Won't Merge--Itunes not responding

Discuss LairWare's app for fixing problems in your iTunes library.
Stevesmall
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Won't Merge--Itunes not responding

Post by Stevesmall » Sat Sep 26, 2009 5:50 pm

Tried merging to delete duplicates. It warns there are some large playlists and it will take some time. But then it doesn't work. It stalls and says "itunes is not responding". Any suggestions? Thanks.
Stevesmall
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More on my problem

Post by Stevesmall » Sat Sep 26, 2009 6:03 pm

I'm also not able to drag SongSergeant from the installation window into my applications folder or my home folder. Maybe this is causing the first problem.
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beastie
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Stall on Merge Marked

Post by beastie » Sun Sep 27, 2009 7:33 am

Edit: The changes in the below beta have now been incorporated in the regular release version of Song Sergeant. Just make sure you have the latest version!

We've had a few reports of this, and are looking into it. As we're unfortunately unable to reproduce this condition here, we're going to ask anyone that is experiencing this problem to please download and try the latest beta version, which can always be had here:

http://lwupdate.dyndns.org/SongSergeant-beta.zip

Please then post your experience with the beta in this topic. As this first beta is unlikely to have resolved the problem, notification about new versions would then follow here.
I'm also not able to drag SongSergeant from the installation window into my applications folder or my home folder. Maybe this is causing the first problem.
This is very odd, but undoubtedly not related to the first problem. I have never heard of being unable to drag an application into one's own home folder, but I'd suggest running Disk Utility > click on boot disk > Repair Disk Permissions.
Last edited by beastie on Fri Jan 29, 2010 9:27 am, edited 1 time in total.
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beastie
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Can now reproduce

Post by beastie » Sun Oct 04, 2009 2:16 pm

We can now reproduce this problem, and it appears to be an issue within iTunes itself. We haven't yet found a great workaround, but there's now a new Song Sergeant beta that might improve things. If you've already tried an earlier beta, launch it and it should upgrade itself. Otherwise, use the link above.

Stay tuned ...
birdog
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won't merge

Post by birdog » Sun Oct 04, 2009 5:52 pm

I'm having the same problem. Song Sergeant scans my library with no problems. When I click merge, after a while Song Sergeant stalls and says iTunes is not responding.

I don't have any problems specifically with installing or running the app. I've also tried the beta version with the same results.

However, one important difference is that my itunes library does reside on a Lacie NAS server which connects using AFP. I suspect it may be a permissions issue... are there any workarounds for this problem?
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beastie
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Post by beastie » Mon Oct 05, 2009 7:55 am

birdog, please try the latest beta (1.0.4b2) which was released recently enough that I doubt many people have tried it.

As I said, we don't yet have a workaround but are looking for one. In reproducing it, we have not found that permissions plays a part. We have found that anything that slows iTunes down can be a factor -- very large library, very long playlists, or network-mounted libraries. On the other hand, we've heard from people with these situations that have had absolutely no problems, too.

Leon
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beastie
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Yet another beta release

Post by beastie » Mon Oct 05, 2009 5:54 pm

We're now up to 1.0.4 beta 3. While we still aren't able to avoid iTunes timing out yet, Song Sergeant's playlist occurrences replacement feature has been rewritten to cope with huge playlists (and resulting iTunes timeouts) more gracefully.

As before, the download link is near the top of this forum topic (or launch an earlier beta and ask it to check for updates).

Leon
vcayenne
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problems with current beta

Post by vcayenne » Sat Oct 24, 2009 8:01 pm

After finding that the current non-beta did not work for me (handling of inconsistencies was OK, every other function simply didn't work...), I found this thread and downloaded and tried the latest beta.

On trying it, I got the same list of 10 missing files and tried once again to delete them. As usual it indicated that they were gone (or at least they disappeared from the "missing" pane. So I quit and reopened the app to see if they were really gone. Aargh! It showed that I had zero files! And presented the Preferences window for me to choose a new Library. I quickly checked at file system level to make sure that my library hadn't been deleted somehow. Whew! 125 GB of audio still there.

But now, in the Prefs, I'm asked to choose the latest .xml file -- which one? The "iTunes Music Library.xml" in the iTunes folder? Not the older "iTunes Library.xml", right? Anyway, when I do choose the former, I see a large, new list of missing files. 4969 orphans, 528 missing files, and the "iTunes is unresponsive" message.

I feel like I'm considerably worse off and the app isn't working for me. I've simply never seen the missing or duplicates processing work. And the orphan handling which I thought did work now shows more than I started with weeks ago.

Salient info - my entire "Music" folder is on an external FireWire 500 GB drive. The folder is soft-sym-linked.
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beastie
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Library location confusion

Post by beastie » Mon Oct 26, 2009 12:01 pm

vcayenne, if you're getting results like this it probably means that Song Sergeant has been directed to an iTunes xml file that isn't current for your library. SS should have no problem noticing that your iTunes library is symlinked onto a different volume, but you might want to launch iTunes with alt/option held down and point it at your actual iTunes folder instead of using a symlink -- I'm not sure that the symlink is an officially supported method of doing this. After that, it would be good to let Song Sergeant find the appropriate iTunes xml file itself, and you can get back this default behavior by trashing Song Sergeant's preferences (while it is not running). You can find this file at:

(home directory) / Library / Preferences / com.lairware.songsergeant.plist

You'll need to re-enter your registration details upon launching it again. Also, stop by the Misc tab in Preferences and ensure that "Display information about minor errors" is turned on. After you do these things and scan your library again, please let us know where you end up (either in this thread or through support@lairware.com).

Thanks,
Leon
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beastie
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1.0.4 Beta 4

Post by beastie » Tue Oct 27, 2009 5:22 pm

There's a new beta of Song Sergeant which addresses the stalling during "Merge Marked" issue. More specifically, it is able to work around a timeout problem in iTunes -- at least most of the time.

If you're running an older beta, just launch it and check for updates. Otherwise, the download link near the top of this topic will get you the latest beta.

Leon
johnehowe
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Beta Expired

Post by johnehowe » Sat Jan 09, 2010 6:58 am

Tried running the Beta 1.04 and it states that it has expired. Downloaded the Beta to fix an issue stated below that Support suggest in the forum to resolve the issue that I am having.
It runs through my library and I have merged duplicates (i choose to have them deleted), this seems to work fine. I have 9 items in the Inconsistent list, and I select them all and ask the program to rename them. It seems to do this, I then look at the orphans of which I have 41 tracks, again I select all and choose add to iTunes. this seems to work alright. It is only when i rescan when the problem shows. It finds the same 9 inconsisentsies and the same 41 Orpahns. When I go through some of the Orphans and track them down in iTunes they are listed and the file is in the correct location (there is also no duplicate).

It seems that the software is picking up something from the same 41 files each time.
CaptD
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Dupe troubles

Post by CaptD » Sun Jan 10, 2010 3:40 pm

I'm using Version 1.0.3 (32) I have my iTunes file on an external HD connected by FW800 to my iMac running latest Mac OS w/ all updates.

1. I'm able to run SS but once the Dupes are identified, SS either makes no changes before it gives the quit SS error message or it makes a few changes then gives the SS error message!

2. When I sort I have the box checked for Always prefer file type AAC and that box gets checked on the Dupe list BUT the far Left column does not check the same box Unless I Unmark everything Then check the AAC file one at a time... :-( and even then it then gives the SS error message!
I would really like to know how to sort by file type first as I want to replace any MP3 files with AAC copies of the same song IN MY PLAYLISTS).
CaptD
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Beta zip listed above does not load

Post by CaptD » Sun Jan 10, 2010 4:09 pm

Is their a new link for the link above:
http://lwupdate.dyndns.org/SongSergeant-beta.zip

I'm willing to try the Beta as anything is better than doing dupe removal one by one....
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beastie
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Expired beta

Post by beastie » Mon Jan 11, 2010 11:31 am

Hey CaptD, you caught us before we had the new beta up. Just launch the old one you have again and let it check for a new version. Alternately, the same URL you used will get you the latest version.
2. When I sort I have the box checked for Always prefer file type AAC and that box gets checked on the Dupe list BUT the far Left column does not check the same box Unless I Unmark everything Then check the AAC file one at a time... Sad and even then it then gives the SS error message!
I would really like to know how to sort by file type first as I want to replace any MP3 files with AAC copies of the same song IN MY PLAYLISTS).
Ignore the left (track information) area when you're primarily concerned with the audio data, as you seem to be. The item checked on the right (audio data) is all you need to worry about -- different track information will be automarked and used only if it is preferable according to the priorities defined in the "Automark" tab of Song Sergeant's preferences, which you can tweak to your liking. The track information has absolutely no bearing on the AAC vs. MP3 issue. Or maybe I'm not fully understanding the problem ...

johnehowe, I've responded to your identical message on this forum topic.
CaptD
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Answer clearification

Post by CaptD » Mon Jan 11, 2010 11:48 am

When you said, "ignore the left (track information) area when you're primarily concerned with the audio data, as you seem to be. The item checked on the right (audio data) is all you need to worry about -- different track information will be automarked and used only if it is preferable according to the priorities defined in the "Automark" tab of Song Sergeant's preferences, which you can tweak to your liking."
Are you saying that once SS checks for Dup's, if I have the AAC box checked (in Pref's) then it does not matter what check boxes are shown in the Left column of the SS window, the AAC files will be kept and the others trashed?

If that is the case then I've spent many long hours changing the left column of check boxes to match the AAC column, only to have to do the entire process all over after SS error messaged out... each and every time!

I'll try to down load the beta file and thanks.

One thing I did find is that I could cancel the initial SS scan as soon as it listed a few songs which saved much time scanning my entire iTunes library!
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