[Saint112]

Hi all

I'm new. I consider migrating from iTunes.
I didn't find on the site the general features of NG, only the new ones, and most importantly how to import all my sound tracks, playlists, comments, etc., from iTunes.

Actually my iTunes library is quite corrupted as far as the locations of the files are concerned so I would like it to be fixed during the import.

Is that possible?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers

Nick

---

Hi again

My configuration is:
iMac 24"
Snow Leopard

I installed NG and started it. I found out the import features.
I first tried just importing the media and the process stalled on the 859th track out 10,454.
I then tried to import the library iTunes Library.xml and it obviously stalled too (unless it's working so hard it's unavailable).

I'm not sure it's clear for me what excatly mean:
* "Import music tracks from iTunes"
Does it copy the files (in another folder) or does it just import the files locations on the HD?
* "Import music playlists"
Does it copy the data from the iTunes Library, including Composers, Comments, Ratings, etc.?

Is it possible to correct it later, in particular change the location of the sound tracks?

Thanks

Nick

[freaktechnik]

The import from iTunes feature will import the files from teh location stored on the hard-disk and read their metadata. You can also import your static iTunes playlists with the same feature.
It's not easy to correct the location of a track after it's been imported, sadly.

[Saint112]

Hi freaktechnik

Thanks for answering so fast.
Sorry I didn’t respond as fast, I was out all the time.

(05-16-2014, 05:07 PM)freaktechnik Wrote: The import from iTunes feature will import the files from teh location stored on the hard-disk and read their metadata. You can also import your static iTunes playlists with the same feature.
It's not easy to correct the location of a track after it's been imported, sadly.

I have some questions about the way NG manages the data. I didn’t find the general information about how the soft works. iTunes is not well documented either. I eventually found out where things are stored. Is there a document on NG?

* Does NG have a specific location for the collection of tracks or may the user decide ?
* Is it possible to change the location afterwards?
* What does “import” mean in “Import music tracks from iTunes” (or from anywhere else)? Does it copy them to another location or does the current folder iTunes Music become the location where it’ll read music?
* I suppose it stores the metadata in some db file. What name, where?

I have a severe issue with iTunes. Well, I had many in the past as well.

I’ll try to make a long story short.

I replaced the internal HD of my iMac, called Flamingo, by a new, bigger one, called Ara. Flamingo is now an external HD I plan to format and convert to a backup disk.
The Migration Assistant installed all the apps, the set-ups, the data from Flamingo on Ara. Yet iTunes couldn’t play the music if Flamingo was not mounted, even though in the iTunes Preference the iTunes Media folder location is set on Ara. I tried many times to reset it back and forth from Ara to Flamingo and even to another backup disk. It won’t read anything else but the Flamingo tracks. So the info displayed in the Preference panel is incorrect. It’s yet another bug in iTunes.
I opened the iTunes Library.xml file with Word and could find that the location of the files is consistently Flamingo. I did a Find-Replace to switch to Ara. After I reopened iTunes, I checked iTunes Library.xml and all the locations had been switched back to Flamingo.

I gave up fixing that issue for the time being.

My current issue is that I would like to switch to NG but I need to:
* have the Music folder located on Ara.
* retrieve all the metadata and playlists.

Thanks for your advice.

Nick

[freaktechnik]

(05-18-2014, 06:19 AM)Saint112 Wrote: I have some questions about the way NG manages the data. I didn’t find the general information about how the soft works. iTunes is not well documented either. I eventually found out where things are stored. Is there a document on NG?

Sadly, no. At least not completely. You can find some documentation on our wiki, but Nightingale is really poorly documented at the moment.

Quote:* Does NG have a specific location for the collection of tracks or may the user decide ?

No, tracks can be anywhere.

Quote:* Is it possible to change the location afterwards?

Technically speaking, yes. You could change the path in the SQLite database, however there is no easy way from the UI, as far as I am aware.

Quote:* What does “import” mean in “Import music tracks from iTunes” (or from anywhere else)? Does it copy them to another location or does the current folder iTunes Music become the location where it’ll read music?

Import is the wrong term, and we are aware of that. A possible correct term would be "Add to library". So the files remain where they were and are just added to your library database. There was a feature to organize your files into one folder, but that's not available at the moment.

Quote:* I suppose it stores the metadata in some db file. What name, where?

In an SQLite database in your profile. As Nightingale is based on XULRunner it has the same profile system as firefox. The path is like described in Wiki: migrate_from_songbird#locate_the_songbird_profile, but instead of Songbird2, the folder will be named Nightingale (or nightingale). The database is, as far as I know in the folder db and, probably named main@library.songbirdnest.com.db, not sure there though.

Quote:My current issue is that I would like to switch to NG but I need to:
* have the Music folder located on Ara.
* retrieve all the metadata and playlists.

This should be easy, except for the retrieve all metadata part. We can only read what iTunes writes into the actual media file, as far as I know, so you'll lose ratings and probably some other tags like compilation, start/end time etc. Sorry about that, but there's not much we can change about that.

[Saint112]

Hi freaktechnik

As I told you, NG stalled while “importing” music, yet it did import 3,300 items out of a total of ~10,000 in a rather random manner. Strangely enough, 400 of them are without any data : Title, Time, Artist, etc. These can be played though.
For the rest it did import the Artist, Album, Composer, Comments but not the Composers, Track # and count, Year and Rating.
If that king of information as well as playlists can’t be imported from iTunes I’m afraid this will be the end of the story for me.
Moreover, the Comments are displayed in an extremely narrow column in the main window

I didn’t find a way to erase this library.
Anyway if I trash the Nightingale folder in the Application support folder it should work?

My current iTunes library is the result of more than 10 years of work: correcting the Titles and the Composers, filling the Comments with the personnel and/or the orchestras or bands, creating folders for the Composers or the Artists, creating playlists for the Albums and the Compilations, and so on. I can’t afford losing this mass of information.
If NG can’t retrieve all of them it’s not for me.

Thanks for your help.

Nick

[rsjtdrjgfuzkfg]

(05-19-2014, 01:02 AM)Saint112 Wrote: My current iTunes library is the result of more than 10 years of work: correcting the Titles and the Composers, filling the Comments with the personnel and/or the orchestras or bands, creating folders for the Composers or the Artists, creating playlists for the Albums and the Compilations, and so on. I can’t afford losing this mass of information.
If NG can’t retrieve all of them it’s not for me.

For the reference: this information SHOULD be stored in the media file's metadata, if iTunes did not mess that up. If the metadata is supported by taglib (as far as I remember that's flac, ogg and mp3), you should see your metadata if you import your tracks into Nightingale (without the iTunes import stuff).

[johnmurrayvi]

Saint112, depending on the file types of your songs, it might be a bug in Nightingale currently. It *appears* that there may be problems reading M4A/AAC files. Not certain that this is what is happening in your case, but possibly.

[rsjtdrjgfuzkfg]

(05-19-2014, 11:06 PM)johnmurrayvi Wrote: Saint112, depending on the file types of your songs, it might be a bug in Nightingale currently. It *appears* that there may be problems reading M4A/AAC files. Not certain that this is what is happening in your case, but possibly.

Afaik there is no advanced tag reading for M4A/AAC, or did somebody change that?

[freaktechnik]

(05-19-2014, 01:02 AM)Saint112 Wrote: Hi freaktechnik

As I told you, NG stalled while “importing” music, yet it did import 3,300 items out of a total of ~10,000 in a rather random manner. Strangely enough, 400 of them are without any data : Title, Time, Artist, etc. These can be played though.

this most likely hints corrupt files, so files with corrupted content in the metadata headers.

Quote:For the rest it did import the Artist, Album, Composer, Comments but not the Composers, Track # and count, Year and Rating.
If that king of information as well as playlists can’t be imported from iTunes I’m afraid this will be the end of the story for me.

As I said, you can import Playlists from iTunes with the iTunes import feature, but for the metadata you only get what can be read by taglib (as the others mentioned).

Quote:Moreover, the Comments are displayed in an extremely narrow column in the main window

You can adjust the size of the column by dragging the separator between columns.

Quote:I didn’t find a way to erase this library.

Select everything and delete it.

Quote:Anyway if I trash the Nightingale folder in the Application support folder it should work?

Yep, this deletes your complete profile.