Issues with iTunes Conversion - tags/data

[wdp]

About half the songs are missing data - album, artist, rating, genre, group. I read that one should put the iTunes xml file in the database and answer "yes" to the question about getting information from iTunes. I did that and rescanned but it didn't help. It seems like it is certain albums. For the most part, if one song is screwed up then other songs from the album are also.

I have been editing song by song using my iTunes to compare.

When I started I copied over the media file to a separate database for MediaMonkey. So I have the iTunes database and the MediaMonkey database. I pointed MediaMonkey to the MediaMonkey database.

[Lowlander]

When I started I copied over the media file to a separate database for MediaMonkey. So I have the iTunes database and the MediaMonkey database. I pointed MediaMonkey to the MediaMonkey database.

That's the problem. As you're importing the iTunes XML it will have information about the iTunes Media Files, not the MediaMonkey copies of those files. As iTunes is known for it's proprietary/database only approach this is likely the problem you're facing. You'll need to import the iTunes media files and that may give you the desired results once the iTunes xml itself has been read by MediaMonkey.

[wdp]

So the solution here is to start over? With these steps?

1. Uninstall MM.
2. Copy iTunes media file over completely to where the MM database should live. Including the TWO xml files.
3. Reinstall MM and point to the iTunes files.
4. Rename the itunes media folder.
5. Remove trash from folder. There are lots of empty folders. It's like iTunes changed how they did things.
6. Remove audio books from folder. Can I do this before I import to MM? I don't want audiobooks in the database.
7. Figure out how to use MM to reorganize the folders in Artist > Album > Song order where each artist has its own folder.

Is that about it?

Thanks,
wdp

[Lowlander]

No,

1) Use File > Clear database
2) Scan the files where iTunes had them located
3) Let it import from iTunes

This should get you the tags from iTunes for the files. The problem then becomes, do you want to have 2 copies of the files or migrate from iTunes keeping 1 copy.

Tools > Auto-Organize Files will do the moving/renaming based on tags: https://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index. ... enames/4.0

[wdp]

I want to have two copies for now. So does MM put the database where I specify?

Once I have a separate database, the audiobooks have to go. As well as a lot of the trash folders.

[Lowlander]

That is where the problem lies. You'll need to point MediaMonkey to the original iTunes media files as this is what iTunes has information on.

So first scan the iTunes files and make sure the tags work.

If the tags work, you could use Tools > Auto-Organize Files set to Copy to have MediaMonkey create a Copy on selected files (so don't select AudioBooks). Just make sure you copy them to a location that's also part of the MediaMonkey Library. The copied files need to remain in the MediaMonkey Library as it this point only the MediaMonkey database would have the tags (and the iTunes database on the originals).

Once copied you can verify that the copied files show the correct tags in MediaMonkey. If so, you can remove the original iTunes files from the MediaMonkey Library.

As you used MediaMonkey to copy only the files you wanted, you should not have to remove any files (AudioBooks) or have empty folders to deal with (MediaMonkey can't delete those).

Pay attention at each step, verify that the results are as desired before proceeding to the next step.

[wdp]

This sounds like a plan. Many thanks. I will consult after the two databases exist and the tags/info is verified as correct.

Do playlist auto-populate as well? Or is that something I need to recreate?

[wdp]

No,

1) Use File > Clear database
2) Scan the files where iTunes had them located
3) Let it import from iTunes

This should get you the tags from iTunes for the files. The problem then becomes, do you want to have 2 copies of the files or migrate from iTunes keeping 1 copy.

Tools > Auto-Organize Files will do the moving/renaming based on tags: https://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index. ... enames/4.0

Thanks for the help. After manually exporting the library.xml file, things mostly worked. The are a couple of albums that need attention. If that was it, I would fix them manually. But there are a lot of albums/songs that have errors because iTunes puts them in a folder called compilations. Look at the linked image. Notice the title included the track number as part of the title... "01 A Whole Lotta Woman". The artist field is blank and the album field is blank. Look at the path and you can see these reside in the Compilations folder.

Advice?

https://ibb.co/xjv43gT

Thanks,
wdp

[Lowlander]

Tools > Auto-Tag from Filename can help fix this. Otherwise there is also: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=28510&hilit=regexp

[wdp]

Auto tag from filename did not help. Fixing it in iTunes looks iffy. I can fix the ones where the CD was labeled compilation and it isn't. But not true compilations. If I change the artist name to "Various Artist" at the album level, it will be moved out of the compilation folder and into a "Various Artist" folder. Supposedly I have to reorganize to do this. But then the Artist tag will be wrong on all the songs.

If this is a manual process. I guess it is best to fix in MM rather than iTunes.

[Lowlander]

Auto-Tag from Filename is to deal with Track# in Title: https://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index. ... lename/4.0

As for compilation Albums, the Artist can be any value (ie. the Artist performing the Track), whereas the Album Artist needs to be the same for all the files on the Album (ie. Various Artists). The Music > Files to Edit > Multiple Artist Albums can help with this: https://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index. ... erties/4.0

Once the tags are fixed Tools > Auto-Organize Files can rename/move the files to their own Album folders: https://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index. ... enames/4.0

[wdp]

Tags are not fixed. DB is FUBAR. Here is an image of what Auto tool shows me. Maybe I am doing it wrong. As you can see for the Album "Live", Title, Artist, Album, Genre, are all wrong. I don't even see album artist as a catagory.

I also go irritated with navigating around the audiobooks so I deleted them and move to fast. I removed not only from the library but also from the computer. Thank Odin, it wasn't all of them. I really do not want to import the audio books at all. So I am going to clear and start again but this time I will check all the subfolders except that one. Let me know if you object.

I tried to fix things in iTunes. But just because I fix an album in iTunes doesn't mean it will translate to MM. I keep trying to figure out... Why does the album translate the data/tags and that album doesn't?

https://ibb.co/rMHNfGP

[Lowlander]

You have to set it up to fit your setup using Masks: https://www.mediamonkey.com/wiki/index. ... ormats/4.0

something like <Artist>\<Album\<Track#> <Title>

Removed files may be in the Recycle Bin on Windows.

[wdp]

I see now... I think. You can only get information that is in the file name. It isn't reading MP3 tags for that file name. So the file name has in order... artist, album, track # and title. So you write a mask in that order. Not sure what the backslash does but seems necessary. I can't get genre and grouping because those are not in the title.

I need to do this album by album. Then I can select the whole album and update genre and grouping for all the songs. Curiously enough, I can search on album name even when the album is not shown in the database.

Yes the audio books were in the trash. My iTunes drive is on an external drive. Some of my drives don't save trash. I was grateful to be able to restore the books.

[Lowlander]

MediaMonkey would first read tags, and in your scenario also should've gotten information from iTunes. Getting tags from folder/filenames should come last for any tags not known.

\ is for folders.