iTunes
& iPod Hints & Tips
iTunes For Windows Scripts |
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Here is a selection of 80+ Visual Basic scripts that I have written to be used with iTunes for Windows.
The general method of use is to download a script (double-click or right-click and use Download or Save As...) to a folder of your choice, e.g. your Desktop, Downloads folder or create a folder at ...\iTunes\Scripts. Select a playlist or highlight some tracks in iTunes and then double-click on the script to execute it. If no specific tracks are selected the script will try to work with all tracks in the current playlist or sometimes the entire library. Some scripts offer a choice of track by track confirmation of changes or fully automatic processing of the selection. Many of the scripts can optionally display a progress bar while running.
You are strongly advised to backup your entire library, or at the very least the iTunes Library.itl file, before use. Test the behaviour of your chosen script on a small group of files first to make sure it does what you want before applying it to large numbers of files.
Please note that some older scripts may crash if they attempt to process "tracks" that are available in iCloud but not on your computer. To avoid this either create a selection that excludes iCloud items or use Edit > Preferences > Store and untick Show iTunes in the Cloud purchases.
|
Download Link |
Description |
| AddComposerToName | Prefix the value of Composer to the Name field for selected tracks or all tracks in the current playlist. |
| AddDisc-TrackNumbers | Adds leading track (& where
appropriate disc) numbers to the filenames of
selected tracks, unless already present. Note
this modifies the filename only and track and
(optionally) disc numbers must be present in the
tags to start with. This script along with
AddTrackNumbers &
StripTrackNumbers
were written to replace features dropped in
iTunes 8. (See note #1 below) |
| AddToPlays | Adds to or subtracts from the current play count of selected tracks or all tracks in the current playlist. Use, for example, on a list of recently played items to remove a batch of unwanted increments to the play count. |
| AddToTrackNumber | Adds a value onto the track numbers of the selected tracks. Use, for example,
to add the track count from disc one onto each of the track numbers of disc two so that the
tracks are sequentially numbered across both discs.
Negative values can be used to undo an earlier
change. A new feature allows a second value to
be entered in the input to set
the total track count. This script is
particularly useful if you need to exceed a value of 999 in either
the track number or track count fields as such values cannot be entered in the
iTunes Get Info. dialog box. N.b. At some point I hope to write an updated version to automatically sequence or unsequence multiple discs. |
| AddTrackNumbers | Adds leading track numbers
(only) to the filenames of selected tracks,
unless already present. (See note #1 below) |
| AudiobookSortName | Sets an alphabetically ordered Sort Name for each selected track or all tracks of the current playlist. Use to work around the way that Apple devices order audiobook tracks by track name instead of disc & track number. See Audiobooks on iPods for details. |
| AutoSort | Clears Sort Album, Sort Album Artist, Sort Artist, Sort Composer, Sort Name, and Sort Show fields which begin A/An/The to restore the AutoSort feature of iTunes for selected tracks or all tracks in the current playlist. See also UnAutoSort below. |
| ChangeCategory | Sets the category value for selected podcast tracks. |
| CheckFileCase | Compares iTunes records of file locations and, if necessary, corrects capitalization in file & folder names to ensure a case-sensitive correspondence. Assumes capitalization of artist & album names is consistent. |
| CleanDeadApps | Cleans any orphaned files from the Mobile Applications folder if the apps are no longer in your iTunes library or exist in newer versions. |
| CleanDeadArt | Cleans any orphaned artwork and/or empty folders left behind after iTunes or other media managers have reorganised your files. |
| ClearAlbumAutoRating | Clears/prevents Album AutoRating by setting album rating to 1%. Use ResetAlbumAutoRating to restore AutoRatings. |
| ClearBookmarks | Clears the Bookmark Position of selected tracks or all tracks in the current playlist. |
| ClearLyrics | Clears the Lyrics of selected tracks or all tracks in the current playlist. |
| ClearSkipCount | Clears the Skip Count & Skipped Date of selected tracks or all tracks in the current playlist. |
| ClearSortName | Clears the Sort Name of selected tracks or all tracks in the current playlist. Can be used to reverse the actions of AudiobookSortName. See Audiobooks on iPods for details. |
| ClearTrackAutoRating | Clears/prevents Track AutoRating by setting track rating to 1%. Use ResetTrackAutoRating to restore AutoRatings. |
| CombineStats | Combines the play & skip counts, takes the highest rating and most recent played & skipped dates of selected tracks or playlist between iTunes and a manually managed iPod/iOS device. Will attempt to match tracks first on LibraryIDs and if that fails on tracks with the same tag information. Related to SyncStats. |
| ConsolidateByMoving | Moves files to their new locations within the iTunes Media folder without creating copies. The script is set up to use standard iTunes naming rules, but can also be set to use full length file & folder names or, if desired, could be customised to rename files exactly as you wish, e.g. move certain genres to their own folders. You can also use this script to move selected content to a media folder on a different drive, e.g. to move movies or TV shows to an external drive to free up space. If a file to be copied already exists at the target location the original will be left in place and iTunes connected to the updated path. This prevents errors when the same folder can be reached via different links, mapped drives or UNC paths. |
| ConsolidateByMovingLong | As ConsolidateByMoving but can generate file & folder names longer than iTunes 40 character limit and has different character substitutions for characters that cannot be used in file paths. |
| ConvertFormat | Converts selected files or the current playlist to the format used in Edit > Preferences > General > Import Settings. The newly converted files will replace the originals inheriting ratings, play counts, playlist membership etc. and the original files will be sent to the recycle bin. Backup first and use with caution as these actions are not easily reversed if you make a mistake. If present any Folder.jpg images in the source folders will be added to tracks that didn't previously have art, target format permitting. |
| CopyAlbumToAlbumArtist | Copies values from the Album field to the AlbumArtist field of selected tracks or all tracks in the current playlist. |
| CopyArtistToAlbumArtist | Copies values from the Artist field to the AlbumArtist field of selected tracks or all tracks in the current playlist. |
| CopyNameToSortName | Copies values from the Name field to the SortName field of selected tracks or all tracks in the current playlist. |
| CreateFolderArt | Creates or updates Folder.jpg artwork images. If updating images then if at least one track has art it will be embedded in any tracks from the same album that are missing artwork or only have store downloaded art. |
| CustomRenamer | Similar to ConsolidateByMovingLong but allows you to set your own pattern for file and folder names using keywords in the same manner as ExportToFolder. |
| DeDuper |
This script can remove all but one of any duplicated files. Play and skip counts from the duplicate entries are
merged and the remaining entry is updated with the most recent played and
skipped dates. The best rating and user playlist membership is also preserved. Before running select the Music source in your library, then
press down SHIFT and use View > Show Exact Duplicate Items
to restrict the files that need to be processed to potential candidates. Select the
resulting list of files before running the script. The script makes five passes
over the data, first identifying any repeat entries in a playlist (playlist
duplicates), then next any multiple references to the same physical files
(logical duplicates),
the third pass identifies distinct files with the same metadata and file size
(physical duplicates) or the same file visible via two distinct paths
(pseudo-physical duplicates), the
fourth identifies files of different size with the same metadata (alternate
duplicates) and the fifth identifies missing files that are duplicates of tracks
that are still present in the library (missing duplicates).
As the script progresses ratings, play-counts, and playlist membership are
transferred from the entry that will be discarded to the one that will be kept.
A final pass automatically removes all duplicates or optionally removes selected files from the
different classes of duplicates with the physically
duplicated files being placed
in the Recycle Bin just in case you find you want to restore them later. For more details see this thread at Apple Support Communities. WARNING Extreme caution should be used with this script if your media is on Network Attached Storage. The current version should cope properly with pseudo-physical dupes but there is no recycle bin to restore files from if anything is deleted in error. Recovery of deleted files from NAS is non-trivial. Please backup your entire library before using this script so that files could be replaced if necessary. N.B. The file recycling function in this script will need tweaking for non-English versions of Windows. Currently support has been added for Dutch. Contact me via email or by posting to the thread for assistance. When dealing with duplicates of different size DeDuper will preserve the largest as it is likely to be the best quality. There are options that can be adjusted if you want to remove all but the smallest file or prefer one format over another. |
| DetailFromPath | Pulls a detail from the file
path, currently the first word separated by a
space, comma or dash from the rest of the file
name, and applies it to selected fields,
currently Album Artist, Artist and Composer. Niche script written for this thread: Keeping MP3 files in alpha order. Could be adapted as required. |
| DifferentArtistAlbumArtist | Compares Artist and Album
Artist for non-compilation tracks. Any found
will be added to a playlist called FixArtist.
Use to ensure all tracks from the same album
have the same artist as different artists can
cause albums to break up on older iPods. See
One album, too many covers
for details. |
| Duplicates | For iTunes 11.0.0 only Search selected tracks or the entire library for duplicate tracks (same song name) and if found add to a playlist called Duplicates. Unlike ExactDuplicates this is rarely a useful subsection of the library, and becomes less so with larger libraries. With my library this list currently matches almost a third of my library whereas ExactDuplicates lists the 78 exact duplicates that I've deliberately introduced for test purposes. Replaces the feature that was missing from iTunes 11.0.0 (but very slow in comparison). Upgrade to iTunes 11.0.1 or later in preference. |
| DuplicateSong&Artist | Search selected tracks or the entire library for tracks with the same song name & artist and if found add to a playlist called Duplicate Song & Artist. This is a preliminary proof of concept for a script designed to make sure a regular playlist has only one copy of each song (defined as same song name & artist so different covers, or different songs with the same name, can still appear). In contrast to Duplicates this script matches about one sixth of my library. |
| EmbedData | Attempts to embed data that is in the iTunes database but missing from the tag when viewed in another media player or tag editor. The published version can force update the fields: Album, Album Artist, Artist, Comment, Composer, Disc No., Genre, Grouping, Name, Track No., & Year. Edit the Fix<FieldName> assignments to update only fields that need changing. Could be extended to work with other fields as required. If the tracks in question are not tagged at all then select them in the songs view, right-click, and use Convert ID3 Tags... > v2.3 instead. |
| EmbedFolderArt | Embeds the largest image (by area) stored in the same folder as each processed track. Do not use if tracks from different albums may be stored in the same folder. Any "store downloaded" artwork is saved as iTunesArt in the same folder as the song and may be subsequently embedded if it is the largest image. |
| EnableLUA | Reports the current state of the Limited User Access policy setting and allows you to change it. This script may be needed to allow other scripts to display a progress bar as they operate. |
| ExactDuplicates | For iTunes 11.0.0 only Search selected tracks or the entire library for exact duplicate tracks (same song name, album, artist, track no. & disc no.) and if found add to a playlist called Exact Duplicates. This script is slightly more inclusive than iTunes own feature as it matches disc <none> with disc 1. Replaces the feature what was missing from iTunes 11.0.0 (but very slow in comparison). The resulting playlist is ideal as a source list for the DeDuper script. |
| ExportAppInfo | A variation of
ExportCSV that
exports information about selected apps. See this thread at Apple Support Communities for more details. |
| ExportCSV | Exports selected metadata as a
CSV text file suitable for import into Excel.
The current version exports multiple records for
each track that has multiple artwork, however
the artwork details can be omitted if not
required and the script could easily be adapted
to export additional information. See this thread at Apple Support Communities for more details. |
| ExportImport | Exports or imports selected
metadata. Can be used to attempt to restore data
such as ratings, playcounts or genres from a
previous iTunes library file. To export data
first restore or connect to an older library
file, select the
tracks of interest, then run the script to export.
The output file iTunes Metadata.txt
is placed in the same folder as the active
library file. Next restore or reconnect to the "current" database and
drag & drop the
output file onto the script to import. The
current version is set to export most, but not
all, user editable fields and could be edited to bring forward
other data if required. You may need to
temporarily rename the iTunes Media folder
during the export phase so that iTunes cannot
read the tags of the files if your aim is to
retrieve earlier versions of that information. See this thread at Apple Support Communities for more details. |
| ExportImportPlays | As ExportImport but only exports Plays and Skips. Can be used to restore played/skipped counts from a recent .itl file in the Previous iTunes Libraries folder in the event that iOS 8 caused these to increase too quickly. |
| ExportToFolder | Exports selected tracks to a folder with filenames based on a user defined pattern. Current keywords that will be replaced in the pattern are <Album>, <AlbumArtist>, <Artist>, <Composer>, <DiscNumber>, <Genre>, <Grouping>, <Name>, <TrackNumber> & <Year>. The file extension is included automatically. Your pattern can include, for example, "\", "-", or " " as separators between keywords, where a "\" will create an additional subfolder. Track numbers are padded to two digits. Standard export path (Root) and pattern can be stored in variables in the script for easy reuse. |
| FadeTunes | Fades out iTunes over a predefined interval then stops. Use to have iTunes slowly fade out as you drift off to sleep. You can edit the pre fade duration, fade time, and min. volume to attain on shutdown to your own preference. These are currently set to 1 min, 15mins and 0 respectively. |
| FindTracks | A script that attempts to locate missing tracks that have been misplaced within your library, either as a result of a third party program reorganising the media or as a result of attempting to move the library/media to a new location. Enter the location of the media folder the files should be in and the script will try to systematically fix every broken link. |
| ForceForeground | Display, and optionally change, the value of the iTunes ForceToForegroundOnDialog state which governs whether iTunes will attempt to bring its dialog boxes to the foreground. |
| FoundTracks | Scans all tracks of the Library for those files that iTunes can find and adds them to a playlist called Found. Use in conjunction with a smart playlist called Lost consisting of the rule Playlist is not Found, to identify missing files within the library. |
| GaplessToPlaylist | Scans selected tracks or the current playlist for Gapless tracks and, if found, adds them to a playlist called Gapless. |
| GetInfo | Test/demo script that provides a way to view a selection of track properties, in particular those such as Bookmark Position that cannot be displayed in iTunes but can be accessed via the iTunes COM SDK. |
| HasLyricsToPlaylist | Scans selected tracks or the current playlist for tracks with lyrics and, if found, adds them to a playlist called Has Lyrics. |
| ImportDevicePlaylists | Imports regular playlists from an iPod or iOS device into the iTunes library. Can import from a selected playlist, or playlist folder, or all playlists on the device. Where the tracks on the device were added from a different library than the one being used for the import the script can scan the entire library and attempt to match tracks based on tag properties. |
| ImportFolderStructure | Drag & drop an folder onto this script to import it into your iTunes library and create nested playlist folders to show the structure of the imported files. The same set of folders can be reimported as required when new content has been added without generating duplicates, although files that have been moved won't be removed from existing playlists. |
| ImportM3U | Drag & drop an M3U playlist onto this script to import it into your iTunes library. Created as a workaround to the M3U import bug with iTunes 10.4. Also useful if you wish to import a playlist containing WMA files, or one that has the same file at more than one location in the list. |
| iTunesInfo | Lists some library statistics and provides a way to view iTunes properties such as the state of the Media Key Processing option that cannot be displayed in iTunes but can be accessed via the iTunes COM SDK. |
| iTunesITLPath | Reveals the path to the active iTunes ITL file found by searching the folder containing the XML. |
| iTunesXMLPath | A simple script that reveals the path to the active iTunes XML file. The active <iTunes Library>.itl database will be in the same folder. |
| KeywordsToAlbum | As KeywordsToComments, but changes are made to the Album field. New words are appended and separated by a space. |
| KeywordsToAlbumArtist | As KeywordsToComments, but changes are made to the AlbumArtist field. New words are appended and separated by a space. |
| KeywordsToArtist |
As KeywordsToComments, but changes are made to the
Artist field. To replace the current value of Artist by AlbumArtist, for example, use the input: -<Artist> <AlbumArtist> To swap values use two related scripts and a field you don't need as a temporary location or use/adapt one of the dedicated SwapFieldField scripts below. |
| KeywordsToComments |
Prompts for a keyword (or phrase) to add to the Comments field,
without removing what is already there or adding the same keyword twice. Prefix
a value with a dash to remove. Adds new comments on separate lines. The following field tags will be replaced with their values: <Album>, <AlbumArtist>, <Artist>, <Comment>, <Composer>, <Description>, <Disc>, <Genre>, <Grouping>, <Location>, <Lyrics>, <Name>, <Show>, <SortAlbum>, <SortAlbumArtist>, <SortArtist>, <SortComposer>, <SortName>, <SortShow>, <Track>, and <Year>. Disc and track numbers are padded out with leading zeros if needed to match the width of the disc or track count. You can also use \n to insert a new line where the field supports it. |
| KeywordsToComposer | As KeywordsToComments, but changes are made to the Composer field. |
| KeywordsToDescription | As KeywordsToComments, but changes are made to the Description field. |
| KeywordsToGrouping | As KeywordsToComments, but changes are made to the Grouping field. An advantage of using Grouping as opposed to Comments for storing your keywords is that you can display all your different groupings in the Column Browser and easily display any selection of them. This script separates the keywords with a slash and sorts them alphabetically, but these options can be changed if required. |
| KeywordsToLyrics | As KeywordsToComments, but changes are made to the Lyrics field. Insert data into this field if you want to be able to view it from the Lyrics tab during playback on an Apple device. By default this script inserts new keywords before any existing text, separated by a new line, and does not sort to preserve any lyrics that may already be there. |
| KeywordsToName | As KeywordsToComments, but changes are made to the Name field. This script appends new keywords after the existing text, separated by a space and does not sort. Use, for example, to append comments such as [Live] to every track in an album or use -(LIVE) [Live] to replace existing markup with your preferred text. |
| KeywordsToShow | As KeywordsToComments, but changes are made to the Show field. |
| KeywordsToSortAlbum | As KeywordsToComments, but changes are made to the SortAlbum field. Use, for example, to append replace the current sort album value with one based on other properties, e.g. use -<SortAlbum> <Artist> <Year> <Album> to sort on the basis of artist, then year, then album title. |
| KillEmptyPlaylists | Removes empty playlists inadvertently created in the top level of the library. Antidote to a bug in iTunes 10.4 that could cause empty playlists to be created if you attempted to add new tracks to your library by scanning the entire media folder and there were .m3u playlist files in the imported folders. I recommend using iTunes Folder Watch for the task of adding new tracks and removing orphaned entries if you want to work directly with the media folder outside of iTunes. |
| KillNamedPlaylists | Removes playlists based on partial match with name. E.g. enter Test to match with Test, Test 1, Testing etc. Will remove both smart and regular playlists. |
| KillSelectedFiles |
Deletes selected files from iTunes and also deletes the underlying files whether they are inside the iTunes
Media folder or not. Files on local drives should be sent to the recycle bin,
files on network drives are deleted outright. Better be sure before you let this
one start work. The current build won't handle iTunes Extras, iTunes LPs or video files that exist in both HD & SD versions properly, however these are unlikely to be located outside of the iTunes Media folder so, should the need arise, these can usually be disposed of in the normal way. |
| KillTopLevelPlaylists | Similar to KillEmptyPlaylists but kills all non-smart playlists not in a playlist folder apart from Purchased and Voice Memos. Use to delete redundant artist/album playlists that may have been created by third party software and then imported into your iTunes library. Make sure to put any non-smart playlists that you want to keep into a playlist folder before running the script and have a backup of your iTunes Library.itl file too, just in case. |
| LastPlayedNever | Unlike the built-in Reset plays command (removed in iTunes 12.4) this script also resets the Last Played & Last Skipped dates to Never, and resets any stored Bookmark Position. |
| LocalizeM3U |
Drag & drop an M3U or M3U8 playlist onto this script to change the absolute path references to pointers to files in the same
folder as the playlist file. Use to update a playlist exported from iTunes so
that a folder with the playlist and its files dragged out from iTunes can be
used with third party software or devices. This script removes all parent
folders in the path leaving just the filename for each file referenced by the
playlist. See also RelativeM3U. |
| MaximiTunes | Maximizes the iTunes window, launching iTunes if not already open. Does the reverse of MinimiTunes but is unlikely to be of any use whatsoever... |
| MediaKeyProcessing | Display, and optionally change, the value of the iTunes AppCommandMessageProcessingEnabled state, which governs whether iTunes will attempt to respond to keyboard media key control requests such as Play, Pause, Next Track etc. |
| MinimiTunes | Minimizes the iTunes window, launching iTunes if not already open. Use as a start-up script to open iTunes and minimize to the task bar so iTunes is available for Wi-Fi syncing. |
| PlaylistsToFile | Creates a text file containing the names of all the playlists in the iTunes library, indented to show folder structure. |
| RefreshSmartPlaylists | Refreshes the contents of all smart playlists that have random selection criteria. Could be edited to apply only to a limited group of named playlists. Aimed for use in a batch file to avoid having to manually select and delete tracks from smart playlists to refresh them. |
| RelativeM3U |
Drag & drop an M3U or M3U8 playlist onto this script to change the absolute path references to relative pointers to files in
artist & album folders below the folder containing the playlist file. This script
preserves two layers of parent folders in the path for each file referenced by
the playlist. See also LocalizeM3U. |
| ReplaceTextInAlbum | Replaces instances of one set of characters with another. Call the script and enter your search and replacement text. Surround the search and replacement text with spaces to ensure a match with whole words. |
| ReplaceTextInAlbumArtist | As ReplaceTextInAlbum, but changes are made to the AlbumArtist field. |
| ReplaceTextInArtist | As ReplaceTextInAlbum, but changes are made to the Artist field. |
| ReplaceTextInName | As ReplaceTextInAlbum, but changes are made to the Name field. |
| ResetAlbumAutoRating | Restores normal Album AutoRating behaviour after using ClearAlbumAutoRating. |
| ResetStartEndTimes | Resets start time if greater and zero and end time if less than the song length. |
| ResetTrackAutoRating | Restores normal Track AutoRating behaviour after using ClearTrackAutoRating. |
| SetDiscCount |
Sets the Disc Count for selected items. To be used with iTunes 12 when the Disc Count
field is not available in Get Info, e.g. for Books, Movies or TV Shows. Note setting either Disc Count or Disc Number to something other than zero allows both to show in Get Info. |
| SetDiscNumber |
Sets the Disc Number, and optionally Disc Count,
for selected items. To be used with iTunes 12 when the Disc Number/Disc Count
fields are not available, e.g. for Books, Movies or TV Shows. |
| SetDiscTrackCounts | Sets the total Disc Count for each album and the total Track Count for each disc within it. Blank disc numbers are set to Disc 1 of 1. Should be applied to complete albums, or at least to all tracks that you have for each album that is included in the selection. Tracks with no valid artist, album, or track number are ignored. Counts are set the to largest disc/track count/number of the relevant items. |
| SetLastPlayedByAlbum | Working with the current playlist or a selection of tracks, sets the Last Played date/time for each track from the same album so that it will appear that each album has been played through from start to finish in order. Tracks with no valid artist or album are ignored. An optional parameter change allows the script to set Last Played to the minimum, maximum, mid (of min and max), mean average value, median average value, or set the date & time for each album manually. The script is currently set up for manual mode. |
| SetTrackCount |
Sets the Track Count for selected items. To be used with iTunes 12 when the Track Count
field is not available in Get Info, e.g. for Books, Movies or TV Shows. Note setting either Track Count or Track Number to something other than zero allows both to show in Get Info. |
| SetTrackNumber |
Sets the Track Number, and optionally Track Count,
for selected items. To be used with iTunes 12 when the Track Number/Track Count
fields are not available, e.g. for Books, Movies or TV Shows. |
| SetYear |
Sets the Year of selected tracks from the release date or
manual input. N.b. At the time of posting iTunes supresses any date earlier than
1601. |
| SortDateAdded |
Removes selected tracks from iTunes and then reimports them in reverse track
number order so that the tracks are in the correct order when viewing the
library in Date Added (descending) order. All volatile metadata (except Date & Added & Date Modified)
such as PlayCounts, Rating, Equaliser Preset etc. that isn't stored in tags is
preserved by the script which updates the reimported files with the data that
would normally be lost if you tried to do this task by hand. The is an optional switch to reverse the order if you prefer to have things arranged in Date Added (ascending) order. |
| SortTrailingDigits | Pads out any trailing digits from Name into Sort Name in order to achieve sensible sorting for tracks with identical names apart from a trailing index number. The script currently pads to 4 characters but can be edited if required. |
| StripTrackNumbers |
Strips any leading track & disc numbers from the filenames of selected tracks. (See note #1 below) |
| SwapAlbumArtistAlbum | Swaps values between the AlbumArtist & Album fields, also swaps the corresponding sort values. |
| SwapAlbumName | Swaps values between the Album & Name fields. |
| SwapArtistAlbum | Swaps values between the Artist & Album fields. |
| SwapArtistAlbumArtist | Swaps values between the Artist & AlbumArtist fields. |
| SwapArtistName | Swaps values between the Artist & Name fields. |
| SwitchLinks | Switches links from files in one media folder to matching files in a parallel media folder. Use when files have been copied first rather than being consolidated and/or are in a non-standard layout. |
| SyncStats | Copies highest play count, skip count, rating and most recent played & skipped date of selected tracks or playlist between iTunes and a manually managed iPod/iOS device. Will attempt to match tracks first on LibraryIDs and if that fails on tracks with the same tag information. See also CombineStats. | TagFromFilename |
Attempts to parse the full file path for selected tracks in order to update the
values of
Album Artist, Album, Artist, Disc No., Track No, Track Title and
Compilation status. Also adds folder art if possible. Use to
construct track info. for .wav files or files that are missing tags but are set
out in conventional artist & album folders. (See note #1 below) |
| TagFromName | Updates Track No, Artist and Name from a track name in <Track> - <Artist> - <Name> form, or Artist and Name if the name is in the form <Artist> - <Name>. Leading zeros and spaces around the dash following any track number are optional. |
| TitleCase | Convert Album, AlbumArtist, Artist, Composer, Name & Show fields to Title Case. There are some extendable exception lists to force particular words to match your desired style, and options to select which fields are updated. |
| TrimName | Trims a user-selected number of characters from the left or right of the name field for selected tracks, useful for stripping unwanted track numbers from the name field. |
| UnAutoSort | Sets Sort Album, Sort Album Artist, Sort Artist, Sort Composer, Sort Name, and Sort Show fields which begin A/An/Then to override the AutoSort feature of iTunes for selected tracks or all tracks in the current playlist. See also AutoSort above. Optionally fill in all sort values by setting the variable ForceSort=True. |
| Unconsolidated | Searches selected tracks or the entire library for unconsolidated tracks and if found creates a playlist containing them. Will also report if there are any dead tracks. |
| UpdateTagInfo |
Forces iTunes to compare each file's tag with
iTunes own record and updates iTunes if
necessary. Use to update iTunes after modifying
tags with 3rd party tools. N.b. Previously this has been easy to achieve in iTunes by selecting tracks, using Get Info., and then clicking OK. As of iTunes build 9.2.0.25 this method appears not to update properly hence this script. |
| Note #1 Media Organisation |
The scripts
AddDisc-TrackNumbers,
AddTrackNumbers,
StripTrackNumbers
& TagFromFilename,
which manipulate filenames,
may only be useful
if you disable the
advanced iTunes preference to Keep
iTunes Media folder organised or are
working with files stored outside of the
designated
iTunes Media folder. Otherwise, if iTunes is organising the files and
they are located inside the media folder, iTunes will simply undo
any changes made by these
scripts. |
| Note #2 Progress Bar |
Many of my scripts include the
provision of a progress bar. The script will do
its job quite effectively with or without a
progress bar but when processing large numbers
of files it is nice to be able to see that it is
still working and get an idea of how long it
will be before it finishes. Unfortunately the
code to create and control the progress bar uses
a feature of Windows where one program (my
script) is allowed to control another (an
instance of Internet Explorer). Security
features introduced in Windows Vista break this
method. I don't have the resources to develop or
purchase an alternative progress bar control
that is compatible with UAC so the easiest
approach, at least from my point of view, is to
detect if UAC is active and suggest that you
disable UAC if you want to see a progress bar
while running the script. You can reset UAC
later. How to disable User Account Control ... So Windows 8 came out, and it has broken things again. With Windows 7 and Vista turning off the User Account Control feature (UAC) allowed the script to talk to the instance of Internet Explorer that it had created. What I hadn't realised before was that this was due to a side effect of that setting which also disabled a policy flag called EnableLUA. It is Limited User Account (LUA), when enabled, that blocks the communication between the script and the progress bar, but in Windows 8 UAC and LUA are no longer completely tied together. Turning off UAC is a control panel adjustment. Turning off LUA independently of UAC requires diving into the registry. To make things easier I've added another script EnableLUA that reports the current state of the policy setting and allows the user to change it. An unwanted side effect on Windows 8 is that with LUA disabled none of the Metro apps will work. Not sure why they could not have remained working and sandboxed even if the user requires a more relaxed policy for their legacy code, but there it is. |
| Windows Scripting Host | If your browser opens the
scripts as text files return to the previous
page, right click on the link and click
Download... or Save As...
or whatever variant your browser offers.
Alternatively if your browser or anti-virus
software blocks the download but allows you to
view the text then copy the text and save it as
a new text file with a .vbs
extension or edit the file extension from
.txt to .vbs
after saving. If the downloaded scripts open as text files then you may need to install the Windows Scripting Host: Windows Script 5.7 for Windows XP |
| Disclaimer | Although I have tested these scripts thoroughly I make no representations as to their suitability for your purposes. Please ensure you have a backup of your library and media folders before running any script on your system. |