Metadata problems with Mac, ACC, iTunes

[jfro]

I thought I would check with the forum to see if I am missing something when trying to get metadata (cover art, album & artist info) from my CDs to my P3. I use a Mac with iTunes.

First, I have been importing my CDs into iTunes using the AAC "iTunes Plus" settings. Everything looks fine in iTunes. I've got cover art, album info, etc.

Next, I set up my music directory on the P3 like this:

/music/artist/songs

For example, if I have a bunch of albums by Amos Lee, I copy them directly from iTunes to the amoslee directory. I have not made separate directories for each album.

/music/amoslee/song1
/music/amoslee/song2
/music/amoslee/song3

Once my P3 restarts, all the music is in the correct directory, but I have no cover art, no album info, and no artist info. The only thing the P3 displays is the song title.

This is a bummer since I can't sort by any of the other music attributes that the P3 handles.

So, any solutions for Mac users out there? I've read that iTunes doesn't do a great job with metadata, but I haven't found a good solution. Should I import into a different file format?

I prefer to keep my music on my Mac because I share the iTunes library with the entire family on our Mac Mini media center. It would suck to have to maintain more than one music library for the house.

Thanks, in advance, for any help.

[CrowdAds]

[electron]

ah ha! finally someone with whom I can share my wealth of mac/itunes information and this is my 500th post!

the P3 does not support ID3 tags very well with the .m4a file format (and therefore, the acc codec)

you could use iTunes to convert everything, but I recomend using the free program called Max to convert you music, because it does a very clean, fast job and the result is better the what iTunes does. (you can get it here)
I recommend converting it to mp3, simply because that is what the P3 likes best., or re-ripping you songs to mp3 or some kind of uncompressed format. the makers of Max also make a program called Rip (you can guess what this does ). If you ever want to edit ID3 tags on a mac, you can use Tag, also from the same people, but I have not used Tag before though, I just always use iTunes for metadata editing.

so, although you know what to do in the future, sadly really the only solution is to convert or re-rip everything. if you choose to re-rip, make sure that iTunes does NOT rip them to acc

one more thing. you mentioned how you organize your music on you P3. if you do end up using iTunes to edit your metadata tags, (which is what I recommend), iTunes should organize your music library folders for you in [your username]/music/iTunes/iTunes music. if it doesn't, there is an option for the in iTunes preferences. I just always use the way iTunes arranges it.

after everything is transfered over to you P3, open Terminal, and type the following:

dot_clean /Volumes/P3

after a new line appears, type in "exit" and then close terminal, and eject your P3.

there you go (its all a big pain, yes, but it does work well in the end)

P.S., the album art you get from iTunes is to big for the P3 to read, so for every album, you are going to have to google image search for the album art. 450x450 is best

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by electron

this is my 500th post!

Congrats! You are a "Senior Member" now!

[electron]

Originally Posted by Marvin the Martian

Congrats! You are a "Senior Member" now!

thanks! drinks on me? lol, jk..

[jfro]

Thanks for the help. This is a bit more work than I was anticipating, but I think I'll start with the new CD's that I'm importing. I'm especially bummed that the P3 can't handle the iTunes cover art images...

I didn't know about the dot_clean command. That looks useful too.

Glad you are a Senior now. Congrats!

[electron]

thanks

yeah, it is a ton of work. so much for "It just works"

btw, since you are a mac user, I recommend reading over my "no space for DB error" fix in the firmware sub-forum. (its sticked so you can find it easily) I hate to say it, but you will run into that error eventually, so you might as well be prepared...