Tidying Up Your Library

Fix album details from Apple and MusicBrainz, merge duplicates and split albums, label discs, find stray files and songs iPods can't play.

Libraries built up over years collect wrong titles, albums split in two, duplicate songs and files that don't play on an iPod. ClassicTunes has a tool for each. Most are in the Tools menu; the album tools are also on each album's page and its right-click menu.

Every tool that changes many songs at once saves a backup of your library's info first, so you can always go back. See Metadata backups.

#Look Up and Replace Info

Look Up and Replace Info finds an album on Apple and MusicBrainz, shows you exactly what would change, and replaces the album's details with the release's: album title, artist, year, genre, song titles, song artists, and track and disc numbers.

Unlike filling in missing details when you add music, this replaces details that are already there, so use it for albums whose details are wrong.

#One album

Right-click an album and choose Info › Look Up and Replace Info…, or use the Info menu on its page.

1. ClassicTunes searches with the album's title and artist. If they're wrong, correct them in the fields at the top: leave the title empty to find releases with the album's songs by that artist, leave the artist empty if it's unknown or wrong, or turn on Compilation for an album by various artists. The search runs again as you type.
2. Releases are listed on the left, with the ones that share the most of the album's song titles first. Each says where it's from, its year, its number of tracks, and how many of the album's songs match it.
3. Select a release to preview the changes: the album, album artist, year and genre, and each song's current title beside its new title and artist. Songs are paired with the release's tracks by title, so wrong track numbers are fixed too. A song with no match on the release only gets the album details.
4. To use the release's cover too, turn on Also use this release's artwork.
5. Click Apply…, then Replace Info.

The new details are written into the songs' files too, where their format allows (MP3, AAC, Apple Lossless and FLAC).

#Several albums

To look up many albums at once, choose Tools › Look Up and Replace Info…. The menu at the top chooses Albums missing details (albums without a year, genre, track numbers or artists) or All albums. You can also select albums in the grid and click Look Up… in the bar at the bottom.

Each album is looked up in turn, and listed with the best release found and what would change. Clear matches (most of the album's song titles, by the same artist) are checked for you.

• Check or uncheck albums one by one, or use Check All Found and Uncheck All.
• Other Releases… (or Search… when nothing was found) opens the one-album lookup to pick a different release.
• Also add the release's cover to albums without one adds covers as it goes.
• Stop halts the lookups.

Click Replace Info for … Albums…, then Replace Info. Albums that already match their release say so, and are left alone.

#Re-read info from files

If you've edited tags in another app, ClassicTunes can read them again:

• Info › Re-read Info from Files (right-click songs or albums, or on an album's page) reads the selected songs again.
• Tools › Re-read Info for All Music… reads every song and video again, after asking. A backup is saved first.

Songs imported from the Music app are read again from Music. Edits you made in ClassicTunes are kept: they were written into the files, or, for formats that can't hold them, they stay as they are. See Your library.

#Find Duplicates

Tools › Find Duplicates… finds songs that are in your library more than once: the same title and artist, and nearly the same length. Turn on Only on the same album to match the album too, like Music's "exact duplicates".

Each group lists its copies with their album, length, location, format and bit rate, plays and date added, and marks copies whose file is Missing. The best-quality copy is chosen to keep; click the circle beside another copy to keep that one instead. Not Duplicates takes a group off the list.

Click Merge … Songs…, then Merge. For each group:

• The chosen copy is kept, and the others are removed from the library (and from iPods at their next sync).
• Play counts are added together, and playlists, ratings and the earliest date added are kept.
• Copies inside ClassicTunes' Media folder go to the Trash. Files outside the library aren't touched.

A backup of your info is saved first.

#Merge albums

An album can end up split in two, for example a two-disc set imported as two albums, or a bonus disc added later. Merging joins them into one album. The songs keep their play counts, ratings and playlists, and a backup of the details is saved first.

#Merge another album into this one

Right-click an album and choose Organize › Merge Another Album into This…, or use the Organize menu on its page.

1. Pick the album to bring in. It takes this album's title, artist and artwork, then disappears from the grid.
2. Under Add its songs, choose As a new disc or Onto the end of one of this album's discs (its songs are numbered after the disc's last song).
3. Click Merge.

#Merge several albums

Select the albums in the grid (⌘-click or ⇧-click) and click Merge… in the bar at the bottom, or right-click one and choose Organize › Merge … Albums….

1. Under Keep the title, artist and cover of, pick the album the others join.
2. Drag the others into the order they should go in.
3. Under Add the others, choose Each as a new disc, or Onto the end of one of its discs.
4. Click Merge.

#Move songs to another album

To move some songs out of an album, into another album or a new one, select them in Music › Songs and choose Organize › Move to Album… from the right-click menu.

• An album in the library: search for the album and select it, then choose whether to add the songs As a new disc or Onto the end of one of its discs. The songs take that album's title, artist and cover.
• A new album: type an Album title and, if you like, an Album artist. The songs become one disc of the new album, numbered in the order they're in the list.

Click Move. The songs keep their play counts, ratings and playlists.

#Label discs

Right-click an album and choose Organize › Label Discs… (or use the Organize menu on its page) to name its discs. Under Label as, choose Disc 1, Disc 2…, Side A, Side B… (handy for albums ripped from vinyl or tape), or Custom to type your own names. Click Save.

Disc names show in ClassicTunes; the iPod plays the discs in order but doesn't show their names.

If an album's songs have no disc numbers, ClassicTunes works out the discs from where the track numbers start again, and the album's page says so. Saving the labels gives the songs disc numbers too, so the iPod plays them in the right order.

#Albums with missing songs

The Sort and Filter button in the Albums toolbar can show just the albums that need attention:

• Albums with Missing Songs: albums with gaps in their track or disc numbers, such as a missing track 3. Each album says which tracks or discs are missing.
• Albums with Imperfect CD Imports: albums with songs that couldn't be read completely from a CD. Clean the disc and re-import those songs; see Importing CDs.

All Albums shows everything again.

#Find Files Not in Library

Tools › Find Files Not in Library… lists songs and videos inside the library's folder that the library doesn't list, such as files moved there by hand or left behind. It tells you how many there are and how much space they take.

Select the files you want (or Select All), then:

• Add to Library adds them, where they are.
• Show in Finder shows them.
• Move to Trash… puts them in the Trash, after asking. They aren't in the library, so nothing else changes, and you can put them back until the Trash is emptied.

It also removes empty artist and album folders left in the library's Media folder.

#Find Songs iPods Can't Play

iPod › Find Songs iPods Can't Play… checks every song's file against what your iPods can play. Songs are checked against the models of this library's iPods, or against what click-wheel iPods like the iPod classic can play if none has synced yet. It finds:

• Songs saved in a streaming layout the iPod can't play (it starts, then goes back).
• Songs with a sample rate above 48 kHz, the iPod's limit.
• Songs whose audio the iPod (or one of this library's iPods) can't play.
• Songs in a format that isn't an iPod format, such as FLAC or Ogg. These are converted to AAC at every sync anyway, so converting them is optional.

Songs that won't play on an iPod are left off iPods until you choose a conversion for them. Check the songs you want to change and choose, under For the checked songs:

Under Lossless songs become, choose Apple Lossless (nothing lost) or AAC 256 kbps (about a fifth of the size). Other songs become AAC 256 kbps.

Click the button (such as Convert … Songs…) to go ahead. Right-click a song to undo its choice (Leave Off iPods Instead or Convert to AAC at Every Sync Instead). iPods get the changes at their next sync.

#From AppleScript and Shortcuts

Scripts can look up and replace info, convert songs for iPods, and see whether each song plays on an iPod (iPod compatible) and how iPods get it (iPod conversion). Lookups take a while, so give them a long timeout.

tell application "ClassicTunes"
    with timeout of 3600 seconds
        -- Albums missing a year, genre, track numbers or artist, clear matches only
        set changed to look up and replace info with adding covers
    end timeout
    set problems to every track whose iPod compatible is false
    convert for iPods problems how kept copy
    return (changed as text) & " albums updated"
end tell

look up and replace info only replaces an album's info where the release clearly matches (most of the album's songs, by the same artist), and saves a backup first. convert for iPods takes how (replace file, at every sync, kept copy or none) and as AAC.

In Shortcuts (macOS 13 and later), use Look Up and Replace Info and Convert for iPods. Finding duplicates, merging albums, labeling discs and finding files not in the library aren't scriptable. See AppleScript and Shortcuts.