OSX and mp3's

Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
Hi all,



Just a quick question, i'm currently trying to copy .mp3 files off of my Windows XP server onto my iMac. It's all going fine apart from them being renamed to names i can't recognise unless i load them into iTunes and see the id3 tags. This is a major pain in the arse. I know iTunes is all i need to organise my music but because i've got so many files i'd rather them not be renamed this way. Is there any way i can stop this as it isn't very helpful. Oh and if it helps, none of the files have invalid characters or file names that are too long.



Please, please, please help.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    buonrottobuonrotto Posts: 6,368member
    How is the OS truncating the names? Are they all being squished into 8 character names with a tilde (~), or are they shotertened with an ellipsis (...)? I'm wondering if either they're somehow being truncated using the old Windows 8 character limit, or whether the Finder is just cutting off the displayed names on screen but they're really intact. If you hover the pointer over a file, does its full name show up in a tooltip?
  • Reply 2 of 7
    Theyre being renamed like this...



    PUA3B5~1.MP3



    When i hover the pointer over them nothing shows up in tool tips.



    Don't suppose that sheds any light?
  • Reply 3 of 7
    buonrottobuonrotto Posts: 6,368member
    Yeah, that's the 8 character limit from old versions of Windows. Either OS X is assuming that all Windows files have to come like this, or else Windows is assuming that all other filesystems can only read this much. I suspect the latter, but in any case, try using this Applescript (compressed in stuffit format) that I got from macscripter.net to change the names of your files to the song names.
  • Reply 4 of 7
    That script is spot-on. One thing though, it renames my mp3's to the track title. Would you know how to edit it so that it would name my mp3's like this...



    Artist - Track Name.mp3



    Sorry i don't know enough about scripting to be able to do this myself. If you could point me in the right direction i would really apreciate it.



    Thanks

    Andrew
  • Reply 5 of 7
    I saw something like this when I did the original search. Will get back to you...



    [edit]I'm back!



    http://applescript.plaidcow.net/iTunes/RenameFiles/ or

    http://www.malcolmadams.com/itunes/s...=2#renamefiles



    That last site, www.malcolmadams.com/itunes is an excellent resource with TONs of scripts for iTunes specifically. I forgot all about it until now.
  • Reply 6 of 7
    Thanks very much.
  • Reply 7 of 7
    Quote:

    Originally posted by BuonRotto

    I saw something like this when I did the original search. Will get back to you...



    [edit]I'm back!



    http://applescript.plaidcow.net/iTunes/RenameFiles/ or

    http://www.malcolmadams.com/itunes/s...=2#renamefiles



    That last site, www.malcolmadams.com/itunes is an excellent resource with TONs of scripts for iTunes specifically. I forgot all about it until now.




    thanks for reminding me about that link, i haven't been there in a while

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