How do I change the iTunes Library data?

trobertstroberts
Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2014
From what I haved read the "iTunes Music Library.xml" file is created whenever iTunes is opened, and I am guessing it gets the information from the "iTunes Library" file. There is an application called Lostify that will let you enter information into files so they will show up in the correct place (i.e. get TV shows to show in the 'TV Shows' sub-catagory in the Video section), but it will not work for MPEG movie files.



What application will allow me to open, read, and change/add/delete information in the iTunes Library file? What are all the valid keys that can be used? I know it is possible to do this but after searching Google it seems like the only information I can get is how to read the XML file, but nothing about how to change the iTunes Library file, which is what I need.



Any help on this matter will be greatly appreciated.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 4
    geekdreamsgeekdreams Posts: 280member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by troberts

    What application will allow me to open, read, and change/add/delete information in the iTunes Library file?



    iTunes, obviously.



    http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
  • Reply 2 of 4
    ipodandimacipodandimac Posts: 3,273member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by troberts

    (i.e. get TV shows to show in the 'TV Shows' sub-catagory in the Video section)



    you can't do that in iTunes yet, but I would advise against changing the xml file.
  • Reply 3 of 4
    drumsticksdrumsticks Posts: 315member
    AFAIK, the real database is in "iTunes Library"... The XML version is provided merely to allow third party programs (including the rest of iLife) access to the files managed by iTunes. The XML version is basically an output file, changing it will do nothing to the real database as it will get overwritten again anyway.



    Sorry, I do not have an answer to your question, but hopefully that piece of information will point you in the right direction.
  • Reply 4 of 4
    trobertstroberts Posts: 702member
    The "iTunes Music Library.xml" is created, actually modified, everytime iTunes is launched so changing that file does no good. I have been using an application called "Lostify" to enter/change the metadata in my video files so they display in iTunes correctly (i.e. TV shows are seen in "TV Shows", not "Movies"). I have a few videos that are in QuickTime format (.mov) and Lostify can't work with this type of file which is the reason for my original post. After doing some digging I found what I need, and it is called "AtomicParsley", but I still can't do anything with the .mov files.



    AtomicParsley is a command line program for reading & writing iTune-style metadata in mpeg4 files (m4a, m4b, m4p, m4v & mp4) whether iTMS drm protected or not.



    If you are interested in this program you can find it at http://sourceforge.net/projects/atomicparsley. It is free and you can download the source and/or the binary (OS X, Windows, Linux). After using AtomicParsley from the command line and looking at the source code I have decided to write my own application, but I will write it in Objective-C. I might be taking the piano the chair by not just writing a GUI front-end, but I think I will get a better learning experience doing it this way.
Sign In or Register to comment.