Order of operations

[groovyd]

Just started using Jaikoz to hopefully tag my 25,500 iTunes library properly. Most songs have been iMatched and upgraded but some contain missing metadata and I have a large number of high bit rate 24/96 type stuff and ‘deluxe editions’ and live and box set etc that I do not want to get mixed into the non special edition tracks etc.

My question is what is the general order of operations to get my iTunes library updated without breaking iTunes. Start to finish what are the steps I need to take to re-tag all the music as best and accurately as is possible. I don’t mind if I have to start a new iTunes library at the end and re-import to it but I would much prefer not to break the existing library since it took days to upload/download/match etc.

I have so far started by adding the iTune library folder to Jaikoz and then selected all files and told it to get the AcousticIds. It has been working on it now for 24 hours and is almost done.

[paultaylor]

Okay, so if you want to preserve the existing iTunes library rather than create a new one you can do his in Jaikoz but it worth understanding your setup.

So it sounds like you already have everything in iTunes, and you have pointed to Jaikoz to the iTunes media folder, so if you have Jaikoz enabled to update iTunes (Preferences:Save:Itunes Update) and just use Jaikoz to update metadata then iTunes should be informed immediately and update the fields within iTunes. If you don’t have Jaikoz to configured to update Itunes then when you look at the fields within iTunes they will have the old data but simply selecting all files in iTunes and GetInfo will refresh them with the latest data.

One complication comes if you have iTunes Preferences:Advanced:Keep iTunes Media folder organized enabled because then iTunes will rename/move files based on the new metadata that Jaikoz has added/modified. So if you then try to save more changes to the file in Jaikoz it cannot find it. I tend to discourage use of this iTunes option because apart from this reason files can be renamed within Jaikoz anyway, and the renaming is much more flexible than iTunes offers. However you must then ensure you do you have Jaikoz enabled to update iTunes (Preferences:Save:Itunes Update).

Additionally if you decided you are going to actually move/rename your files using Jaikoz and you are using Windows iTunes will see a file rename as a new file addition rather than a rename. And although Jaikoz will remove the old non-existent file from iTunes this can cause metadata stored only in iTunes (such as iTunes ratings) to be lost.

So you should test out your process on a few folders first, and check which way works for you.