing tags in iTunes

[Neil4512]

Well, this is my first post as I only recently left the world of XP.

The problem I am having is with editing the tags on song files in iTunes. I cannot modify the text fields in the info tab of get info. So i can't change the song titles, artist names, or anything, which is really annoying. I have tried changing the file access from read only to read and write but this didn't help. Could the problem somehow be that I had all of these files on my widows machine and i burnt them off and transfered them over...some kind of compadiblity issue? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Neil

 

[Phat_Pat]

right click (control click) on the song and click "Get Info" then up on the taps click "Info" and there you can modify all the feilds. (if thats not what you wanted then maybe i'm confused on what your asking?)

and BTW welcome to the mac world. hope you enjoy your new mac

 

[Neil4512]

Thanks for the reply.

The problem is that once i get there, the text fields are fixed, i cannot change them. So I can't change the song name, artist name, album or anything.

Sorry if that wasn't clear

Neil

 

[homerjward]

Thanks for the reply.

The problem is that once i get there, the text fields are fixed, i cannot change them. So I can't change the song name, artist name, album or anything.

Sorry if that wasn't clear

Neil

are they protected aac files? although that shouldnt affect it...

 

[hottaymale]

I am having the same problem as Neil. I never experienced this problem before but ever since I updated my iTunes to 7.7 (43) last night I can not change any information on a song either by clicking on it or by going to get info. However, I can still click on a playlist and change the name of it.
Help please.

 

[kyleoneill]

Same issue, new itunes.

I'm brand new to the mac world, being a Xp user for most of my life. im quite familiar with itunes, but i cannot change the titles of my songs on the new version of itunes i've downloaded with my new laptop, the 8.2.1, and i am in need of some serious editing. can anyone help?

 

[js1138]

I don't see much activity on this thread, but I have a similar problem. I'm switching from a PC to a Mac G5 with Leopard installed. I've done all the software updates.

Perhaps this isn't the simplest way to migrate from the PC, but I've made a bunch of large playlists containing 20 or so albums (originally ripped from CDs).

I burned the playlists to DVDRs and added them to the ITunes library on the Mac, making sure the files were copied. I've checked for duplicate files and cleaned up a lot of errors in the tags, but now I'm stuck, unable to complete the cleanup.

I'd like to fix the spelling of the artist so things will sort the way I'd like, and insert album cover art. Most of this has gone smoothly, but on some albums I'm unable to update the artist or add art. There's no error message; it just doesn't update.

I know the files are on the hard drive, but some can be updated and some can't.

 

[GGJstudios]

The files could be corrupt. Try deleting them from your library and re-adding them.

 

[js1138]

The files could be corrupt. Try deleting them from your library and re-adding them.

I'd need more information about what you mean by corrupt. I've been using, building and programming computers for more than 25 years, and find it rather rare for data files to be corrupted by copying, especially without the OS noticing. there's lots of redundency and error checking involved in storing and retrieving data.

Wouldn't an unreadable file generate an error message?

 

[GGJstudios]

Wouldn't an unreadable file generate an error message?

Not necessarily. I suggested a possible solution to rectify your problem. If you don't want to try it, that's your call.

 

[Nermal]

My guess is a permissions error. Make sure that you have read and write access to the files that you're trying to update, and also the iTunes Library files.

 

[js1138]

My guess is a permissions error. Make sure that you have read and write access to the files that you're trying to update, and also the iTunes Library files.

I'm a bit new to the Mac. How do you check and change permissions? Can you do this with the iTunes folder and all subfolders?

I know how to do this on a PC.

Not necessarily. I suggested a possible solution to rectify your problem. If you don't want to try it, that's your call.

You possible solution strikes me as rather hard. The playlist I added has nearly a thousand files and maybe a hundred albums, only a few of which are causing problems. Re-doing the whole thing would take a long time. I'm not sure how to re-add just part of a playlist.

 

[GGJstudios]

You possible solution strikes me as rather hard. The playlist I added has nearly a thousand files and maybe a hundred albums, only a few of which are causing problems. Re-doing the whole thing would take a long time. I'm not sure how to re-add just part of a playlist.

You can choose to only re-add those files that you have a problem with. Just click Add to Library and select the songs you want.

 

[js1138]

I'll try these things and get back.

As a former programmer, I find it odd that there are no messages indicating that an operation could not be performed.

Of course a Windows program would make the message indecipherable, but at least you could google it.

 

[js1138]

I solved My problems. There were more than one.

Some tags wouldn't update because I was trying to update an entire album, and didn't notice that some tracks had data that was blank in most other tracks. I assumed it was all blank.

The simple solutions was to check the box next to items I wanted to be blank.

There were a couple of cases where the item was spelled slightly differently, sometimes in ways hard to notice.

On albums where the picture wouldn't add, they turned out to be WAV files instead of MP3s. I'm not sure how that happened. I have quite a few LPs I'm converting, but the problem albums came from CDs.

So the corrupt file suggestion was on the right track, but re-importing it would never have helped. What helped was displaying bitrate, which flagged all the files that hadn't been converted to MP3.