About Copy Track Info to CD Tracks and iTunes 4.1

[eustacescrubb]

Several users have emailed me over the past few days reporting that, upon updating to iTunes 4.1, the script no longer works and reports an error.

After having spent some time with it, I'm not any closer to a real solution, because I'm stumped.

In specific, these two lines of code result in the error:

set track count of (audio CD track i of theCD) to (track count of track trackNum of trLister) as integer
set track number of (audio CD track i of theCD) to (track number of track trackNum of trLister) as integer

From tinkering, I think the bug is Apple's not mine. Put a CD in your Mac and after it mounts in iTunes, select a track, type "command-i", select the "Info" tab, and try to edit either the track count or track number, and you will find that you cannot. It may be that Apple has made these items read-only in iTunes 4.1 (stupid, stupid Apple, if that is the case.) Or it may be an honest-to god bug.

In the meantime, a temporary fix is pretty easy for any user to implement.

1. Open the script in Script Editor.
2. Find the two lines mentioned above.
3. Add "--" to the beginning of each like so:

--set track count of (audio CD track i of theCD) to (track count of track trackNum of trLister) as integer
--set track number of (audio CD track i of theCD) to (track number of track trackNum of trLister) as integer

4. Save the script.

It will run, but it will not (because it no longer can) edit the track number and track count info. You will have to edit these manually after the songs have been imported. This defeats the whole purpose of the script, I know, and I am sorry.

[DeltaTee]

I have not used your script before, but it would seem to me that the track number and track count of a cd would be read only. what would be the pupose of changing them except to make them incorrect?

[Doug Adams]

Yep, you're locked out all right. As DeltaTee has observed, what sense would there be in altering the track number and count of a CD?

I wish they had made note of it in the iTunes AppleScript dictionary, however.

Regards retro-fitting the script: you may want to wrap the track number/count lines in a try block rather than commenting them out, so earlier versions of iTunes can still access the track number and count.

[eustacescrubb]

what would be the pupose of changing them except to make them incorrect?

There's actually several reasons - one, for example is that when I put a boxed set into iTunes, I like to re-organize everything into the original albums, which requires changing track count and track number.

[Doug Adams]

Originally posted by eustacescrubb
There's actually several reasons - one, for example is that when I put a boxed set into iTunes, I like to re-organize everything into the original albums, which requires changing track count and track number.

Excellent point!

[DeltaTee]

Originally posted by eustacescrubb
There's actually several reasons - one, for example is that when I put a boxed set into iTunes, I like to re-organize everything into the original albums, which requires changing track count and track number.

Point taken, but I agree with Apple's decision that a CD is a physical item which has a fixed track number and track count.

[eustacescrubb]

I think my main issue is that whether one agree's with Apple or not on the matter, it shouldn't be Apples decision to make. One of the reasons I use Apple's products is because they leave most of the decision-making up to me, instead of Bill-Gates-ing every aspect of the user experience.
There's no real harm in allowing users to alter track data as they see fit, and there's no real benefit in disallowing it, unless one considers harmony with a philosophical concept of what a CD is and isn't a benefit, that it.