"Missing songs" are not missing
Posted: Sun Mar 07, 2010 12:24 pm
Hi,
Song Sergeant reports 1207 missing files in my library. Checking both, the XML export and in iTunes itself on some of the reportedly "missing" files, all are there: iTunes can play them, and doing a "Reveal in Finder" reveals the media file properly in my iTunes music folder at the place it should be.
How come that Song Sergeant still thinks those files are missing? I am glad I checked before deleting the entries in my library.
A hint at the problem might be that all of the reported songs have non-ASCII characters either in their file name, album name (which translates into a folder in the file path) or their artist name (which again translates into a folder in the path to the media file).
Might it be that Song Sergeant does not cope with non-ASCII characters in the path to the media file?
In what format does iTunes deliver the path to the media? Is it an URL? Because then there does seem something wrong in decoding the URL and translating it into a (probably native) file path.
My library resides on a NAS (Netgear ReadyNAS) that is accessed via AFP protocol. The Finder does get non-ASCII characters in paths right (they are displayed correctly). Might it be that the data is delivered in a different Unicode form than iTunes delivers the paths (decomposed vs. composed)? If that is the root problem, then the application probably needs to normalize the file path strings to the form AFP expects before actually trying to access the media file.
If that is not the problem, then it might be that my NAS does not follow AFP rules (which I do not hope), but after that I am clueless - and unfortunately cannot use the "Missing" feature of Song Sergeant.
Anyone else seeing problems here?
[Update]
Meanwhile, I checked my library with an evaluation copy of PowerTunes. That software did NOT report the "dead tracks" (SS: "missing") that Song Sergeant does, so I guess there actually is an issue with the Song Sergeant application.
-Christian
Song Sergeant reports 1207 missing files in my library. Checking both, the XML export and in iTunes itself on some of the reportedly "missing" files, all are there: iTunes can play them, and doing a "Reveal in Finder" reveals the media file properly in my iTunes music folder at the place it should be.
How come that Song Sergeant still thinks those files are missing? I am glad I checked before deleting the entries in my library.
A hint at the problem might be that all of the reported songs have non-ASCII characters either in their file name, album name (which translates into a folder in the file path) or their artist name (which again translates into a folder in the path to the media file).
Might it be that Song Sergeant does not cope with non-ASCII characters in the path to the media file?
In what format does iTunes deliver the path to the media? Is it an URL? Because then there does seem something wrong in decoding the URL and translating it into a (probably native) file path.
My library resides on a NAS (Netgear ReadyNAS) that is accessed via AFP protocol. The Finder does get non-ASCII characters in paths right (they are displayed correctly). Might it be that the data is delivered in a different Unicode form than iTunes delivers the paths (decomposed vs. composed)? If that is the root problem, then the application probably needs to normalize the file path strings to the form AFP expects before actually trying to access the media file.
If that is not the problem, then it might be that my NAS does not follow AFP rules (which I do not hope), but after that I am clueless - and unfortunately cannot use the "Missing" feature of Song Sergeant.
Anyone else seeing problems here?
[Update]
Meanwhile, I checked my library with an evaluation copy of PowerTunes. That software did NOT report the "dead tracks" (SS: "missing") that Song Sergeant does, so I guess there actually is an issue with the Song Sergeant application.
-Christian