So far so good.<\/p>\n
The tools I have used are Dupin2, TuneUp, and an interminable series of iTunes versions. Also in the mix, the embedded iTunes server on my Western Digital MyBook Live.<\/p>\n
Briefly, I used Dupin2 to analyze my MacBook Pro iTunes library for possible duplicates. \u00a0There were a lot of false positives at this stage, because y library was all hosed from years of dumping and insufficient curation of my stuff. \u00a0Turn Dupin2 loose on your library, and then inspect the results — take no action on the first several passes. \u00a0This is a laborious process, and I had to get comfortable with tuning the thing in order to start seeing the results I wanted. \u00a0Of course, what makes this valuable is that we have the ability to tune it, unlike iTunes. \u00a0Eventually, I reached a risk\/reward decision point, and pressed PURGE. \u00a0Dupes nuked.<\/p>\n
Then, I used TuneUp to attempt to fix as many tracks as possible. \u00a0TuneUp is an awesome piece of software, and there is a reason it rakes in the dough hand over fist. \u00a0They want twenty bucks for it, and they get it every time. \u00a0You want something to fix your iTunes metadata? \u00a0THIS IS IT. \u00a0Pay up or keep suffering.<\/p>\n
Then I used Dupin2 once again to detect dupes now that the metadata is right. \u00a0This turned up a larger number than I suspected it would, which is a testament to TuneUp’s superior ability to ferret out the true identity of tracks in your library. \u00a0Again, there are a lot of false positives, which is fine — tune and inspect, then execute.<\/p>\n
Satisfied that the MBP iTunes library was as good as it was going to get for the time being, I restarted the machine and told Time Machine to take a backup. \u00a0I hadn’t restarted in several months, so that was a little troublesome, but there were no real problems).<\/p>\n
The goal of this is to get my stuff up on the NAS and see if I can have a dedicated MacBook Pro run the library, while clients connecting to the network have the same collection streamed to them by the embedded iTunes server on the NAS; not from the MBP. \u00a0One very large reason for this is that I cannot sync my iPhone to the NAS. \u00a0I need the MBP as an authoritative central point.<\/p>\n
One huge wrinkle on all of this is that I already have a very large collection of music on the NAS. \u00a0Several, in fact, with a large percentage of duplicates, many of those duped many times over. \u00a0So right now, I have satisfactorily organized the library on the MBP, and am working on the NAS itself. \u00a0Why? \u00a0I know that there is a lot of music on the NAS which was not present on the MBP, and I would like to keep it. \u00a0But only one copy, and without all the stuff that’s already present on the laptop.<\/p>\n
So I Option-clicked iTunes to make it start up and ask me about a library, and I pointed it to the existing poorly set up one on the NAS. \u00a0If that library had not been there, I could easily have created on at this point. \u00a0But it was there, and it sits in a folder on top of a large collection of music which is A) not in the library itself (has not been processed in), and B) not even the majority of what is on the NAS. \u00a0So we’re starting small, with about 100GB of music; just the stuff in the folders under the “proper” iTunes folder on the NAS. \u00a0There’s a lot more up there, though, including other attempts at setting iTunes on the NAS (I didn’t realize how much of it was already done for me or where I had to dump the stuff), and several dumps of refugee volumes of music rescued from various dying computers.<\/p>\n
There’s also a bunch of files collected along the way which have never been in an iTunes library. \u00a0I was a WinAmp guy for a while; had a whole shard on a USB stick with WinAmp actually ON THE STICK, so it was portable, metadata and all. \u00a0Until the stick came undone, and I lost everything. \u00a0Unfortunately, that stick had been the result of about a year’s worth of merging and pruning, so that what remained on the drives which originally sourced that material was three large collections of highly overlapping track sets. \u00a0I dug out those drives, dumped it all on the NAS, backed THAT up once to the other NAS, and trashed the drives. \u00a0Never looked back until now; hadn’t been able to get my motivation up for the task.<\/p>\n
So-o-o-o right now the MBP is chewing through a large part of a much larger collection up on the NAS. \u00a0It has “processed” all the files in the NAS’s proper iTunes Library folder, and is now “organizing” them, which I think involves taking each file and poking in a \/artist\/album\/file.mp3 structure. \u00a0Whatever, it’s not my problem.<\/p>\n
Let the machine do the work. \u00a0 Been running about six hours, and a thumbnail estimate of the progress bar says it’s \u00a0maybe fifteen to twenty percent done. \u00a0Tomorrow after work, perhaps it will finish. \u00a0If not, no sweat. \u00a0It will finish someday, and if it hangs, I can just restart the whole process; since the changes are being written to disk, it should do maybe an hour of “processing” to see where everything is, and then resume wherever it crashed. \u00a0if it crashes; which has not been happening recently.<\/p>\n
Just a peek ahead: the MBP library is now in a very good state. \u00a0I’ll append the text MBPXYZ or some such in the comments field of EVERY track on the MBP as an explicit marker of the track’s “blessed” status. \u00a0The NAS iTunes proper library is getting its first cleanup. \u00a0When that’s done, I’ll back that up to the second NAS. \u00a0Then the NAS library will get the Dupin2, TuneUp, Dupin2 treatment. \u00a0This will all be run on the MBP as it administers the NAS library — during the whole NAS grooming process, the MBP’s own local native library is disconnected from the iTunes app. \u00a0Then those NAS tracks will get the TENXYZ comment (the NAS’s device name on the network is ‘Tenshi”. \u00a0I’ll begin importing the heathen tracks from the trackless wastes in all the wrong places on the NAS. \u00a0This will be done in batches (same way I did it on the MBP), which works very well, and then those will be bounced against the TENXYZ tracks; TENXYZ comment wins the dupe contest.<\/p>\n
Finally, I’ll have to consolidate the MBP library and newly groomed NAS library. \u00a0Notice something? \u00a0So far, nothing has moved across the network. \u00a0No files, that is, only metadata about those files, which is nominally an order of magnitude or two smaller than the files themselves. \u00a0I definitely want to reduce as much as possible the sizes of the libraries involved before i start doing network moves. \u00a0I will probably move the MBP library up in chunks (ask me about magic folders, a.k.a. brilliant playlists), and do dupe checking in increments. \u00a0but we’ll see how it goes (a long time from now), and adjust as necessary.<\/p>\n
Excited about this. \u00a0Hope it all works. \u00a0So far, so good!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
So far so good.<\/p>\n
The tools I have used are Dupin2, TuneUp, and an interminable series of iTunes versions. Also in the mix, the embedded iTunes server on my Western Digital MyBook Live.<\/p>\n
Briefly, I used Dupin2 to analyze my MacBook Pro iTunes library for possible duplicates. \u00a0There were a lot of false positives at this stage, because y library was all hosed from years of dumping and insufficient curation of my stuff. \u00a0Turn Dupin2 loose on your library, and then inspect the results — take no action on the first several passes. \u00a0This is a laborious process, and I had to get comfortable with tuning the thing in order to start seeing the results I wanted. \u00a0Of course, what makes this valuable is that we have the … Continue reading