All converted files in my iTunes library have been labelled "Explicit" by iTunes 11

[ripadeedoodah]

Re: All converted files in my iTunes library have been labelled "Explicit" by iTunes

Note: iTunes (10.2) may cache this information. I followed Spoon's instructions using the 'Convert To' context menu option and the tags were still there. I had to remove the songs from iTunes, and then add them back before the tag disappeared. Using dbPoweramp 14.4Beta, and ID Tag Update codec release 3.

Removing songs from iTunes may result in the loss of certain information, such as options, play counts, last played date and possibly the regular rating, that it seems to store only in its database.

For future reference, I used dbpa's Options section to explicitly tell it to write a Content Rating tag with a value of zero. Hopefully that will prevent a recurrence of this problem.

That's bad news. I haven't even got that far yet - I'm still trying to find a way of moving my IiTunes library back into Windows in such a way that it can be edited. I have an iMac with Bootcamp so I have OSX on one partition and Windows 7 on another. I spent an hour yesterday trying to find a way of moving the music library from the OSX back into the Windows 7 partition in such a way that I could write to it but I can't - it always ends up read-only. So today I have emptied out my cupboards and found a Western Digital hard drive that I once used to back up Dell PC running Windows XP. I hooked that up to the Mac but I can't find a way of moving or copying the music library to it. Even if I do find a way, I have a bad feeling that any copy will be read-only once I try to open it in Windows. If you're still listening, garym, you can see why I laughed when you talked about a 15-minute job. I've spent far in excess of three hours on this already and I haven't even found a way of starting yet. And from what Balok says, there's a poor likelihood of a successful outcome even if I do. I do realise some of this is self-inflicted in that the problem would be easier to tackle in Windows but I think it might be easier just to rip my entire library all over again, maybe using a Mac-friendly ripper next time.

[Balok]

Re: All converted files in my iTunes library have been labelled "Explicit" by iTunes

Note: iTunes (10.2) may cache this information. I followed Spoon's instructions using the 'Convert To' context menu option and the tags were still there. I had to remove the songs from iTunes, and then add them back before the tag disappeared. Using dbPoweramp 14.4Beta, and ID Tag Update codec release 3.

Removing songs from iTunes may result in the loss of certain information, such as options, play counts, last played date and possibly the regular rating, that it seems to store only in its database.

For future reference, I used dbpa's Options section to explicitly tell it to write a Content Rating tag with a value of zero. Hopefully that will prevent a recurrence of this problem.

[ripadeedoodah]

Re: All converted files in my iTunes library have been labelled "Explicit" by iTunes

sorry, just looked and it appears that itunes doesn't allow editing of that tag. So I'd try either the OSx version of mp3tag or one of the other Mac tag editors. There are lots of them....but I'm not a Mac user so can't speak in any detail about them. Just google a bit (something like "mp3tag for Mac" should pull up lots of stuff)

OK, thanks garym - I don't really fancy the OS X version of mp3tag because it sounds a bit improvised but I'll look at what else is available.

[garym]

Re: All converted files in my iTunes library have been labelled "Explicit" by iTunes

As far as I know, and I'd be really happy to be corrected, there's no way of using itunes to edit out the "explicit" tag that's been added, or I'd have done it long ago. Am I wrong?

sorry, just looked and it appears that itunes doesn't allow editing of that tag. So I'd try either the OSx version of mp3tag or one of the other Mac tag editors. There are lots of them....but I'm not a Mac user so can't speak in any detail about them. Just google a bit (something like "mp3tag for Mac" should pull up lots of stuff)

[ripadeedoodah]

Re: All converted files in my iTunes library have been labelled "Explicit" by iTunes

Yes. Several including iTunes itself.

As far as I know, and I'd be really happy to be corrected, there's no way of using itunes to edit out the "explicit" tag that's been added, or I'd have done it long ago. Am I wrong?

[garym]

Re: All converted files in my iTunes library have been labelled "Explicit" by iTunes

I believe dbpa can be installed on your Mac using WINE?

Mp3tag is excellent and folks have it running on a Mac.

http://vortexbox.org/threads/3251-Mac-OS-X-version-of-

Maybe one of these Mac compatible.

http://alternativeto.net/software/mp3tag/

[garym]

Re: All converted files in my iTunes library have been labelled "Explicit" by iTunes

I'm sorry but this is like a foreign language to me. What's codec central and where do I install this codec? But most important of all, can I do all this on a Mac? Because my first problem is getting my entire library back into Windows again.

Speaking of which, I suddenly had a (very obvious) thought this morning. All my problems would be solved if there were a simple way of editing the library tags on a Mac. Does anyone know of an an easy-to-use tag editor that will fix this problem on a Mac?

Yes. Several including iTunes itself.

[Spoon]

Re: All converted files in my iTunes library have been labelled "Explicit" by iTunes

Codec Central:

http://www.dbpoweramp.com/codec-central.htm

[ripadeedoodah]

Re: All converted files in my iTunes library have been labelled "Explicit" by iTunes

Install the utility codec 'ID Tag Update' from codec central, use Batch Converter to select your whole music folder (one click), then convert >> to ID Tag Update, add a deletion rule to remove 'Content Rating' tag value.

Job done.

(test on a few files first)

I'm sorry but this is like a foreign language to me. What's codec central and where do I install this codec? But most important of all, can I do all this on a Mac? Because my first problem is getting my entire library back into Windows again.

Speaking of which, I suddenly had a (very obvious) thought this morning. All my problems would be solved if there were a simple way of editing the library tags on a Mac. Does anyone know of an an easy-to-use tag editor that will fix this problem on a Mac?

[garym]

Re: All converted files in my iTunes library have been labelled "Explicit" by iTunes

And yes it affects flac too.

What do you mean when you say it affects FLAC? I looked at all my recently ripped FLAC files (dbpa 14.3). None of these FLAC files have a content rating field/tag. Are you saying that converting to m4a from a FLAC file with dbpa 14.3 will add the rogue content rating tag.

[Spoon]

Re: All converted files in my iTunes library have been labelled "Explicit" by iTunes

Install the utility codec 'ID Tag Update' from codec central, use Batch Converter to select your whole music folder (one click), then convert >> to ID Tag Update, add a deletion rule to remove 'Content Rating' tag value.

Job done.

(test on a few files first)

[dgs2001]

Re: All converted files in my iTunes library have been labelled "Explicit" by iTunes

Just to confirm its not as daunting as you think.
And yes it affects flac too.

I ended up with a classical piano album which has no singing at all labelled as explicit. but it only took a few clicks to sort it, and sorting multiple albums all at once should only require the same few clicks once they are all selected.

[garym]

Re: All converted files in my iTunes library have been labelled "Explicit" by iTunes

Ha! Maybe 15 of your earth minutes but I promise you, it'll be more like 15 hours where I come from. However, thank you very much indeed for the helpful tips, which make it sound a slightly less daunting task. I do have an external back-up drive with copies of all my music files but that drive is my other Mac, a Mac Mini, so unfortunately that doesn't help me at all. But at least it points me in the right direction - maybe I can borrow a drive from someone or else I'll have to buy one, and then I can copy all my files over to it and start from there.

I should have said at the beginning that all my files were ripped directly from CDs to Apple Lossless, then moved one at a time (over a long period) from Windows to iMac (and Mac Mini.) Maybe it only affects people running their ripped files on OS X? If not, and it affects Windows too, I would think that a lot of dBPoweramp users would be affected. Like me, they're probably cursing Apple for botching iTunes 11 at the moment and haven't yet realised it's only their dBpoweramp files that are affected. I only realised by a fluke, otherwise I'd still be on the phone to Apple Support..

Anyway, thank you again for your advice. I won't have time to tackle this before Christmas but will try to get it fixed in the new year. Meanwhile it's back to good old LPs and CDs for me!

when you get ready to tackle it, don't hesitate to post back and I'll try to help you step by step. Once you have files on a drive, its actually pretty simple.

[ripadeedoodah]

Re: All converted files in my iTunes library have been labelled "Explicit" by iTunes

This has nothing to do with Apple, so no use contacting them, but I guess you now figured this out. And most apple users are not using dbpa (because they don't even know about secure ripping). I'm not sure, but maybe this problem only affects lossy files created with dbpa, and I suspect many dbpa users create FLAC files (lossless), so they might not see this issue on their end.

But You must have a backup of your music files that you keep on a USB Harddrive? If not, you need this anyhow. Then just plug this into your Windows machine running DBPA. find the directory with all your files, Select all, right click, select EDIT ID TAG from the menu, then change the explicit tag value, then hit save. You're doing this to ALL your files at one time in one large batch. So other than the backup of the files to the Harddrive, this should take about 3 minutes.

Then delete the music directory on your Mac, replace the files on your Mac with the files from your harddrive, have itunes rescan the music folder to add all the songs back to your itunes library and you're back in business. Maybe 15 minutes in total. Just in case, I'd probably create two copies of my music files on the external HD. One would be an exact copy of what you have. The second would be the one you work with for tag edit (and that you copy back to your Macs). This way, if you messed something up, you have the original files untouched.

p.s. If you have no idea how to edit tags how in the world did you end up using dbpa. This is not complicated, but dbpa is usually only used by people that know more than the typical itunes user about ripping, music files, etc. (and I'm not a computer guy, just an average joe music listener as well).

Ha! Maybe 15 of your earth minutes but I promise you, it'll be more like 15 hours where I come from. However, thank you very much indeed for the helpful tips, which make it sound a slightly less daunting task. I do have an external back-up drive with copies of all my music files but that drive is my other Mac, a Mac Mini, so unfortunately that doesn't help me at all. But at least it points me in the right direction - maybe I can borrow a drive from someone or else I'll have to buy one, and then I can copy all my files over to it and start from there.

I should have said at the beginning that all my files were ripped directly from CDs to Apple Lossless, then moved one at a time (over a long period) from Windows to iMac (and Mac Mini.) Maybe it only affects people running their ripped files on OS X? If not, and it affects Windows too, I would think that a lot of dBPoweramp users would be affected. Like me, they're probably cursing Apple for botching iTunes 11 at the moment and haven't yet realised it's only their dBpoweramp files that are affected. I only realised by a fluke, otherwise I'd still be on the phone to Apple Support..

Anyway, thank you again for your advice. I won't have time to tackle this before Christmas but will try to get it fixed in the new year. Meanwhile it's back to good old LPs and CDs for me!

[garym]

Re: All converted files in my iTunes library have been labelled "Explicit" by iTunes

What a nightmare. I mean, thanks very much for the info, DGS2001 and garym, but what a nightmare. My music library, although obviously ripped in Windows, is contained on a Mac (two Macs in fact) so if I'm going to use R14.4 to edit the tags on every file, it means I'll have to move the entire library back to Windows, and then learn how to edit it, and then actually carry out the editing, no doubt making many mistakes along the way and having to fix them, and then move the whole library back to the one Mac again and see if there's a way of copying it to the other Mac. It's going to take hours of work - I know it wouldn't for you guys but I'm just an ordinary Joe who likes listening to music and I've no idea how to edit tags or any of this stuff. I already spent well over an hour on the phone to Apple Support trying (unsuccessfully) to get this problem fixed before realising dBpoweramp was the culprit. And before you say, "Why not just live with the explicit ratings?", apart from anything else we have parental controls in the family home so the iTunes library is currently unusable.

I'm amazed there isn't a long thread on this topic - surely many people must be affected, and lots of them worse than me? (My library isn't that big.) Maybe they just haven't yet realised it's a dBpoweramp issue.

Anyway, if you've any other suggestions that could make things easier I would love to hear them.

This has nothing to do with Apple, so no use contacting them, but I guess you now figured this out. And most apple users are not using dbpa (because they don't even know about secure ripping). I'm not sure, but maybe this problem only affects lossy files created with dbpa, and I suspect many dbpa users create FLAC files (lossless), so they might not see this issue on their end.

But You must have a backup of your music files that you keep on a USB Harddrive? If not, you need this anyhow. Then just plug this into your Windows machine running DBPA. find the directory with all your files, Select all, right click, select EDIT ID TAG from the menu, then change the explicit tag value, then hit save. You're doing this to ALL your files at one time in one large batch. So other than the backup of the files to the Harddrive, this should take about 3 minutes.

Then delete the music directory on your Mac, replace the files on your Mac with the files from your harddrive, have itunes rescan the music folder to add all the songs back to your itunes library and you're back in business. Maybe 15 minutes in total. Just in case, I'd probably create two copies of my music files on the external HD. One would be an exact copy of what you have. The second would be the one you work with for tag edit (and that you copy back to your Macs). This way, if you messed something up, you have the original files untouched.

p.s. If you have no idea how to edit tags how in the world did you end up using dbpa. This is not complicated, but dbpa is usually only used by people that know more than the typical itunes user about ripping, music files, etc. (and I'm not a computer guy, just an average joe music listener as well).