Submit Hint Search The Forums LinksStatsPollsHeadlinesRSS
14,000 hints and counting!

One solution for an iTunes 7.3 customized sort field issue Apps
I had some issue with the recent iTunes 7.3 update. In my case, the problem was that I had customized some of the new Sort fields introduced in the last version. I could tell there was a problem because I had used the Sort field to sort by last name (for example Simon, Paul instead of Paul Simon), and it was sorting by Paul Simon even though the Sort field said Simon, Paul. But after opening the information panel (File: Get Info) and hitting OK, it did sort it by Simon, Paul. So then I had two Paul Simon entries, one for P and one for S.

I then fixed all my entries by viewing all the songs, doing Get Info for the first, and clicking Next all the way through. Boring, but it worked! I also only had about 800 songs, so it wasn't actually too bad. And after, that it was able to write the library!

[robg adds: Admitting ignorance, I'm not sure I understand this issue, nor the fix (as a very basic iTunes user, the only time I use the Get Info panel at all is when testing a hint!). However, for those who are affected, here's one possible fix (though clicking through a larger library would be very tiring).]
    •    
  • Currently 1.00 / 5
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  (1 vote cast)
 
[9,223 views]  

One solution for an iTunes 7.3 customized sort field issue | 8 comments | Create New Account
Click here to return to the 'One solution for an iTunes 7.3 customized sort field issue' hint
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
One solution for an iTunes 7.3 customized sort field issue
Authored by: DougAdams on Jul 11, '07 07:53:49AM
Try Batch Set Tracks Sorting Tags: "This script will allow you to batch-set the sorting tags ("Sort Name", "Sort Artist", "Sort Album Artist", "Sort Album", "Sort Composer", "Sort Show") of the selected tracks, rather than manually doing so one track at a time or globally using "Apply Sort Field"."

---
Doug's AppleScripts for iTunes
http://www.dougscripts.com/itunes/

[ Reply to This | # ]

One solution for an iTunes 7.3 customized sort field issue
Authored by: MacMuse26 on Jul 11, '07 08:05:36AM

The 'Get Info' walk basically forces iTunes to re-read the tags in the actual song file instead of just showing you the subset of tags stored in the iTunes Library file. Those library tags appear to have been abused during the 7.3 upgrade and resulted in your odd sort behaviour.

For anyone else with the problem, try this method of achieving the same result of forcing iTunes to read the tags from the song file.

• Turn on show artwork
• Click it's banner so it show "selected song"
• highlight the first entry in your library and hold the down arrow until you get to the bottom.

The album artwork is not stored in the library database, so this also forces iTunes to read to the original files. It will take a while for a large library, but you can just drop a brick on the down arrow key and let it finish unattended.

CAVEAT: I'm not experiencing the original issue, so I don't know for certain that this technique achieves the same result.



[ Reply to This | # ]
One solution for an iTunes 7.3 customized sort field issue
Authored by: boxcarl on Jul 11, '07 04:32:25PM

I experienced this same problem, and solved it the same way. Maybe 7.3.1 fixes it?



[ Reply to This | # ]
One solution for an iTunes 7.3 customized sort field issue
Authored by: boxcarl on Jul 11, '07 04:35:46PM

I tested 7.3.1, and they seem to have fixed it. Yay.



[ Reply to This | # ]
One solution for an iTunes 7.3 customized sort field issue
Authored by: tkoyah on Jul 12, '07 10:07:09PM

Another way to get iTunes to re-read all of the tag information from the files (which will fix any fields that aren't up to date, and flag any broken links), is to simply control-click on the small tick-box just to the left of the song-title. This will untick every song in the playlist. Then control-click again to select them all. (Possibly not so useful if you have some of your tracks unticked, but I don't.) :)



[ Reply to This | # ]
One solution for an iTunes 7.3 customized sort field issue
Authored by: lstewart on Jul 11, '07 04:34:07PM

This is a little bit off-topic, but... I had done something similar with at least some of my artist fields (put "Paul Simon" in Artist, but put "Simon, Paul" in Sort Artist). Which is really slick, as long as you're in iTunes... but then I found out that the iPod seems to ignore Sort Artist. So in iTunes, things were ordered by last name, but on the iPod things were ordered by first name. The inconsistency drove me batty, so I had to go back in and rip out most of the custom sorts.



[ Reply to This | # ]
One solution for an iTunes 7.3 customized sort field issue
Authored by: boxcarl on Jul 11, '07 04:38:40PM

What model of iPod do you have? My iPod Photo sorts things according to sort-fields.



[ Reply to This | # ]
One solution for an iTunes 7.3 customized sort field issue
Authored by: Tom_H on Jul 16, '07 04:18:19AM
I had to do something similar recently when iTunes forgot a bunch of tags. Wish I'd seen some of these comments back then - my solution was a bit of GUI scripting with applescript.

tell application "System Events"
    tell process "iTunes"
        set frontmost to true
            keystroke "i" using {command down}
            repeat 10000 times
                keystroke "n" using {command down}
            end repeat
    end tell
end tell


[ Reply to This | # ]