Under Development

Please don't use the tool as it's still not finished. First Prototype is done, using hard coded, simple functions to extract the files.

Description

Coming soon...

Explanation

iTunes stores the music in a special folder on the Mac. It stores information (especially Playlists) in an XML file. This tool just looks through a given XML file. It then can export (or rather copy) all the music to a folder of your choice. It can also export (or rather copy) all the music of a specific playlist (or all at ones) to a folder of your choice.

This basically allows you to have an iTunes playlist, and "export" this playlist. The files are already on your Mac. Afterwards, you can copy the (playlist-)folders to another device of your choice.

Usage

Coming soon.

Environment

Just a little helper tool, created in my freetime for a friend of mine using a Mac and iTunes. Developed in C# with .NET Core because target platform is Mac OS.

About: XML file

Basic Structure

• A bit weird of an XML structure, but easy to read (not that easy to parse, though)
• There are key-value-pairs, that don't sit inside a bucket sorta element, the "key"-element is just always preceding the "value"-element.
• The "value"-element is actually always the TYPE of the value (integer, string, array, true, etc.)
• It consists of meta data at the top, then an "dict" with the Tracks and an "array" with the Playlists. It ends with another meta-item, the "Music Folder".
• !DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"

<dict>
  <key>...</key><value>...</value>
  <key>...</key><value>...</value>
  <key>...</key><value>...</value>
  <key>...</key><value>...</value>
  ...  
  <key>Tracks</key>
    <dict>...</dict>
  <key>Playlists</key>
    <array>...</array>
  <key>Music Folder</key><string>file:///Users/testuser/Music/iTunes/iTunes%20Media/</string>
</dict>

Key: Tracks

• Same rules as above, just different structure.
• First the "key" as an integer value, then the value as a dict.
• the dict is just different meta key-value-pairs as above
• Mostly important: "Name" and "Location"

<dict>
  <key>1000</key>
  <dict>
    <key>...</key><value>...</value>
    ...
    <key>Name</key><string>Music Title 1</string>
    <key>Location</key><string>file:///Users/testuser/Music/iTunes/iTunes%20Media/.../Music_Title_1.mp3</string>
  </dict>
  
  <key>...</key>
  <dict>
    ...
  </dict>
  ...
</dict>

Key: Playlists

• Around the same as Tracks, but without a preceding "key> for every item.
• There seems to be a "Master"-item with "All Items" = true and "Name" = "Mediathek". This one is a bit different than the others (meta data)
• Each item contains a "array"-item, which contains the track ids
• Tracks are inside another dict with exactly 1 key-value-pair, "Track ID" beeing the key and an integer is the value (referencing the track from above)

<array>
  <dict>
    <key>...</key><value>...</value>
    ...
    <key>Name</key><string>Playlist 1</string>
    <key>Playlist Items</key>
    <array>
      <dict><key>Track ID</key><integer>1000</integer>
      <dict><key>Track ID</key><integer>...</integer>
      ...
    </array>
  </dict>
  
  <dict>
    ...
  </dict>
  ...
</array>

Example (see more in Data-Folder)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Major Version</key><integer>1</integer>
    <key>Minor Version</key><integer>1</integer>
    <key>Application Version</key><string>12.5.1.21</string>
    <key>Date</key><date>2019-08-14T21:01:18Z</date>
    <key>Features</key><integer>5</integer>
    <key>Show Content Ratings</key><true/>
    <key>Library Persistent ID</key><string>*****</string>
    <key>Tracks</key>
    <dict>
        <key>1000</key>
            <dict>
                <key>Track ID</key><integer>1000</integer>
                <key>Size</key><integer>4348900</integer>
                <key>Total Time</key><integer>180088</integer>
                <key>Date Modified</key><date>2015-03-08T10:18:14Z</date>
                <key>Date Added</key><date>2015-03-08T10:32:22Z</date>
                <key>Bit Rate</key><integer>192</integer>
                <key>Sample Rate</key><integer>44100</integer>
                <key>Play Count</key><integer>13</integer>
                <key>Play Date</key><integer>3550609495</integer>
                <key>Play Date UTC</key><date>2016-07-05T22:24:55Z</date>
                <key>Skip Count</key><integer>3</integer>
                <key>Skip Date</key><date>2015-05-29T18:24:04Z</date>
                <key>Artwork Count</key><integer>1</integer>
                <key>Persistent ID</key><string>*****</string>
                <key>Track Type</key><string>File</string>
                <key>File Folder Count</key><integer>5</integer>
                <key>Library Folder Count</key><integer>1</integer>
                <key>Name</key><string>Title 1</string>
                <key>Artist</key><string>The Best Artist</string>
                <key>Kind</key><string>MPEG-Audiodatei</string>
                <key>Location</key><string>file:///Users/testuser/Music/iTunes/iTunes%20Media/Music/The%20Best%20Artist/Unknown%20Album/Title_1.mp3</string>
            </dict>
        </dict>
    <key>Playlists</key>
    <array>
        <dict>
            <key>Master</key><true/>
            <key>Playlist ID</key><integer>5000</integer>
            <key>Playlist Persistent ID</key><string>*****</string>
            <key>All Items</key><true/>
            <key>Visible</key><false/>
            <key>Name</key><string>Mediathek</string>
            <key>Playlist Items</key>
            <array>
                <dict>
                    <key>Track ID</key><integer>1000</integer>
                </dict>
            </array>
        </dict>
        <dict>
            <key>Playlist ID</key><integer>6000</integer>
            <key>Playlist Persistent ID</key><string>*****</string>
            <key>Distinguished Kind</key><integer>4</integer>
            <key>Music</key><true/>
            <key>All Items</key><true/>
            <key>Name</key><string>Best Artist</string>
            <key>Smart Info</key>
            <data>
            AQEAAwAAAAIAAAAZAAAAAAAAAAcAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
            AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
            AAAAAA==
            </data>
            <key>Smart Criteria</key>
            <data>
            U0xzdAABAAEAAAACAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
            AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
            AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADwAAAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
            AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABEAAAAAAAQIbEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAB
            AAAAAAAQIbEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA8AgAEAAAA
            AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARAAAAAAAIIAE
            AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQAAAAAAIIAEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
            AAAAAAAA
            </data>
            <key>Playlist Items</key>
            <array>
                <dict>
                    <key>Track ID</key><integer>1000</integer>
                </dict>
            </array>
        </dict>
    </array>
    <key>Music Folder</key><string>file:///Users/testuser/Music/iTunes/iTunes%20Media/</string>
</dict>
</plist>

References:

• https://www.newtonsoft.com/json
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13171525/converting-xml-to-a-dynamic-c-sharp-object
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/35921268/c-sharp-dynamic-expandoobject-array
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26778554/why-cant-i-index-into-an-expandoobject
• https://www.newtonsoft.com/json/help/html/T_Newtonsoft_Json_Linq_JArray.htm