iTunes won't import some mp3 files?

DHS Odium

Okay, some back story. I'm currently setting up my new Macbook Pro, the computer I've been using is a Vista machine which I'll still be keeping around. Anyway awhile back I purchased some music online, and they came as DRMed WMA files. In order to keep my music for the Mac, and so I could put it on other MP3 players, I used AnalogWhole to convert them to MP3s.

Let's take an album and see what happens. So, I have an album with 12 tracks, all MP3s, all done in the same batch, with the same program, and the same settings. Everything plays fine in Windows Media Player, or any other player, except for iTunes. On both the PC and Mac versions of iTunes, it will only add about half of that CD. I get tracks 1, 9, 10, 11, 12 added to the iTunes library. It won't add the rest, no error message, they just don't show up. On the Mac, I can play all these files fine in QuickTime (odd considering to my knowledge iTunes uses QuickTime to play the files).

This is driving me nuts. I'm assuming I can burn an audio cd, and then rip it again for iTunes to have the files show up, but I'd rather not do this as all the MP3 files are good and play in everything else. What I'm looking for is music software for the Mac, that will give me the option like iTunes to "Convert to AAC", which I know shouldn't be a problem. I can't do it through iTunes as the files won't show up, and the export feature of QuickTime, which the files play in, is grayed out because Apple is out of their goddamn minds charging for the Pro features.

Any ideas? It's more than one album this is doing it to, so burning cd's is an annoying option.

EggyToast

In Finder, use Get Info. Since it plays in Quicktime, you should have whatever codec installed that is needed to play this file. It should say, in General, the Kind of file it is. For more info, or if that doesn't work, open it in Quicktime, and go Window>Show Movie Inspector. That'll pop up the details about the file, including the format, etc.

What does it say about the file?

DHS Odium

All the files are the same. From the same album, taking one song that shows up in iTunes, and another that doesn't, and getting info on both of them, they are identical. Both are MP3 Audio Files, they have the same genres, author, composer, year, channel count, and bitrate (192kbs). All files were recorded in one play through, minutes apart.

I have no idea why some won't play. At this point, I'm just looking for another piece of software that does an easy conversion to AAC (or other format) in much the same way that iTunes does.

EggyToast

That's pretty weird if they're truly the same. The only time I've run into problems was when I was helping someone and it turned out the file was not actually an mp3, but a WMA file. Another one was actually a movie.

If you're just going to try to do a quicky conversion, try SoX Wrap. Another question: how are you trying to locate these files? I've often added an MP3 to iTunes and it "disappears," when actually it's stuck at the bottom of my library because the metadata was fucked up.

Try this: Create a smart playlist in iTunes, call it "just added." The only requirement in the smart playlist is "Date Added > Is in the last > 10 days." Try adding your song again, and see if it shows up in that playlist.

DHS Odium

In iTunes, they don't add or show up. The album will show up, when going into the album, I only have a few tracks. Dragging into iTunes doesn't work. Importing doesn't work, adding files to library through the menu doesn't work. I even tried to right click and select open with iTunes, which launches the program, and then nothing happens and nothing plays.

I'll take a look at SoX Wrap.

seniorJAX

Same problems for me. For some .mp3 files, iTunes don't make the import even if the files can be played on stupid Quick Time. But I solve the problem. Unfortunately I don't use Vista I use Windows 7, but I think the solution it's the same. If you give right click on one of the files that are not imported in iTunes and choose properties after you go to the "Details" tab you will see if you scroll down, a field named "Part of set". If this field is empty the file is not imported in iTunes. So you have to put a numeric value, for some files is 1 or 5 or 8 etc. In this moment I don't know what's the meaning of this field but when i'll have time I'll study. Please let me know if this works for you

DHS Odium

I'm using OS X, but I'll see if I can do a similar thing in the Get Info pane. If I can't, I can bring them over to my PC to do the edit. I'll let you know if this works.

DHS Odium

You're partially right. All the mp3 files that won't import or add to the library have messed up tags. Thing is, I cannot edit them in any way. Not in Windows, not through Media Player (which lets me get album info, and everything shows up there, but not on the actual file in windows explorer). I tried retagging with a program, and it says it worked, but there's still no tags on these files. Interestingly enough, I can't skip to certain parts of the songs in media player, I can with half of the album that works fine, the other half, the song has to play from beginning to end, can't jump to the middle.

I think my best option is reconverting. I did that with a set on OS X and it took too long, because I had to retag myself. I'm looking for a program that allows me to convert these mp3s either to mp3 again or aac, and have either media player or another program tag properly.

jaegerx

Did you try to free them again using doubletwist? It only runs on windows though so you'll need to either install virtualbox on your Mac or use your windows PC.

When I had files I couldn't import I ran them through doubletwist to rebuild them into mp3s and I was golden.

Never did figure out why I couldn't import, stupid itunes.

DHS Odium

It appears doubletwist does have a mac version. I'm downloading now to try it out. It looks like I can sync to my iPod Touch, but from the sound of your post I can convert files through this as well? I'll find out in a few minutes, thanks.

EDIT: The program keeps crashing, I can't do anything with it. I'll try the Windows version another time.