iTunes delete 1/2 of my music library

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Dear all:

I am desparate with iTunes, I prefered (by far) amarok for handling musing than iTunes. Here the deal:

a) I expend days tryin to put order in my Bach collections (all cantatas). Since names are in German, you have to insert movement by movement into the library. Took me a month to insert everything.

b) Today iTunes updates to 8.2 and he delete half of my music. Oh, God, 15 day's work !!!!!

Why this program it so bad. There is no automatic lyric seach, do not treat labels properly (only english ones), he deletes music because he just think he should.

Is there anyway to replace iTunes and use Amarok for everything? I mean, Media Center and so on. It is really a painful experience to work with this.

This is the only thing I missed from my Linux box, Amarok, by far best music program out there.


César
 

vansmith

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There are unofficial development versions of Amarok available for OS X here should you wish to use it but note the warning. You can also get it through MacPorts if that is preferable to you.

AFAIK, you can't replace all the things that iTunes/Quicktime powers simply because OS X was designed to use these programs. Apple wrote things to use their own technologies so as to ensure that everything works well with little to no complications.
 
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I already tried Amarok, but many things depends on iTunes in MAC OS, so I think it is just a patch.

Probably best way is to report those things so they can improve it. But, since money is on the store, the system probably works smoothly if you buy the music from this place, since all the information perfectly matches with iTunes structure. Other cases, not sure and would they pay attention in such details? 0

What is missing in iTunes is the "cleverness" of Amarok, pretty much based on plugins done by many users, on a similar way Firefox has (internet services integration, such Last.fm, automatic lyrics and covers search, very fast database recovery, better MP3 labels edition and so on).

So, may be the problem is not concerned with the application, more with the plugins ability. Giving a clear interface (so, not mess up things) that shoudl be a great improvement.

Thanks for the quick answer,

César
 
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b) Today iTunes updates to 8.2 and he delete half of my music. Oh, God, 15 day's work !!!!!

Are you certain the music is gone, rather than removed from iTunes' list? Look in the iTunes folder or wherever you put the music files yourself to be sure.
 

vansmith

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I already tried Amarok, but many things depends on iTunes in MAC OS, so I think it is just a patch. [...] What is missing in iTunes is the "cleverness" of Amarok, pretty much based on plugins done by many users, on a similar way Firefox has (internet services integration, such Last.fm, automatic lyrics and covers search, very fast database recovery, better MP3 labels edition and so on). [...] So, may be the problem is not concerned with the application, more with the plugins ability. Giving a clear interface (so, not mess up things) that shoudl be a great improvement.
Actually, you will find that more depends on QuickTime, much like iTunes uses QuickTime to play files.

As for plugins, I'm not a big plugins fan myself. I only sport two plugins in Firefox of which I am thinking getting rid of one. Plugins have the potential to increase security risks and slow down the program. It's best IMHO to limit plugin development for some programs.

I'm not sure what you mean by "clear interface" but if you mean simple and intuitive, it doesn't get much more simple and intuitive than iTunes.

As for your problem, I agree with lifeisabeach. You may have a corrupt iTunes DB which means your music is still there.
 
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No, guys, the database shows the songs with and admiration, but the music is gone, deleted from the folder. Not only a song, it deletes complete folders.

It is a NAS, 2x1TB Western Digital HDD, with RAID 1 enabled (mirroring), pretty safe system. I added the music manually, almost song bu song and I checked it carefully at the end. So the application is responsible for deleting the music.

About plugins, here the deal. Let's say I want:

a) Automatically change MP3 labels => I need easyMP3 program
b) Add lyrics => I need another external program to download lyrics o do it by hand
c) Download Covers (not found in iTunes stores, pretty common) => I need another external program or do it by hand
d) Last.fm support, I need another external program.

So, in order to manage my music a need a "package" of applications, each one for especific purpose, not included in iTunes.

It is the same thing than browsers, imagine I need Opera for flash pages, Firefox for watching movies, Nautilus for downloading PDF files, Internet Explorer for seeing Java pages. What a mess, I would say.

Honestly, I see little differences between those two examples. About security and stuff like that, which are the purpose of having multi user platform, each one with their specific permissions? I don't see the point of plugins here.

About clear API (Applications Program Interface), it that, a common interface to programmers in order to add plugins (such as flash, quicktime and so on).
 
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No, guys, the database shows the songs with and admiration, but the music is gone, deleted from the folder. Not only a song, it deletes complete folders.

It is a NAS, 2x1TB Western Digital HDD, with RAID 1 enabled (mirroring), pretty safe system. I added the music manually, almost song bu song and I checked it carefully at the end. So the application is responsible for deleting the music.

About plugins, here the deal. Let's say I want:

a) Automatically change MP3 labels => I need easyMP3 program
b) Add lyrics => I need another external program to download lyrics o do it by hand
c) Download Covers (not found in iTunes stores, pretty common) => I need another external program or do it by hand
d) Last.fm support, I need another external program.

So, in order to manage my music a need a "package" of applications, each one for especific purpose, not included in iTunes.

It is the same thing than browsers, imagine I need Opera for flash pages, Firefox for watching movies, Nautilus for downloading PDF files, Internet Explorer for seeing Java pages. What a mess, I would say.

Honestly, I see little differences between those two examples. About security and stuff like that, which are the purpose of having multi user platform, each one with their specific permissions? I don't see the point of plugins here.

About clear API (Applications Program Interface), it that, a common interface to programmers in order to add plugins (such as flash, quicktime and so on).

You didn't indicate what sort of computer you have... I was assuming you had a Mac, but now I'm wondering if it's a regular PC. If so, then iTunes may not be the actual culprit. There have been reports of iTunes seemingly deleting music files that actually was caused by some software on Sony PCs that Sony installs on their computers. A bit more information may be helpful.
 
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Here the profile of the system
=============================

Información del hardware:

Nombre del modelo: iMac
Identificador del modelo: iMac8,1
Nombre del procesador: Intel Core 2 Duo
Velocidad del procesador: 2.8 GHz
Número de procesadores: 1
Número total de núcleos: 2
Caché de nivel 2: 6 MB
Memoria: 4 GB
Velocidad del bus: 1.07 GHz
Versión de la ROM de arranque: IM81.00C1.B00
Versión SMC (sistema): 1.30f1
Número de serie (sistema): VM847G4ZZE7

=============================

As you can see it is a MAC, purchosed in November 2008. All delicated information (documents, movies, etc.) is placed in a NAS and mounted locally. Anyway, none of those details (where info is ultimatelly placed) concerned to iTunes, therefor is not relevant.

I think this is related to german language letters and keeping the files names matched with the database. Many german characters are not properly supported (ä, ë, etc.). So, I guess when you have an update of the database (so make it consistent with the files) and the title has some of these letters, he delete the music, in this case, complete folders. I think I have teh files, but I have to re-edit all labels again, since MP3 label managing is so manual with iTunes.

I still think someone should report those things to Apple, so they can improve the tool. From my point of view, plugins support is the key here. Main problem for switching to amarok are: a) Media Center integration b) No stable version for MAC OS yet.

Thanks for the quick answer,

César
 

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