I’ve been thinking of backing up my computer to do a fresh installation of OS X. I do this frequenty to ensure that the speed of my 6 year old PowerBook stays up to par with my current demand.
I’ve been noticing lately that the price of external hard drives have been dropping and I’ve been considering picking up one for back-up purposes beyond my biannual wipe-out. While doing this I want to keep my iTunes music intact. This includes playlists, ratings, album artwork, iPod settings etc.
This article will go over the structure and possibilities of the iTunes playlist. It should be mentioned that you should always create a back-up of any file that means enough to you before you “tweak” it.
First let’s find the file. The iTunes library is an xml file that normally sits on the local user documents on the hard drive. In a Mac running OSX head to /userX/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music Library.xml (the xml may be hidden) and on a PC with Windows its in \Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music Library.xml
Now let’s get into the nitty gritty. Before opening the file make sure to open it in a plain text editor. DO NOT USE MS WORD. I recommend TextWrangler (OS X) and Edit Pad (Windows). Both offer a free and very usable version of the software.
The first few lines of the XML give a head’s up of what’s going on behind the scenes of your program:
Major Version1 Minor Version1 Application Version7.0.2 Features1 Show Content Ratings Music Folderfile://localhost/Volumes/max/itunes/ Library Persistent IDD5A292963EC7CAEB Tracks - This shows what version of iTunes your running (in my case 7.0.2)
- I am allowing the program to show my ratings.
- I also have my library stored on a network hard drive called “max”. In “max” is a folder called “iTunes”. This is where all of my music is stored (more on that later).
- The Library Perisistant ID is where my library resides (in computer terms).
Now onto the tracks:
10236 Track ID10236 NameKarma Police ArtistRadioHead AlbumOK Computer GenreRock KindMPEG audio file Size6278920 Total Time261616 Track Number6 Date Modified2006-05-10T07:55:14Z Date Added2006-05-25T23:24:24Z Bit Rate192 Sample Rate44100 Play Count4 Play Date3258238538 Play Date UTC2007-04-01T06:15:38Z Rating60 Persistent ID57318355222A2A50 Track TypeFile Locationfile://localhost/Volumes/max/itunes/RadioHead/OK%20Computer/06%20Karma%20Police.mp3 File Folder Count4 Library Folder Count1
Boy, that’s mouthful. It’s easy to take in though. Let’s break it down:
- The track ID is the unique number of the track in the library.
- In this case it was the 10,236th track put in.
- The name of the track is “Karma Police” from Radiohead’s OK Computer CD.
- The genre is Rock. Next comes the type of file it is. I have a majority of my files in MP3 format (or MPEG audio).
- How big is the mp3?
- That’s what’s next. The total time.
- This is the 6th track on the CD.
- I last modified the file on May 10, 2006 and added to the library on May 25, 2006.
- The mp3 was encoded at 192k at a sample rate of 44.1k. With the price of hard drive space I don’t go below 192k anymore. The higher the bit rate, the better the sound and the bigger the file.
- I’ve played the file 4 times.
- The last time I played this was on April 1, 2007.
- The 60 rating is out of 100. In this case 3 out of 5 stars.
- The persistent ID stays intact on every entry of the XML. Hence the name.
- The file location is next.
If I have not explained anything, it means I do not have enough working knowledge of the entry.
Playlists anyone?
Namemellow Playlist ID37308 Playlist Persistent ID1A8DDF9F540360F5 All Items Playlist Items Track ID2166 Track ID2166 Track ID2286
Once you get the hang of tracks, the playlists are cake.
- The name of this playlist is called “mellow”
- The unque Playlist ID and Persistant ID come next
- It will show all items, then the
- Playlist items. (this simply calls back to the Track ID in the library. The items repeat until the playlist ends.
Now why I am writing this? Well once you know how something works the more likely you are less afraid of it and can make it work for you. Why should you have to re-rip or reimport all of you songs from that remote drive and loose you ratings, playlists, and other related material?
- All you have to do it install iTunes on your new hard drive and make a back-up of the new XML file.
- Then, with the program closed, paste in the old XML file with your data on it.
- Then open up the file in a plain text editor and do a find and replace to the location of your files (let’s say on that network drive).
- Relaunch iTunes and your files are right there with no crazy !s next to them.
I hope this has proved helpful to anyone wanting to know more about what goes on behind the scene of iTunes.
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